Not Just for SWTOR Anymore!

Hey, folks!  So if you've been to this blog before, you know it started out exclusively as a tutorial for Star Wars: The Old Republic players interested in playing their new favorite MMO with a controller.  Since then, my interest in that particular game has waned, and several people have pointed out the usefulness of this blog for other PC games.  Thus I've decided to change the title to make it more easily searchable for folks interested in PC controller use beyond SWTOR.  More details after the jump.

Joystix Pro - an Easy-to-Use (albeit less robust) Controller Option

As this blog has grown, so has the complexity of my configurations.  While I prefer the versatility that XPadder and PGP offer, the bottom line is a lot of you guys just want to be able to just plug in your damn controller and play.

To that end, Joystix Pro's developers recently contacted me to get my impressions on their product as an alternative to XPadder or PGP (with my caveat that I'm not going to hold anything back).   The bottom line is while this is the most expensive and least robust program of the three, it is also by far the easiest, most user-friendly option of the lot.  Details after the jump.

REMEMBER: Joystix Pro must be set to run as an administrator to work with SWTOR.

UPDATE: As of May 2013, Joystix Pro has dropped their price for a full subscription to $20, making it a MUCH more affordable option than previously (and as you'll read below, the price was really my only major complaint).  

XPadder Proof-of-Concepts Profile

After some requests for additional mapping options in XPadder, I decided to create a proof-of-concepts profile that I'm using as a testbed for ideas.  I'll update this post when I come up with new tweaks I want to try.

Everything done here is easily done in PGP as well, but since you're limited to four mappings in that program, I'm sticking with XPadder as my testbed.  Details after the jump.

Pinnacle Game Profiler works now (with tutorial videos)!

Okay, I figured out what the problem was, and apparently it has to do with how your PS3 controller is configured in MiJ.  Thus, non-PS3 controller users shouldn't have any problems as long as they run PGP as an administrator.

ja_4251 on the PGP forums posted a great tutorial on how to get MiJ properly configured (the only error is you need to have L1 & R1 set as buttons 5 & 6, and L2 & R2 set as buttons 7 & 8.  Then disable the z-axis): http://pinnaclegameprofiler.com/wiki/index.php?title=Motioninjoy_and_PS3_Controller

Video tutorials after the jump.
Part 1: Getting your PS3 controller working in PGP via MotioninJoy.
Part 2: Creating a PGP profile for SWTOR (You can download my SWTOR profile here).

XBOX 360 Controller/Chatpad Installation Instructions

More conveniently located than the PS3's, but wires are balls.

I do not have detailed instructions here, as I have not tested this process out myself. Others have confirmed this method works. Let me know if someone is interested in writing up instructions, else feel free to add comments below.

Microsoft offers several official options for hooking up your XBOX 360 controller.  In fact, several games, such as Skyrim, are preconfigured for use with a 360 controller.  Wired controllers can also use the XBOX 360 Chatpad as a portable keypad using drivers linked after the jump.

I must stress this: as of the latest info, the Chatpad drivers only work with the wired "Made for Windows" XBOX controller. THEY WILL NOT WORK WITH ANY XBOX 360 CONTROLLER.