Controllers are often mixed up?

Zenoxio

I have 3 controllers: 2x Bluetooth 8bitdo SN30, and 1x wired New SNES Tomee. I have gone through the standard setup and controller configurations. I am having a struggle to get these controllers working in a consistent fashion. Examples of issues:

Having the wired and Bluetooth controller plugged in indicates in-game that the wired is Port #1 and Bluetooth is Port #2. However the game recognizes Bluetooth as Player 1 and does not respond to the wired controller.
Having only the Bluetooth controller plugged in indicates in-game it is Port #1, and yet the game does not respond to the controller.
Very often enters a state where the active controllers do not respond in-game when different controllers are plugged in, and even the Hot Key to return to the menu does not work leaving the system non-functional until restart (probably the scenarios above)
Accept/Back buttons are inconsistent in menus such as ES/RetroPie/etc
Plugged the wired controller and then turned on the 2nd Bluetooth controller, only for this to result in becoming player 1 and the original Bluetooth controller no longer responding in games

Pi Model or other hardware: RASPBERRY PI 4 MODEL B, 4GB
Power Supply used: 5.1V, 3A USB-C PSU
RetroPie Version Used: 4.7.11
Built From: Premade SD image on official website
USB Devices connected: Bluetooth receiver, USB controller
Controller used: See above
Emulator: Any, but testing in lr-snes9x
How to replicate the problem: Attach wired and Bluetooth controller, open any game. Console indicates Port #1 for wired controller and it does not respond, Bluetooth ends up as main player. Results vary depending on controllers plugged in

I have tried redoing the configuration (https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Configuration/#autoconfigurations) and it does not help.

Any tips on how to get this to a consistent working state so that non-tech savvy people can play without issue?

mitu

This behavior suggests you have an input remap that switches the controller order. Did you use the Configuration Editor to re-order the controllers or did you re-configure it from the RetroArch's RGUI ?

Zenoxio

@mitu I used the GUI for the redo of the input mapping. The Autoconfiguration tool.

Controller order does sound like the issue, but I'm not sure what specifically is causing this or how to resolve manually. My overall goal is that the controller order is automatically handled because Bluetooth controllers may be turned on in any order.

Any specific config files I should share here and review?

mitu

@zenoxio said in Controllers are often mixed up?:

@mitu I used the GUI for the redo of the input mapping. The Autoconfiguration tool.

There's no need for that, once you configure the controllers in EmulationStation, the auto-configuration file for RetroArch is automatically created.

Any specific config files I should share here and review?

Look in the RetroArch's verbose log and see if any remaps are loaded (you can post the file on pastebin.com and provide the link). Did you also use 'Save Configuration' from the RGUI ?

Zenoxio

@mitu

I ran through a few games and a few controller combos. Sometimes it worked okay and other times it did not.

Recreated issue: https://pastebin.com/UhuZQpSi

I had 2 controllers active here, however the game only responded to player 1. Player 2 did not function for the remaining controller in multiplayer games. I did verify both controllers worked outside the game.

In the GUI, I don't recall a save prompt. I was using the EmulationStation auto-config. Am I in the wrong place or if there was a save option, I do believe I would have used it.

mitu

From the log file, I see both controllers get detected and configured and no overrides are present.

...
[INFO] [udev]: Plugged pad: 8Bitdo SNES30 GamePad (11720:10304) on port #0.
[INFO] [udev]: Pad #0 (/dev/input/event1) supports 0 force feedback effects.
[INFO] [udev]: Plugged pad: 8Bitdo SNES30 GamePad (11720:10304) on port #1.
[INFO] [udev]: Pad #1 (/dev/input/event2) supports 0 force feedback effects
...

Looks fine as far the config goes, the only thing I can think of is that's it might depend on the game how the 2nd player is activated.

Zenoxio

@mitu Very strange. I went through a number of games, mainly Sega Genesis, and they all had the same issue. Even when it prompted for player 2 "Press Start" the games did not react to the 2nd controller. It's almost like multiplayer just doesn't work in Sega Genesis on my system, or the joypad order is messed up (static?) and I'm not sure how to correct it.

I'm noticing the issue is less common or non-existent for SNES games.

mitu

@zenoxio You can bring up the RetroArch's RGUI and check how the Pad 2 is setup - is it set to 'RetroPad' or something else ? Might be that Genesis-Plus GX has a strange default for the 2nd controller, you could try lr-picodrive and see if the same issue happens.