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Configuring Windows with two identical joysitcks.
I'm posting this here as a sticky thread, after a player was having some confusion about why their Thrustmaster T.16000M Space Sim Duo flight-style joysticks would periodically seem to "swap" their expected controls when they plugged the joysticks in.
This is not specific to Thrustmaster, it is true of any pair of identical-model joysticks under Windows 10 or 11.
In this case, each joystick identifies to the game as either:
"T.16000M Joystick"
OR
"T.16000M Joystick 2"
Those designations are determined by Windows (not by our game). Windows makes decisions about which-is-which by:
1) The USB port you choose to plug them into.
2) The order in which you plug them in (assuming they were both unplugged from your computer).
You can replicate this by doing the following:
- Have both joysticks plugged in and working as expected, in their correct order, in the game.
- Open up the Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Joystick tab, so you can see the current assignments.
- Now, pick the "first" joystick (the one that is not "T.16000M Joystick 2"), and unplug it from USB (while still staring at the VO joystick display).
- Now click "Scan for joysticks" on the Joysticks menu of VO.
You will find that the joystick which "used to be" the #2, has now been promoted to #1, and has the bindings for #1. The previous #1 is now missing, since you unplugged it.
NEXT, if you plug the prior #1 BACK into the same USB port that you originally unplugged it from (and then hit "Scan for Joysticks" in VO), it will come back as #1 again, and bump the old-#2-but-changed-to-#1 back to the #2 position. Hey, great, working as-intended.
HOWEVER, if you instead choose to plug prior #1 into a *different* USB port (or potentially USB hub/bus on your system motherboard, it's a little complicated to explain), and then hit "Scan for Joysticks", you may find it suddenly shows up as #2. Now the devices and their assignments have been swapped.
Basically, the game has no way to uniquely identify a given joystick as #1 or #2. The joystick API doesn't give us serial numbers or anything like that. All we have to work with is the "name" that Windows gives us for the device, which is basically "T.16000M Joystick" or "T.16000M Joystick 2". The configuration you make, which gets saved into "config.ini" file in the Vendetta Online directory, are assigned based on those device names.
Windows will rename devices however it sees fit, based on whatever.. system it thinks is best. My suggestion is to try to be careful that you do two things:
1) Always plug in the joysticks in the same order, every time you use them. First your #1 and then your #2. Maybe even wait a second or two before plugging in #2, to make sure Windows has registered the first one.
2) Always use the same USB ports.
This is not specific to Thrustmaster, it is true of any pair of identical-model joysticks under Windows 10 or 11.
In this case, each joystick identifies to the game as either:
"T.16000M Joystick"
OR
"T.16000M Joystick 2"
Those designations are determined by Windows (not by our game). Windows makes decisions about which-is-which by:
1) The USB port you choose to plug them into.
2) The order in which you plug them in (assuming they were both unplugged from your computer).
You can replicate this by doing the following:
- Have both joysticks plugged in and working as expected, in their correct order, in the game.
- Open up the Options -> Advanced -> Controls -> Joystick tab, so you can see the current assignments.
- Now, pick the "first" joystick (the one that is not "T.16000M Joystick 2"), and unplug it from USB (while still staring at the VO joystick display).
- Now click "Scan for joysticks" on the Joysticks menu of VO.
You will find that the joystick which "used to be" the #2, has now been promoted to #1, and has the bindings for #1. The previous #1 is now missing, since you unplugged it.
NEXT, if you plug the prior #1 BACK into the same USB port that you originally unplugged it from (and then hit "Scan for Joysticks" in VO), it will come back as #1 again, and bump the old-#2-but-changed-to-#1 back to the #2 position. Hey, great, working as-intended.
HOWEVER, if you instead choose to plug prior #1 into a *different* USB port (or potentially USB hub/bus on your system motherboard, it's a little complicated to explain), and then hit "Scan for Joysticks", you may find it suddenly shows up as #2. Now the devices and their assignments have been swapped.
Basically, the game has no way to uniquely identify a given joystick as #1 or #2. The joystick API doesn't give us serial numbers or anything like that. All we have to work with is the "name" that Windows gives us for the device, which is basically "T.16000M Joystick" or "T.16000M Joystick 2". The configuration you make, which gets saved into "config.ini" file in the Vendetta Online directory, are assigned based on those device names.
Windows will rename devices however it sees fit, based on whatever.. system it thinks is best. My suggestion is to try to be careful that you do two things:
1) Always plug in the joysticks in the same order, every time you use them. First your #1 and then your #2. Maybe even wait a second or two before plugging in #2, to make sure Windows has registered the first one.
2) Always use the same USB ports.
As an additional reminder to anyone struggling with button-binding on joysticks, the "Clear a Bind" button on the lower left corner of the Control + Keyboard screen can be used to clear out a specific binding.
In due course, the entire joystick configuration UI will be replaced with something better (as we've already done for gamepads), but this is an on-going process.
In due course, the entire joystick configuration UI will be replaced with something better (as we've already done for gamepads), but this is an on-going process.