Flight controllers

Terrain Mask reads flight controllers directly. You don’t need Steam Input, vJoy or any other mapping tool. A flight stick, a HOTAS throttle, a helicopter collective lever and a set of rudder pedals all work, alone or together, next to the keyboard, the mouse and an Xbox-style gamepad.

Early support. We built and tested this with a simulated device; we don’t own every stick on the market. If your controller is not seen, binds strangely or an axis behaves oddly, please tell us (Settings > Gameplay > SUPPORT > COPY SUPPORT INFO puts the details we need on your clipboard).

What works

• Any Windows game controller that shows up in Windows’ Set up USB game controllers panel (joy.cpl): flight sticks, HOTAS sets, throttle quadrants, collective levers, rudder pedals.
• Up to four devices at once. The game calls them JOY1 to JOY4 in the order Windows reports them. Each device can use up to 8 axes, 32 buttons and one hat switch.
• Plug and unplug while playing. A new device is found within two seconds. If one is unplugged, its controls let go and centre, and any keyboard or gamepad controls take over again.
• An Xbox or other XInput gamepad still works exactly as before, and is never counted twice as a joystick.
• Windows only, like the game.

Not supported: force feedback, more than four devices, and devices that Windows itself doesn’t list as game controllers.

Plug in and fly

1. Plug the device in (before or after starting the game).

2. The first time the game sees a device, it binds it for you and shows a banner saying what it did, for example:

   JOY1 T.16000M: X/Y CYCLIC, RZ PEDALS, SLIDER1 COLLECTIVE, BTN 1 FIRE, BTN 2 WEAPON (CHANGE IN SETTINGS > CONTROLS)

3. Fly. Change anything you don’t like in Settings > CONTROLS (bindings) and Settings > INPUT (feel).

What the game binds on its own:

A dedicated device beats a stick: if you plug in pedals after a twist stick, the pedals take over the pedal axis from the twist. The same goes for a throttle and the stick’s slider.

After you change any joystick binding yourself, the game never binds anything on its own again. Your layout stays yours. RESTORE JOYSTICK DEFAULTS brings the automatic layout back.

How each control flies the helicopter

The flight mode (ARCADE, ASSISTED, EXPERT) is chosen in the game as before. A real stick works in all three.

Remapping axes

Axes are the four flight controls: CYCLIC ROLL, CYCLIC PITCH, PEDALS, COLLECTIVE.

1. Open Settings (main menu or pause menu) and go to the CONTROLS page.
2. Scroll to the end, to the section JOYSTICK, HOTAS, COLLECTIVE AND PEDALS. It lists your connected devices (for example JOY1 T.16000M 4 AXES, 16 BUTTONS, HAT).
3. Select the row of the control you want, for example JOYSTICK AXIS: COLLECTIVE, and press Enter (or the confirm button / click).
4. The row flashes MOVE THE CONTROL. Move the axis you want all the way, from one end to the other. A lever or slider needs at least a quarter of its travel; a stick needs half a deflection.
5. The axis that moved most is bound, and the row shows it, for example JOY2 SLIDER1.

Good to know:

• You have 12 seconds. If nothing moves enough, the capture cancels (“NO AXIS MOVED: CANCELLED”).
• Move only the one control. If you wiggle two, the one that travelled furthest wins. A diagonal stick move picks the bigger of X and Y.
• One axis, one job. If you bind an axis that was already flying something else, it moves to the new control and the old one becomes UNBOUND. The status line says so.
• Clear an axis: select its row and press Delete (pad: X, mouse: right click). It shows UNBOUND.
• Invert: the JOYSTICK INVERT: … rows right below flip a control’s direction (for example a throttle that reads backwards for the collective).
• LIVE METER DEVICE chooses a device, and its live meter shows every axis and button as you move them. Use it to see which axis is which before you bind.
• RESTORE JOYSTICK DEFAULTS clears your joystick bindings and binds the connected devices as on first connect.

The gamepad sticks and the keyboard keep their own flight bindings. All of them work at the same time.

Remapping buttons and the hat

Every command row on the CONTROLS page has a JOYSTICK column (next to KEYBOARD / MOUSE, ALTERNATIVE and GAMEPAD).

1. On the CONTROLS page, select the command row (for example FIRE, CYCLE WEAPON, NEXT TARGET, FLARES).
2. Use Left / Right to move to the JOYSTICK column.
3. Press Enter, then press the stick button or push the hat in the direction you want. The cell shows it, for example JOY1 BTN 3 or JOY1 HAT UP.

Rules:

• The JOYSTICK column only takes joystick buttons and hat directions (“JOYSTICK BUTTON OR HAT DIRECTION”), and the other columns don’t take joystick keys. So binding a stick button never takes a key away from your keyboard or gamepad layout.
• If the button already does something else, you’re asked: SWAP THE TWO KEYS, OR UNBIND THE OTHER.
• Delete / X / right click unbinds the selected cell. Backspace / Y restores the row. RESTORE ALL KEY BINDINGS (top of the page) restores every row, joystick column included.
• CYCLE WEAPON (cannon > Hellfire > Hydra > Stinger, skipping weapons the helicopter doesn’t carry) exists for sticks with few buttons. It has no default key on the keyboard or pad.
• On-screen prompts show joystick names (JOY1 BTN 3) when the command has a joystick button, and the keyboard key otherwise.

Tuning an axis

Dead zones, sensitivity and response curves for joystick axes are on the INPUT page.

1. Settings > INPUT, row AXIS OR DEVICE: choose JOYSTICK CYCLIC ROLL, JOYSTICK CYCLIC PITCH, JOYSTICK PEDALS or JOYSTICK COLLECTIVE.
2. Adjust:
   • INNER DEAD ZONE: how far the axis can move from centre before anything happens. Raise it if the helicopter drifts with your hands off the stick. Defaults: 3 % roll and pitch, 5 % pedals, 0 collective.
   • OUTER DEAD ZONE (FULL AT): how far you must push to get full deflection. Lower it if your stick never quite reaches the end.
   • SENSITIVITY: the output scale (0.25 to 3).
   • RESPONSE CURVE: LINEAR, or EXPONENTIAL for fine control near centre with full authority at the ends. EXPONENTIAL AMOUNT sets how strong the curve is.
   • INVERT … flips the direction (the same setting as JOYSTICK INVERT on the Controls page).
3. The live panel shows the raw and shaped value as you move the axis, so you can see the effect.
4. RESTORE THIS AXIS puts that axis back to its default feel.

On the INPUT page the sticks only test the axes and don’t move the menu focus. Navigate with the d-pad, the keyboard or the mouse.

An ABSOLUTE collective lever ignores the dead zones and curve (a lever position has no “centre” to dead-zone); only INVERT applies to it.

The collective lever: ABSOLUTE or CENTRED

COLLECTIVE LEVER on the Controls page (JOYSTICK section) chooses how your collective axis is read.

ABSOLUTE (A LEVER OR THROTTLE), the default. For a lever, throttle or slider that stays where you put it.

• EXPERT: the lever position is the collective. Bottom = minimum pitch, top = maximum.
• ASSISTED and ARCADE: the middle of the lever (45-55 %) holds your height. Above it you climb, below it you descend, faster the further you go; the ends give the full climb and descent rates. Park the lever in the middle to hover.
• While the lever is plugged in, the keyboard and gamepad collective don’t move the collective in EXPERT (the lever is the collective). In ASSISTED and ARCADE they add to the lever’s command. If the lever is unplugged, the keys and pad fly the collective again.

CENTRED (A SPRING-CENTRED AXIS). For an axis that springs back to the middle (a stick’s Z axis, a thumb slider with a spring, or a twist you use as the collective).

• It works like the gamepad’s collective: push up to climb, down to descend, let go to hold.

If your helicopter climbs or sinks with the lever untouched in ASSISTED, the lever is probably reading backwards: turn on JOYSTICK INVERT: COLLECTIVE.

Common setups

Stick only (with a twist and a throttle wheel), e.g. Thrustmaster T.16000M, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro

• Defaults are usually right: X / Y cyclic, twist pedals, throttle wheel collective (ABSOLUTE).
• If the throttle wheel reads backwards, turn on JOYSTICK INVERT: COLLECTIVE.

HOTAS (stick + throttle), e.g. Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS, TWCS, Logitech X56, VKB/Virpil

• The stick gets the cyclic, the throttle the collective (ABSOLUTE).
• Put weapons on the stick’s buttons and countermeasures and targeting on the throttle’s buttons and hat in the JOYSTICK column.

Stick + rudder pedals

• The pedals take the pedal axis from the stick’s twist automatically.
• The toe brakes stay unbound (a helicopter has no wheel brakes in this game). Bind them to something if you like, by binding any axis row and pressing a toe brake.

Helicopter collective (a real collective lever)

• Set COLLECTIVE LEVER to ABSOLUTE and fly EXPERT for the real thing: the lever position is the collective.
• In ASSISTED the middle of the lever is a hover.

Two devices that report the same name

• They’re told apart by slot (JOY1, JOY2). If Windows changes their order, re-bind on the Controls page; the device list shows which is which.

Troubleshooting

“NO JOYSTICK DETECTED”

• Check that Windows sees the device: press Win+R, type joy.cpl, Enter. If it isn’t listed there, the game can’t see it either (driver, cable, USB hub).
• An Xbox-style gamepad is not listed as a joystick. That’s on purpose, and it works as a gamepad.
• Give it two seconds after plugging in.

An axis does the opposite of what I want

• Turn on JOYSTICK INVERT for that control (Controls page) or INVERT on the Input page.

The helicopter drifts with my hands off the stick

• Raise INNER DEAD ZONE for that axis on the Input page, or recalibrate the stick in joy.cpl.

I bound the wrong axis

• Use LIVE METER DEVICE to watch which axis moves, then bind again. A fresh bind replaces the old one.

My stick stops working when I click on another window

• The game ignores real controllers while it isn’t the active window (like the keyboard), so you can’t fly by accident while chatting. Click back into the game.

Something else is off

• Settings > Gameplay > SUPPORT > COPY SUPPORT INFO puts a report on the clipboard (your PC, settings and the game’s recent log, which names the controllers it found; your user name is removed). Send it to us with a sentence about what happened. The INPUT page’s FLIGHT CONTROLLERS line also shows every device the game sees.

Starting the game without joystick support

• Add -ComancheNoJoystick to the launch options (Steam: right click the game > Properties > Launch options). Only needed if a driver misbehaves.

Reference

How joystick controls are named

The numbering is Windows’ own (the same order as the buttons in joy.cpl). Twist on most sticks is RZ; throttle wheels and sliders are SLIDER1 or Z.

Where it’s saved

Your joystick bindings and tuning are saved with the rest of your settings (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Comanche2027\Saved\Settings\comanche-settings.json, section controls). Like all settings they stay on this PC: Steam Cloud carries only campaign progress, because controllers and screens differ between PCs. Settings from an older version of the game load unchanged.