Fixing the way IL2 assigns Joystick IDs

[Artist]

Hi EvilJoven,

I wish it were as simple as that. From my experiences with developing YaDeLi: The IDs you've mentioned (and which can be changed with Joystick ID' Swapper) exist only in the old Win32 API which is almost deprecated. They are not, I repeat not, used or accessible in/from DirectInput, which is used IL-2. DirectInput uses a GUID-system to identify and re-recognize devices.

@Daidalos Team: I've used this mechanism in YaDeLi to reliably connect devices to a IL-2 DeviceLink channel and would gladly supply source code, help, and support - if you decide to do somthing in this direction.

Artist

Originally Posted by Artist

Hi EvilJoven,

I wish it were as simple as that. From my experiences with developing YaDeLi: The IDs you've mentioned (and which can be changed with Joystick ID' Swapper) exist only in the old Win32 API which is almost deprecated. They are not, I repeat not, used or accessible in/from DirectInput, which is used IL-2. DirectInput uses a GUID-system to identify and re-recognize devices.

@Daidalos Team: I've used this mechanism in YaDeLi to reliably connect devices to a IL-2 DeviceLink channel and would gladly supply source code, help, and support - if you decide to do somthing in this direction.

Artist

I think we both might be wrong on this one. You're right that the registry keys and values I was working with earlier don't seem to have any bearing on the joystick ID.

Fortunately, I found out what does.

When I worked on this some more to confirm whether or not you were correct, I discovered that when you change the joystick ID in either that joystick ID utility I use or by setting the primary controller from within the Game Controller Settings (in the control panel in XP or brought up by right clicking on a joystick in the Devices and Printers window) you're changing the Joystick ID binary value key for the associated controller, located here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control \MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\DirectInput\<VE NDOR AND DEVICE ID>\Calibration\0

This seems to be what sets the joystick ID.

The end result is the same. If IL-2 can be modified so that it assigns joystick IDs by reading from THAT key it should sort things out nicely.

[Artist]

Great discovery, EvilJoven! I just relied on the DirectInput-documentation from Microsoft and that never ever hinted at what you've found out...

Reverse Engineering scores a point over RTFM!

Now the question is: Is TD prepared to rely on an undocumented feature (mixing DirectInput with Win32 API) in order to solve a serious inconvenience for all those having more that 4 controllers...

I surely hope so! TD, please?

Artist

Edit, PS: You're sure that it is "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\..."? I find all you've written about under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\..."

On my win7x64 pc it all the stuff relating to the Directinput joystick ID settings is stored under HKCU. Unless I missed something in process monitor, when changing IDs around this is the only place it's done.

[Artist]

Secrets of Windows: It's Xp SP3 here and there's no "\System" under HKCU - only within HKLM. Could it be the shadowing of Win7? Wonder what a software API call would find...

Good to know, though.

Artist