Physical Control Boxes

Prefer tactile buttons over touchscreen taps? (I know we do) You can hook up a USB gamepad or joystick to your sim PC and use it as a physical control box, either off-the-shelf or DIY.

OpenGolfSim supports most generic USB controllers. Once connected, you can assign button presses to specific simulator functions using the desktop app. This lets you build anything from a simple one button mulligan box to a full featured controller with aim, drop, flyover, pretty much anything you can do from a keyboard, you will be able to easily program.

If you’re building your own, all you need is:

  • A basic USB joystick or controller board (e.g. USB encoder board or a micro controller with joystick firmware)
  • A few arcade-style buttons or toggles
  • A case to mount it in

Interesting in building your own box?

Checkout our DIY Button Box build post.

Physical Control Setup

Setting up a physical controller is quick and straightforward, just plug it in and map your buttons.

  1. Connect the device
    Plug in or pair your gamepad, joystick, or button box to your PC.

  2. Open OpenGolfSim Desktop
    Go to the Control section in the app. Your device should appear in the list.
    If it doesn’t:
    • Close and reopen the desktop app.
    • Unplug the device and plug it back in.
    • Make sure your PC recognizes the device under Windows controller settings. Search “set up USB game controllers”

  3. Device appears in the control panel
    Once detected, the device will show up in controls page.

  4. Set up the device
    Click Setup Device, then give it a name so you can easily identify it later.

  5. Assign buttons
    Choose an action from the list, click Assign Button, then press the button you want to map on your controller.

  6. Repeat as needed
    Continue assigning buttons for any actions you want, mulligans, aim adjustments, flyovers, etc.
    Use whatever layout makes the most sense for your setup.

  7. ENJOY
    Fire up a course and enjoy not having to sprint back to your keyboard every time you want a mulligan.

If something’s still not working on your setup, contact us Just keep in mind, not all controllers are supported, and some may need extra configuration. We’re building a list of supported devices as we get more feedback, so stay tuned.