Returning Pilot Please Help with XBox Controller Problem.

[moosehunter]

Hi everyone. I played the IL2 series to death when it came out years ago until my PC finally gave up the ghost and I moved to console. 
Now after about 15 years I’m back. I picked the game up in the steam summer sale and it runs smooth as butter on my laptop BUT.

I can’t get the XBox controller to work properly. I know a joystick is preferred option but I haven’t got one at the moment. I am a very casual offline only player. 

Here’s my problem. I use joytokey and it mostly works but for some reason the autopilot keeps coming on when I use the left aileron. With joytokey the left arrow button is assigned to left analogue stick left. In game settings autopilot is set to A. But whenever I try to turn left it puts the autopilot on, another push to the left and it turns the autopilot off. 

likewise with the rudder. Left and right on the d pad are assigned to the rudder. They both work and move the ruddder but left rudder also changes engine power to 40% and right rudder to engine power 20%. I can’t see anywhere in the game control settings that autopilot is assigned to left arrow or power to the same keys as 40 and 20% power.

i changed autopilot to left mouse button and that stopped it coming on when I turned left but instead mapped autopilot to the right trigger, so every time I pressed to fire my guns it just stuck autopilot on. So I changed fire weapon 1 to button A on the controller but this then reverted the autopilot toggle back to left on the left thumb stick. 
 

Anyone any idea how to solve this (other than buy a joystick, I’ll only do that if I get really back into the game):

 

Many Thanks.

[RedKestrel]

7 hours ago, moosehunter said:

Hi everyone. I played the IL2 series to death when it came out years ago until my PC finally gave up the ghost and I moved to console. 
Now after about 15 years I’m back. I picked the game up in the steam summer sale and it runs smooth as butter on my laptop BUT.

I can’t get the XBox controller to work properly. I know a joystick is preferred option but I haven’t got one at the moment. I am a very casual offline only player. 

Here’s my problem. I use joytokey and it mostly works but for some reason the autopilot keeps coming on when I use the left aileron. With joytokey the left arrow button is assigned to left analogue stick left. In game settings autopilot is set to A. But whenever I try to turn left it puts the autopilot on, another push to the left and it turns the autopilot off. 

likewise with the rudder. Left and right on the d pad are assigned to the rudder. They both work and move the ruddder but left rudder also changes engine power to 40% and right rudder to engine power 20%. I can’t see anywhere in the game control settings that autopilot is assigned to left arrow or power to the same keys as 40 and 20% power.

i changed autopilot to left mouse button and that stopped it coming on when I turned left but instead mapped autopilot to the right trigger, so every time I pressed to fire my guns it just stuck autopilot on. So I changed fire weapon 1 to button A on the controller but this then reverted the autopilot toggle back to left on the left thumb stick. 
 

Anyone any idea how to solve this (other than buy a joystick, I’ll only do that if I get really back into the game):

 

Many Thanks.

A simple thing to check is if joy2key is mapping several keyboard commands to one button press, OR if multiple actions in il2 are mapped to a single button press. Basically it seems like something is causing the game to think you are pressing the button for autopilot whenever you use the roll axis, for example.

The problem here is it is difficult for anyone to know if it is joy2key not working properly, or the game not working properly, or the xbox controller not working properly. 

Here's something to try. Turn off joy2key and just use the xbox controller as is. Does the game recognize inputs from the xbox controller when you try and bind an axis to the thumbsticks? Does it recognize button presses? I haven't tried to plug in an xbox controller to a computer but I imagine it will be recognized as a USB gamepad, and each thumbstick will be an axis and every other button will be recognized as a button.

 

If that works, then something is getting messed up with joy2key.

[moosehunter]

1 hour ago, RedKestrel said:

A simple thing to check is if joy2key is mapping several keyboard commands to one button press, OR if multiple actions in il2 are mapped to a single button press. Basically it seems like something is causing the game to think you are pressing the button for autopilot whenever you use the roll axis, for example.

The problem here is it is difficult for anyone to know if it is joy2key not working properly, or the game not working properly, or the xbox controller not working properly. 

Here's something to try. Turn off joy2key and just use the xbox controller as is. Does the game recognize inputs from the xbox controller when you try and bind an axis to the thumbsticks? Does it recognize button presses? I haven't tried to plug in an xbox controller to a computer but I imagine it will be recognized as a USB gamepad, and each thumbstick will be an axis and every other button will be recognized as a button.

 

If that works, then something is getting messed up with joy2key.

Hi ManyThanks for the swift reply. The game doesn’t have multiple assignments for the same press that I can see. Certainly not for auto pilot. Without Joytokey it doesn’t recognise the controller at all. I’m a bit stumped really. 
The only thing I haven’t done is use the controller wired rather than wireless. No idea if it’ll make any difference, I’ll try it tomorrow, see if the game recognises the pad without joytokey that way. 

[RedKestrel]

8 minutes ago, moosehunter said:

Hi ManyThanks for the swift reply. The game doesn’t have multiple assignments for the same press that I can see. Certainly not for auto pilot. Without Joytokey it doesn’t recognise the controller at all. I’m a bit stumped really. 
The only thing I haven’t done is use the controller wired rather than wireless. No idea if it’ll make any difference, I’ll try it tomorrow, see if the game recognises the pad without joytokey that way. 

Try it wired and see how it goes. But from the sounds of it, Joy2key is sending multiple keystrokes when you hit the controller buttons. Or interpreting the movement of your control sticks as multiple inputs.

[moosehunter]

23 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

Try it wired and see how it goes. But from the sounds of it, Joy2key is sending multiple keystrokes when you hit the controller buttons. Or interpreting the movement of your control sticks as multiple inputs.

Yeah it does sound like that, no idea why though. I haven’t had chance to try it wired yet. 

[moosehunter]

OK, so I tried it wired without joy to key and it actually worked. Game detected the controller and when changing the inputs low and behold it said that the left roll was assigned to autopilot, so selected to change it and bingo it worked, same with the rudder controls. 
 

Only problem is on wired mode it doesn’t recognise the shoulder buttons. 
 

One thing I have learned after all that faffing about was a controller, whilst playable,  is no substitution for a joystick. 

[Rhino-1938]

2 hours ago, moosehunter said:

One thing I have learned after all that faffing about was a controller, whilst playable,  is no substitution for a joystick. 

Amen Bro

[RedKestrel]

Even a cheap joystick like the Logitech extreme 3D pro would work ok. Lots of buttons and the price is right. Then you can upgrade later if you feel like it.

 

[moosehunter]

6 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

Even a cheap joystick like the Logitech extreme 3D pro would work ok. Lots of buttons and the price is right. Then you can upgrade later if you feel like it.

 

Funny you should say that but that’s the exact one Ive been looking at. As I say I’m very a very casual player nowadays as there’s just so much other stuff out there that I couldn’t justify paying anymore for a joystick.