Ein Life-Saver!
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r/MicrosoftFlightSim - X-55 success!Instructions as follows...
If you have a Saitek x55 HOTAS, you'll share my frustration with MS for not having direct support for it, despite it being almost identical to the x56, which is supported. So that made me go in and try to trick the sim into thinking I had an x56. Here is what I did...
Link: www.reddit.com Instructions as follows...
If you have a Saitek x55 hotas, you'll share my frustration with MS for not having direct support for it, despite it being almost identical to the x56, which is supported. So that made me go in and try to trick the sim into thinking I had an x56. Here is what I did.
NOTE that from feedback in another thread, this may not work due to permissions issues if you installed the sim via the microsoft store or the Xbox service. These instructions assume you have installed via Steam. ALSO, you will be editing a game file, so make a backup of the file before you make any changes.
This assumes the game itself is installed in the default folder in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator" . You'll obviously need to edit the files in your install folder. The folder that you specified in the update process (the 90gb download) is irrelevant.
First, locate the input config files. These are in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\Input" There are two x56 xml files. Saitek_Pro_Flight_X-56_Rhino_Stick.xml and Saitek_Pro_Flight_X-56_Rhino_Throttle.xml. You can either edit these files directly (backup first), or make copies and edit those. I did the latter so that is what I will describe. Rename the copies by changing the "X-56" to "X-55". Now you need to edit these in a text editor like Notepad++ or Sublime, but I suppose standard notepad will work as well.
You'll need to change the GUID and Product ID in line 4 of each of your new files. For Saitek_Pro_Flight_X-55_Rhino_Stick.xml line 4 should be chaged to...
<Device DeviceName="Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Stick" GUID="745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da" ProductID="2215">
Note the two spaces at the start of the line, I don't know if this matters or not in an xml... or alternately, you can copy/paste just the numbers themselves. EDIT **\*The formatting of this message eliminated the two spaces at the start of that line, so make sure you have them**\*
For Saitek_Pro_Flight_X-55_Rhino_Throttle.xml change line 4 or the ID numbers to...
<Device DeviceName="Saitek Pro Flight X-55 Rhino Throttle" GUID="745a17a0-74d3-11d0-b6fe-00a0c90f57da" ProductID="A215">
Save the files. If you run the sim now, it should recognize the stick and throttle, but you will still see a question mark graphic in the setup page. To fix this, you'll need to edit another file. This one is here...
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MicrosoftFlightSimulator\Packages\fs-base-ui\DeviceConfig\DeviceConfig.xml"
You will need to change the product IDs here. I copied the two x-56 lines and changed the ID's. If you copy the lines and change the ID's on the new ones, you should have the following in the file (the bottom two are the changed lines...)
<Device ProductId="0x2221" TextureFolder="Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Stick" /> <!-- Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Stick -->
<Device ProductId="0xA221" TextureFolder="Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Throttle" /> <!-- Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Throttle -->
<Device ProductId="0x2215" TextureFolder="Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Stick" /> <!-- Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Stick -->
<Device ProductId="0xA215" TextureFolder="Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Throttle" /> <!-- Saitek Pro Flight X-56 Rhino Throttle -->
Some things to note here. You are adding two lines, but the ONLY change to the 2 new lines is the Product ID. Leave the "X-56" the same in the new lines. The final 2 digits of the x-55 ID is 15, whereas the x-56 is 21. Also keep the spaces at the start (1 tab). **\*The formatting of this message eliminated the tab at the start of these lines, so make sure you have them**\*
Save that file (after making a backup of the old one).
Now when starting the sim and going into the controls screen, you will now see a diagram of the stick and throttle with numbers pointing to the different inputs, which is required to be able to figure out what is what.
So that's it. I have only done minimal testing, but it should work. There are two buttons that are different between the x-55 and x-56, but I'm not sure what they are (but is the button mid left on the x-55 stick now a 4 way on the x56?). I'd be curious as to the actual difference, but it could affect something, but that something should be able to be re-assigned.
This works for me, it would be cool if someone can confirm it works for them (and let me know if my directions are clear).
Happy flying