Two keyboard users playing together possible?

[紫八雲 Yukari Yakumo]

Remote Play seems to require at least one of the two players to use a controller instead of a keyboard. How can I, and a friend, both use our own keyboards respectively as player 1 and player 2, in games?

Details: Whenever one of us activates remote play, our keyboards input become shared when it's allowed and we both are "player 1", which stops us from being able to play together. It makes remote play unusable if neither of us can or want to use a controller instead of a keyboard.
Do I need to wait for an update, that registers the guest player's keyboard and mouse as his instead of mine, or have I failed to find the critical information I need during my researches?

I tried using "-multikeyboard" in the game's "Set Lunch Options...", it did not work.

Suggestion: If no solution are found for this problem yet, a "Use keyboard as controller" option, that allows to register one or more local keyboards as different controllers for the game, could help. And would allow the use of two keyboards locally to play together, as well.

Thanks for the help.

[紫八雲 Yukari Yakumo]

Interesting. I think your problem Aloye is that, your controller plugged in locally was being registered as "Player 1", the same as the keyboard, and that your friend's keyboard was registered as the same thing as your keyboard; and therefore you couldn't play.

This is one more kind of problem that would be fixed if keyboards could be registered as different, specific controller/hardware things from user to user, in case your bug happens.
But yeah I think I ran into your problem, and that cutting the stream and sending an invite again to the friend was enough to solve the bug. So, I think your issue Aloye is a different, more specific one.

Have you tried setting up on the host machine parameters for all types of controller support?
I remember going in Settings --> Controller --> General Controller Settings; and checking all the boxes, and that made a friend able to use his controller.
I suggest you give a try to that and let us know if that was enough to solve your issue.
I also think this controller support setting should be added to the F.A.Q, maybe it's already there and I missed it though.

[Tekneek]

Same exact problem, just shared it in the wrong forum.

Originally posted by Tekneek:

Hello.So I am trying to play some games with my girlfriend and the game we chose to test remote play was Spelunky. I bought a copy and then remote to her just fine. We have separate laptops.

However when we get into the game both our inputs work on the same avatar at the same time. We are trying to have each of us with our own Avatar and play alongside each other or in Deathmatch. I have seen this done in YouTube videos.

Anyways, then I gifted her the game-NO LUCK-what am I missing? We have no controllers just use keyboard and mouse currently. Do I need to buy a controller so we aren't using the same input types?

Thanks for your help!

[SlimTwoFive]

Same problem here... Tyring to run Portal 2 with my son on his laptop.. Portal 2 deosn't recognize the other laptop's keyboard/mouse as a second player.

You would think that Valve would have considered this since Steam is a PC based gaming platform.

[edo]

I wonder if something like this could be suggested to valve, like in a way they will read it.
And hopefully tell us if it can be done or not.
Because this would make things way better.

[紫八雲 Yukari Yakumo]

Good suggestion Edo, I haven't searched properly how to report that issue to Valve. I suggest we all try and send our reports somewhere to show how this issue is affecting us. If you have suggestions on where and how to communicate that issue, feel free to people.

[Kirino]

Best send your messages on the Steam Reddit, seems to be about the only Place they care about when enough users make a fuss there...

[Rekkert]

+1 to this issue, it's very disappointing that Remote Play Together doesn't treat different keyboards as different input methods. Some people don't have access to gamepads. :(

[Cy]

Originally posted by Elosy:

What would happen if you connected 2 mice in your computer? Both would control the same cursor. Same for 2 keyboards on one computer. [...] and controllers are made so you can connect multiple ones, so they work differently to keyboards.

Sorry but this isn't exactly accurate, is it? Even though the outcome is the same.

If I connect two sets of mouse and keyboard to one PC, it is truth that I can type with either keyboard or move the cursor with either mouse but it doesn't mean these aren't two separate streams of input to begin with. Exactly the same as gamepads.

Remote Play Together simply passes the input from all shared keyboards to the OS, games read that input from the OS through keyboard API, and this API merges all keyboard input streams into one, therefore, games can't differentiate between the "up arrow" coming from keyboard1 and the "up arrow" coming from keyboard0. Same goes for mice. There are input APIs that do address the input streams correctly (at least on Linux but I assume it's same case for Windows) but these are more difficult to use and no developer expects you to have two mice or keyboards connected.

So the real answer is it doesn't work because A. Steam's Remote Play Together doesn't create a dummy kb&m devices for each player and B. even if there were such dummy devices and a separate input stream for each, games wouldn't know how to read those. The only two games I've ever known to do that were 1989 North & South and 1993 The Settlers. It's still possible nowadays (again, at least on Linux, I don't use Windows so I simply don't know) but not a single game engine exposes interface that'd let the developer read addressed input streams for kb&m. So it's not that the controllers work differently than kb&m but the kb&m default input APIs are old and we can't change them without breaking a lot of software.

[TomatoInExile]

Found a Solution - I don't know if it is late, but have a solution buried deep in google searches. I felt disheartened when I didn't find solution for myself on this thread. So, I searched more and came back with a solution. Maybe it helps you as well.

The problem is how we can set 2 keyboards giving 2 separate inputs or how to make OS recognize the two keyboards as separate devices. I have also used it in a game which was earlier controlling same player with multiple keyboards.

Solution 1 (tested & working): This guy has made/found a small software for users to make the additional keyboard to be recognized as an controller in a system:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hvoFs_amT8

Solution 2 (not tested):- https://support.parsecgaming.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012652092-Playing-Games-With-Two-Keyboards-Emulating-A-Controller-With-A-Keyboard

[紫八雲 Yukari Yakumo]

Thanks for the suggestion Tomato, I haven't tried what you suggest but I'll take your words for it. Hopefully it may help people play with two keyboards. Not feeling like this issue was being acknowledged or addressed made me lose near all interest in Steam remote play a while ago, but maybe I'll give that a second try one day.
Have a nice day!

[Ulisses]

https://www.rewasd.com/ with advanced mapping. Simulate a controller using mouse and keyboard.

[Cy]

Originally posted by TomatoInExile:

[...] a small software for users to make the additional keyboard to be recognized as an controller [...]

This, actually, is a really good approach. We should make that into a feature request for Steam Play Together. Currently Steam passes all inputs from remote user to the host system and can't address input streams from two keyboards as two separate devices because OS flattens them into one input stream any way. Same with mice. But controller input handling is modern and already supports proper device addressing so it would be next to trivial to use remote keyboard and mouse input to create a dummy controller locally and pass that to the host OS. It'd even let remote players to rebind their controls on the fly. They already have Steam Controller drivers in place.

Now... Where do we send feature requests to Valve?

[紫八雲 Yukari Yakumo]

Well Cy since before me selecting Tomato's comment as an answer to the thread, a mod selected Elosy's answer from page one as an answer (basically saying that it's not Steam's job), I think the chances might be slimmer than expected, but that would be a great idea to implement and would certainly make Steam Play Together a feature worth using for me and many other users who love playing with on keyboard. I expected the forums to be a good place for suggestions such at these but there might be better places to send feature requests, good idea to search!

[Cy]

Originally posted by Illyasviel Von Einzbern:

[...] the chances might be slimmer than expected, but that would be a great idea [...]

I hope you're wrong about the chances being slim because it targets different audience. Right now Remote Play Together works best for people who already have a controller, for people who don't have one it's restricted to games that allow multiple players on one keyboard. If we could spoof a controller it'd work for everyone and their mother, assuming she has a laptop on hand. Potentially it could expand even further. Steam Link mobile app already has audio-visuals and input passing over WiFi - Play Together works the same but over the internet. Imagine people who don't even own a PC being able to play games with you on their phone. I think Steam is heading towards games streaming any way so it's kind of "on the route". Fingers crossed. If you happen to find a better place to summarise this request, please, ping me here. I'll gladly put it together.

[Krevix_Tc]

I just hate that this doesn't gets attention who makes software. i mean they make expensive gaming keyboard and mouse and advance ultra gaming motherboard and yet i want to play it with by friends without expensive computers just to have lan parties