I was wondering if anyone knows of a GamePad that is pressure sensitive buttons? Before the "Get a wheel" I physically can't use a steering wheel or pedals. So I have to use a gamepad. I have one now, but would really like one with pressure sensitive buttons, so I can hold gas and brake at certain levels not full on or off.
I know that the PS2-pads are pressure sensitive and that there are converters for PS2-pad->USB. Unfortunately I don't know if there are any which can handle the pressure sensitvity
Yeah the converter I got for PC turns the buttons digital.
That's what I used to do before I got a wheel. PS2 pad driven R/C style with the shoulder buttons for changing gear and lower shoulder buttons for look left/right. It was hard to keep the cars in a straight line though due to a lack of central deadzones on the sticks.
To the thread starter: If you can use a wheel but not pedals, there are a couple of wheels available that have analogue paddles which you can use for brake and accelerator.
Yeah wish I could get my gamepad like the PS2 with pressure sensitive. I learned to use that to nice effect. Or wish there was some sort of DreamCast game pad. That had two triggers where were easy to hold at any level.
To clarify, I have a bone disease (Osteogenesis Imperfecta) which in my type makes your bones break easy and can make you really small. I'm also in a wheelchair. So a steerwheel and pedals are out for me. Since the turn radius of the wheel is to much for me to do for my arms. <sigh> As for pedals my feet don't touch the ground. Hehehe.
I've tried the thumbsticks, but gamepads are made for hands about twice the size of mine. lol. It's quite a stretch for both my thumbs to use them.
So thats why my interest in finding some game pad with pressure sensitivity.
seeing that someone already has posted a link to a pad I still don't want to let my searching efforts to go to waster - it's a PS2->PC converter with pressure-sensitive button support. I can't guarantee anything, but it would be worth a try, right?
Ah I see. To be honest I find modern gamepads pretty uncomfortable too and I've got big spindly bass guitarist hands. Maybe the links the guys above provided might work out for you.
One other idea: How about a flight stick, something like this? That one looks pretty expensive but maybe there are cheaper options. You could even have force-feedback if you were using a stick, although I don't know how harsh that would be on your hands. You could adjust the effect strength to suit I suppose.
Thanks for all the feedback guys. Yeah I CH HOTAS (I'm from Flight Sims) It might work, just might not be very good in the turns. Since Generally when I am flying you left had is doing slight corrects for throttle, right really doesn't go all that wild. lol
Hmm this one says it works with PC (Actually I'm a Mac user in Bootcamp, but restart in WinXP is like having a PC native) after downloading some drivers. And it has triggers for gas and brake.
I have an Sony PS2 pad (Dual Shock 2) - Analog Buttons. I use a usb converter simlar to the the SmartJoy Dual Box Pro (2 Gamepads) http://www.gamersection.ca/product_i...products_id=52 posted by Herki above. Unfortuanately the standard windows driver for it converts the analog buttons into digital signals. The buttons can't be assigned as axis for example. I don't know if better drivers exist to make these analog buttons function properly.
The cheapest thing for you is to use the unused stick as accel/brake, but because you cant separate the axis you cant Trail brake (or whatever its called).
However: just the other day I was in EB (Australian Store) and I saw these PS2 type pads specifically for PC / USB. I was like wow they're cheap (~$40 AUD (~$25 USD) ) Considering I paid $50AUD for my pad and $70AUD for the converter around 3 years ago.
Then on the same self I saw these dedicated X-box360 type USB controllers. Same price ~$40AUD. I looked and they had the shoulder trigger buttons which I know are analog on the Xbox. So maybe these act as a seperate Axis for analog inputs? I didn't ask the attendant because they usually have no clue about their products, apart from what is written on the box. So sorry, I can't remember the brand. Some generic accessories brand it was (box is usually black and white with simple looking schematic diagrams of the product pasted all over the box). These Xbox lookalike pads, some where made to look like they were for a NFS-Carbon promotion or something, some were just the standard box.
I would have bought one, but I dont like the idea of using my index finger for accelerating, it would ache after about 5 minutes for me, my finger tendons are pretty shot already.
Not much help, I'm sorry, just keep your eyes open. Something will pop up.
Ok, update. lol. I got a X Box 360 controller it works. Took some time getting the triggers, since both triggers LFS sees as one button. So pull right trigger pulls one axis down, pull the left trigger pushes the same axis up. Putting it to Throttle/Brake combined can do it.
Now I just need to figure out how to dampen the thumb stick. So when it is centered, it takes more movement to move the wheel on the screen. Right now it moves the wheel slightly when holding it centered. Anyway in LFS to dampen out movement? It's just the center position where the wheel will move slightly.
Once I figure out the center dampening then the second thumb stick could use for views or something.
In LFS you could try messing with Options > Controls > Wheel Turn Compensation - apparently this controls the linearity between your steering axis and steering in-game, so you can set it to steer less in the middle of your axis (I'm not sure which end of the slider does which though!).
Also try experimenting with the Analogue Steer Smooth slider in Options > Misc. This evens out your inputs a bit at the expense of some responsiveness.
Or you could download DXTweak from the Wingman website. This lets you set deadzones and calibration for DirectInput controllers, so you might be able to get a better set up on your controller using that.
Good luck, have fun.
Actually, when driving the RWD cars in LFS if you can use that same technique you'd be really quick.
Still trying to adjust the center deadband. :/ Besides that it's working good for me, can hold triggers and for gas and brake (Minus not being able to use gas and brake at the same time)
Wheel Turn Compensation I adjusted to 1.00, but still seems to have movement in the center. Changed Force Strength too to full but didn't help. Analogue Smoothing doesn't effect the center point, only the full range of motion speed.
Like you, my PS2 pad was also too sensitive at first. Even when I had all the settings correct. After I re-calibrated in LFS it worked great !! Options >> Controlls >> Axis/FF (click re-calibrate Axis) Then once done >> Calibration Lock = YES
Everytime you restart LFS - you should move the sticks in max circles and triggers to MAX to make LFS re-recognise the limits of your controller.
Remove Deadzones (on/off )seems to have no effect at all - however because I got a reasonable sensitivity (not very touchy) I dont need dead zones. It tracks centre really nicely.
Try holding the steering stick at about 25% and move that Wheel turn Compensation slider - see the difference? Use a Wheel turn Compensation slider setting so that the wheel turns out the least to get a less touchy turning. (I think it is 1.0)
Do the same with Wheel Turn 90-270 adjustment to see how it affects the steering angle. (You can see the wheel HUD move the steering)
But - make sure you re-calibrate in LFS - thats a big problem for most with this type of controller.
edit: If your adjusting Force Strength, that is the Force Feeback amount for Wheels.
Tried it out, still have the same issue there is about 5 degrees of movement on center. Just wish LFS had some sort of deadband sliders you could adjust.
No matter what I change the center point doesn't seem to change.
Neglouseight, XBCD drivers for the xbox controllers allow you to fix that joystick deadzone.
The only shortcoming I've found is that LFS does not recognize the pressure sensitive buttons when they're set as axes. So you're stuck with the two triggers and analog sticks.
The good news is that you can use throttle and brake as separate axes, by setting them as separate axes in the XBCD software, then calibrating them as such under Windows' calibration wizard.
I have used the Xbox360 controller with the XBCD community drivers for a while, and they have worked great. One thing you will have to note is that if you have already installed the default (read: crap) microsoft drivers for the pad, you will not be able to get the XBCD drivers to work. Therefore, you must delete the original microsoft driver file (in the system32 folder) for the pad before the XBCD drivers will be used by the OS. Basically, installing the XBCD drivers will NOT overwrite the original drivers, and as long as the original drivers remain, the XBCD drivers will not be active.
The controller is pretty decent for LFS: Left stick - steer, triggers - independent pedals (my crap pedals can't even do that...), and right stick - freelook! And yes, the XBCD drivers will allow you to set the deadzones for the analog sticks, absolutely ESSENTIAL. SHAME on microsoft for not even including this functionality in their drivers.
All(that I have seen) Xbox conrollers drivers are shite, certain buttons/axis cause conflicting-system-lag when used in conjunction with one and other.
More so the pad itself as it is the most combeersome uncomfortable piece of hardware I've put my hands on, also imo it is not in any way suited to driving games/sims.
To those of you gamepad users that know how to use message boards, please report your findings/ideas in the relevant thread.
The ergonomics are rather bulky, but once you've gotten used to it, the triggers and analog sticks are quite good. I'd say 7.5 or 8/10 overall.
What other gamepad has 14 buttons, 6 axes (+1 that LFS doesn't recognize), including nice springy triggers like the xbox's?
The latter emulate the sense of pedals pretty well.
The drivers have never given me any hint of lag or bugs, over about 4 different PC configurations and probably a dozen windows installs.
What other gamepad can do accurate, separate throttle, brake, and steering axes, as well as a second center-returning joystick to use for freeview?
The XBox controllers certainly aren't perfect, but they do the job quite well.
I don't quite remember the name of the driver, but if you go into device manager and open up the page for the xbox 360 controller (if it doesn't say XBCD, then you have the MS driver) which will have the filename of the driver. Delete this, unplug the controller, install XBCD, then plug it back in.
Yeah I CH HOTAS (I'm from Flight Sims) It might work, just might not be very good in the turns. Since Generally when I am flying you left had is doing slight corrects for throttle, right really doesn't go all that wild. lol 
