Update: Minecontrol 1.1.0!
—–
Enjoy Minecraft like it was made for the Microsoft Xbox 360 on your Windows/Mac/Linux machine with this Java app called Minecontrol. It takes gamepad input (using JInput) and converts it into mouse and keyboard commands.
What you’ll need
- A copy of Minecraft
- A wired or wireless Microsoft Xbox 360 controller (this or this), which can connect to your computer
- A recent version of Java
- Minecontrol (Java web start app, alternate installation below)
One, two, three
- Connect the controller to the computer
- Launch Minecontrol (Java web start app), accepting the certificate.
- Launch Minecraft and choose the world, with your mouse inside the game.
Assuming all went well, you should now be able to use the controller to perform almost any Minecraft action. Although not yet configurable, here’s the list of things you can do:
Left joystick – move/strafe
Right joystick – look around/move cursor
Left trigger – “right click”
Right trigger – “left click”
Left joystick button – walk
Right joystick button/A – jump
B – open inventory
X – discard item
Left shoulder – “scroll up”
Right shoulder – “scroll down”
Y – change perspective
Start – pause
Select – toggle right joystick sensitivity
A shortcut will be placed on your desktop and this app will auto update if necessary. You can also use this to control your mouse outside the game.
Alternate installation instructions (no auto-update)
Download the Minecontrol jar.
Download JInput and extract files to the same directory as the jar.
Run the jar.
I’ve just tried running minecontrol on my snowleopard mac to no avail. and the seperates don’t seem to work either. i just get some unknown error.
By: Joseph Le Brech on November 7, 2010
at 1:47 pm
I think Mac OSX doesn’t come with the drivers needed to detect the controller. I searched this one up. Not sure if it’s going to be compatible with Java, but worth a try?
By: joshjcarrier on November 11, 2010
at 8:49 pm
Only the right joystick works for me.
By: Ken on November 23, 2010
at 5:42 pm
or you could use a mouse.
By: Gareth on December 17, 2010
at 9:15 am
When i run the jar. It says cant find main class? Help D:
By: Matt on December 21, 2010
at 11:34 am
I look forward to this, I thought this would be really fun to try.
By: Andrew Nichols on December 28, 2010
at 6:47 pm
Getting a Java error saying “JAR resources not signed by same certificate”
By: Bobby A on December 28, 2010
at 7:12 pm
Ok just had to update Java. Of course, now minecontrol can’t find my controller. Bad night to try this i guess
By: Bobby A on December 28, 2010
at 7:36 pm
Works a treat on Win 7 64 bit. Thank you.
By: Tom on January 13, 2011
at 8:33 am
“Controller not found. Connect the joystick and restart Minecontrol.”
6 times, and still wont find my controller… Fully updated drivers, Java, etc. Windows 7 64 bit.
By: Zach on January 25, 2011
at 2:45 pm
I’d love to try this out but… I only get “Controller not found. Connect the joystick and restart Minecontrol.”
I made sure my version of Java was up to date, it now is, still no luck. Controller works great in other games.
I have Vista 64 bit, any ideas?
By: James on January 28, 2011
at 11:11 am
I have the same issue as Bobby, Zach, and James: “Controller not found. Connect the joystick and restart Minecontrol”. It’s plugged, works great in other games.
By: skitch on January 30, 2011
at 5:30 pm
Hmm, I’ll at least fix up that message so it’ll list out what devices Java does see – maybe the app is being a bit too picky about which device it uses.
Also, transparent update for you Mac/Linux users: you should be able to launch the web start app now; I forgot to upload native support bits for those OSes.
EDIT: update is up; launch your app and let me know what devices Java sees instead.
By: joshjcarrier on January 30, 2011
at 7:53 pm
it still doesn’t work…
“Controller not found. Connect the joystick and restart Minecontrol” x10
By: Eric on February 7, 2011
at 7:05 pm
The latest version is supposed to add a list of input devices Java found while looking for your Xbox controller; I’m guessing you didn’t even get the list? What OS/32-or-64 bit?
By: joshjcarrier on February 7, 2011
at 9:36 pm
Minecontrol wont even open for me how do i go about this? i have windows 7 and the most recent version of java and when i double click it nothing happens.
By: Kieron on February 11, 2011
at 4:48 pm
Running on Snow Leopard.
Tells me to connect the controller, and gives a list of ones that it finds:
3 Keyboards
Controller (Gamepad)
Obviously the game pad is the one I’m looking for… hut its not allowing me to select it, and not really responding that its a 360 controller. Help?
By: Andrew on February 11, 2011
at 9:00 pm
Thanks Andrew. I’ve just patched it so if Java picks up a device called “Controller (Gamepad)”, it’ll use the same mappings on that. Relaunch your app (or just use the Web Start link in the post) to get the fix.
@Kieron your browser (I’m looking at you, Chrome) might just download the Web Start .jnlp file and not do anything with it. If Java’s properly installed, you should be able to double-click the jnlp within Windows (or maybe boot up IE?). If you downloaded the .jar file directly, you’ll need to grab the rest of the JInput files also (see post).
By: joshjcarrier on February 11, 2011
at 9:29 pm
Of course, it’s not quite as good as playing it *on* an Xbox…
http://twitpic.com/3zhy0f/full
By: ProjectorGames on February 17, 2011
at 2:22 pm
I am having a similar problem as Andrew. My controller is named “Controller 1 (Wireless)”, though.
By: Ross on February 22, 2011
at 6:31 pm
Hey i use a wireless controller and i cant get it to work. plz helps
By: GodOfAll on February 24, 2011
at 2:50 pm
It was working fine for me, but then my computer got another virus from java acting weird, so I un-installed and re-installed Java, and now it will not work. :[
By: Jacob on February 26, 2011
at 6:39 pm
I cant get the ps3 controller to work are you not supposed to use it.
By: Halokingofkings on February 27, 2011
at 12:34 am
This is a great app for people like me who aren’t huge PC gamers. Naturally you sacrifice precision when you use this over a K/M combo, but the console style familiarity more than makes up for it.
Occasionally I find the buttons stick, so you’ll be swinging your pickaxe far too often, or hopping on the spot, but pressing the button again fixes it. So yeah, not perfect, but definately useable and comfortable. I approve!
By: Lee Perry on February 27, 2011
at 11:03 am
I’m using a Madcatz Wired Xbox 360 Controller and it detects it but I cannot use it…
By: Nathan on February 27, 2011
at 1:36 pm
Why don’t you all just use xpadder, it’s better than this and has much more detail and stuff.
By: carrot on March 8, 2011
at 10:51 am
Would it be possible to get the source for this?
By: Kelly on March 8, 2011
at 11:25 am
Here’s what I’m getting. It’s saying it can’t find any controllers, yet “Controller (Gamepad)” is connected. http://cl.ly/1U012a0m1M2v2E0g101a
By: Matt on March 20, 2011
at 2:01 pm
“Controller Not Found.
Detected Input devices:
Wireless 360 Controller (Gamepad)”
What the heck?!?
By: lrflew on March 22, 2011
at 2:45 pm
I shall be one of what I hope to be many people to say this, but:
This needs both custom mapping and controller selection. Badly!
By: lrflew on March 22, 2011
at 5:38 pm
Works great when I boot my Mac in to windows but says cant find controller and wont work in OSX. Running snow leopard.
By: Ckuhner on March 24, 2011
at 8:20 am
Can’t get this to work either (on mac OS X with wired xbox 360 controller). I installed the os x driver from http://tattiebogle.net/. Now when I start minecontrol it lists “Controller (Gamepad)” in the list, but still says controller not found.
If you (the author) don’t have a mac but are willing to share your code, I can try to figure out what’s going on…
By: Tim on April 2, 2011
at 4:30 pm
I don’t know how to start the minecontrol program. Any help?
By: Allan on April 17, 2011
at 6:03 am
Won’t work on Linux. Junk.
By: r000t on May 5, 2011
at 4:00 pm
I’d love to see some ps3 controller support, no more wires! They already work, you just need to map the keys differently (all i can do now is move around, dig, jump and crouch)
By: Enkera on May 12, 2011
at 2:16 pm
this works and its amazing thanks bro
By: jbchillin on May 13, 2011
at 7:44 pm
Oh yeaaa Minecraft with my X360 >Controller Yeaa !!
THANKS
By: J.J. on May 30, 2011
at 9:23 pm
…yeah…I can’t craft, the items won’t drag into slots. They just auto fill the hot key bar and not the crafting square.
By: Matt on June 2, 2011
at 3:47 pm
You might have the walk button (shift) toggled
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 5:53 pm
Thanks. Better Linux & Mac support is something I’d like to pursue.
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 5:58 pm
This whole project is open source and is linked in one of the original posts. Thanks for your interest!
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 6:00 pm
This was a thing I did for v1.1 – hope it worked out for you
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 6:00 pm
For v1.1 I added velocity to the joystick axes, so you can be somewhere between standing still and moving/looking at full speed, without using the crouch button. And the buttons should stick less.
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 6:09 pm
You can now (says Enkera in the comments), though I’ve never personally tested against one. Hope it works out
By: Josh on June 7, 2011
at 6:12 pm
Tried this on linux, cannot find any usb controllers. Using Ubuntu 11.04
By: Chris on June 12, 2011
at 5:27 am
My right analog stick keeps moving the mouse cursor about on my imac, how do I stop it moving the cursor?
By: raredefect on June 13, 2011
at 8:12 am
hey this is working great, although I have noticed that the B button is binded to ‘I’, and inventory is now e. Is it possible to fix this?
By: Harley on June 16, 2011
at 6:57 am
How do I save my settings if I remap the buttons from default?
Everything I start minecontrol it reverts to default.
By: Kristofer on June 20, 2011
at 3:39 am
@Harley – Go into the options on Minecraft and change it back to I in the control section fixes it.
By: Melrius on June 25, 2011
at 6:44 am
Not sure how much I can say ‘I Love You’ very very good applet you have there. SSSSssssss would be a shame if anything were to happen to it
By: JoshJ5Hawk on June 25, 2011
at 10:42 pm
followed the alternate instructions, but it’s not detecting any input devices. running kubuntu 11.04 with a usb controller
By: Ed on July 5, 2011
at 5:54 pm
Nice work! Works perfectly – my son is very happy
Thanks for making this available.
By: Steve on July 9, 2011
at 9:05 am
Hmmm, this seems like an awesome idea, but I can’t find the Xbox 360 Controller in the “” area. Any solutions?
By: Dylan on July 9, 2011
at 6:53 pm
after I installed this app. I can only use the right mouse on items that allow right mouse clicking on itself this is not a problem but now i cant use the lift mod in my online server so that’s not fun. I reinstalled minecraft several times and even ran a cc cleaner but still not fixed. PLEASE HELP
By: Erich Maritz on July 14, 2011
at 6:12 pm
Good job idiot, now I have your stupid piece of **** stuck to my desktop and it didnt even work properly when I tried it. **** you
* thank you for your feedback, but I had to censor your post. -josh *
By: Pissed-off man on July 15, 2011
at 8:11 pm
Hi Josh,
I’m on a Macbook Pro and only some buttons work seem to work. The right analog only works for like 10seconds then it just doesn’t respond anymore.
Also, the ‘A’ (left clic) did work for like 5min.
Is there something to prevent this from happening?
Thanks.
By: Nicolas Widart on July 18, 2011
at 1:12 am
On a Mac I have the same problem where you can only turn a short amount in any direction. I took a look at the code and I think this happens because the mouse pointer is being held at the sides of the window, limiting how far you can turn. Not sure why this works on Windows but not the Mac, must be some difference in the java.awt.robot classes on each.
By: Tim on July 18, 2011
at 3:42 am
there is no option to go assign a “open inventory” button
By: kyler on August 8, 2011
at 5:18 pm
this works perfect for me i just dont like it as much as i thought lol, i used an afterglow xbox 360 controller and i just dont like the way it feels idk why, im better off with keyboard and mouse
By: Chaoticx94 on August 9, 2011
at 9:39 am
it doesn’t fucking work but why?
By: hJenri on August 14, 2011
at 1:10 pm
what do i look under to find minecraft on xbox
By: danny on August 17, 2011
at 4:05 pm
Doesn’t recognize any controller under Win 7 64 with Java 7 64. WTF
By: gfd on August 21, 2011
at 9:54 am
Hey Josh,
Program works fine and all except the slight stick in the “a” button on the left anologe stick, but any who you should add the “T” button for talk and you shold add Dpad capibilitys. just thinking it might be cool
By: Glex on August 21, 2011
at 12:53 pm
Hey Josh minecontrol doesnt seem to detect my triggers but other programs do and suggestions of how to fix?
By: Reed on August 21, 2011
at 3:20 pm
You need the Microsoft plugin that let’s you use your controller. You can’t just plug and play
By: Jeremy on August 24, 2011
at 5:22 pm
In Linux use alternate instructions and run with:
java -Djava.library.path=. -jar Minecontrol.jar
or else it doesn’t find JInput
By: fffuuu on September 3, 2011
at 3:28 pm
Hmm, does it not work with a charge and play controller?
By: Tyman231 on September 7, 2011
at 8:01 pm
Jinput cannot be downloaded anymore, and the Minecontrol jar file won’t open at all.
By: Huu on September 13, 2011
at 6:52 am
hey this is awesome but theres one problem- there is no way to ‘go down’ while flying in creative mode. I may note that sprinting works though.
By: chris on September 24, 2011
at 11:00 pm
With my logitech dual action controler i have everything set up but i cant the the mouse to move
i have to use the actual mouse
By: Docp on October 13, 2011
at 7:18 pm
the right analog stick only works when i press it to the right and it only destroys D: i cant even place items
By: Docp on October 13, 2011
at 7:20 pm
now that i installed it on diff laptop it does not even work
By: Docp on October 14, 2011
at 7:07 am
Why won’t the left thumbstick work, I can do everything but move around? My controller works fine, I use it on the xbox all the time, but for some reason the left stick does nothing but crouch when I click it in.
By: matt on November 22, 2011
at 12:10 am
Does this work with the Plug n’ Play Kit?
By: George on December 10, 2011
at 5:23 am
Guys.. just use joytokey its the best alternative atm. This app is obviously not receiving any support by the author. If the author wishes to open source his application, I would fix it in a heartbeat.
By: Goldie on December 13, 2011
at 11:14 pm
OK NVM i’m an idiot http://javadocs.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/minecontrol-for-minecraft-1-1-1-released
By: Goldie on December 13, 2011
at 11:16 pm
mine only works when I am on the minecontrol window… o.o
By: asd on December 30, 2011
at 6:42 pm
Will this work with an xbox 360′s play & charge kit?
By: Human on January 8, 2012
at 12:19 pm
Um, I have a new xbox controler, “Xbox 360 afterglow” that I bought at gamestop and the app wont pick it up but my comp will. Please explain to me why this is.
By: William on January 13, 2012
at 4:20 pm
and to anser ur question human no it needs a wireless reciver or a wired controler. ur comp dosen’t pick up the controler as a controler. just charges it with the play kit.
By: William on January 13, 2012
at 4:21 pm
Thank you Josh. Your program worked very well for me, using a USB Xbox controller. One thing, the program designates “I” for inventory, while the game opens inventory with “E”. This was easily accounted for by opening my in game options and setting inventory to “I”. I can’t wait to play more, I just got the game today! Thanks again, you rock!
By: Nicole on January 18, 2012
at 11:07 pm
This application doesnt work for me. Web start only shows up my mouse and keyboard, and downloading the standalone (jinput_dist_20090331) detects no devices. I have a wired xbox controller with the latest windows drivers installed to pick it up. I have latest java (java 7 i believe it is now) 64bit win7.
By: Ricky on January 31, 2012
at 9:37 am
I apologise, downloading jinput i am so used to list ordering themselves as newest first i failed to notice the OLDEST is at the top, downloading jinput_nightly_20120131 works fine for me
Thank you for this good piece of work 
By: Ricky on January 31, 2012
at 9:41 am
Sorry to make a third post, i am wondering if it is possible to add in extra key links. I mean having a limited choice on which buttons do what is a bit restricting, for example i have a mod that has a craft guide, for which the key is G. The controllers d-pad isnt used and i could simply set one of those to G. Is there a way of doing this? Thanks
By: Ricky on January 31, 2012
at 9:47 am
Where is the directory for the jar file?
By: Caleb on March 1, 2012
at 10:59 am
Who thought it would be funny to have no inventory button? this is stupid, if i wanted to use the keyboard to pull up my inventory, i wouldnt have plugged in my controller in, in the first place. now i know i can change my button mapping, but for some reason, ‘E’ isnt an option to change one of my buttons to. Let me know if there is something i am doing wrong.
By: Josh on March 9, 2012
at 8:18 pm
@Ricky, @Josh, @Nicole: re: d-pad and extra keys — just wait, you may be pleasantly suprised .
@Caleb: not sure what the question is, did Java Web Start kick in for you to automatically download the app?
By: Josh on March 13, 2012
at 9:48 pm
Could you please make it so that you can select what key to any button? That kind of thing is very essential if you want a custom set up or if you are using mods like Smart Moving, Rei’s Minimap, Equivalent Exchange, or anything that adds controls.
By: Absorr on April 1, 2012
at 1:33 pm
an i use wired contrller?
By: corbinjoiner on April 6, 2012
at 4:57 am
can i use wired controller
By: corbinjoiner on April 6, 2012
at 4:58 am
Its very glitchey for me and it pissess the tuck out of me
By: Collin on May 13, 2012
at 7:07 pm
woah, it makes the mouse stuck on left side of screen for my whole computer, i have to jam my controllers stick over and try to close the program, im using windows xp 32 bit
By: Airgood on June 16, 2012
at 7:25 pm
Don’t bother with this. It doesn’t work as advertised, hell running it prevents my hardware keyboard from working and it doesn’t detect my controller. Xpadder is far far better
By: 6677 on June 21, 2012
at 5:04 am
I’m running this program on my mac – snow leopard. However, I’m not seeing the trigger customization options in my button mapping; only the shoulder buttons. I’ve updated the software but it still doesn’t seem to be working. Am I missing something?
By: Breed on June 29, 2012
at 9:55 am
Works fine except for when i ,move i tend to slide all over the place not sure why. Also seems to dubble my ingame speed when i run far enough on flat ground.
By: david on August 4, 2012
at 12:06 pm
is it good for minecraft
1.3.1
By: nathan.mcintyre on August 14, 2012
at 12:36 pm
it did not work at all for my xbox 360 im 8 and im bored
By: shauna on September 15, 2012
at 8:21 am
Just a suggestion that u should enable the d-pad so people can use that to play as well
By: Matthew on October 1, 2012
at 3:48 pm
@shauna this is not for X360s this is for controllers hooked to computers
@nathan it works for any version of MC
@david that would be the joystick velocity
By: slango20 on October 15, 2012
at 12:24 pm
@6677 Xpadder is not free or open source, this is both, and an excursion in to x360 controllers for a computer
By: slango20 on October 15, 2012
at 12:26 pm
Old versions of xpadder were available for free, I still have a copy.
This software slows my machine down and seems to lock input from my hardware keyboard until I reboot, tested on 4 machines. I call that malware…
By: six677 on October 15, 2012
at 1:44 pm
[...] Minecontrol for Minecraft http://javadocs.wordpress.com/2010/10/24/minecontrol-play-minecraft-with-an-xbox-360-usb-controller/ [...]
By: [HOW TO] Use a Ps3 or 360 controller for Minecraft | Stahuj cz filmy a MP3 zdarma on November 9, 2012
at 4:47 pm
Needs to have porportional/exponential control levels for the mouse, so that you don’t have to tap it rapidly to move it around when messing around inside chests, but can be used quickly when in combat, without having to pause the game to change the sensitivity, which is not always an option on servers.
By: Trey5169 on December 27, 2012
at 10:33 am
This doesn’t work properly on Mac OSX. The right joystick moves the mouse for me, but that doesn’t translate to the game, and the left and right mouse buttons are both mapped onto the left trigger button with not pressed being left and pressed being right. that’s probably due to the driver using a different way of handling the trigger buttons on Mac. You should make a way to disable the trigger buttons and make the four d pad buttons usable.
By: pizza2004 on January 27, 2013
at 11:38 am
How do i uninstall this crap
By: Aaron on February 9, 2013
at 9:09 am
I personally Feel blog, “Minecontrol: Play Minecraft with an Xbox 360
(USB) controller Josh Carriers Blag” was correctly
written! I reallycan’t see eye to eye together with u even more! Finally looks like Iuncovered a web-site really worth browsing. Thank you, Pauline
By: Bette on February 18, 2013
at 5:20 pm
That’ really a very nice tool! Thousand thanks for it!
However it would be nice to customize what button does what.
Would be cool if you implemented that (:
By: FromMotivation on March 8, 2013
at 6:25 am
Your link to the Jinput page is dead. I managed to find nightly builds on my own, but I’m not 100% sure if it’ll work. Is this application meant for a specific version of Jinput? What version of Minecraft does this work for? Those two questions are missing from your post.
By: Jane on March 12, 2013
at 12:09 pm
I found out how to run Minecontrol for Minecraft without wifi was not able to run minecontrol while my wifi was down so I started looking and I found out a way so if anyone is interested just email me and ill show you how.
By: carlos sanchez on March 30, 2013
at 10:23 am
It works fine, I could use it with more than just Minecraft, for example I could play other games that uses similar controls, and use it as a mouse for my computer… This is the best ever!
By: Eric on April 1, 2013
at 8:39 pm
Make a version of MineControl for other games and other
addable renameable control profiles.
Even though Minecontrol works for all games anyways. I tested.
I would like to see other games and profiles for those games to be there
so I don’t need to keep swithching my button mappings.
Oh and fix the problem where the cursor moves on its own!!!!
By: Kenneth Erbeck on April 16, 2013
at 2:05 pm
the left and right clicks are reversed when playing on the controller. in the settings there is no way to adjust the left and right trigger settings, however, i’d like to be able to. please include that ability in the next update. (im using a ps3 controller in conjunction with DS3 tool
By: chris on April 19, 2013
at 3:23 pm
I can’t access JIinput it says the DNS lookup failed
By: Raven on April 27, 2013
at 7:59 pm
How do I make the left joystick on the xbox control to walk?
By: tahlia on April 29, 2013
at 8:04 am
Reblogged this on jamestarran and commented:
This thing’s amazing for when I play MC!
By: jamestarran98 on May 1, 2013
at 1:12 pm
Thanks for your marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you are a great author.
I will remember to bookmark your blog and will often come back down the road.
I want to encourage yourself to continue your great writing, have a nice morning!
By: Free Minecraft on May 2, 2013
at 7:06 pm
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!
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By: home Theater speaker System on May 11, 2013
at 2:33 am
WTF DID YOU DO!!! EVERY SINCE I GOT THIS PROGRAM MY COMPUTERS BEEN DOING FUCKED UP THINGS
By: mine-control is bad on May 11, 2013
at 2:45 am