https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40658
--- Comment #30 from Paul geoff.pvgn1@gmail.com --- (In reply to Rémi Bernon from comment #29)
Regarding the axis mapping, it's indeed not supported anymore. Maybe we could restore something like it in the new dinput HID joystick, but I'm not sure it's a good idea to do it there, it would be better to have all the axis properly mapped in the first place.
Then SDL already has some sort of mapping for gamepad controllers, and we do some evdev to HID mapping in winebus.sys, so maybe it's better to do it there. It's not going to be possible to have a per-application mapping in that case though.
Right, it didn't take long in my research to figure out there was an axis limit in most abstraction layers, hence the registry edit removing them from wine's sight. I think if I could connect with someone in charge of the driver, that could be settled. Seems like a lot of effort for a sim input device, though. I'm convinced the proper way should be by masking the useless axes at the kernel level, but the event nodes make it much more difficult than the old jsX nodes.
Seems like it's getting more and more difficult to modify things on the software side to work with flawed hardware, which exists in the world, and must be tolerated at times. I remember conversations like this when the first modern touchscreens came out.