NSO SNES controller registers twice on MacOS

[rtpg]

Apparently on MacOS the SNES controller gets registered under two frameworks, and SDL/Love picks this up twice, causing a bunch of weird problems for me when trying to use the controller

(from the #751 I used earlier)

A workaround that I found was to run love with SDL_JOYSTICK_MFI=0, which seems to disable one of the frameworks that

SDL_JOYSTICK_MFI=0 /Applications/love.app/Contents/MacOS/love .
# with the above only one joystick is seen

^ in this workaround, "B" becomes "A", "X" becomes "Y" and vice versa... but that doesn't bug me that much.

The Claude explainer when working on this, though I'm really not a MacOS expert so this might not be at all true...

The most likely cause on macOS: the NSO SNES controller appears as two separate joystick devices
  simultaneously — one from the raw IOKit/HID layer and one from Apple's Game Controller
  (GCController) framework. Love2D sees both, so love.joystickpressed fires twice for every button
  press, producing two distinct keys (same button index, different GUID or different slot).

[Endaris]

Hi,
the Claude explainer thing is irrelevant, if both GUIDs fire on every input, it should work as expected as each keybinding only checks one GUID, and as long as both are always there it would behave correctly.

If the controller supports a connection via both bluetooth or USB I would also suggest you try if using the other makes a difference as it might register via a different method depending on the connection (and both connecting at the same time could be another source of issues).

Based on your workaround the actual issue is that the bindings report different mappings for the same controller so you get a mismatch and also cannot properly control in the input config menu which guid is used for the binding.
If you however made sure that the same input configuration consistently uses the GUID with the correct gamepad mapping, for example via editing the keysV3.json manually, I believe it likely that it works without your workaround as long as you make sure that the second GUID is not used for any input config and thus is not selectable when picking your input method in the pre-game selection screen.

A single controller having multiple GUIDs is actually quite common in some ways, in the very least as some controllers switch between D- or X-input or otherwise support different modes to pose as a different type of controller. Although usually it should unregister one as it changes to another.

I was unable to find a match for either of the GUIDs on the list of known GUIDs by SDL (nor on a more extensive user-maintained list):
https://github.com/libsdl-org/SDL/blob/main/src/joystick/SDL_gamepad_db.h
Which also contains instruction for generating a new mapping.

I would suggest you generate a mapping through one of the recommended methods mentioned in the comment at the top of the file to confirm the issue and post the generated mappings here. I'm not familiar enough with the matter to really tell but it might be worthwhile to create an issue on SDL's end as well with both the default mapping and the "correct" mapping.

The game currently does not have a way to import new gamepad bindings but I believe that is a feature that could be implemented through love's API, although it's unlikely that this would become a high priority.

[Endaris]

Actually I forgot to mention the classic:
If you have steam open at the same time, steam loves to hijack the controller in some way and then it doesn't work.
Make sure steam and its controller app is closed when investigating this.

[rtpg]

I'll look into my KeysV3.json setup and report back later then.

I believe it likely that it works without your workaround as long as you make sure that the second GUID is not used for any input config and thus is not selectable when picking your input method in the pre-game selection screen.

Yeah on this one at least in the GUI even when I would hit "reset all keys to default" or delete layouts the SNES Controller layout seemed to still show up in the input debug menu, along with its bindings. Like I'd clear out all the bindings in the GUI and the "SNES Controller" layout would still stick around.

Anyways I imagine KeysV3.json will hold the answers I seek.

[rtpg]

(note: while I have steam installed I didn't have it open on this computer)

Here is my KeysV3.json

[
  {
    "Up": "up",
    "Down": "down",
    "Left": "left",
    "Right": "right",
    "Swap1": "z",
    "Swap2": "x",
    "TauntUp": "y",
    "TauntDown": "u",
    "Raise1": "c",
    "Raise2": "v",
    "Start": "return"
  },
  {
    "Up": "w",
    "Down": "s",
    "Left": "a",
    "Right": "d",
    "Swap1": "j",
    "Swap2": "k",
    "TauntUp": "i",
    "TauntDown": "l",
    "Raise1": "o",
    "Raise2": "u",
    "Start": "space"
  },
  {
    "Up": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpup1",
    "Down": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpdown1",
    "Left": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpleft1",
    "Right": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpright1",
    "Swap1": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:1",
    "Swap2": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:2",
    "TauntUp": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:4",
    "TauntDown": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:3",
    "Raise1": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:10",
    "Raise2": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:11",
    "Start": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:7"
  },
  {
    "Up": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:10",
    "Down": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:7",
    "Left": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:8",
    "Right": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:9",
    "Swap1": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:1",
    "Swap2": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:2",
    "TauntUp": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:6",
    "TauntDown": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:5",
    "Raise1": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:11",
    "Raise2": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:12",
    "Start": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:3"
  },
  [],
  [],
  [],
  []
]

so if I clear the controller inputs, open up the game and then "just" hit OK, even though the UI shows 3 inputs I see 4 inputs in KeysV3.json

if I delete one of the entries manually then I get the "new controller added" prompt when opening up the game

so I end up in this loop where even if I clear things out I end up with the problem reintroducing itself right on the next boot.

[Endaris]

Okay, thanks, so the controllers are properly configured in separate configs.
I would assume that only one of the reported devices does not act correctly and the issue persists in the input device selection in the pre-game screen giving you one of the two but you cannot control which one you get.

Given that with the SDL_JOYSTICK_MFI=0 flag you only get one, I suggest that as a workaround you just unbind every key of the other one by commenting out some keys of its configuration.

E.g.

[
  {
      "Up": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpup1",
      "Down": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpdown1",
      "Left": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpleft1",
      "Right": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:dpright1",
      "Swap1": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:1",
      "Swap2": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:2",
      "TauntUp": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:4",
      "TauntDown": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:3",
      "Raise1": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:10",
      "Raise2": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:11",
      "Start": "0500c0db7e050000172000000100680b:1:7"
    },
    {
      // "Up": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:10",
      // "Down": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:7",
      // "Left": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:8",
      // "Right": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:9",
      // "Swap1": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:1",
      // "Swap2": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:2",
      "TauntUp": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:6",
      "TauntDown": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:5"//,
      // "Raise1": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:11",
      // "Raise2": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:12",
      // "Start": "0500c0dbac05000004000000ca166d04:1:3"
    },
]

(or the other one if that is the broken one)
That way, if you use your Swap1 bind, there's only one configuration it can pick up but the controller has binds so it's not detected as a new controller.

For a more long-term solution, please generate a mapping.