RockNES Emulator | Playing with a controller

This is sort of a question and a problem, is it possible to plug in a controller (Xbox One controller, Nintendo Switch controller etc.) and play with it using that?
If it is possible then it does not seem to work, I plug it in and nothing happens. I'd rather play on a controller instead of a keyboard for NES games.
I really hope that you can plug it in and then the Emulator notices that a controller is plugged into the computer and lets me play with that.

I did make sure that the wire would work as the wire I used has always worked on other games on Steam.

Thank you!

Use modern emulator like punes or nestopia undead edition.

Rocknes is a crap.

Fceux is not updated anymore.

Im dont know what is going with virtuanes.

Well more to the point,

old emulators use old direct X
new emulators use that crappy xinput stuff or direct x.

xbox, swtich, and most consoles that are usb use xinput not directx (aka HID). xinput came out after Rocknes, so yeah that is not going to work. HID adapters are the things like raphnet, mayflash or Bliss-box.net. They adapter consols joysticks to USB for use via HID. The new consoles are already USB but use xinput. So you just need to know what you have is all.

I personally suggest you to use new emulators with that.