[GODzilla]

I recently switched my aged (and a bit beat-up) Logitech Wingman Extreme 3D Pro for a Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X. It's really a nice stick, but there's one downside: It has 5 axes but the game supports only 4 (x, y, z and acceleration).

To make it short: Is it somehow possible - ini-trick, tool, programm - to set an axis up as two buttons (for min & max of the axis)?

[Dragon]

There are numerous programs for that, and Thrustmaster should come with it's own configuration utility (that's the "realistic" Thrustmaster we're talking about, right?).

[GODzilla]

No, it's the cheap one.

This one: http://www.thrustmaster.com/en_UK/products/tflight-hotas-x

I already downloaded the driver, but there's no configuration utility like with the logitech joystick.

[Dragon]

Try GlovePie then. I never used it (I've got a CH Control Manager, which comes with CH Products sticks), but other people frequently recommended it.

[GODzilla]

I tried it, but it does not seem to be able to detect input from the joystick. I also uninstalled the Thrustmaster driver to make sure it is just working through the default Windows driver, but it doesn't work.

Input from my mouse and keyboard is registered just fine, but not from the joystick. Strange. Well, I'm gonna try again tomorrow.

[Mongoose]

I know PPJoy is another program that's often recommended for joystick configs, though I don't know myself if it can do what you need.

[GODzilla]

Well, it seems PPJoy is outdated, at least I cannot find a valid download, not even on the website of the developer.

I already asked in the GlovePIE-forum for a possible cause and solution for no input detection from my joystick. No answer yet. There is still the option of getting Xpadder, but it is not free unfortunately. Looks to be a very decent software though, so I might get it. ^^

[GODzilla]

I bought Xpadder, since there was no answer in the GlovePIE forum for two days and I only have the weekend for testing. ^^

Works like a charm! Finally I can put that 5th axis to use. Would've been a shame to simply leave it useless, especially since it's so nicely placed. I have my fingers right on it when I grab the throttle-handle.

[Klaustrophobia]

i've got two rotary axes going unused.  can't think of what might go well with them, button or axis control.  i tried using one for relative throttle axis, but i've still been unable to figure out what that is supposed to do.

[jr2]

PPJoy was supposed to be open-sourced; it looks like it was then re-named to V-Joy?

Looks like he stopped developing it, I'd say partly due to M$'s $500 per year 'driver-signing' dealio they've got going on.  (To get signed drivers for Vista / 7)
http://www.verisign.com/code-signing/content-signing-certificates/microsoft-authenticode/index.html

http://ppjoy.blogspot.com/

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vjoystick/

[GODzilla]

i've got two rotary axes going unused.  can't think of what might go well with them, button or axis control.  i tried using one for relative throttle axis, but i've still been unable to figure out what that is supposed to do.

The direct throttle control sets the speed in real-time so to speak. You push the axis forward and the engine reacts imediately. With relativ throttle it reacts with delay. Just test it ingame and you'll see how it works. ^^

[Klaustrophobia]

i tried it several times in-game both in retail and FSO, and didn't notice it do anything at all.  same goes for thrust <direction>.  i was told those apply to the mara, but never got them to work.

[Mongoose]

i've got two rotary axes going unused.  can't think of what might go well with them, button or axis control.  i tried using one for relative throttle axis, but i've still been unable to figure out what that is supposed to do.

The direct throttle control sets the speed in real-time so to speak. You push the axis forward and the engine reacts imediately. With relativ throttle it reacts with delay. Just test it ingame and you'll see how it works. ^^

It's actually a bit different than that.  "Absolute" throttle is what you'd use for an axis that has defined top/bottom limits and stays wherever you leave it when you let go; most built-in throttle levers/sliders on joysticks would fall under this, and I'd assume most HOTAS setups would too.  "Relative" throttle is used for situations where you have either a return-to-center axis (like a whole joystick axis or thumbstick), or else something like a mouse wheel; it changes the speed relative to where the speed already is.  Which one you want to use really depends on what your control setup is.

And I'm not sure that the Terran Mara has sliding enabled in retail, even if the regular Shivan Mara does.

[GODzilla]

Oh I see, thanks for the clarification.