INPUT PROFILES

This page provides instructions on how to create custom device definitions and input presets for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. It covers using the Input Device Editor and Input Profile Editor tools, and also provides a guide to understanding contexts and profiles, mapping actions, using input overrides, exporting profiles, as well as creating the controls package using the Project Editor. It also has the following reference pages for the files that will be created as part of this process:

 

You can find tutorials explaining how to set up devices and profiles on the following pages:

 

 

Input Glossary

Before continuing with the different aspects of this guide, it is a good idea to familiarise yourself with some of the terms that will be used throughout and what these terms mean in the context of the input application and making control profiles:

 

  • Context
    The context determines when a particular control mapping is active within the simulator. For example, the "A" button on a gamepad may be used to increase the throttle when the context flying an aircraft, or it may be used to perform a preflight check when the context is the user avatar. See Understanding Contexts And Profiles for more information.

 

  • Actions
    An action is something that will happen in the simulation when an input is detected, for example, moving the user avatar forward when a positive input on the Y-axis of a joystick is detected. The exact action that happens will depend on the context, and you can bind an action to one or more inputs.

 

 

  • Preset
    A preset is a named configuration within a profile.

 

  • PID (Product ID)
    This is the unique identifier given to a hardware device.

 

  • Input Override
    This defines the special settings that modify the default behavior of an action.

 

  • Curve
    A curve is a graph that defines the relationship between the physical input and the simulation control response. There are both hardware-level and action-specific curves.

 

 

Understanding Contexts And Profiles

In MSFS 2024, a context determines when a particular control mapping is active. For example, some controls are only relevant in the cockpit view, while others are used on the ground or in the simulation menus. For this reason, all contexts are predefined and cannot be created or modified by developers.

 

On the other-hand we have profiles, which are collections of control mappings, which are configurable by developers, within the limits of the context. The simulation uses the following hierarchical system for profiles:

 

  • A Device Profile
    The device profile is the minimum required to register the device with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and associate the device with some icons and images so it can be displayed in the UI. This is the absolute minimum required for a device to be usable in the simulation, and the user will need to set up all the input bindings themselves with the UI, however you would normally create a transversal profile along with the device profile so it can at least be used for basic interactions.

 

  • A Transversal Profile
    This kind of profile contains a number of generic bindings that are to be used across the simulation, based on context, and that are not directly related to any type or make of aircraft. For example, menu controls, camera controls, etc... This is usually created along with a device profile to provide the user with basic inputs from the device.

 

  • Aircraft Category Profiles
    These profiles contains mappings specific to a category of aircraft (Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, Balloon, Airship, or Other), and are used to define input bindings for any single controller so it can be used with any one or more of these categories.

 

  • Aircraft Specific Profiles
    These profiles contain mappings for one or more controller and a particular aircraft model. For example the DA62 has two profiles - scientific and passenger - and each one has a different input configuration for keyboard, gamepad and mouse (6 profiles in total). If you are an aircraft developer, then this kind of profile is the most useful as it permits you to set up custom input bindings, that suit the aircraft controls, for all the common controllers.

 

For category and specific profiles, inputs are associated with a specific set of allowed contexts. This means that you can only map actions from those allowed contexts to a given profile type. If you attempt to map an action from a disallowed context, the mapping will not be recognised by the simulator. For example: You cannot map a COCKPIT_CAMERA action to an Airplane profile because the COCKPIT_CAMERA context is not allowed for the Airplane profile.

 

 

Available Contexts

To further help you with the available contexts and what is allowed for them, we have prepared the following table:

 

Context General Airplane Helicopter Glider Lighter Than Air Other
3RD_PARTY
ACTION_CAMERA
AIRCRAFT
ALWAYS
ATC
BASIC_CONTROL
BASIC_CONTROL_HELICOPTER
BASIC_CONTROL_LIGHTER_THAN_AIR
COCKPIT_CAMERA
COCKPIT_GLOBAL_CAMERA
COCKPIT_GLOBAL_CAMERA_TRANSLATE
COCKPIT_INTERACTIONS
COCKPIT_INTERACTIONS_LOCK
COCKPIT_VR_CAMERA
CURSOR
CURSOR_LOCK
CURSOR_MODE_SWITCHES
DEBUG
DEVMODE
DEVMODECAMERA
DRONE
DRONE_GLOBAL
EXTERNAL_CAMERA
FIXED_CAMERA
GAME
GLIDER
HANGAR_CAMERA
HELICOPTER
INGAME_UI
INPUT_EVENTS
INSTRUMENTS_CAMERA
INSTRUMENTS_CONTROL
LIGHTER_THAN_AIR
MENU
MENU_CORE
MENU_GLOBAL
MENU_MOUSE
MISSION_FLOW_TOOLS
MODE_INTERACTION
MODE_PAUSE
MODES
PC_MODE_SWITCHES
PHOTO_MODE_ACTIONS
PHOTO_MODE_ROTATION
PHOTO_MODE_SWITCHES
PHOTO_MODE_TRANSLATION
PLANE
PLAYER_CHARACTER_FPV
PLAYER_CHARACTER_INTERACTION
PLAYER_CHARACTER_MOVEMENT
REPLAY
RTC
RUDDER_AXIS
SIM_SHORTCUT
SLEW
SMART_CAMERA
SPECTATOR
SURFACES
SURFACES_HELICOPTER
SURFACES_LIGHTER_THAN_AIR
THROTTLE
TOOLBAR
TRUE_COCKPIT
USER_CAMERA
WORLDMAP_COMMON
WORLDMAP_PAD

 

Related Topics

  1. Device Profiles
  2. The Input Device Editor
  3. The Input Profile Editor
  4. Transversal Input Profiles
  5. Aircraft Category Input Profiles

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