Welcome to GyroWiki!
The gold standard for game-changing motion controls and home of the flick stick.
GyroWiki is all about getting great motion/gyro controls into the kinds of games that truly benefit from them. Players will learn how to add gyro controls to games that don't support them using JoyShockMapper. Developers will learn how to treat the gyro as a mouse, and how to take advantage of that to change how we play console games.
Add Great Gyro Controls to Your Game
Sony and Nintendo's controllers have gyroscopes in them that are precise and responsive enough to be used as a frictionless mouse. While sticks are indirect and have very limited range of movement, a good gyro implementation gives the player a simple way to handle the finest adjustments and the fastest flicks with their own two hands. Nintendo successfully taught Wii U and Switch players the advantages of adding gyro aiming on top of your stick aiming in Splatoon and Zelda Breath of the Wild. Gyro / motion controls are expected on any relevant Switch game now, even if most games ship with unfortunate implementations that turn some players off.
Sony is lagging behind in its first party games, but I worked with Epic to bring industry-leading gyro controls to Fortnite on PS5, PS4, PC, Switch, and Android. This means anyone on these platforms can try gyro controls in a free and wildly popular game. If you have a PlayStation controller, you can also try gyro aiming in Rogue Company and Paladins, although they've made some missteps with their implementations that may put some players off.
Such missteps are the norm, actually. Good gyro controls are technically very easy to implement — they're remarkably mouse-like, requiring no aim assist (please). But most developers aren't gyro players themselves, and so most games that offer gyro controls don't offer the options required for experienced gyro players to thrive.
Whether through JoyShockMapper, Steam's built-in controller configurator, reWASD, or DS4Windows, players on PC have been able to enjoy robust, responsive gyro controls for years now. There are well-established conventions that, since being published here, have been proven by countless hours of player experience, whether through their implementation in popular input remappers or in some of the biggest games like Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Deathloop.
So don't stumble around in the dark reinventing wheels and shipping with the same mistakes as so many others. Here are comprehensive resources on the do's and don'ts of good gyro controls:
Five Guides For Game-Changing Gyro Controls
Any game that plays better with a mouse also plays better with good gyro controls. This includes genres already popular on consoles in spite of the shortcomings of legacy controllers, like shooters and action-adventure games, as well as games that traditionally cannot function without a mouse (most real-time strategy games, dota-likes, and even fast-paced cursor rhythm game osu!).
Here are the best resources for you to read on implementing good gyro controls, in order. Some of these have been around for a few years, but I'm arranging them here as something of a syllabus for any gameplay programmer or game designer looking to offer mouse-like precision with a gamepad. For example, you'll notice that the second item here has "Part 1" in its title. It's part of an older series, and the order you see here now is the best way to get into it:
- Mouse-like Precision, No Aim-Assist - A presentation I gave at GCAP22 giving an overview of everything from why one should consider gyro controls, how to implement the basics, and what advanced options should be considered. It's wide in scope and light on implementation details. It serves as a checklist of options that you should consider for your game, and sets you up to dive deeper with the other articles here.
- Good Gyro Controls Part 1: The Gyro is a Mouse - The original "good gyro controls" blog post. It covers some of the basics, but it also takes a proper look at the advanced filtering/stabilisation and acceleration options that are most preferred by players. My aim is to establish really good conventions for simple, transferable, responsive gyro controls.
- Player Space Gyro Aiming - Make your good gyro controls great with a simple and innovative way to offer gyro players even more freedom of movement by taking gravity into account when converting motion input into a mouse-like movement in-game.
- Finding Gravity with Sensor Fusion - For those looking for a robust gravity calculation to help with player space (or world space) gyro, motion steering, leaning, or advanced gestures.
In addition to the above, GyroWiki also has the very first ever resources on flick stick. Flick stick was inspired in part by Splatoon, which showed me that you can have gyro controls handle all vertical aiming and dedicate the right stick to horizontal aiming only. Flick stick aims to maximise player control over their bearing in the most direct way possible:
- Good Gyro Controls Part 2: The Flick Stick - A more powerful way to control your bearing in a 3D game. Players have long relied on input remappers to be able to force flick stick into games. Since 2021 it has begun to be featured as an option in games on many platforms, starting with Boomerang X, followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, and more games on the way.
My goal with this website is for game developers and players to embrace gyro controls. Done right, they are easier for new players to learn, have more room for skilled players to master, make games more accessible to those with some kinds of motor disabilities, and elevate the controller to (almost) the level of a mouse without losing the comfort and mobility that makes the controller so appealing.
Like many advances in gaming technology across a variety of disciplines, these best practices seem obvious once you're familiar with them. I hope they will serve as a springboard for future innovations that'll also seem obvious in retrospect. Good ideas are only proven in their implementation, and the ongoing success of JoyShockMapper proves the innovations first described here. In fact, almost all the options covered here have been proven "in the wild" with Fortnite's industry-leading implementation.
If it plays better with a mouse, it plays better with gyro. So you already know whether gyro aiming and flick stick will benefit players in your game. The only question is whether you'll draw players to your game by offering these features while they're still rare, or if players will be put off your game because it doesn't give them the freedom and precision to which they're growing accustomed.
Add Great Gyro Controls to Other Games with JoyShockMapper
JoyShockMapper is an open source tool for playing games on Windows with your DualSense, DualShock 4, Joy-Cons, or Pro Controller by converting their inputs into keyboard and mouse inputs. It's what I use to play games the way you see in the video above with precise, responsive, reliable gyro controls.
Check out the getting started guide and learn how to use it along with the growing collection of community resources on this site. Calibrate and configure almost any game to play how you'd like to play, or save yourself the trouble by getting all the info you need for your favourite game in the Games database. Games like:
And many more! Check out the full list here. Or, if your favourite isn't there, join the site (it's free) and share your configurations for other players looking to enjoy gyro controls.
Check back here or follow me on Twitter @JibbSmart if you want to stay on-top of what's changing on GyroWiki. Join the Gyro Gaming Discord for all things gyro gaming related - whether it's with the tools shown here, the Steam Controller, or something else. Reach out to me with any questions or to share from your experiences (positive or negative) with gyro controls.
If you'd rather watch videos than read articles, or you're looking for something easier to share, I've got a growing channel showing JoyShockMapper in action while explaining best practices: