Hello, I am not sure how familiar any of you are with hivemind, Its alienwares modified kodi platform that they use as a selling point to sell there gaming pc/ console the alpha. I bought one thinking id be delievered a finished product, and sadly realized i was wrong. i plugged it in day 1 and have been working on it since. I know this isnt kodis fault, but seeing how alienware is finished helping me because “only hardware issues are covered, and this is a software issue.” Im hoping i can get assistance here. Theres alot of things I want to do, and I would like to create a build and offer it to other hivemind users. or any gaming PC person who wants a living room gaming pc. The alpha has alot of issues to work out, and all of them have kodi at the root.
The first issue and my immediate concern: Xbox One controller function, specifically the triggers. The xbox one triggers are not recognized by kodi, and I am able to confirm this by watching a video, and trying to use the controller to fastforward or rewind the video. I have confirmed the key map file and the triggers axis are correctly mapped, I use the common keymap file i think everyone has available. I believe the root of this problem is that xbox one triggers are both mapped to the same z axis. one trigger is negative, and one is positive. So when u hold both triggers, it can be easily mistaken as the neutral position. I considered downloading custom drivers, but it seems to be an unneccessary work around. Also, the custom drivers that trick ur computer to think an xbone controller is a x360 controller, do not support the chatpad functionality, which is an amazing thing for PC/console style gaming. I also tried to run x360CE which is a 360 controller emulator. Normally u drop the exec. file into ur steam game folder and it tricks any game that any controller is a 360 controller, ideally this should work with kodi, but for some reason i cannot figure out how to do it. If someone can make x360CE work with KODI, it would solve all of alienwares problems.
The reason the triggers are so IMPORTANT for hivemind and alienware is that u need them to activate the controller mouse from alienwares programming. EVEN THOUGH ALIENWARE KNOWS THE TRIGGERS WONT ACTIVATE THE HOT KEYS WITH THE XBONE CONTROLLER, THEY CALL THE XBONE CONTROLLER COMPATIBLE. the worst part about that is, they could just remove the triggers from the hot key combination but choose not too and i cannot figure out their programming to do it myself 
for this system to function fully and amazingly, we need xbox one controllers to some how be able to activate the controller mouse, either by kodi fixing the trigger issue, or by helping figure out how to make kodi work with xbox360CE. I bought a 360 controller with a chat pad, but unfortunatly that chat pad does not work on PC, like the xbone one does.
My current work around is running kodi “hivemind” in desktop mode via xravenx instructions, and having xpadder start at start up, with my own “hot key” combination to activate a similar controller mouse. this is not ideal because 1) it requires alot of task scheduler trial and error 2) alot of admin privildges for xpadder, 3) it requires xpadder, and 4) kodi still recognizes the inputs and it sometimes closes out the program or starts a random app from pressing a few buttons at once. also for some reason windows recognizes the controller as 2 different controllers once it dies and is plugged in, vs when its wireless and xpadder cant keep up with that so i loose functionality if i dont have it set accordingly.
one feature I really like about hivemind, they have Icons that u can set above ur home menu icons. IE, the home menu settings, about settings u can select a PNG immage of a little cog wheel and it pops up when u go to settings. This is a really clean alternative to having ur backround change when u select settings, its overwhelming. i like the clean look of a selected global background, and selected semi-transparent art that comes above the text when u select it. hivemind has already had this feature figured out, i cant find anything on it because whenever i search “kodi home menu icons” i just get sub menu shortcuts and that stuff. if u just google the hivemind interface, ull see what i am talking about, and im sure u will like it, too. u can set those images to anything u want, and it makes it really nice to have google chrome, as a home menu icon with that above it.
another feature i would like to see added is this: i like the convenience of the sub menu shortcuts, but I dis like how they immediatley clutter the otherwise clean homescreen. Those icons are great for the flow, and the feel of a high end program, with great subtle menu flow. This is unlike when u click a home menu icon, and it reloads the next screen, its clunky, and does kodi a dis-service. an excelent solution i wish was available is this: have the select button reveal the home menu submenu shortcuts, instead of open that folder. So Ur home screen will say Music, videos, Pictures… and when u pass each one as u scroll ur home menu, nothing populates beneath them. But if u go to videos, and press enter, the submenu shortcuts pop up. this would greatly professionalize the flow. to open the actual video menu, you could either simply double click/double tap enter, or press a unique key.
for the hivemind user running kodi in desktop mode, a home menu icon that was capable of minimizing the application, and lable the selection as “Desktop” would be great, but i think i can make this happen myself advanced launcher and a quick script.
The xbox one controllers have another flaw, in that if u edit the key maps to use the analog sticks to navigate menus, they go at rapid uncontrollable speeds, which is why they are default set as volume controlls. using the dpad to nav kodi isnt really a “problem” and its easy to get used to. but still, when i hand my buddy the controlle to pick something to watch, 11 times out of 10, they are going to use the analog sticks. if kodi can somehow offer better controller support, atleast for the xbox one controller, since it now has a full keyboard attachment, this would be amazing. the analog stick should just move over one menu item for each time its activated, and thats it. its simple, a slow scroll would be nice, but ill take a single jiggle per menu item over hearing the DPAD click while im scrolling tv shows.
Discord is the new teamspeak, a discord kodi app would be amazing. alot of work I know. i guess it wouldnt be neccessary if my controller mouse function actually worked as advertised on alienware.com (which it doesnt)
Theres some more things i have in mind as well, but these are my biggest frustrations right now, things it seemed like a company as prestige as alienware would have handled before selling a product and slapping there LEDs, and ALIENWARE branding all over it. alienware makes some excellent hardware, but they sold me an incomplete product. im a little sour about that, but Im here to make it a better experience for anyone soon following in my foot steps.