Question MB4 / MB5 keyboard key assignment works in Windows, but unrecognized in games

Adamsan11

Honorable
Mar 24, 2019
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I have gamed on my PC with the Logitech Anywhere MX line of mice for the better part of a decade. Of late, one thing has been driving me nuts -- the two thumb buttons. As a lot of games don't record MB4/MB5 in the in-game key mapping, I've been using (ancient old) Logitech SetPoint's keystroke assignment option to reproduce the keyboard letter bound to the default key on the action I want it to use. That generally works just fine.

But in the last year, Baldur's Gate 3 will not recognize that keystroke. And halfway through a Starfield playthrough -- where the mouse buttons initially worked -- the game stop recognizing the thumb buttons.

But the buttons mechanically are fine and Setpoint is doing it's job! I jump into any text window, browser, etc. and the thumb buttons register the letters I've bound to them.

I wonder if some old aspect to how SetPoint works is out of date with how I/O calls are made in games these days, but a quick google sees this happening with all sorts of Logitech mice -- consumer, gaming, in a Logi Options framework, in a G Hub framework, etc. So I'm not convinced buying a new Logitech mouse is going to slay this.

Is this is general gaming MB4/MB5 headache, a problem with just certain game developers or do I need to buy a mouse from another manufacturer to be done with this? For big open world RPGs with a lot of click-on-ables, alternate modes, scanning, etc. it's such an ergonomic mess not to have thumb buttons to call on!

Thx,
A