Frustrated with the state of gamepad support on PC

[shiajun]

Bear with me for a moment, I just have to vent.

I wish someone would explain to me why people accept that the xbox 360 gamepad should be the only gamepad supported in PC games. It's not only bad that some games simply don't have native gamepad support when they're ported from a console where the gamepad is the input device, now it's OK for one to be forced to buy a specific peripheral to play a game? It goes against the specific properties of using a PC for games.

Games are agnostic about which keyboard, mouse, camera, microphone, etc you use to play your game. Why is at allowed to have games that only recognize xbox 360 gamepads? I have several gamepads all of which are perfectly functional and I've used to play before. Recently I've foolishly connected those gamepads to play a game (specially platformers where keyboard/mouse tent not to be the optimal setup) and the game just laughs and yells "Denied! only xbox 360 gamepad support". Someone will say: it's industry standard, just go buy an xbox controller. Just two problems with that: 1, where I live xbox controllers are massively expensive, sometimes even twice the cost of the PC game itself, so yeah. no. 2, the idea that a 360 is inherently better hardware is bollocks. It's my appreciation that other controllers seem to work worse because the code is made to not play well with others and lock you out. It shouldn't be that way. It could have "plays best with" warning but let you use other controllers if you so desire instead of showing you the middle finger whe you do.

How did we come to this? Is there anything that can be done about it? I don't mean mappers like xpadder and such since it works mostly fine but implies a lot of tinkering that many times just doesn't work as native gamepad (any gamepad) would.

Is anyone else just as annoyed as I am or am I just a blithering madman?

 

[Aris Khandr]

Microsoft makes the XBox 360, and thus the controllers. Microsoft makes Windows, which most us are using for our PC gaming. It's kind of in their interest to make sure their controllers work for many of the games that are released. Other controllers, less so. I could be remembering wrong, but I think I read that 360 controller support was a requirement for GFWL certification, if any controller support at all was offered. Not hard to see why that would get the bulk of attention.

In a way, it's kind of like how almost any mobile program will have an iOS version, and maybe go to Android later. It isn't that the Android is a lesser device, but iOS is the most well known, and thus the de facto standard.

 

[Fishyash]

I'm pretty fortunate in regards to only wanting to use an XBOX 360 controller and a cheap hori EX2 fightstick (made for use on xbox) to play games on.

Fortunately at least there is Xpadder, but you should totally be able to use whatever controller you want to plug in. The question is, how much effort does it take for the developer, when the consumer can just use xpadder?

 

[shiajun]

I think the problem with using emulation or mapping programs is the ingame prompts won't change, and sometimes won't even register the correct input. If the games says "press _____ to pickup" the prompt will remain with the corresponding keyboard bind and you will have to remember what key was you mapped to what. That's not a big problem for the most part, but context sensitive commands that occur once or twice or freaking QTEs become even more of a nuisance because of the extra layer of mental recall you have to take in a second.

I don't know how more effort it is. If you can remap keyboard bindings and mouse buttons and whatever for a vast amount of different hardware, why is it so extra hard to detect another input device and allow mapping to that button or whatever from in-game?

On the cost, wired xbox controllers are cheaper than wireless but still more expensive that other brands. It's sort of mnopolistic. It is robbing me of the option to save my hard earned money and renders any other brand of gamepads next to useless since the only one that works right is the Xbox 360 controller. How could anyone ever buy anything else? Could any browsers other than IE had hoped to competitvely rise on the PC if windows had only natively supported IE? How is that not bad?

 

[jpoon]

Use a PS3 controller and MotionInJoy, it works every game I tried it for. It will even emulate a 360 controller so any game that supports a 360 pad you can use the superior PS3 controller for. =P

Yeah, it won't solve the QTE button icon situation though, I think you're screwed on that front.

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

Too bad there's no smart keymapping for similar gamepads that have two analog sticks, d-pad, 4 action buttons, four shoulder buttons, and start/back buttons. There are a number of 3rd party gamepads with similar designs out there so it shouldn't be that hard, right?

Take a look. [http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/179-1244390-1221725?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gamepad+for+pc&x=0&y=0]

 

[Blemontea]

We've all said it but no ones given a link
Here you go my friend: http://www.motioninjoy.com/
It works wonders for all sorts of games it can even emulate psx contollers for your other emulators.
I personally use either my Shadowgear ds3 or my ps3 controller.

 

[octafish]

I dislike the XBOX controller, so I have a logitech F310 (I think it's the F310, it's a dual shock controller), I have had some trouble with a few games not mapping it correctly (Assassin's Creed 2 stands out) but I've always been able to remap the controls.

 

[godofallu]

I'm lucky I guess since I vastly prefer the 360 controller to basically anything.

Thank god it's the default. If it was a PS3 i'd have to use xpadder for everything as opposed to some things.

 

[ResonanceGames]

The 360 controller is overwhelmingly considered the best gamepad for the PC, so it makes sense that it's the most supported.

If you insist on using something else, Xpadder works unbelievably well and only take like 10 minutes (often way less) to set up per game. It works with ANYTHING, too. I've run setups for games like Thief and Daggerfall, just for kicks.

 

[tzimize]

The 360 controller is overwhelmingly considered the best gamepad for the PC, so it makes sense that it's the most supported.

If you insist on using something else, Xpadder works unbelievably well and only take like 10 minutes (often way less) to set up per game. It works with ANYTHING, too. I've run setups for games like Thief and Daggerfall, just for kicks.

This is why PC is so awesome. We can do ANYTHING... *heartshapesmiley*

 

[Aprilgold]

The 360 controller is overwhelmingly considered the best gamepad for the PC, so it makes sense that it's the most supported.

If you insist on using something else, Xpadder works unbelievably well and only take like 10 minutes (often way less) to set up per game. It works with ANYTHING, too. I've run setups for games like Thief and Daggerfall, just for kicks.

This is why PC is so awesome. We can do ANYTHING... *heartshapesmiley*

Its too damn true. Want to use a joystick, DAMN RIGHT, want to use only your mouse, DAMN RIGHT, want to use only keyboard, DAMN GOD DAMN RIGHT! WE CAN DO ANNNYYTTHIINNGG!!

Wrong video, but it still gets the point across, I think.

 

[targren]

Games are agnostic about which keyboard, mouse, camera, microphone, etc you use to play your game. Why is at allowed to have games that only recognize xbox 360 gamepads?

There's a possibly technical reason for this: Xinput. As of DirectX 9, Microsoft had a stock gamepad library built in to DirectX specifically for the Xbox 360 gamepad. Since probably 90% of game coding on Windows is in DirectX now, it only makes sense that they'll use Xinput instead of having to call out to the never-quite-right USB-HID drivers (Seriously. They've sucked ever since they showed up in Win98 SE) or possibly non-standard vendor drivers. So the games really AREN'T completely agnostic as to what sort of pad anymore.

It's not just 360 gamepads now, though. There are non-microsoft gamepads out there that are Xinput compatible [footnote]I recommend AGAINST the Razer Onza. For a "premium brand," the build quality is complete crap. I needed a warranty replacement inside of two months of normal play.[/footnote]

While not exactly defending the decision, it's basically the same question as "Why does everything use DirectX instead of OpenGL" from some years back, and the same answer. It's faster, easier, and more efficient for programming. The fact that, more often than not, the framework might suck bloated donkey dong does not, unfortunately enter the equation.

HTH

 

[Fayathon]

Use a PS3 controller and MotionInJoy, it works every game I tried it for. It will even emulate a 360 controller so any game that supports a 360 pad you can use the superior PS3 controller for. =P

Yeah, it won't solve the QTE button icon situation though, I think you're screwed on that front.

We've all said it but no ones given a link
Here you go my friend: http://www.motioninjoy.com/
It works wonders for all sorts of games it can even emulate psx contollers for your other emulators.
I personally use either my Shadowgear ds3 or my ps3 controller.

Ninja'd twice, I must be losing my touch.

Long story short, get MotionInJoy, set it to work with whatever controller you have and tell it to emulate an xBox controller. It takes a bit of doing to get working right, but it's well worth it, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy Sonic Generations without that handy little program. Keyboard just doesn't do it man...

Quick Edit: MotionInJoy (from what I've dealt with) can turn any controller in to an X360 controller through emulation, pretty well allowing you to use whatever the hell you want to with your computer, it's why I can use my PS3 controllers on my comp.

 

[shiajun]

Aaaaaah...thank you all. I didn't know about motionjoy. I've used pinnacle and xpadder before, just to be clear. I know it works, but it's suboptimal compared to a simple "plug and play" situation.

Games are agnostic about which keyboard, mouse, camera, microphone, etc you use to play your game. Why is at allowed to have games that only recognize xbox 360 gamepads?

There's a possibly technical reason for this: Xinput. As of DirectX 9, Microsoft had a stock gamepad library built in to DirectX specifically for the Xbox 360 gamepad. Since probably 90% of game coding on Windows is in DirectX now, it only makes sense that they'll use Xinput instead of having to call out to the never-quite-right USB-HID drivers (Seriously. They've sucked ever since they showed up in Win98 SE) or possibly non-standard vendor drivers. So the games really AREN'T completely agnostic as to what sort of pad anymore.

It's not just 360 gamepads now, though. There are non-microsoft gamepads out there that are Xinput compatible [footnote]I recommend AGAINST the Razer Onza. For a "premium brand," the build quality is complete crap. I needed a warranty replacement inside of two months of normal play.[/footnote]

While not exactly defending the decision, it's basically the same question as "Why does everything use DirectX instead of OpenGL" from some years back, and the same answer. It's faster, easier, and more efficient for programming. The fact that, more often than not, the framework might suck bloated donkey dong does not, unfortunately enter the equation.

HTH

Wow... thank you for that. Your info doesn't make the situation any better but it really goes a long way in silencing my discomfort.

Well, of to do some gamepad emulation.

 

[Wolfram23]

The 360 controller is overwhelmingly considered the best gamepad for the PC, so it makes sense that it's the most supported.

In your opinion... I've never liked Xbox thumbsticks, personally. I do like the feel of it, otherwise, but Dual Shock thumbsticks are so much better IMO. Anyway there's so many gamepads out there on PC, you really can't say that the 360 controller is the best, because the vast majority of people probably never tried anything other than PS3 and 360 controllers. It's like saying CoD is the best game ever because it sells so well.

It does, however, make sense that it is so well supported. It does not make much sense that other gamepads aren't so well supported, although they usually are easy to remap.