3 axis joy stick problem

GustaveDelior · Post by **GustaveDelior** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:00 am

I own th Satex st290 pro when i put it on 3 axis an throttle setting
when i throttle up my ship spins, when i try to use my third axis my throttle goes up or down depeneding on which way i tun the stick.

the only conclusion i can come up with (at least for my series of joysticks)
are that the throttle and the 3rd axis are switched in config, how ever i have not seen anyone else with this problem so it could be my own joystick and i simply have to redifine throttle and 3rd axis. so to make the end of this short.
i don't know how to redefine what needs to be redifined.

Post by **loki1950** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:27 am

The file to hack is vegastrike.config which is XML i use notepad++ in windows for it's syntax highlighting the section you want is the bindings try changing axis that are used there is a section in the wiki on joystick configuration that should give you a guide to start.

Enjoy the Choice

Post by **ace123** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:28 am

If you say that the X-axis does throttle, and throttle turns side to side, then you just want to switch those two axes in the configuration file.

If you look into your vegastrike.config file, you need to look for the line saying:
<axis name="throttle" joystick="0" axis="2"/>
This is 25% through, line 306 in the config file.

If you look 10 lines up from that you will see:
<axis name="x" joystick="0" axis="0" inverse="false" />
<axis name="y" joystick="0" axis="1" inverse="false" />

Basically you can switch around the axis numbers and see the effects... like making "x" be "1", "y" be "2" and "throttle" be axis="0".

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:35 am

Are you running the recent SVN Gustave?

Because i have been, but my saitek 4-axis joystick has not been working in SVN.

Post by **ace123** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:10 am

Rigelan, I would be interested in your problem too.

I know my two-axis joystick *does* work... and I don't see any good reason for a 4-axis one not to work.

I would be interested in your settings, and the stdout.txt/stderr.txt, and the result of running a joystick calibration program (i.e. which function controls which axis function, and which hatswitches do and do not work)...
Or if you have posted this information in another forum thread, where is it?

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:18 am

Nope, never posted one. Would it be okay if i start the program without opening any games? I'm pretty sure the joystick is deteced by then. Or should I open up a campaign and then close it down?

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:20 am

Oh, and I also know by running a KDE control center, that all of my buttons, switches, and axes DO work (I checked a few days ago). And my joystick worked in SVN till a month ago, until right after I recompiled the binary. For some reason it stopped.

Jibbles · Post by **Jibbles** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 3:23 am

This works for the MS Sidewinder 3d pro on 0.4.3
<axis name="x" joystick="0" axis="3" inverse="false" />
<axis name="y" joystick="0" axis="1" inverse="false" />





<axis name="throttle" joystick="0" axis="2"/>


<axis name="z" joystick="0" axis="0" inverse="true"/>


Unfortunately I am unable to get my joystick to work at all!, i'll try a system restart, and loose the usb adapter (its fine in windows and 0.4.3 btw)

Seems that VS 0.5 doesn't like it being USB, its fine when i remove the adapter.

And that setup works with 0.5 using my joystick. If i can be bothered, i'll write an app that can do all this for ya.

Post by **ace123** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:11 am

is it possible that it doesn't show up as joystick 0, but instead somewhere else?

That's why I was interested in the console output (specifically stderr):

You should see something like:

The Names of the Joystics are:
MS Sidewinder
Axes: 4, Buttons: 15, Hats: 1

Can you find that section and see what joysticks/axes vegastrike does find. That will narrow down if it's a Vegastrike/configuration problem, or a SDL problem, or something else altogether.

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:26 am

STDERR & STDOUT.

If this provides any help, wonderful. I'm not sure that it will though.

Jibbles · Post by **Jibbles** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 4:56 am

Hehe, this is quite bizzare

"0 joysticks were found."
with USB joystick only (I have to manually add the game-port version, and it remains in the damn list too if removed, up the top of course).

"2 joysticks were found.

The names of the joysticks are:
Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro
axes: 4 buttons: 10 hats: 1
Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro (USB)
axes: 4 buttons: 9 hats: 1"

if i still have the game-port joystick added but are using the USB adapter (still nothing in game though). Notice the number of buttons, the joystick has only 9 buttons, perhaps there is a cloaked button which is only accessable when using the game-port?

and finally.......
"1 joysticks were found.

The names of the joysticks are:
Microsoft SideWinder Precision Pro
axes: 4 buttons: 10 hats: 1"

with the game-port only (and connected i might add).
I'll post up the stdout's is you want

Just another thought. is it possible to force it to see a joystick at position 1 (or 0), or to possibly make it use the second joystick.

Post by **ace123** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:05 am

Linux will not renumber the devices if you unplug one, so your usb joystick may remain /dev/input/js1 even if js0 doesn't exist.

Though I just looked at the SDL source code and it looks like it loops through all the joystick devices looking for them.
This is most certainly an SDL bug of some sort... since Vega Strike uses SDL's joystick library.

When you get to a point where it doesn't actually work, could you try in a terminal:

Code: Select all

head -c0 /dev/input/*

and also:

Code: Select all

ls -l /dev/input/*/*

If all else fails, set the environment variable "SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE".

Code: Select all

export SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE=/dev/input/js0

which is the actually

Jibbles · Post by **Jibbles** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:16 am

I suppose i should of mentioned this, I'm using windows and the install of 0.5. On another note, i'm curious to know if there are linux drivers for the ms sidewinder joysticks, anyone know?

What i've generally done when programming using joysticks, i'll make a list of them then let the user select one, i know its not the best, but....yea i do it like that

.

Cheers

Post by **ace123** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 9:33 am

@rigelan, well I see it:

1 joysticks were found.

The names of the joysticks are:
Saitek Cyborg USB Stick
axes: 6 buttons: 12 hats: 0

So try swapping around those <axis> lines in the vegastrike.config.

Also, have you gone into
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/wiki/ ... s:Joystick

Post by **loki1950** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:39 pm

@Jibbles there is no need for joystick drivers as such in linux the drivers are part of the kernel and yes the ms joysticks are supported

Enjoy the Choice

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:39 pm

I did rebind axis 3 and 4 before, switching them so I could get my throttle and my spinning axis correct. But vegastrike.config is completely reverted and up to date at the moment. If that is the problem (and i doubt it would be, since many joysticks do work, and the x & y axis on all joysticks should be the same), I wouldn't be sure how to fix it. Maybe I have the wrong ( a differecnt ) SDL library installed on my computer than the one that will work for vegastrike. I am using SDL-1.2.11 at the moment. Does this help our issue?

Jibbles · Post by **Jibbles** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:34 pm

Thanks for that. My vs still can't see the Joystick if I am using the USB adapter?. It can only see it if there is another joystick (such as the sidewinder gameport added to the list but not connected).
I'll add a copy of the stdout and you can see what I mean. Note, windows and 0.4.3 can see this joystick (also my laptop using 0.5 can see my joystick (USB) and use it).
Maybe it is a bung install?

Post by **ace123** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 2:57 am

Indeed, rigelan has a possible theory.

The version of SDL included in Vegastrike 0.4.3 is SDL-1.2.8
The version in the latest release is SDL-1.2.11.

@jibbles, since you are on windows, it is easy to copy DLL files without breaking your system libraries.

Could you find the file named SDL.dll from the "bin" folder in your 0.4.3 install and copy it to the "bin" folder in the 0.5 beta?
I recommend backing up (rather than overwriting) the one from 0.5 beta, so just move it to your Desktop if you aren't sure.
Then, after you copied 0.4.3's SDL.dll into the 0.5 version try running Vega Strike again and see if it now recognises your joystick.

If copying SDL over fixes it then we will have to do some research as to which version of SDL to include in the release...

@rigelan, if you are playing 0.4.3 installed from the website installer it will be statically linked, so it indeed would still be using 1.2.8 rather than 1.2.11 which would explain why you also experience these problems.

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 10:55 pm

I just installed 1.2.9 (which I had previously) to see if it would make the joystick work.

6 months ago, when I did have 1.2.9 installed, the joystick was working.

unfortunately, reinstalling 1.2.9 instead of 1.2.11 didn't make it work on the linux side.

lowededwookie · Post by **lowededwookie** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 1:50 am

Actually I had a similar problem with my Logitech 3D Extreme and this was resolved by using the reverse controls in the configuration application.

Post by **ace123** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 2:13 am

So it *could be* between 1.2.8 and 1.2.9 in that case.

If you used the binary installer for the Linux version, it was *statically linked* with 1.2.7. The windows version was included with 1.2.8. And you say you tried 1.2.9 and it did not work.

Now that's not necessarily the problem, and I would just as soon suspect a bug in the code, but I am unable to reproduce the problem and I would like to narrow down the possible causes.

I'm still trying to locate why it might happen, but I can't reproduce it myself. It just bugs me that it happens both on windows and linux.

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 7:47 pm

Well, ace, sort of right. 1.2.9 DID work with the joystick on my computer before (~July) . But 1.2.9 does not work now. I tried with 1.2.9 & 1.2.11, neither of which work. I am guessing it probably isn't the SDL version. Or if it is, then it is only part of the problem.

Post by **ace123** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:11 am

Did you use the binary installer for 0.4.3? If you did then the version was staically linked with SDL.dll, and therefore was using 1.2.7 regardless of what stopped it.

What did you do in July to make it stop working...

Assuming you had just done an SVN update, do you remember approximately the two dates between when you updated? That might help me narrow down the version when this joystick problem first happened if it is a Vegastrike-specific problem.

It just bugs me that I can't reproduce this problem myself.

Jibbles said that copying SDL 1.2.8 into the windows beta fixed the joystick issue, so that points to the SDL version.

rigelan, can you try running these commands:

Code: Select all

head -c0 /dev/input/*
ls -l /dev/input/*/*
jstest /dev/input/js0

and tell me what they say?

To allow SDL to use a speicfic device (which the ls -l would find), do:

Code: Select all

export SDL_JOYSTICK_DEVICE=/dev/input/js0

in the same terminal you start vegastrike from.

SDL should find it after setting the environment variable.

I'm gong to see what changed happened between 1.2.8 and 1.2.9 to see if that can help me narrow down if it's an SDL bug.

rigelan · Post by **rigelan** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:34 pm

Code: Select all

colemana@popeye:~$ head -c0 /dev/input/*
==> /dev/input/by-id <==

==> /dev/input/by-path <==
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event0' for reading: Permission denied
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event1' for reading: Permission denied
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event2' for reading: Permission denied
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event3' for reading: Permission denied
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event4' for reading: Permission denied
head: cannot open `/dev/input/event5' for reading: Permission denied

==> /dev/input/js0 <==

==> /dev/input/mice <==

==> /dev/input/mouse0 <==

==> /dev/input/mouse1 <==
colemana@popeye:~$ ls -l /dev/input/*/*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-id/usb-06a3_Saitek_Cyborg_USB_Stick-event-joystick -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-id/usb-06a3_Saitek_Cyborg_USB_Stick-joystick -> ../js0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-id/usb-Chicony_Saitek_Eclipse_Keyboard-event-kbd -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB-PS.2_Optical_Mouse-event-mouse -> ../event4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB-PS.2_Optical_Mouse-mouse -> ../mouse1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:0c.1-usb-0:2:1.0-event-joystick -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:0c.1-usb-0:2:1.0-joystick -> ../js0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:11.2-usb-0:1:1.0-event-kbd -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:11.2-usb-0:1:1.1-event- -> ../event3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:11.2-usb-0:2:1.0-event-mouse -> ../event4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 05:42 /dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:11.2-usb-0:2:1.0-mouse -> ../mouse1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-10-07 10:42 /dev/input/by-path/platform-pcspkr-event-spkr -> ../event5
colemana@popeye:~$

jstest doesn't exist as a command on my 'puter.

In August (1st), I know that I updated from Slackware 11.0 to 12.0. But I also know that I had been keeping current in the changelogs, so that shouldn't have been a huge issue. But then again, when I reinstalled, I obliterated everything on my harddrive and reinstalled, so it might be that I am missing a library or program that vegastrike expects. And I had thought that I had the joystick working since after I reinstalled Slackware, but I'm not sure.

The other thing that I did was I'm guessing sometime in between that and svn 11546 something changed. I'm pretty sure it was close to 11546, since that is when I first reported an issue. So my best guess would be in the week leading up to 11546.

updatedhttp://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9447

Post by **loki1950** » Sun Oct 07, 2007 7:24 pm

Is it possible that HAL and udev are playing permission games with usb devices in general adding a rule may solve it or adding the device to the user group.just a hunch

the upgrade to 2.6.0 kernel's

Enjoy the Choice