Using an XBox Controller with Sailaway

[zuntan2002]

First I thank EaglePete for tipping me off to the advantages that analogue steering has over digital steering in Sailaway.

I suppose like everyone new to Sailaway I began with steering using the keyboard. However, it wasn't long, two days at most, before I started steering using the mouse to handle the wheel on those boats with a steering wheel. But then, after a few more days, I had the conversation in chat with EaglePete and things started to change.

My first inclination was to do as EaglePete indicated he was doing, i.e. use a joystick. So I went online and took a look at the joysticks available from Logitech (being I have a mouse and gaming keyboard by Logitech it seemed the thing to do) and what was in stock at the stores locally. A day or two more went by and I headed out to the closest store, Office Depot, to pick up a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. As it turned out they didn't have one in stock (or any joysticks at all for that matter) and the only other store not requiring me to drive across town was Wal-Mart so I went to see what they had. Well they didn't have joysticks in stock either but a nearby customer overheard me talking to the clerk about what I wanted the joystick for and he suggested an XBox Controller. At about half the price of the joystick I thought I'd be coming home with and being rather fond of mistakes that cost less than $20 I brought it home.

I got it home, plugged it in, went to Options and set the left stick to steer and three buttons on the right to toggle views. Couldn't be happier. But no I had to go online and look at what Amazon offered and there I spotted listed among the many choices one has for XBox Controllers a Mini Steering Wheel attachment for the controller.

I was satisfied steering with the XBox Stick as it was since I could readily make a one degree heading change, but I figured the Mini Wheel would be a desirable improvement given the considerable increase in range of motion of the wheel compared to the stick. Reviews were mixed but at half the price of a controller and having an order in the works already I added it to the cart and checked out.

I had high hopes for the Mini Wheel but they weren't realized ... at least not at first. Apparently not all XBox controllers are made the same and I'd gotten the Mini Wheel for another body style so it doesn't clip on quite as well as it would otherwise, and yet it holds well enough for use. I could readily turn slowly with the Mini Wheel but it seemed to start turning the boat all too much faster if I moved the wheel even a little bit more. So then I started looking for how to go about setting the sensitivity in Win10. MS doesn't make it easy, you're not going to find the XBox Control Panel directly. The control panel is found in the Printers and Devices sub-menu of Windows' Control Panel which in turn is accessed by entering "control panel" in the search line on the task bar at the lower left. Once you've opened the Printers and Devices sub-menu you right-click on the XBox icon and select Game Controller Settings from the drop-down menu. I went through the calibration routine which was a bit cumbersome with the Mini Wheel attached to the XBox controller. Not having confidence that the desired results would be realized I did not click on "apply" but rather backed out to the previous screen and clicked on "Restore Default." Once I was back in game I discovered that doing that was sufficient to make a quite dramatic change in how Sailaway responded to steering input. I had control throughout the range of motion unlike anything I'd experienced before.

Having used the Mini Wheel Attachment on my XBox Controller to repeatedly tack every in game boat in 15 knot winds I am most pleased with the fine control one can achieve. Whether turning slowly or as quickly as the given boat could I was readily able to bring the boat to the desired Apparent Wind Angle on the opposite tack easily, smoothly and if I was diligent with no overrun.

In short, if you're not using some sort of analogue device to steer I highly recommend you do, especially if you're not all that happy steering with the keyboard.