[Virpil] Guide to binding an analog axis for zoom in VR

[danomite]

IL2 is a beautiful game in VR, I have found that the immersion of being in the cockpit makes Track IR pale in comparison.  But the one major missing control is the ability to zoom your view using an analog axis.  This control exists for flat screen, but for some indecipherable reason VR is instead given 5 individual zoom levels, that you can bind to 5 keys.  Which, of course, is not a very good solution.

 

So here is a guide on how to simulate an analog zoom axis using Virpil's configuration software.  This will only work if you have a Virpil device and the Virpil software.  The Virpil configuration software is necessary for calibrating all the analog axes, so you should already have installed it when setting up your Virpil device.

Lets get to it.  In this guide I will be setting up the zoom axis using the Z-axis slider on the Virpil throttle (the slider that falls under your ring finger when using the throttle).

The first step is to open the VPC configuration software and save your current profile.  Double click your desired device in the dialog box at the top to load data from its onboard memory.  Then click the PROFILE button on the left.  Make sure that your window looks like this, with the device populated, then click "EXPORT PROFILE TO FILE". [IMAGE]. Save this profile somewhere safe where you can retrieve it later if you want to revert changes.

 

The next step is to assign your axis ranges to button presses. [IMAGE] The "PRO" options must be enabled to do this, so make sure to click the PRO button on the top right side of the window.  Navigate to the AXIS screen.  On the left side of the screen are four axis to button options.  The same axis number will be entered in all four rows (in this case axis 6 for the Z-axis slider).  If you don't know what axis number to use then move the axis, and watch to see which axis changes value in the upper dialog box.

 

Next assign the axis ranges and result buttons.  You want the ranges to overlap with each other, because holding down two quick zoom options in IL2 results in an intermediate zoom level between the two.  So with these four overlapping buttons (plus part of the range with the default zoom - no button assigned) you can get 8 zoom levels.

The result buttons can be any value up to 128 that isn't already being used by your throttle.  I recommend simply using 125-128.

 

For my axis I want zero zoom at 100% axis value and full zoom at 0%.  For this (inverted) case I recommend these values:

 

 0   24  128
 12  48  127
 36  72  126
 60  84  125

 

For an axis with zero zoom at 0% and full zoom at 100% I recommend these values:

 

 16  40   125
 28  64   126
 52  88   127
 76  100  128

 

In both cases there is a 16% deadzone with no button activated, followed by 12% steps.  The result button assignment increases as the zoom increases, to keep things simple.

 

The last step is to assign these new axis buttons to a logical output [IMAGE].  The axis button assignments (125-128) are internal to the Virpil device, they are read by the Virpil control board.  They must be assigned to a logical output in order to pass them through to your computer.

 

Here we run into a quirk of IL2.  IL2 can only recognize up to 64 input buttons per USB device.  The Virpil throttle already has over 64 buttons (try to map one of the six push buttons with the encoder in the 3rd-5th position.  The keymapping will read something weird like "joy1_pov0_90", and it will not work in game).  So we have to reassign some buttons that are already being used.  I chose buttons 56-59, which correspond to four of the six push buttons with the encoder in the 2nd position.  After reassigning them to the axis button they will no longer work normally, so make sure that you do not choose buttons that you have bound in-game.

 

The reassignment is done by double-clicking on your desired button in the dialog box on the right side of the BUTTON window.  That will open a dialog box that looks like this [IMAGE], where you will enter the value of your new axis button (here 125).  Make sure that the shift is turned to 0 (shift is used with the rotating mode switch on the throttle) and mode to normal.  Save all four buttons in this manner.

 

Congrats, you're done!  Click the green SAVE VPC DEVICE button to load these settings to your device's firmware.  Then as a last step open the VPC JOY TESTER (button at the bottom of the window).  Slide your axis and make sure that the new buttons show up [IMAGE].  Then simply open IL2 and bind the zoom steps to your new buttons.  This can be a bit fiddly, as you slide the axis around and try to select the right button, but it doesn't take too long.

We only made four axis buttons here, and there are five zoom steps.  I chose to bind minimum, zoom 1, zoom 3, and maximum.  The middle position of the axis approximates quick zoom 2, and the zoom motion is very fluid.

 

Hopefully this helps increase the VR enjoyment of some people who ran into this same problem that I did.  Maybe the game will have a future update that makes this nonsense unneeded.  And if you are new to VR, make sure to install the necksaver program as well.  Happy hunting!

Edited January 6, 2022 by danomite