XBOX 360 controller is not recognized when plugged int client PC for In-Home stearming

[AJ]

OS: Windows 10

ISSUE: Xbox 360 controller is not recognized when plugged into client PC for In-Home Streaming.

DESCRIPTION: I am trying to play Halo: Combat Evolved through Steam In-Home Streaming. I downloaded the game separate from Steam (not sold through Steam), and added it as a non-Steam game. The video and audio work perfectly, but my Xbox 360 controller, which is plugged into the client pc, is not recognized by the game. The game does, however, recognize input from the client pc, and is not ignoring it entirely, because using a keyboard/mouse works fine. In Halo's settings, "Gamepad" is greyed out, so it is not detected.

ATTEMPTED SOLUTIONS:
- I thought about plugging my wireless dongle into the host PC. It is too far from where the client PC is.
- Tried turning Xbox controller on at various points; starting before game is launched, after menu starts, etc. Nothing worked. As a side note, the gamepad is only recognized if it is present when the game is first loaded; otherwise, "Gamepad" is greyed out in Halo's in-game settings.
- Tried using Big Picture mode on both client and host, in an attempt to get the Xbox 360 controller recognized to the host before the game begins.
- I have thought about trying to use an independent program to send Xbox 360 input across the network to an emulated 360 on the host; this is essentially what Steam is doing, but due to the fact that the Xbox 360 controller is only emulated once the game starts, Halo will not recognize it because it doesn't exist beforehand when it first loads. I have no idea of any program that would do this, however.
- I thought I might be able to trick the game into detecting my controller, by plugging it into the host pc when the game first starts. I was able to do this, actually, because the game doesn't monitor if the controller is connected or disconnected during the game -- only at start. In order to get around this, I tried connecting the Xbox wireless dongle to my host PC first, then starting the Steam stream. The gamepad is detected this far, because it is an available menu option in "Settings." I then disconnected the dongle from the host, plugged it into the client pc, yet it did not control Halo. Interestingly, I checked the "Gamepad" option in settings, and it is still enabled. Although, once the game loads a gamepad in, it does not check again, possibly ever, so this doesn't seem to be an indicator of whether is currently recognized if configuration changes mid-game -- it seems to be that Steam is sending input back over the network, but somehow the Xbox input is either not getting sent back, or if it is, it is not in a way that Halo understands or cares about.

I have tried using the Xbox controller, connected to the client, to control other games, and have had success with Grow Home, Skyrim, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat X.

It occurs to me that Halo might look at Xbox controller input as a different kind of input than what the Steam Streaming emulates, but that is outside of my knowledge.

[76561198160938333]

yes

[AJ]

So I first thought that Halo was DirectInput and this was why, but it turns out Halo is an XInput game. Pretty sure Steam supports XInput over stream, so the problem appears to be that:
1) If the controller is plugged into client, its presence is not detected until after Halo has started. This means Halo does not load in that gamepad and cannot detect it.
2) If the controller is plugged into the host first, then transferred to the client, Halo recognizes there is a working gamepad, however it won't work if I then unplug from the host and then connect the xbox controller to the client. I think this is because Halo binds that gamepad to a certain port, and so when the port is changed from the physical usb on the host to the client's emulated controller, it cannot adapt to accept the input from this source.

So, is there a way to make the host computer recognize and register a controller that is plugged into the client, before the game has started for streaming? If there is, I'm pretty certain Halo would detect that controller, because it exists at startup when gamepads are registered in-game.

[Jottle]

This is super old, but I'm having the same issue and haven't been able to solve it. I even tried what you attempted (using a wireless 360 controller on the host pc), but it still doesn't work since when streaming with steam link it automatically uses the virtual gamepad connected to the steam link. Were you ever able to solve this issue?

[Jottle]

I'm wondering if there's a way to maybe startup the game with the controller connected, then "resume" streaming after the game has started? I don't think it would work since steam would automatically switch back to the steam link controller input.