USB Analog Dual Thumbstick Gamepads

[Izagaia]

First of all, I am console gamer. Oblivion is my first venture into the realm of PC gaming. I purchased the GOTY version some time ago for my Playstation 3 and immediately fell in love with everything the game had to offer. Free-roaming in any role-playing console system was simply a concept unheard of before Oblivion. So many side quests and the manor in which you could customize so many features to truly make the overall experience your own and unique.

 

I find the game relaxing easy to pick-up. So much so, that I aquirred the PC version for my HP laptop with the intent on being able to take it with me on my business trips which usually last so much as a week. Hotel rooms can become rather dull and boring. HBO does not exactly air very many actual "movies" any more. At least nothing decent or worth viewing. Much like MTV not exactly airing the music videos it once did back in the 80's. Though, back to the subject at hand and after installing Oblivion, I was even more thrilled in the manor of Oblivion could be customized even more through the countless array of available "mods" both official and not. The addition of all of these new elements... weapons, armor, quests game and character modifications - It was cinched. Being prone to customizing certains aspects of my PC myself (I used to design XP visual themes and .msstyle files), I find myself wanting to create my own .esp files for this game. To customize certain elements to my own character even more to my own personal liking. The mods I have found thus far, have proven to do just that. And now hopefully, I intend on discovering through these and other Oblivion reference sources like these forums, the means to accomplish those customizations of my own.

 

One of the first difficulties, however, I encountered when switching over to the PC version was the insurmountable task of utilizing the keyboard and mouse combination over a traditional PS3 analog thumbpad. Truly, I respect those who prefer this set-up. And to those individuals I certainly can understand why they believe this to be far superior than a gamepad. At least so far as I could gather from reading so many posts from others in which users prefering pads come to these boards searching for common solutions as to why their dual thumbpad controllers do not or fail to function properly. The most often ailment being that they can move their character, however, the "look around" feature does not function. From here, I have noticed that the two most common replies are: "why would anyone use a gamepad in the first place" and "install <so-and-so> application to emulate keyboard/mouse use for a pad". Well... the keyboard/mouse scenario may very well indeed be a superior means to this end, yet being at heart a console gamer, I just cannot escape the need in utilizing that "PS3-esque" controller in my gaming experience. It is just my own personal preference. Good or bad - much like the manner in which many of us mod our own Oblivion experience. So I hope there are those reading this that can relate.

 

And in my personal preference to utilizing that gamepad, I too, encountered that same hardware issue where my "look-around" feature in the right thumb stick seemed not to function. Like many, I too searched a few of the most common forums in hopes to find a solution. And as I preluded to above, I simply did not discover much in finding a suitable answer. So if my solution has been posted else-where, please pardon my rant and chauk this up as me being a gaming "noobie". My intent is solely to help someone else having a similar grief. Without the need to download or install any other softwares or perform other unecessary tweaks or modifications.

 

I am using a standard USB, dual thumbpad analog controller. One that in all aspects, resembles any Sony Playstation gamepad controller. I have installed Oblivion onto a two PCs running Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. The one for which I will describe my gamepad "fix" have hardware specifications that include an Intel quad-core CPU, 4gig of RAM, and a factory overclocked nVidia 8800GT. I am mentioning these system specifications because I have noticed that gameplay is dramatically affected by the use of inferior hardware. So know that, even after performing this "fix", should your game experience seem not to noticeably improve, then odds are that either your visual settings are too high for what your graphics adapter can handle or you simply have a system that is far too "whimpy" to play the game. My apologies... but it is just the way it is.

 

 

 

Using either Windows XP or Vista, it should not matter. Make certain that Oblivion is not running at the time otherwise the changes will not occur. The following settings are the default for using any associated USB gamepad. Locate your "My Games" folder in "Documents" (My Documents if using Windows XP). Click the "Oblivion" folder and locate the file "Oblivion.ini". Right-click this file and choose to open it with "Notepad.exe" which can be located in C:\Windows. After opening, scroll down to the text that resembles the following:

 

 

 

;X = 1, Y = 2, Z = 3, XRot = 4, YRot = 5, ZRot = 6

iJoystickMoveFrontBack=2

iJoystickMoveLeftRight=1

fJoystickMoveFBMult=1.0000

fJoystickMoveLRMult=1.0000

iJoystickLookUpDown=6

iJoystickLookLeftRight=3

fJoystickLookUDMult=0.0020

fJoystickLookLRMult=0.0020

 

 

For those unaware, X and Y relate to the two axis of the left analog thumb control which determine the direction your character moves. Forward and backwards or straffing left and right. Axis Z pertains to the right thumbpad and as you could surmise, relates to how your character "looks around". So in analyzing these values, I have guessed that the first two values assign directions to a particular axis. The next two values indicate some sort of rate or speed the game's camera swings to accomodate that control. In modifying these rates to the following, I have found that the problem was not truly that these USB thumbpads were at fault; but just that the game's settings were so low that the movements were simply failing to register.

 

 

;X = 1, Y = 2, Z = 3, XRot = 4, YRot = 5, ZRot = 6

iJoystickMoveFrontBack=2

iJoystickMoveLeftRight=1

fJoystickMoveFBMult=1.0000

fJoystickMoveLRMult=1.0000

iJoystickLookUpDown=6

iJoystickLookLeftRight=3

fJoystickLookUDMult=0.2000

fJoystickLookLRMult=0.2000

 

 

After making your changes, click the "File" button on your tool bar and choose to "save" your changes. Radically altering the last two values any higher from what I suggest will cause the game's camera to "swing around" as if it were on "crack". Any lower and you risk the same problems you once started out with. But these values do make the look-around feature practically useable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good gaming and I hope this helps someone out there!