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Dialog Pane
The Dialog Pane is where you specify what the control that you have selected in the Selector Pane is to do in the map. There is also a special Dialog Pane that's used when you select the Program Settings tab on the Selection Pane. This contains settings that pertain to the map as a whole.

Depending on the control type, you can have act as a button or axis on one of the Control Manager Devices, or you can program it to send characters or to control the mouse. There are several variations on the Dialog Pane depending on the type of device and function that you want to program, but they all share a similar layout which looks something like this:


There are four basics types of Dialog Panes, depending on which type of control you're trying to program. Within each type, there are subtypes depending on whether the control is being programmed to control a DirectX device or to send characters. The four basic types are:

Axis Dialogs

Button Dialogs

POV Dialogs

Program Settings Dialog

This section covers those items that are common to all dialog types. For specific information. You should read this section first to get a general idea of how the Dialog Panes work before going on to dialogs for specific control types.

Settings Box

At the top of the Dialog Pane is the is an area termed the "Settings Box" which runs the full width of the pane. It shows the name of the currently selected control and will contain a checkbox or two depending on the type of control selected.

Selector Panel

Toward the right end of the Settings Box there is a small box called the "Selector Panel". It's active for X/Y axes, POVs, and hat switches and is used to select which particular direction or axis is being programmed when the selected control is one that has multiple components.

Mode Tabs

Below the Settings Box are the "Mode Tabs". A Control Manager map can operate in as many as four different modes if desired to increase the number of functions that can be programmed to any particular control. The "Mode Tabs" select which of the four possible Modes the function being programming applies to. See the section on Map Modes for more information on using Modes.

Control Settings

Below the Mode Tabs is the "Control Settings" area. This is where you define what action that control will take. These will generally be joystick axis or joystick button IDs if the control is to be assigned to a Control Manager Device. They'll be text boxes of one sort or another if the control is being used to send characters.

Comment Box

All dialogs have a "Comment" box down at the bottom. This can be used to enter some descriptive text about what the control is programmed to do if desired.

Dialog Types

There are three basic groups for these dialogs, one for use with Buttons, one for use with Axes, and one for use with the POV. Each is covered in detail in the following sections.

DirectX Mode vs Programmed Mode

Most of the dialogs can be programmed in either "DirectX Mode" or in "Programmed Mode". While the details vary for each dialog type, the principles are essentially the same for them all. In general, DirectX Mode is to be preferred over Programmed Mode since DirectX Mode is normally faster in operation and, in the case of axes, gives a finer degree of control. Programmed Mode is more useful in older sims that don't provide a great deal of button support and its functions are primarily under keyboard control. It is also useful when multiple commands need to be sent, or when the command itself is a text string of some sort, perhaps sending messages to other players in the game.

DirectX Mode

In "DirectX Mode", the control is assigned to operate a control on one of the Control Manager Devices that will appear in the Windows Game Controllers Applet. This is the "patch panel" type of operation that allows you to connect any button or axis on any of your controllers to a button or axis on a device that Windows will see.

When you assign a control, you normally set a "DirectX Device" and a "DirectX Control" using the Dialog Pane. The DirectX Device is specified as a Control Manager Device ID, i.e. "CM Device 1", "CM Device 2", etc. The Control Manager creates Control Manager Devices for each CM Device ID referenced.

Exceptions to this rule can arise if you "skip" a Control Manager ID. For example, if you only assign to "CM Device 1" and "CM Device 3", the controls will end up on "Control Manager Device 1" and "Control Manager Device 2". This is because there is nothing assigned to "CM Device 2" and the Control Manager cannot skip controller IDs, it will always create "Control Manager Device 1" and "Control Manager Device 2" first. This can occur if a map is created for something like a FighterStick, ProThrottle, and ProPedals, and the ProThrottle is subsequently removed.

When you first Add a device to the map, it defaults to DirectX Mode and the controls are assigned as they would be in Direct Mode, i.e. the controls on the first controller you add to the map will be assigned to "CM Device 1" with Button 1 on the controller ending up on Button 1 of "Control Manager Device 1". Simply adding all of your controllers to the map and downloading it will give you essentially the same thing that you would have in Direct Mode, the main difference will be that the device names that show up in the Windows Game Controller will be Control Manager Devices rather than the actual controller names (FighterStick, ProThrottle, Yoke LE, etc.).

Programmed Mode

In "Programmed Mode", an axis or button is programmed to send characters as if they were sent by the keyboard. When a control is set up for Programmed Mode, there is no corresponding control on any Control Manager Device in the Windows Game Controllers applet, an axis or button can't be assigned to operate both at one time.