IL2 move and controller problems

[WWGriphos]

Hey guys.  I moved IL2 to the new computer and started it up and it checked itself and then let me hit the "play" button.  Upon starting, it said it found a new controller and asked if I wanted to move the assignments from an old controller, so I just clicked on the same controller from the "old" list and it accepted that. 

But, none of my controllers work.  They don't work when trying to fly.  When I go into key mappings, all of the settings are there, with Joystick IDs based on the old computer.  Two of my controllers, including the one it said it found new, have the same IDs on the new computer though.  The other two don't.  But I can't set new inputs.  No matter what controller I try to assign, I just get a flashing question mark when I try.  No button or axis on any controller seems to register.  They show up and work fine in DCS and MSFS and in Windows gaming devices settings. 

Really, these guys and this sim have always been WAY behind the curve in terms of use interface friendliness.  How can all the other flight sims get it right and make it so easy and this one is a PITA?!

Any suggestions? 

 

[WWCephas]

You could try these.

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/86785-force-game-to-see-new-controller/#comment-1297883

 

[WWGriphos]

I tried remapping the controller IDs with JoyID, but that didn't work.  And it screwed up DCS. 

I reset all of the key mappings after taking screenshots and that fixed the problem of it not recognizing my controllers.  So, now, I'm going through all the menus one by one with my screenshots as reference and assigning the buttons.  Should get them pretty close to what they were, not that I particularly remember what those were. 

After, I'll have to reset ALL of my DCS inputs, apparently. 

Sigh.

At least MSFS works and recognized my controllers by name and kept all assignments and mappings.  I fly it more than anything else. 

[WWDarkdiz]

I had the same problem. To fix it, I had to completely uninstall the specific joystick drivers (Thrustmaster, there were several driver updates), re-install, then use my back-up bindings. It finally worked, but I also had to delete the devices.txt file in the data/input folder. When you start IL2, it rewrites the file if is not there.

 

[WWGriphos]

I don't have any joystick drivers installed.  They're plug and play.  The Honeycomb Bravo has drivers, but those are just to make the LED lights work on the warning panel, which I could care less about.  I don't use Thrustmaster software.  It's buggy as hell.  And my Warthog has always worked flawlessly with just the Windows drivers.  Same for the VKB joystick and rudder pedals. 

I got all the inputs assigned in IL2.  I think they are pretty close to what they were. 

I guess I'll do the DCS planes one at a time as I feel like flying them.  Sigh.  I have 36 aircraft for DCS.  And I had ALL of them set up just the way I wanted them.

Not too happy about that.  Just the price of building a new computer, I guess.  I'm sure it's because DCS, like IL2, looks for controllers by ID rather than by name, like MSFS, and plugging the controllers into the new computer, even though I plugged them in according to the same order as they were listed on the old computer, seems to have assigned them new IDs. 

[WWGriphos]

Oh HAPPY Day!!!

I'm going to report on this in case anyone else (*cough* Plague) is moving their DCS install to a new computer anytime and discovers the same problem I did, that the controls are default again even if you copy over your Saved Games/DCS/Config/Input files.  You DO NOT have to remap all of your key bindings!  I'll tell you how to avoid that.  This won't work on any custom keyboard or mouse bindings you've done, I don't think.  But I'm still researching that. 

When you look in those input folders, you will see .diff.lua files with names.  They contain strings of multiple gibberish characters. These are USB ID names for USB devices plugged into your PC and they're individual for every PC out there, of course, as you know. Thus, you can't just download someone else's diff.luas and copy them directly to your Saved Games, because your own PC won't recognize their names.  And, if you've just moved DCS onto a new computer (which is perfectly fine to do, since it doesn't install anything in the registry), and plug in your controllers to the new computer, Windows will assign them completely new gibberish names. 

So, once you start DCS, it will create new files for each of the controllers you have installed for all of your aircraft and these new files will have no differences listed in them. 

You can't just open your older controller files with their older ID names and copy the contents and paste them into the new files.  I don't know why.  I tried it. Seems like you should be able to.  The new file has the right gibberish USB ID in its name still after you do that.  Must be something in the file itself as well.  At any rate, I tried that and it screws up DCS.  It will start, but it will constantly hang and fail to respond and generally just be messed up.

BUT!!!!!

You can open DCS and go to settings and pick an aircraft and click on the column for a given controller, like Thrustmaster Warthog, which will not have any keys assigned really other than the few default bindings that DCS assigns to EVERY controller you plug in.  Once you click on that column and highlight it, you can click on the LOAD Profile button.  This will open a dialogue box pointing to your Saved Games/DCS/Config/InputProfiles folder, which it may create on the spot for this purpose.  Nothing will be there unless you saved profiles there before.

WHAT YOU CAN DO, though, is re-point that dialog box to your regular input folders and the files for your controllers with their wrong USB ID names will also be in that folder along with the new file with the correct name DCS just created.  You can tell which is which by the date. 

Just click on the old file and select it and click the load button and it will take all your bindings from that old file and put them into the new file and they will work just dandy!  You'll have to do this for each of your controllers, for each of your aircraft.  But clicking load profile four times and pointing to the older files and loading their bindings for each aircraft is WAY easier than re-binding everything from scratch.  WAY EASIER!!!

If you want to make this a bit easier, you can go into file explorer and copy all of your aircraft folders in your Saved Games/Config/Input folder to the InputProfiles folder and delete the new controller files DCS just created for each controller in each aircraft folder so it's less confusing.  Then, in the game, when you click on Load Profile, it will open to the place where you have copied exactly the profiles you want to load.

I'm a happy camper.

A half hour or so of work, and all my my bindings will be set back up just how I like them. 

 

Edited February 17 by WWGriphos

[WWPlague]

Good news. Yes, I was a little concerned about the possibility that I would have trouble when I start my new build, and then getting the joystick controls working after transfering the games  over. I have DCS account and a few planes, but I havent had it installed on the last 2 computers. My concern was mostly Thrustmaster Cougar Foxy software re-install or transfering. 

[WWSandMan]

Appreciate the head's-up on the controller issue in DCS. When I get around to building a new system, that info will come in very handy indeed. As I also don't look forward to the complete reformation of all those specific aircraft controls.

Unlike most folks with ThrustMaster gear, I generally don't use the TM software to program stuff. Those that do, Diz, et al, my hat is off to you. But I just can't do it. I much prefer doing a basic DX assignment to all the controls, then I usually assign the same buttons in differrent sims to do the same thing, inside the sim itself. For the most part that works, and my muscle memory for  - say, prop pitch - is the same button in DCS as in IL2 as in MSFS. It doesn't always work that way, and there are sooooo many different configs for DCS that using TM software makes sense (I can see myself doing that with the F-4E, it's button-ology at it's most fearsome!)

 

[WWDarkdiz]

I don't use TM software for DCS, only Il2. DCS has multiple alt function bindings available, IL2 does not. In fact, there is little you cannot do in DCS in terms of bindings that you can do in TARGET (the TM software). The only thing you cannot do is control the LEDs on the throttle and Cougar button boxes. Intensity and brightness and contrast are controllable in DCS for the Cougars, they are a direct 1 to 1 binding.

I also try to keep the bindings consistent between sims, certainly between planes within the sim. If you want to sacrifice a very small bit of ultra realism for functionality and muscle memory, it is a small price to pay. Some planes however, you are stuck with the realistic bindings, and have to find alternate methods to make the controls do what you want, but in general, the binding problem has multiple solutions.

I'm happy to help any one out in this regard

[WWDarkdiz]

4 hours ago, WWGriphos said:

Oh HAPPY Day!!!

I'm going to report on this in case anyone else (*cough* Plague) is moving their DCS install to a new computer anytime and discovers the same problem I did, that the controls are default again even if you copy over your Saved Games/DCS/Config/Input files.  You DO NOT have to remap all of your key bindings!  I'll tell you how to avoid that.  This won't work on any custom keyboard or mouse bindings you've done, I don't think.  But I'm still researching that. 

When you look in those input folders, you will see .diff.lua files with names.  They contain strings of multiple gibberish characters. These are USB ID names for USB devices plugged into your PC and they're individual for every PC out there, of course, as you know. Thus, you can't just download someone else's diff.luas and copy them directly to your Saved Games, because your own PC won't recognize their names.  And, if you've just moved DCS onto a new computer (which is perfectly fine to do, since it doesn't install anything in the registry), and plug in your controllers to the new computer, Windows will assign them completely new gibberish names. 

So, once you start DCS, it will create new files for each of the controllers you have installed for all of your aircraft and these new files will have no differences listed in them. 

You can't just open your older controller files with their older ID names and copy the contents and paste them into the new files.  I don't know why.  I tried it. Seems like you should be able to.  The new file has the right gibberish USB ID in its name still after you do that.  Must be something in the file itself as well.  At any rate, I tried that and it screws up DCS.  It will start, but it will constantly hang and fail to respond and generally just be messed up.

BUT!!!!!

You can open DCS and go to settings and pick an aircraft and click on the column for a given controller, like Thrustmaster Warthog, which will not have any keys assigned really other than the few default bindings that DCS assigns to EVERY controller you plug in.  Once you click on that column and highlight it, you can click on the LOAD Profile button.  This will open a dialogue box pointing to your Saved Games/DCS/Config/InputProfiles folder, which it may create on the spot for this purpose.  Nothing will be there unless you saved profiles there before.

WHAT YOU CAN DO, though, is re-point that dialog box to your regular input folders and the files for your controllers with their wrong USB ID names will also be in that folder along with the new file with the correct name DCS just created.  You can tell which is which by the date. 

Just click on the old file and select it and click the load button and it will take all your bindings from that old file and put them into the new file and they will work just dandy!  You'll have to do this for each of your controllers, for each of your aircraft.  But clicking load profile four times and pointing to the older files and loading their bindings for each aircraft is WAY easier than re-binding everything from scratch.  WAY EASIER!!!

If you want to make this a bit easier, you can go into file explorer and copy all of your aircraft folders in your Saved Games/Config/Input folder to the InputProfiles folder and delete the new controller files DCS just created for each controller in each aircraft folder so it's less confusing.  Then, in the game, when you click on Load Profile, it will open to the place where you have copied exactly the profiles you want to load.

I'm a happy camper.

A half hour or so of work, and all my my bindings will be set back up just how I like them. 

 

I have ALL of my bindings backed up in a folder other than typical DCS folders. It is relatively easy to get them back, but can be a PITA to initially set them up. Frequently, a patch will screw up your bindings, and sometimes you have to manually edit a lua file or two to get it to work as it did prior to the patch

 

[WWSensei]

Aggghh, keyboard bindings and mappings are one of the reasons I don't fly DCS that often. I move USB devices and am constantly adding or taking away new toys so every DCS flight is going to start with 45 mins of remapping and then I'm too tired and quit after 15 mins of flying.

[WWGriphos]

On 2/17/2024 at 12:06 AM, WWDarkdiz said:

I have ALL of my bindings backed up in a folder other than typical DCS folders. It is relatively easy to get them back, but can be a PITA to initially set them up. Frequently, a patch will screw up your bindings, and sometimes you have to manually edit a lua file or two to get it to work as it did prior to the patch

 

Yes, this works when you want to revert to saved input configs on the same computer when they get messed up somehow. It won’t work when switching computers and trying to load those saved configs. They won’t have the right USB ID names and DCS will ignore them and create new default files with the correct IDs. 

Edited February 18 by WWGriphos

[WWDarkdiz]

You would have to take those files and overwrite the CONTROLLER_NAME.diff.lua file, pretty sure it would work, you might have to fiddle with it a bit though

[WWGriphos]

That didn't work for me.  Made DCS a mess.  Seemed like it should work, but no.  But, I didn't try to change the name, just replaced the contents of the correctly named file with the contents of the old controller file.  This seems to be essentially the same to me,  since it leaves the correct name for the file but includes the correct assignments from the older file. but that screwed up DCS significantly. 

Edited February 19 by WWGriphos

[WWDarkdiz]

Not sure what is happening, but DCS with the last patch screwed up a lot of folks. I just spend several hours over the past few days trying to unf*uck Wolfies computer. I THINK we finally have it sort of sorted out, but it fought us tooth and nail all the way through...

 

[WWGriphos]

This latest patch was the big unifying patch. No more beta version in addition to the standard version. Very few people were using anything but beta. But unifying versions is a very big change. It took me two days to d/l the patch. Haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. 

Edited February 25 by WWGriphos