SDL_NumJoysticks() returning 0 under certain conditions

SDL Development
1

I have a question, it is not very simple.
The problem lays in the game controller detection by sdl2. Namely SDL_NumJoysticks() returns sometimes 0.
When I launch my .exe it detects controller no problem. But when I spawn my process as a child of a Magicka (game) process, it returns 0 for SDL_NumJoysticks().
What do?

For context, how I do it: I load a ddl into the game, which uses winapi (CreateProcessW call) to spawn a child process.

I also tried doing a stupid thing and making my .exe launch itself again, but this does not do anything to resolve SDL_NumJoysticks() returning 0.
It is like process tree is cursed or something.

2

My wild shot in the dark would be that because the game uses steam controllers abstraction and has xinput initialized and utilized, it “curses” all child processes.