Windows 10 21H1 and DCS Wiped Bindings with GUIDs

[fearlessfrog]

I sort of snoozed into updating to 21H1 and the two new things were (1) a weather widget on the taskbar (yeah Bill, this ain’t happening; what’s next an ICQ widget?) and (2) as I prepared to liberate the Emirates the mission was made especially exciting as all my DCS Hornet throttle assignments were now gone.

So this post is more a 'If you are going to update to 21H1, back up your C:\Users\you\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\Input folder.

What seems to have happened is that the USB device IDs got shifted around (who knows, Windows probably looked out for things powering up and the throttle was asleep that day). If you didn’t back them up or it doesn’t work then to fix it rather than rebind it all you can do this:

1. After starting DCS and finding a controller’s bindings are now blank, look in here (per module): C:\Users\you\Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Config\Input\FA-18C_hornet\joystick. It’ll look something like this:

2. So there are two throttle binding files now, and the new one with less in it (3 KB) has the id (the long number in brackets, a globally unique id) that DCS is wanting to use of the throttle device, with the old file still around but not used.

3. To fix it, just take out the new ID and rename the bit in the filename with the bindings. So it’ll look like this in the end, once you’ve rename the files in steps:

So in summary, Windows renamed the device Id for my throttle, DCS has a file of bindings where the filename is based on the old Id, so I rename the filename and all is now good.

[fearlessfrog]

If I have to do this for all modules then probably a good time to check out

JoystickProfiler (JoyPro) for DCS

What this is: a community developed free utility that allows a DCS user to create a single controller profile and push it to all modules, greatly simplifying the process of either setting up as a new user or adding/replacing hardware flight controls. The base control profile can be as simple or detailed as desired. This utility is under development, so use at your own risk. Please read the associated documentation, watch the videos, and backup your <Windows Profile>\Saved Games<DCS>\Config\I…

[Troll]

Good info there.
Thanks!

Will WMR Portal hinder the 21H1 update too?

[fearlessfrog]

It didn’t for me, and I didn’t uninstall anything first. I think they patched the previous patch, so to speak.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE WITHOUT A WINDOW - IT’S MOSTLY SUNNY

(sigh) (plus easy to turn off)

[sobek]

Redmond keeps the good times rollin.

[schurem]

My machine keeps asking for reboots. Is that a sign its not getting the update correctly?

[piper]

I’m positive it was just meant for Melinda’s machine, but Bill had to make sure.

[miRage]

@fearlessfrog

If I have to do this for all modules…

That’s why I looked for a scripting solution

How to move DCS input config files to a new PC

So here I am. Brand new PC. Game controller drivers installed and devices connected. DCS is installed and launched. It’s all great. The only thing left to do was copying my input config files from my old “Saved Games” folder (e.g. C:\Users\ [YourName]\Saved Games\DCS.openalpha\Config\Input) to their new destination. Or so I thought. The issue is, that all my devices received new IDs. And all .lua-files containing each controllers configuration have that ID in their file name. I was facing a …

[fearlessfrog]

There’s also the ‘Save Profile As’ and the ‘Load Profile…’ per device on the controls page within DCS (right click on the device category in the DCS controls screen), for those not wanting to rename files and do them module by module.

It looks like you can save out to a Saved Games folder of ‘InputUserProfiles’ and then keep them safe that way. If the Device Ids change you can load them back in and it should be good. I’ve not really used that before.