Fix: Emulating a Controller with x360ce

[FourFoxJoe]

So I ran into the problem a lot of people have with x360ce and controllers in general.
When I launch the game from the Ubisoft Connect Client, the client will say my controller disconnected every time.
When I am ingame and I try to use the controller the control scheme indicators will flicker and constantly switch back and forth between the current controller input and defaulting back to keyboard mouse controlls.
You cannot "force" the game to pick your controller as a standard in the options because everything apart from keyboard options is greyed out there.
I am using the "new" version of x360ce 4.x - meaning you no longer have to copy anything into game folders, you just run it from anywhere on your pc. This is different from the old versions, and you should download the newer version if you dont have it yet.

What happens?
The game starts with a disconnected controller and every controller input is semi-emulated into a keyboard control. You obviously cant play like this.
This happens when the game does not recognize your controller as an xbox controller and forces you to mouse & keyboard settings.

How to fix?
Start x360ce and set up your controller like you would for any other game.
It is set up correctly when you see Controller1 > Enable Mapped Device 1 > [your controllers name] in the list.
right underneath you have a "Remap All" buttton which you will probably need.
Top right use the green + Icon to "Add Game" and add the ACOrigins.exe from your game folder.
Start the game. Controller should disconnect, options should be greyed out. alt tab out and go back into x360ce.
Your controller should no longer be in the list. Go and use the green + sign that says "add" and add your controller again. DO NOT use the "add game" button - the "add" button for controllers is a little under that. those are two different add buttons.
After you added your controller and it is back in the list x360ce should force the pulldown to the ACOrigins.exe and you probably can't select the x360ce.exe in the topmost pulldown menu. If it doesn't, make sure you selected the ACOrigins.exe in the pulldown. Check if your controller is there.

Alt Tab back into the game you should now be on controller mode. You can go into the ingame options > controlls > Input Device and set that to X-Box controller.
check if your controlls are set up correctly. If any button is not correctly mapped then alt tab to x360ce.

in x360ce make sure the ACOrigins.exe is still selected, your device is listed and selected with the hook (if you only have one device in there it will always be selected)
Click the "Remap All" button and then just push the buttons on your controller that are indicated in the image. After you went through all of them your controller should be correctly mapped and everything should be set up. you can minimize x360ce now and play the game.

additional notes on x360ce (if you still run into problems):
as soon as everything is set up you can always start x360ce before you launch the game and keep it minimized. There is no need to keep the window open.
Within x360ce you emulate an xbox controller, the mapping might be different on yours so depending on how old or exotic your controller is you will probably have to remap it yourself.
I suggest you always map your physical D-Pad to the xbox D-Pad and the left stick to the stick. On playstation controllers those are switched but it just plays better if you don't switch them
In a single player game like ACO you do not have to mess with any of the "folders". Focus on "Controller 1" and the "General" windows.
Also the pulldown menu, the "add game" and "add" buttons, and the list where your controller should be listed, the "Remap ALL" and the "Save All" are probably the only options you need. x360ce does a lot by itself and you don't have to mess with it.
Also take note of the rightmost folder called "issues". this is right next to "help" "about". If that button isn't green you need to address something first.

I know there are a ton of threads like this here, but none really has the information all together, and none has a good explanation of what actually is going on. a lot of "fixes" didn't work for me because they only had part of the information I needed.
Now that I finally got it fixed I can check out the game.

[Ubi_TheBerry]

Thank you very much for taking the time to share this with the community FourFoxJoe!

We appreciate it!

- Ubisoft Support