Best controller for FFXI (2015)

As the title suggests. What is the best controller you can get specific to this game under windows 10.

I have tried using both the DS3 and Xbox360 wired controllers and I always get stuck with triggers not working or the right analog stick not working. This even after using the config tool from ffxi to adjust and calibrate my controllers. All I want is a plug and play controller for this game. I want to avoid 3rd party tools such as BetterDS3 or Motioninjoy or such.

Thank you in advance for the tips and help you can provide.

I use the Logitech F310 (costs less than $20). It has a switch for Direct Input (which works well with FFXI) or the more modern Xbox controller-style on the back, so it works well with FFXI and can be used for modern games too. I just wish they still offered a wireless version.

I played this game on Playstation 2 from 2004 to 2008. At that time I migrated to some Playstation 2 controller shaped things by Logitech. But those have broken over the years. Currently I use a regular Playstation controller but I run it through an adapter to turn it into USB.

Here is a list of products on Amazon.

I use this one, but it looks almost sold out.

This one looks nice too.

If you're migrating from Xbox, I'm not sure what those adapters might look like.

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Originally Posted by AoiX

As the title suggests. What is the best controller you can get specific to this game under windows 10.

I have tried using both the DS3 and Xbox360 wired controllers and I always get stuck with triggers not working or the right analog stick not working. This even after using the config tool from ffxi to adjust and calibrate my controllers. All I want is a plug and play controller for this game. I want to avoid 3rd party tools such as BetterDS3 or Motioninjoy or such.

Thank you in advance for the tips and help you can provide.

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I like the Kiky X-Series PS1 & PS2 to USB adapter. It's been working with every OS since the pre-SP1 edition of Win XP. Works perfectly with both PS1 & PS2 controllers. No drivers required. In fact, IIRC it didn't even come with a driver disc. I purchased one and liked it so much that I went back to the store for another.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg
I have two of these exact units. Bought them at Microcenter, about 2007-2008, for $15 each.

As for authentic, first-party Sony PS1 & PS2 controllers? They're basically indestructible, (Sony built them like tanks) and there are infinite numbers of them. Try Amazon, eBay, the GameStop web site, Play N' Trade, Games X-press and even goodwill. They're out there - Sony must have produced billions of them! Have a local/regional comic book/anime/toy & collectible show near you? Try that. I picked up two silver, brand new, authentic Sony PS2 controllers for $8 at the toy & collectible show in Parsippany, NJ. If they're available in my neck of the woods, they're available in yours.

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTE4M1gxNj...hVOFBF/$_1.JPG
I acquired two brand new units (not in box) for $4 each at a local game/comic book/toy show.

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Originally Posted by Zarchery

I played this game on Playstation 2 from 2004 to 2008. At that time I migrated to some Playstation 2 controller shaped things by Logitech. But those have broken over the years. Currently I use a regular Playstation controller but I run it through an adapter to turn it into USB.

Here is a list of products on Amazon.

I use this one, but it looks almost sold out.

This one looks nice too.

If you're migrating from Xbox, I'm not sure what those adapters might look like.

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Zarchery,

If you still have everything from the PS2 edition of FFXI, (white outer retail box, HDD Setup disc, and the like) I might want that. If your willing to part with it, think up a (reasonable) number. Even with FFXI for PS2 coming to an end, I might want it as a novelty item. Let me know.

Considering availablitliy around here I will go with the Logitech F310. Thanks for the feedback guys.

The F310 is what I use for PC games. However, for me, FFXI is keyboard-only.

Pretty much PS2 pads through an adapter here as well. I bought a triangle shaped thing years and years ago that has lasted me so far.

There's absolutely loads of generic USB pads pop up in GAME regularly though. That pretty much work button for button like a PS2 pad. Even if the buttons are different ones and require setting up again in the config panel. So I keep a few of those lying around too.

It's a standing family joke that I can't go near a PC or video game store without coming out with a pad of some description. I have about 30 lying around now lol.

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Originally Posted by Talraen

I use the Logitech F310 (costs less than $20). It has a switch for Direct Input (which works well with FFXI) or the more modern Xbox controller-style on the back, so it works well with FFXI and can be used for modern games too. I just wish they still offered a wireless version.

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The Logitech F710 has all the same features as the F310, plus it also has the ability to vibrate and it is wireless.

It does sometimes have problems with the wireless signal getting thru properly due to positioning of the receiver and the controller. But with the switch in the Directinput position, it works very well with FFXI. The Xinput position of the switch makes it work very much like the Xbox 360 controller.

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Originally Posted by Frankbrodie

Pretty much PS2 pads through an adapter here as well. I bought a triangle shaped thing years and years ago that has lasted me so far.

There's absolutely loads of generic USB pads pop up in GAME regularly though. That pretty much work button for button like a PS2 pad. Even if the buttons are different ones and require setting up again in the config panel. So I keep a few of those lying around too.

It's a standing family joke that I can't go near a PC or video game store without coming out with a pad of some description. I have about 30 lying around now lol.

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Believe me, I know what it is. If I go to New York Comicon, or one of the several other local/regional comic book/toy/anime/mixed multimedia shows, I'll always stop to look at boxes & bins of miscellaneous controllers. You'll never know what you'll find.

I really hope now that ps2 support is being dropped that they'll look into supporting X-input, the Xbox 360 version supported it so hopefully they can update the PC client to support it. I used to play on Xbox 360 until one besieged freeze that wiped 2 hour worth of macros out pushed me over the edge and I switched to PC.

Unfortunately no trigger support so I had to download a 3rd party driver, which is no longer supported on Windows 8 and above ;_; I miss being able to use my triggers without using X-padder...

I'm half tempted to upgrade to an Xbox one controller as I've heard it supports triggers in FFXI. But until my current 360 controller breaks or whatever I don't really wanna do that and would be nice if it could work with FFXI instead.

You will never go wrong if you pick up an adapter and official gamepad to play FFXI on. There's alot of Sony PS2 pads out there in the world, but they are thinning out. If you can't find them locally(A walmart or something is always a good choice to hunt as they just throw product around at the bottom of their shelves and the stuff can be years old. You never know what you'll find....)then eBay it is, but you must be mindful not to buy fakes. Expect to pay 20-40 dollars for the real deal, and it will last you years without question.

Can't say about Xbox controllers, but I would suggest learning how to cope with a PS2 pad because it certainly has an edge as far as FFXI goes, but it's less important than it used to be. It's just better when competition is involved but that's becoming less of a thing as the years go by.

As nice as it would be to be able to use wireless PS3 controllers reliably, it's just too much hassle. It's hit or miss depending on your system. I once got Motionjoy to work at about 75% with a DS3 pad once, but it was more problem than it was worth and I reverted back the changes and called it a day on the DS3>PC dream. I never did get it to go bluetooth and that was after buying the suggested dongle. Correction:I did get it to bluetooth mode briefly but it quit as quickly as it started and I was never able to replicate the success. But man oh man I would love a DS3 wireless pad for FFXI on my PC.

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Originally Posted by Billnes

Zarchery,

If you still have everything from the PS2 edition of FFXI, (white outer retail box, HDD Setup disc, and the like) I might want that. If your willing to part with it, think up a (reasonable) number. Even with FFXI for PS2 coming to an end, I might want it as a novelty item. Let me know.

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I have all of the Japanese releases from their launches, but it wasn't bundled with a HDD. Every individual PS2 expansion disc as well. The manual didn't ship inside the case at launch, due to being 300+ pages, it was shrink-wrapped to the DVD case.

I tried both the 360 and the Xbox One controller on PC and I had on both trouble with the triggers.

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Originally Posted by Frankbrodie

Pretty much PS2 pads through an adapter here as well. I bought a triangle shaped thing years and years ago that has lasted me so far.

There's absolutely loads of generic USB pads pop up in GAME regularly though. That pretty much work button for button like a PS2 pad. Even if the buttons are different ones and require setting up again in the config panel. So I keep a few of those lying around too.

It's a standing family joke that I can't go near a PC or video game store without coming out with a pad of some description. I have about 30 lying around now lol.

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Like this, I presume?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...hL._SX425_.jpg

The engineering seems really fascinating, I wish there was an image, like the one below that was a bigger & showed more detail. This tiny picture was the only one I could find.

http://www.benryves.com/images/ps2-t...ircuit-top.jpg

To the best of my knowledge, none of the currently available Playstation to USB adapters supply enough voltage to drive the Dualshock motors. I know that my Kiky X-series adapters don't support Dualshock.

To the best of my knowledge, for an adapter to support Dualshock, it would need additional voltage. As I understand it, the 5v being supplied by the single USB cable only powers the adapter board, analog thumb switches and the digital buttons. From documentation & pictures I've seen floating around in cyberspace, it appears that the small motors need 3.3v & the large motors need 7.7v.

If I remember correctly, within the past few years, someone blogged about adding rumble support to a Kiky adapter by soldering on an extra USB cable to power the Dualshock motors. I never bookmarked that page & I can't find it again. I wonder how that would work. 3.3+7.7=11. If the motors need 11v and a second USB connection only provides an additional 5v, you're still 6v short. Where do those 6v come from?

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Originally Posted by AoiX

I tried both the 360 and the Xbox One controller on PC and I had on both trouble with the triggers.

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Due to racing game reverse compatibility (gas/brakes pedals) the XBOX360/XBONE controllers presents LT and RT buttons as a single analog axis for non X-Input games. That's why you can't get them to work correctly.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.play-asia.com/super-joyb...en-70-qc4.html

That provides enough voltage for dual-shock motors, and is still available.

The extra voltage comes from drawing more amperage and converting it with electronics. That's why your 120 volts coming out of your power outlet can power your computer to power your 5v USB devices, and the voltage your PS2 takes.

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Originally Posted by AoiX

I tried both the 360 and the Xbox One controller on PC and I had on both trouble with the triggers.

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You will, you need to install replacement drivers, could also use the DS4 (PS4) controller, that works with no problem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBCD

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Originally Posted by Dsherman

The Logitech F710 has all the same features as the F310, plus it also has the ability to vibrate and it is wireless.

It does sometimes have problems with the wireless signal getting thru properly due to positioning of the receiver and the controller. But with the switch in the Directinput position, it works very well with FFXI. The Xinput position of the switch makes it work very much like the Xbox 360 controller.

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I have the same Logitech wireless and I will say that while it is nice to have and it works very well with XI, the above is true. It's pretty well documented/complained about on the Logitech forums. Mine didn't start out that way but after some time (years I think for me) it got annoying enough to where I switched to the F310. Of course now, the wired version is suffering from a "double tap" on the confirmation button (X I think) but I blame that on me dropping it too much :P.

I didn't realize Logitech still sold a wireless controller, so after hearing about it in this thread I immediately ordered one online. So while I am super stoked that they finally added Xinput support today, I'm also kinda bummed that I spent $50 for no reason. But my woes aside, looks like the era of needing old controllers is finally over!

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Originally Posted by Cabalabob

I really hope now that ps2 support is being dropped that they'll look into supporting X-input, the Xbox 360 version supported it so hopefully they can update the PC client to support it. I used to play on Xbox 360 until one besieged freeze that wiped 2 hour worth of macros out pushed me over the edge and I switched to PC.

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Xinput is supported as of the November update. Hopefully you'll be able to use the trigger sliders as buttons on the 360 controller.

Yeah, i saw that. That was a suprising improvement. Also suprising was the statement that there may also be small bits of content in the post-april updates (new BCs etc).

Now if they would just remove the 30FPS cap (this is possible, there are some videos on Youtube of this) and update the client to DirectX 9 it would fix a lot of the problems. I mean just replacing DirectX 9 with 9 so it doesn't have to use the DirextX wrapper than modern windows uses to support DX8.

I've noticed with an Xbox 360 Controller on Windows 10, all the buttons work, but my confirm and cancel buttons are backwards. Oddly, changing them in the config doesn't appear to make any difference. I haven't tried changing other buttons, but has anyone else noticed this?

Japanese FFXI releases use Japanese PlayStation button assignment, which in turn is based on the Super Famicom controller (Japanese SNES) A/B button scheme where the confirm and cancel buttons are inverted against what is expected on USA and other English speaking contries. Circle means confirm X means cancel.

That would explain why you are getting inverted default buttons on your setup.

With my copy of FFXI when I pushed the "E" button I got the XBOX360 button assignment (I use a XBOX360 controller) which matched the USA style (matching X confirm Circle cancel used on USA PlayStation units).

So the trigger button work with the standard Xbox 360 gamepad driver? No need for XBCD anymore?

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

So the trigger button work with the standard Xbox 360 gamepad driver? No need for XBCD anymore?

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Apparently so.

Works perfectly including the triggers.

EDIT: No it doesn't. With Xinput enabled it uses a fixed button layout, anything you change in the gamepad setup is ignored. A and B buttons are swapped compared to the standard Xbox 360 controller setup and you can't change them back.

Seems like people having (mistakenly) multiple instances of PlayOnline software installed on their computers have been using the wrong version of the settings tools for their game client. That causes the newer settings to be stored at a place on Windows registry different than where the game is actually reading from.

For example having the European region software installed, calling the ToolsUS version of the tools setting software will successfully create settings registry for the USA client but will have no effect whatsoever on the European client.

Having the Steam version of matching region active but calling leftovers of a non steam install would likely have the same effect.

I only have one standard install of USA FFXI client at the time. Xinput worked properly, I was able to change the settings as I wanted and it stayed as I setup. Even rumble works now.

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

Works perfectly including the triggers.

EDIT: No it doesn't. With Xinput enabled it uses a fixed button layout, anything you change in the gamepad setup is ignored. A and B buttons are swapped compared to the standard Xbox 360 controller setup and you can't change them back.

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this is the same problem im having.

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Originally Posted by oliveira

Seems like people having (mistakenly) multiple instances of PlayOnline software installed on their computers have been using the wrong version of the settings tools for their game client. That causes the newer settings to be stored at a place on Windows registry different than where the game is actually reading from.

For example having the European region software installed, calling the ToolsUS version of the tools setting software will successfully create settings registry for the USA client but will have no effect whatsoever on the European client.

Having the Steam version of matching region active but calling leftovers of a non steam install would likely have the same effect.

I only have one standard install of USA FFXI client at the time. Xinput worked properly, I was able to change the settings as I wanted and it stayed as I setup. Even rumble works now.

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That can't be the problem because all other settings in FFXI config work normally. Also when I went back to the XBCD driver and turned off xinput I can reconfigure the controls as before.

Which OS you are using? I am using Windows XP still. And I know FFXI works best with Windows XP simply because it's a very old game... lol

I noticed that even if it works properly the button numbering used by FFXI doesn't match the one used by Windows itself.

I'm on Windows 10 and I'm having the same problem. I could definitely see this being OS related. Incidentally, the button selections do work for PlayOnline, but that doesn't support Xinput so that's probably irrelevant. (You could always use the buttons normally on Xinput, they're just numbered differently.) FFXI itself seems to completely ignore your button setting choices.

Sigh, they got my hopes up and then broke something else... Really hope they patch it so we can set our buttons, having to use start and select for macros is far more preferable than having my confirm and cancel inverted..

I play using the Japanese buttons layout so it was a annoyance for me that it actually worked properly (I had to invert the buttons manually) but the changes actually stickied properly.

That's how I use my controller:

Y=HUD
X=Menu
B=Confirm
A=Cancel

The USA XBOX 360 has the buttons set this way:

Y=HUD
X=Menu
B=Cancel
A=Confirm

This is weird. >_> Is there any way we can experiment to see what's causing the problem?

Reddit has a fix involving removing the xinput.dll file and then reconfiguring controls again.

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Originally Posted by Jewelfox

This is weird. >_> Is there any way we can experiment to see what's causing the problem?

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unless you can get your hands on the code they used for the xinput.dll and swap those buttons not really

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Originally Posted by bungiefanNA

Reddit has a fix involving removing the xinput.dll file and then reconfiguring controls again.

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pretty sure all that does is return it to directinput controls which disables the triggers

Only way I've found to counteract this is to use InputMapper in exclusive mode and remap the buttons on my PS4 controller.