The Joystick Setup & Discussion Thread

[TheElite96 5,804]

Hello!

Once again, we are cleaning up some of the pinned threads in this section. Joystick setup guides seem to be here and there, so here is a central place for discussions regarding joystick setup.

 

Below I've listed some of the most popular and most useful joystick setup guides we could find. If you find a really useful and relevant one, feel free to mention it here and it may be added to the list below!

 

Joystick Set Up Guide by WoIfman

Mouse Joystick Awareness Week! by Mephisto9466

Beginner's joystick tutorial by Mephisto9466

 

Feel free to discuss joystick setup here, community members and staff will be able to assist if you have any questions or need help.

When looking for help, it's best to let us know which joystick you are using, and what issues you're having. This can help us get you an answer faster.

 

Thank you @Keebird for helping out!

Edited November 27, 2017 by TheElite96

[Gramagrass 1]

Hey guys.   Need help on a few buttons with my joystick and tracker IR. 

 

First the tracker IR work fine if i am just playing with just the mouse, however, when i and working on my joystick my view and tracker IR, gets me looking up and behind.  I can not center foward at all. 

 

For my stick....what are the buttons for center toggle?

[_Catweazle_63 9,833]

Did you check this section in which Track IR is being discussed? https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/forum/604-oculus-rift-htc-trackir-problems-and-advice/

 

[Foureyesamurai 40]

Hey all! I just got my Thrustmaster Hotas X joystick and look forward to playing Sim. However, all the tutorials I have seen so far are outdated or for other joysticks. None of the config files seemed to work. If anyone could send me their config files or show me how to setup the controls for this, that would be absolutely amazing. 

Tyvm, Four

[*ChameleonLord 2,390]

6 hours ago, Foureyesamurai said:

Hey all! I just got my Thrustmaster Hotas X joystick and look forward to playing Sim. However, all the tutorials I have seen so far are outdated or for other joysticks. None of the config files seemed to work. If anyone could send me their config files or show me how to setup the controls for this, that would be absolutely amazing. 

Tyvm, Four

I used that joystick for years but recently upgraded to the 16000M.  The key to any joystick (as a really good friend pointed out to me and has made the world of difference) is to have your sensitivities set to 100% for ROLL, PITCH and YAW.  From there you only need to set your non-linearities in each to suit your taste and flight style.  I also recommend with that joystick to turn your twisty rudder off.  You can lock out the twist by a flat head screw on the joystick which is located underneath the hand rest.  

[Foureyesamurai 40]

1 hour ago, *ChameleonLord said:

I used that joystick for years but recently upgraded to the 16000M.  The key to any joystick (as a really good friend pointed out to me and has made the world of difference) is to have your sensitivities set to 100% for ROLL, PITCH and YAW.  From there you only need to set your non-linearities in each to suit your taste and flight style.  I also recommend with that joystick to turn your twisty rudder off.  You can lock out the twist by a flat head screw on the joystick which is located underneath the hand rest.  

Really? Most tutorials I have watched have changed the sensitivity for each except the aileron, with the yaw axis being purposefully dampened. Then again, this coming from a guy who wasted 10k silver lions from crashing several times taking off.

[*ChameleonLord 2,390]

4 hours ago, Foureyesamurai said:

Really? Most tutorials I have watched have changed the sensitivity for each except the aileron, with the yaw axis being purposefully dampened. Then again, this coming from a guy who wasted 10k silver lions from crashing several times taking off.

Sensitivity only adjusts your 'response time' of your actions on the joystick to what is transferred into the game.  Example:  You move left with 100% sensitivity (no dead zone) and the plane will move left as you move your Joystick.  Push harder on your joystick and your plane will move more left  50% sensitivity will cause a 'Lag' in response.  You move your joystick left... and then move it more.. and then it kicks in after a fraction of a second delay.  You will have way more controls.  FYI.. for that Joystick and my new one.. I have NonLinearity set to 0 for yaw and roll and 1.5 for pitch.  Works extremely well for me.  Your guy who crashes on the runway was probably pulling on the stick and it did not lift off right way because of that delay so then he pulled back harder and voila... crash! 

[DerGrafVonZahl 4,228]

 

It's more than just a "lag" it's actually a smoothening function over your input. Smoothing always creates a delay, but that's the side effect not the main goal of such a function.

 

This is an example of such a function (standard moving average):

 

you can clearly see that it takes the arithmetic mean of your last K inputs instead of the input you are actually doint. This makes movement smoother (hence smoothing function) this is useful for a variety of fields, but in WT it makes aiming easier as the plane will feel more stable, it comes at the cost of a lag, wich is a result of taking acount previous inputs so the mean of your last 10 inputs even if you just now put in full deflection will only get you 10% deflection. There are weighted smoothing functions like a weighted moving averages or exponential smoothing wich will result in less lag and even better results.

 

For small adjustments this is quite helpful but it comes at the cost of being less responsive. 

 

Just adjusting your nonlinearity won't have any effect on the smootheness. As nonlinearity just trades control input accuracy on the high end of the values to the middle and vice versa... of course a wider range to use around the centre of the stick will help in similar situations as sensitivity does but it achieves this by an entirely different way. This gives the illusion of being able to correct one with the other but technically thaqt isn't the case. As smoothing is something comßpletely different to linearity if you see both as mathematical functions (wich they are).

 

So i wouldn't really advice on 100% sensitivity and correcting this by nonlinearity. Both are trade-offs, both trade completely different things.

Nonlinearity trades center precision with precision on the high values of the stick,

Sensitivity trades reaction time to smoothin out irratic hand movement.

 

if you hand move irratic and you are bad ad consistent and smoot hand movements, it's better to lower the sensitivity than to increase nonlinearity, as higher nonlinearity will just reduce the effect of that irratic movement around zero but will increase the effects on hard manuvers. While sensitivity will smooth your movement itself instead of just increasing the effect your movement has. So sensitivtiy will work on the full spectrum of controls to the cost of reaction time (i have sensitivity at around 80-85% as you will not really notice the dealay but still get some nice smoothing).

 

On the otherhand, if you have really smooth and flowing handmovements but feel like the stick doesn't have enough range around the zero, nonlinearity is the one you want to change.

I got Nonlinearity at about 1.6 on all controls except throttle mainly for the purpose of flying in formation where tiny corrections are important.

 

 

[Foureyesamurai 40]

12 hours ago, *ChameleonLord said:

Sensitivity only adjusts your 'response time' of your actions on the joystick to what is transferred into the game.  Example:  You move left with 100% sensitivity (no dead zone) and the plane will move left as you move your Joystick.  Push harder on your joystick and your plane will move more left  50% sensitivity will cause a 'Lag' in response.  You move your joystick left... and then move it more.. and then it kicks in after a fraction of a second delay.  You will have way more controls.  FYI.. for that Joystick and my new one.. I have NonLinearity set to 0 for yaw and roll and 1.5 for pitch.  Works extremely well for me.  Your guy who crashes on the runway was probably pulling on the stick and it did not lift off right way because of that delay so then he pulled back harder and voila... crash! 

That guy was me. But anyways, thanks. I'll see how that works!

 

12 hours ago, DerGrafVonZahl said:

 

It's more than just a "lag" it's actually a smoothening function over your input. Smoothing always creates a delay, but that's the side effect not the main goal of such a function.

 

This is an example of such a function (standard moving average):

 

you can clearly see that it takes the arithmetic mean of your last K inputs instead of the input you are actually doint. This makes movement smoother (hence smoothing function) this is useful for a variety of fields, but in WT it makes aiming easier as the plane will feel more stable, it comes at the cost of a lag, wich is a result of taking acount previous inputs so the mean of your last 10 inputs even if you just now put in full deflection will only get you 10% deflection. There are weighted smoothing functions like a weighted moving averages or exponential smoothing wich will result in less lag and even better results.

 

For small adjustments this is quite helpful but it comes at the cost of being less responsive. 

 

Just adjusting your nonlinearity won't have any effect on the smootheness. As nonlinearity just trades control input accuracy on the high end of the values to the middle and vice versa... of course a wider range to use around the centre of the stick will help in similar situations as sensitivity does but it achieves this by an entirely different way. This gives the illusion of being able to correct one with the other but technically thaqt isn't the case. As smoothing is something comßpletely different to linearity if you see both as mathematical functions (wich they are).

 

So i wouldn't really advice on 100% sensitivity and correcting this by nonlinearity. Both are trade-offs, both trade completely different things.

Nonlinearity trades center precision with precision on the high values of the stick,

Sensitivity trades reaction time to smoothin out irratic hand movement.

 

if you hand move irratic and you are bad ad consistent and smoot hand movements, it's better to lower the sensitivity than to increase nonlinearity, as higher nonlinearity will just reduce the effect of that irratic movement around zero but will increase the effects on hard manuvers. While sensitivity will smooth your movement itself instead of just increasing the effect your movement has. So sensitivtiy will work on the full spectrum of controls to the cost of reaction time (i have sensitivity at around 80-85% as you will not really notice the dealay but still get some nice smoothing).

 

On the otherhand, if you have really smooth and flowing handmovements but feel like the stick doesn't have enough range around the zero, nonlinearity is the one you want to change.

I got Nonlinearity at about 1.6 on all controls except throttle mainly for the purpose of flying in formation where tiny corrections are important.

 

 

Wow thats nice to know. But I feel like my main problem now isn't the sensitive controls. I seem to stall a lot, and I haven't been able to make sharp turn without pitching straight up or entering a death spin. Any feedback?

[*ChameleonLord 2,390]

29 minutes ago, Foureyesamurai said:

That guy was me. But anyways, thanks. I'll see how that works!

 

Wow thats nice to know. But I feel like my main problem now isn't the sensitive controls. I seem to stall a lot, and I haven't been able to make sharp turn without pitching straight up or entering a death spin. Any feedback?

Your plane starts to vibrate when you are losing lift and are in need of air speed.  Pull out of your turn and gain speed.  Also taking off for most aircraft you need to be 200+ KPH.  Others that you do not need 200+ KPH will take off on their own. 

[Foureyesamurai 40]

3 hours ago, *ChameleonLord said:

Your plane starts to vibrate when you are losing lift and are in need of air speed.  Pull out of your turn and gain speed.  Also taking off for most aircraft you need to be 200+ KPH.  Others that you do not need 200+ KPH will take off on their own. 

HOLY CRAP! That sensitivity to 100 percent helped a lot. I even got 3 kills in EC. Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it.

[*ChameleonLord 2,390]

52 minutes ago, Foureyesamurai said:

HOLY CRAP! That sensitivity to 100 percent helped a lot. I even got 3 kills in EC. Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it.

I believe it!  It made the world of difference to about 5 other guys I fly with.  It greatly improved my game.  The planes do what I want when I want when before I seemed to fight them all the time. 

[TheElite96 5,804]

As much as the help is greatly appreciated, let's try to stay on the topic of this thread. Thanks

[sirkiwi123 80]

This looks like a dusty thread that can be reused,

 

First of all I use the Thrustmaster T flight HOTAS X, not too bad, it does the job.

 

I'm mostly struggling with being able to keep an eye on the enemy, as in viewing. Has anyone got any tips?

[Twisted 3,112]

your best bet is really a Head tracking solution. On the surface of it it seems really complicated, in reality its extremely simple.

 

Its just 3 lights on a hat or a clip, any old web cam with a light filter over it to block out all light except the three lights, and a free software to track those 3 lights and translate into war thunder cockpit view. 

 

It will take about 2 hours if you do it yourself and cost about $5-10 . .depending on how cool a hat you buy.

 

This was my simple homemade recipe and would you believe, I am still using the same rig in 2019. This is one of those really cool things on the internet that is really free and really blows right past your expectations.

 

 

 

[sirkiwi123 80]

Sweet I'll check it out

[bearchills 427]

Are those guides and tutorials still relevant?

 I don’t typically give a lot of credence to years old topics in this forum, because so many things change so often in this game.

[MrBader 516]

3 minutes ago, bearchills said:

Are those guides and tutorials still relevant?

 I don’t typically give a lot of credence to years old topics in this forum, because so many things change so often in this game.

Hi,

Most of it is valid.....just throw out anything the lizard king said. Check your other post.

[TheElite96 5,804]

On 20/02/2019 at 08:21, bearchills said:

Are those guides and tutorials still relevant?

 I don’t typically give a lot of credence to years old topics in this forum, because so many things change so often in this game.

If anything's completely inaccurate we can update it. As of right now, as MrBader said, it's mostly up to date.

[финский 1,703]

I have a problem with my joystick, in windows calibration its all centred but in war thunder my left aileron is fully up...

solved: somewhy the game keeps putting on the aileron trim to maximum in positive region, and you have to use relative aileron trim control to set it to 0 since resetting trim wont work.

Edited June 29, 2022 by Capt_JamesTKirk

[Miraz05 241]

How to use vjoy for joystick control?

[immortal_pinata 3]

Pretty much a beginner.. but I'm old...

 

Want to use joystick for flying during GROUND AB, and keyboard/mouse for tanks

 

Bought a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and can't seem to figure out how to set it up correctly.  I either have the joystick for everything, or keyboard/mouse for everything, but can't seem to get it set up for joystick for flying, and keyboard/mouse for tanks.  And don't want to have to go to controls and switch it over while in a game.

 

Help please..

[Druerie 0]

not bad