Board index FlightGear Support Hardware

Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Joysticks, pedals, monitors.

Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby roj » Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:13 pm

I'm new to FlightGear and wanting advice on a good joystick to use?
I have a stock Mac 27ins' desktop running OS-X El Capitan V.10.11.6 with 4GB of RAM and its standard on-board graphics card.
I'm not looking for anything highly sophisticated at this stage, but I would prefer it to have a combined throttle control on the joystick base.
Also, would it be worth expanding the RAM to 8GB and are there any other tweeks I can make with the Mac to improve performance?
Many thanks in anticipation of receiving assistance.
roj
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:49 pm

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby Michat » Fri Jan 11, 2019 6:52 pm

Digital screens won't work in FG. If joystick have.
User avatar
Michat
 
Posts: 1226
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:24 pm
Location: Spain
Version: 191b
OS: MX 21 Fluxbox oniMac

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby wkitty42 » Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:08 pm

8Gig would be a lot better than 4Gig... the T-16000M joystick has a throttle slider on the JS base... i use it but had to calibrate it special because it defaults to zero in the middle with 1 at the top end of the slide and -1 at the bottom end... now i have it so that zero is at the bottom... t'was a bit of a trick to get it to calibrate like that but once done, no problems...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9148
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby legoboyvdlp » Fri Jan 11, 2019 9:31 pm

Hi,
I'm afraid on board graphics are going to be problematic, as they are not designed for gaming or high performance.

I'd normally advise to upgrade the graphics card, but the problem is, if you upgrade it and not the RAM, you will likely run out of memory if you increase graphics settings. Therefore, I would advise to maybe buy less RAM and get an affordable Nividia card - the 800 and 900 series I believe is fairly cheap compared to the newer ones. Something like an 860 would probably do the job, but make sure it is compatible before you buy ;) in fact, I'm not even sure if you can replace the graphics card on a Mac... I hope you can as it will work far better!

As for the joystick, while the 1600m is great, the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro is much more affordable at 1/3 of the price, and seems to be fairly good.
User avatar
legoboyvdlp
 
Posts: 7981
Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:28 am
Location: Northern Ireland
Callsign: G-LEGO
Version: next
OS: Windows 10 HP

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby roj » Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:35 pm

Many thanks to all responders for replying.
The existing (standard) graphics card for my Mac is the ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB, which must be grossly inadequate for running FG effectively.
Having looked on iFixit for replacing this card, it looks to be quite a daunting task and is probably beyond my capabilities.
So the next question must be whether I forget running FG all together, or whether adding more RAM (8GB max) and a simpler, compatible joystick would provide sufficient, albeit limited, enjoyment?
So, if so, are there any recommendations for a simpler, Mac compatible joystick, please?
Many thanks in advance.
roj
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:49 pm

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby Ysop » Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:09 pm

Just give it a try!

"complexity" of joystick will have zero effect on framerates and such. So just use one. I am using Thrustmaster T-Flightstick X.

My graphic card on my notebook is not really powerful by todays standard (GeForce GT 750m) but with it I can do the things in flightgear I want to do.
User avatar
Ysop
 
Posts: 1348
Joined: Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:06 pm
Version: 2020.3.18
OS: ubuntu 22.04

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby wkitty42 » Sat Jan 12, 2019 9:31 pm

yeah, i have a GT 730 and it is flyable with not too much eye-candy turned on...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9148
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby roj » Mon Jan 14, 2019 6:31 pm

Thanks to all responders.
I suppose I'll have to dig out my 'old' Windows PC which does have reasonable graphics capability as I used it for IL2 Sturmovic.
What a pity as the 27" Mac screen is superb. Oh well, better than none at all.
roj
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:49 pm

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby sim » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:29 pm

Why not run an earlier version Flightgear? That won't be too hard on your graphics and RAM. :wink:
Flightgear-1.9.1b is only 225Mb or
FlightGear 2.6.0.1 at only 526mb is about a third of the size of the latest 2018 version
User avatar
sim
 
Posts: 1431
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:13 pm
Location: Shropshire England
Callsign: Fly4Fun
Version: 0.9.10 up
OS: 64 Win 10 HD6450

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby wkitty42 » Wed Jan 16, 2019 4:59 pm

earlier versions aren't supported and today's craft likely will not work on it either... be careful...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9148
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby sim » Wed Jan 16, 2019 8:36 pm

Works ok wKitty, just need to search out aircraft for older versions. Like this 747 for Flightgear 2.6.0.1 :wink:
User avatar
sim
 
Posts: 1431
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:13 pm
Location: Shropshire England
Callsign: Fly4Fun
Version: 0.9.10 up
OS: 64 Win 10 HD6450

Re: Best joystick advice for Mac OSX El Capitan 10.11.6

Postby wkitty42 » Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:44 am

you'll note i specified "today's craft" ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
User avatar
wkitty42
 
Posts: 9148
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04


Return to Hardware

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests