Use 360 Controller With Older PC Games

Capt Howdy

I picked up a wired 360 controller so I could use it with Alien vs Predator, problem is the game doesn't recognize some of the buttons or the analog movements. Anyone know a way to remedy this?

Synthesis

Just to be certain...the game does recognize the controller, right? (instead of seeing some other controller in its place).

A lot of old games will only see one bit of hardware, but this can be remedied in the Control Panel.

If you're just talking about things like the triggers, there may be no way to remedy that in game. You can try Xpadder, which can translate them to key commands, however.

Rohan

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

FyreWulff

Rohan wrote: »

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

Yes. Some people prefer to use gamepads over KBAM sometimes. Are you personally offended? Does this affect you in any way? Are you even trying to help this person or just jump on them?

to OP: go to Control Panel > Game Controllers and make sure all the buttons are being picked up. If they are, either the game is hard-wired to only recognize a certain amount of buttons (ie only two button or 4 button joysticks - I've worked with libraries and code that only recognized two buttons) or it just doesn't like the controller.

You might want to look into using "Joy2Key".

Rohan

FyreWulff wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

Yes. Some people prefer to use gamepads over KBAM sometimes. Are you personally offended? Does this affect you in any way? Are you even trying to help this person or just jump on them?

to OP: go to Control Panel > Game Controllers and make sure all the buttons are being picked up. If they are, either the game is hard-wired to only recognize a certain amount of buttons (ie only two button or 4 button joysticks - I've worked with libraries and code that only recognized two buttons) or it just doesn't like the controller.

You might want to look into using "Joy2Key".

It was a simple question, I was interested why he would choose it. No, I'm not personally offended. No, it doesn't affect me in any way. And seeing as my only suggestion would be to try Xpadder (great program), no, I can't offer any help that Synthesis hasn't already.

You, though, can go die in a fire or something. You're very quick to make nice little assumptions, aren't you?

Ohtsam

Rohan wrote: »

FyreWulff wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

Yes. Some people prefer to use gamepads over KBAM sometimes. Are you personally offended? Does this affect you in any way? Are you even trying to help this person or just jump on them?

to OP: go to Control Panel > Game Controllers and make sure all the buttons are being picked up. If they are, either the game is hard-wired to only recognize a certain amount of buttons (ie only two button or 4 button joysticks - I've worked with libraries and code that only recognized two buttons) or it just doesn't like the controller.

You might want to look into using "Joy2Key".

It was a simple question, I was interested why he would choose it. No, I'm not personally offended. No, it doesn't affect me in any way. And seeing as my only suggestion would be to try Xpadder (great program), no, I can't offer any help that Synthesis hasn't already.

You, though, can go die in a fire or something. You're very quick to make nice little assumptions, aren't you?

Considering how most of the time hes having this particular discussion with people who despise halo its somewhat understandable

Rohan

Ohtsam wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

FyreWulff wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

Yes. Some people prefer to use gamepads over KBAM sometimes. Are you personally offended? Does this affect you in any way? Are you even trying to help this person or just jump on them?

to OP: go to Control Panel > Game Controllers and make sure all the buttons are being picked up. If they are, either the game is hard-wired to only recognize a certain amount of buttons (ie only two button or 4 button joysticks - I've worked with libraries and code that only recognized two buttons) or it just doesn't like the controller.

You might want to look into using "Joy2Key".

It was a simple question, I was interested why he would choose it. No, I'm not personally offended. No, it doesn't affect me in any way. And seeing as my only suggestion would be to try Xpadder (great program), no, I can't offer any help that Synthesis hasn't already.

You, though, can go die in a fire or something. You're very quick to make nice little assumptions, aren't you?

Considering how most of the time hes having this particular discussion with people who despise halo its somewhat understandable

Ah.

Synthesis

Rohan wrote: »

Ohtsam wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

FyreWulff wrote: »

Rohan wrote: »

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP? o_O

Yes. Some people prefer to use gamepads over KBAM sometimes. Are you personally offended? Does this affect you in any way? Are you even trying to help this person or just jump on them?

to OP: go to Control Panel > Game Controllers and make sure all the buttons are being picked up. If they are, either the game is hard-wired to only recognize a certain amount of buttons (ie only two button or 4 button joysticks - I've worked with libraries and code that only recognized two buttons) or it just doesn't like the controller.

You might want to look into using "Joy2Key".

It was a simple question, I was interested why he would choose it. No, I'm not personally offended. No, it doesn't affect me in any way. And seeing as my only suggestion would be to try Xpadder (great program), no, I can't offer any help that Synthesis hasn't already.

You, though, can go die in a fire or something. You're very quick to make nice little assumptions, aren't you?

Considering how most of the time hes having this particular discussion with people who despise halo its somewhat understandable

Ah.

A few examples of what was described have come to mind (including a few on this forum) of "keyboard indignation". I say this as someone who almost uniformly prefers the keyboard-mouse layout to gamepads (which I hated for years--now I just hate forced motion sensing).

Capt Howdy

Synthesis wrote: »

Just to be certain...the game does recognize the controller, right? (instead of seeing some other controller in its place).

A lot of old games will only see one bit of hardware, but this can be remedied in the Control Panel.

If you're just talking about things like the triggers, there may be no way to remedy that in game. You can try Xpadder, which can translate them to key commands, however.

It recognizes the joystick, but not the right analog stick or the trigger/bumper buttons. The D-Pad, left analog stick, and four common buttons work fine.

Rohan wrote:

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP?

To be honest, this is my first "PC" game, thus my preferance for the 360 controller. The keyboard just feels akward with my lack of keyboard ninja skills.

Synthesis

Capt Howdy wrote: »

Synthesis wrote: »

Just to be certain...the game does recognize the controller, right? (instead of seeing some other controller in its place).

A lot of old games will only see one bit of hardware, but this can be remedied in the Control Panel.

If you're just talking about things like the triggers, there may be no way to remedy that in game. You can try Xpadder, which can translate them to key commands, however.

It recognizes the joystick, but not the right analog stick or the trigger/bumper buttons. The D-Pad, left analog stick, and four common buttons work fine.

Rohan wrote:

You'd choose a 360 pad over mouse and keyboard on a twitch-based fps game like AvP?

To be honest, this is my first "PC" game, thus my preferance for the 360 controller. The keyboard just feels akward with my lack of keyboard ninja skills.

Ya gotta' start somewhere.

From what you've described, it sounds like the the game simply isn't going to recognize them barring some sort of radical modification. No way around it, unfortunately, a LOT of older games don't recognize the two joysticks that are standard on gamepads--simply because not many people used gamepads back then. I thought they sucked until I got my original Xbox (controllers courtesy of MS' Force Feedback-line technology).

Your control panel (I assume you're running Vista or XP) will recognize all the sticks, etc., but you can't implement them into a game that doesn't want them. Xpadder will allow you to assign those individual motions to keys, which in turn you can bind within the game, but it will be awkward, and definitely not digital.

TychoCelchuuu

Whether or not you get it working, AvP is going to be a pain in the ass to play with joysticks, at least as a marine. Did you try Joy2Key?

Capt Howdy

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Whether or not you get it working, AvP is going to be a pain in the ass to play with joysticks, at least as a marine. Did you try Joy2Key?

Haven't heard of it, but I'll give it a try. Thanks.

freakish light

Actually judging from the way Xpadder has translated my analog sticks to arrow keys in the past it works out really well. It's very smooth and I forgot it wasn't native.