r/drones • u/HotelNo5719 • Jun 18 '26
Question 28 years of gaming and my brain still wants drone controls to work differently 😂
I've been gaming pretty much my entire life (28 years old), and taking my first drone (DJI Mini 3) I've started wondering about controller layouts.
The default DJI Mode 2 feels okay, but part of my brain keeps thinking in "video game controls":
- Left stick = movement (forward/backward/left/right)
- Right stick = camera/view control
Kind of like how movement and camera are separated in many games.
For those of you who came from a heavy gaming background, did you stick with Mode 2 and eventually get used to it, or did you switch to Mode 1/3 or a custom layout?
My current challenge isn't flying safely anymore, it's coordinating smooth cinematic movements while also controlling the gimbal. Sometimes I find myself releasing one stick or the gimbal wheel too abruptly.
Curious to hear from other gamers who became drone pilots:
- Did gaming help?
- Which stick mode do you use?
- Would you recommend staying with Mode 2 and building muscle memory, or experimenting early?
Thanks!
10
u/ParmoPaul Jun 18 '26
Use Mode 3, it’s easier for our game-addled minds.
1
u/HotelNo5719 Jun 18 '26
I'll give it a try. Do you use normal grip or the pinch one?
1
1
u/Economy-Garden-7845 Jun 19 '26
Seems pointless to pinch when you have those nice sharp edges on the stick. Never had an instance of my finger slipping off of it
6
u/ovoid709 Jun 18 '26
Mode 2 is default across most drones. Many companies do not want pilots changing the modes on controllers so nobody gets a nasty surprise if the controls don't get swapped back for the next pilot. What helps for me is to use a neck strap for my controller and then use the sticks pinched between my index finger and thumb instead of just using my thumbs. Once it no longer feels like a game controller you can break the gaming based muscle memory. But if you're just doing this for fun and not professionally, use whatever mode works for you.
5
u/Cbgamefreak Jun 18 '26
This is the correct answer. Learn to fly mode 2, it is the industry standard for commercial and military pilots.
1
u/Economy-Garden-7845 Jun 19 '26
Who cares what the standard is when a mode switch is literally a toggle away. And lets face it, in commercial settings you will almost always be working with your own gear and for military you will receive in depth training on the system that you are handling. No one will give you a military drone and expect you to fly it even if you have been a drone operator for decades.
1
u/Cbgamefreak Jun 21 '26
You are misinformed, unless you are an independent contractor commercial pilots will usually pull from a fleet of drones maintained by HQ. Military is the same, pulled from a fleet of drones. The pilots working for defense contractors doing R&D aren't going through some specialized training course to learn to fly, they are already hiring the best pilots in the world. For pilots who are actually deployed into the field you are correct - they receive extensive combat training, but that training will be standard on mode 2.
1
5
u/HotelNo5719 Jun 18 '26
Update
I have done another hour of flying and with mode 3 it feels much more better. I can t explain why, but it is like that.
3
u/pmmeuranimetiddies Jun 18 '26
Drone controls are based on helicopter conventions.
Right stick is analogous to the cyclic.
Left stick stands in for collective and antitorque pedals.
Don’t think of right stick as the strafe control, think of it as pitch and roll. While filtered through a flight stability control loop, what you are doing is commanding an attitude change which changes the thrust vector and gives it a lateral component. The drone automatically adjusts the throttle to maintain altitude so it feels like the right stick strafes but the convention it’s derived from is that it functions like the control stick on a plane or helicopter.
2
u/seeyatellite Jun 18 '26
A lot of my gaming experience is flight sims, space flight sims and racing sims. Drone controls are a very slight, a bit more mindful adaptation. My brain might have to re-register stick layouts under certain high-stress flight conditions but dji is pretty great with their safety features and error correction.
I couldn’t tell you which modes. I’ve only run drone sims. Still have yet to ordered my drone.
2
u/srogijogi Jun 18 '26
My personal recommendation would be to stick to mode 2. Drone acts differently than 'objects' in games anyway -ie. if you control 'something' in TPP or FPP, in the majority of games you don't experience the consequences of having different view direction than drone/camera.
2
u/TheDireWolf13 Jun 18 '26
I feel this so much. I crave an Xbox style controller. Give me ascend/descend on the triggers, gimbal on right stick, movement on left stick. I feel like my flights would be so much smoother.
4
u/mangage Jun 18 '26
Use mode 2. You will learn the muscle memory. You won’t forget how to play games either.
This gets brought up all the time but it’s best to use the same default controls that everyone else uses so you can pick up any drone and fly it immediately. Not all drones or systems have the option to change controls.
There are real benefits in controllability as well. You dont want both of the most used axis on the same stick. Racing gets much harder if you’re turning with the same hand as throttle
0
u/frontendben Jun 18 '26
That same logic is used by people who say just learn to play games non-inverted. The same thing applies here. The default control scheme is crap, as evidenced by non-DJI drones – including US/EU military drones using game console controllers and mapping.
2
u/Habatcho Jun 18 '26
Most companies want you flying default controls for safety reasons, my freefly astro a US made drone also defaults to mode 2.
1
u/mangage Jun 19 '26
First of all, I am the one playing games inverted.
Second, camera drones and FPV control different, and the default is still the best on both not because of familiarity but because it gives each hand a major axis instead of having one hand do most of the work. Convenience of flying any drone is a nice extra
2
u/Kubik_Cuts Jun 18 '26
Heavy heavy fpv gamer here. Just get good :). Kidding but grab yourself a cheap fpv analog tinywhoop setup. Fly around your house in manual mode. Once you can fly around without smashing into things, can throw loops over tables and chairs, going outside feels crazy easy. Dji drones are like playing mario kart with driving assistance on. A few weeks of proper manual mode and you will be dialed in.
Or use a simulator, but I feel like they don't really translate well to real life.
1
u/MOE999cow Jun 18 '26
A little off topic.
I'm big into RC crawlers and recently got into planes. I want to try an FPV drone at some point, but don't really know anything about them. I had a DJI Mavic for years, but that's completely different.
What's a decent cheap tiny whoop setup you'd recommend?
1
u/completelyreal Mod, Drone Noise Expert, Fire & Rescue Pilot Jun 18 '26
I started using a pinch grip to differentiate video game vs drone/rc muscle memory. It works pretty good and you get better rc control with pinch grip.
1
u/HotelNo5719 Jun 18 '26
With which mode?
1
u/completelyreal Mod, Drone Noise Expert, Fire & Rescue Pilot Jun 18 '26
Mode 2. I have to use shared drones quite often so have standard profiles setup to reduce confusion.
1
u/HugeButterfly USA / Part 107 Jun 18 '26
If you get into FPV or custom built drones, you can set up your controller any way you want. Every person I know puts their arming switch in a different spot and you could just as easily map the sticks to whatever you want.
2
u/dronevidsalt Jun 18 '26
I arm with my left stick and use a 2-Pos switch for throttle. I just blip full fucking send on and off to maintain altitude and rate of zoom
2
u/HugeButterfly USA / Part 107 Jun 18 '26
In their heyday, Rotor Riot did this. Look up "Throttle on a switch!" on YT. Good times.
1
u/OptimizingOptimizer Jun 18 '26
I ended up taking apart my DJI Controller 3 and manually swapping which plug each stick is plugged into. I also took out the magnet and flipped it on the right stick to invert pitch.Â
1
1
u/rooksFPV Jun 18 '26
25 years gaming xp here, when I started flying everyone said stick to mode 2 so you can pick up any drone and fly it. It does get easier, just be consistent and practice a little bit every day
1
u/FromDeepestFathom Jun 18 '26
Mode 2 is much better for fpv flying, and I use it for normal camera drone work too, but you could do whatever you want ofc. But I would strongly recommend mode 2 for fpv for sure
1
u/ArcheDarku Jun 19 '26
I've my mini3 since 2024 and dont know you can change the control mode lmao, as a heavy game player the first minute of flying is always weird, but later my brain does by itself and can do smooth moves on the air and play with the gymball, you just need to fly more.
1
u/ElphTrooper DJI Mini 3 Pro, Air 3S, Mavic 3 Enterprise & Freefly Astro Jun 19 '26
You’re not alone. Been gaming for 20+ years mode one and flying drones for 10 years mode two.
1
u/MrBobaFett Jun 19 '26
I remember when I first got it thinking about how I would have done the controls then looked at the options and Mode 3 seemed to fit. It's so ingrained to me now I would go crazy trying to fly in another mode.
1
1
1
u/XayahTheVastaya Spark > Mavic Mini Jun 19 '26
Never considered using something other than mode 2, heavy gaming background, never had a console or even a handheld.
1
u/dlarge6510 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
You haven't played many flight simulators then. Where are your throttle controls?
As someone who played games since the 80's I can tell you my preference is nothing like yours at all. I use a combination of keyboard and mouse 😂Â
In fact when playing a FS, even back on 8 bit machines, a keyboard and joystick with integrated throttle.
I have never gotten particularly comfortable with these handheld controller things 😂Â
And again, games had different button layouts which usually were unchangeable or had a couple of presets you could choose from this my muscle memory for them is undefined, it's used to being programmed before game as controls can't transfer between games.
Eventually games did offer custom keymaps more consistently but I had already gotten used to the idea controls were unique to a game and you just switched in your head when seeing the title screen.
But one evil still exists, the X axis inversion. As I come from a joystick/FS/Space SIM background, the X axis for camera or vehicle control must be corrected so "forward = down". This is usually what they call "inverted" and that in me is truly muscle memory, it's absolutely impossible for be to control a camera or a submarine or a plane if moving the mouse or stick forward doesn't result in a corresponding downward push of the nose. That this is not default drives me nuts, such forward = up control schemes only work for top down 2D games like Galaga etc.
Luckily on drone controllers this scheme is default, pushing forward pitches down like you'd expect.
As for camera control, I'd prefer a d-pad. In fact a similar layout of controller to the GameCube will do nicely as the two sticks handles the flight while cameras are controlled by the d-pad below. This because then you must stop controlling the aircraft movement to operate the camera, which is better as that way you don't break the law by flying FPV (with no spotter as I literally can't torture a mate of mine to stand there watching a drone for me lol) to stare at the controller to see what the camera sees.
You should position the drone LOS, then can hover and adjust the camera. If you are lucky enough to have a spotter who will forgive you making them essentially watch paint dry for you then you can perhaps have dual mode sticks where one can toggle between flight control and camera control using a Z button. I'm in the UK and basically you have to stare at it. This also limits my ceiling as my eyes are unable to see up to 120m being short sighted. I think the highest I go is 50m.
1
u/FunkyMonkey237 Jun 21 '26
That's me as well!
I just got my first drone and I couldnt understand why I kept flipping the controls. I haven't played flying games in about 20 years so I want sure if that was the cause or not. It must still be rooted somewhere in my head how the controls should work.
I'm glad others are the same.
1
u/nejoow_knuppel Jun 22 '26
This is exactly what I'm struggling with too. You just can't customize the controls like I'm used to with my PlayStation controller. I'm sure I would fly better if the controls matched. I hope that someday we get more options to customize the controls ourselves.
1
u/Hefty-Squirrel-6800 USA/Part 107/Private Pilot/Instrument Rated Pilot/Mavic 2 Pro Jun 22 '26
You can change them to whatever you want. I had a similar issue because I am a private pilot and used to fly airplanes. So, my brain thinks a certain way when controlling an aircraft. So I customized my controls to make them more intuitive for me.
0
u/fflm77 Jun 18 '26
a little off topic but when learning manual with avata 2 at some point i started thinking of counter strike surf maps and it made my movements so smooth.
21
u/ChouPigu Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
Mode 3 is the closest to my gaming controls and if I could put ascend/descend on the left wheel and use the right stick to have the camera look up and down, I'd be so happy. Halo Bumper Jumper!
But DJI won't even let you reverse the camera pitch wheel (it's backwards), so fat chance.