I just connected a joystick to my PC and was hopping to use as more higher precision alternative to gamepad. So far from my searches it appears UE simply has no support for joystick! This is rather shocking and hard to believe that one of the leading engine has no joystick support. So I wanted to confirm is this really the case? If so I would download one of the cross platform library like gainput and go my way. But still, this would be totally unbelievable… really hope this is not the case!
Have you gone into your Project Settings → Input and tried to add them there? I know off the top of my head it has mentions of joystick, albeit I don’t remember well exactly what was available.
This is an excerpt from the 4.15 preview changelog:
Framework Updates:
A Raw Input plugin has been checked in to provide support in Windows for steering wheels, flight sticks, and other non-XInput supported devices.
All of the Vehicle templates and Vehicle Game* have been configured to work with the Logitech G920. (*Vehicle Game not yet updated for 4.15 Previews)
Adding new devices is as easy as setting up a configuration for them in the project settings or editing DefaultInput.ini. (Vendor and Product ID can be discovered from the driver properties)
We need your help! - After you successfully configure your devices (figuring out what axes represent brake, gas, steering wheel and necessary modifiers to represent brake/gas as 0 to 1 and the wheel as -1 to 1), please share your .ini settings back with us so we can ensure these devices work without additional setup in the future.
I hope this is helpfull to you.