Windows has my joystick as the preferred device. But this game used some bogus values in the control configuration. For example, Aileron is set to X-Axis. Well, that looks fine, except that it's not working with my joystick. When I configure Aileron myself, my joystick's X-Axis reads "X-Axis ID2". I don't understand why this is all wrong. I have to rebind everything, and some things are showing as ID5. I haven't gotten very far, but this doesn't seem right.

Go to the HOTA controls in game and set your stick. It's not automatic..

To get to the HOTA setup go to CONTROL in first window where the QMB and FMB options are at.
Then scroll down.

Hope this helps.

~S~

yeah, i said i did that.

Well, the first question is: What joystick are you using?

It's nothing special. Just a SideWinder Precision Pro USB. It's nothing special. Just a SideWinder Precision Pro USB.

Hmm. A situation such as you described can occur with an HOTAS sytem that has seperate parts, that are recognized seperately by windows. However, it's, as you say, a sidewinder (That's a legendary stick by the way).

Do you have other gaming devices attached?
What is showing up in the "Set up USB game controllers" panel in the configuration screen of Windows?

(Also, does it prevent you from playing hte game proper? Sometimes it's just better to wing it and don't delve deeper in this strange world).

I also have a gamepad. The joystick shows as "Microsoft Precision Pro USB" in Windows, and I have it set as the primary game controller. And I can still play the game, but I recently had to do some maintenance on the joystick and when I plugged it back in, the game was recognizing the joystick inputs as different devices. Instead of the POV hat being ID5, it's now ID13. I had to rebind everything again. So I think it's an issue that needs a solution and an explanation as to why the joystick inputs are being recognized as ID1, ID2, ID3, ID4, ID5, ID13, when the game's default bindings are all for Joystick 0.

Yeah, it does that.

The thing, unfortunately, lies in how Windows sets up joystick IDs when multiple devices are connected. I have found that settings and joystick IDs stay consistent if you consistently plug in the joystick in the same USB port, or when you deplug any other device and just keep the joystick. At that point, your joystick automatically becomes ID0.

Alternatively, you can go to the "Setup USB game controllers" screen in the windows configuration panel, go to "Advanced", and set the joystick as your preffered device, which should also ensures that it stays ID0.

Personally, I found connecting my X360 gamepad to a front usb panel and deplugging it whenever I don't need it to be the least hassle. For some reason, any device that uses the "Xinput" system (such as found on X360 gamepads) automaticcally becomes the preffered device over any device that uses the "DirectInput" system (such as the Sidewinder and just about any device that is not a gamepad).

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However, I simply can not explain why the same joystick would list itself as different devices - the only system I know that does that is the Logitech G940, which consists of three parts anyway. I am afraid that might just be a quirk of either the sidewinder lineup or your particular model.
You can try using a software solution by using a program like PPjoy.