Direct controller access

Libretro
#1

Hi all,

First of I don’t have the knowledge to make this a thing, and I don’t expect anyone else to make this. I’m merely asking if this is a good idea or not.

I couple of weeks ago I go the raphnet Dual N64 controller to USB adapter, and there’s a plugin for mupen64plus and Project64 that give them direct controller access. And this got me thinking, is this good idea for libretro?

I see the pros as this would give N64 emu’s access to the rumble pak, controller pak or even more exotic hardware like the Bio Sensor. GameCube having the konga drums or Dreamcast fishing controller and vmu, for instants

But I guess the cons are that would mean writing code for every adapter that’s going to have support?

Well my question is, is this a good idea? I’m curious to know, what else would be good/bad about this approach?

#2

It’s something that would have to come from the core itself. That is, the frontend wouldn’t be able to handle it. So, that means each core would have to implement it for each controller/adapter. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and the dolphin core has that option for real wiimotes, for example, but it’s not something that scales.

#3

Thanks for the reply hunterk. While that’s a shame that it would have to be done per core, it’s also good to know that it can be done per core.

While I’ve never set it up myself, I’ve read that pressure sensitive buttons can be setup in the standalone version of PCSX2, and this gives me hope for this to be a part of the PCSX2 core.

Also knowing now that real wiimotes can be used with the dolphin core, I no longer have an excuse not to be using the core. Time to get it up and running.