Input lag when using joysticks..

[Wowbagger]

Hey all. So, I got a cheap flightstick for christmas (Saitek Cyborg V1), never having used one before, and tried to set it up for Kerbal Space Program. Although it detects the joystick and I can bind everything correctly, there is a weird delay (about a second and a half, to two seconds) on everything, including the buttons, axis, and POV hat. It works fine for Wings of Prey, Freespace 2 and X3TC, so it's definitely a KSP (or more likely Unity, I expect) problem; it happens on both my vanilla and modded installations. I'm using the official drivers and software for it at the moment (I also own Pinnacle Game Profiler, if that can perhaps be used in some way to fix this..). Does anyone have any fixes or workarounds for this?

[Drinniol]

Do you have another controller (xbox for example) that you can try and see if the problem persists?

[Wowbagger]

Messaggio originale di Drinniol:

Do you have another controller (xbox for example) that you can try and see if the problem persists?

Yeah, I've been using my 360 pad for spaceplanes for a while and it works fine, it's only my flightstick that's having trouble

[Aoi Blue]

What OS and drivers are you using?

If the device supports using a standard USB Joystick driver (often labeled USB HID Joystick or Generic USB Joystick) try using that instead of the drivers that shipped with the product.

Often the drivers that shipped with the product are bloated with things like macro engines. This adds all sorts of latencies, especially on games that overload certain components of your system. Simply use the drivers that come with your OS if they work.

This advice goes for all Operating Systems including Windows, OS X, and Linux.

I have additional advice, but it is more complicated, and all OS specific.

[Wowbagger]

Messaggio originale di ruediix:

What OS and drivers are you using?

If the device supports using a standard USB Joystick driver (often labeled USB HID Joystick or Generic USB Joystick) try using that instead of the drivers that shipped with the product.

Often the drivers that shipped with the product are bloated with things like macro engines. This adds all sorts of latencies, especially on games that overload certain components of your system. Simply use the drivers that come with your OS if they work.

This advice goes for all Operating Systems including Windows, OS X, and Linux.

I have additional advice, but it is more complicated, and all OS specific.

Win7 x64, with the standard mad-catz v1 joystick drivers from the website; I'll try uninstalling them and giving the generic ones a try, thanks.

[Wowbagger]

Ok, yeah, completely deleting the Saitek drivers and using the native windows joystick drivers seems to have fixed it; seems like there's some compatability issues between Unity and the drivers. Bit annoying that I have to lose the profiler and all the other benefits of having the correct driver, for the sake of a single game, but at least it works. I'll keep looking incase there's an alternative solution, but this works for now. Hopefully Squad can fix this at some point in the future, assuming it's not some flaw with Unity itself that they have no control over.

Thanks for the suggestion Reudiix

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

Hey guys, I know I'm a bit late to this, but I've found that the throttle and the mini 'Joysticks' on the throttle (meant to be used with the thumb), don't have the same lag (I am using the Saitek X-56). The mini 'Joysticks' function without (or with minimal) lag, while the throttle continues to have heavy lag. I don't have any solutions, but I thought I might add this so that this is documented should the developers find this thread later when trying to fix this issue.

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

I found that installing vJoy seems to have fixed the issue (at least for me)

It is available here: http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/

Good luck!

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

In reference to my last post, I figured out how I did it. If you set up vJoy for the throttle and main joystick (or any control with input lag) and then bind KSP to the outputs from vJoy, it works perfectly. Good luck!

[TheYear2525]

Arg! I'm having the input lag too.
First the driver install didn't finish in a controlled manner but I was able to fly without lag. Then I investet some time to fix the driver install because Kerbal wasn't able to distinguish "button 1" of the thrust lever from "button 1" of the stick. And I wanted to have the Mode switch working. So I got it all working with the driver (now supplied by Logitech) but then there was that lag :( .
Before I bought the X56 last weekend, I was using a cheaper stick that didn't work at all without vJoy. I was hoping to get rid of that extra step and skip vJoy but seems like I'm wrong.

In any case MANY THANKS for mentioning vJoy again so I can set it up again (I didn't try because I forgot how to set up vJoy actually xD )
And I spend half of yesterday's evening trying to get rid of that lag by closing the X56 software, uninstalling vJoy, tinkering with the graphics settings etc. . Grrr! Robbed me of my currently much wanted flight time. Didn't think far enough to actually uninstall the DRIVER.

Seriously, Kerbal needs a better joystick support.
There a people who say "You don't need a joystick, it's detrimental to the steering of the vessels." I totally disagree! It's much more immersive (and the X56 does a really good job with that, especially the slow gliding thrust lever) and everything is much more precise to steer. Using the keyboard makes delicate crafts go wild because of sudden and strong but short steering inputs.

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

AFAIK, it's not in the Kerbal team's hands on this one, it's the game engine that fights with Saitech joysticks specifically. (And it's a bit too late to switch engines)

[doum]

i use " logitech extreme 3d pro". np flying. but i use keybpard for trottle. i fly ok. the thing is i dont use joystick for rocket i use keyboard. so if you do the same, make sure you dont touch your joystick while flying a rocket. also, my joystick is old and mechanicly it doesnt come back to its rest position. so, it make my rocket deviate constantly. try to recenter your joystick and it should be ok. Or unplog it before starting the game you want to play with keyboard (when launching rocket.)

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

....... what?

If you use your joystick, but not for flying the rocket or for the throttle, what's left for you to use it for?

And if the joystick is just mechanically broken that's a problem with the joystick, not the game.

[Chibbity]

Messaggio originale di Maximum Overspook Enabled:

....... what?

If you use your joystick, but not for flying the rocket or for the throttle, what's left for you to use it for?

And if the joystick is just mechanically broken that's a problem with the joystick, not the game.

I assume he only uses the joystick for flying planes?

I mean, you should hardly be touching the controls during ascent, and in space it's not exactly critical either since you are just following maneuver nodes, and you can even use the hold heading buttons to do most of it... so not sure what advantages a joystick would offer in that situation anyways?

[Maximum Overspook Enabled]

Greater precision and smaller/smoother movements. With the keyboard you can only press 100% on or 100% off, so turning jerks the ship around, where with the joystick you could ease into & out of your turn (this is an issue I've encountered with really small ships/probes, they're so light that pressing the key to trigger RCS sends them spinning, usually past the mark I was trying to move myself to)

[Chibbity]

Messaggio originale di Maximum Overspook Enabled:

Greater precision and smaller/smoother movements. With the keyboard you can only press 100% on or 100% off, so turning jerks the ship around, where with the joystick you could ease into & out of your turn (this is an issue I've encountered with really small ships/probes, they're so light that pressing the key to trigger RCS sends them spinning, usually past the mark I was trying to move myself to)

Just lower the sensitivity in the options and enable soft mode with Caps Lock.

Most of the hate heaped on the k/b controls in KSP is based on the fairly high default sensitivity, turn it down, at least by half.

I agree that analog controls are better for atmo flight, but it's just not needed for rocket piloting really, a decently design rocket shouldn't need to be steered while firing it's engines to make maneuvers, and you should obviously have your nose pointed the right way well before it's time, you typically have hours if not days. Anyways I'm not trying to argue with you about analong controls of joysticks in general, just trying to explain the other guys possible train of thought.