Binding a VKB Gladiator NXT to ED

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I have two EVO Premiums, normal for the right and Omni Throttle for the left hand.

The Premium grip comes with the center push assigned to swapping the mode of the analog stick by default. You can change the default mode in the software - I think POV mode is the default, and you can also disable the mode switching if desired. The benefit of mode switching is that you can actually bind four click actions plus two analog axis to that mini stick, but using the center click of the mini stick can get very fiddly in the heat of the moment. I never used the analog mode of my mini sticks and set their mode to POV and used them as regular POVs until the mini stick on my left VKB started bouncing signals in POV mode; then I swapped the ministick for the regular POV module on both my VKBs.

The tactile feedback of the POV module is much better than the mini stick's, and I am much less likely to misclick a direction. You also gain a more reliable center click. If you don't need or use the mini stick mode, I would swap it out.

If you need some reference material for binding, here is an older version of my bindings. I have changed some stuff since, but you will get the logical distribution of functions I used. YMMV though.

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

I’ve just replaced all my ageing CH Products gear with a VKB Gladiator NXT EVO Space Combat Premium and GNX WWII Throttle plus SEM-V (along with recently bought Turtle Beach VelocityOne Rudder Pedals). It’s working out very well for me, but there is muscle memory to be relearned (and a lot of programming in the clunky VKB software ).

The mini-stick on the Gladiator stick is set to translational thrusters (the new throttle doesn’t have one), and I absolutely need a mini-stick for my thrusters.

 

[Lhorndra]

I have a question about the image. Does the circle above represent the push function of the hat? if that is the case, how do you make sure that you stay in 4 way mode when the click is made? It looks to me like all of the functions are mapped to the 4-way mode, so I am trying to understand how to keep from switching to analog stick mode.

View attachment 360884

You can reprogram everything on this joystick. Maybe the creator of said image just deactivated the "switch hat mode" function and made it into a regular button.

For example, I have configured my A1 hat so that when I short press it, it does "select target ahead" and when I long press it, it changes between 4-way mode and analog stick mode (See image attached: short press = "Joy_30" in ED, long press = switch POV).

You can also put a third function on any button by using double klick. If, for some reason, all the buttons of the EVO aren't enough for you.

 

[Retropolitan]

I have a question about the image. Does the circle above represent the push function of the hat? if that is the case, how do you make sure that you stay in 4 way mode when the click is made? It looks to me like all of the functions are mapped to the 4-way mode, so I am trying to understand how to keep from switching to analog stick mode.

View attachment 360884

I had to hop into the way-back machine for this one, but the answer is that I swapped out the thumbstick on my right-hand stick for the simpler 4-way hat. I just didn't like the feel of the thumbstick for those actions.

 

[Lune]

I’ve just replaced all my ageing CH Products gear with a VKB Gladiator NXT EVO Space Combat Premium and GNX WWII Throttle plus SEM-V (along with recently bought Turtle Beach VelocityOne Rudder Pedals). It’s working out very well for me, but there is muscle memory to be relearned (and a lot of programming in the clunky VKB software ).

The mini-stick on the Gladiator stick is set to translational thrusters (the new throttle doesn’t have one), and I absolutely need a mini-stick for my thrusters.

I just got the same set up VKB Gladiator NXT Evo and SEM but for some reason Elite dangerous only reads the lever on the SEM that i changed to be the throttle. all the other SEM buttons are not recognized by Elite dangerous. do you get the same thing?

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

I just got the same set up VKB Gladiator NXT Evo and SEM but for some reason Elite dangerous only reads the lever on the SEM that i changed to be the throttle. all the other SEM buttons are not recognized by Elite dangerous. do you get the same thing?

Sorry Lune, I’ve only just logged back into the forum and seen your post after a few weeks hiatus. It sounds like what you’re describing here is Elite’s archaic 32-button limit per controller. I had that problem too as the GNX WWII Throttle combo is two SEMs with a combined total of 38 buttons. Therefore, out of the box, six of those buttons are unbindable in Elite. You need to create two virtual controllers out of the single controller. That’s what I did.

Watch this VKB-made video step by step as you replicate the actions from the video in the VKB software (note the video shows how to create up to four virtual controllers per device - with the WWII Throttle you only need follow the video as far as creating two).

Source: https://youtu.be/7aIyv4QvugE?si=TZBLUMesqhzy4iRK

With this video, be prepared to play-pause-play-pause a lot (unless you’re very adept with this kind of software - it‘s unfortunately not intuitive at all). Note that VKB’s additional info attached to the video sidebar specifically refers to Elite Dangerous as an example of why the process is needed for some of their gear: the 32-button limit.

Don‘t forget to save the device profile once you’ve finished.

If this all sounds like a right royal pain in the backside, the good news is once you‘ve done it and saved the profile, you’re set - it works great and you don’t need to faff with it again.

 

[Dilligaf666]

This is the answer - I have the VKB NXT stick and VKB STECS standard throttle - I had to set the throttle up as 2 virtual devices with 32 buttons each - was pretty easy to do in the end - this is what it looks like in VKB Device Config

 

[Riverside]

This is the answer - I have the VKB NXT stick and VKB STECS standard throttle - I had to set the throttle up as 2 virtual devices with 32 buttons each - was pretty easy to do in the end - this is what it looks like in VKB Device Config

View attachment 373414

That's what I did with mine, shows up as two devices in the windows control panel.

 

[B0SSD0G]

Did that, and it caused me to reset my STECs / fear I had bricked my throttle .... be warned

 

[Riverside]

Did that, and it caused me to reset my STECs / fear I had bricked my throttle .... be warned

So you tried it, it didn't work & you learned that resetting back to default made the device work again

To be fair the image Dilligaf shared doesn't include the last step (click 'set' on the action tab to save the new profile) but I only did that once I'd confirmed it worked & for you it didn't.

I did this on my Gladiator controller, not a STECs (I have a Thrustmaster TWCS throttle). Have you tried looking on the VKB forum to see if there is a different solution for your specific hardware?

Button Limitation Fix - VKB-SIM

forum.vkb-sim.pro

Now that you know you can 'just' reset it to undo any changes you make that don't do what you expected you can experiment a bit with that safety net of being able to reset it if something doesn't work. Only things I can suggest are to try setting VC to 2 (if the device has more than 64 buttons), and to try restarting the device (in the action tab) so that VKBDevConfig can redetect the new virtual controllers. you might need to click 'set' before the reboot to make the changes stick.

Glad you didn't brick the hardware, that would have sucked & I can empathise with your concern.

 

[Darth Ender]

two omni's is pretty awesome feeling. coming from 8 years of x52. i like setting bindings up as i go... it makes for a simpler setup that tends to have you pick intuitive buttons and less chance that you forget what was set vs setting them all up at the start. i appreciated the fully setup x52 profile, but given the mirrored nature of lh and rh sticks, preset profiles will have trouble making a button choice that feels intuitive because it's a toss up on which stick to pick.

there are potential steps needed for Linux proton configuration that requires a minor trip to regedit to un-xinput the devices so they don't show up as gamepads... and you may need an actual windows machine to set one or both to default settings so you can calibrate and initialize it using the official tool. but after that it's all good.

for the price.. the hardware is pretty awesome and I'd consider vkb to be an upgrade from logitech (any) ...

 

[Walter2]

This is the answer - I have the VKB NXT stick and VKB STECS standard throttle - I had to set the throttle up as 2 virtual devices with 32 buttons each - was pretty easy to do in the end - this is what it looks like in VKB Device Config

View attachment 373414

Once you've done that, do you set up the bindings using the VKB software or set them up inside the game?