So I take there are a small handful of joysticks/flightsticks that would work OK on Mac OS X. Provided they are HID-compliant type, they probably will work on MacOSX without requiring any 3rd party drivers. And assuming that the flight sim game you play actually has built-in support for HID compliant flightsticks.
So, getting the joystick to work on a MacOSX game is most of the battle.
But now comes a new issue I didn't think about before..... calibration!
Joysticks/flightsticks, unlike most gamepads, tend to lose precision after a few months of use. And then you need to re-calibrate them. The problem is that... hardly ANY joystick manufacturer these days makes Mac calibration software any longer (at least software that will run in the latest OSX). Logitech? Nope. Thrustmaster? Nope. CH Products? Nope. Saitek? I'm guessing a big fat no also, since their products are never labelled as MacOSX-compatible out of the box. Hence, none of these companies will provide you with Mac drivers out of the box, or any software to calibrate the joysticks.
So now what? Is there a known 3rd party gamepad controller software that also doubles as a software calibrator? Or does MacOSX have a built-in "calibration/test" window you can call up as long as OSX actually recognizes your joystick? Or do the individual games (like X-Plane Mac or Warbirds Mac or Falcon 4.0) have built-in joystick calibrators inside the game?
I'm thinking about getting one decent joystick, hopefully one with the best reputation for working with several OSX flight sim games. But I also have to think about secondary issues such as the need to calibrate, etc.
So, getting the joystick to work on a MacOSX game is most of the battle.
But now comes a new issue I didn't think about before..... calibration!
Joysticks/flightsticks, unlike most gamepads, tend to lose precision after a few months of use. And then you need to re-calibrate them. The problem is that... hardly ANY joystick manufacturer these days makes Mac calibration software any longer (at least software that will run in the latest OSX). Logitech? Nope. Thrustmaster? Nope. CH Products? Nope. Saitek? I'm guessing a big fat no also, since their products are never labelled as MacOSX-compatible out of the box. Hence, none of these companies will provide you with Mac drivers out of the box, or any software to calibrate the joysticks.
So now what? Is there a known 3rd party gamepad controller software that also doubles as a software calibrator? Or does MacOSX have a built-in "calibration/test" window you can call up as long as OSX actually recognizes your joystick? Or do the individual games (like X-Plane Mac or Warbirds Mac or Falcon 4.0) have built-in joystick calibrators inside the game?
I'm thinking about getting one decent joystick, hopefully one with the best reputation for working with several OSX flight sim games. But I also have to think about secondary issues such as the need to calibrate, etc.