This is just a quick change to this awesome program to add an xinput.txt file that contains the xinput slot attributed. Like : XINPUT1 = 1 means that pad 1 is attributed to Xinput slot 1.

Creates virtual Xbox 360 gamepads backed by keyboard inputs.

This project was created to fill a very specific need: using an I-PAC (or keyboard) to play recent Windows games that only accept XInput as input and/or do not allow 2 players on the keyboard.

Has been successfully tested with Astebreed, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend, Broforce, Darius Burst Chronicle Saviours, DoDonPachi Resurrection, Mortal Kombat X, PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+, Raiden IV: OverKill, Street Fighter V, The Bug Butcher, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

• The awesome ViGEm Bus Driver (https://github.com/ViGEm/ViGEmBus, downloads at https://github.com/ViGEm/ViGEmBus/releases).

  Warning: version 1.17.333 only supports Windows 10; use 1.16.116 if you're still on Windows 8 or 7. Follow installation instructions carefully if you're on Windows 7 (https://github.com/ViGEm/ViGEmBus/wiki/Prerequisites-for-Windows-7).

• Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 32bit

  Be sure to download & install the 32 bit version!

Download the latest zip here: http://kb2xi.schwingsk.net/Keyboard2Xinput-1.2.2.zip

Make sure that ViGEm Bus Driver is installed (see Requirements).

Unzip & launch Keyboard2XinputGui.exe

Example mapping.ini file:

[startup]
enabled = true
[config]
Subtract = enableToggle
Multiply = exit
pollInterval = 0
[pad1]
Up = UP
Down = DOWN
Left = LEFT
Right = RIGHT
LControlKey = A
LMenu = B
LShiftKey = X
W = Y
X = RB
Space = LB
V = RT
C = LT
D5 = START
D1 = BACK

[pad2]
R = UP
F = DOWN
D = LEFT
G = RIGHT
S = B
Q = A
I = Y
Z = X
K = RB
A = LB
L = RT
J = LT
D6 = START
D2 = BACK

The [startup] section defines:

• enabled : if true, the pads are created and keys will be intercepted. This was the behavior before 1.2.0, and is still the default behavior if this section is not defined.

  If false, the pads are created but keys will not be intercepted.

The [config] section defines:

• enableToggle : the key (here the minus key from the keypad) that toggles the interception of keys. Can be handy if you have a real keyboard connected and want to disable momentarily the interception, without quitting your game. This does NOT disconnect the gamepads.

• enable : the key that enables key interception.

• disable : the key that disables key interception.

• exit : the key (here the multiply key from the keypad) that exits the program. This has been added because I use AutoHotKey to launch & kill Keyboard2Xinput, and could not figure out how to catch the exit process event (if there's one) triggered by AHK. While exiting by killing the process does work, it leaves the notification icon lingering until the mouse hovers over it. Having an exit key resolves this problem.

• pollInterval : if not 0, buffer the inputs for n milliseconds (n being the value entered, for instance pollInterval = 18). Specifically created for games using the same engine as Mortal Kombat XI or Injustice 2. These games have a problem with pressing 2 buttons at the same time (to trigger throws for instance), which very rarely work. The solution used here is to buffer the inputs for a given time before sending them all at once.

  On my setups, depending on the power of the pcs, values between 0 (no buffering needed on my beefier PC) and 25 work reliably. You'll have to experiment on your setup.

  Keep in mind that this introduces input lag (16ms = 1/60s = 1 frame@60fps), so only use this on games that need it. Unfortunately I still haven't found a way to make these games work any other way.

• config0, config1, etc... allows to switch between mutiple mapping files. When using this, config0 points to you main mapping file, config1 points to a file named mapping1.ini, located in the same folder as your main mapping file; config2 points to mapping2.ini, and so on.

  When using multiple mapping files, only the main mapping file can contain [startup] and [config] sections (otherwise the key for changing mappings could vary according to the selected mapping, and it would be a configuration (and troubleshooting) nightmare). Look in samples/mappings/Multiple for example files.

Each [padn] section defines a configuration for a pad. Each maps a key to a button/axis of the Xbox 360 gamepad. The keys and values are case-sensitive.

The list of keys is taken from .net's enum System.Windows.Forms.Keys. See virtual key names for the complete list of mappable keyboard keys.

All buttons and axes must be in uppercase

Run Keyboard2XinputGui.exe. An icon should appear in the Windows System tray; There is no main window. By right-clicking the icon, you can toggle key interception, see the about box and exit the program.

By default, the program looks for a file named mapping.ini in the same folder. This behavior can be changed by giving the path of your mapping file to the program as a parameter.

You can find some reference mappings for IPAC2 & IPAC4 in samples/mappings

See script samples/AHKscripts/pacmanMuseum.ahk. This script is tailored for Pac-Man Museum, but can easily be adapted to other games.

See script samples/AHKscripts/steamXinput.ahk.

To run Steam games, you need to have their appId (see https://steamdb.info/apps/ to find you games appIds). Unfortunatley, steam doesn't return the handle of the game, so you can't use the classic AHK approach to monitor the game status. The best approach I've found (yay internet!) is to look in the Windows Registry, as Steam keeps each game status in there.

So basically this script:

• Runs k2xi
• Runs the game via Steam by passing the game's AppId to Steam.exe
• Waits until the game is launched by monitoring the Windows registry
• Moves the mouse out of the way, because some games don't hide the mouse cursor
• Waits until the game is closed by monitoring the Windows registry
• Closes k2xi by pushing the key that's mapped to 'exit'
• Gives back focus to Attract-Mode (change or disable if you don't use this Front-end)

The resulting executable takes the appId as a parameter. For some old games that only detect gamepads when starting, you can add a sleep between the launch of kb2xi and the game.

Make sure to adapt the paths to you configuration!

This happens when you use a 6 button-joystick setup and must use 2 simultaneous buttons to trigger some moves. These games handle inputs differently (not sure how, but it seems they are way stricter on timings). See the pollInterval parameter in the config file to handle these games.

No, and for the time being I don't think this feature will be implemented. See Issue 7 as a user has found a softwre that fits his needs.

A file named k2x.log should be created each time the program runs. It contains detailed information on the keys pressed (even if they're not mapped). You can hop in ArcadeControls.com forums if you run into problems, I'll do my best to help you.

If you have the following error in k2x.log:

2019-08-19 17:22:09,557 [1] FATAL Keyboard2XinputGui.Program- System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'vigemclient.dll': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)
at Nefarius.ViGEm.Client.ViGEmClient.vigem_alloc()
at Nefarius.ViGEm.Client.ViGEmClient..ctor()
at Keyboard2XinputLib.Keyboard2Xinput..ctor(String mappingFile)
at Keyboard2XinputGui.Keyboard2XinputGui.InitK2x()
at Keyboard2XinputGui.Keyboard2XinputGui..ctor(String aMappingFile)
at Keyboard2XinputGui.Program.Main(String[] args)

it probably means that you haven't installed the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 32bit, please install it.

The default configuration maps the D-PAD to the joysticks. If your game expects that you use the analog left stick (Gauntlet Slayer Edition for instance), then you have to use a mapping that reflects that:

(...)
[pad1]
Up = LUP
Down = LDOWN
Left = LLEFT
Right = LRIGHT
(...)

If you launch kb2xi and immediately after your game, some of the configured gamepads may not have been 'plugged in' when the game starts. Some old games only detect joysticks when they start, so you have to either:

• start kb2xi, wait a number of seconds (depends on your computer speed), then launch your game
• start kb2xi when windows starts (with the gamepads disabled), and use the kb2xi hotkeys that allow you to enable/disable keys interception. That way the gamepads are always 'plugged in' but the keys are only redirected to them when you want to.

You need Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 (Community edition is ok, that's what I'm using).

• Return and Enter keys both respond to the 'Return' Virtual Key name.

This project uses:

• ViGEm.NET by Nefarius (https://github.com/ViGEm/ViGEm.NET)
• ini-parser from rickyah (https://github.com/rickyah/ini-parser/tree/master)
• Logo hacked together from two artworks from ikillyou121 (https://www.deviantart.com/ikillyou121/art/Keyboard-Vector-555191125 and https://www.deviantart.com/ikillyou121/art/Old-Xbox-360-Controller-Cutie-Mark-467878925)
• Mistune for offline documentation rendering (https://mistune.readthedocs.io/en/v0.8.4/)
• GitHub-like CSS for offline documentation rendering: https://gist.github.com/dashed/6714393