Input Issues on Xbox When Solely Using Controller

[Max Bovy]

Hi there,

As someone who only plays flight sim on Xbox I was stoked to have PMDG's stuff finally start appearing on the platform. The 737's incredible and definitely the most fleshed-out product to appear on the XB marketplace since its inception, so thanks to the folks at PMDG! Ditto for the DC6.

I wanted to point out an issue, however, that currently makes operating the plane close to impossible when strictly using a controller. If a switch or control is interacted with via a double-tap of the A button it will lock up or begin to infinitely spin (eg. if you grab the heading select knob with a single press it's fine but a double-press will cause it to spin around). There seems to be no way to stop it and once a control's locked up in this way, other controls become impossible to manipulate, the throttles can't be advanced, etc. If you connect a wired mouse to the Xbox the problem goes away.

There have been some murmurings about the problem over on the Flight Sim Reddit already but I thought this might be a good place to point out the issue so that a fix can hopefully come down the line at some point.

Thanks!

Max Mitchell

[cmakris]

We recommend a mouse. For the xbox controller the proper usage is press A use lr/rt to make the change and then B to leave from the yellow mode

[Max Bovy]

Thanks for the quick reply Chris, I'll definitely be using a mouse for the time being. I'm still hoping it's something that can be looked in to though as the present behaviour isn't normal at all and doesn't seem common to other aircraft in the sim. Pressing A and using LT/RT to interact does work but once you've double pressed and it begins actuating endlessly there is no way to stop the interaction (B doesn't work). You can select another knob/switch but it will then do the same thing.

Once a mouse is plugged in this behaviour completely stops, even if you aren't actually using the mouse itself. Last night I kept the mouse plugged in but kept using the controller and I was able to double/triple tap A on knobs all I wanted and it wouldn't cause them to spin into oblivion. In fact, even plugging in a mouse to tell the sim it's there and then unplugging it also seemed to work.

Max Mitchell

[cmakris]

Let me check with no mouse as i have always one connected

[cmakris]

Thanks for the quick reply Chris, I'll definitely be using a mouse for the time being. I'm still hoping it's something that can be looked in to though as the present behaviour isn't normal at all and doesn't seem common to other aircraft in the sim. Pressing A and using LT/RT to interact does work but once you've double pressed and it begins actuating endlessly there is no way to stop the interaction (B doesn't work). You can select another knob/switch but it will then do the same thing.

Once a mouse is plugged in this behaviour completely stops, even if you aren't actually using the mouse itself. Last night I kept the mouse plugged in but kept using the controller and I was able to double/triple tap A on knobs all I wanted and it wouldn't cause them to spin into oblivion. In fact, even plugging in a mouse to tell the sim it's there and then unplugging it also seemed to work.

Max Mitchell

just tested here. Indeed with mouse connected does not happen…

BUT with mouse not connected pressing B after A will exit the “yellow” mode with no issues…

We aren't certain why it happens, but it appears to be related to whether or not there is a mouse connected to the machine as you wrote. We are researching and evaluating in hopes of finding an in-place work-around until we can engineer a longer term solution. We will likely need some input from the platform developer as there are some aspects of the Xbox environment that are not visible to us in the development environment.

[Max Bovy]

Ok thanks a lot for testing it out. From my experience pressing B to exit an interaction only works if a mouse had been connected at some point in that session (so that the game “sees” it as an input type, as indicated by it being visible in the control settings menu). If you close the game and relaunch it with just a controller hooked up and fire up a flight, it’ll happen again with B not cancelling properly.

Max

[cmakris]

Ok thanks a lot for testing it out. From my experience pressing B to exit an interaction only works if a mouse had been connected at some point in that session (so that the game “sees” it as an input type, as indicated by it being visible in the control settings menu). If you close the game and relaunch it with just a controller hooked up and fire up a flight, it’ll happen again with B not cancelling properly.

Max

i tried with no mouse at all. started the xbox with nothing connected and worked…

[Max Bovy]

i tried with no mouse at all. started the xbox with nothing connected and worked…

Is this after you had triggered the glitch in the first place? eg. start up the game and flight with no mouse, double click A on something like the heading select knob to get it doing 360’s on its own, and then try B to see if it stops. Didn’t for me yesterday. I’ll try again today.

Max

[cmakris]

Is this after you had triggered the glitch in the first place? eg. start up the game and flight with no mouse, double click A on something like the heading select knob to get it doing 360’s on its own, and then try B to see if it stops. Didn’t for me yesterday. I’ll try again today.

Max

No if the glitch is triggered you can stop it only with mouse. the procedure i sent is for normal operation so that it does not glitch..

Not sure what the purpose of double A is on Xbox on default plane it looks like it inveewse the value ie what the rt/lt does…


i

[Max Bovy]

No if the glitch is triggered you can stop it only with mouse. the procedure i sent is for normal operation so that it does not glitch..

Not sure what the purpose of double A is on Xbox on default plane it looks like it inveewse the value ie what the rt/lt does…


i

There isn’t really a specific purpose, but an accidental double press isn’t uncommon. Also, the PMDG 737 seems to require double presses with controller on certain buttons (all of the ones on the FMC, for example), so that would increase the likelihood further, I’d imagine.

Max

[Ram2Scram]

Hello guys, 1st post so please don't be upset if this is misplaced, but I have been patiently waiting for months for this for Xbox and finally bought the -800 last night! Thanks so much. But I don't know if I am doing something wrong, but this post issue caught my eye.

I also have used Xbox Series X controller on over 50 planes no problem, but starting cold startup today at KHVN- I can't get 2 way toggles to go to the other side. For example: Yaw Damper switch won't stay put on ON,
"OVHT/FIRE" wont toggle to right to trigger all the warnings from checklist, but it only goes to left for "Inop/Fault" and that works and stays in the position for a second or so before returning to middle.
EXT Test 1/2 button only goes to 1 position to the left, not 2 to the right..and again returns to center after pressing A once it was highlighted.
Even the visor I unstowed, it went on, but it would not slide to right or left when prompted, it only barely moved.

I tried all combinations from RT/LT, A, X button, trigger plus analog directional. From the plethora of planes, I know pretty much all controller tricks to actuate buttons. Is this an issue for others? I tried the BBJ2 and then restarted and tried the other normal economy model also thinking maybe it was just with one jet, but not the case?

Any input appreciated, I am looking for spare mouse and my USB number pad I had used months ago, see if those maybe help as you said.

[Max Bovy]

Hello guys, 1st post so please don't be upset if this is misplaced, but I have been patiently waiting for months for this for Xbox and finally bought the -800 last night! Thanks so much. But I don't know if I am doing something wrong, but this post issue caught my eye.

I also have used Xbox Series X controller on over 50 planes no problem, but starting cold startup today at KHVN- I can't get 2 way toggles to go to the other side. For example: Yaw Damper switch won't stay put on ON,
"OVHT/FIRE" wont toggle to right to trigger all the warnings from checklist, but it only goes to left for "Inop/Fault" and that works and stays in the position for a second or so before returning to middle.
EXT Test 1/2 button only goes to 1 position to the left, not 2 to the right..and again returns to center after pressing A once it was highlighted.
Even the visor I unstowed, it went on, but it would not slide to right or left when prompted, it only barely moved.

I tried all combinations from RT/LT, A, X button, trigger plus analog directional. From the plethora of planes, I know pretty much all controller tricks to actuate buttons. Is this an issue for others? I tried the BBJ2 and then restarted and tried the other normal economy model also thinking maybe it was just with one jet, but not the case?

Any input appreciated, I am looking for spare mouse and my USB number pad I had used months ago, see if those maybe help as you said.

Yeah the mouse will be your friend here without a doubt. The airplane’s been pretty beautifully ported over to console for the most part but it does seem to still carry some vestiges of being heavily reliant on M&K from over on PC.

An easy example of what you’re describing is the brightness toggle on the FMC. Can only manipulate it in one direction with the controller but it’s easy with a mouse. Ditto quite often for stuff that moves along a track like a window or window shade.

Max Mitchell

[Ram2Scram]

Oh wow thank you so much Max, I never would of ever assumed to try that. It just worked when I plugged my wireless mouse dongle in, clicked on the switch and visor, and boom- they went to right..

Now I have a cheap little USB wired number pad I got from Amazon I used sometimes for like mapping mixtures, flaps, or multi throttle planes just to add some immersion once in while. I wonder if I can somehow get that to work, where I click on said toggle say with Xbox button A, then just use a "L and "R" mapped key on the num pad (instead of sliding mouse all around arm of my recliner with controller in other hand). I will try some experimenting now, but again- thank you so much for your help!

[ricardo vitor]

Hello everyone, my name is Ricardo and I just joined the forum to be able to collaborate in some way with the 737 on Xbox. In my case, I am using Xcloud, Microsoft’s cloud console service, using a low-specification computer for such a complex and complete aircraft, which is incredible.I would like to first thank the PMDG team for allowing this aircraft in such a different environment as the console.

Some points that I wanted to bring up, and that seems to have already been widely commented on, is the issue of the Xbox controller and the “A” and “B” buttons. Following Chris Makris’ instruction reduced the issue of going crazy when clicking the “A” button more than twice, but I am unable to press buttons like STD or TFC, since in these functions, one click turns it yellow and the second click puts the altimeter in STD mode, but it goes crazy and keeps pressing the STD button infinitely. Even pressing “B” to exit the chosen function, it continues to trigger the function infinitely. Pressing the Y button stops it from infinitely clicking on the function, but you can no longer accelerate or decelerate the 737, having to restart the flight.

Unfortunately on the Xcloud platform it is not currently possible to use a mouse and keyboard, so a mouse and keyboard are out of the question. This would be the first thing that bothers me. There is also the issue of double-clicking to perform a certain function, this happened at first with the release of the A310 in MSFS’s anniversary edition, but it was soon corrected, surely PMDG’s team will correct this in their aircraft. Otherwise, the aircraft is perfect and flying beautifully here on Xcloud. Thank you and sorry for the long text.

Ricardo V S Araujo (Xbox Cloud Gaming)

[Ephedrin]

Can‘t help you with the cloud issues but using the LED lights there IS actually no nose wheel taxi light.

[ricardo vitor]

Thank you Marc. Indeed, I think I understood. I saw a friend saying that he would have to change in the options. Thank you for the tip Marc. I will modify my post.