Xbox 360 controller - xpadder woes

[hayden]

Hi all,

Been trying for a while now to use my pc version of the XBOX 360 controller for oolite. Big problem is lack of deadzones, sooo... installed xpadder which seems very customisable in terms of deadzones, created and saved necessary profiles etc, but when I load oolite, it completely ignores the clever windows/xpadder controller setup. Tried using xpadder in Administrator mode, still no joy.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[another_commander]

I do not know about external apps that could maybe help, but for what is worth, configurable joystick deadzone is something that is already in the plans and a prototype test build has already been proven to work pretty well with the Xbox 360 controller. Some patience will be needed though; right now we are in code freeze for upcoming release and no new features are going in the core codebase at this time. I would say that the target for the feature would be version 1.78.

Berlios feature request #005612 has been raised to address this.

[hayden]

I do not know about external apps that could maybe help, but for what is worth, configurable joystick deadzone is something that is already in the plans and a prototype test build has already been proven to work pretty well with the Xbox 360 controller. Some patience will be needed though; right now we are in code freeze for upcoming release and no new features are going in the core codebase at this time. I would say that the target for the feature would be version 1.78.

Berlios feature request #005612 has been raised to address this.

Thanks for that, much appreciated. Getting my eye in prep for Elite Dangerous... what gamepads are popular on here then?

Also, just wondering why oolite doesnt use the native windows gamepad support, in which case such issues should be sorted with drivers/xpadder type progs/windows configuration?

[another_commander]

Also, just wondering why oolite doesnt use the native windows gamepad support, in which case such issues should be sorted with drivers/xpadder type progs/windows configuration?

There are a couple of reasons:
1) The people currently maintaining the Windows version of Oolite (i.e. yours truly at the time of writing this) do not have gamepad or any other joystick hardware available. Any new joystick code written at the moment for the Windows port of the game is writtten with the aid of stick emulators or external testers willing to spend time on providing continuous feedback, which makes things quite complicated and slow in progress.
2) Portability. Oolite uses SDL for input for both the Windows and Linux versions of the game and we go with what the library provides us with. Anything written explicitly for any of the two platforms would mean more complex and time consuming maintenance and reduced portability of the code.

[hayden]

Also, just wondering why oolite doesnt use the native windows gamepad support, in which case such issues should be sorted with drivers/xpadder type progs/windows configuration?

There are a couple of reasons:
1) The people currently maintaining the Windows version of Oolite (i.e. yours truly at the time of writing this) do not have gamepad or any other joystick hardware available. Any new joystick code written at the moment for the Windows port of the game is writtten with the aid of stick emulators or external testers willing to spend time on providing continuous feedback, which makes things quite complicated and slow in progress.
2) Portability. Oolite uses SDL for input for both the Windows and Linux versions of the game and we go with what the library provides us with. Anything written explicitly for any of the two platforms would mean more complex and time consuming maintenance and reduced portability of the code.

Understood, explains why it wouldnt be easier just to use native support, thanks v much. I don't suppose there's an expected release date of the next version?

[Diziet Sma]

As somebody who has used xpadder with Oolite on Windows (not currently though, as I have a better setup running on Linux ATM) I might be able to help out some.

The best way to integrate xpadder with Oolite is to set it up to simulate keyboard controls.. that is, when you move the stick, it sends the equivalent keyboard command. You then only use the Oolite joystick setup for non-keyboard controls such as the hatswitch for exterior views, for example. That way, you get to take advantages of the features xpadder provides, such as deadzones and fancy command sequences, (although you do lose the proportional control advantage that a stick normally provides).

And thanks for indirectly reminding me that I have yet to write the xpadder review that I'd planned on, some time back.

[maaarcooose]

I've been using the same controller and to be honest, I got a little frustrated with the dead zone under windows so I recompiled OOlite to make the dead zone bigger. Wasn't to hideous to do.
Now I've got it on my Mac, the dead zone works nicely as it's adjustable in the setup.

XBox controllers are a bit crap at centring perfectly.

!m!

[Cody]

... configurable joystick deadzone is something that is already in the plans and a prototype test build has already been proven to work pretty well...

<looks up> Would that help with my aged joystick, which is getting harder to use every day?

[hayden]

As somebody who has used xpadder with Oolite on Windows (not currently though, as I have a better setup running on Linux ATM) I might be able to help out some.

The best way to integrate xpadder with Oolite is to set it up to simulate keyboard controls.. that is, when you move the stick, it sends the equivalent keyboard command. You then only use the Oolite joystick setup for non-keyboard controls such as the hatswitch for exterior views, for example. That way, you get to take advantages of the features xpadder provides, such as deadzones and fancy command sequences, (although you do lose the proportional control advantage that a stick normally provides).

And thanks for indirectly reminding me that I have yet to write the xpadder review that I'd planned on, some time back.

Tip top, had resorted to using gamepad for simulating arrow keys but hadnt thought of using joystick with deadzone for simulating exterior views, good idea.

Look forward to the new release and hopefully some proportional functionality like maaarcooose!