How to mix-and-match DirectInput signals from two game controllers into one "virtual" controller?
Image the following situation:

1. You're on Windows XP.
2. You have two physical USB game controllers, let's call them A and B.
3. You have a piece of software that apparently accesses joysticks in a legacy way, only recognizing and allowing use of one single joystick.
4. When using this software, you want to use both controllers together, for instance:
 - use the left thumbstick from A and the right thumbstick from B
 - use buttons #1, #2 and #6 from A and buttons #2 and #8 from B

I guess this problem has already popped up somewhere, and a kind of "virtual game controller driver" or other piece of software for this is available. This would ideally show up as a game controller in Windows and allow a virtual setup as described above using any inputs available on physically connected controllers to create a compound virtual one.

If this is the case, I'd love to hear where to get my hands on this. And if not, any pointers on trying to get this going are welcome. I guess I'd have to read up on DirectInput and dust off my next to non-existent C++ skills then?

P.S. Not sure if this would be a superuser.com question, but if the userbase at large thinks so, it's bound to get moved over there, right?
How to mix-and-match DirectInput signals from two game controllers into one "virtual" controller?
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Image the following situation:

1. You're on Windows XP.
2. You have two physical USB game controllers, let's call them A and B.
3. You have a piece of software that apparently accesses joysticks in a legacy way, only recognizing and allowing use of one single joystick.
4. When using this software, you want to use both controllers together, for instance:
 - use the left thumbstick from A and the right thumbstick from B
 - use buttons #1, #2 and #6 from A and buttons #2 and #8 from B

I guess this problem has already popped up somewhere, and a kind of "virtual game controller driver" or other piece of software for this is available. This would ideally show up as a game controller in Windows and allow a virtual setup as described above using any inputs available on physically connected controllers to create a compound virtual one.

If this is the case, I'd love to hear where to get my hands on this. And if not, any pointers on trying to get this going are welcome. I guess I'd have to read up on DirectInput and dust off my next to non-existent C++ skills then?

P.S. Not sure if this would be a superuser.com question, but if the userbase at large thinks so, it's bound to get moved over there, right?