Efootball 2023 with 8 xinput controllers

[Apio]

Hello. I've playing for a while Efootball 2023 with my friends. Always using 7 Logitech F710 in dinput mode so the game can read all the controllers.

This week I've wanted to upgrade my controllers cause the F710 has some wireless connection issues.

Buyed:
-4 xbox 360 wireless controller with a wireless adapter.
-xbox series X/S controller + Wireless adapter

it can only read only 4 controllers cause the game reads it like a xinput controller

So I can play with 4 xbox controller and 4 Logitech F710 with dinput mode.

¿But is a way to play with 8 xbox controllers? my goal is to buy 8 xbox controllers in total cause the connection is amazing compared to the F710.

If you need some test and pics just let me know but I need to know if I keep buying xbox controller or just stop and conform with only 4 xinput and 4 dinput.

¡Thank you!

[supersmo]

Tested now with XBox controllers and PS4 controllers.
I can't get more than 4 controllers to work. Tested with Steam Input on and off and I haven't found any settings for disabling XInput in the game.
It doesn't recognise the PS4 controllers at all in DirectInput mode so I can't even do 4 XBox + 4 PS4.

Installing PES2021 now to see if that game handles the controllers differently.

[supersmo]

Same with PES2021. Can't get more than 4 controllers working.
I was pretty sure I got it working for more than 4 controllers way back so don't know what's up. Does it still work for you with additional dinput controllers?

[Apio]

Originally posted by supersmo:

Same with PES2021. Can't get more than 4 controllers working.
I was pretty sure I got it working for more than 4 controllers way back so don't know what's up. Does it still work for you with additional dinput controllers?

Ah damn I was going to try with 2021 too. Thats bad news

Yes. I can play with the additional dinput controller.
In this image [ibb.co] shows:
the first 4 controller, the xbox 360 wireless controllers.
The other 4 are the F710 with Dinput mode.

And have a Xbox series X/S controller connected too (the first one i've connect) and the game doesn't recognize it

[Apio]

I made PES 2021 work

The settings.exe of PES 2021 have the Directinput option and you can select any controller for every player.
Here is an image [ibb.co] that shows what im talking about
In this eFootball 2023 image [ibb.co] u can see that the dinput and xinput option are gone and only shows the group of dinput device connected.

I need to know if

• There's a chance to force a game to dinput mode in any way
  
• Force my xbox controller to read a dinput controller

I really want to make work the new pes and buy more xbox controller that in my opinion, are the best so far.

[supersmo]

Oh, so that's how it's done!
Open settings launcher, switch to direct input and assign a controller to each player.
By doing this I got more than 4 XBox controllers working in PES2021.

Downloading efootball 2023 again, uninstalled it yesterday, will try it later. 45GB takes a while.

[supersmo]

Can't get efootball 2023 to list xbox controllers under directinput, it doesn't even list my ps4 controllers, so there's no way for me to get more than 4 controllers working without digging into some workaround with emulated directinput controllers. I thought of using vJoy, HIDHide and some mapping tool, but I couldn't get vjoy to be listed in the settings launcher.

They messed something up along the way from pes2021 to efootball 2023 :-(

[supersmo]

Originally posted by Apio:

I need to know if

• There's a chance to force a game to dinput mode in any way
  
• Force my xbox controller to read a dinput controller

XBox controllers can be read by both XInput and Direct Input all the time, so input frameworks that read from both XInput and Direct Input at the same time filter out the controllers on the Direct Input side so the XBox controllers don’t show up twice. Some input frameworks have settings for disabling XInput altogether and not filter out XBox controllers when accessing controllers via Direct Input.

I think the issue with Efootball is that it’s trying to support both XInput and Direct Input at the same time so they’ve filtered out the XBox controllers so they can’t be listed via Direct Input.

Things to try:
* I can’t find a well known input framework among the dlls. If we’re extremely lucky they’ve compiled the source for SDL2 as a part of another DLL or as a part of the exe file. In this case we might be able to set some environment variables to signal SDL2 to read XBox controllers via Direct InputInput.
* Create emulated DirectInput devices, map the XBox controllers to the emulated devices and use HIDHide so the real XBox controllers can’t be seen by Efootball. Tried to create a vJoy device but the vJoy device didn’t show up in the list in the settings launcher. (I haven’t gotten anything to be listed there yet.)
* Drivers for XBox controllers can be changed to “HID compliant game device this makes the controller only available via Direct Input/RawInput. I doubt this helps since the controller will still be filtered out by the software.
* Hack it. I don’t have the skills or time.
* Find a solution for changing the string used to identify the XBox controllers via DirectInput. The string is probably the Vendor ID/Product ID string (VID PID). I’ve never done this si don’t know if it’s possible.

The easiest of these to test is the SDL2 environment variable route, but chances are very slim that it will work.

[supersmo]

Environment variables for SDL2 didn't work.

I got vJoy to be listed under DirectInput so the emulated controller route might work. XBoxOne controllers have another issue compared to XBox360 in that they only send input to the application currently in focus, so the application reading from the controllers and passing on to the emulated directinput devices need to have focus while the game plays in the background. (I think I've heard of a workaround involving disabling drivers in the device manager so that could also be an option to get around the focus issue.)

The emulated controller route looks like it could work but it depends on how much workaround setup you are willing to accept.

[supersmo]

Hm... I got it working with vJoy.
8 vJoys mapped to 8 XBox One controllers via Universal Control Remapper.

I encountered the issue with the XBox One controllers not sending input to a process in the background (XBox360 controllers don't have this issue), so I tried a workaround to switch driver from "XINPUT compatible HID device" to "HID-compliant game controller". ref[www.snes9x.com]

Switching to "HID-compliant game controller":
* Enables the XBox One controller to be accessed via DirectInput in the background.
* Disables the controller from being accessed via XInput.
* The left and right triggers are on separate axes. (Normally not the case when accessed via DirectInput.)

When switching I sometimes had to restart the controller in order for it to be listed under DirectInput. I used the controlpanel joystick listing (Win + R and then type joy.cpl) to see if the XBox controllers were listed or not.

The solution takes a while to set up and works well until a gamepad is turned off and you want to activate it again. If this happens it often comes back with the original driver so you have to go through the process of changing driver again and making sure it's listed under joy.cpl, maybe even restart Universal Control Remapper and toss controllers between each other so the people are on the correct team.

Next experiment is to try and skip the whole switch driver thing and use HIDHide to see if the experience is improved and feels stable enough to handle controllers disconnecting and reconnecting. Having a small corner of Universal Control Remapper on top of efootball might be worth it to get past the issue of accessing the controllers in the background.

------
One thing I noticed when using vJoy is that if a Direct Input controller has a zRotation axis it doesn't show up in the eFootball Settings launcher. I think this is why PS4 controllers don't show up. I would argue that it is a bug in the efootball settings launcher.

[supersmo]

I've tested now with HIDHide and using the default drivers for the XBox One controllers.

The setup is as follows:
* 8 virtual directinput gamepads using vJoy.
* Mapping is done via Universal Control Remapper.
* HIDHide is used to hide the XBox controllers from eFootball.
* Because of the XBox One controller issue with only being able to send input to the application in the foreground I run eFootball in borderless windowed mode and have placed UCR above it in the bottom right corner. Even better would be to have a second screen and place UCR on that. This trick only works if the game runs well in the background and is able to recieve input when in the background. Fortunately eFootbal 2023 ticks both of those boxes.

Disconnecting a controller can still be an issue in this setup, but at least I didn't have to switch driver when this happens.

The only way I could get more than 4 XBox controllers to work is by using emulated controllers. The best solution would be a proper fix from the developers. The next best is a hack. Should I create a step by step instruction for the virtual controller setup or is this setup too much work/too unstable and not worth the hassle?

BTW would you recommend "eFootball 2023" over "eFootbal PES 2021"? Reviews are quite harsh on 2023 but maybe that just reflects online play.

[Apio]

First of all, you completely surprised me. I can't imagine the time and dedication you put into figuring this out. I wish I could have half the knowledge you have on these subjects. Congratulations.

Originally posted by supersmo:

Should I create a step by step instruction for the virtual controller setup or is this setup too much work/too unstable and not worth the hassle?

I believe, at least in this situation, not to do it. Something that I take into account when I play with many people is the comfort and ease of being able to play. For that reason I started buying Xbox 360 and Series controllers even though they are more expensive (Please don't buy the Logitech F710).

Knowing that you can disconnect a controller and reconnect everything is the nemesis of a good time with friends.

But also, it would be incredible to have the step by step of what you did to be able to apply it in future games. We have to continue to encourage 8 player games.

In addition, I was thinking that we should make a section on Steam or a YouTube channel where we can put the "how to" of each listed game so that when we buy it we already have the facility to know how to play +4 players. For example, I wanted to try playing brawlhalla with 8 players. I know that so far a lot has been achieved (there is a post from this group that shows it). But people new to this community would have the chance to already know how to do it without experiment and know HOW MANY. And always having updated if some situation will change (let's take Gang Beast for example, which has now disabled xinput and only sup 5 players). I am also glad to be part of this community.

Originally posted by supersmo:

BTW would you recommend "eFootball 2023" over "eFootbal PES 2021"? Reviews are quite harsh on 2023 but maybe that's just reflects online play.

I may be holding the false hope that eFootball 2023 will get better and better. Idk.
I take into account that from now on eFootball will be a single game that will be updated (2024, 2025), but there will be no more independent games. So the fact that it continues to be updated in this way makes me want to be sure to play it with 8 players since it supports it from the start.

At this moment, with an Option file to update PES 2021 with the current players and transfers (if you are a big soccer fan like me) It is a HIGHLY superior game to eFootbal 2023.

[supersmo]

True, it is a very elaborate workaround that really is a last resort. Scripting the setup would make it somewhat more convenient but still not robust to disconnects.

Regarding documenting settings for each game maybe PC Gaming Wiki could be a good place to do it.

Thanks for your insights with 2023 vs 2021. 👍

[supersmo]

On another topic.
Since you mentioned Gang Beasts, I tried the normal version (opted out of beta versions) and could get 8 players with 4 XBox + 4 PS4 controllers to work but couldn't get more than 4 XBox controllers to work.

[supersmo]

User Idiota125 tipped me about a tool called rewasd. It’s a paid tool but it works. Apart from remapping it can also emulate other controllers like XBox 360, DS4, etc controllers. When it does this it automatically hides the real controller. A profile can be created that is automatically applied to a specific controller when a certain game is in focus. After doing this to 4 of the XBox controllers I can just start efootball and play with 8 players. Efootball sees 4 XBox and 4 PS4 controllers even though all of the controllers are XBox.

[Engoni]

Originally posted by supersmo:

User Idiota125 tipped me about a tool called rewasd. It’s a paid tool but it works. Apart from remapping it can also emulate other controllers like XBox 360, DS4, etc controllers. When it does this it automatically hides the real controller. A profile can be created that is automatically applied to a specific controller when a certain game is in focus. After doing this to 4 of the XBox controllers I can just start efootball and play with 8 players. Efootball sees 4 XBox and 4 PS4 controllers even though all of the controllers are XBox.

Yeah, I have started using it, works great, too bad its a payed program!