Gamepad/joystick

[DrD]

so after 298 hours I finally set up an logitech/xbox controller and I'm flabbergasted at the difference it makes with planes. Obviously much easier to control but even more stable in "neutral," I suspect that keyboard gives full control surface deflection resulting in the wild oscillations that completely turned me off the airplanes initially.

After set up I took off from runway with my basic jet, did a perfect pattern and perfect and I mean perfect landing which I had never managed before.

Maybe everyone knows this but man get a joystick or at least a gamepad/controller! Joystick may be better for those who mostly do planes but it seems it would be overkill for rockets.

Controller is nice also for rockets but not as dramatically better as it is with planes.

It's like a whole new game, again. (Am I going to playing for the rest of my life? Have mercy.)

[problemecium]

meh. I actually got a sweet 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator for Christmas, and it's kinda neat but hardly different from my experience just pulsing the WASD keys.

[ZodiaK]

surely it must be good for docking?

[problemecium]

I haven't tried it. Can the joystick be used for RCS translation?

[rodion_herrera]

I haven't tried it. Can the joystick be used for RCS translation?

I use two joysticks with spacecraft. Left hand stick for RCS translation while right hand stick for pitch, roll and yaw. But for KSP aircraft I only use one stick. Here is an old video I made, I think back in KSP 0.20, of me flying using a stick.

Note that SAS/ASAS is disabled/ not active. I fly the plane purely manually.

[prophet_01]

For planes and shuttles I prefer the joystick. It's just so much more precise, especially my landing skills benefit from it. As soon as I fly a rocket or try docking using it, I completely screw up. I touch that stick and bad things happen instantly. I spin wildely lose orientation and loose any motoric skills. I don't have a clue why, it's weired but looks pretty funny tbh

just to be clear, I've got roughly 700 hours atm and I usually know what I'm doing

Edited January 7, 2015 by prophet_01

[zarakon]

For planes, I vastly prefer my controller with analog sticks. Being able to apply a constant moderate amount of force is so extremely helpful

For anything else, I stick with the keyboard

- - - Updated - - -

Also, when flying planes, CHASE CAM VIEW!

[Red Iron Crown]

meh. I actually got a sweet 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator for Christmas, and it's kinda neat but hardly different from my experience just pulsing the WASD keys.

I recently got a SpaceNavigator as well. The 0.90 bug in controlling the camera in the editor is a bit of a downer, but it is awesome for controlling the camera in flight and for flight control itself. Great for docking and EVA with both rotation and translation on the same controller. It's OK for planes, but not as good as a regular stick (that may be my lack of experience with the SN, though).

Google Earth is simply amazing with it, too.

If you haven't already, get the beta drivers for it here. They're older than the official current drivers but have more configuration options.

[pincushionman]

For planes, stick is far superior, mainly because of the all-or-mothing command behavior of the keys, and fine control doesn't help because it's too far the other way. And in a plane it's very easy to be in a maneuver where your three axes need different ammounts of command input at the same time. Not been having the same problem with rockets.

[zarakon]

One big problem with using a stick/controller for rockets is that I would want different controls than with a plane. When flying, I want pitch and roll on one stick, and yaw on the triggers. I think with a rocket I would want pitch and yaw on the same stick, and roll elsewhere

[DrD]

Exactly. There's a mod called AFBW that I'm going to try, it allows switching control modes on the fly.

[FlyingPete]

I'm playing around with a ps3 controller (cheap wired one) that works with PC. The current setup I'm trying is this:

Left stick: x-axis = yaw, y-axis = pitch

Right stick: x-axis = roll, y-axis =translate forward/back

D-pad- x-axis = translate left/right, y-axis = translate up/down

(For rovers, D-pad also controls steering and forward/reverse)

L1 = Brakes

R1 = Cut engines

L2 = Decrease thrust

R2 = Increase thrust

Triangle = SAS on/off

Square = RCS on/off

Select = Landing gear

Start = Lights

There's a few spare buttons to assign a use for. For some reason I can't seem to get kerbal EVA control to work from the controller, but I don't mind using the keyboard controls for that.

It makes a massive difference to flying planes, and when using a gamepad rather than a joystick having yaw and pitch on one stick is more intuitive for planes than you'd expect- certainly better than having pitch/roll together when flying rockets. It also means that when docking, you have the roll axis under control at the same time as translation for when the exact alignment matters. Assigning the d-pad to rovers and rcs translation causes the minimum of 'interference' between controls- simply turn off rcs when driving around.

[pincushionman]

Exactly. There's a mod called AFBW that I'm going to try, it allows switching control modes on the fly.

Perhaps I'll look into that; I consider the inability to set controls in-game to be a "bug," in the "it's a feature that's not fully implemented yet" sense rather than "it's unintended behavior." Perhaps now that we're in beta we should bring it to the dev's attention that they need to get that resolved.

[scipiosgoblin]

To piggyback on this topic... Can anyone explain the deadzone sliders in the settings menu? I adjust them, but get little or no reaction in game. I'm using an X52pro from

Saitek. It's pretty good, but I have a lot of slack in the center that I'd rather not have.

[merendel]

surely it must be good for docking?

I've tried both types of controll imputs. I do agree a joystick or a gamepad is better for planes but I prefer keyboard for docking. What I found helped the most with docking was ignore docking mode altogeather and just remap the RCS controlls to something thats intuitive for you. Personaly I moved them over to the num pad. I control all my rotation with the left hand like normal but at the same time I can control translation with my right. I like 8/2 for up/down 4/6 for left/right and 7/1 for forward/back. You dont really need steady light input most of the time while docking (although its pure gold for plane flight) and RCS you want to do in little bursts anyway not long burns. Besides if you layed out your RCS ports with a bit of forthought you should be able to translate with minimul rotation so you only need to line up once and turn on SAS.

[leopardenthusiast]

I'm playing around with a ps3 controller (cheap wired one) that works with PC. The current setup I'm trying is this:

Left stick: x-axis = yaw, y-axis = pitch

Right stick: x-axis = roll, y-axis =translate forward/back

D-pad- x-axis = translate left/right, y-axis = translate up/down

(For rovers, D-pad also controls steering and forward/reverse)

L1 = Brakes

R1 = Cut engines

L2 = Decrease thrust

R2 = Increase thrust

Triangle = SAS on/off

Square = RCS on/off

Select = Landing gear

Start = Lights

There's a few spare buttons to assign a use for. For some reason I can't seem to get kerbal EVA control to work from the controller, but I don't mind using the keyboard controls for that.

It makes a massive difference to flying planes, and when using a gamepad rather than a joystick having yaw and pitch on one stick is more intuitive for planes than you'd expect- certainly better than having pitch/roll together when flying rockets. It also means that when docking, you have the roll axis under control at the same time as translation for when the exact alignment matters. Assigning the d-pad to rovers and rcs translation causes the minimum of 'interference' between controls- simply turn off rcs when driving around.

Pretty good layout. I'll have to plug in one of my PS3 controllers and try it. I think I'd be putting max engines on R1, cut engines on L1, and brakes on Circle though. I use the engine controls a lot more than brakes, and having them all in one place is important to me.

[helaeon]

I have about 1500 hours in flying rockets, spaceplanes, and landers with a gamepad. Only Kerbal EVAs are done with the keyboard and that's only because I can't seem to get the controls to behave in a way that makes sense to me.

Here's my set up:

Left stick: Yaw & Pitch

Right stick: Camera

Triggers (triggers on my controller are an axis): L -Inc. Throttle Down, R - Inc. Throttle up.

Bumpers: Roll

Dpad : Translate Up, Down, Left, Right (Rover Controls too)

Left Stick Click : Translate Backward

Right Sitck Click : Translate Forward

Back : Toggle RCS

Start : Toggle SAS

X : Kill Throttle

Y : Max Throttle

A : Brakes (really handy when activating spoilers on a space plane or driving rovers, also makes for a handy action group to use sometimes)

B : Stage

I've thought about changing A from Brakes to an actual action group but I don't seem to have anything that I usually bind by an action group that needs immediate toggling rather than brakes.

[DrD]

Pretty good layout. I'll have to plug in one of my PS3 controllers and try it. I think I'd be putting max engines on R1, cut engines on L1, and brakes on Circle though. I use the engine controls a lot more than brakes, and having them all in one place is important to me.

I put engine cut and brakes on the same button, it makes no difference in rockets of course and in planes/rovers one generally want to cut engines when braking! And if you cut engines in the air the braking also doesn't matter.

If you want to spool on the runway while braked then you'll have to use keyboard to release.

I left staging on spacebar to avoid "accidents."

Edited January 8, 2015 by DrD

[zarakon]

Here's my controller layout with a Logitech F710. It physically resembles a Playstation controller, but the buttons are mapped like an XBox controller.

Left Analog X: Roll

Left Analog Y: Pitch

Analog triggers: Yaw

Right Analog: Camera

Left stick click: Zoom out

Right stick click: Zoom in

A: Throttle down

Y: Throttle up

X: Cut throttle

B: Brakes

LB: Toggle SAS

RB: Stage

Start: Map

Back/Select: ESC menu

D-Pad Y: Throttle Up/down

D-Pad X: Wheel steering

[FlyingPete]

What I found helped the most with docking was ignore docking mode altogeather and just remap the RCS controlls to something thats intuitive for you. Personaly I moved them over to the num pad. I control all my rotation with the left hand like normal but at the same time I can control translation with my right. I like 8/2 for up/down 4/6 for left/right and 7/1 for forward/back.

That's what I do when using the keyboard. I basically stole the key mapping from Orbiter: 8/2=up/down, 1/3=left/right, 9/6=forward/back.

Pretty good layout. I'll have to plug in one of my PS3 controllers and try it. I think I'd be putting max engines on R1, cut engines on L1, and brakes on Circle though. I use the engine controls a lot more than brakes, and having them all in one place is important to me.

That's a good point! It never occurred to me that the two could be combined. I guess the only situation where this would be a disadvantage is if you want to hold the plane against the brakes while the engines spool up, though as you said, the keyboard controls could be used in that case.

Edited January 8, 2015 by FlyingPete

[Freshmeat]

I use dual gamepad for pitch/yaw and translate sideways, and two single axis joysticks for roll and translate forward/back. The gamepad is mounted so I can use it one handed when I don't need translation and rotation in concert. I feel the most important extra control is a throttle for fine landings.

[FlyingPete]

I think a good setup would be to have a 2-axis flight yoke for pitch/yaw, 2-axis joystick for translate left/right and up/down, rudder pedals for yaw, with the toe brakes used as a combined axis for translate forward/back (right brake=forwards, left brake=backwards) That way you could fly a plane normally, rockets would be acceptable as well, and using the yoke 1-handed you could handle all six axes for docking.

[hellblazer]

I use this for all takeoffs and flight control. Use the mouse and keyboard for everything else.

Thrustmaster 2960703 T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick for $55 and free shipping from of Amazon you cant go wrong. 12 buttons you can program and 5 Axles.

Edited January 10, 2015 by hellblazer

[pincushionman]

…Thrustmaster 2960703 T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick for…

Thinking real hard about ordering one of those. What do you map to the fifth axis (the rocker on the throttle)? It just screams "wheel steering" to me, but I'm not sure I shouldn't just map that to the same axis as the yaw control.

[vexx32]

If I had one of those, I'd probably map it to the RCS translation controls. Well, some of them, anyway.