[da-anda]

I only want to share how I think multiplayer support could be handled. IMO having a fixed list of emulated keyboard controllers doesn't make much sense. The only thing that matters is the number of players, and this is mostly also only relevant during a gaming session and might not have to be a global setting.

So I think the following workflow would make most sense.

Example one - while gaming

• launch a game and bring up OSD which has a button to manage the players
  
• in that dialog you should be able to specify the number of players and specify the player profile to use or just make it a guest
  
• a player profile consists of the name, an avatar and the preferred and custom button mappings/layouts for each game/emulator
  
• once a player profile is assigned (or guest mode is used), input devices have to be assigned to specific players. This should be done by auto-detection, which means, once the button "select input device" is clicked, a dialog pops up that asks the player to press any button on the input device he'll be using in this session (controller, keyboard, smartphone via event server/json API, ...)
  
• once the type of input device is selected, the user can choose from predefined button layouts for his input device (like "WASD" or "cursors" for keyboards, style A, B, C for controllers etc) or create a custom one which triggers our mapping dialog with the currently emulated console preselected (or only that console). In case it's a known profile from the DB, the last used mapping will automatically be applied
  

Example two - without game running

• click button to manage the players in either the sideblade of the game library or game settings (alternatively sideblade only has a shortcut to game settings)
  
• from there, baisically the same as above with the only difference that the mapping dialog shows all consoles
  

The global/generic mapping window/section that we have right now should become a section where users can manage their button presets per console and device. So when you select a certain console you first see the list of available button presets along with the input device they belong to (or grouped by device type/family). Then you can modify, rename or delete existing ones or create new mapping and specify which of them should be the default one (like for new/guest players).


That's how I'd imagine the workflow for button and user mappings. All the extended profile managing with custom keymaps per profile etc is all optional. The basic concept works just fine if every player is initially treated as "guest" - so the profile stuff could be added any time later.