[eisberg]

So I am playing FSO and have the Thrustmaster Hostas X joystick.  I know that when I played Freespace back when they first released I was able to dog fight just fine with a joystick, but now I cant aim worth crap with a joystick, no matter how much I change the sensitivity or the dead zone there is always over steering/aiming.  If I use mouse for aiming I can aim with high accuracy like I was able to with a Joystick back in the late 90s.

What am I missing here?  Are they not making joysticks like they used to?  Just feels wrong to be using a mouse in a space combat simulator, but looks like that is the only way to play in order to actually aim at the enemy with good accuracy.

[rscaper1070]

Personally I think this might be because of Microsoft. I don't think the Windows joystick calibration is all that great. I recently started playing War Thunder and that game probably has the best joystick support I've ever seen. It was like I had a brand new joystick. I didn't know my stick could be that accurate. War Thunder has a calibration setup right in the game and it does a better job than Windows. It would be awesome if FSO could do the same but I'm sure that there are far more pressing matters.

[Mebber]

I've got the same problem like you in FS2, i can't hit anything with my joystick in FS2. But mouse control isn't that bad imo if you get used to it.

I guess rscaper1070 is right, it's program dependent. I can play Starlancer, X-Wing Alliance and X just well with a decent aim using the stick, but i wouldn't hit a disabled Orion fifty foot in front of me in Freespace.

[Parias]

Not sure what to say - if it means anything, I've got no problems with my Saitek x52. I do feel a bit of that same oversteer if I haven't touched FS2 in a few months and I'm just getting back into the game, but if I stick with it for a couple of missions I've gotten used to it again and have no problems.

[Al-Rik]

So I am playing FSO and have the Thrustmaster Hostas X joystick.  I know that when I played Freespace back when they first released I was able to dog fight just fine with a joystick, but now I cant aim worth crap with a joystick, no matter how much I change the sensitivity or the dead zone there is always over steering/aiming.  If I use mouse for aiming I can aim with high accuracy like I was able to with a Joystick back in the late 90s.

I changed from the Hotas X to a Saitek X52 pro, and the Saitek is much more precise (pick down turrets with a Maxim is much easier with the X52).

Have you tried to loose the spring of the Hotas X ? IMHO this would help a little bit.

[niffiwan]

Well, this is based on memory with all its inherent inaccuracy, but when I first played Freespace2 with a joystick (Win98) I had trouble with aiming, I was constantly overshooting what I was targeting.  Practise over time reduced the issue, but I noticed it again when I played something like XWA and returned to Freespace2..  However, I now play on Linux and I don't believe I have the same problem. I'm also currently playing XWA under wine and I'm not having the "readjustment" issues from switching between the two that I recall from before.

I believe this is significant because (AFAIK) Linux uses SDL for input and Windows doesn't, so maybe there is something odd in the Windows joystick code?

[eisberg]

Well, this is based on memory with all its inherent inaccuracy, but when I first played Freespace2 with a joystick (Win98) I had trouble with aiming, I was constantly overshooting what I was targeting.  Practise over time reduced the issue, but I noticed it again when I played something like XWA and returned to Freespace2..  However, I now play on Linux and I don't believe I have the same problem. I'm also currently playing XWA under wine and I'm not having the "readjustment" issues from switching between the two that I recall from before.

I believe this is significant because (AFAIK) Linux uses SDL for input and Windows doesn't, so maybe there is something odd in the Windows joystick code?

hmm, Now I need to learn to use Linux.  Any recommendations on where to go to learn how to install Linux as a second OS, and which version of Linux to install?  Is there a GUI version of Linux, and can i play Freespace 2 OS through that GUI?

I am a total noob when it comes to Linux, don't know anything about it.

[niffiwan]

well, I'd probably refer you to Linux Mint if you want to try it out.  I'm running Linux Mint 13 MATE myself.  Here's the official doco for version 13:
http://www.linuxmint.com/documentation/user-guide/english_13.0.pdf

Here's an install guide: (there are videos on youtube as well)
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/06/06/how-to-dual-boot-linux-mint-13-cinnamonmate-and-windows-7/

Note: you should backup everything important on your PC before trying to install any other OS, just in case anything goes wrong or you make a mistake.

The only thing is, it's a fairly big shift to make for a single game. I do Linux sysadmin as my day job, so using it as a full time desktop is actually easier than using windows, it also means I'm really bad at judging how difficult it'll be for someone else to use it.

On the other hand, I believe that FSO on Windows will be switching to SDL for input after 3.7.0 is released, which admittedly could take a while.  But it is on the roadmap

[eisberg]

So tried to use Linux, way way to man hoops to jump through, completely user unfriendly, not to mention it chokes while trying to do more then 1 process.  Just not worth all the hoop jumping for one game.  Guess I will just be using the mouse.

[FreeSpaceFreak]

So tried to use Linux, way way to man hoops to jump through, completely user unfriendly, not to mention it chokes while trying to do more then 1 process.

Um. What? Linux Mint, which niffiwan recommended, is at least as user-friendly as Windows, if not more so - I've been using both quite recently. Furthermore, any Linux can handle plenty of processes indeed. I'm a full-time Linux user myself, including for playing FSO, and it works like a marvel. So what in the world have you been doing? You aren't trying to run it in a virtual box or off an external drive, are you? 'cuz that won't do for full-on gaming, you need to actually install it to your computer.

[eisberg]

So tried to use Linux, way way to man hoops to jump through, completely user unfriendly, not to mention it chokes while trying to do more then 1 process.

Um. What? Linux Mint, which niffiwan recommended, is probably more user-friendly than Windows, and any Linux can handle plenty of processes indeed. I play FSO on Linux myself, and it works like a marvel, with barely any more setup required than on Windows. So what in the world have you been doing?

I would be downloading and installing all the software needed just to compile the launcher needed for FSO, and the computer would temporarily lock up while doing when trying to also browse the internet, or just to look around on the OS or other software like the Office software, something that never happened to me on windows.  Plus, lets go back to compiling the software, I have to download 5 pieces of software, and configure some of them correctly and configure Linux to make sure those things work in order to eventually compile the launcher needed for FSO, which is something I did not have to do with Windows.

All that is far far away from "barely anymore setup required than on Windows"

[Mongoose]

Hmm, that sounds like the exact thing that was happening to me when I was trying to fool around with Ubuntu.  I think I at least partially resolved it by finally getting my video card drivers recognized, so I wonder if it's the same thing for you.

[niffiwan]

To install (reasonably) up to date video drivers, there should be a "green computer chip" icon on the taskbar, if clicked this should prompt you to install new hardware drivers (including ones for the video card).

If that doesn't work you could also try installing the 'nvidia-current' (fglrx for ATI?) package using "synaptic", otherwise it might be in the "software centre".

Lastly, this is the repo I'm using for more recent video drivers:  https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates (but I wouldn't worry about that unless you're having problems with the default ones).

edit: spelling!

[FreeSpaceFreak]

I would be downloading and installing all the software needed just to compile the launcher needed for FSO, and the computer would temporarily lock up while doing when trying to also browse the internet, or just to look around on the OS or other software like the Office software, something that never happened to me on windows.

That's odd, what kind of hardware are you running?

Plus, lets go back to compiling the software, I have to download 5 pieces of software, and configure some of them correctly and configure Linux to make sure those things work in order to eventually compile the launcher needed for FSO, which is something I did not have to do with Windows.

... which literally consists of copy-pasting, what, ten commands into the terminal? Don't pretend that that's hard, everyone knows how to copy-paste Okay, Windows 'only' requires you to download and install four pieces of software - OpenAL, Launcher, FSO, joystick drivers (they're plug-and-play on Linux), but is that so much better?

[Dragon]

Joysticks are, in many cases, also plug-and-play on Windows. The ones that aren't are either very old or very high-end. So that's three pieces of software.