What is Xinput? (Co-thread)

[Vivia (shi/hir) ☣]

Xinput is an API (Application Programming Interface; software that dictates how games use other software, in this case a controller's driver) developed by Microsoft with the advent of the Xbox 360. The intended purpose - and result - was a quick and easy solution to gamepads. While older joysticks come in various shapes and sizes, sometimes with an insane number of buttons (Flight sim gear), sometimes with an insane number of analog axes (Mek Fu with its whopping SIX analog joysticks... at least six axes right there, and supposedly two or four more as a sort of thumbstick-click), plenty of upside down throttles, and sometimes horribly STUPID button orders (You know our typical AB XY order? Try dealing with 1, 2, 3, 4, starting from the X position and rolling a counter clockwise circle!)

Are you confused yet? Good! So is everyone else! That's just how horribly convoluted pre-Xbox gamepads, joysticks and racing wheels were and ARE... there is nothing uniform about them. Everyone makes them in a way that suits their mood that day. Everyone has their own bass ackwards ideas of how best to arrange and design their hardware (Saitek, you will suffer for cutting the actuation boundaries of your gamepad in SQUARES!!! AND THEN MAKING THE CONTROLLER INDESTRUCTIBLE!!! ...SQUARES!!!!!! WHY?! WHYYY?!)

So in comes Xinput... Two thumbsticks, two analog triggers, a D-pad, and ten buttons with absolutely UNIFORM layouts and directions. No upside down throttles, no 0, 1, 2, 3, no clockwise circle of face buttons. And the best part is, the Xbox sold like hotcakes... and its controller used Xinput... which worked on every XP, Vista, Win7 and now Win8 computer right out of the box with drivers from Windows Update... right out of the box. Everyone has it, everyone wants it, everyone gets it, everyone uses it. It is universal, it is uniform, it is absolutely perfect for what it was meant to be.

And then Microsoft goes and derps out, making the Xbox 360 controller's DirectInput-based drivers (ever notice it works on ALL games? That's why. It uses DirectInput when Xinput doesn't work) STUPID... how? Left and right triggers are one conjoined axis... wanna play a racing game that uses DirectInput? Does it have a Brake axis and an Accelerator axis? Do you understand the value of these being separate axes? TOUGH LUCK!!! And the funny part is, they said it was necessary because of the way DirectInput works. ...Now count the DirectInput and hybrid input device models released by other companies that do this.

And that concludes my co-thread guide to Xinput.

Why did I post this? http://steamcommunity.com/groups/razerzone/discussions/0/558746745863277613/