So I want to play Spiral Knights with a PC Controller. Does anyone have a recommendation on one? I want it to be like a 360 controller.
I am also aware that you can connect xbox controller to it, but how do you connect a wireless one? Would I need Bluetooth?
I believe wired is always going to be more responsive. Personally I like the wired PS3 controller via motionjoy. But my Xbox 360 works fine also. I just like the smaller PS3 for my hands
I DO NOT recommend using the motionjoy drivers for connecting a PS3 controller. It's very poorly coded, and has a habit of disabling your keyboard and mouse. Like, completely, and nearly irreversibly unless you do a system restore or manually dig through the system driver directories to find and delete their drivers, as their documented uninstall methods do not remove it and will leave your system in its hosed state.
Use the 360 controller for a windows box, or the PS3 controller for a mac. They both work out of the box on the respective platforms, and are more trouble than they're worth the other way around.
I use an old Microsoft Sidewinder. If that failed I would bust out the old PSX controller with the USB dongle.
D-Pad FTW. Seriously.
If you're looking for a recommendation, I'm guessing you intend to go buy something and are asking to know what to get since you didn't mention a stockpile of stuff you have to choose from. The plain old USB version of the XBox controller is plug-and-play for Windows users and at least some distros of Linux, so drivers should be easily available for other distros. Nothing out there is more like an XBox 360 controller than an XBox 360 controller, and it's probably the easiest to find in stock at stores. I did not know that it does not work right out of the box for Mac users, though, so which OS are you using? Assuming you're using Windows or Linux, then of what's easy to find now there are two options for the XBox gamepad.
1) The PC adapter for your "cordless" controller is called the "Microsoft Wireless Gaming Reciever" and costs maybe 10 USD less than a new USB controller. I have read that it also has drivers available for linux, but do not know about Mac. There is an option to use a pair of AA-size batteries, the cost of which will add up over time. There's also a charging cable and special battery for it, with some weird properties. First, and most important, the instruction manual I found warns that powering it with the charging cable without the special battery connected damages the controller. I do not know what kind of damage that is. Second, the darn thing uses battery power first and only uses the charging cable if the battery is dead, so your battery will still be used and thus wear out, even if you just leave the battery pack and charging cable connected all the time. In other words, buy batteries forever or basically convert it into a Rube-Goldberg corded controller. Charging will of course tie up a USB port, while the radio dongle ties up another.
2) A new controller of the native USB version would cost more than the dongle, but then you'd have a spare for when friends come over to play with your XBox, if you're into local multiplayer games. You'd also have at least one dedicated pad for both your PC and XBox, so you wouldn't have to switch back and forth. Problematic radio interference is rare, but not unheard of, and the USB controller lacks that small vulnerability. It's also said to be more responsive, but honestly I'd be really surprised if I were to take the Pepsi Challenge and could actually feel the difference. It's your call which one is the better deal for you, both options are very viable if you're warned about the battery weirdness described above and have two USB ports free.
Sony seems to have some kinda problem with offering a driver to use their gamepad (and it's got a Bluetooth interface, so a driver is all that should be needed!) for anything other than PS3 use, so I recommend just buying their competitor's product and not messing with third-party software. I like the Playstation series' gamepads' shape and feel a lot, actually better than the XBox one due to SNES nostalgia and the D-Pad disparity, but a cracked driver might be more trouble than it's worth. If the PS3 controller works right out of the box for Mac OS, then I guess the driver is reliable. In case you're using Mac OS, all the Sony PS3 pads are Bluetooth-only and all the third-party PS3 pads are USB-only. The driver might be for only the Bluetooth one, but might not, so do some research if you're using Mac OS. ...or tell us so one of us can.
I've been using the MotionJoy drivers for my PS3 controller for quite some time now without issue. The only quirk I've noticed is that even when it's set to load on startup, I need to tell the driver to set it as a 360 controller every time. It's checked, but I need to click Enable first. Aside from that, I have not had any problems with it.
@Birgus the PS3 controller works on a mac both via bluetooth and via USB.
If I can get a bit technical for a moment, the challenge with connecting a PS3 controller to windows is actually twofold. Firstly, there's the basic HID mapping to convert the controller's HID inputs into the form that the windows gamepad interface layer expects. This is a fairly simple conversion and is pretty hard to screw up.
Secondly, there's the bluetooth pairing. This is a bit more tricky, as the PS3 controller does not pair with a bluetooth host in the same way that other bluetooth devices would. Usually there's a pairing process that takes place over the bluetooth radio that (simplified) exchanges some basic cryptographic information which is then stored on the respective devices for future connections. This is what happens when you press the pairing button on a headset and enter a 4-digit code (often times 0000) on your phone. With the PS3 controller, however, this pairing exchange is actually done over USB, and so the cryptographic information needs to be fed to the controller over the USB connection, and then loaded into the bluetooth stack on the host from the system rather than being generated/collected internally to the stack. The standard bluetooth stacks on windows are not generally set up to allow this type of pairing, and so replacement bluetooth drivers (such as the poor quality ones shipped with MotionJoy) are required to enable pairing.
MacOS X and Linux have the advantage in that Apple or anyone respectively can (and did) tweak the bluetooth stack and HID layers to enable this sort of pairing, and then tweak the HID layers to wire up the buttons, lights, rumble etc. properly. (For linux, you can use QtSixA to manage pairing and button mapping. On OS X the pairing is done automatically)
For the sake of completeness, I should mention that the 360 controller should also work out of the box on Linux, although I haven't tried it myself.
I use a wired xbox controller with Mac OS - snow leopard. While the device isn't plug and play, it is easy to find drivers to make compatible for Mac.
I was in a programming class where we were using xbox controllers to build games for kids and none of the adaptors we tried that link the wireless controllers to the computers seemed to work well. Regardless of the price, if it doesn't work its a waste of money... In the end everyone opted for a USB corded controller.
They aren't even that expensive, and I'm saying this as a poor student. While the authentic microsoft controllers cost upwards of 50$, other people found versions on amazon for less than 20$, just depends where you look and how lucky you get I guess.
My 2 crs.
Rebecca
Sorry, it is posting a million times. Stupid iPad. (I am using an iPad BTW)
i would enjoy that i sometimes forget what key to press
To connect a wireless 360 Controller, you need to buy a receiver for that. I haven't seen it sold separately. I think you have to buy an additional 360 Controller which includes this.
For me, I use the corded 360 Controller, and it works like a charm.