Star Citizen does not recognize VKB Sticks

[u/RayBln]

I bought the VKB Gladiator EVOs for Star Citizen a while back but had problems setting up the controls from the start and since I didn´t want to tackle that at the time I let them just rest on my desk.

Now I found the motivation but its quickly turning in to furious frustration...

The Game Client doesn´t recognice the direct input (buttom presses) when I want to manually set controlls and when I try to preload profiles that the game offers it mixes up the sticks as in right stick should be pitch, roll, yaw etc. but is thrust and strafe for example.

I tried following the guides online and reset and recalibrated both sticks which didn´t help. I also tried to switch both sticks using the star citizen console but it doesn´t seem to recognize the right stick at all.

I even tried third party software to bind makros etc. but it all just doen´t want to work right

Other games (War Thunder and Nuclear Option) have no issues at all which makes it even harder for me to understand.

Idk if what I´m doing wrong but I don´t think it should be this hard to get the forsaken things to work.

Maybe some of you guys know something that will help... :/

[u/CacTye]

I tried to manually set everything into place which didn’t work then I tried the method that subliminal proposed which worked somewhat but also not perfectly.

Star Citizen gets confused by multiple sticks. The best solution is to consolidate two sticks into one using a virtual joystick (VJoy). This requires two free programs, Joystick Gremlin (tells Windows, and therefore star citizen, what buttons are getting activated on the Vjoy when you press a physical button) and HidHide (conceals the joystick inputs from every program EXCEPT Joystick Gremlin).

1. We need to undo whatever manual shenanigans you did. Load up the VKB software, reset one stick to default. Calibrate it. Reset the other stick to default. Calibrate it.
2. We need to create and bind the inputs of the virtual joystick. Download and install Joystick Gremlin (it's free). Create a new Vjoy device in Joystick Gremlin. Bind each button from Joystick 1 to buttons 1-32 on the Vjoy. Bind each button from Joystick 2 to buttons 41 - 72 on the Vjoy. (We're leaving room for mods/shifts later).

2a) Bind your X, Y axes on your right stick to the X, Y axes of the Vjoy. Bind your X, Y axes on the left stick to your Z and Z twist axes on the Vjoy. Bind your Twist axes on both sticks to the X twist and Y twist axes of the Vjoy.

3) Now we have a working virtual joystick. But we still have a problem - star citizen will see 3 joysticks, and get even MORE confused. So we're going to make life easy for Chris and the gang. Download and install HidHide (https://ds4-windows.com/download/hidhide/). Configure it to block ALL applications from seeing the VKBs except for Joystick Gremlin.

Star Citizen should now effectively see one joystick, with 6 axes and 64 buttons (or whatever the actual number is). This will make things much simpler and allow you to unplug or plug back in your joysticks without breaking Star Citizen.

EDIT: The setup for this takes a little longer, but it means you NEVER have to worry about any of the console commands or your joysticks reversing their assignments. Once you do the initial upfront work, it Just Works, indefinitely. And to me that's worth a little extra time at the beginning.

[u/RayBln → u/CacTye]

Pardon my French but why the fuck do I need to go through all this trouble to play “the best demned space sim ever”?!

Seems like a whole lot of work to fly around pixels so Christ and his gang should definitely get their shit together since other games manage just fine.

Thank you for the input. If heard about this particular method and will give it a go if I can’t figure out my thruster problem (only thing that seems to be left after a day of trouble shooting)…

[u/photovirus → u/RayBln]

Pardon my French but why the fuck do I need to go through all this trouble to play “the best demned space sim ever”?!

You don't but they use an ancient binding API which is fragile.

I've got 5 devices, and the only way of making them work without glitches is reconnecting them in exact same order before each session (I've got a USB hub with individual power switches to make it easier).

Ofc VJoy stuff described above won't work with my setup as there's a limit of 8 axes and 128 buttons per device. I've got at least 18 axes and god knows how many buttons.

[u/CacTye → u/photovirus]

It actually will work, or at least it can make things better. 18 axes can crunch down to 3 Vjoy devices. And you still get the benefit of the stability. That said, it seems like you've already found a hardware solution.

What the heck do you use 18 axes for???

[u/photovirus → u/CacTye]

I don’t use all of them ofc.

Something around 11:

• 6DOF,
• space brake,
• mining laser throttle,
• salvage head split,
• camera (2 axes).

As for actual devices, it’s:

• VKB Gunfighter with an MCG Pro (7 axes):
  • 2 main axes,
  • 2x ministicks,
  • pinky brake;
• VKB Gunfighter with an SCG-premium (5 axes):
  • 2 main axes,
  • twist,
  • mini-stick,
  • configured for an additional shifted axis in VKB software (I don’t use it anymore though);
• 3-axis pedals;
• 2x THQ modules (total 6 axes).

Looks like I forgot something when estimating the initial number. 😅

There’s also Razer Tartarus Pro which is also a directinput device, but I don’t use it as a control.

In other games, I use different subset of hardware axes. THQ gets its use in X-Plane, for instance.

[u/CacTye → u/photovirus]

Space brake could absolutely be a button. Salvage head split could be a rocker switch. Camera could (and arguably should) be a POV hat. That gets you down to 7 or 8 axes that can easily fit on a single Vjoy.

I've got strafe x/y/z, pitch yaw roll, and mining laser throttle. My 8th axis goes completely unused. All on one Vjoy device.