Joystick for train sim?

hampson · Post by **hampson** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:41 pm

hiya guys,can i use a joystick for MSTS as im not sure,thanks

phill70 · Post by **phill70** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:46 pm

Hi
Very simply no, sorry.

Glyn

hampson · Post by **hampson** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:55 pm

Ah well.No probs keybored will do me fine :p

Website · Post by **Easilyconfused** » Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:00 pm

phill70 wrote:Hi
Very simply no, sorry.

Glyn

Glyn,

Sorry to contradict you but the answer is a qualified "yes". For Flight Simulator 2002 / 2004 I bought a Saitek X52 joystick / throttle unit http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/x52.htm from http://www.rcsimulations.com/switch.htm and I have mapped MSTS commands to the multitude of switches and controllers on that product.

I will admit it works best with the ENG files set up with a combined power / brake controller but it is possible to make it work with most diesels / electrics . Steam engines are an ongoing project. Once I get things to a reasonable state I will make the configuration files available on the UKTS library and forward them to Saitek for their download library.

However, the X52 is about Â£90 and the files will be specific to that controller so your answer will probably apply to a great majority of users.

As a further comment - the Saitek software loads a driver to interpret all the commands. No problem with that but the name just amuses me - "Saitek secret sauce" - shades of KFC

Cheers

John

Neptune50006 · Post by **Neptune50006** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:56 am

Using Joytokey software will get a joystick to work for MSTS, but it's far from ideal. http://www.electracode.com/4/joy2key/Jo ... ersion.htm

phill70 · Post by **phill70** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:06 am

Opps i stand corrected then

Just proves that you learn something new every day.

Glyn

hampson · Post by **hampson** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:32 pm

Right im lost here

So you can't use a joystick unless you mess around with stuff which is hard right?

stuartpalmer · Post by **stuartpalmer** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 8:06 pm

I downloaded "joytokey" out of curiosity earlier on today - I have a simple 2-axis 2-button joystick - and "joytokey" worked "right out of the box" - I set up the left and right movement to mimic the left and right arrow keys, the forward and backward axes for "A" and "D" and the buttons for the spacebar and enter key. Very easy to do and it took about 2 minutes.

It does work - although I'm not at all sure I like it! Having got so used to keyboard control, it just felt too strange to be worth while. But it can be done, and if you have a more exotic joystick with enough buttons it might be worth it for you.

hampson · Post by **hampson** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:59 pm

i have downloaded that softwere and it is sort of hard to use but it's much better than the keyboard! Just need to get used to it!

jasonclarke · Post by **jasonclarke** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:33 am

I recently purchased a Logitec Racing wheel (with load of buttons)which canbe assigned to any control in MSTS

Website · Post by **Easilyconfused** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 10:47 pm

As promised I refined the Saitek X52 profile until I thought it is ready for release :

Invalid File ID [13702]

Cheers

John

saddletank · Post by **saddletank** » Fri Dec 30, 2005 12:21 am

hampson, have you seen the Raildriver console? http://www.raildriver.com/

I have one and I never drive a diesel without it

Don't like it for steam though.

Martin