Joystick Input in Unity using Xbox360 Controller

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This is a tutorial on how you can use Xbox 360 Controller for joystick input in Unity.
If you've ever tried on an Oculus Rift, you will know that it is rather annoying to have to find the WASD on a keyboard. It usually means you have to take the headset on and off. If you haven't tried the Rift yet, trust me when I say that taking it on and off to find WASD is indeed a pain. You can avoid this by having controller input.

First things first you need a Xbox360 controller for Windows. this is the one I have.

 

You will want to plug that in and make sure that your computer has recognized it by checking in Device Settings

Success. Moving on.

Open Unity project

Edit -> Project Settings -> Input

InputManager should look like this in the inspector

For reference, these are the axes we are going to be referencing when we start changing settings

Let's start with the Mouse X. Expand that tab

 

Change Type to Joystick Axis

Change Axis to 4th Axis

For Mouse Y

Change Type to Joystick Axis

Change Axis to 5th Axis

WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE OTHER VALUES? We will come back to that.

Next is Horizontal and Vertical. You will note that there are 2 sets of Horizontal and Vertical tabs. WE ARE DOING THE FIRST ONE FIRST.

Change Type to Joystick Axis
Horizontal Axis to X Axis
Vertical Axis to Y Axis

Now the SECOND SET OF HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SETTINGS

 

Change Horizontal to Joystick Axis and X Axis

Leave Vertical as Key or Mouse Button

 

Now to handle the "jump" button. 

Change Positive Button to "joystick button 0". It would have said "space" before that. 
Button 0 is the "A" button on Xbox 360 controller.

 

Now that we have all the basic input settings handled, we can go back and look at some of those values.

the Unity documentation sums them up pretty well.

 

The one I found most important was "Dead" meaning '"deadband value" and is used to prevent drift if a joystick is slightly off center while in rest.

I found there to be a LOT of drift with the right joystick, the one controlling 4th and 5th axis. 
The values above are what work decently for my game, but it does take some fiddling with depending on your game and controller.
However, if you are going to be using the Oculus Rift or some other HMD to handle looking around, you may not want to spend a ton of time on those settings.
The drift was not bad for my horizontal and vertical movement on the x and y axis, but I did change the settings a little bit there.

 

Resources:
https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/class-InputManager.html
https://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=Xbox360Controller 

 

Thoughts? Questions? Comment below or tweet at me @stopNgoh

Happy Rifting!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2015
    THANK YOU! I've spent all day trying to figure out how to map my PS4 controller, then I found your blog. Lifesaver!

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2015
    Honestly a great tutorial! Thanks! I was struggling with this, I wish Unity had better documentation for controller support

  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2016
    That's a thank you from me too. Setting this up for the first time on the PC and the deadzone and axis descriptions tripped me up all over again.