Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller -> Mapping Paddles

[Richthoven]

Hello guys,

I really enjoy playing the game, but I do not want to break my thumb, while trying to roll (and mostly fail at it). So, I thought the back paddles would be great.

I have just wasted several hours finding out, that my freshly bought Xbox Elite Series 2 controller has a buggy newest firmware, which negatively influences the Bluetooth connection. Great. Now, I am sticking to the newest firmware and connect it via USB.

The main problem I have right now is, for the love of god, I cannot bring the back paddles to accept my custom input. The game simply doesnt use my custom input.

On the left paddle I want: Press right stick down and to the left, for rolling left. I want the opposite for the right paddle, for rolling right.

I am quite frustrated, that, in 2023, this is such a hassle.

Anyone else here, who had the same problem and who could write me a detailed solution?
Or do I have to try the Sony Dual Sense Edge? (In hopes, that this works without any issue).

Please help me :(. Thanks!

[BurntFaceMan]

Surely you can just set back paddle left to roll left, and back paddle right to roll right?

No need to set an axis if you have a button for doing each.

If I had a controller with paddles this is exactly what i'd do, as I can't find any way to fit rolling onto a standard controller that leaves room to do everything else easily, and rolling seems like the least useful flying function, so for now I've left rolling on dpad up and rightstick x axis.

[Richthoven]

"Surely you can just set back paddle left to roll left, and back paddle right to roll right?"

If it would be so easy, I wouldnt have made this topic ;). Especially, when many others have or had this kind of problem too.

The default input commands for paddle left is A and for paddle right is B. Both buttons are already in use. Ingame says, if I want to roll, I have to press down right stick and then move it to the left (for rolling left) and right for rolling right. I want to use this "combo command" press right stick and then either left or right and put it onto the paddles.

All the other inputs already have a function and the paddles are really great for this rolling command.

[BurntFaceMan]

Wait, what's the point in the paddles if they just add an extra way to use A button and B button?

surely they should have their own function or a way to format the controller so each paddle counts as it's own thing, otherwise what's the point?

The way you're going about trying to get it to work also seems very complicated - if you can make it so a paddle operates as a combo of button presses, surely you can map them to have their own unique button press, in which case setting them to roll left and roll right would work?

[BurntFaceMan]

I just did some googling and it appears you're right - not really the games issue, the game has the best controller key mapping customisation I've seen and sets a gold standard - the issue is with the xbox controller firmware that keeps the paddle buttons from simply being able to function as their own unique button presses, thus actually adding extra buttons to utilise for games with many functions.

Absolute head ass design choice, glad I didn't buy one, because I was planning to just for extra buttons when pc gaming on controller!

[subjenna]

I mapped rolling to RB + RS left/right, which works great inflight, because it still takes regular RS input making the ship super agile.

(Secondary weapon to LB, lifting/sinking to RB + LS up/down, and boost to LT)

[Richthoven]

Originally posted by BurntFaceMan:

Wait, what's the point in the paddles if they just add an extra way to use A button and B button?

surely they should have their own function or a way to format the controller so each paddle counts as it's own thing, otherwise what's the point?

The way you're going about trying to get it to work also seems very complicated - if you can make it so a paddle operates as a combo of button presses, surely you can map them to have their own unique button press, in which case setting them to roll left and roll right would work?

Welcome to my problem :( ...

I now managed to get 50% of the rolling feature ><...by mapping in the XBox Accessory App -> Left Paddle to right stick klick + left ...by doing this, it automatically does this also for the right paddle...so...with both paddles I now can roll....to the left...

Yeahhhhhhh....and I dont know why...

[Bim]

Check your Controller Firmware version in the xbox controller app. I think the newest is 5.xxx something, when you can downgrade to make the back peddals work again.

look here https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/tp495z/revert_firmware_on_xbox_elite_wireless_controller/

can confirm this works

[Richthoven]

Originally posted by Bim:

Check your Controller Firmware version in the xbox controller app. I think the newest is 5.xxx something, when you can downgrade to make the back peddals work again.

look here https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/tp495z/revert_firmware_on_xbox_elite_wireless_controller/

can confirm this works

I can downgrade the firmware. But, some people said, newer controllers cannot go back to a far older firmware. So, many of these workarounds don't work.

It is really frustrating. The Bluetooth connection issues (thanks to the current firmware and MS/XBox Team did absolutely nothing, so solve this issue...it is known for 1 year, I guess...) and now, the problems with the paddle.

I thought, not buying a third party controller wouldn't create any hassle. Well, I guess, I was wrong...

[Tyr]

I use an elite controller and customized the controls to fix the roll problem. I think one thing to make clear is that the paddles can only be directly mapped to one different input and is done via the Xbox Accessories app in windows. If you want to do custom input combinations or macros, that can be done via 3rd party software like rewasd. I use rewasd a lot and it works great.

That said, I wouldn't recommend trying to make a paddle do both right stick button and right stick direction. This is because you'll end up fighting with the real right stick. Say you want to roll to the right with the right paddle, while using right stick to yaw/aim/turn to the left. You'd end up with some really bad results with competing right stick inputs.

This problem should be handled by mapping roll right and left to two separate buttons and have those buttons mapped to the paddles in the Xbox app. You can then go into the game and set up custom control mappings for roll to line up what you set for your paddles.

The problem you're going to run into is that you have 6 movement directions and 6 rotation directions, that all need to be accessible while boosting and firing primary and secondary weapons. This will leave you with few options, as you'll need two buttons to achieve this (one for each roll direction) and there aren't enough buttons for everything. This can be solved by replacing some other functions that don't need easy/clean access to with combination inputs (hold a button and press another). I chose supralight drive and camera mode switch, since you don't need them in combat.

For example, you could map your roll buttons to Right stick button and Y, then map the paddles in Xbox Accessories application to those buttons. You can then make supralight drive Y+A (hold paddle and then hold A) instead of just Y. Since lock on can't be right stick now, you can make it dpad down and make camera change dpad down+A... or any other mapping variety you'd prefer

Personally I don't like having my boost on the left stick button, considering how much I hold it down while using everything else. What I did instead was put roll on left stick button and right stick button. Then I mapped boost to Y and made 1 paddle mapped to Y. Also, I used the same jank mappings for supralight and camera swap mentioned above. this way I can hold boost comfortably while doing everything else I need.

It's not perfect, but it works well and is a relatively comfortable solution.

[FlyinJ]

Originally posted by Richthoven:

"Surely you can just set back paddle left to roll left, and back paddle right to roll right?"

If it would be so easy, I wouldnt have made this topic ;). Especially, when many others have or had this kind of problem too.

The default input commands for paddle left is A and for paddle right is B. Both buttons are already in use. Ingame says, if I want to roll, I have to press down right stick and then move it to the left (for rolling left) and right for rolling right. I want to use this "combo command" press right stick and then either left or right and put it onto the paddles.

All the other inputs already have a function and the paddles are really great for this rolling command.

I think your best bet is just to map one of the back paddles to right stick press and then you can hold that to roll.

I would recommend using JoyToKey to just map the keyboard commands for roll left and right to the back paddles, but unfortunately the game has huge stutters if you switch between keyboard input and controller input (which would happen every time you pressed a paddle that was mapped to a keyboard command)

If this gets fixed you should definitely use joytokey to do it.

[XiL]

I have no problem with my elite series 2. Just map the paddles in the App

[Richthoven]

Originally posted by Tyr:

I use an elite controller and customized the controls to fix the roll problem. I think one thing to make clear is that the paddles can only be directly mapped to one different input and is done via the Xbox Accessories app in windows. If you want to do custom input combinations or macros, that can be done via 3rd party software like rewasd. I use rewasd a lot and it works great.

That said, I wouldn't recommend trying to make a paddle do both right stick button and right stick direction. This is because you'll end up fighting with the real right stick. Say you want to roll to the right with the right paddle, while using right stick to yaw/aim/turn to the left. You'd end up with some really bad results with competing right stick inputs.

This problem should be handled by mapping roll right and left to two separate buttons and have those buttons mapped to the paddles in the Xbox app. You can then go into the game and set up custom control mappings for roll to line up what you set for your paddles.

The problem you're going to run into is that you have 6 movement directions and 6 rotation directions, that all need to be accessible while boosting and firing primary and secondary weapons. This will leave you with few options, as you'll need two buttons to achieve this (one for each roll direction) and there aren't enough buttons for everything. This can be solved by replacing some other functions that don't need easy/clean access to with combination inputs (hold a button and press another). I chose supralight drive and camera mode switch, since you don't need them in combat.

For example, you could map your roll buttons to Right stick button and Y, then map the paddles in Xbox Accessories application to those buttons. You can then make supralight drive Y+A (hold paddle and then hold A) instead of just Y. Since lock on can't be right stick now, you can make it dpad down and make camera change dpad down+A... or any other mapping variety you'd prefer

Personally I don't like having my boost on the left stick button, considering how much I hold it down while using everything else. What I did instead was put roll on left stick button and right stick button. Then I mapped boost to Y and made 1 paddle mapped to Y. Also, I used the same jank mappings for supralight and camera swap mentioned above. this way I can hold boost comfortably while doing everything else I need.

It's not perfect, but it works well and is a relatively comfortable solution.

Originally posted by FlyinJ:

Originally posted by Richthoven:

"Surely you can just set back paddle left to roll left, and back paddle right to roll right?"

If it would be so easy, I wouldnt have made this topic ;). Especially, when many others have or had this kind of problem too.

The default input commands for paddle left is A and for paddle right is B. Both buttons are already in use. Ingame says, if I want to roll, I have to press down right stick and then move it to the left (for rolling left) and right for rolling right. I want to use this "combo command" press right stick and then either left or right and put it onto the paddles.

All the other inputs already have a function and the paddles are really great for this rolling command.

I think your best bet is just to map one of the back paddles to right stick press and then you can hold that to roll.

I would recommend using JoyToKey to just map the keyboard commands for roll left and right to the back paddles, but unfortunately the game has huge stutters if you switch between keyboard input and controller input (which would happen every time you pressed a paddle that was mapped to a keyboard command)

If this gets fixed you should definitely use joytokey to do it.

Thank you very much guys, for your input! I mapped only the "press right stick" to both paddles and do the rolling by moving the right steck to left or right. It works really well now :).

I am happy :D.

[^1R^7ocky^1R^7ocketeer]

I didn't bother and turned auto roll on, a setting which automatically levels one's ship to a predetermined default axis that aligns with ports etc. I was able to pass all crevices and tunnels without issues and without the need to explicitly roll the ship as well.

[BurntFaceMan]

Originally posted by ^1C^7ookie^1M^7onster:

I didn't bother and turned auto roll on, a setting which automatically levels one's ship to a predetermined default axis that aligns with ports etc. I was able to pass all crevices and tunnels without issues and without the need to explicitly roll the ship as well.

Yeah it's very much true that manual rolling is seldom if ever needed in moment to moment gameplay - though there is one puzzle where rolling is explicitly needed in order to fit a long object inside a narrow space in which it only works at the right rotation.

Only other cases would just be squeezing heavy ships through narrow spaces when being thorough with exploring, but even then it's rare.

[mirko]

I know this is old... but the reason M$ doesn't allow this is because it would give a huge advantage to people playing competitive games... mainly Battle Royale FPS games like Warzone. You could set up some pretty sick stuff if they allowed this which would for sure make you play better. M$ doesn't want to get a rep for pay to win hardware. Other companies sell controllers that will do this but they're not official M$ or Xbox products.