Gamepad used to work fine then suddenly just doesn't

[lanzz]

I have a Gamesir G7 SE gamepad (it's an official Xbox controller), and it used to work fine with ED, until today when I started the game and it just doesn't. It didn't even reset my bindings, which it does when a bound device is disconnected at game start, it's just that the gamepad inputs aren't registered by ED. If I try to add a new binding, the "press button for <action>" dialog just doesn't register the input from the gamepad. Physically unplugging the gamepad causes ED to reset its bindings to the default "keyboard + mouse" ones, so apparently the game still detects the gamepad as being present otherwise, it just doesn't receive its input.

The controller works fine in Steam "big picture" mode, in Windows game controller settings, on https://hardwaretester.com, basically works fine everywhere but in ED. If I set up mappings to a vJoy device in Joystick Gremlin, ED picks up input from the vJoy device just fine, but that messes up the button labels in the bindings and for some reason the "enable context menu on foot" option doesn't work at all, e.g. if I have an action bound to Y and another action bound to Y + d-pad right, the Y action is performed immediately when I hold Y instead of waiting for the context input.

I'm at a loss here. I've tried every stupid thing that I could think of. The gamepad obviously works fine and is even almost usable through vJoy remapping, but ED stubbornly refuses to acknowledge it natively.
Any ideas welcome.

 

[metatheurgist]

Longshot. Do you have any duplicates/backups in the binds folder?

 

[Pigletslastand]

There is a context menu bug that is due to be fixed with the patch on tuesday but until now I've only heard of it affecting hotas users. Could it be related? Hold one moment and I'll dig up the issue... maybe it's the same.

This describes the problem

Controls Behavior Changed - Now Unplayable

I loaded up the game today for the first time in a couple of weeks, installing the most recent update, only to find the game behaving differently from before. Now, I use a very specific controls setup that I've built over the years of playing, I doubt many people have quite what I do. My HOTAS...

forums.frontier.co.uk

And here is the fix

Elite Dangerous | Update 18.06 | Thargoid War overhaul |Tuesday 28 May 2024

Greetings Commanders! Following player feedback and internal reviews of the Thargoid War and Titan progression, we are making a number of significant changes. These changes are designed to make the war more accessible, and ensure that every contribution at any time feels valuable. These...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Planewalker]

OP it might very well be the steam input feature voiding elite recognition of your controller.
You can disable it by rightclicking elite in steam - properties - controller - steam input <- disabled

I've seen it preventing keyboards from being seen by elite so that is the reason why i suggest turning it off.

Using steam big picture mode is a completely different approach that may or may not work; i haven't tested it in a long time.


Context menus not working is a confirmed issue as piglet points out above.

 

[lanzz]

I've already disabled Steam Input. ED actually works with Steam Input, but I have a separate issue where Steam Input has a huge deadzone for both thumbsticks that cannot be disabled even if I set deadzones to minimum in Steam controller config, and back when ED still worked with my controller natively those deadzones went away when Steam Input is disabled, so I'm running with Steam Input disabled. I only mentioned Big Picture mode because the controller works there, so it demonstrates that the controller works fine and is recognised by other software besides ED.

My problem is ultimately not with context menu not working properly, because it does work properly when the gamepad is recognised natively by ED. I only tested vJoy as a workaround to confirm if ED can actually work with input from my gamepad in any other way, but that messes up the labelling of controls in the settings (it shows e.g. "[Joy 1]" instead of "A" button) and even if context menu works correctly it's not going to show the correct gamepad buttons in the popup if I'm using vJoy remapping.

 

[CMDR X]

Open up the bindings log file. Sometimes it can have valuable clues to help troubleshoot:

C:\Users\<Your Name>\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings\BindingLoadingErrors.log

 

[lanzz]

No errors in the bindings log file, that was the first thing I checked

 

[Pigletslastand]

I have a Gamesir G7 SE gamepad (it's an official Xbox controller), and it used to work fine with ED, until today when I started the game and it just doesn't. It didn't even reset my bindings, which it does when a bound device is disconnected at game start, it's just that the gamepad inputs aren't registered by ED. If I try to add a new binding, the "press button for <action>" dialog just doesn't register the input from the gamepad. Physically unplugging the gamepad causes ED to reset its bindings to the default "keyboard + mouse" ones, so apparently the game still detects the gamepad as being present otherwise, it just doesn't receive its input.

The controller works fine in Steam "big picture" mode, in Windows game controller settings, on https://hardwaretester.com, basically works fine everywhere but in ED. If I set up mappings to a vJoy device in Joystick Gremlin, ED picks up input from the vJoy device just fine, but that messes up the button labels in the bindings and for some reason the "enable context menu on foot" option doesn't work at all, e.g. if I have an action bound to Y and another action bound to Y + d-pad right, the Y action is performed immediately when I hold Y instead of waiting for the context input.

I'm at a loss here. I've tried every stupid thing that I could think of. The gamepad obviously works fine and is even almost usable through vJoy remapping, but ED stubbornly refuses to acknowledge it natively.
Any ideas welcome.

OP did the recent context menu bug fix help your issue or not?

 

[lanzz]

I managed to get this resolved by uninstalling the gamepad device and reinstalling it again, and I don't have context menu problems with the native gamepad support, so no idea if the context fix would affect the vJoy bindings.