Monthly Archives: September 2015

How to connect your android device to a Playstation 3 or 4 controller wirelessly

Android, How To, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A list of directly compatible games is at the bottom of this post.

Prerequisites:

Firstly you will need your device rooted. Rooting the device just means you have administrative privileges on the device, but unlike windows it’s not as simple as just changing a setting. Please see this tutorial on checking if an android device is rooted and this tutorial if you need instruction on rooting your device.

Connecting your PS3/4 controller to your android device:

As with all things android you might have guessed you need an app to connect your device to your Playstation controller. In this case you need the sixaxis controller. Unfortunately the app isn’t free but it is cheap!

However before you go handing over your dosh the guys at dancing pixel studios (strange choice of names considering they don’t seem to make any games) were nice enough to create the sixaxis compatibility checker so you can try before you buy.

Step 1.

Install the compatibility checker from the play store here.

Step 2.

Once installed, open the app and click Start. If you get a connection failed your device is not supported.

Sorry dude.

If not, Yay!

Continue!

Step 3.

Connect your controller to your device with a mini usb cable.

Step 4.

Click pair. This will write your android’s Bluetooth address to the controller. (Don’t worry about the pad not working on the playstation anymore, they’re a terrible console anyway. JK, to reconnect your controller to your playstation just connect the controller via the usb cable and it will write the playstation address back onto the controller.)

Step 5.

Once paired click start on the app. The device is now listening for controllers. If the controller is not turned on press the power button in the center. Now when you press buttons on the controller you should see them appearing on screen.

Congratulations, your device is compatible you now have the honour of buying the app here.

Some setup advice:

When you first use the app you’ll be asked to tick the box recognising Sixaxis Controller as a Keyboard & Input Method. Do so. It asks because this is a security feature as such devices could be potential recording key strokes etc.

In general settings I always have the box Auto Start ticked, this means the app launches whenever the device is turned. For the idle timeout option I set the timeout for 300, which means if the controller is not interacted with for five minutes the app turns the controller off saving the battery. On the subject of battery you can use your device to charge the controller which is nice.

Not all games are compatible even more so if you’re using an Android box or stick:

Native compatible of a game means that it was programmed to accept inputs from controllers some great examples being BombSquad, Asphalt 8, Dead Trigger however, sadly, a lot of games do not support native compatibility.

This could be for a number of reasons, like the developer just never bothered to code compatibility into the app or the app might compete with a console version of the game and the developer doesn’t want to cannibalize the market. Man I wished Fifa had controller support. . .

However the sixaxis controller app comes with a great feature to map button presses. This is especially useful to the PUBG mobile fans out there.

How to do this though is another post in itself so I suggest you google around, there’s plenty of great tutorials out there and the gentle souls of the internet have even created touch profiles for games available to download saving you the trouble of doing the mapping yourself.

Sadly though mapping on many Android boxes and sticks don’t seem to work to well if at all. This is down to these devices often shipping without the necessary touch drivers because they don’t have screens. Which makes sense, why ship a device with touch drivers that doesn’t have a screen? For PUBG mobile players who want to use a controller of course!

The following is a list of games that you can play using the android sixaxis controller app.

Remapping of keys maybe necessary, the correct mapping is as follows.

  • Cross: A
  • Circle: B
  • Square: X
  • Triangle: Y

Games:

I’ll be adding to this list over time so if I’ve missed a game you’ve tested and know to work please comment below.

  1. Dead Trigger (free)
  2. Dead Trigger 2 (free)
  3. Evac
  4. Asphalt 8 (free)
  5. Dead Effect (free)
  6. Beach Buggy Blitz (free)
  7. Beach Buggy Racing (free)
  8. Dream League Soccer (free)
  9. BombSquad (free)
  10. Horizon Chase (free)
  11. PewPew (free)
  12. PewPew 2
  13. Skyriders (free)
  14. ShadowGun
  15. SoulCraft (free)
  16. Real Boxing (free)
  17. Skate Party 2 (free)
  18. GT Racing 2
  19. Manuganu 2 (free)
  20. Shooty Skies (free)
  21. Reckless Racing
  22. Rail Racing
  23. Jet Car Stunts 2
  24. Aces of the Luftwaffe (free)
  25. Tank Riders (free)
  26. Raging Thunder 2 (free)
  27. Annelids (free)
  28. Warlings: Armageddon (free)
  29. Table Top Racing (free)
  30. Sine Mora
  31. Pako – Car Chase Simulator (free)
  32. Sword Of Xolan (free)
  33. Nub’s Adventure (free)
  34. Super Dangerous Dungeons (free)
  35. Only One (free)
  36. Turbo Dismount (free)
  37. Particle Arcade Shooter
  38. Luminescence (free)
  39. Leo’s Fortune
  40. Does Not Commute
  41. Pac-Man (free)
  42. Redline Rush (free)
  43. Radiant (free)
  44. Zenonia
  45. Voxel Rush (free)
  46. Winter Fugitives *
  47. Hopeless *
  48. Tiny Thief *
  49. Smash Hit * (free)

Any other suggestions please feel free to add a comment below.

How do you tell if your Android device is rooted?

Android, , , ,

So here’s a quick and simple explanation of what a rooted device is.

By default the android OS blocks you and apps from doing the things that could potentially break (brick) the device or pose security concerns. But there are instances were an app legitimately needs access to some of the devices locked out functionality.

For example the sixaxis controller app lets you connect your device to a PS3/4 controller but requires root access to be able to manipulate the device’s bluetooth signal. This is a legitimate reason to require access to bluetooth but a more unscrupulous app might want access to transmit your phone’s data across a short range.

A rooted android device just means you have administrative privileges on the device, so you get to choose what you or an app can use/do, but unlike windows it’s not as simple as just changing a setting.

So how do you tell if an android device is rooted?

It’s simple, as with all things android you just use an app!

Install Root Checker from the play store and you’re good to go.

For a tutorial on how to root your device click here.

How to run multiple SQL scripts automatically in order.

Batch Script, SQL Server, , , , , , , ,

If you’ve been working towards a new deployment to a live database chances are you have written several scripts (possibly dozens) that have been developed/tested against the the development server.

Now the time has come to put the update live. Which would require executing each script against the live database.

This task can be automated by using a very handy batch script to run against the directory the files are saved in.

Caveat: This process does not take into account error handling or rollbacks, it’s just a simple example people can build on.

In order for this to work the files must have been named in a manner that the necessary order of execution corresponds to ascii sort order, i.e. 001_CreateTable.sql, 002_PopulateTable etc. This is standard practice for sql file naming conventions.

Simply create a .BAT file with the following command:
(Swap servername and databaseName for your required server and database names, TIP: SELECT @@servername can provide you with the full server name.)

for %%G in (*.sql) do sqlcmd /S servername /d databaseName -E -i"%%G"
pause

Place this .BAT file in the directory from which you want the .SQL files to be executed, double click the .BAT file and the command will loop and execute every SQL script in the folder.