Author Topic: Recommended Hotas System  (Read 2679 times)

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Offline Gray

  • 25
Recommended Hotas System
Hello guys,

which Hotas system would you recommend?
The main - and only - purpose is to work with Diaspora.

I've read these threads:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=89512.0

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81953.0

Do i have to go through all the shenenigans described in that thread or was the (FSO) engine updated at some point over the last year?

 
Re: Recommended Hotas System
As luck would have it, I just got the Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X. I'd actually been hoping to pick out something else (my previous joystick was a much older version of the same design whose sensors had succumbed to age, and I was hoping there'd been some revolution in joystick technology in the past decade-plus), but I found it was the best reviewed reasonably-priced joystick-and-throttle I could find when I was researching. And it has some advantages over my old version (aside from, you know, turning my plane when I move it). There are more buttons, which is nice, the throttle has a stop in the center, which can be useful for sims that use that sort of thing for reversing thrust or afterburners, and the joystick switch and throttle rocker are now separate axes (on my old one, you could only have one or the other turned on), which also hasn't come up yet, but it feels like it'll be cool at some point when I need four dimensions of movement and not just three.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

  • 29
  • Madman in a box.
Re: Recommended Hotas System
Hello guys,

which Hotas system would you recommend?
The main - and only - purpose is to work with Diaspora.

I've read these threads:

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=89512.0

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=81953.0

Do i have to go through all the shenenigans described in that thread or was the (FSO) engine updated at some point over the last year?


Avoid anything Saitek, at least for now.

For the rest, it depends.

If you are really sure you don't want to play other (older) space games the HOTAS x (or HOTAS 4, they are the same, only the latter is PC/PS4 instead of PC/PS3) is good enough and it's a single device so no problem with single device games like Freespace.

The problems arises with some older games (like X-wing or Wing Commander), some older spacesims (especially the DOS ones) don't allow to modify the button layout, support only four buttons natively or both.
External softwares unfortunately don't allow to overrive whatever those games have decided to bind the buttons to, so it would be better to use a HOTAS or joystick with a proprietary software like Thrustmaster own TARGET or CH Products' Control Manager.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline Dragon

  • Citation needed
  • 212
  • The sky is the limit.
Re: Recommended Hotas System
X-Wing allows rebinding buttons, or at least the version I'm currently playing (from Steam) does. But yes, for really old games like the first Wing Commander you'll want CH controllers and their Control Manager.

 

Offline Gray

  • 25
Re: Recommended Hotas System
Thx for the replys guys, i got myself a shiny X52, which filled all the requirements.

It's gonna be tricky setting it up for Diaspora, but alas no pain no gain. ^^
It also works like a charm for MWO - out of the box, the only thing that's bugger there is the games built-in deadzone...so even if i set the value to zero, there is still a hidden value that offsets it
which results in a delay between moving the stick and having the movement onscreen.. [sigh]

I assume Diaspora/ FSO doesn't have that nonsense?
I remember vaguely that FS2 and FSO in the early days were pretty responsive in that regard.

  

Offline deathspeed

  • 29
  • i can't think of a good avatar
    • Steam
Re: Recommended Hotas System
I use a Sidewinder ForceFeedback 2, but Vipers are so responsive in Diaspora that I usually play better when flying Raptors.   :wtf:
Maybe someday God will give you a little pink toaster of your own.