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Thread: Game won't read my joystick...Any ideas?[FIXED]

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    Great Puma (Level 12) jb143's Avatar
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    Default Game won't read my joystick...Any ideas?[FIXED]

    Last night I wanted to play one of my favorite "flight sims" Crimson Skies. So I loaded it up and everything went great. The game runs and plays but my joystick wasn't working. The game acted like it didn't exist. It's a usb Sidewinder Precision 2. It shows up in windows registering all buttons and everything in control pannel. They are both Microsoft products from the same era. I used the 2 together before flawlessly on my 98 machine. Is this some weird XP thing? Any ideas of things I can try?
    Last edited by jb143; 02-15-2010 at 03:37 PM.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    Great Puma (Level 12) jb143's Avatar
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    Eh...poking around on the net, it looks like the Sidewinder Precision 2 drivers have issues in XP. It looks like it 'might' work if I uninstall it and let windows use it's generic drivers. What's up with Microsoft not supporting their own hardware anymore?

    Edit-
    Just in case anyone cares, I solved the problem.
    The readme on an update I found said this...
    "Multiple joysticks not supported: If more than one joystick and/or gamepad is connected to your computer, only one will function in Crimson Skies."

    I Connected a Wii remote by Bluetooth once a few months ago and windows was acting like it was still connected. Disabling it solved my issue.
    Last edited by jb143; 02-09-2010 at 09:18 PM.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Mnemonic's Avatar
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    Well, if you still want to use two USB gamepads with a game that doesn't support them, what you could do is use a controller-to-keyboard keymapping app (that is, use a program that lets you re-designate controller presses as keyboard presses). For instance, RTCW (which I'm playing through ATM) doesn't support USB controllers at all, but I use a keymapper to assign my USB controller buttons as keyboard inputs (allowing me to play the game with a mouse/controller combo, instead of mouse/keyboard).

    As for apps that do this, I've heard Joy-To-Key works well. Personally, I use JoystickCursorTool. Both are free online.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) jb143's Avatar
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    The sidewinder software did let me assign the buttons to keyboard presses so I did have it "working" that way, but only the buttons, not the stick, rudders, and throttle.

    Are there any programs that can handle analog inputs?...maybe map them to a mouse? Because I'm wanting to make a head tracking unit but I don't think it will work with this game since it will be read as second joystick.
    "Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) Mnemonic's Avatar
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    Hmmm... not sure about that one, sorry. I know JoyToKey will accept analog (I don't think JoystickCursorTool does, but I could be wrong), but it only maps them as digital (you set the threshold to determine how far the stick actually moves for it to activate the mapped command or not). The mapped command can emulate a mouse movement, but it's a specific amount of movement that you set the value of, and it emulates the mouse's movement in that selected direction once the threshold is met. (I've tried this feature of JoyToKey myself with a gamepad, and I could indeed use it to move the mouse cursor around the screen... it was kind of groovy.)

    I don't have much experience with analog sticks (I don't own any for PC), and I haven't used JoyToKey much myself, so I can't offer much advice. My best advice is to give it a try and find out... play around with it and see what happens. You might be surprised.

    EDIT: Oh yeah, do let me know how well it works (if you try). Lacking an analog stick, I can't try it myself, but I am genuinely curious for future reference.
    Last edited by Mnemonic; 02-15-2010 at 11:25 PM.

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