TL;DR
- in "D" mode, the F310 does nothing, anywhere, ever. In "X" mode, it works in ES, but not in any games
- an Xbox 360 controller works, but only after making a small adjustment in recalbox.conf
The longer story:
So.......long story: no, when the F310 is in Direct mode, I can not navigate use it at all. It simply doesn't get detected. Even when I use the virtual gamepad or another controller (I got an Xbox 360 controller today), the F310 just doesn't get detected in any way when it's set to "D". It's like it's off.
If I set the F310 to "X", it does get detected in ES.
So I noticed that with the Xbox controller, no button presses get detected within any games either....UNTIL I press the left shoulder button. That's like "activating" it, and then it all works. This same method doesn't work for the F310 though.
Then I checked this thread and it suggests to edit recalbox.conf. I disabled the PS3 one and enabled the Xbox one, and that makes the Xbox controller work perfectly. Still no change in the F310 though.
I guess I will just accept that my F310 is broken (or incompatible with Recalbox) and will just stick to the Xbox 360 one, but if anyone has any further ideas, please let me know.
Thanks for your help and pointers, it's really appreciated a lot.