I’m a big fan of gamepads, they enable me to kick back and relax while gaming. I decided to invest in one that is supposed to have good Linux support, so what did I find?
I was really tired of my old Xbox 360 wireless pad, when it was purchased for me years ago the battery it came with was half broken (it wouldn’t stay in without tacking it to the gamepad). Due to this it already started life with me annoyed with it, but it was a present, so I stuck with it. I recently decided to dump it for something better, because I can.
Enter the Logitech F310, isn’t it beautiful?
Configuration
Thanks to Steam it needed zero configuration, and worked beautifully out of the box. It even has a handy button directly in the middle which will bring up the Steam Overlay; something I wasn’t able to do on my old wireless 360 controller. Logitech do directly advertise Steam Big Picture on their official product page, so it sounds like it was designed with it in mind.
I’ve tested it outside Steam as well, and without configuring anything it seems to work just as well. I am very impressed with how easy it is to get going. That’s the most important thing after all—I want to game with it, not spend tons of time configuring it.
How does it feel?
Even with my smaller hands it still feels pretty comfortable, and fits snuggly into both hands together. I’ve used it for some pretty long sessions now, and my hands don’t end up aching like they do with my Dualshock 4. There’s practically no weight to it either, so that’s a major bonus.
The wire on it is pretty long too, to the point that I can nearly sit half a room away! I still need a slight extension to lazy with it in bed though, sadly. I shall one day be the king of PC gaming leisure, lazing it up in bed while I game.
The trigger buttons are the only parts that don’t feel quite right. I’m not sure if it’s due to being brand new or not, but the triggers feel really quite stiff. It’s not a big issue though, as they are still perfectly usable, but I do hope they become a little less stiff over time, with enough use they might, so I will just have to keep an eye on it.
The general build quality does seem great, and it feels quite strong. Feels like it might actually last quite some time even with me dropping it all over the place, and my son throwing it around. I really need to hide it away during the day!
Deadzone wise, there’s a real tiny amount of it on each stick, and I imagine that’s to stop accidental movements. You don’t want them to be overly sensitive and respond to the tiniest touch by accident, so I think the responsiveness is pretty good. It may not be the best for a fast paced shooter when you’re using something like a Sniper that needs pinpoint movement, but for everything else it should be a dream.
I’ve tested the gamepad in several games, and it performs really well in all of them. Some games like Half-Life 2 really were never designed for a gamepad, but it’s nice to have the option to use one. The original layout that Half-Life 2 gives you for this controller is a bit crap, so after some customization it’s all good, and I don’t think I had to use the keyboard since I customized it.
One thing I did find during my testing is the “mode” button seems to switch between using the D-pad and the left analog stick for movement. It confused me to no end until i realised I accidentally pressed it, which is quite easy to do. If that happens to you, that’s probably what you did.
Apart from BioShock’s setting having an inverted look up/down the wrong way around (off is inverted, on isn’t, lolwut?) the game seems to work pretty great with it. The Control layout is a bit crap, but bearable. Like with Half-Life 2, just customize as you like it.
The gamepad is just as responsive as it is in Half-Life 2, and that’s great. It has enabled me to enjoy the game some more as I sit back and watch the story unfold.
Finally, I tested it extensively in Victor Vran, and i just never wanted to put it down, but more on that in another article to come soon.
Final Verdict: If you’re looking for a well built gamepad that has a good shape, and good support in games, then go for it. For the price I think it’s fantastic, and you can find them dirt cheap on eBay.
You can find the official F310 page on Logitechs website.
Ps. What gamepad have you fallen in love with? Or are you too "pc master race" to go near one? Let me know! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I was really tired of my old Xbox 360 wireless pad, when it was purchased for me years ago the battery it came with was half broken (it wouldn’t stay in without tacking it to the gamepad). Due to this it already started life with me annoyed with it, but it was a present, so I stuck with it. I recently decided to dump it for something better, because I can.
Enter the Logitech F310, isn’t it beautiful?
Configuration
Thanks to Steam it needed zero configuration, and worked beautifully out of the box. It even has a handy button directly in the middle which will bring up the Steam Overlay; something I wasn’t able to do on my old wireless 360 controller. Logitech do directly advertise Steam Big Picture on their official product page, so it sounds like it was designed with it in mind.
I’ve tested it outside Steam as well, and without configuring anything it seems to work just as well. I am very impressed with how easy it is to get going. That’s the most important thing after all—I want to game with it, not spend tons of time configuring it.
How does it feel?
Even with my smaller hands it still feels pretty comfortable, and fits snuggly into both hands together. I’ve used it for some pretty long sessions now, and my hands don’t end up aching like they do with my Dualshock 4. There’s practically no weight to it either, so that’s a major bonus.
The wire on it is pretty long too, to the point that I can nearly sit half a room away! I still need a slight extension to lazy with it in bed though, sadly. I shall one day be the king of PC gaming leisure, lazing it up in bed while I game.
The trigger buttons are the only parts that don’t feel quite right. I’m not sure if it’s due to being brand new or not, but the triggers feel really quite stiff. It’s not a big issue though, as they are still perfectly usable, but I do hope they become a little less stiff over time, with enough use they might, so I will just have to keep an eye on it.
The general build quality does seem great, and it feels quite strong. Feels like it might actually last quite some time even with me dropping it all over the place, and my son throwing it around. I really need to hide it away during the day!
Deadzone wise, there’s a real tiny amount of it on each stick, and I imagine that’s to stop accidental movements. You don’t want them to be overly sensitive and respond to the tiniest touch by accident, so I think the responsiveness is pretty good. It may not be the best for a fast paced shooter when you’re using something like a Sniper that needs pinpoint movement, but for everything else it should be a dream.
I’ve tested the gamepad in several games, and it performs really well in all of them. Some games like Half-Life 2 really were never designed for a gamepad, but it’s nice to have the option to use one. The original layout that Half-Life 2 gives you for this controller is a bit crap, so after some customization it’s all good, and I don’t think I had to use the keyboard since I customized it.
One thing I did find during my testing is the “mode” button seems to switch between using the D-pad and the left analog stick for movement. It confused me to no end until i realised I accidentally pressed it, which is quite easy to do. If that happens to you, that’s probably what you did.
Apart from BioShock’s setting having an inverted look up/down the wrong way around (off is inverted, on isn’t, lolwut?) the game seems to work pretty great with it. The Control layout is a bit crap, but bearable. Like with Half-Life 2, just customize as you like it.
The gamepad is just as responsive as it is in Half-Life 2, and that’s great. It has enabled me to enjoy the game some more as I sit back and watch the story unfold.
Finally, I tested it extensively in Victor Vran, and i just never wanted to put it down, but more on that in another article to come soon.
Final Verdict: If you’re looking for a well built gamepad that has a good shape, and good support in games, then go for it. For the price I think it’s fantastic, and you can find them dirt cheap on eBay.
You can find the official F310 page on Logitechs website.
Ps. What gamepad have you fallen in love with? Or are you too "pc master race" to go near one? Let me know! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
fraghopper May 18, 2015
I have a Logitech F310 and have found it just as good as Liam does in this article. On some games, it requires no configuration, and on others I use https://github.com/Ryochan7/antimicro to interpret and convert the signals for me. All of this works really well even on games that I play in WINE. I have nothing bad to say about this controller, and highly recommend it.
In terms of getting it to work, I had no trouble. I use the xboxdrv driver on Slackware Linux. Works great.
In terms of getting it to work, I had no trouble. I use the xboxdrv driver on Slackware Linux. Works great.
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I've been using ps3 controllers and F710.
My best experience is using the ps3 controllers with a mayflash ps3-to-pc adapter.
It presents the ps3 controller to the OS as a wired xbox360 controller, which are much better supported in games.
The F710 is ok as well, but it too has problems with many games compared to the ps3/mayflash combo.
My best experience is using the ps3 controllers with a mayflash ps3-to-pc adapter.
It presents the ps3 controller to the OS as a wired xbox360 controller, which are much better supported in games.
The F710 is ok as well, but it too has problems with many games compared to the ps3/mayflash combo.
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Seems like a nice product, however I never use gamepads. The versatility of the keyboard, the precision of a mouse, and yes even the "relaxation factor" of laying back and lazily dumping my left hand on a cordless keyboard and my right on a wireless mouse when gaming while more or less horizontal on my bed/sofa or couch.
Yup, if you ask me, m&kb has total supremacy in every sense except "compactness". ;-)
No, but more seriously I have of course used a gamepad in the past and for certain titles, fighting games, some platformers, some racing games, some titles developed exclusively for pad-gaming (with rotten m&kb support patched on later) etc. etc. In those cases, I did find a pad to be preferable and in a few cases almost indispensable.
However, in general such games fall outside my "sphere of interest", as far as the game-genrés are concerned, so I think the last time I owned a pad of my own was somewhere back in 2004-06 .
Yup, if you ask me, m&kb has total supremacy in every sense except "compactness". ;-)
No, but more seriously I have of course used a gamepad in the past and for certain titles, fighting games, some platformers, some racing games, some titles developed exclusively for pad-gaming (with rotten m&kb support patched on later) etc. etc. In those cases, I did find a pad to be preferable and in a few cases almost indispensable.
However, in general such games fall outside my "sphere of interest", as far as the game-genrés are concerned, so I think the last time I owned a pad of my own was somewhere back in 2004-06 .
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F710 here, after seven years with a PS3 I will never return to a wired controller again.
I use the gamepad in roughly 50% of the games I play. Some games, even fps (like borderlands!) just feels more right with a pad.
I use the gamepad in roughly 50% of the games I play. Some games, even fps (like borderlands!) just feels more right with a pad.
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The F310 is the gamepad I use and I am quite happy with it. Be careful not to break the wire at the connection between the gamepad and the usb wire (not sure if clear, non-native speaker here). That happened to me and I had to buy a second one. Which, given the cheap price of the device is not really a big deal.
Some games refuses to detect the gamepad (especially through wine) but qjoypad is a great tool to fix that problem.
But wow, so many FPS are named, I guess I am too "pc master race" elitist for that :p
Gamepad is mainly for platformers and 3rd person action games, I stick to the mouse for the others.
Some games refuses to detect the gamepad (especially through wine) but qjoypad is a great tool to fix that problem.
But wow, so many FPS are named, I guess I am too "pc master race" elitist for that :p
Gamepad is mainly for platformers and 3rd person action games, I stick to the mouse for the others.
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I have the F510 and it is very confy, indeed. It was a great choice. :D
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@Liam regarding sentence:
Feels like it might actually last quite some time even with me dropping it all over the place, and my son throwing it around.
You're very right. I have my F310 for over 3 years now and it works like a charm (I've never had gamepad that would work for so long).
In general it works great with my Ubuntu, especially with Steam like @Liam says.
Unfortunately I was unable to setup it to work with Wine and Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, It did not work with latest port of Spec Ops: the Line either and also it did not work with GOG version of the Witcher 2. But it works out of the box with all the Valve games that support controllers, it worked with other games like Trine 1 and 2 (but with weird behavior of the trigger buttons), it works like a charm with all the Klei Entertainment games (Don't starve, Shank (1 and 2), Mark of the Ninja), it works great with Steam version of Witcher 2, it works great (after small configuration) with PES 2014 via Wine with PlayOnLinux wrapper.
In general I've spent a lot of time with this gamepad in my hands and I have to admit that it's very good, it is very comfortable and I can tell that it is for sure worth it's price.
Hope that someone will find this post valuable.
Feels like it might actually last quite some time even with me dropping it all over the place, and my son throwing it around.
You're very right. I have my F310 for over 3 years now and it works like a charm (I've never had gamepad that would work for so long).
In general it works great with my Ubuntu, especially with Steam like @Liam says.
Unfortunately I was unable to setup it to work with Wine and Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, It did not work with latest port of Spec Ops: the Line either and also it did not work with GOG version of the Witcher 2. But it works out of the box with all the Valve games that support controllers, it worked with other games like Trine 1 and 2 (but with weird behavior of the trigger buttons), it works like a charm with all the Klei Entertainment games (Don't starve, Shank (1 and 2), Mark of the Ninja), it works great with Steam version of Witcher 2, it works great (after small configuration) with PES 2014 via Wine with PlayOnLinux wrapper.
In general I've spent a lot of time with this gamepad in my hands and I have to admit that it's very good, it is very comfortable and I can tell that it is for sure worth it's price.
Hope that someone will find this post valuable.
0 Likes
I have Logitech F310 and it is really a nice choice for GNU/Linux gaming; almost no customization needed. I am looking forward for couple F710 controllers but the requirement for seperate receivers makes me off a little bit. It would be great to have simple bluetooth connection just like DualShock...
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I bought mine when I built my Linux gaming box in the living room more than a year ago, and I can't say I've had any regrets. Although it does sound like there's something tiny rattling loose inside the controller if I shake it and the right trigger has made a rather worrying grindy sound a couple of times. Also I'd argue the a, b, x and y buttons are a bit noisy, which can be slightly annoying in games that require button mashing. Then again, I'm probably more sensitive than most to background noise.
To the kb/mouse advocates: Any tips on playing without a controller sitting on a sofa in front of the tv without killing either my back - if the kb/mouse are on the coffee table - or my shoulders and arms - if I try to keep 'em on my lap or beside me on the sofa. This wouldn't have been a problem a few years back, but now I've reached the point where only pensioners call me young and decades of servitude to our computer overlords has proved detrimental to my physical well-being.
To the kb/mouse advocates: Any tips on playing without a controller sitting on a sofa in front of the tv without killing either my back - if the kb/mouse are on the coffee table - or my shoulders and arms - if I try to keep 'em on my lap or beside me on the sofa. This wouldn't have been a problem a few years back, but now I've reached the point where only pensioners call me young and decades of servitude to our computer overlords has proved detrimental to my physical well-being.
Quoting: liamdaweI’m not sure if it’s due to being brand new or not, but the triggers feel really quite stiff. It’s not a big issue though, as they are still perfectly usable, but I do hope they become a little less stiff over time, with enough use they might, so I will just have to keep an eye on it.Yeah, my fingers ached like crazy when the controller was new, but either my fingers got used to the "exercise" (never really had a controller before) or the triggers loosened up in a few weeks. Can't say which.
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