Joy2Key with multiple joysticks

[bungy]

I am building a multi-emulator cabinet and my plan is to put joystick ports (from RetroUSB) on the cabinet so players can use original joysticks if they don't want to use the CP.  I will have 2 ports for Atari, 2 for NES, 2 for SNES, & 2 for Genesis - Only one or two joysticks would be used at a time.  I want to use Joy2Key to map joystick inputs to keys as all my emulators' inputs are the same and I don't want to worry about joystick compatibility within the emulators.  I would have Joy2Key running as a background task while the frontend is running.  I understand Joy2Key can support (I think) 16 joystick configurations.  The problem is I don't know if Joy2Key remembers configurations for joysticks as they are plugged in and unplugged or even if Joy2Key can recognize newly plugged in joysticks while it is running.

My question for those who use Joy2Key is:  If I configure one joystick then unplug it, then plug in and configure another joystick, when I plug the first joystick back in, will Joy2Key recognize it and use the correct configuration?
Or do I have to load Joy2Key after windows has detected the joystick?  In which case I could set up the frontend to load Joy2Key when a game is selected.

I don't currently have multiple joysticks to test with, so any feedback would be helpful before I spend a lot of money on joystick ports.

[gonzo90017]

You wan't to use Xpadder for that. Xpadder loads the default configuration when you connect a different joystick.
http://www.xpadder.com/

[bungy]

I tried out Xpadder 5.3 with two different joysticks and it worked great.  However, if you plug in two similar joysticks, Xpadder loads the same profile for each.  That means no two-player with two of the same joysticks.

[gonzo90017]

I'm sure there's a way for xpadder to load different profiles for each joystick.
Did you create a profile while having both joysticks installed? If you create a profile
while both joysticks are installed i'm sure it will load both of them.

[bungy]

I tried what you said and it works, but it's a little funky to set up.

I plugged in two identical joysticks and set up the profile for joystick1 and saved it.  When I went to joystick2, it was already set to use the profile for joystick1 that I just finished.  The button layout carried over, so I reconfigured it with player 2's inputs and saved under a different name.  But then, the tab for joystick1 said that it was using profile2, and in reality it wasn't - both joysticks used their respective profiles.

So I unplugged both joysticks and then plugged in the one I had been using as joystick2 and it assumed profile1.  When I plugged in joystick1, it assumed profile2.  It looks like the profiles aren't tied to specific hardware but the profiles are loaded in order of creation.  This will work perfectly for my needs, just plug in joy1 first, then joy2.  Now if any guests are uncomfortable using the CP for a console emulator, they can use an actual joystick from that console.

Thanks for the help - Xpadder FTW!

[gonzo90017]

I'm glad it worked out for you. For future reference in case you ever want/need to load it from the command line it would go something like this:

Code: [Select]

xpadder.exe profile1 profile2