Gamepad setup

Support for gamepads in browsers is still experimental so if you want to control your OpenROV via a gamepad you have to be prepared for some troubleshooting.

Browser support
The Gamepad JS API are supported only in production versions of Chrome, from version 21 and more recent, or in special builds of Firefox. OpenROV has been tested only with Chrome.

Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari do not currently implement the Gamepad API not even in public experimental builds.

Controller support
To use the gamepad you have to make sure you have on your computer the right drivers for your combination of gamepad and OS, otherwise the browser will not detect it.

We tested only with the XBox 360 controller, but other controller should work fine as long you have the right driver installed.

XBox 360 Controller
The wireless XBox 360 controller will not work: it uses a proprietary wireless communication protocol and not bluetooth as other wireless gamepad do. If you want to use the wireless controller you have to buy the XBox360 receiver, or use a wired Xbox 360 controller instead.

On a Sindows machine you don't need any driver: they come directly with Windows. On the other hand, if you are using a Mac there is no official driver available, but fortunately there is a guy that reverse engineered the USB protocol and wrote the now de-facto official Xbox360 driver for Mac. You can download it at: http://tattiebogle.net/index.php/ProjectRoot/Xbox360Controller/OsxDriver

Other controllers
Most of the other controllers come both with Windows and Mac version (and sometimes Linux) of their drivers, and many, like the Playstation gamepad, are already installed by default both on Mac and Windows, so you should be able to use them out of the box.

Troubleshooting

 * 1) If the cockpit doesn't detect the gamepad, as first thing make sure you have installed the right driver for your combination of controller and OS.
 * 2) If you cannot get it to work, try reloading the page while keeping a button pressed. This is a security measure of browsers.
 * 3) If still you cannot make it work, please test the gamepad test page developed by Google.
 * 4) If the tester works but still you cannot get the controller to work with the OpenROV cockpit, please contact us and we'll try to troubleshoot the problem together with you.

Gamepad API specifications
If you are interested in how the Gamepad API work, the status of the specs and read more info on how it works, here is a interesting list of sites:


 * Gamapad specs from W3C: http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/gamepad/raw-file/default/gamepad.html
 * Gampad API for firefox: https://wiki.mozilla.org/GamepadAPI
 * Gamepad tutorial: http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/doodles/gamepad/