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So how about it, can I use a gamepad (in my case the X360 Pad) to control the ship in the Descent games?
I suppose it'll work, though I don't exactly find dual-analog gamepads the most comfortable for Descent. Here's a control scheme someone else came up with that I happened to read (at least as far as the movement controls are concerned):
Left Analog: Bank Up/Down/Left/Right
Triggers: Move Forward/Back
Right Analog: Pitch/Yaw
Click Left and Right Analog: Roll (in the direction of which analog stick you clicked; the left one rolls left, and vice versa)
Right Bumper: Primary Weapon
Left Bumper: Secondary Weapon
A: Afterburner (in Descent II and 3; the first game doesn't have it)
B: Drop Bomb (this allows you to lay mines without having to switch your secondary to them)
X: Countermeasures (in Descent 3; I can't think of what to put here for the first two games)
Y: Flare
D-Pad Right: Change Primary Weapon
D-Pad Left: Change Secondary Weapon
D-Pad Up: Cycle Inventory (Descent 3 only)
D-Pad Down: Cycle Countermeasures (Descent 3 only)
(If playing Descent I or II, you might want to have left/right and up/down cycle through your weapons both ways rather than one way.)
Back: Map
Start: Pause/Menu (if possible; if not, then I'm not quite sure what to suggest since I haven't played Descent in a while)
Hopefully, this will help get you started.
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Headhunter: So how about it, can I use a gamepad (in my case the X360 Pad) to control the ship in the Descent games?

I've used a PS1 DualShock controller with significant success in D3. It requires a lot of jiggering around with the control settings in the game, but you can probably get a reasonable set up with some work.
Descent was even ported to the PS1. The control scheme startled my fragile joystick-centric worldview.
I personally used a PSX controller with a USB adapter for the original Descent until I got a hold of a SpaceOrb 360 - which, as anyone who has ever used one can tell you, is vastly preferrable.
If you grab the program Joy2Mouse, it'll allow you to remap anything to a keyboard key. With that, I was able to get the right analog stick to control the strafing on both axes, as well as using every button on the controller as opposed to being limited to 6 buttons - including the D-pad. it takes some effort to get it to work how you want, and the learning curve is a bit intimidating at first, but it's such a handy utility that it's worth it.
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NamelessFragger: I suppose it'll work, though I don't exactly find dual-analog gamepads the most comfortable for Descent. Here's a control scheme someone else came up with that I happened to read (at least as far as the movement controls are concerned):
Left Analog: Bank Up/Down/Left/Right
Triggers: Move Forward/Back
Right Analog: Pitch/Yaw
Click Left and Right Analog: Roll (in the direction of which analog stick you clicked; the left one rolls left, and vice versa)
Right Bumper: Primary Weapon
Left Bumper: Secondary Weapon
A: Afterburner (in Descent II and 3; the first game doesn't have it)
B: Drop Bomb (this allows you to lay mines without having to switch your secondary to them)
X: Countermeasures (in Descent 3; I can't think of what to put here for the first two games)
Y: Flare
D-Pad Right: Change Primary Weapon
D-Pad Left: Change Secondary Weapon
D-Pad Up: Cycle Inventory (Descent 3 only)
D-Pad Down: Cycle Countermeasures (Descent 3 only)
(If playing Descent I or II, you might want to have left/right and up/down cycle through your weapons both ways rather than one way.)
Back: Map
Start: Pause/Menu (if possible; if not, then I'm not quite sure what to suggest since I haven't played Descent in a while)
Hopefully, this will help get you started.

I've purchased D1&2 in hopes of playing with my XBox 360 Controller as well, but so far I have no luck.
I'd like to use both analog sticks (one for sliding left/right, up.down, the other for pitch/yaw) but can never figure out how to set up the game for that.
What type of "Joystick" do I choose? Just the regular joystick, CH, or Thrustmaster?
How many axes am I allowed to use? I seem to be able to map X1 and Y1 but don't know if there are any more available.
And when the calibration menu comes up, there's no way for me to distinguish between the two analog sticks. Could I calibrate both?
I have used DOSBox, D2-XL, Rebirth as well as the official Microsoft XBox 360 Windows Driver, XBCD, and XPadder but cannot figure out how to play Descent on my 360 controller.
Help me! And please be specific when giving directions.
bump
I have personally used DXX-Rebirth, and I've made a custom configuration, which I feel, works properly.
Once you select "Joystick" from the "Controls" menu under "Options" in the main, select "Customize Above". By highlighting each blank slot and pressing enter, the highlighted slot will now "pulse". Hit a button on your controller to assign that action to a button.
The following is my settings, under what it looks in the game:
FIRE PRIMARY - J1 B1 (A button)
FIRE SECONDARY - J1 B3 (X button)
FIRE FLARE - J1 B4 (Y button)
DROP BOMB - J1 B2 (B button)
REAR VIEW - J1 B7 (Back button)
AUTOMAP - J1 B8 (Start button)
PITCH U/D - J1 A2 (Y axis, left thumbstick)
TURN L/R - J1 A1 (X axis, left thumbstick)
SLIDE L/R - J1 A5 (X axis, right thumbstick)
SLIDE U/D - J1 A4 (Y axis, left thumbstick)
THROTTLE - J1 A3 (Left trigger to accelerate, right trigger to reverse)
BANK LEFT - J1 B5 (Left shoulder)
BANK RIGHT - J1 B6 (Right shoulder)
Now, go to "Customize Weapon Keys", and assign this:
CYCLE PRIMARY WEAPON - J1 H1 < (Left D-pad)
CYCLE SECONDARY WEAPON - J1 H1 > (Right D-pad)
I hope this helps in anyway. ^_^
Let's see...
To do ANYTHING you'll need GlovePIE.
Nose movement: Stick 1
Strafe: Stick 2
Foward: RB
Reverse: LB
Fire Primary: RB
Fire Secondary: LB
Bank L/R: Stick 1/2
B: Fire Bomb
Y: Switch Primary
X: Switch Secondary
A: Flare
Eh, Barely.
Still, it's not really enough.
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Headhunter: So how about it, can I use a gamepad (in my case the X360 Pad) to control the ship in the Descent games?
I find these work best with the XBOX controller.
Basically the right stick is 'camera movement'
and Left stick is 'Movement' WASD Style

Other suggest to have the Left and right sticks opposite which did not feel at all right to me so I kept try things until I got these.

Having never finished Level one in decent prior to these settings, I was able to get through multiple levels after making these settings.

Fire Primary = J1 B1 = A
Fire Secondary = J1 B2 = B
Fire Flare = J1 B4 = Y
Drop Bomb = J1 B3 = X

Rear View = J1 B5 = Left Shoulder
Auto Map = J1 B7 = Back

Pitch Up down = J1 A4 INVERT Y = Right Thumb U/D
Turn L/R = J1 A5 = Right Thumb L/R
Slide L/R = J1 A1 = Left thumb L/R
Bank L/R = J1 A3 INVERT Y = Triggers
Throttle = J1 A2 = Left Thumb U/D

Also, I'm am using the Dxx-Rebirth which makes feel a lot 'newer'.
Attachments:
decent.png (301 Kb)
Post edited June 29, 2013 by xlax360
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Headhunter: So how about it, can I use a gamepad (in my case the X360 Pad) to control the ship in the Descent games?
2008....

Well, for anyone else Descent fails to recognize all the axes of a 360 controller correctly, BUT it's simple enough to get the DXX-Rebirth source port which will correctly detect all the axes of the 360 controller. The analog triggers also count as an axis by the by.

So if you get the source port using the 360 controller becomes a snap, I've tried using a traditional joystick as well but dual sticks feel much more natural.
Post edited September 07, 2013 by Shaolin_sKunk
I'm interested in this as well, is there any way to do this with the DosBox version?

I presume if possible the 360 controller just ends up acting as a generic a 6-axis, 10 button joystick - does DosBox support that?
Is it possible to use a 360 controller in the GOG version of Descent 1/2 without downloading any 3rd-party programs or mods?
I'm not sure, cause the GOG version uses DOSBox.

I would REALLY suggest checking out the FAQ and downloading DXX-Rebirth, instead of playing in DOSBox though...
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SpellSword: Is it possible to use a 360 controller in the GOG version of Descent 1/2 without downloading any 3rd-party programs or mods?
Yes, very. In fact, it is possible to use one with any DOSBox game.

http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Mapper