#137 Please reconsider fully bindable joystick patch
Please reconsider cfoesch's fully bindable joystick patch from https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=27452.
Without that patch, dosbox is only able to use:
either 2 joysticks/gamepads with 1 analog stick each (no hat switches/d-pads)
or 1 joystick/gamepad with 1 analog stick and 1 hat switch/d-pad (with fcs emulation)
But it is impossible to use 2 joysticks/gamepads and hat switches/d-pads.
The suggested patch allows full mapping of 2 joysticks/gamepads with 2 analog sticks and 1 hat switch/d-pad, which means modern joysticks and gamepads can be fully used to play dos games, even in 2-player mode.
For example, I use 2 NES-style gamepads, which have only d-pads and no analog sticks. At the moment, I can only use 1 gamepad with d-pad mappings, because normal joystick mode does not support d-pads and fcs emulation does not support a 2nd controller. With the patch, I can use both controllers and map the d-pads, making multiplayer gaming possible.
If I understand the discussion in the VOGOS forum correctly (see above), the patch was rejected in 2011 because it is no longer guaranteed that a mapping file is usable after input devices have changed. However, this guarantee applies only if all your input devices match the emulated DOS devices exactly, which is highly unlikely anyway. For example, if you remove a joystick with an analog stick and substitute it with a gamepad without an analog stick, your previous mappings involving the analog stick won't work any longer. With the suggested patch applied, it would at least be possible to change the mappings and use the d-pad of the new controller instead.
Thank you for your consideration.
The current behavior makes it hard to use a joypad with more than 4 axis. Moreover, I own a 6 axis joypad (XBox 360) and a 4 axis (Pro Controller) and I can't see how to use the same map file for both: the buttons are different!
I've been using this patch for a while with no regressions. I'd ask for reconsideration.
Hey, I concur!!! I need my hat switch to work!