Thanks! I've played a couple of hours of Assault Horizon, and maybe 8 hours of AC6.
Here is my journey with the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick and Ace Combat 7. I remembered reading a Reddit post about getting the game to work with Logitech sticks, and applied the info in that thread to my stick. And omgoodness it worked! Well, mostly. While everything works out of the box in the menus, it took a little more to get the hat switch to work to change views during flight. More on that later.
https://www.reddit.com/r/acecombat/comments/bty5xn/logitechsaitek_sticks_and_hotas_now_supported_on/I started the game with my joystick plugged in but none of the controls did anything. I exited the game, and when I went to the input.in file at C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment\ACE COMBAT 7\Config, I saw this:
[Joystick-001B045E-0000-0000-0000-504944564944]
ProductName=SideWinder Force Feedback 2 Joystick
Flight_Gun=
Flight_Missile=
.
.
.
So the game was at least acknowledging the joystick, and it appeared that I just needed to add values for each parameter. I made a backup of the existing input.ini, then I pasted the values from the reddit post over the existing values in input.ini. It worked right out of the box, but I adjusted a few values to match my play style. Those are pasted here.
Flight_Gun=Button1
Flight_Missile=Button2
Flight_Weapon=Button6
Flight_Target=Button3
Flight_Radar=Button5
Flight_Flare=Button4
Flight_View=Button8
Flight_AccelerationDeceleration=
Flight_AutoPilot=Button7
Flight_Pause=
Flight_HatSwitchUp=
Flight_HatSwitchDown=
Flight_HatSwitchLeft=
Flight_HatSwitchRight=
Flight_Pitch=Y:R
Flight_Roll=X
Flight_Yaw=Rz
Flight_Throttle=Slider1
Flight_CameraPitch=POV_U1 + POV_D1:R
Flight_CameraYaw=POV_R1 + POV_L1:R
UI_B=Button2
UI_A=Button1
UI_X=Button3
UI_Y=Button4
UI_LB=
UI_RB=
UI_LT=
UI_RT=
UI_LeftStickPress=Button5
UI_RightStickPress=Button6
UI_DPadUp=POV_U1
UI_DPadDown=POV_D1
UI_DPadLeft=POV_L1
UI_DPadRight=POV_R1
UI_LeftStickUp=Y:N
UI_LeftStickDown=Y:P
UI_LeftStickLeft=X:N
UI_LeftStickRight=X:P
UI_RightStickUp=
UI_RightStickDown=
UI_RightStickLeft=
UI_RightStickRight=
UI_Menu=Button7
I don't know what "Flight_AccelerationDeceleration" is. I can do high-G turns by sliding the throttle down as i turn, but maybe there is some other ability I have not discovered yet (I've only played three missions so far). If so i can rebind Button7 to it since I rarely use autopilot anyway.
Edit: I found instruction for the POV hat here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/502500/discussions/0/1638661595064594449/ .
"You can binding cameraPitch and Yaw to Hat switch this way
Flight_CameraPitch=POV_U1 + POV_D1:R
Flight_CameraYaw=POV_R1 + POV_L1:R
but it works only absolute, so you will look full up, full down, full left and right what mean back.
I recommend make empty this lines,
Flight_HatSwitchUp=
Flight_HatSwitchDown=
Flight_HatSwitchLeft=
Flight_HatSwitchRight=
or you will in multiplayer send message every time you press the HAT switch."
I made these changes and updated the above. It's not quite the same action as if you are using a controller, but it is better than nothing. And the thread gives instruction to make it even more like using a controller, utilizing vJoy and FreePIE and a script. I may or may not try this. As little as I look around it probably is fine for me.