Frequently Asked Questions What's standing between you and the ultimate gaming experience? What's so great about the Game Controller Profiler? What is the Game Controller Profiler? What's a profile? What's a game action? What are keystrokes and macros? Program, map, assign--what's it all mean? Where does Control Panel: Game Controllers fit in this picture? What's standing between you and the ultimate gaming experience? Communication break-down. Consider this: The reality: Most game developers design games to work reasonably well with a variety of game controllers. Most game controllers are designed to work reasonably well with a wide variety of games. The result: Chances are, your controller works well in some games, and not so well in others. The solution: A game controller that's fully customizable to your games. That's where the SideWinder Game Controller software comes in. It makes communication between your controller and your games quick and easy. (Back to top) What's so great about the SideWinder Game Controller Profiler? Most games already have an "Options" or a "Controller Configuration" screen where you can choose which button on your game controller performs a particular action in the game. For example, a game might let you assign the game's "Fire" command to your joystick's trigger. But that's as far as it goes. With the Game Controller Profiler software, you have more possibilities. Not only can you map the joystick trigger to the game's "Fire" command, you can also: Record sequences of game actions and assign them to buttons on your controller. For example, in a fighting game, you can assign the sequence "kick, kick, punch, duck" to a button you specify. You can even control the timing of your game actions with the macro recorder. Change the way your controller responds in your games. Depending on your controller, you can use the Profiler to adjust device sensitivity, range of motion, and dead zone. Store your custom settings for all of your games in custom profiles. When you switch games, you can load your custom settings with a click of your mouse. (Back to top) What is the Game Controller Profiler? The Game Controller Profiler has two components that work together to help you create and manage your profiles. Profile Activator manages existing profiles. This is the first screen you see when you open the Game Controller Profiler. Profile Editor helps you create and modify profiles. You can access the Game Controller Profiler from the Windows Start menu, by selecting SideWinder Software from SideWinder Central, or by right-clicking the SideWinder Central icon in the taskbar and selecting the Profiler component you want to open. Use the Profile Activator to: View the list of available game profiles for your controller. Open an available profile by double-clicking on it. Set the active profile for the controller. Launch Profile Editor by double-clicking your controller in the Controller column. Use the Profile Editor to: Assign game actions to buttons on your controller. Modify pre-exisiting profiles. Change how the controller responds in a game. (Back to top) What 's a profile? A profile is a file that contains a set of game actions and settings that you define for your game controller to customize its performance in a particular game. That way, you don't have to configure your game every time you play it. You just activate a game's profile, and the Profiler uses your settings when you start the game. You create and manage your profiles in the SideWinder Game Controller Profiler. The SideWinder Game Controller Software includes pre-set profiles for over 50 games. These profiles are installed when you run the Setup program and appear in the "Available Profiles" window of the Profile Activator. You can use these profiles "as is," or modify them to suit your gaming style. You can also download more profiles from the SideWinder Web site at www.microsoft.com/sidewinder (Back to top) What's a game action? A game action is something that a character or vehicle does in a game in response to a key or button you press on your keyboard, mouse, or other game controller. For example, jump, crouch, fire, change views, kick, and punch, are all game actions. When you use the SideWinder Game Controller Profiler, a game action can also be a combination or series of actions that your character or vehicle performs in the game when you press a button on your game controller. For example, you could create a game action that consists of the moves "Kick, kick, punch, crouch" for a hand-to-hand combat game. You assign game actions to buttons on your game controller by entering the game's command for that action in the Profile Editor Record page. (Back to top)   What are keystrokes and macros? These terms refer to a game action or series of actions that have been assigned to a button on your game controller. A keystroke is a single keypress on your keyboard (such as A or CTRL A). You can assign a keystroke or a series of keystrokes to a button on your controller in the Profile Editor to make that game action happen when you press that controller button. A macro is a game action or series of game actions that you assign to a button on your game controller. Macros can include keystrokes or other game controller button presses. Also, macros allow you to specify the duration of each game action. (Back to top) Program, map, assign, record--what's it all mean? All of these terms describe the process of using the Game Controller Profiler to create a link between one of the buttons on your game controller and one of the actions in your game. (Back to top) Where does Control Panel: Game Controllers fit in this picture? Control Panel: Game Controllers is the piece of the SideWinder software that is responsible for overall controller performance. Use Control Panel: Game Controllers to test your controller's buttons and to set global settings, such as whether force feedback is on or off. Control Panel settings apply to all of your games. (Back to top)