Thirith on 28/9/2016 at 14:05
What sort of peripherals, beyond the expected (e.g. mouse, gamepad), do you have for your PC? What sort of exotic accoutrements that others here may never even have heard of have you accumulated in your gaming career, and for what games?
Me, I've had a TrackIR v5 for a couple of years, which I bought for Arma. I don't always play with it, and when I do I tend to deactivate it when outside vehicles, but I very much enjoy being able to look around with it when piloting helicopters. It's also proven a real boon in IL-2 Sturmovik, although I've not played all that much of that game.
During the time that I got into IL-2, though, I also ended up getting Saitek Flight Pro rudders. When I stopped playing sims (too many other games that I enjoyed more and was better at), they were pretty much forgotten... until a week or two ago, when I started using them for Elite Dangerous, where I especially enjoy them when zooming around on planet surfaces in my SRV.
Also for Elite Dangerous and IL-2 I got a Thrustmaster HOTAS.X, which is very good value for money. Considering how little it costs, it should be shit, but I'm really enjoying how much more *tactile* it makes these games. For a long time I used to absolutely *suck* when using PC joysticks (I grew up with decidedly analog, one-button C-64 sticks), but with the HOTAS.X I seem to have overcome this. I'm still not great, but I embarrass myself much less frequently.
There's also the Oculus Rift, which I've said a lot about in other threads, but that's it with respect to peripherals I actually use. I did have a second-hand steering wheel that I barely ever used, and when I eventually did want to use it to get into... oh, probably some Dirt game, it turned out to be broken...
Neb on 28/9/2016 at 15:07
I've got the T-Flight HOTAS and it's horrible if you're like me and really love the super realistic helicopters of DCS but don't want to shell out for something expensive. The thruster stick has a nook in the centre and it's difficult to push past it gently during landing and take-off. As you're coming in to land, the sweet spot is often just below the centre, so I end up slamming myself into the ground.
I love the rocker for rudder input though, but I haven't found anything else that has them and looks half-decent. Don't want to buy rudder pedals or twist the stick. So irritating. Feel my pain. :P
Shadowcat on 1/10/2016 at 12:05
Back in the days when I still fancied that I would get value from having the One True HOTAS for flight sims (the best of the best! the only one I would ever need!) I bought into the hype and shelled out substantial money for a brand new Thrustmaster Cougar. Easily the worst game-related purchase I ever made. It truly did have a raft of superb features, but actually using it was awful. Too big, too heavy, a shockingly bad spring design (which lots of people paid through the nose to get custom-made solutions for), and the metal surfaces (which sounded nice at the time) were usually so cold that I needed to wear gloves. I should have sold it, but I think I either had delusions of getting it modded, or just couldn't bring myself to admit that I'd actually wasted my money. At any rate, that enormous box still wastes space in my house to this day (along with my nice rudder pedals -- which connect to an RS232 serial port... sigh.)
I also bought a Track IR 2, which was so rapidly superseded by a vastly superior model 3 that it was hard not to be cynical about it. I never did upgrade.
Somewhere I have a headset which came with some software for controlling games with user-defined voice commands. I still reckon that would have been neat for certain types of game, but I never really used it. I think talking out loud to a computer game turned out to be a thing I didn't want to do in practice.
Volitions Advocate on 3/10/2016 at 07:15
For years in the 90s my main flightstick was a MS Sidewinder 3D pro. Played a lot of Hellbender, Mechwarrior 2, Descent, and Tie Fighter with that thing. I dont' know what happened to it but it's been gone for years. It was great but the throw on the stick wasn't very big. I now have a much nicer stick with a less than ideal button layout with some generic budget Saitek stick from BestBuy.
I DO still have a 4 button gravis pad from back in the day, but no way of hooking it up to my PC. For gamepad use I have an Xbone controller, mostly for Ys.
I've been messing around with my cellphone to make a cheap VR headset. It's an LG G3, so its 1440p on a 5 inch screen. I've already got streaming over wifi working flawlessly, and a VR headset that can hold my phone from Monoprice. Headtracking is next, which shouldn't be a problem with the gyroscope and accelerometer in the phone.
Other than that, I would consider my studio monitors as a peripheral. Good sound is important. And they are nice and clear, and give me a pretty superior experience.
Thirith on 16/11/2016 at 16:42
... and the video below has seriously made me think about getting a Tobii 4C. I like my TrackIR, but this seems to take it to the next level - and my wife wouldn't laugh herself silly at me wearing the TrackIR sensor any more.
[video=youtube;J-q21Ityg4g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-q21Ityg4g[/video]
Sulphur on 16/11/2016 at 19:26
I pronounced HOTAS as 'hot ass' once, only to be politely corrected that it was, in fact, 'HO-tahss' -- like that was somehow better.
Yup. That's about all the input I have here. Carry on.
Renzatic on 16/11/2016 at 19:30
It's pronouced "az-wee-pay"
Thirith on 16/11/2016 at 20:38
Every thread is turning into Goldmoon Dawn's gay panic thread, isn't it?
Renzatic on 16/11/2016 at 21:44
It wouldn't be a Wednesday if it didn't!
