When Microsoft announced Minecraft's Better Together update, fans cheered. Minecraft feels built for cross-network play. It's the world's biggest family game, an experience designed with collaborative play in mind, and now truly open to everyone regardless of device (except PlayStation).
Xbox 360 Controller for Windows. Select driver language. Xbox 360 Accessories Software 1.2. Follow Microsoft Accessories. Then press the button on the edge. The Windows will install the Xbox One controller driver automatically for you. Make sure there are batteries in your controller. Press the Xbox button to turn on your controller. Press the controller bind button on the top of your controller. The LED lights on your controller and adapter will blink a few times. Design your controller; Official Gear. How to get software and driver updates for Windows 10. (Java), Mac or Linux version of Minecraft, visit the Mojang. By: Minecontrol: Play Minecraft with an Xbox 360 (USB) controller « Josh Carrier’s Blag on April 12, 2011 at 10:18 am Damn, I was so used to jump with A that now it’s really difficult.
At least, that's how it seemed. Sadly, the edition which has arrived on console is not quite what fans had envisioned.
Microsoft never did a great job of communicating the fact its Better Together Update is not actually an update for console owners. It's a completely different game - one which is almost identical to Minecraft's previous Pocket Edition for mobiles.
This change has already occurred on Xbox One, with the old Minecraft: Xbox One Edition replaced in the console's store with a separate game client, just named 'Minecraft'. Likewise, in the near future, Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition will also be left behind. Upgrading is free, but far from painless.
Minecraft is Minecraft, right? Well, not really. Minecraft console developer 4J Studios has, for more than half a decade, built a version of Minecraft which feels great when played with a console controller. (Microsoft's new version of Minecraft no longer lists 4J in the game's opening splash screens.)
The new version of Minecraft has ditched the console version's user interface completely. Your inventory and crafting are now organised using a different UI - shown above - from the mobile version of the game designed for a touchscreen, or for a mouse and keyboard.
Microsoft has a Minecraft feedback site set up to track user-requested fixes. Reinstating a console-style UI, at least as an option for Minecraft on console, is one of the highest requests out of more than 5800 ideas.
'This is the major reason that keeps me from moving away from Xbox One Edition,' one fan wrote. 'I cannot stand the current BTU UI using a controller.'
'When playing on the Xbox, the Play Together UI is a large step backwards from what we have in the console edition, both in terms of layout and responsiveness,' another added.
'I'm honestly just gonna play regular Xbox One edition until they fix this, the new UI on Xbox is far, far worse and alienating to Xbox players,' a third fan agreed.
Other top requests include fixes for other casualties of Microsoft's decision to base the new Minecraft on the game's Pocket Edition: redstone and coordinates.
Redstone (Minecraft's equivalent of electrical wiring) has different systems on different platforms. The old console version was different to the Pocket Edition version - so imported worlds from Minecraft: Xbox One Edition now need redstone to be rewired to work.
Coordinates - being able to see your exact position on the game's map - also worked differently, depending on platform. Knowing your position is a vital part of meeting up with other players, and correctly constructing large building projects.
On console, players have always been able to see their position on an X/Y/Z axis by holding any map item. On Pocket Edition, you could not do this. So, since this new version of Minecraft is based on the Pocket Edition, console players have been left without this option. (Microsoft has recently relented to allow coordinate viewing as a cheat - but enabling cheats will disable achievements and other stat tracking).
And then there's the in-game store. Minecraft's store is front and center when you load the game, the option to buy a world the first you need to scroll past before being able to dismiss the game's latest patch notes.
It is intrusive - and for the first time, console players are being offered packs from third-party sources. This new version of Minecraft has only been available for a couple of weeks, and the shop already feels bloated.
Finally, there are the bugs. I've found it incredibly difficult to transfer my world over from the previous Xbox One version of the game. I've tried this a couple of times, with mixed success. It's a slow process, but that's fine - give your world 15 minutes or so and it should be downloaded and converted to play instantly from now on.
'Should be' is the key here, however. I had to try three times on my home console before it actually worked and didn't time out. I tried twice here in the office and both times failed, the last time hard crashing the whole console. Each time, I was waiting to play for more than half an hour in total. Not a great start. When my world did finally load, I couldn't eat.
To put it bluntly, this new version of Minecraft is not the one I'm used to playing. I asked Microsoft about the issues raised here and from the thousands of fans on the Minecraft feedback website, but have not yet received a response.
Microsoft ran a beta for the Better Together Update before it rolled the game to everyone. I played it during this time and quickly went back to the previous Xbox One Edition - which I'm still playing on now, even though I know it will no longer be updated. I assumed Microsoft wouldn't launch the Better Together Update until it had thought through Minecraft's issues and made it friendlier for console owners. Sadly, perhaps due to the headline-grabbing nature of its truly remarkable cross-network play, it has launched with these issues intact.
Playing with fans across platforms undoubtedly still feels like the future for Minecraft - but right now on console, the option feels like it does not outweigh the Better Together version's other issues.
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Forgotten your details?Four months after the launch of the console, Microsoft still hasn't released a PC driver for the Xbox One controller. Someone else has finally done it for them. With a few caveats, YouTube user Lucas Assis has uploaded video instructions and a driver that will make your Xbox One controller work with your PC. The video is 11 minutes long, so it's not exactly a plug and play solution, but if you really like the Xbox One controller this will get it talking to your PC.
Assis' solution uses a combination of a generic USB driver, controller emulating software vJoy, libusb (which allows applications to access USB devices), and his own application, which supports up to 16 (!) controllers. All of these are included in the download .
Basically, after downloading it you'll need to:
- Open your device manager and plug in your Xbox One controller
- Install the WinUSB device driver (a Windows driver)
- Install vJoy
- Open vJoy and use it to detect the controllers
- Install libusb, launch its filter installer wizard and use it to install the two WinUSB devices that are your controllers.
- Open Assis' app.
Assis does a good job of walking you through these steps in the video. They're are little involved, but nothing you need a computer science degree for.
Java Minecraft X-box Controller Driver Update
Java Minecraft X-box Controller Driver Download
From there you'll probably want to install XPadder or x360ce (included in the download) to make it work with games as if it were an Xbox 360 controller. As you'll see in the video, x360ce is a little problematic, and Assis still has some issues with the d-pad, but until Microsoft offers something better, we'll have to make do with homemade solutions. And it took Assis all of a day to make his application. By the time Microsoft gets around to fully supporting the controller, this utility may have ironed out all the kinks.