control interface options for steam games

[severdhed]

Hey guys, i haven't been around here much lately or done much with arcade related anything in a few years.  I'm in the process of setting up a newer, faster arcade pc for my 4 player cabinet and i got to thinking about control interfaces.  I currently have an ipac 4, which I love and which works great for mame.  However when i try to add Steam based fighting games, i frequently run into issues with setting up two player controls. Many of the steam games will not allow more than one player to be assigned to a keyboard.   Using virtual xbox360 controller software, i've been able to get work arounds for some of them, but others just don't seem to work. 

I'm not opposed to replacing the control interfaces if there are better options out there, but i don't want to spend the money if i'm just trading problems for different ones. Is there a cost effective option that works like an xbox controller?  what are you guys using?

[keilmillerjr]

iPac recently received a firmware update to allow change from key encoder to joypads or something. Search forum or check ultimarc website.

[severdhed]

i saw that. my ipac 4 was purchased in 2013, so i don't think it qualifies for the firmware update unfortunately.  i guess i could always upgrade to a newer ipac.  Are the gamepad modes on the ipac supported under steam?  I've had some issues in the past with games only working with certain gamepad types.

[keilmillerjr]

i saw that. my ipac 4 was purchased in 2013, so i don't think it qualifies for the firmware update unfortunately.  i guess i could always upgrade to a newer ipac.  Are the gamepad modes on the ipac supported under steam?  I've had some issues in the past with games only working with certain gamepad types.

I have no idea. I only use mame.

Another option would be to use an app that takes keyboard input and simulates joysticks and such.

[BadMouth]

Been here, done that.
Having an interface that shows up as xbox 360 controllers is a must for Steam.

I ended up hacking xbox 360 fight pads.
You'll also need 8 action buttons, as a few games require mapping every single one in order to exit the mapping menu.
Another hiccup was that emulators that used direct input didn't pick up the joysticks in the same order as those using x-input.
The x-input is fixed based on a hard coded ID IIRC, so the solution was to figure out the x-input order and then plug them in one at a time in the same order which sets the direct input order.
(make sure you can swap interface boards between players)

I believe Ultimarc has an add-on adapter solution now, but am fuzzy on the details.
focusattack sells xbox interface boards as well.  (I assume they still do anyway)

[AndyWarne]

The new multi-mode I-PAC firmware can be switched into a dual X-Input controller mode and this is fully tested with Steam.

This is available for all post-2015 I-PAC boards.

[angryherbalist]

i just wanted to throw in my 2 cents here.

Check out keyboard2xinput.  https://gitlab.com/SchwingSK/Keyboard2Xinput

I like the idea of the IPAC doing the xinput buttons, but sometimes you NEED keys to navigate menus etc.  So I believe the key2xinput is best as you can enable and disable and do per-game setups.

[Jughead]

What about a brooks universal fighting board? Works great switching between my pc and Xbox One/PS3.

Also I use launchbox to run all my steam games along with every other system in a nice package.