Joystick/Controller Survey

[Diziet Sma]

Today I bought a Logitech Attack 3 joystick, and I must say it's made combat much more fun.. to the point where pitch/roll combat is no problem, whereas with a keyboard I much preferred pitch/yaw.

However, like so many others here, I found that the precision toggle just sends the ship into a full-left yaw until I hit the button again.. (I'm using 1.72.2 on WinXP, btw) I also seem to have the same problems as others have mentioned with mapping yaw to a controller axis.

The slight reverse thrust problem which rears its ugly head when refuelling at fuel stations and satellites I managed to deal with by using the Logitech profiler to set a 2% dead zone on the throttle z-axis.

One thing I noticed though, when searching relevant posts in the forum, was that the majority of people reporting the same problems as me seemed to be using Logitech joysticks, often the Attack 3 model. This may simply reflect the popularity of this particular stick, but it does seem to be over-represented in the problem posts. The few reports of the same problem that didn't mention Logitech, so far as I recall didn't specify a make/model at all, so I've created this poll to survey what people are using, and how satisfied they are with their controller of choice.


When you vote, please include the following in your post:

1/. Make and model of stick/controller.
2/. Windows, Linux or Mac.
3/. Version of Oolite you run.
4/. Details of any functions that fail to work correctly (if any).
5/. Details of anything you did that fixed a problem you had.
6/. Anything else you feel may be relevant.

Reports of zero problems are just as important as reports of problems, so please don't just vote "works great" and not give details of what controller you use...

(I originally wanted to add a couple more options, for "Other", but it seems I've maxed-out the number of options a poll can have, so if your particular controller isn't covered, please tell us what you use, and how well it works...)

[DaddyHoggy]

I use a Thrustmaster Dual Analog Firestorm 2 gamepad.

here

Used under both WinXP SP2/3 and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10).

Seems to work with no problems - left thumbstick does pitch/roll, right thumbstick does yaw.

Lots of other things mapped to the 15 available buttons.

Don't think I use precision control because the dead area is tiny and I get lots of fine control near the centre anyway - but I think I used to and I had it mapped to a button on the gamepad and it presented no problems

[Thargoid]

How about the option of "no joystick and works perfectly"? Some of us have enough fingers to play Oolite with just the keyboard

[another_commander]

However, like so many others here, I found that the precision toggle just sends the ship into a full-left yaw until I hit the button again.. (I'm using 1.72.2 on WinXP, btw)

Just chirping in to say that the above described bug is resolved for v1.73.

[DaddyHoggy]

Some of us are curious to know what the problem is/was...

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Current joystick is a Saitek X52 with no problems. I rarely have to use the precision toggle with it - there's a deadzone just large enough to prevent the center drift issue - and when I do use the precision mode there's no yaw drift. Works well in both XP and Linux.

Before that it was a Thrustmaster Afterburner, and it had a case of center drift so bad that I was forced to toggle precision mode on just to maintain a straight course. That was on XP. Oddly enough, no drift issue in Linux.

[Alex]

Hi

Logi Atk 3 Version 72.2 on XP.

Had no problems with anything for last year or so. But there isn't a axis control for yaw and can't get the keys to work for that proper anyway, then again I've never used yaw at anytime so what you never had you don't miss.
Reacently with roll or pitch sometimes it will go slightly off when in neutral, ie it may roll slightly or climb slightly or sometimes both when the stick aint beeing touched.
That maybe just that the stick is just getting old and has had excessive use. I play some flight simms too.
Though can usually clear it just by rebooting the game.
Only ever does it with Oolite, none of my war plane games??

The slight reverse thrust problem which rears its ugly head when refuelling at fuel stations and satellites I managed to deal with by using the Logitech profiler to set a 2% dead zone on the throttle z-axis.

Errr... What and where is the profiler to be found??

[another_commander]

Some of us are curious to know what the problem is/was...

Here is the link with the changes that resulted in this getting fixed. On the left side the code as it was before the fix, on the right side as it is now. In a few words, if an axis was not defined on the stick, abnormal results would be generated for the axis state values used to translate joystick movement.

Credit for this fix goes to Getafix (hey, this rhymes )

[DaddyHoggy]

Ah-ha! It even makes sense (non-Obj-C programmer)

[Diziet Sma]

Errr... What and where is the profiler to be found??

The profiler is a tool that lets you set up different button/axis profiles for different games, etc, as well as things like dead-zone, sensitivity, range and inverting axis polarity. Keystrokes, mouse-buttons and shift functions can be assigned to stick buttons, as well as key sequences, including pauses. (edit to add, this means you could program a button to automatically down-arrow to the computers in the F8 page and buy/sell all available computers, for example) You can even program a button to cycle through a list of keystrokes, so the function will change each time it's pressed... (I think)

Go to the Logitech website, find the Support link at the top of the page and follow the prompts. choose your OS, then 'Logitech Gaming Software', choose 32 or 64 bit, and download the installer.

Also available is the Wingman Clear Calibration Utility, a little tool to wipe all joystick calibration settings from the windows registry, giving you a clean slate, as it were, if you've managed to mess things up somehow.

Oolite joystick settings override anything you've set up in a profile, but I imagine if a particular button is unset in Oolite, the profile settings should take effect.. (I haven't tested this yet)

[Diziet Sma]

How about the option of "no joystick and works perfectly"? Some of us have enough fingers to play Oolite with just the keyboard

I think that option is covered by.....













wait for it.....












not voting!

P.S. Admin person(s)... can we get the max number of poll options increased from 10 to, say, 20? Pretty please?

[Diziet Sma]

However, like so many others here, I found that the precision toggle just sends the ship into a full-left yaw until I hit the button again.. (I'm using 1.72.2 on WinXP, btw)

Just chirping in to say that the above described bug is resolved for v1.73.

WooHoo! are there any guesstimates yet as to when 1.73 might see the light of day?

[Screet]

Microsoft Sidewinder ForceFeedback 2 and pretty happy with it (using FF only for stick centering)

Screet

[drew]

I use just the keyboard, somehow Oolite/Elite doesn't feel right with a joystick!

Cheers,

Drew.

[Governmentyard]

Other than the fine-control bug (guessed the problem, tried to map yaw to a 360 pad also connected with no luck) my Logic 3 Starfighter (for right handed folk only, I'd say) is a decent cheap option- no 'pull' issues in normal use, tidy throttle on the left, only three useable buttons apart from trigger so they're mapped to injection, ident and missile. Hat switch for 1.72.3 though - those without an Oolite stick would do much worse than this for ten to twelve quid.

I've found the keys somewhat inaccurate compared to the Beeb/Arc/ST/TNK incarnations which have been my main Elites over the years, while the Starfighter allows me to effotlessly match Coriolis rotation and so on.