Joystick Map

If you prefer a video, then please visit our Youtube channel to see how to configure your joystick.

In this section, we cover how to map commands in the game to the buttons, hats and axes of your joystick, throttle, rudder pedals, mouse and other controllers. By default, the game maps basic functions such as primary and secondary fire to the first and second buttons on your joystick. You may want to change or add more.

To open this screen, select Options from the clipboard, in the tower or in flight, then Controls, then Map Controllers. You can set buttons while you fly. From the main clipboard menu (before you enter an arena) select Controls, then Map Controllers.

Choosing the controller and mode

• The controller drop-down at the top right - Pick the controller you want to map. Every controller the game found is listed. Disabled controllers are shown in gray.
• Disable Controller - The game ignores the selected controller. This is saved right away, even if you press Cancel. It is useful together with Default Map: a disabled controller keeps its own settings when you press Default Map.
• Mode Selection - Pick the controller mode you want to map. Each mode is a complete map of all your controllers, so the same button can do different things in different modes:
  • Mode 1 (Planes & Default)
  • Mode 2 (Vehicles & Gunners)
  • Mode 3 (Field & Ship Gunner)
  • Mode 4 (Bombardier & Chute)
  When you select a mode that has nothing mapped yet, the game fills it with a copy of Mode 1.
• Auto select mode. - The game switches modes for you: Mode 1 when you fly a plane, Mode 2 in a vehicle, boat or gunner position, Mode 3 on field and ship guns, and Mode 4 in the bomb sight view and in a parachute. When you check it, any mode that has nothing mapped is filled with a copy of Mode 1. When you uncheck it, the game goes back to Mode 1.
• Hide Msg. - Stops the "Control Mode ... Selected" message from showing when the mode changes.

You can also change modes yourself with the Mode 1 Select to Mode 4 Select commands in the Global group. These commands are not mapped by default, so you must map them to a keyboard key (see Key Map), a joystick button, or both.

The input list

The list shows every input of the selected controller. The Controller Input column names the axis, button or hat direction. Axes show their current value in brackets, which changes as you move the axis. The Mode # Function column shows what that input does in the selected mode, or NOT ASSIGNED.

When you press a button or move a hat, its line in the list lights up green, so you can see which input is which. If you double click a button on your controller (press it twice quickly), the game selects that controller and that input in the list and opens the function window for it.

Mapping an input

1. Select the input in the list (or double click the button on your controller).
2. Click Modify, or double click the line in the list.
3. The Select AH Function window opens. At the top it shows the controller, the input and the mode you are changing.
4. Pick a command group on the left. Axes can only use the Analog group. Buttons and hats use the Global, View, Flight, Gunner, Chute and Vehicle groups.
5. Pick the command in the list and click OK (or double click the command). Pick (none) to remove the mapping. Cancel closes the window without a change.

Buttons

• Default Map - Sets all your controllers (except disabled ones) back to the game's default map, in all modes.
• Copy Mode 1 - Copies the Mode 1 map of your controllers into the selected mode. Use this to quickly start your other modes. It is grayed out when Mode 1 is selected.
• Calibrate Axis - Calibrates only the axis selected in the list. It is grayed out when a button is selected. To calibrate all axes, use Calibrate Joystick in the Controls menu.
• Advanced - Opens the advanced axis panel next to this screen, where you can invert an axis and set its scaling, dead band and damping (and the mouse sensitivity when the mouse is selected). These settings are for the axis selected in the list and the selected mode. See Detailed joystick settings.
• Modify - Changes the function of the selected input (see above).
• OK - Saves your controller settings and closes the screen.
• Cancel - Closes the screen and throws away the changes you made (except Disable Controller, which is already saved).