X-55 stops working after opening controls

[John Kozak 14]

Does anyone else experience problems with joystick disappearing from controls, if you open the settings mid-flight? Especially bad is that the joystick stops being recognized by the game even if you press "cancel" and exit the settings.

Example here (starts at 5:30):

after I've exited settings, helicopter does not respond to controls.

I'm using X-55, TrackIR and AFM is enabled, if anyone tries to reproduce

Edited April 30, 2015 by DarkWanderer

[sgtpepper 11]

I experience the same problem with my force feedback 2 joystick.

[citazenman 10]

yep I get this sometimes. It affects my pedals and logitech 3d pro. I had heard that it was a power problem with windows. windows likes to power things off when they are not in use. However altering my power settings for my peripherals hasn't helped. If your interested here's a link http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/windows8pro64-suddenly-loses-connection-to-saitek/8edc6dd3-21cd-458b-9391-4f5bb6b20e19

[John Kozak 14]

I have created a ticket for this issue, hopefully this gets resolved.

yep I get this sometimes. It affects my pedals and logitech 3d pro. I had heard that it was a power problem with windows. windows likes to power things off when they are not in use. However altering my power settings for my peripherals hasn't helped. If your interested here's a link http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/windows8pro64-suddenly-loses-connection-to-saitek/8edc6dd3-21cd-458b-9391-4f5bb6b20e19

Does it reproduce randomly for you or does it too stop working after opening settings? If it's the former, I'm afraid that's a different issue.

If it's the latter, I don't think there could possibly be any relation to power settings - as if it was due to power settings, the issue would not reproduce so reliably when opening "Controls".

But in any case, that's valuable information, thank you.

Do you guys fly with "Advanced flight model" from Heli DLC, or regular one?

[Leftcrusade 10]

Hello,

How did you get the throttle to work in the first place?

I just got the x55 and the stick seems to work, but I can't get the throttle to work.

Although it does show in the controllers, it doesnt work. How can I map my throttle to increase thrust and such? I really don't know and can't find anything about it.

[John Kozak 14]

Hello,

How did you get the throttle to work in the first place?

I just got the x55 and the stick seems to work, but I can't get the throttle to work.

Although it does show in the controllers, it doesnt work. How can I map my throttle to increase thrust and such? I really don't know and can't find anything about it.

It's because X-55 actually has 2 throttle axes - left and right half. When you move the throttle, both axes move, so ArmA can't decide which one to assign.

You need to put both throttles to 50%, unlock them so they move separately, then assign axes using only right or only left half. After that you can lock them together again and use them in-flight

[Leftcrusade 10]

Edit:

I just tried it.

I placed my throttle at 50% and unlocked them. I tried to map the throttle up to collective raise using only left throttle. Arma 3 recognized this as Saitek Pro Stick X+, and collective lower as Saitek Pro Stick X-. (I also tried this seperate with only right throttle, this game Saitek Pro Stick Y+ and Y-.

I don't have the feeling that it interferes with my stick anymore, but when I go over the 50% with my throttle it goes to full. And when I go lower then 50% it goes to zero. (Advanced flight model, so I can see how open my throttle is).

How did you fix this?

---------- Post added at 10:54 ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 ----------

Fixed,

I guess that through my frustration I wasn't thinking clear.

Thx Wanderer, your way does fix the problem. I was placing the Y- and Y+ at the collective raise and lower, not at the analogue. I changed it to analogue and it works now;)

Thx for the help!

Edited May 2, 2015 by Leftcrusade

[John Kozak 14]

You're welcome!

One question, for my own statistics. I see you too have this problem where the throttle buttons/axes shows up as Saitek Pro Stick and not Saitek Pro Throttle. I've noticed I have this when TrackIR is enabled - do you have TrackIR too?

[Leftcrusade 10]

No I don't have it at the moment. But I read some time ago that Arma used to handle only a certain amount of controllers (using rudders and hotas was a pain in the ass). Maybe they haven't fixed that good enough yet.

Trackir will arrive though in two days;)

[citazenman 10]

I have track ir too. My problem seems identical to yours. I seem to remember this happening now and then even when I didn't have track ir but I may be wrong. Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of time to test this. I really hope you guys can figure this out though.

[pawelkpl 29]

same issue , x52 pro.

[John Kozak 14]

Small update

I have reproduced this issue successfully in a C++ console app. It's a DirectX memory-related issue. Basically, once you have used enough memory in your application, DirectX functions stop reporting ANY devices to the game. TrackIR is detected differently, I suppose, so it stays; but the game can't query for controllers anymore.

Here is a small executable to test (WARNING! You're downloading an executable file, do it at your own risk):

http://1drv.ms/1DQ5ptA [^]

Source of that program:

https://gist.github.com/DarkWanderer/3ac07a213bfc8a02932d [^]

I don't know why it is specific for Win 8, but it looks like an "endemic" DirectX problem indeed.

I suppose the only workaround would be to not query for devices when opening options - either optionally, or as a change to default behavior.

[Moon_chilD 200]

I jsut want to throw in that I have the same problem with my Thrustmaster Hotas X.

As soon as I enter the controlls, the Joystick stops working!

[franck.rostain@gmail.com 10]

Small update

Darkwanderer, I am confused.

This executable that you linked, is it a fix or just a test of the system?

Regards.

[John Kozak 14]

Darkwanderer, I am confused.

This executable that you linked, is it a fix or just a test of the system?

Regards.

Hi Franck,

It is a test utility which uses the same API functions as ArmA 3 to query the system for joysticks/game controllers. It aims to reproduce the issue we discuss in this thread.

You can use it to check if your system (OS/DirectX combination) is affected.

How to launch: plug in joystick and start it. Press any key to exit when it finishes

What does it do: it tries to list game controllers using same DirectX DirectInput functions that ArmA 3 uses. Then the process fills its memory with empty blocks (simulation of loading a large island in ArmA) and tries to list devices again.

How to interpret the output: If the devices are successfully printed both before and after memory allocation, then your system is not affected. If your system is affected, you will see that the devices were listed before allocation, but not after

[franck.rostain@gmail.com 10]

Hi Franck,

It is a test utility which uses the same API functions as ArmA 3 to query the system for joysticks/game controllers. It aims to reproduce the issue we discuss in this thread.

You can use it to check if your system (OS/DirectX combination) is affected.

How to launch: plug in joystick and start it. Press any key to exit when it finishes

What does it do: it tries to list game controllers using same DirectX DirectInput functions that ArmA 3 uses. Then the process fills its memory with empty blocks (simulation of loading a large island in ArmA) and tries to list devices again.

How to interpret the output: If the devices are successfully printed both before and after memory allocation, then your system is not affected. If your system is affected, you will see that the devices were listed before allocation, but not after

Well, well, well, it seems you have some voodoo power then...

I have a hall sensor moded TM cougar + simped and I was affected by the bug 95% of the time trying to play ARMA 3

Yesterday I used your test executable thinking it was a fix... the executable report the cougar both time so I should not be affected by the bug if I understand correctly.

And I managed to play about 4 hours over 2 or 3 sessions with a reboot in the middle and my Cougar did not disappear once. (I launched your executable everytime before launching ARMA3)

I hope this will continue to work like that even if it is not supposed to... :)

Thank you :)

[John Kozak 14]

Well, well, well, it seems you have some voodoo power then...

I have a hall sensor moded TM cougar + simped and I was affected by the bug 95% of the time trying to play ARMA 3

Yesterday I used your test executable thinking it was a fix... the executable report the cougar both time so I should not be affected by the bug if I understand correctly.

And I managed to play about 4 hours over 2 or 3 sessions with a reboot in the middle and my Cougar did not disappear once. (I launched your executable everytime before launching ARMA3)

I hope this will continue to work like that even if it is not supposed to... :)

Thank you :)

Haha, you're welcome, although it was most definitely not intended.

Let me know if you encounter that issue again, I keep a list of affected devices/OS'es

[John Kozak 14]

Turns out there's a difference in behavior when launching application under debugger, even in Release configuration (as I did when launching it locally). This resulted in the test not reproducing the issue in some cases where it should.

Updated the test utility accordingly and added some more output. Available at the same link (http://1drv.ms/1DQ5ptA). Let me know what it shows for you.

[franck.rostain@gmail.com 10]

Turns out there's a difference in behavior when launching application under debugger, even in Release configuration (as I did when launching it locally). This resulted in the test not reproducing the issue in some cases where it should.

Updated the test utility accordingly and added some more output. Available at the same link (http://1drv.ms/1DQ5ptA). Let me know what it shows for you.

Hello,

I just discovered your update with the new version of the test utility.

here are the ouputs I am getting :

Original test utility

Updated test utility :

http://i.imgur.com/6StTnII.jpg

As I was saying, lauching the original test utility before I launched ARMA3 reduced my controllers vanishing from arma3 occurences by 95%

I will try the same protocol with the updated utility and I will reports the results here.

In the mean time here is my reflexion, coming from someone who is not at all a coder and don't understand much about OSes, DX, and memory allocation : could it be possible that your test utility once launched is "filling up" the location of the faulty memory allocation in DX, preventing the controller to use it and therefore preventing the problem from happening at all? Hence, your test could be a workaround?

Regards and thanks.

Ninja

[John Kozak 14]

Hello,

I just discovered your update with the new version of the test utility.

here are the ouputs I am getting :

Original test utility

Updated test utility :

Hi Franck,

Thank you for confirming - now I can be sure that the test works correctly. I'll forward your results to the BIS dev I've been in contact with.

As I was saying, lauching the original test utility before I launched ARMA3 reduced my controllers vanishing from arma3 occurences by 95%

I will try the same protocol with the updated utility and I will reports the results here.

In the mean time here is my reflexion, coming from someone who is not at all a coder and don't understand much about OSes, DX, and memory allocation : could it be possible that your test utility once launched is "filling up" the location of the faulty memory allocation in DX, preventing the controller to use it and therefore preventing the problem from happening at all? Hence, your test could be a workaround?

Regards and thanks.

Ninja

I can't right away come up with a scenario how that might happen... But since there seems to be a fairly low-level bug, anything is possible. I'll try to reproduce this effect.

Thank you very much for helping to check this, much appreciated

Edited May 18, 2015 by DarkWanderer

[Cowboy10uk1 10]

Well, after years of playing ground troops, I decided to purchase the new helo DLC, setup my controls in main menu no problem, but when I launched the mission, the controls were dead, went back into the config menu and lo and behold all joysticks apart from the track IR had disappeared.

Thrustmaster Warthog,

Saitek Pro flight pedals,

Track IR,

Windows 8.1

I used the above test and sadly it came back as affected. :(

has anyone managed to find a fix or should I forget about flying my helos in here?

I have flown helos before with no issues whatsoever but that was last year with a totally Vanilla install, although it was using the same OS and PC setup without any issues.

Cowboy10uk

[neonlazer 10]

I just ran into this problem a few days ago. Guess I haven't played Arma 3 much since I upgraded to my new PC with 8.1. I will test the exec mentioned previously and see what happens. Saitek Fly 5.

[John Kozak 14]

Seems like the problem will resolve by itself in around a month - with win10 release

Edited June 29, 2015 by DarkWanderer

[clawhammer 10]

Can confirm this, finally someone else has this issue too.

I have this issu with my xbox 360 controller too

[AIDAxO 10]

Same problem with Logitech extreme 3d pro. Also know another guy with same problem with same joystick. We discussed it in MP coop mission.

We really need to fix this problem, because you cant even change keybinds/sensitivity(or you need to restart the game arter that).

Edited July 6, 2015 by AIDAxO