cogadh: The problems I have seen with DirectInput are simply on the hardware side, not the software side.
What does that even mean? Yes if you have a broken gamepad then you have a broken gamepad, but assuming the gamepad is fine how can the problems be on the hardware side if we're on the subject of Windows 10. If the gamepad works fine in Windows 8.1 and doesn't work in 10 then that is not a hardware problem.
cogadh: If you have an old DirectInput gamepad, the OS might not even detect it properly, but if it is detected, then old DirectInput games will (usually) have no problems, but you can pretty much forget about playing anything new.
What's that got to do with Windows 10? You seem to be confusing the general lack of support for DirectInput on the part of developers with a change in Windows 10. If DirectInput supporting games still work with DirectInput controllers then I don't really see why you even brought the subject up. That's how it's always been, irrespective of Windows version.
cogadh: If you have a Xinput gamepad (which is virtually guaranteed to work on Win 10), it seems to still work fine with DirectInput games and of course all new games.
Xinput controllers nearly always 'work' with DI games, they just don't do it very well. Perhaps Microsoft have fixed the DI implementation of the 360 controller in W10, it used to map both triggers to the same axis, so if you pressed both they cancelled each other out. Kind of ridiculous when DI supports up to 8 axes.
cogadh: Basically, the only scenario where you are going to run into problems is if you are still using very old gamepad hardware that you probably should have replaced a long time ago.
Bollocks. One of my favourite gamepads is only about 4 years old and is DI only. The fact that Microsoft managed to successfully sell their Xinput snake oil to a lot of developers doesn't mean my gamepad is in need of replacement. Frankly I find your suggestion that I replace my gamepad condescending.
