Send inputs to MSFS when another app has the focus?

[prolixindec]

Hi everyone,

I use the SpaceMouse to control external views ("world" views) in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS). It works just fine when MSFS has the focus in Windows 10; I can pan right and left, and look up and down, and zoom in and out. It works quite well.

My issue is that my MSFS window normally doesn't have the focus. Instead, MSFS is slaved to a different flight simulator (Aerowinx PSX) that provides all the controls for the actual aircraft, and it's PSX that usually has the focus in Windows.

What I'd like is for the SpaceMouse to send its inputs to MSFS even when PSX has the focus, so that I don't have to click between apps to change the view in MSFS.

I know this is possible at least in theory, because my joystick is set up this way by default: when you move the joystick around, its input gets sent to MSFS, regardless of what app has the focus at the time, whether its MSFS, Chrome, the desktop, or on anything. (Simple demonstration: while I'm typing this in Chrome, I can move the joystick and other USP peripheral controls, and I can see their actions in MSFS.)

The SpaceMouse, however, seems to only affect the app that currently has the focus. While I understand that this could be very helpful for people who want to use it to control different apps at different times, I want the SpaceMouse to control only MSFS, all of the time, no matter what app has the focus.

Is this possible?

Thanks everyone.

[jwick]

It depends on how MSFS is accessing the data from the 3D mouse.
Did you setup anything special with our driver? E.g., a cfg file specifying joystick output?

[prolixindec]

Thanks for your reply. I didn’t change anything with the SpaceMouse driver. I configured it within MSFS to be a joystick emulator. Outside of the internal MSFS configuration, everything is default.

[jwick]

MSFS is probably using one of the Microsoft API (no surprise).

Probably the driver doesn't need to do anything. It can, if you want (set scaling, assign buttons, etc). If you want it to just do nothing, you can always stop it (3DxService.exe).

This will prevent the driver from recognizing the other application and doing something for it.
If you still want it running, there are ways to get the driver to stick to one executable (<Grab>).
We might need to create two cfgs: 1) MSFS with a <Grab>, 2) PSX with an <Ignore>.

There is a chance that PSX is also doing what MSFS is doing (using native Microsoft APIs). In that case, there is nothing we can do (our driver isn't even running). You'll need to look at PSX to see if it can ignore certain devices.

There are many options in the Microsoft APIs, for controlling focus. E.g., MSFS can read the device regardless of focus (you mention that they do this for the joystick). They would need to be exposed through the control panels of MSFS & PSX. If they are not, I know of no external ways of accessing them.