Virpil buttons/axes not working in missions (but work fine in control mapping interface)

[jster409]

I recently replaced my previous stick and throttle with a Virpil Alpha/WarBrd combo and a CM3 throttle. All is well in other sims, but when I went to remap my controls in IL-2, I found that certain buttons and axes work correctly in the control mapping interface under settings, but have no effect in game. For example, I have pitch and rudder trim mapped to a hat; they work fine in the config screen but do nothing in flight (whereas the keyboard commands for the same functions work fine). I have prop pitch on an axis of my SharKa-50 control panel, and it likewise behaves fine in the calibration screen but does nothing in flight.

 

I thought this might be a function of the button/axis limit IL-2 has, but then I would expect the buttons/axes not to be seen by IL-2 at all, including in the control mapping interface. The issue is also not plane-specific. I deleted devices.txt to re-assign the contoller numbers IL-2 sees, and I remapped everything from scratch, but I still have the same issue. 

 

Any suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Sokol1]

1 hour ago, jster409 said:

 I have pitch and rudder trim mapped to a hat; they work fine in the config screen but do nothing in flight (whereas the keyboard commands for the same functions work fine). I have prop pitch on an axis of my SharKa-50 control panel, and it likewise behaves fine in the calibration screen but does nothing in flight.

 

Winch plane you test this?

For some functions different planes require different mapping - even using the same key/buttons.

[cardboard_killer]

1 hour ago, jster409 said:

For example, I have pitch and rudder trim mapped to a hat; they work fine in the config screen but do nothing in flight (whereas the keyboard commands for the same functions work fine).

 

Is the lack of trim the only thing that the hat cannot do? For example, if you map the hat to a snap view, does it work for that snap view?

 

Will any other (non-keyboard) buttons/axes work for trim?

 

Also, you say it doesn't work for any plane, but let's stick with one plane first to insure we're all on the same page. You have BoN and BoBP listed. Of those planes the only ones I know of off the top of my head that can have a manual pitch control that you mention are the Luftw planes, so let's stick with the Bf-109-K4. Test everything in that plane so we are all on the same page.

 

Remember, the 109 has an automatic pitch control, so to use an axis with prop pitch, you have to go to manual mode (Right Shift+p).

The 109 also is trimmed with an adjustable stabilizer (not with the "Elevator Trim" but with the "Adjustable Stabilizer Axis")

Edited June 11, 2022 by cardboard_killer

[jster409]

Thanks both for the helpful suggestions, which led to me solving this. I was having three or four separate issues that I assumed all pointed to a single problem, but they were totally unrelated. The trim issue was because I had mapped "trim switches" versus trim axis, which I assumed was correct since I was using buttons and not an axis on my HOTAS. However, I now realize that "trim switches" is for airaft that had trim switches in them versus trim wheels or other axes. The prop RPM issue (I mistakenly wrote prop pitch) was due to my realism settings being wrong. 

 

The one issue I was not able to solve was my rotary encoders not being recognized for pilot head zoom. They worked for other functions (e.g., time acceleration), but not zoom. My work-around was creating a virtual axis in the Virpil VPC software. In the IL-2 GUI, it still only saw the button pushes and not the virtual axis, so I just edited the "current.map" and "curent.actions" files to map the virtual axis to the zoom. Worked like a charm. 

 

[For those who may want to try this virtual axis trick themselves: the main challenge was not knowing what axis letter IL-2 would assign to the virtual axis, since I couldn't see it in the key mapping GUI. IL-2 seems to use axis letters x, y, z, s, w, p, q and t, and perhaps others. For example, on my SharKa-50 panel, the four axes are x, y, s, and w. These do not correspond to the axis letters shown in the VPC software. My plan was to figure out what letter my virtual axis was by trial and error, though as it turns out, it was the first letter I tried: z.]

 

Anyway, thanks again, and I hope this explanation is helpful to others who may have similar stumbles.