Simulation 3D Joystick

Process input from asynchronous joystick device

Renamed from Joystick Input in R2025a

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Libraries:
Simulink 3D Animation / Simulation 3D / Hardware Interface

Description

The Simulation 3D Joystick block provides interaction between a Simulink^® model and the virtual world associated with a Simulink 3D Animation™ block. This block uses axes, buttons, and the point-of-view selector, if present. You can use this block as you would use any other Simulink source block. Its output ports reflect the status of the joystick controls for axes and buttons. The block also supports force-feedback devices.

The Simulation 3D Joystick block supports all joystick devices that use the Microsoft^® APIs DirectInput and XInput components as their communication protocols.

Ports

Input

Force — Force feedback input

scalar | vector

Provide the force-feedback to be applied along supported joystick axes as a scalar or a vector in the range [-1,1].

The length of the Force vector corresponds to the number of joystick axes that support force-feedback. The force-feedback input provided to the joystick is a scaled value. This value is subsequently multiplied by the maximum force capability of the device.

Dependencies

To enable this parameter, select the Enable force-feedback input parameter.

Data Types: double

Output

Axes — Joystick position along any given axis

vector with each element in the range [-1,1]

The first joystick axes element is x, the second element is y, and so on, up to the total number of axes. What the x-axis represents depends on the type and shape of the joystick. The Simulation 3D Joystick block uses the mapping between the joystick driver and the joystick.

Data Types: double

Buttons — Status of joystick buttons

vector of 0 and 1

Status of joystick buttons.

Data Types: double

Point of view — Current status of joystick point-of-view selector

-1 (selector inactive) | scalar

The output signal is the angle of the point-of-view selector, or POV Hat, in degrees from 0 to 360. If the selector is inactive, the signal is -1.

Data Types: double

Parameters

Joystick ID — ID assigned to given joystick device

1 (default)

You can find the properties of the joystick that is connected to the system in the Game Controllers section of the system Control Panel.

Adjust I/O ports according to joystick capabilities — Option to dynamically adjust ports to correspond to joystick capabilities

on (default) | off

If you enable this parameter, the Simulink 3D Animation software dynamically adjusts the ports to correspond to the capabilities of the connected joystick each time that you open the model. If the connected device does not have force-feedback capability, selecting this check box causes the removal of the force-feedback input from the block, even if you enable the Enable force-feedback input parameter.

The block ports do not have the full widths provided by the Windows^® Game Controllers interface.

Enable force-feedback input — Option to support joysticks with force-feedback

on (default) | off

If you select this check box, the Simulink 3D Animation software can support force-feedback joystick, steering wheel, and haptic (one that enables tactile feedback) devices.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2025a: Renamed from Joystick Input

To reflect the Simulink library change, the Joystick Input block is now called Simulation 3D Joystick. The behavior remains the same.