Game pad (controller) and XBMC?
#1
I am thinking about getting a game pad to play emulator games or recent games (like Bastion, Limbo.. etc) on large 70" tv.

However.. besides that, I could use it for XBMC. However, I am curious how well does game pad would work with XBMC? Does anyone use game pad instead of remotes to control their XBMCs systems? (I only used universal remote and keyboard to control my XBMC system so far)
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#2
Well, back in "the old days" when XBMC was only on the original Xbox, we used controllers then. Come to think of it, my wireless xbox controller was one of the best remotes I ever had, since I always knew what button I was pressing without looking at it, and it had a lot of them. It was just hard to do things one handed.
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#3
I recently bought an Xbox 360 controller so I could debug a problem in the code handling the dpad presses. It works just fine, but it's very limited compared to the Harmony remote I use on my living room setup. If you're going to buy a gamepad anyway give it a try and see how you get on.
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#4
What about quality of controllers? I heard D-pads on some are kind of bad (do not last long)?
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#5
Can only speak for the MS XBox360 controller:
It is amazingly good built, I have to give MS that. The controller is very good to use, lies perfectly in the hand, has some weight to it (I for one don't like the PS3-controllers for example because they are too light), rechargeable batteries are really cheap and nice to use (for the wireless version), nice analog-sticks, ...
I really love those thingies. I don't use them for XBMC directly any longer (Harmony Remote replaced it as the main controller/remote for XBMC), but it was fairly easy to setup (you'll find a thread by me somewhere here which explains the setup with the use of keymaps) and, as Ned said, it's really nice to use.

The controller itself is very stable. I have 3 wireless and 1 wired, the wired one is at least 4 years of age - it still works like it came from the factory yesterday. The wireless are between 1 and 3 years of age - all of them still working flawless (with the 3 years old one being used the most).
Need help? Check out my XBMC Frodo Guide. It contains full featured guides to Sickbeard and CouchPotato as well.

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#6
Thanks for input.

Xbox one sure seems a bit more ergonomic than PS3 or Logitech.
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#7
Wink 
If you plan to use both windows Xbmc and PC games on your TV, then X360 pad is close to perfect.
I am using the wireless one since I first installed xbmc, 5 years ago and I wouldn't change for a remote even for an harmony or sophisticated one.
Though, it have to admit it has been a long road for me to have things work perfectly..

Great things about the X360 gamepad controller
- There are enough buttons on the pad to enable really intuitive control of xbmc, You just have to adapt the keymap.xml file to suit your preferences
- You have PC games, if a PC game has pad support, it will have 360 pad support.
- You can have flawless transitions between xbmc and games. With the pad you go to the launcher screen of xbmc, launch and play the game with the same controller. Quit the game and control xbmc again with the pad.
- Depending on the skin you use, some seems to be more designed for pad control (like Xperience1080 and its Metro Home Screen)

Now the drawbacks, all this will not happen without a few tweaks.
- 1st pb: Native xbmc X360 pad support has a major flaw. The triggers used to scroll up/down are considered as analog so they go from x2 to x32 (I think) depending on how hard you press them. This is just unusable, at highest speed, x32 is way to fast.
Solution: you can't use native support (joystick.Xbox.360.Wireless.Controller.xml in your keymaps directory) instead you have to use a standard Keymap.xml and launch a small exe called Xbox360EventClient.exe on system boot. You'l find the file easily if you search the forums.
- 2nd problem: when launching a game exec, you don't want to control both xbmc and the game at the same time, which will happen if xbmc is sitting in the backgroung while playing.
Solution: You have to create a small batch file to launch each game you add. The batch will first kill Xbox360EventClient.exe, launch the game exec and wait, relaunch Xbox360EventClient.exe when the game is closed
3rd problem. For the advanced users only I guess, Well you can't program things, like switching input source of the TV, controlling your AVR sound volume with the pad etc ...
Solution; No ads but you can google pulse eight. Done, Xbmc is switching source on your AVR when launched, you control directly the amp volume with the pad, without having to program anything.

I f will happily share more details about those tweaks, if people on the forums are interested.
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#8
(2012-06-13, 21:17)RazorFR Wrote: Solution: you can't use native support (joystick.Xbox.360.Wireless.Controller.xml in your keymaps directory) instead you have to use a standard Keymap.xml and launch a small exe called Xbox360EventClient.exe on system boot. You'l find the file easily if you search the forums.
Or you could just change the lines in the keymap to fit your needs...
Quote:- 2nd problem: when launching a game exec, you don't want to control both xbmc and the game at the same time, which will happen if xbmc is sitting in the backgroung while playing.
That is only a problem if you use the eventclient as it continues to send your key presses to XBMC. If you use a keymap, this will not happen however.
Need help? Check out my XBMC Frodo Guide. It contains full featured guides to Sickbeard and CouchPotato as well.

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#9
(2012-06-14, 09:26)HenryFord Wrote: [quote='RazorFR' pid='1126832' dateline='1339615040']Solution: you can't use native support (joystick.Xbox.360.Wireless.Controller.xml in your keymaps directory) instead you have to use a standard Keymap.xml and launch a small exe called Xbox360EventClient.exe on system boot. You'l find the file easily if you search the forums.
Or you could just change the lines in the keymap to fit your needs...

I like / am used to scrolling with the triggers. But with native support it is just too fast for me.
And unfortunetely, I couldn't find a way to adjust sensitivity/triggers behaviour in the keymap,
If there is a way, I would be very interested to know. Triggers are defined as follows in the default joystick.Xbox.360.Wireless.Controller.xml

<axis limit="-1" id="3">ScrollDown</axis>
<axis limit="+1" id="3">ScrollUp</axis>

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#10
is there way to remap xbox 360 controller in XBMC for PC (Linux) as the same as was in XBMC in Xbox?
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#11
Sure. There's a xbox360 controller xml located inside your userdata folder that you can change however you like. I should warn you that the 360 obviously doesn't have the black and white buttons, which pretty dramatically alters the controller scheme.
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Game pad (controller) and XBMC?0