ArmA Joystick Woes

[SixMarbles 0]

Three gripes/suggestions:

1) Null zone/Dead zone

There is a notable 'dead zone' in each joystick axis, including the throttle while playing ArmA. This is fine for joysticks which may be getting old, and whose potentiometers are beginning to show spiked input instead of nice, smooth operation. However, I recently bought a groovy stick with sensors and all, and I have to move the stick quite far from center to show any control input in helos and planes in-game. I'd like the null zone/dead zone to be an option one can set in the control menu, or at least tweak in the player profile (Username.ArmAProfile). Note to posters: 'Floating Zone' is something different altogether.

2) Multiple joystick support

I'd like to purchase some pedals to go with my shiny new joystick, but that would be pointless since ArmA only recognizes a single DirectInput device with controller ID 1.

3) Legacy OFP throttle behavior

In Operation: Flashpoint, there were two separate models for throttle behavior while flying fixed-wing aircraft:

Model 1 - Increasing the throttle on your joystick would also increase the throttle in your plane in a linear fashion. In other words, your power setting in a plane depends on your joystick's throttle.

Model 2 - The aircraft's throttle 'chases' an airspeed. If you're cruising level at 300 km/h, and you pull up to gain altitude, your engine rpm or n1 would audibly increase so that you'd continue to go 300 km/h. This is fancy and all, but is only truly useful for keyboard/mouse pilots.

My suggestion is to restore the OFP throttle system so that joystick users have better control of fixed-wing aircraft. In the OFP system, the moment you tapped a throttle key on your keyboard, the game switched to model 2 throttle behavior. Additionally, the moment you touched your joystick throttle, the game switched to the more realistic model 1 behavior.

[Kode 0]

I'm not experiencing a dead zone as you describe in point 1. if I move my stick slightly down, he reacts fine on it. What joystick do you have? Also did you install any software with it, and are you using it?

I agree on 2, they could perhaps implement it.

And finally, I can't compare it to OFP, it has been a while that I played it, and it's not even installed anymore  

[SixMarbles 0]

I am currently using a Saitek X52 HOTAS system. I know the deadzone is an artifact of the game and not of the joystick software or DirectInput because the calibration utility shows control deflection at even the slightest movement of the joystick. In addition, the joystick features a very large deflection range (6-8 inches depending on the axis), throughout which movement is quite smooth and linear as shown within the calibration utility. In my other games, I do not experience this large null zone. In ArmA, however, I must traverse about 30% of the deflection range to produce movement in game.

I did not notice the large threshold before, as I was using a joystick with a significantly smaller deflection range and a smaller, radial-style throttle (Logitech Extreme 3d Pro). This joystick's potentiometers were beginning to die, as a small deflection would produce fairly large spikes in input. In fact, operating the twist axis would sometimes produce large swings to the right on the x-axis. Thus, the large null zone was useful to me before, but is an annoyance now that I have a more precise joystick.

[Vassago 0]

I must traverse about 30% of the deflection range to produce movement in game.

That's for the throttle, right? I have the exact same issue with ArmA on my X52 Pro

[SixMarbles 0]

Quote[/b] ]That's for the throttle, right? I have the exact same issue with ArmA on my X52 Pro

It's for all axes, including throttle, X and Y. Again, it's not a problem with the X52 specifically, because the config utility shows smooth control deflection with the slightest deflection of the joystick or throttle. Other games (X3: Reunion, Wings Over Vietnam, Flight Sim) all detect tiny deflection because those games either have no built-in null zone or have a scalable null zone. I simply wish ArmA's null zone was customizable by the player.

[LeeRyman 0]

I get the feeling that the throttle in ArmA acts more like two buttons. Whenever your above 10% or so from center it is "increasing thrust" and below 10% "decreasing thrust". That is, the position of the throttle is not relative to the desired thrust, its just indicative of whether you want more or less with the center dead-zone meaning "don't change".

Can anyone confirm if this is the case? If so what is the point of having a throttle? It would be preferrable to have a linear relationship as a previous poster suggested.

[CharveL 0]

How hard can it be to enable a couple more axes, really?

I'd love to be able to use my CH pedals/Throttle as well. If this was an arcade game more like BF2 then I'd understand but even though ArmA isn't much of a vehicle sim it would still be a welcome feature to have a couple more axes to assign.

[Spy17 1]

Yea especially the non linear thrust is really annoying!

It worked fine in OFP and I hope BIS will fix it.

[Maddmatt 1]

I get the feeling that the throttle in ArmA acts more like two buttons. Whenever your above 10% or so from center it is "increasing thrust" and below 10% "decreasing thrust". That is, the position of the throttle is not relative to the desired thrust, its just indicative of whether you want more or less with the center dead-zone meaning "don't change".

Can anyone confirm if this is the case? If so what is the point of having a throttle? It would be preferrable to have a linear relationship as a previous poster suggested.

Yes, seems to be an ArmA problem. I only really noticed it with the A10s since I didn't pay much attention to the planes before, but now it bugs me.

In the mission Devils Cross with the A10, when taxiing to the runway I could not match the speed of the AI A10 in front of me, I had to use brakes to prevent myself from slamming into it.

I also notice the deadzone. I use an old MS Force Feedback 2 which is still in great condition, and I would like to reduce the deadzone to something much smaller.

[InsaneDruid 0]

Copy on suggestion 2 and 3.

Its kind of sad that ARMA can't handle multiple Devices.

Especially on Choppers an additional Pedal would be VERY usefull, its a shame that this cannot be done since most pedals are standalone devices.

[SixMarbles 0]

I have discovered a partial solution to the problems listed above.

1) PPJoy and other handy utilities such as GlovePIE can be used to combine joysticks into a single 'virtual' joystick so that ArmA can technically use more than one. Also, I have personally tested an extremely useful tool called JoyToKey which allows you to emulate mouse or keyboard input using a joystick. I mapped my pedals' primary axis to mouse X-axis in J2K, then in-game I mapped rudder to mouse X axis. Thus, I had easy, sensitive, scalable rudder authority in-game with NO NULL ZONE and using two input devices.

GlovePIE specifically is useful since you can write scripts to alter axis deflection values, which I'll be doing for the purpose of eliminating that enormous null zone in the X, Y, and throttle axes. In my vision of a utopian future, all deflection greater than zero will cause DirectInput to interpret a large jump in that direction (either positive or negative) thus 'cancelling out' the game's built-in null zone. Additionally, I'll have to scale down the remainder of the axis so that the interpreted axis will reach its full potential when I reach full joytick deflection.

So far this solves issues 1 and 2 from my first post.

Issue 3...the ball's in the mod community's court now. No patch has been released for some time and I get the feeling the ArmA development cycle has effectively stopped.

Thus, I don't believe it's possible to restore OFP's throttle system without modifying the game software itself.

[Maddmatt 1]

Issue 3...the ball's in the mod community's court now.

That's not for mods to fix. The game engine needs changes, the developers need to do that.

Quote[/b] ] No patch has been released for some time and I get the feeling the ArmA development cycle has effectively stopped.

Well you obviously don't read much here. Go have a look in the general section

[SixMarbles 0]

I would prefer that posts here be useful and constructive. Posting a "you're wrong" message doesn't help me or anyone else solve the joystick axis issue, but thanks for the bump anyways.

[Maddmatt 1]

Posting a "you're wrong" message doesn't help me or anyone else solve the joystick axis issue...

It wasn't meant to help you solve it. The only ones that can really fix it are the developers.

You posted something that was false and I just pointed it out. There are threads about the current beta patch and the upcoming patch.

The axis issue bugs me too. I also want it fixed.

[woppa 0]

i use a cougar and simped f16 + peds with no issues but i guess they come under one control device as the peds plug into the stick.

i find it very sensitive and have to make a null zone in the controller software

regards

woppa

P.S. you can edit controller configs in your arma profile but i don't know what values are while axis

[pchaxor 0]

I use a Nostromo n52 and a Saitek AV8R flight stick.

The only way to use them both in ArmA is to NOT install the Belkin software that enables the Nostromo Gamepad device.

Even though the Saitek is selected as the "preferred" control, ArmA still opts to use the Nostromo if the Belkin drivers are installed. (Without the drivers, the Nostromo simply acts as a "keyboard" device.) This works as a work around, but it would be nice to be able to use the Nostromo programming software.

My 2 cents.