Identify Joystick press button fox 'x' seconds - no easy way still

[foxpur]

I note this has been a long time issue but there still appears to be no easy way to just say 'press button 2' for 'x' seconds?

[Pfeil]

There is no easy way to do this because the system that governs joysticks in Windows doesn't allow for that.

Manipulating a joystick requires a driver, as unlike keyboards and mice, there is no central interface that keeps track of device states, it's done per-device.
Moreover, while the keyboard and mouse interface is designed to allow software-only input(virtual keyboards, for example), the joystick interface is not.

This is the reason you need vJoy, and why it's not possible to "fake" button presses on an existing device(certain manufacturer drivers may allow this from their own companion software, but they're designed to take software input at the driver level, which circumvents this restriction).

[Exergist]

One possible workaround (albeit not exactly straight forward) if you also use Steam would be to use the  controller configurator to assign key presses to your joystick. That way instead of "press button 2 for X seconds" you can use "press (key here) for 2 seconds" and have that key associated with the desired button 2 action in the configurator.

[foxpur]

Fortunately the TARGET that comes with Thrustmaster allowed me to assign a key as a joystick press and I was then able to map to key... but just messy for such a old world item.