Elite Dangerous - Joystick control options vanished

Richie.A

R
I had been playing Elite in VR through Steam for several months. I then moved my PC and the whole VR set up out of the way while we had some building work done. I am now into my 5th attempt to get somewhere with playing again and I am at the end of my tether.
When I launch and go through the menus in VR there is no joystick option in the menu like there used to be.
In the Steam settings it tells me that it recognises there is a Thrustmaster 1600 attached, as does the PC.
I have tried launching after restarting, with the touch controllers unplugged to try and force a default to the joystick.
I am not a computer whizz and I have seen people discussing deleting various game files etc but I really don’t know what I should delete and what to save.
At the moment I have £200 worth of game and controller that I can’t play, please please help...anybody?
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
You've probably plugged your joystick into a different USB socket and, as a result, the game sees it as a "new" device, unfortunately.
You could try plugging your joystick back into the slot it used to be in but I dunno if that will bring your controls back.

Said it before but I've got a HOTAS and a USB keypad with all my ED controls on it and I know them all off by heart so I thought it'd be fairly simple to redo the controls if required.
Alas, I'd forgotten about the camera controls, the ship IU controls, the menu controls, the map controls and all the various toggles, sliders and dead-zones which make it a nightmare to redo your controls.

Given how "fragile" keybinds are - how easy it is to lose them during an update or when you change hardware - you'd think FDev might look at adding some kind of "save settings/keybinds" option to the launcher.
 

Richie.A

R
Trouble is it doesn’t recognise them at all. Despite them showing as active controllers the game refuses to give me a joystick option. I don’t mind rebidding the keys but they don’t work at all.
 

VR Jay Le Chardon

VR Jay Le Chardon
Try backing up your binds file fore mucking about, then try the default joystick binding, if it acknowleges your axis thats a start, if it doesnt try binding your asis and a couple of buttons, if the configuration screen is recognising inputs from your controller, you'll jsut need to redo your bindings. If it isn't we need to delve deeper, start menu, type usb gam, then select "set up usb game controllers" from best results:

1580000005328.png

Select your joystick if its shown, select properties or double click its name in the list...
1580000143029.png

Test the Axis and buttons - note how its half up to the top right corner and z rotation os not centred like y rotation, and button 3 is "illuminaed" - thats the control panel displaying my inputs as I moved the stick and pressed a button while taking this screenshot.

If the stick works in windows but not in game, raise it with support, if they don't work in game then obviously it won't work with the game as its a problem with your joystick / hardware and most likely beyond the purview of Frontier Support - hope you get it sorted buddy, whatever is causing it.
 

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Globusdiablo

Globusdiablo
Richie.A said:
I had been playing Elite in VR through Steam for several months. I then moved my PC and the whole VR set up out of the way while we had some building work done. I am now into my 5th attempt to get somewhere with playing again and I am at the end of my tether.
When I launch and go through the menus in VR there is no joystick option in the menu like there used to be.
In the Steam settings it tells me that it recognises there is a Thrustmaster 1600 attached, as does the PC.
I have tried launching after restarting, with the touch controllers unplugged to try and force a default to the joystick.
I am not a computer whizz and I have seen people discussing deleting various game files etc but I really don’t know what I should delete and what to save.
At the moment I have £200 worth of game and controller that I can’t play, please please help...anybody?
Click to expand...
It sounds like classic FD custard truck. If you don't have every periferal present, and probably in the exact inputs, from when you created your custom bindings, then E: D will dump your entire custom settings.
You can find them here (copy/paste in your windows search):

%localappdata%\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings

You will most likely see a newly created (or probably multiple) error documents and corrupted binding files. The good news is that if you attach every periferal from back when and then simply remove the error prefix from the corrupted binding file, then your custom bindings should be returned to you.

Casual players and non tech heads alike have been complaining about this mess for years, but hey ho.

If you want to read up on different points of view and how I/we found the solution, then check out this thread:

Keybindings (maybe make them stick?)

It's been said a million times before, so one more time can't hurt. With a game this dependent on custom keybindings, how come Elite: Dangerous never forgets my custom display settings, but always forgets my custom keybindings. Same old Hotas (Thrustmaster X), same old PC, same old usb port...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk

Good luck Commander.
 

Richie.A

R
Thank you commanders we are half way there.

I have tested in windows and both joystick and throttle are fine.

I have removed a file called BindingLoading Errors. There were then 3 separate binding files but none showing errors and none that seem to work to return my bound controls.

Now when I launch Elite I do at least get the generic joystick option which is a bit of a step forward.
However I can’t get the T-1600 to show as an option.
I have looked in Big Steam and although the HOTAS is listed there are no bindings listed.

Am I going to have to go through it as a generic joystick and rewind all the controls? I can’t for the life of me remember if previously it had recognised the T-1600 in the menu and given me the option of selecting it?!
 

whothe

W
T16000 Hotas?
Use the Target software. You should be able to see your sticks and test axis etc in the software, run the profile and you should see it recognize your devices, there is a test button once it is running.
Like previous posts stated, if you unplug your hotas and do not plug the stick/throttle back into the same USB ports ED will not 'see' them, your binds file will disappear from the options menu list. Not erased, just not showing up in the menu. However plugging the hotas back into the correct ports, it should reappear. I just used some tape and labeled mine. top left, top right, whatever. Just never ever ever ever ever move them...

You shouldn't need to select the T16000 generic binds in the controls menu. It's just a generic set of binds, which you'll most likely be changing anyways. As long as the target software is running and you can see your sticks working in the T software you should be ok.
Rather than re-naming your binds file, make a desktop shortcut to the ED bindings folder. C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous\Options\Bindings After finding the custom.3.0.binds file, copy it and save it somewhere as a backup. You shouldn't have to select a binds file in the options menu this way, it will always be custom.3.0.binds. Unless you want multiple bind setups ofc.

The Target software must be started after ED is launched, or it wont respond. I usually started it once I hit the main menu screen. If you exit to desktop and re-start ED you must also re-start Target.

I had a problem with ED not separating some buttons between the stick and throttle, solution was to map the buttons to keyboard in the target software. IIRC windows only recognizes 32 buttons, or was it ED? anyhow if you come across this, map some buttons to keyboard.

Don't get frustrated, unfortunately its a bit of a learning curve, once I figured it out though the HOTAS Target software is actually pretty easy to use.
 

Richie.A

R
Thanks for everyone’s responses. Using a mixture of suggestions I have had to delete the error file from the key bindings folder in Elite.
There were 3 other bindings files but going through them none were working so I removed them and added back one by one but still no keyboard option.
So I deleted them all and some success as gave me a generic joystick option but nothing else.
I then deleted TARGET, the thrustmaster “helpful” software which I saw suggested elsewhere as a fix and it worked, I don’t need it as My set up is VR only and the HOTAS is just for that. Now having gone into the game I have the T-1600 listed as a selectable option again.......phew!
I know I have to do the key bindings again but having spent dozens of hours trying to fix this, rewinding the keys is a walk in the park.
 

Richie.A

R
Oh and I did find an old photo of my previous set up and the devices were plugged into the same USB so I was able to eliminate that quirk as the answer/problem.
 
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