Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Dolphin+VBA-M multiple controllers problem

Question

I've followed all the instructions on this wiki page. It works, except that inactive windows do not receive input from their respective controllers. Only the active VBA window receives input making multiplayer impossible. I've read three threads on the VBM forums about this issue with no answers. Actually, everyone claims to have figured it out and didn't say how they fixed it. How can I get all controllers to receive input?

Answer 1

After a great deal of google searching a kind soul (Skid) on the dolphin forums pointed me to the solution. It's a driver issue. The newer Xbox One drivers break background input functionality and it's been that way for quite some time it seems. Here is his post:

"This might help if you are using xbox one controllers and windows 10: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-gc-final-fantasy-crystal-chronicles--25957?pid=427894#pid427894"

Steps from the post:

1. Go to the Microsoft Catalog and download the first driver if you're on x64
2. Unpack it with 7zip or winrar
3. Open up Device Manager
4. Expand "Human Interface Devices" and find your device
5. Double-click it, go to the "Driver" tab and click on "Update Driver"
6. Click on "Browse your computer"
7. Click on "Let me pick from a list of device drivers..."
8. Click on "XINPUT compatible HID device", then on "Have Disk"
9. Browse to the unpacked directory from step 2 and install it

The OP doesn't specify, but the file you want to point to is xinputhid.inf.