![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Game controllers on a modern Mac
Sep. 27th, 2024 07:07 amOK, I had also forgotten how much fun it is to have a proper game controller connected to your computer. For flight simulation, it's not a geeky realistic flight control but it's miles better than using the mouse to control an imaginary yoke.
Our XBoxes are so old that the wireless controllers for them aren't standard Bluetooth devices and I was wary of once again installing the increasingly sketchy third-party drivers to use them. But our PlayStation 4's Dual Shock controllers are just standard Bluetooth devices, and pairing one was not difficult at all. (Its battery was dead, to begin with, but it also works wired up through its old USB Micro port to my USB dongle, which charges the battery.)
X-Plane makes interesting default assumptions that I don't think are good for me: it maps one stick to roll/pitch and the other to the throttle up/down. I guess that makes some sense IF you have a separate pedal controller for the rudders, which I don't.
I mapped the left stick to the rudder, in lieu of pedals, and the right to the yoke. Up and down on the D-pad became throttle controls, and then the other buttons on the controller face became trim controls corresponding to the stick nearest them--because actually having a centering stick makes you appreciate what trim is for in a real aircraft; you want those. Suddenly it's possible to get your plane properly trimmed and leave it in very stable flight. Also, having separate rudder and pedal controls teaches you what the turn coordinator/slip-skid indicator is for. And if the mouse isn't controlling the yoke, it can be used to manipulate the other cockpit controls if you don't necessarily know the key commands (if any) that are mapped to them.
I guess the shoulder and fire buttons could be weapons controls for the fighter planes. Thought about mapping flaps to something but the keyboard is good enough for that.
It Just Works with the Stella Atari 2600 emulator, too, though the default mappings follow post-Nintendo game controller norms: your left thumb is operating the joystick and the fire button is X. That's not very Atari, is it? Maybe for a truer experience I should have the joystick control over on the right and the fire button at the upper left.
Our XBoxes are so old that the wireless controllers for them aren't standard Bluetooth devices and I was wary of once again installing the increasingly sketchy third-party drivers to use them. But our PlayStation 4's Dual Shock controllers are just standard Bluetooth devices, and pairing one was not difficult at all. (Its battery was dead, to begin with, but it also works wired up through its old USB Micro port to my USB dongle, which charges the battery.)
X-Plane makes interesting default assumptions that I don't think are good for me: it maps one stick to roll/pitch and the other to the throttle up/down. I guess that makes some sense IF you have a separate pedal controller for the rudders, which I don't.
I mapped the left stick to the rudder, in lieu of pedals, and the right to the yoke. Up and down on the D-pad became throttle controls, and then the other buttons on the controller face became trim controls corresponding to the stick nearest them--because actually having a centering stick makes you appreciate what trim is for in a real aircraft; you want those. Suddenly it's possible to get your plane properly trimmed and leave it in very stable flight. Also, having separate rudder and pedal controls teaches you what the turn coordinator/slip-skid indicator is for. And if the mouse isn't controlling the yoke, it can be used to manipulate the other cockpit controls if you don't necessarily know the key commands (if any) that are mapped to them.
I guess the shoulder and fire buttons could be weapons controls for the fighter planes. Thought about mapping flaps to something but the keyboard is good enough for that.
It Just Works with the Stella Atari 2600 emulator, too, though the default mappings follow post-Nintendo game controller norms: your left thumb is operating the joystick and the fire button is X. That's not very Atari, is it? Maybe for a truer experience I should have the joystick control over on the right and the fire button at the upper left.