I have searched the forums already, but could not find a basic guide to joystick config, and blast it, this nearing his 30s gamer couldn't figure out the calibration screen. Could someone tell me just what I should be doing with my Cyborg 3D in each "set centre" section? I keep doing a roll as soon as I exit the station. I'm still dizzy!

Increase your dead-zone.

Thanks, RelayeR, will do. Is setting the dead zone an in-game option? I must have missed it.

But I should calibrate whilst I'm there anyway, right? And I don't understand what I'm supposed to do, with the "Raw" vs. "Calibrated" bars. There's a couple of moving lines, a white block bug.... do I just leave the stick alone (i.e. "centred"), and "Set centre" for each axis? What about the throttle? Should that be placed in the middle, all the way down, or....?

Thanks again!

The Calibration screen can be a bit confusing. I hope this explanation is less so:

The "Raw" value shows what VO sees as the current position of that joystick axis, and how that position will be mapped to the game. The red line represents the current position of that input axis. It should move to match the physical position of the stick exactly (as the OS reports it anyway). First, move the stick through its entire range of motion on axis you are calibrating, then release it (or move it to Center if it's a throttle), and click the "Set Center" button.

The "Calibrated" bar shows how the input from the joystick is being mapped to control in the game. It gets its values based on the position of the red indicator within the white areas of the Raw input bar. The white portions of the bar on screen (defined by the 4 white arrows above it) show you the range of "Raw" values that will be mapped as input to the game. You adjust the mapping by changing the dead zone and saturation values for that axis.

The dead zone is the gap on either side from the center where Raw input does not translate into Calibrated input to the game. You adjust the dead zone by dragging the two white arrows that are closest to the center position. Making the dead zone wider makes the stick feel less sensitive near the center position.

The saturation value is where the white bar stops at each end of the axis. By setting this value, you change the point on the "Raw" input bar that corresponds to the end of the "Calibrated" bar. If you set the saturation points to the ends of the Raw line, then you have to move the stick to the end of its range on that axis for the game to see it as full input on that axis. Moving the saturation points closer to the center means you move the stick less to achieve the same level of input (and that past a certain point, it will not move/turn your ship any faster).

The "Sensitivity" of the stick is controlled by the dead zone and saturation. Setting a very large dead zone and/or a low saturation point in each direction means that the game will be mapping the entire range of the in-game control (which you cannot change) to a small portion of the stick's physical range of motion, making it difficult to control your ship precisely.

The throttle can be tricky to set up for this game. You should also keep in mind that because there are 2 flight modes, there are two different options for forward/reverse movement when setting up a joystick. One is "Throttle", which acts as you would expect as long as you have Flight Assist on (Center represents 50% throttle). The other is "Accelerate", which works the same way that the Strafe controls do (Center represents no acceleration, though you may still be moving). Accelerate works with Flight Assist on or off, much like the W and S keys do.

With the Cyborg, I tend to ignore the throttle on it, as it is in a very poor position to allow access to other useful controls.

Excellent reply greengeek, a concise an explanation of JS settings which should be stickied for posterity .

Ecka

Hello!

My joystick is no where near sensitive enough to fly the ship. Here are my values in my config.ini file:

[Logitech Logitech Extreme 3D (/dev/input/js0)]
enabled=1
JOYX=Turn
xaxisinvert=1
xaxiscenter=-1211242428
xaxismindeadzone=158811480
xaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
xaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
xaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYY=Pitch
yaxisinvert=0
yaxiscenter=-1211242428
yaxismindeadzone=158811480
yaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
yaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
yaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYZ=Throttle
zaxisinvert=0
zaxiscenter=-1211242428
zaxismindeadzone=158811480
zaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
zaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
zaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYRX=
Rxaxisinvert=0
Rxaxiscenter=-1211242428
Rxaxismindeadzone=158811480
Rxaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
Rxaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
Rxaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYRY=
Ryaxisinvert=0
Ryaxiscenter=-1211242428
Ryaxismindeadzone=158811480
Ryaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
Ryaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
Ryaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYRZ=
Rzaxisinvert=0
Rzaxiscenter=-1211242428
Rzaxismindeadzone=158811480
Rzaxisdeadzone=-1074576008
Rzaxisminsaturation=-1210298380
Rzaxissaturation=-1220643104
JOYBUTTON0=+Shoot2
JOYBUTTON1=+Shoot1
JOYBUTTON2=+Shoot3
JOYBUTTON3=+Turbo
JOYBUTTON4=
JOYBUTTON5=
JOYBUTTON6=
JOYBUTTON7=
JOYBUTTON8=
JOYBUTTON9=
JOYBUTTON10=
JOYBUTTON11=

If I change the numbers to much smaller values, then the game simply resets the values and nothing changes.

Thoughts?

I rebooted again, and now it's working. The numbers look the same in the config.ini file.

DoctorBeau:
sorry I just picked this up now, you probbly already sorted :-)
But I also have a Cyborg 3D Gold (USB) fitted now to my Mac (an old joystick from my PC), so if you have any questions or wanna compare notes just /msg me ingame.

Personally I set about 1/5 of the slider as dead zone, and saturate at about 90% of the maximum extension (so I get full on without necessarily really slamming the joystick).

-- Foo Fighter

SnowDog2003, I have the opposite problem. Mine is too sensitive and makes it hard to aim at ships. How does one go about changing sensitivity?

I'd say that joystick calibration still needs some serious overhaul. Without greengeek's very good explanation (thanks for that!), I'd still no clue how it's meant at all. Every time I enter the calibration screen, I only see 2 arrows where I should see 4. I figured that I need to press the reset button first to see all 4 (and using them as expected), otherwise I'd just be able to grab the vertical red line and from there pulling a white bar to the left(!).

The current values apparently aren't shown (or not read out). Also, after doing some changes to saturation/dead zone (after pressing 'reset' first), the 'apply'-button is still inactive. So the only feedback about whether the changes took effect are via comparing the values in config.ini and how it "feels" ingame.

Is it just me or probably only the Linux client? For a laughable fee of say 5Million (ingame) credits I'd happily recheck on Windows (if someone's really curious). If it matters, I'm using an old MS Sidewinder FF Pro...

Did it (5M to my bank account, or alternatively, please donate some hand soup).
To my surprise there's no calibration button at all in Windows, also only 4 axes instead of 6 in Linux! It's debatable though, whether 'calibrating' a digital stick makes sense, would need some investigations on the Linux client. Things like 'dead zones' are usually not being used with digital controller, though I might be wrong at this point. Furthermore, the 2 extra axes in Linux are actually the coolie hat, which in fact are buttons (simple 4 switches, all triggered by one and the same button).

While I was at it, I had a look at ping times and fps. I'm aware that both values are never constant and depend on many factors, also hardware is slightly different (Windows is running on the slower disk here), so take it with a grain of salt: while ping times seem marginally better with Linux (~5ms, in other words: forget it), fps (in front of the same station, no visible roids, no fleet around) are ~20-30% better with Linux here. Besides the framerates, the game also feels more smoothly in Linux. Though I guess the occasional jerking in Windows stem from the slower disk. Last not least both looks the same, no advantage (as I expected) from Windows DX9 drivers.

Anyway, if you have both and are in doubt, there's no reason/advantage of playing Vendetta in Windows.

At risk of being slapped down for thread necromancy, I wonder if there are any plans to give Windows users a joystick calibration button? I suppose I could just start changing numbers in the wgaf.cfg file and see what happens.

I would like to see a calibration button for us window users my stick is to sencitve to use in this game

I grabbed the $20 USB XBox 360 game receiver. The 2 thumb-sticks are correctly mapped by VO, as are the buttons and bumpers. However the two TRIGGERS are treated as another analog "axis" and I cannot map them to allow me to fire weapons. For flight it's amazing having 2 thumbsticks to independently control flight, but the natural reaction to shoot with triggers is still out of reach. I'm not sure this is a bug as much as its a plea for a distinct feature adjustment. Thanks!

My controller is calibrated differently I suppose. I have a logitech (don't know the exact name but its like a ps2 controller). I use the left stick to control my movement forward/backward/left/right. My right stick controls turn and pitch. By pressing in on the joysticks, I can spin one way or the other. The 2 left bumpers I use to control Up/Down movement and the the 2 right bumpers are for weapons fire. "X" button I use for activate. "Square" button to disengage aim. "Triangle" button to toggle autoaim. "Circle" to aim at nearest target. The up/down/right/left pad keys I designate for aiming at whats in front/ turbo/ last target/ and stop. Start acts as mission log and select as nav log. Any other keys of importance, I use the keyboard for.

I understand that it is quite difficult to aim with the joysticks. What gets me is that there tends to be a lot of oversteer, but I think that's because with mouselook, you can choose what you aim at and the ship will go to that point then stop, where as without the mouselook, you have to maintain everything yourself and know when to stop turning the ship. But yeah, I had a hell of a time first configuring the sticks. There are some days I'd leave the port only to be spinning pitchwise in an uncontrollable and endless cyclone.

dead zone...saturation.... i dont see any of that in the settings in VO

@weishtrekker
The deadzone, saturation, and more, is in the config.ini file. Look near the top of this thread, and you will see part of SnowDog2003's actual config.ini file. A full config.ini includes a lot more, yet you can see deadzone is the postfix of a name, such as yaxisdeadzone. The setup screen hides this part from us, yet a good text editor should be able to open the file for viewing/editing.

Using a uSoft FF2 stick. I would like to modify some of the values such as DEAD ZONE and SATURATION. I can go to OPTIONS -> CONTROLS -> JOYSTICK and there are four choices to set: XYZ Axis and Throttle. I can find no further "calibration" access or choices on that screen. I need to reduce the sensitivity near center position.
........................wisesam