VKB-SIM

I recently discovered a problem with my Gunfighter 2 and an old DirectX 8.1 game.

After starting up Battlefield 1942 to play a retro session of Forgotten Hope mod (yes I remember buying BF as a new title) I attempted to configure the air controls for my GF2 SCG. The main axes and buttons were recognised, but the twist would not map to yaw. The POV axes Rot X and Rot Y were available, but unwanted.

Then I vaguely remembered that the Refractor engine of BF1942 used DirectInput with some limitations. Only four analogue axes are recognised, X, Y, Z and Rot Z, with POV emulated by a mouselook modifier key function.

A GF2 SCG has 6 axes enabled by default, so I disabled the POV axes Rot X (3) and Rot Y (4) in VKBDevCfg-C (as the POV isn't recognised in BF1942 anyway). Lo and behold I could map the Twist to Yaw in the controls menu in game, as it was now one of 4 enabled axes.

However, when a game was then started, only the central hat switch buttons were recognised (10 - 14) in play and none of the other buttons or axes had any in-game response to input.

I'm guessing that there is some kind of legacy DirectInput issue at work here, but as the GF2 does its own thing inn Windows and the very long VKBDevCfg manual doesn't appear to mention anything about API's or compatibility. I'm stumped as to how to get it recognised in game.

I don't want to go rummaging in the loft for my Saitek Cyborg, not least because it has no Windows 10 drivers and I'll have to frig it on with some inf modding of Windows 7 versions. My Defender Cobra M5 won't work with BF1942 (or quite a few other games) because the 3-way mode button polls continuously to whichever button is selected (24, 25 or 26) and spams input to every control configuration attempted in game.

Already this is too much faffing about for a bit of retro fun and I doubt many here even know what BF1942 is, let alone have played it in the last decade ... but does anyone have any idea how to get a GF2 to play ball with a DirectX 8.1 game like BF1942?

Please leave unhelpful suggestions such as "use a different joystick", or "play Battlefield V instead" untyped, they just waste time and topic space.

Many thanks.

That is a just a guess but I imagine it have button number limitation, just like for axes and hat.
I would try to send button 1.. 2.. etc.. Up to the one that doesn't get interpreted by the game. Maybe 16? Or 32.
I think in this case I would remap the joystick button/hat/and maybe even some axes to keyboard shortcut. Instead of creating many virtual joystick which might not be seen by the game anyway.

Thanks for the suggestion, I might try disabling some buttons to get within the DirectX and BF1942 limit as well.

Shame the only solution is long-winded trial and error sessions blundering around VKBDevCfg and the manual. Guessing a joystick profile from scratch with only nerd level instructions is not at all entertaining.

Having some kind of Windows compatible mode, so the GF2 "just works" like other Windows-friendly controllers would be far better.

The VKB joysticks are as Windows friendly as they could be, just need to plug them in, calibrate and you're good to go. Maybe not as 'friendly' as joysticks with less than 32 inputs that could fit into 20 years old games requirements, but even that could be fixed by software, here's a thread that explains how to break your device into several virtual devices that would get recognized by games with low limit of buttons: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4390#p40875
If the game limits the number of connected devices too, you could assign joystick inputs to keyboard: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=4390#p40874

And I have to disagree again: there is another solution, other than "long-winded trial and error sessions blundering around VKBDevCfg and the manual": ask about it.

Thanks for the steer, I followed it backwards into the manual. Setting a limit of 32 buttons isn't too big a problem as the GF2 SCG only has 27 in normal use.

After another exploratory game session it doesn't appear to be the 4 axis and 32 button limit. The right hand hat switch (21 - 25) worked when not in an aircraft in game. The centre hat switch (11-15) worked in the aircraft, but not other buttons or the axes. There is something different interfering with control inputs. Back to experimentation for now.

I would suggest to try to assign joystick inputs to keyboard. Try for couple of joystick buttons that usually don't work in game and see if this changes if assigned to keyboard. If it works then you could bind all joystick buttons to keyboard and don't worry about the buttons limitation imposed by game. With the axis is another matter, you'll have to use only what the game will allow.

Unfortunately remapping the keys had no effect.

However I did stumble across the problem in game. When in an aircraft the mouse still had control of the pitch and roll axes and the fire control.

After some rummaging around, there was another air config file binding the mouse controls and overriding the player selections. Offending extra config file deleted, GF2 now functional in game.