Is GSF HOTA compatible?

[Riotus]

Returned about a month ago as i like to play swtor at work and i was wondering today if GSF is any good i have a nice HOTA at home a saitek x52 and thought it might be fun to play with.

[nyghtrunner]

Returned about a month ago as i like to play swtor at work and i was wondering today if GSF is any good i have a nice HOTA at home a saitek x52 and thought it might be fun to play with.

I love GSF, and think it's an amazing module.

 

With that said, there's no HOTAS support officially. I believe I remember seeing a thread somewhere in here where someone got it kind of working, but if memory serves, it was a highly imperfect implementation of the controls.

 

The intent is to be KB&M.

[Riotus]

I love GSF, and think it's an amazing module.

 

With that said, there's no HOTAS support officially. I believe I remember seeing a thread somewhere in here where someone got it kind of working, but if memory serves, it was a highly imperfect implementation of the controls.

 

The intent is to be KB&M.

 

ah that stinks, what about controller support like a wired 360 controller? ive never cared for space combat KBM

[nyghtrunner]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=swtor+GSF+controller+support

 

EDIT - Not trying to be a dick, but there's a lot of stuff out there about this. The short answer is, "No, the game does not support a gamepad". However, people apparently have gotten it working with some amount of success. The bottom line: GSF was made to be KB&M, and it never supported other control types. People who were able to get them working were using some trickery with the keybinding, I believe, but never cared, because I always used KB&M.

Edited April 28, 2015 by nyghtrunner

[DresG]

The closest to joystick for GSF is using a pen tablet (the kind you see gfx people use at work), it really improves the feel of the game.

[Linuxizer]

I posted some stuff last year. I used a programmable CH Fighterstick to emulate a mouse for 3 matches and did manage 5 kills in the one match not against the ace pre-made team.

 

To sum up, imagine your favorite flight sim, with a huge deadzone in the middle of your joystick's axes (let's say, 25% for a Star Guard with HLC, or 40% for a Flashfire with BLC). You soon get used to the big movement needed to initiate pitch or yaw, but it is difficult to be precise with the wierd jump in gain.

 

Just for laughs, here is the script I used:

 

// CMS Script File

//

// Game Title: SWTOR GSF

// Written By: me

// Date: 2014-10-27

//

script

 

// A1 = SCREENWIDTH - 1;

// A2 = SCREENHEIGHT - 1;

A1 = 1919;

A2 = 1199;

A9 = 5;

 

// Mapping of virtual device 1 axes and buttons based on real joystick 1 values:

CMS.A1 = JS1.A1;

CMS.A2 = JS1.A2;

CMS.B1 = JS1.B1;

CMS.B2 = JS1.B4;

 

// Mapping of variable A5 and A6 based on CMS axis1 and axis2 values:

IF ([A9 == 3]) THEN

IF ([CMS.A1 < 96]) THEN

// A5 = CMS.A1 * 9 + 72;

A5 = CMS.A1 * 5 + 448;

ENDIF

IF ([96 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 < 160]) THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 + 832;

ENDIF

IF ([160 <= CMS.A1]) THEN

// A5 = CMS.A1 * 9 - 452;

A5 = CMS.A1 * 5 + 192;

ENDIF

 

IF ([CMS.A2 < 96]) THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 5 + 88;

ENDIF

IF ([96 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 < 160]) THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 + 472;

ENDIF

IF ([160 <= CMS.A2]) THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 5 - 168;

ENDIF

ENDIF

 

IF ([A9 == 5]) THEN

IF ([0 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 <= 67])THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 * 12 + 44;

ENDIF

IF ([68 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 <= 107])THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 * 2 + 724;

ENDIF

IF ([108 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 <= 147])THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 + 832;

ENDIF

IF ([148 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 <= 187])THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 * 2 + 684;

ENDIF

IF ([188 <= CMS.A1] AND [CMS.A1 <= 255])THEN

A5 = CMS.A1 * 12 - 1196;

ENDIF

 

IF ([0 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 <= 67])THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 7 + 24;

ENDIF

IF ([68 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 <= 107])THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 2 + 364;

ENDIF

IF ([108 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 <= 147])THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 + 472;

ENDIF

IF ([148 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 <= 187])THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 2 + 324;

ENDIF

IF ([188 <= CMS.A2] AND [CMS.A2 <= 255])THEN

A6 = CMS.A2 * 7 - 616;

ENDIF

 

ENDIF

 

 

// Turn off joystick control of mouse cursor in Mode 0.

// Turn on joystick control of mouse cursor in Mode 1.

IF ([FTRSTKMODE == 1]) THEN

// Piecewise linear mapping, covering about middle 1000x1000 pixels, and flip the y-axis:

SCREENX = A5;

SCREENY = 1199 - A6;

 

ELSE

// In Mode 2, center the mouse cursor if joystick is centered:

IF ([FTRSTKMODE == 2] AND [CMS.A1 == 128] AND [CMS.A2 == 128]) THEN

SCREENX = 960;

SCREENY = 600;

ENDIF

ENDIF

 

endScript

[Verain]

ah that stinks, what about controller support like a wired 360 controller? ive never cared for space combat KBM

 

SWTOR is a keyboard and mouse game, and GSF is part of that.

 

This thread has the most practical guide if you really want to do it, above my post.

 

 

But... lemme tell you why you might want to reconsider.

 

1)- GSF is all about pointing a cursor, often very precisely. A mouse is superior at this.

2)- The big money for a joystick is the ability to get all the different axes of control going correctly. GSF lacks the ability to extend this to a joystick in a meaningful way.

Specifically:

2a)- The throttle is digital, not analog- you have off, low, medium, high, and boost. This means a throttle won't get you what it would in a game where it's analogy.

2b)- Rolling is digital, not analog. This means you can't roll less (and therefore more precisely) or more (and therefore faster). You are either rolling left, rolling right, or not rolling, and mapping that to a joystick axis won't do anything for you.

2c)- There's no way to separate aiming from movement. A "correct" control scheme would allow you to control your ship's movement independent of the gimballing- for instance, acutual joystick support would feature the ability to pitch directly upward while leaving your reticule dead center, firing a shot with 0 deflection and therefore no miss penalty. You would be able to take a shot at anyone in your field of view without that influencing what direction your craft is turning, a huge advantage over the reticule based flying we have now- but GSF doesn't support this, so mapping a joystick won't get you anything here.

3)- Without a custom scheme, you are ultimately just figuring out how to steer a mouse cursor with a joystick.

 

 

Why doesn't GSF have HOTAS support? The real answer is how expensive it is to add and maintain joystick support. Joysticks are nowhere near as normalized as mice or keyboard- go search in almost any game forum plus the name of any HOTAS and find people doing all manner of stuff to make it work, in games that support them natively. Now pick an obscure or common mouse and search for that with any game, and at MOST you'll find people discussing how best to pick their buttons. Anyway, they would have to maintain that forever, and it would be at the SWTOR level, meaning the engine has to bind every joystick correctly, and that has to be tested all the time. The code, the unit test, the test procedures, the physical copies of dozens of popular HOTAS in Bioware's test lab....

 

 

The secondary reason is that the difference between good and bad players is massively shocking. Simply ludicrous. A HOTAS would be a lot of effort to make that delta even bigger. If my X-52 immediately and laglessly pitched my ship, immediately and laglessly gave me analog roll and twist for yaw, with my analog throttle actually doing what it is supposed to do, while being able to use a hat to gimbal shots (with a default of dead center shots for no deflection on the hat), I would be much more effective than I could possibly be with my mouse. I'll go further- I'm 100% convinced that with these controls, I could outfly and outdogfight anyone using keyboard and mouse by a very noticeable amount, regardless of their skill level. The advantages would be huge, and all players would want to grab such a powerful control scheme to stay competitive.

Very cool and fun, yes, but do we need to gate GSF by something real and expensive? It's gated by experience currently, everyone has the controls and the requisition is a rounding error, and is further gated by having to have a specific MMO installed and running, with the servers up, all to generate an odd GSF lobby populated by people who discuss space wizards and call the GSF lobby "fleet". Gating it by a two hundred dollar set of hardware seems unwise...

 

 

 

Not to poop on the post above, which, again, will actually help you rig up the controller you want. I'm just saying, you'll be reinventing the mouse, not using a flight stick.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Verain

[Phoenix_Wraith]

When gsf first came out my kids wanted to play it, but the mouse sensitivity was so severe they flew perma loops. We ended up using xpadder to map to Xbox controllers and reduced sensitivity. It wasn't ideal but it worked for me. I was able to turn sensitivity back closer and closer to default until I didn't need controller anymore. Kids never did adjust and don't use controllers anymore, but it made for fun times while it lasted. Since they could never learn to fly well they became my copilots. If 3 controllers were all used on one PC, they were basically clones. I'd use one to pilot, my son used one as my gunner, and my daughter was chief engineer using the third to switch power between different systems. Surely something exists that would work for you.

[Verain]

Haha, that's great!