A look at some of the issues involved in trying to set up HOTAS controllers with MiG Alley and why it's not quite as straightforward as hoped.
Some background
If you're struggling to setup MiG Alley under Windows 10, I'd suggest taking a look at my MiG Alley setup guide. The discussion will be covering virtual HOTAS controllers and profiling software and if you need a quick introduction, I'd suggest taking a look at my Controllers and retro sims part 2: Virtual controllers guide.
The good
MiG Alley has pretty good native/physical device controller support in the Preferences Controls menu. The important thing is to enable each device from the Input Devices drop down and then select the input device and axis for each flight control in the centre section. Job done!
The bad
However, the default button bindings leave a lot to be desired. I guess the MiG Alley dev's never envisioned there being so many buttons on present day controllers. Normally the controller profiling software would be fired up and the axes and buttons defined.
In my case I would fire up the Thrustmaster TARGET app, and define the axes as shown. In this example we can see the slider axis has been disabled in the profile. This means when the profile is run, the virtual controller should have no idea this axis exists, and it doesn't.
However the MiG Alley dev's either did something very weird or very very clever, as MiG Alley is still able to find this axis and allows it to be assigned, as the screenshot shows. If you try and fly a mission, the flight window initializes, the flight begins, immediately freezes and a second later crashes back to the desktop. The crash log shows an access violation which isn't surprising. Even if you leave the axes unchanged so they match the physical controllers, it still crashes.
I suspect (but can't confirm) that MiG Alley will crash if you try and use any profiling software that creates a virtual controller, like Logitech/Saitek SST Profile Editor or Joystick Gremlin. If anyone has tried these I'd be interested in hearing the results?
And the ugly
Well maybe not ugly, but not a single solution. We need a solution that doesn't create a virtual controller and we have a couple of options.
BDG Keyboard Manager
The Battle of Britain/MiG Alley Development Group (BDG) created the BDG Keyboard Manager which allows you to reassign keys and device buttons. But there is a limitation, it will only scan the first device it finds. If your HOTAS is a single device then it's an option.
So a big thank you to VOGON member akula65 for including a link in this message! You just have to unzip the file into the MiG Alley KEYBOARD folder.
However, if you use something like a Warthog HOTAS which is two separate devices then this won't work but there are alternatives.
JoyToKey
Well not just JoyToKey but any profiling app that lets you assign keys to buttons on multiple devices. Some quick JoyToKey testing shows I can map high numbered buttons on the throttle and override the default commands on the Joystick. There's a limit of 32 buttons per device, but I don't consider this an issue.
Recommendations
Use the MiG Alley Preferences Controls menu to setup the HOTAS controller axes.
When it comes to HOTAS controller buttons, leave your virtual controller at home, it won't help you in the 1950's skies over Korea!
Instead try the BDG Keyboard Manager, if you only have a single physical HOTAS device, or if you prefer...
Use profiling software that doesn't create virtual controllers like JoyToKey.
Good hunting!
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