Dual joystick

[drewjn]

I am posting this in case others felt like experimenting, or just wanted a few ideas. I was considering all the different options, and I think I found one that might actually be sensible, and considerably cheaper. Normal hotas configs cost at minimum 150-220 for Saitek with heavy QC issues, 280-350 for CH products with minimalist buttons, but very good build quality, and then 420+ (unless on sale on newegg) for a thrustmaster warthog (+100-220 for rudder pedals).

 

My use of cheap dual joysticks (initially for testing purposes) costs 50 to 100 depending on where you bought them from. Logitech extreme 3d pro (20-37 usd) and the Thrustmaster T-16000m (25-60 usd). Both are very decent and very accurate single joysticks. Prior to my actual full post, I would like to say that I would I possibly consider changing the logitech for either a ch stick (110 to 160) or a thrustmaster warthog (stick only 200usd at microcenter) for more hats and buttons.

 

 

Current route:

Kb/m (for fine tuning, or if someone seriously pisses me off)

Dual joystick for racing and dogfighting.

• Left stick focuses on strafe, throttle, brake/boost, and countermeasures. Also a 'just in case' option for roll, if I decide to forgo right stick in favor of a mouse for a small and annoying target.
• Right stick handles pitch, yaw, roll with firing options, cycling of targets, and shield controls.

Buttons on joystick bases do have some 'in case' configuration, but I won't worry about it as I got a keyboard in between if needed.

 

 

Specific peripherals:

Right stick: Logitech extreme 3d pro.

• Is a cheap stick known for accuracy, and limited deadzone. Also a tad heavy in comparison, so it can make do with the oversensitivity of the current star citizen controls (options to change are not too good yet).
• Z-axis is very sensitive, so I have it as roll with x-axis as yaw, and it works far better than the reverse. I do have the opposite as a decoupled version to test with

Left stick: Thrustmaster T-16000m

• Ambidextrous stick where you can adjust wrist guard, etc to make things easier. It has less overall buttons on the stick but will work just fine for the current setup. Very accurate, even more so than the 3d pro, but a bit lighter, and less tense, so might not be as easy if used for pitch, roll, yaw.
• Has virtually no deadzone and is quite ergonomic. Major downside is the lack of numbered buttons which makes organizing the controls when inputting to be a pain.

 

 

Current control scheme:

 

Right stick: (logitech extreme 3d pro)

Pitch: y-axis

Yaw: x-axis

Roll: z-axis (twist)

 

Trigger: Fire Group 1

Button 2: Fire Group 2 (position on thumb rest)

Button 3: Fire Group 3

Button 4: Fire Group 4 / Missiles

Button 5: Cycle targets

Button 6: Shield reset

Hat: shield control (front, back, left, right; when top/bottom is added, will use double tap on up/down for those)

 

 

Left stick: (thrustmaster t-16000m)

X-axis: strafe left/right

Y-axis: strafe foward/back

Z-axis: strafe up/down

 

Trigger: Boost/afterburn

Button2: fire countermeasure

Button3: spacebreak

Button4: cycle countermeasure

 

Hat:

up/down throttle with double tap max/min

left/right roll (in case I use mouse instead of right stick)

 

 

__________________________

 

I hope this post will be of some use to you guys. Also, for a fun little tidbit, if you consider a few of the ship interiors, the Connie and a few others actualy have dual sticks in the interior, so I wouldn't completely discount immersion being only for hotas.

[Krml]

@drewjn I wont use it as have my hotas but...man kudos for sharing

[Jaybird]

Whole article review and no pics.

[Corwin111]

I am posting this in case others felt like experimenting, or just wanted a few ideas. I was considering all the different options, and I think I found one that might actually be sensible, and considerably cheaper. Normal hotas configs cost at minimum 150-220 for Saitek with heavy QC issues, 280-350 for CH products with minimalist buttons, but very good build quality, and then 420+ (unless on sale on newegg) for a thrustmaster warthog (+100-220 for rudder pedals).

 

My use of cheap dual joysticks (initially for testing purposes) costs 50 to 100 depending on where you bought them from. Logitech extreme 3d pro (20-37 usd) and the Thrustmaster T-16000m (25-60 usd). Both are very decent and very accurate single joysticks. Prior to my actual full post, I would like to say that I would I possibly consider changing the logitech for either a ch stick (110 to 160) or a thrustmaster warthog (stick only 200usd at microcenter) for more hats and buttons.

 

 

Current route:

Kb/m (for fine tuning, or if someone seriously pisses me off)

Dual joystick for racing and dogfighting.

• Left stick focuses on strafe, throttle, brake/boost, and countermeasures. Also a 'just in case' option for roll, if I decide to forgo right stick in favor of a mouse for a small and annoying target.
• Right stick handles pitch, yaw, roll with firing options, cycling of targets, and shield controls.

Buttons on joystick bases do have some 'in case' configuration, but I won't worry about it as I got a keyboard in between if needed.

 

 

Specific peripherals:

Right stick: Logitech extreme 3d pro.

• Is a cheap stick known for accuracy, and limited deadzone. Also a tad heavy in comparison, so it can make do with the oversensitivity of the current star citizen controls (options to change are not too good yet).
• Z-axis is very sensitive, so I have it as roll with x-axis as yaw, and it works far better than the reverse. I do have the opposite as a decoupled version to test with

Left stick: Thrustmaster T-16000m

• Ambidextrous stick where you can adjust wrist guard, etc to make things easier. It has less overall buttons on the stick but will work just fine for the current setup. Very accurate, even more so than the 3d pro, but a bit lighter, and less tense, so might not be as easy if used for pitch, roll, yaw.
• Has virtually no deadzone and is quite ergonomic. Major downside is the lack of numbered buttons which makes organizing the controls when inputting to be a pain.

 

 

Current control scheme:

 

Right stick: (logitech extreme 3d pro)

Pitch: y-axis

Yaw: x-axis

Roll: z-axis (twist)

 

Trigger: Fire Group 1

Button 2: Fire Group 2 (position on thumb rest)

Button 3: Fire Group 3

Button 4: Fire Group 4 / Missiles

Button 5: Cycle targets

Button 6: Shield reset

Hat: shield control (front, back, left, right; when top/bottom is added, will use double tap on up/down for those)

 

 

Left stick: (thrustmaster t-16000m)

X-axis: strafe left/right

Y-axis: strafe foward/back

Z-axis: strafe up/down

 

Trigger: Boost/afterburn

Button2: fire countermeasure

Button3: spacebreak

Button4: cycle countermeasure

 

Hat:

up/down throttle with double tap max/min

left/right roll (in case I use mouse instead of right stick)

 

 

__________________________

 

I hope this post will be of some use to you guys. Also, for a fun little tidbit, if you consider a few of the ship interiors, the Connie and a few others actualy have dual sticks in the interior, so I wouldn't completely discount immersion being only for hotas.

 

I have been flying SC with dual joysticks for over 6 months now and having tested all other control schemes, including HOTAS and HOJAM, I'd say Iwould be sticking with it in the long run.

 

My right hand stick is a T.16000m for the greater accuracy that it brings, and my left is a junky Saitek F.L.Y 5, but I don't really need any accuracy for strafing anyway... I have just set its deadzones to like 80% and it strafes like a charm. It also has copious and very well placed buttons to compensate for the 16000's lack in this regard.

 

My control scheme is similar to yours, with the exception of forward and back strafe, which I rarely use, so I have up/down mapped to the Y axis instead. And also something that I find completely essential - I have mapped zoom in and zoom out to the up and down positions of the left stick's hat. 

[drewjn]

@Corwin111

 

I usually use decoupled, so throttle doesn't really exist, thus it makes my forward and back strafe a requirement. So far, I seem to prefer right hand mouse and keep the left stick regardless.

 

 

@Jaybird

 This post is not a review, and the sticks in question don't really matter. All that matters is the setup. Most sticks out there usually have the required number of buttons, so pics don't matter as much.

 

If you want to look at something scary, I've seen a setup where a guy has two thrustmaster warthog sticks custom attached to his workstation. Fully modified and everything.

[Krml]

This looks cool

http://cdn2.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/gallery/mekfu/mekfudisplayipad2-01-copy.jpg?cda6c1

 

still a concept though

[Grrizz]

This looks cool

http://cdn2.gamefront.com/wp-content/uploads/gallery/mekfu/mekfudisplayipad2-01-copy.jpg?cda6c1

 

still a concept though

 

There are a couple of those stations already available designed primarily for mech games

[Krml]

There are a couple of those stations already available designed primarily for mech games

 

should work for space sim, just wonder how much would they ask for it, to much for my pocket probably

[drewjn]

A number have built their own. Honestly though, sc gives enough input options that you can easily get by without something extremely custom.

Also, if you want another route, if you buy parts from the same company, all the peripherals register under one input, software wise. Ch in particular. This can be important for other games.