Guides

One-stick driving, set up properly

One-stick driving makes a single joystick behave like a power wheelchair's: push forward to go, pull back to brake, left and right to steer, and a quick double snap back to shift into reverse. It sends keyboard and mouse, so it works in any driving game that has keyboard controls, which is most of them, including the ones that never imagined an adaptive setup. This guide is the full setup, from the stick to the game's own settings.

Which stick

Any analog stick: a controller's left or right stick, the PlayStation Access Controller's stick, a USB joystick on the Xbox Adaptive Controller, or a wheelchair-style joystick that presents as HID. In the One-Stick Driving panel choose Left, Right, or Custom axes. Custom is for a joystick that reports on unusual axis numbers; the live readout under the picker shows which axes move when the stick does.

Throttle from a key

A keyboard key is either down or up, so the app pulses it: the further forward the stick, the larger share of each cycle the accelerate key is held. Most games read this as proportional throttle. Set the accelerate and brake keys to match the game (W and S are the defaults and the most common). If the game has an analog throttle option for keyboards, turn it off; the pulsing works best when the game treats the key as a simple on / off.

Steering

Mouse steering is the default: the stick's left-right becomes smooth mouse movement, and games that support mouse steering (many arcade racers, most simulators with a mouse option) feel close to a wheel. If the game only steers from keys, choose A and D and the app pulses them too. Raise the sensitivity curve for finer control near centre, which matters at speed.

Reverse

Snap the stick fully back to the wall twice, quickly, and the scheme shifts into Reverse: forward on the stick now drives backward. Push fully forward to return to Drive. Three settings tune it: how many snaps, how quickly they must follow each other, and how far back counts as the wall. For a hand that moves slowly, one snap with a long window works; for a hand that overshoots, require three. The panel shows the current gear live.

Everything else on the buttons

Handbrake, horn, look behind, camera, pause, reset car: bind them to whatever buttons or switches are available, with holds and double taps if there are few. The built-in Racing Game preset and the Access Controller Driving preset both have a sensible set.

Game settings that help

• Turn off any steering assist that fights direct input, and turn on any that smooths keyboard steering if you are using A and D.
• Automatic transmission, always. The stick handles Drive and Reverse; the game handles gears.
• Confine the pointer and hide it in the preset's automation section, so mouse steering never reaches the screen edge.
• Lower the game's mouse sensitivity rather than the app's if steering is too twitchy; the two multiply.

Games that work

Anything with keyboard driving: kart racers, open-world games with vehicles, rally and track simulators with a mouse or keyboard option, and every browser racing game. Games that only accept a gamepad are the exception, because the app does not emulate a controller; play those with the real pad. The presets index lists the driving titles the Smart Preset Maker knows.

Download

• One-Stick Racing presetOne-stick driving on the left stick with W / S throttle and mouse steering, and the extras on the buttons. 4 KB

Open a downloaded preset with InputConfig, or drag it onto the app icon. It lands in the sidebar, ready to activate or edit. Any launch target inside a preset file is cleared on import; add one yourself in the editor if you want it.

Questions

Related

• One-stick driving
• The PlayStation Access Controller on a Mac
• Racing Game preset
• Per-app auto-switch and automation