DESCRIPTION / SYMPTOMS
When using IL-2's native courves or deadband functions for joysticks, IL-2 in-game joystick will move away from true center if physical joystick is centered.
VERSIONS AFFECTED
Observed since at least version 4.08m. Mods or not does not alter outcome.
HARDWARE
WinXP-32 Home Edition (latest service pack). ASUS P5-B Deluxe with up to date drivers. Tested with older and newer drivers, including for USB. Tested with different USB ports and USB drivers, hubs vs no hubs.
TESTED WITH:
Logitech Extreme 3D PRO
Logitech G940
Logitech G25 Racing Wheel (!)
Saitek Quadrant
All devices tested with different versions of their corresponding drivers.
Was present from beginning, no mods. Have reinstalled completely fresh to make sure. Have deleted all config files for user and conf.ini for testing purposes.
TO REPRODUCE
- Start IL-2.
- Go to Hardware > Input
- Change deadband for joystick pitch and roll to something so large it leaves no doubts (50% for example).
- Move joystick around and observe the red input and green output squares in the monitor on the same screen. Move around some ways from center, and then center repeatedly, slowly and quickly, especially near and at center.
The red is where the user's joystick is, the green is how it is moved in IL-2 after being adjusted/filtered by IL-2. When moving it around the center, the green square is centered (since deadband means there should be no reaction at all in IL-2). But when centering the red square (actual joystick), the green moves approximately one pixel up and to the left away from center. Moving away from center, makes the IL-2 adjusted/filtered green square move INTO center again (where it should have been all along).
You may enter a cockpit on the ground and zoom in on the stick in the cockpit, and repeat the same movements. With a big deadband, the stick should not move at all when moving the stick around, only remained static in center. But it moves slightly (very little) to the left, and forward, when joystick is centered. Behaviour also visibly seen with rudder pedals and levers (if they use courves or deadband).
If using a normal no deadband & sensitivity courve (going from 5, 10, 15, 25 etc) you can observe this: moving away from center slowly, makes the IL-2 adjusted/filtered green square move INTO center first, until a certain point is reached (not far), at which it starts behaving completely correctly. Bug is only when near or at center.
NOTES
- Affects every type of controller from various manufacturers.
- Affects every axis that is bindable in IL-2 (trims, flaps, rudders).
- Device calibration is irellevant. It applies even to axes and IL-2 things that have no center (throttle etc). If the red input square is centered, the adjusted green will move offset from center.
- The offset is always to the left, or if the axis is vertical (like pitch) it is upwards.
- The offset is seen only when any kind of deadband or less than 100 sensitivity is set at the center (i.e. the leftmost sensitivity slider in the hardware > Input screen). It does not affect the axes already set uniformly by default to be flat (like flaps, trims, prop pitch, throttles) but they too will display it if deadband or sensitivity is tweaked.
- The offset bug is not visible in the third party IL-2 joy utility, but by using that utility, lowering sensitivity or having deadband near the center of any axis bound to anything (like flaps) can show that in game, the bug really does affect every single axis.
- The only way to not experience this self-moving offset is to set the sensitivity to 100, deadband to 0 and use external programs to try to tweak in a joystick/device courve, such as dxtweak2 or the Logitech Profiler.
- Reported by two additional individuals (lacking detail to verify). The rest either do not have the bug or they are incapable of that level of perception (users in forum tend to be unwilling to even test, and instead try to explain that it is just IL-2's realistic torque modeling that we are seeing).