Better browsing with an Xbox controller

About a year ago, Lifehacker had an article called “How I Improved My Life with a PS3 Controller”. I cheered inside a bit at the controller choice, because I find the shape of Sony controllers incredibly comfortable. Also, I’ve previously used a PS3 controller to play emulated games, and it was pretty good. However, Bluetooth has never worked on my old laptop (for other devices), and I suspect it’s from installing the janky MotionInJoy drivers. They actually replace the default Bluetooth driver, and so whenever you try to connect another device, it just plain doesn’t work. At least, it didn’t for me - I’d love to have my cake and eat it too, if anyone has had experience with this.

        That being said, a lot of PC games have support out-of-the-digital-box for Xbox 360 controllers. I suspect there are ways to emulate experience for PS3 controllers with MotionInJoy or other tools, but realistically it’s never going to be quite right. So for Christmas I asked for a nice wired Xbox 360 controller. I figured I could play more games on my PC if I didn’t have to go through the pain that mouse and keyboard games give me, and actually had sort of forgotten about this Lifehacker article.

        Unsurprisingly, I’ve only used the controller to play games three times in the last couple months.

        A few weeks ago, as I was cleaning my room, I wondered how I could make better use of the controller. I suddenly remembered the above Lifehacker article, and searched the Internet for a bit to find better software than AutoHotKey and Joy2Key for supporting the controller.

        Enter Xpadder. It costs ten bucks, though you can get an older version of the program for free. It works flawlessly, though, and surprisingly enough, has all the sorts of flexibility I would get from AutoHotKey (though you may need to read the tutorial posts to figure everything out). For instance, AutoProfiles allow you to switch profiles based on the current program. I haven’t started using the feature yet, because I’m such a keyboard junkie, but I guess I can imagine setting up various program specific shortcuts.

        It’s actually been surprisingly useful for web browsing. I basically copied the layout from the Lifehacker post. I actually browsed without using my keyboard or mouse at all one afternoon, and for a period of time where I couldn’t use my touchpad, controlling the mouse with the analog sticks was totally workable. My one complaint is that it has to be an all-or-nothing affair: it’s never going to be worth moving my hands way from the keyboard/mouse to hit a controller button. And the controller is only worth using if it can be independent. Luckily it can be, as long as you’re just consuming information.

        Anyway, I’ve put my config files on GitHub if you’re interested. The .xpaddercontroller files are controller specific setup stuff, if you also have a Razer Onza. The .xpadderprofile files have all the button assignments (you’ll need to have two sticks and… 16 buttons?). There’s only one right now, but I figured if I create more, GitHub is a good place to share them. The one thing that was hard to setup was alt+tabbing - I asked on the Xpadder forum and got a really quick response, which was nice. You can see the required settings for repeated alt+tab in the GUI here. Or just copy to your own profile the lines that involve Alt+Tab in my profile (including the turbo settings).

        I’m actually considering upgrading from the Razer Onza to the Razer Sabretooth, which reportedly has better build quality and some other niceties. I won’t unless my Onza really starts to get screwy, though. If I do, I’ll upload the controller configuration there too.

        PS: Ironically, I have never owned an Xbox system, because there’s too few exclusives I care about for me to take the leap. They just don’t really make third-party PS3 controllers that are any good (possibly because of the Sixaxis bits - remember that?). The adjustment has been pretty easy, though, and the level of OS support is way better.