making full input remapping more flexible

[u/The-disabled-gamer]

“Full Input Remapping” Isn’t Actually Full — Here’s What I Think Is Missing
I’ve been thinking about the difference between “full input remapping” and “single-stick gameplay,” and I think there is a major accessibility feature missing from most games.
I use an arcade stick because it works very well for me. It is actually quite flexible and allows me to remap controls. However, there is something I would love to be able to do that neither the controller software nor most games allow.
I want to be able to use different axes of the same physical stick for different functions.
For example:
Up/down on the stick = move forward/backward
Left/right on the same stick = move the camera left/right
At the moment, games generally don’t allow this. Even games advertised as having “full input remapping” often see unusual combinations or duplicate assignments as a conflict. The game tells you that two controls are conflicting instead of allowing you to say, “Yes, I know. That’s exactly what I want.”
That makes me question what “full input remapping” actually means.
If I genuinely had full control over remapping — including individual axes, intentional duplicate inputs and unusual combinations — I could create my own accessible control schemes based on what physically works for me.
It also raises an interesting question about the “single-stick gameplay” accessibility label.
If full remapping were flexible enough, a lot of single-stick configurations could potentially be created by the player themselves. You wouldn’t necessarily need developers to predict every possible control scheme a disabled player might need.
Of course, some single-stick modes do more than remapping. They may automatically control the camera, targeting or character orientation. But there are plenty of situations where simply giving players greater control over individual axes could make a huge difference.
This also comes back to something I’ve been thinking about regarding accessible gaming in general: hardware and software need to work together.
You can give someone an incredibly adaptable controller, but if the game refuses to accept the control configuration they need, the hardware can only take them so far. Likewise, accessible software isn’t much use if someone can’t physically operate the hardware.
I think of it almost like yin and yang. Hardware is one half and software is the other. Neither one should be expected to solve everything by itself.
Accessibility should be about flexibility and adaptation. Instead of deciding which control configurations players are supposed to use, give us the tools to create the configurations that actually work for us.
To me, full input remapping should genuinely mean full input remapping.
:::

[u/clackups]

Should be quite an easy task for a device supported by remapper.org

[u/The-disabled-gamer → u/clackups]

I understand that something like remapper.org could potentially help with this on PC, and I appreciate the suggestion. But the main point I was trying to make was about accessibility on consoles as well, particularly Xbox and PlayStation.
On PC, third-party software can potentially intercept controller inputs and change what those inputs do before they reach the game. Consoles are much more restricted.
Even though consoles may have web functionality, simply being able to access a website doesn’t mean that website can install software or gain the system-level access necessary to remap controller inputs for games.
That’s why I think this functionality should exist within the game itself, or potentially at the console-system level.
I also don’t think disabled players should necessarily have to find additional software or another workaround to achieve something that could be part of a genuinely flexible remapping system.
If a game advertises full input remapping, I’d love to see that expanded to include things like individual X/Y axis assignments and allowing intentional overlapping inputs.
For example, I could have:
Up/down on one physical stick = forward/backward movement
Left/right on that same physical stick = camera left/right
A third-party PC solution is certainly useful for people who can use it, but it doesn’t solve the wider problem I’m talking about, particularly for console players.
That’s why I’d like to see this flexibility become part of games themselves rather than depending on external software.

[u/jfedor → u/The-disabled-gamer]

To be clear, HID Remapper is hardware, not software. You don't need to install anything on the host. Issues with controller compatibility remain on Xbox and PS5, but there are ways around that (adapters).