Btw I read through https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=32130 and it didn't solve my issue.

I have two Logitech F310 controllers and two wireless ones.

Unplugging all of them, and plugging in any of them individually, works just fine. So each controller works.

But plugging in more than 1, will often disconnect one of the previously working ones from PICO-8's logic (while still physically plugged in). I can only get 2 working at a time, sometimes plugging in a third will make it so only 1 of the 3 is working.

I've logged the log.txt file's changes live to see what SDL2 mapping string PICO8 creates for each controller after plugging them in one at a time while PICO-8 is running, copied those strings into pico8's SDL-controllers file, quit PICO8, saved the file (just in case PICO8 overwrites it while quitting, which I highly doubt), and restarted pico-8. No success with this method at all. It seemingly does absolutely nothing.

I'd really like to have my kids be able to play 4 player games with these. Anyone know what could be the issue, or know of some thread about this issue that my googling couldn't find? I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks.

To be clear, this isn't an issue with connecting multiple controllers. Using the SDL controller map generating tool (the free one available online) can recognize all 4 at once just fine. It seems to be something in PICO-8 itself that "forgets" connected controllers whenever I plug a new one in.

Have you tried to plug in the controller first and then start Pico8?

Yep, tried pretty much every combination of things like that.

other idea - is steam running? Steam has a "remap"-Feature that could make trouble (or solve your problem :) )

Nope, steam isn't running.

Outside PICO8, all 4 controllers are working fine when plugged in. Even while pico-8 is still running. It's just that Pico_8 doesn't recognize them all at once. No matter what order I plug them in and what order I restart/unplug/replug.

I haven't tried this myself recently, but it seems plausible that this is a bug that was introduced in one of the last few releases since I know there were some changes/improvements to hotplugging gamepads that may have inadvertently broken this

I'll see if I can test this on my machine sometime soon...

okay I can reproduce this on Linux with PICO-8 0.2.3

@zep it looks like this may be a regression introduced in a recent-ish version? I know >= 3 controllers were working in a past version but now it seems only 2 can be recognized at a time, and plugging in an additional controller causes one of the existing ones to stop working

You could try this third-party helper program: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=44960

I can confirm having that issue on Linux with version 0.2.3.
I tried Robosumo and Crowd, but in both games, I can only get two of the three controllers to work (usually player 1 and 3).

Disconnecting and reconnecting a controller changes who controls which character, but there's always one controller that seems unresponsive.