xbox 360 controller on laptop

[mallister]

my old gamepad is dying (after 2 years and travelling alll over the world i'm going to bury it with honors), and i'm having trouble with its replacement. i am using an xbox 360 USB controller on my laptop, however it doesn't seem to work at all with FF. OS is vista 32 bit and i have the vista compatible drivers installed.

the pad will not calibrate with the FF config tool, and the help menu that comes with the driver software has been less than helpful. on the status ring LED, i only have one of four segments lit. any suggestions? thanks!

[chazzyphizzle]

Well, if you are talking about the LED around the controller's middle, you should only have one light on. That means it is synced up with something. I used a wireless 360 controller for a while and to initially set it up, you have to press the button on the receiver and the little button just to the right of the left trigger on top of the controller, then you should see the controlled LED spin around a few times, blink, then stay at one line in the top left corner.

[mallister]

i'm using the wired version, but i'll give that a shot. thanks!

[Calina]

Do just any xbox 360 controllers work with PC or is there a special 1?Wanna pick 1 up when I go to pick up fear 2 wed at gamestop just wanna make sure i get the right thing(GTA4 is so anoying to play with a keyboard lol)

[Okan]

Just get a wired one for the PC. If you're using Windows and SP2+ it should just detect and work fine if the software you are using supports it. I was using the 360 controller to play WoW for a bit with some emulation software. Was kind of fun.

[mallister]

yeah i used one about 2 years ago when i had xp with no issues at all, worked like a charm. it's not liking things with vista though. still troubleshooting.

[Darkanaseur]

If you've downloaded the drivers, you also need to run FFXIConfig in your start menu, enable gamepads and configure the settings for it.

[Octavious]

I noticed you mention you're running Vista as well. As some people said, you probably just need to select enable gamepad in the FFXIconfig. Vista automatically loaded drivers when I synced my 360 gamepad to my desktop and I didn't even have to bust out the CD. Also, just to plug it, if you have an integrated bluetooth card you could sync a PS3 controller and use it as well. It's pretty nice, especially since the battery life is (from my experience) much longer than my 360 charge packs.

[Cutriss]

I've got plenty of experience on this topic.

Having used both a PS3 controller and the 360 controller, I prefer the 360 slightly. The d-pad on the 360 sucks, but the wireless receiver allows you to also use the 360 wireless headset, which I use on Vent. I use an app called Xpadder to handle the trigger buttons (I have profiles I can upload if people really want them), and I also assign left-Control to the back button on the controller as my PTT hotkey in Vent.

There's an alternative driver out there for the 360 controller as well which works nicely. Slightly faster input timing, and no need for Xpadder to handle the trigger axes, but you can't use the 360 headset with it, which makes it a dealbreaker for me, and you also lose the ability to use the Guide Button to check your power level, so you have no idea if it's over 9000.

The PS3 controller situation may have matured since I last checked, but last I saw, the BtSix driver was "pretty good" but not perfect. We actually did have battery problems, primarily because the controller wouldn't ever auto-shutdown 3/4ths of the time. The lights would flash like the controller was still trying to pair, but it was working fine. Luckily, I could just plug it into the USB port on the front of my cable box to keep it charged most of the time. This particular PC was hooked up to my TV in the front room and had no mouse, so having to use the keyboard to re-pair the controller in the event that it lost power was kind of a pain in the ass.

My battery life has been comparable between the two, at least as best as I can measure. I have no trouble plugging in either when I'm finished with them. At least with the 360 controller, when I'm done, I can just pop the battery to shut the controller off. In general though, my experience with *both* controllers in FFXI has been that if your controller dies during gameplay, you have to /shutdown and restart in order for it to be recognized again. I don't have to do it on my main desktop, but on the three laptops and the PC in my living room, that's the case for it (both PS3 and 360).

[Mabubeezareel]

Slightly off-topic: for those of you that use an xbox 360 controller for FFXI, how do you grip it so that you can navigate menus and move your character simultaneously? I've been using a PSX controller on PC via a USB adapter for the past 5+ years, and have gotten used to using my thumb for the left stick for character movement, and my index finger for the d-pad to toggle between targets/navigate menus. This allows me to move my character and toggle targets/navigate menus simultaneously, as well as move the camera with the right stick. I can also use my index finger to activate macros while still moving. That schema did take a little getting used to at first, but it's second nature now.

However, I can't seem to find a comfortable grip/finger placement to replicate that on the xbox controller. Main reason is that the d-pad and left stick are in swapped positions in comparison to the PSX controller. I tried using my index finger for the left stick, and thumb for the d-pad, but it just felt awkward - I don't think analog sticks were ever meant to be manipulated by anything but thumbs. Also, I couldn't hit the triggers to activate my macros and move at the same time, since my index finger would be needed to do both. This placement also cramps my hand after a few minutes.

I can't possibly use my thumb for the left stick and index finger for the d-pad either, as I'd have to cross my index finger under my thumb to get to the d-pad. I'm very interested in knowing how others have made this work with an xbox controller, as for the life I can't seem to get it to work that way I want it to.

[EagleCeres]

I've tried the xbox360 usb controller with MS drivers (downloaded) on both my desktop and laptop pc's, and and it works great (until some keys start sticking or the analog pads start wearing out) but sadly i havent been able to reassign the triggers from the default hardcoded pan the camera left/right (I wanted them to be macros and use bumpers for other stuff).

Luckily, like many other gamers on this forum, I found out about xbcd360. It has different existing .inf files to automap keys, even lets you customize mapping sets. Last I heard (over 6 months ago) their vista support was in beta...

[mallister]

"I noticed you mention you're running Vista as well. As some people said, you probably just need to select enable gamepad in the FFXIconfig"

did this. the gamepad will not respond to anything in the config menu, i.e. like trying to assign buttons or calibrate the analogs. it's really odd and i think i'm just missing something obvious.

[mallister]

ok i checked the other thread and downloaded xbcd and the new .inf file. looks great. only problem is when i run the actual program, it opens fine but i can't get it to respond or chagne anything, at all. can someone point me to the short bus kid's guide to setting this up? i've got nerve and tendon damage in my right hand and using a keyboard more than i have to kills me. vista 32 bit. thanks for the responses guys!

edit: yes i have it set to run as an admin.

[hagun]

360 controller is garbage for PC. Do yourself a huge favor and go buy yourself a Logitech dual action controller. It works like a PS controller for FFXI: flawless.

[mallister]

i'm in afghanistan, selection is limited to 360 and ps3 controllers. if i can't get this working i'm sorta boned for the next month or so.

[Cutriss]

360 controller is garbage for PC. Do yourself a huge favor and go buy yourself a Logitech dual action controller. It works like a PS controller for FFXI: flawless.

Whatever you say dude. I hate that the sticks have corners on those things. The 360 controller works great for me and a lot of other people.

This just sounds like console fanboyism invading the PC world. >.>

[EagleCeres]

ok i checked the other thread and downloaded xbcd and the new .inf file. looks great. only problem is when i run the actual program, it opens fine but i can't get it to respond or chagne anything, at all. can someone point me to the short bus kid's guide to setting this up? i've got nerve and tendon damage in my right hand and using a keyboard more than i have to kills me. vista 32 bit. thanks for the responses guys!

edit: yes i have it set to run as an admin.

if youre using xbcd, are you using the "triggers are digital" inf file?
if so, use the POL/FFXI set up program to configure/map the individual buttons to do whatever you want in game.

[Devolver]

completely irrelevant, but if you have a ps3 controller laying around, you can use it on the ole lappy. with trigger capabilities and everything.

[mallister]

finally got it working. thanks for the help guys.

for some reason, xbcd360 would not work, at all. i had the correct .inf file, and the correct drivers, everything. the setup tool would run no problem but i couldn't change any of the vaules or create a profile or upload one, nothing.

i dug around and found XBCD+, which has all the correct drivers already in one package. had to uninstall everything else, the load xbcd+, and when i opened the setup tool it worked fine. made a profile with the digital triggers values and it worked in ff config np. whole experience was really odd, there's no reason i can see that XBCD360 didn't work for me...

anyway, thanks again everyone. if anyone wants the XBCD+ site i'll post it up.

edited for clarity!

[Cutriss]

XBCD+ doesn't recognize the wired or wireless headsets, right?