I am using the standard version of Saitek X-52. The non-pro version does not offer adjustable input curves, and the default curve produced by the joystick is actually non-linear but exponential for pitch and yaw - a design feature that I can not really understand.
I personally would love to fly with fully linear control settings for pitch and yaw - and if I had rudder pedals, that too - on twist handle, linear response for rudder is untenable.
Getting the control response to feel linear (or close to - there's actually a slight logarithmic decrease in my settings toward the middle) requires a bit of trickery, though:
Code:
[rts_joystick]
1X=0 133 148 146 144 133 123 115 109 104 100 0
1Y=0 133 148 146 144 133 123 115 109 104 100 0
1Z=0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 0
1RX=0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 0
1RY=0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 0
1RZ=0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0
1U=0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 0
1V=0 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 0
FF=0
1X is pitch, 1Y is roll and 1RZ is yaw.
As you can see, I manually entered these values into conf.ini, because the in-game interface didn't accept values larger than 100. This setup increases the sensitivity of the stick's by default "limp" center area, bringing it closer to linear response, while keeping the area immediately next to deadzone slightly less sensitive than linear (but more sensitive than the default curve of the stick).
As far as I can tell, the default control curves for pitch and yaw on this stick correspond with these settings used with a linear control curve joystick:
1X=0 1 4 9 16 25 36 49 64 81 100 0
If I now want a completely linear output from these inputs, I would want to insert these values in the conf.ini:
1X=0 199 180 163 148 135 124 115 108 103 100 0
in other words
1X=0 (100 + 10^2 - 1) (100 + 9^2 - 1) (100 + 8^2 - 1) ... (100 + 2^2 - 1) (100 + 1^2 - 1)
This will cause the Saitek X52 with it's non-linear control curve to
behave as a linear control curve in IL-2.
With my earlier stick, a Saitek Cyborg Evo with linear control curve, I used pretty much the following curves for pitch and yaw:
1X=0 33 66 82 95 97 98 99 100 100 100 0
and the current curve is basically this, but adjusted for the strange actual input curve of the X-52.
I hope someone can find this post useful for setting up their X-52 for IL-2.