Newcomer / Intro [QoL] Naming Joysticks for easier identification

[cmdrgaratmant]

Hello All,

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to do this already:

Is it possible to assign a name or prefix to each input device you have? I'm using a joystick, a throttle, pedals, a mouse and a keyboard. When looking at button assignments, I'd like to be able to tell the difference between each device.

Ideally, there would be a screen in Elite's options that had a list of the different input devices, then you could rename them or add a prefix/suffix to them.

• Joystick would become "Main"
• Throttle would become "Throttle"
• Pedals would become "Pedals"
• Mouse is already identified as such
• And so is keyboard

That way, when I'm looking at button assignments, I'm looking at "Thrttl button 3" for example (instead of "joystick button 3" which could be any device)

I'm hoping that this would make assigning and remembering buttons easier and clearer too.

Is there any way to submit ideas to Frontier? I know the chances of getting specific changes implemented are pretty slim, but I'd like to try anyway.

 

[Chris Simon]

This has nothing to do with Elite, I'm afraid. It's the controller software (or simply Windows for Plug and play devices) that gives buttons names. The game only reads it.

 

[Shadowdancer]

This has nothing to do with Elite, I'm afraid. It's the controller software (or simply Windows for Plug and play devices) that gives buttons names. The game only reads it.

AHAHAHAHAHA sorry

Getting a proper device name from Windows takes a witch dance at moonlight around two or three deprecated APIs,¹ so what E:⁠D is doing to "identify" devices appears to be its own mapping from raw USB identifiers².

The suggestion really makes sense: let players name their devices themselves and show those or the "built-in" names in the bindings dialog and as part of input names.

————
¹ Did you know that Windows doesn't have a useful non-deprecated interface to use joysticks anymore?
² Vendor- and product IDs which are readily available for more widely used devices, but not for all.

 

[the100thmonkey]

This has nothing to do with Elite, I'm afraid. It's the controller software (or simply Windows for Plug and play devices) that gives buttons names. The game only reads it.

That's not strictly true - if you look at the devices as identified in joy.cpl, they use the USB device's name, i.e. T.16000M or Saitek X52 Pro. The client can access that information (it's not locked behind a UAC dialogue.)

OP, there is a suggestions forum here. For what it's worth, I agree that it would make sense to implement it - I have something like four USB HIDs that I use to interact with the game, and it can get confusing!

 

[Para Handy]

Of course the bindings file does list the actual joystick name but that doesn't help in identifying it in the options screen. I suppose it could be incorporated somehow.

 

[cmdrgaratmant]

That's not strictly true - if you look at the devices as identified in joy.cpl, they use the USB device's name, i.e. T.16000M or Saitek X52 Pro. The client can access that information (it's not locked behind a UAC dialogue.)

OP, there is a suggestions forum here. For what it's worth, I agree that it would make sense to implement it - I have something like four USB HIDs that I use to interact with the game, and it can get confusing!

Thank you! I'm glad I'm not totally wrong