OS Calibration

[Investdude]

Using Gladiator NXT with fs9 on Windows Xp. When running the configuration software VKBDwvCfg(vo.91.78) I get the message:
"Device calibration in WINDOWS detected. Highly recommend not to use OS calibration."
Then I get the offer "Try to correct this?"
If I click Yes I get the message:
"Are you sure you want to add the information in C:\SETUP/VKB\del_cal_Vid_231D&Pid_0200.reg" to the registry?

Of course I am very reluctant to mess around with the registry, especially if I don't know what is going to happen. Can anyone give me some advice about this?

[Ron61]

This message appears after the joystick has been calibrated using the Windows applet. What to do is highly not recommended for VKB devices, but use only the configurator or Wizzo.
Therefore, if this is found, the configurator suggests a fix. A file with the *.reg extension will be created in the folder from which the configurator is launched and you will only need to run it to fix it.
The exact same effect of cleaning the registry can be obtained using the USBDeview program. That's all, everything is simple and transparent.

[Investdude]

Thanks for your reply Ron61. I'm still having difficulty understanding this. I have read the manual but honestly it's incomprehensible to me. What I did initially was calibrate the axes as explained in the enclosed setup instructions. I have 2 flight sims, CFS2 and fs9. All I did was assign some of the buttons in each flight sims' Controller Assignments settings. Everything works perfectly like this. No doubt there is a better way of doing this but I can't figure it out from the manual and I'm very reluctant to do anything when I don't understand what I'm doing as I usually make things worse. I'll keep working on it, rereading the manual and watching the videos but I really need some very basic help.

[Drano]

As Ron says, NEVER use the windows game controller applet for any management of the VKB gear. It's not going to work but it's not the end of the world either. The fix is simple. Run Devconfig. I'm not at my PC just now. There's a button on one of the tabs (tools I think) says something like make registry file. Square blue icon. Click that. It's done. Restart the device, default it and recalibrate it with Devconfig. Only use Devconfig or Wizzo ever moving forward or this will happen again.

And as I found out you don't have to do much in that applet to mess things up. Once I was having problems with an older game that required a specific controller order to work. I went in and tried to just make the gunfighter the primary device and that hosed it for me! Had to click the registry button to get it back. So don't mess around in there with the VKB stuff!

[Investdude]

Thanks Drano. OK I understand that. But how then do I program the buttons to do what I want them to do in the game? How do I do that without using the games Controller Assignments settings? There must be something simple here that I haven't grasped. It seems the manual takes for granted that the reader knows some fundamental principles that I don't know.

[Drano]

Devconfig is a powerful tool and admittedly not the easiest thing to grasp. It will allow you to do things with a button you never even thought of doing! Best way to learn it is to take little pieces of it and try to learn one thing rather than try to learn the whole thing. Most of it I've found interesting but don't know that I'll ever use it so I just kinda tune that stuff out and stick to what's actually useful for me. I had a little extra time to get familiar with it as I was an original gunfighter owner and the MCG-Pro grip wasn't even available for many months after that so I couldn't use anything. Just read the manual til it made some sort of sense.


But it's not always necessary to use it to program the buttons. It depends on the game a lot of times and how it handles button inputs. It might be possible to map the buttons from within the game itself. One of the games I've played a long time is Aces High. I'm able to use the game key mapper for almost everything except things that would require a macro. Even with a blank profile the game will see the button presses, button 1, button 2 and so on. They're baked into the stick as default. So, for example, even tho the default command in the game to drop a bomb (secondary weapon) is "b", I can double click on that command in the game key mapper, press whatever button on the stick I want to drop bombs with, save it and move on to the next command I need to map. It'll now use that button command instead of the typed letter "b" to drop a bomb. Here I've programmed a button without ever going into Devconfig so it can be done. There are limitations tho. The stick might have more buttons available than the game supports. Some commands as I said might require a macro or typed command. In Aces High to change the number of bombs dropped with a button press requires a command that's ".salvo<space>#<enter>". The # is the number of bombs. There's no straight button press for this so you'd need Devconfig to assign the macro.

There are other programs that do this that will work wth the stick. I think joystick gremlin will work but I don't know how much easier it would be to deal with. It's just another way to skin a cat as far as I can tell.

If you're looking to just program a keyboard command to a button that's one of the simplest things you can do with Devconfig. I'm pretty sure there's a how-to video on it. I'll look and post the link here or I'll post the steps back.

[Drano]

https://youtu.be/nEJk0yytoXw

Here ya go. Goes thru the steps to assign a key to a button. Pay attention to the part about enabling the keyboard in the global tab. Don't do that and the stick can't type.

[fallout9]

Thanks Drano. OK I understand that. But how then do I program the buttons to do what I want them to do in the game? How do I do that without using the games Controller Assignments settings? There must be something simple here that I haven't grasped. It seems the manual takes for granted that the reader knows some fundamental principles that I don't know.

You could definitely assign your joystick to game controls without breaking anything. The only thing is not to try to calibrate it outside its native software. Just runt that harmless reg file to reset your Windows calibration, calibrate through native software and bind your joystick to game controls.