[Sid P.]

I came across some questions elsewhere in the forums asking about joystick support in ORTS. I just stumbled onto a joystick software driver that allows you to use any existing joystick with the current versions of OR. I have an inexpensive old Logitech Attack3 Joystick with lots of buttons, and I find that it works quite well with this software driver and X1750.
The joystick driver is available at (http://www.deinmeister.de) under the Downloads page as a "Joystick cursor tool". It runs fine under Windows 7, and is stated as OK for XP, etc.
You can assign any of the keyboard keys to any of your joystick buttons, and when OR is running and its window is active, the mouse buttons duplicate the assigned keys on your keyboard. They can autorepeat, so you can hold a button down to step the throttle or the brakes, for example.

You have to be careful not to press any joystick buttons while another window besides OR is active if that window accepts keyboard commands, since the joystick will duplicate the assigned keyboard keys.

It's not as elegant as RailDriver or a custom joystick, and not as realistic as using the mouse to move the controls on the screen, but the price is right, and I find it nice to have some spatial correspondence between the levers in the ORTS window and my buttons on the joystick. There are still old joysticks available that should work.

[markus_GE]

Hm, now I just got to get my brother to giving me back the Joystick I lent him some time ago and never saw anymore... :whistling:

Also sounds like an insteresting program for many other games. Thanks for sharing you find! :)

Cheers, Markus

[JorD1]

This trick is also working in the old MSTS. I used GlovePie once. It's scriptable so even more tricks are possible.
In theorie it should even allow you to controll OR with a Wii remote.