Introduction Link to heading

This is a post about using joystick for Star Citizen in a brief manner. It’s heavily generalized but the concept is applicable for every joystick no matter HOSAS / HOTAS / HOTAT. The main #keybinds play a major role.

Key Feature Link to heading

Maximum flexibility in configuration with dependency to third party application.

Requirement Link to heading

• General understanding of Profile, Configuration and File Paths / Management
• General understand of console commands within Star Citizen
• Get the concept
• Have the joysticks connected to your computer
• JoyToKey - Third Party Application
• Joysticks of your likeness or budget
• your own learning curve
• “empty” joystick profile for Star Citizen (*.xml - Thurstmaster HOSAS/VKB HOTAT)
• “empty” joystick profile for JoyToKey (*.cfg - Thrustmaster HOSAS/VKB HOTAT)

Profiles & Keybind Mappings Link to heading

In the internet, you’ll find hundreds if not thousands of preconfigured profiles & mapping files. Below you’ll see the directories listed, where to store them.
If you don’t comprehend the concept of “JoyToKey” none of them will work properly to your satisfaction. You’ll find always something not working or missing. We also provide our files, but even those will not give you the result you wish, if you dont configure your profiles yourself.

The JoyToKey Concept Link to heading

Components Link to heading

Before we dive into the concept, we take a overview of the involved components (order is relevant [last writer wins])

Concept Link to heading

After the principle of last writer wins, we want to write the least in the last, and the most in the first.
The profile of the application JoyToKey is the first and the profile in Star Citizen is the last writer…

Means: (almost) all of our configuration and keybindings are done in JoyToKey.
Important: only movement, pitch, yaw and roll are bound in Star Citizen (profile) for your joysticks.
Relevant: if you played Star Citizen for a while now with Mouse & Keyboard, you may have changed some keybinds. These bindings are the main hub between the components.
Configuration: to configure the profiles we start with the last writer.

Star Citizen Application Link to heading

If it’s your very first start of Star Citizen or the first manor Patch Release (4.*), in order to create all necessary files, you need to login to “Persitent Universe” for the first time and “Quit Game” immediatly. If it’s not your first time, but received your joysticks, the directory is already there.
In your installation directory (\StarCitizen\LIVE\user\client\0) you find:

Star Citizen - Keybindings (Keyboard) Link to heading

In Star Citizen - Option - Keybindings - stay in “Keyboard / Mouse”

For more details, check out our keybindings for “Keyboard / Mouse”.

Star Citizen - Keybindings (Joystick) Link to heading

In Star Citizen - Option - Keybindings - switch to “Joystick / HOTAS”

Joystick / HOTAS Binding Link to heading

Star Citizen offers profiles for a variaty of joysticks.

Select your joystick.

Bind the device accordingly. The order does not really matter.
Don’t touch Keyboard nor Mouse!
At this state, we let Star Citizen know, what joysticks we have connected, and with what joysticks we want to play. Star Citizens default profile already has keybinds to the appropriate joystick.

Joystick / HOTAS Unbinding Link to heading

We “Clear All Device Bindings”. That means, (almost) all keybinds, made by Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), well be deleted. Yet, there are remaining bindings.

Unbind the device accordingly. The order does not really matter.
Don’t touch Keyboard nor Mouse! (Almost) all keybinds, made by Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), well be deleted. Yet, there are remaining bindings.

Unbind everything where NOT “Button 1”. Let “Button 1” where button 1, but unbind everything else.
“Joystick / HOTAS” is the last writer, so we unbind everything and set movment, pitch & yaw afterwards.

Once everything unbinded, we start binding the joysticks into that unbinded profile. After we bound the inputs, we save that profile under a new name.

Keybindings - Joystick / HOTAS / Advanced Controls Customization Link to heading

Remember: we bind only movement (strafe forward / backward, strafe left / right), pitch (up / down), yaw (left / right) and roll (left / right).

We bind the sticks accordingly to Keyboard / Mouse. \ Everything we do with the left hand on the keyboard, we do with the left hand on the left stick. Everything we do with the right hand on keyboard / mouse, we do with the right hand on the right stick.

You find strafe / pitch / yaw / roll under:
– Flight - Movement
– Turret - Movement
– On Foot - All
– E.V.A - All
– Ground Vehicle - Movement

Once the input is bound to the respective function in Star Citizen, we go testing. Use for the test the smallest and fastest ship available for you. You can do the test in “Persistent Universe” or better in “Arena Commander” - Fly Free.

Keybindings - Inversion Link to heading

If necessary, the inversion goes for both (“Joystick / HOTAS 1” and “Joystick / HOTAS 2”). Also to consider, turrets, on foot may vary from the flight behaviour.

• if you find out, that the inputs of your left sick does what you wanted to do with the right stick, use following console command:
  pp_resortdevices joystick 1 2

• if you want to move forward but the ship flies backwards, you need to invert the Throttle - Forward / Back.

• if you want to strafe left but the ship flies to the right, you need to invert - Flight Strafe (Left/Right).

• if you want to strafe up but the ship flies down, you need to invert - Flight Strafe (Up/Down).

Keybindings - Save Profile Link to heading

Once the basic movemnts, strafe and roll behaviour works properly with your sticks, we save this profile. Keybindings - Joystick / HOTAS / Advanced Controls Customization

Give a distinguishablel profile name, especially when you use different joysticks or setup. In your installation directory (\StarCitizen\LIVE\user\client\0) you find:

That profile will be selectable as soon as you relaunch Star Citizen.

JoyToKey Application Link to heading

JoyToKey is a shareware. You can freely download it and evaluate it without any limitation in functionality, but after trial for continued usage, please consider purchasing a license key from JoyToKey application menu.
Download the application and install it, all default. Beware of pop-ups, ads and what not.
Default file path for the configuration files (profile) is “Documents\JoyToKey”. File extensions are *.cfg \

Start The Application and Create a Profile Link to heading

On your first run of the application, it creates 3 files (JoyToKey.ini / JoyToKey.log / Profile 1.cfg). The latter you can delete, as soon as you craeted your first profile on your own.

This is how JoyToKey looks in Dark Mode at the first run.

Under “Settings - Configure Joystick Devices” you should have listed your connected joysticks.

Under “File - New” create a new profile and name to your likness.

Give input to one of your joysticks, to identify which stick is listed where.

Change the label of the tabs according to the physical placement or usage of hands.

Console Commands Link to heading

Star Citizen includes the following console commands for keybindings

• How to import keybindings:
  pp_RebindKeys ‘<‘filename’>’
• Swap keybindings between Joystick 1 and 2. This command is useful when Windows sets your secondary joystick to your primary and you want to easily reuse your keybindings:
  pp_resortdevices joystick 1 2
• Change device 4 to 1 and 5 to 2? pp_resortdevices joystick 4 1
  pp_resortdevices joystick 5 2
• Export bindings to a file named layout_mybindings_exported.xml:
  pp_rebindkeys export all mybindings
• List the detected devices in order:
  i_DumpDeviceInformation

Joysticks We Use Link to heading

We don’t cover accessories, only the sticks itself.

Reference Link to heading