Any one using the gamepad + mouse combo? I love game pad but graphics suck on console and PC players. OR the joystick. Well I like to use the controller for. You just parted with your life savings to purchase a top of the line gaming rig and acquired a number of the latest racing titles. Of course you also splashed out to get that latest steering wheel didn’t you? What, you didn’t? Wait, don’t despair, you can use your mouse. Why Use The Mouse? With the ability to plug in such a huge variety of gaming controllers to your computer, the humble mouse would seem an unlikely choice as your steering control when gaming. However, gamers come in all shapes and sizes and individual preferences can vary greatly. Also there are some for whom a dedicated controller is not an option. So, be it a personal preference or physical necessity, the desire or need to use your mouse to steer in a game situation is eminently possible. Let’s have a look at how. Software Solutions To make your mouse behave like a Joystick or Steering Wheel you will need the right software. Fortunately, there are a number of applications to choose from. Some of the most popular: • Glovepie • PPJoy • Vjoy All of these will allow you to achieve basic mouse to joystick emulation. They are also capable of much more. For example Glovepie has a host of features allowing control of MIDI input devices, HMDs, Wiimotes, trackers, even virtual reality gloves! The possibilities that applications like these offer can be as exciting to explore as gameplay itself! In this article, however, I will focus primarily on using your mouse to steer with the program PPJoy. Use Your Mouse To Steer With PPJoy PPJoy is a joystick emulation program that allows you to remap the inputs from a number of different devices, as virtual joysticks within Windows. It’s ideal for steering by mouse as it allows you to remap your mouse movement into the x/y-axis movements of an average joystick. Software Magic! Having used this myself for some time, I will use it to illustrate the steer by mouse concept. The developer is no longer working on PPJoy, but a Google search will find numerous sites from which you can download the software. PPJoy has a host of different ways it can be used, which I have not touched on here, but the documentation which accompanies the application is comprehensive and well worth close scrutiny. PPJoy Basic Installation Once you have downloaded and installed, open Control Panel then locate and double click the Parallel Port Joysticks icon. You will see the PPJoy Configuration Utility, click the add button. Click Parallel Port, and from the drop down menu, select Virtual joysticks. Now click the Add button to use it. In the PPJoy Configuration Utility you will see a Virtual Joystick has been successfully created. When you want to use your virtual joystick, find and click on PPJoy mouse. I recommend it pinning to the Start Menu. You will the see PPJoy to Virtual Mouse window. With the new PPJoy Virtual Joystick installed we can start using it! PPJoy Virtual Joystick Features • Movement Sensitivity: Values for X Gain (left-right), Z Gain (up-down) and Y Gain (mouse wheel) can be changed. The higher the value the more sensitive the virtual joystick will be. • Custom Configurations: PPJoyMouse allows you to load and save the configuration to.INI files. • The latest version has Vista, Windows 7, and 64 bit support. • It is completely free for non-commercial use. Using PPJoy To Steer In a Game To show PPJoy in use, the following is my setup for a well-known car racing game; Need For Speed: Most Wanted Start up the game and at the main menu go to Options. From Options go to Controls. In the Controls you will see that the default shown is Keyboard. Find your new virtual joystick by clicking the right arrow. Now that PPJoy is selected as your controller it is simply a matter of configuring the controls as you desire. To change steer left select it and move your mouse left, done. To change steer right select it and move your mouse right, easy. In the example above, you will see that accelerate and brake/reverse have also been configured. This is because I use a head-mouse and use it to accelerate and brake by moving my head up or down. With configuration done, simply have the PPJoy Virtual Joystick running when you start the game and, presto, You can now steer with your mouse! Useful Technique or Essential Tool? As I mentioned earlier, Gamers have vastly differing preferences, especially when it comes to the favorite choice of controller. Would YOU have a use for this? For some probably not, for others it could be a superb answer, and for those that like to tinker, a delightful diversion.
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March 2019
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