Oolite Bulletins

I've bought that stick and damned it in a five minutes - enormous deadzones and low accuracy.
I can't follow the target as good as I can do it with the keyboard. Each dogfight is a disaster for me.

The question - what is not expensive but high-precision joystick ? What about Logitech Extreme 3D ?

The second question - is there a way to configure sensitivity or calibrate the joystick ?

Mad Hollander wrote:

What about Logitech Extreme 3D ?

I use the Extreme 3D - it is adequate, for a budget 'stick (it has oodles of buttons, but a rather large footprint).

Mad Hollander wrote:

is there a way to configure sensitivity or calibrate the joystick ?

You have a chance in your operating system's control panel under game controllers, and another in the game if press F2 when you docked and choose Game Options then Joystick Configuration.

In test version of Oolite (v1.79) there are a nonlinear jostick handling, but use test versions at your own risk.

Mad Hollander wrote:

The second question - is there a way to configure sensitivity or calibrate the joystick ?

Have you downloaded the Saitek configuration software from the Saitek website?

Yes, I have. But I have no idea how to use that soft to solve the problem with big deadzone in the center. I.e. when I use joytest2 it is unable to draw any small circle in the center.

Solution: bought Thrustmaster T16000M

Mad Hollander wrote:

Solution: bought Thrustmaster T16000M

Looks like a good piece of kit - shame about the Cyborg X but I don't think Saitek exactly did themselves any favours with that one, judging by what I've seen online.

I've just switched to a Saitek X52 setup and have to say they're not half bad, even if the idea of suction pads on the bases is a bit "retro"! I've now got three hat switches, a mouse controller, two-stage trigger (not much use in Oolite, but very handy for combat flight sims when you have machine guns and cannon) and more slidey controllers and buttons than I know what to do with - I think I ran out of things to assign before I ran out of things to assign them to!

I thought it was a bit insensitive at first, but then realized just how far over you can move the stick so there's a massive range of available movement, plus detents in the throttle travel at about 15% and 75% - those'll do for manoeuvring speed and cruising, respectively...

Random useless fact attack: if you see the recent Riddick movie (protip - don't), at the end while he's flying off in his spaceship, he's controlling it with the X52. Not sure if that says things about my budget or theirs.

Capt. Reynolds wrote:

Random useless fact attack: if you see the recent Riddick movie (protip - don't), at the end while he's flying off in his spaceship, he's controlling it with the X52. Not sure if that says things about my budget or theirs.

The manual steering column of the Enterprise-E was a Gravis Blackhawk, which makes the Cyborg X look like a nigh-unimaginable marvel of space age technology. :-)