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[OP] 127 views 1 replies Posted by Unknown 8 years ago Mar 29, 2:49 am forums.robertsspaceindustries.com
Having picked up SC over the holiday season I was instantly in love with the whole game thus far. So I also picked up a Saitek x55 HOTAS. This is going to hopefully help many others in their quest to get such things moving for themselves. Especially if they are brand new like me to both the game as well as owning a x55. I'm not going to get into the nitty-gritty of HOW to make your own stuff, I'm just going to walk you through getting into space.



First things first Cadet!

Get the up to date drivers AND software: Madcatz Download page

I personally installed the software only to have Win7 tell me my drivers were screwed. So ultimately I installed Software then Drivers but I'm willing to bet the order you install them in doesn't matter, just install them both. Sadly this does not currently come with profiles, hence this tutorial!



Second thing is a break;

if you're here chances are you have already installed SC, but in case you didn't better late then never. If you're like me and have no idea where to go for it: go here.



Third time to set up our profile:

Regardless where or how you get your x55 profile you need to activate it before it is actually being used.

Now when I first started I started with Xamindar's Profile. Then after finding his profile uncomfortable for me i started fiddling around with my own.

I like to have control over both my movement and targeting so my profile is mostly about them while making sure everything that we can is represented on the HOTAS. Now this profile is meant for flight only. I personally use a gamepad for the rest. That means ALL mouse keybinds have been removed to eliminate the possibilities for the mouse to affect combat. I have a high sensitivity mouse and sneezing caused me to go into a spin because I didn't realize the mouse had moved. In addition I spent the extra time to utilize the Mode switch to 'hide' certain functions that may not be as important ALL the time.
X55_True_V2_1.png
original GIMP file was thanks to Xamindar, but you can see SW1-SW6 change function depending on what mode is selected.

You can obtain my profile here: DropBox

Now once you've downloaded the file you need to move it. In Win7 the file path was: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Mad Catz\X-55 Rhino

At this point you have two ways of activating the profile;
A) open up the software -> Open the Profile -> click the activate button
Activate.png
This seems to work MOST of the time but I have ran into a few times that it doesn't actually activate the profile

B) Right click the icon on your taskbar -> Click the profile if it isn't already active (the greyed out profile is the one active)
Activatequick.png
Now obviously B is the suggested option but if you are going with option A this is the only way I've found thus far to find out if a profile is actually active

Please note: There are custom mappings that mimic keyboard keys and one that mimics a Mouse key. This means some of the keys can't be changed through SC. If you wish to modify the profile feel free, but I would suggest starting with the profile before moving to keybindings. If the push to talk key doesn't work for you open the program, go to "programming" and select the throttle, open SC_True_V2_1.pr0 and edit the "E" key on the throttle to whatever you use by clicking inside the large red circle. (You just need to hit the key you do use then click the check mark. If you use a different mouse button you'll need to use the mouse toggle to pick up the mouse key press)


Okay Commander one last thing before you enter the arena!
We need to change the keybindings in Star Citizen. As stated earlier I've mostly disabled the mouse and changed keys around to allow me to map to the x55 even when it's not typically an option for Joysticks. Again regardless where you get your SC key mapping file the process is the same for getting it active.

You can grab mine here: DropBox

Once you have the file you'll need to paste it into: StarCitizen\CitizenClient\Data\Controls\Mappings

Now you can start SC, if you have already started it up close it down and pay closer attention to these instructions. ;D If you change/import settings while SC is running it doesn't pick up the changes. I'm not sure if this will change in the future but in general it's a great idea to edit things while a program is down.

After you have loaded into the game and stopped drooling over your hangar and/or ship hit "Esc" on the keyboard or the "start" button on your gamepad. The open Options, once here you need to go ALL the way to the right to "keybindings". Here you are going to want the "Advanced Control Customization" option on the bottom right of the screen. Finally select the name of the keybindings you would like to import. Mine will show up as "x55_True_V2_1"

Once you have selected your keybindings you will typically be presented with a list of devices that the particular mapping will be changing. Now you'll only have one keyboard and gamepad so those are easy. The x55 however is considered two separate joysticks. In truth I have no idea which is which but i have always set the first joystick to joystick_0 and the second as joystick_1. I'm sure this has a LOT to do with the construction of the mapping file you are trying to use so if you ever run across a mapping that isn't correct try switching the order of the import.

Now you can edit the mappings within SC or with external programs created by the community. I tried one but ultimately had to use SC to create the final product. If you choose to create a mapping or make a couple changes you can export the mapping under "Advanced Control Customization", it's the first option.

At this point you should have a fully functional HOTAS with a keyboard/mouse that is mostly useless for space combat. If you have any suggestions or find a bug feel free to leave comments. I've been working on getting it working for myself before i bothered the community with it so I'll keep it as up to date as possible.

Hope this helped!