I've been trying to get 2 copies of LFS to work on a single machine, for some local LAN play. Both games run perfectly, however getting the controllers to work is a huge pain.

It seems like to use controllers/wheels, LFS needs to be the focused window, or else it doesn't see them.

Is there anyway around this, or any suggestions?

Quote from super_paws :

It seems like to use controllers/wheels, LFS needs to be the focused window, or else it doesn't see them.

Yes.

Quote from super_paws :

Is there anyway around this, or any suggestions?

No.

Yes there is. Tell others to bring their computers, so you can play together.

Quote from super_paws :

It seems like to use controllers/wheels, LFS needs to be the focused window, or else it doesn't see them.

isn't this how all programs are?

You couldn't have photoshop or notepad open in the background and start drawing something or typing and expect it to work would you.

Plus if you could get both instances focused together then it would be just like driving with AI surely, as every input by you would be identical for both instances, and cars.

Yes I understand that there are limitations to Windows, and this might not be possible; however with Pinnacle Game Profiler, I'm able to send input to a specific process (i.e. sending wheel 1 to LFS process 1 and wheel 2 to LFS process 2). This works but I'm limited to keyboard/mouse input as DirectInput is only supported for the currently focused window.