It has been said before and it is my turn.
I took the plunge and purchased 2024 and in just 24 hours I am frustrated with thew UI for control settings. Whoever the person was who designed the UI should have stayed home that day.
I have watched many of the tutorial videos and none of them actually walk thru the processes of setting up an aircraft.
I realise this is a whole new sim but, heck could they have made it any more difficult. It is a real mind bending task.
I anybody can steer me to a useful tutorial it would be much appreciated.
Anyway it’s time for a cold frothy, cheers fellow frustrated simmers.
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There are a number of guides on YouTube if you search for “ msfs 2024 controls setup tutorial “
Good luck! I find it pretty good. Just enough to keep me away from investing in Spad… for now!
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I have almost given up trying to setup controls in FS2024. With X-Plane 12 and most other flight sims setting up the controls is a more or less mundane and can be accomplished quickly. Not the same in FS2024. I have FS2024 “working” but…
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It’s a shame that this is almost a necessity with FS2024.
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It’s not necessary, really. It took a couple of days to figure out at launch but I didn’t need any help to do so 
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Me either, I adjusted to it quite quickly, and actually find it easier to use now, but, I was frustrated right off the bat!
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To me it was a bit frustrating to figure out the controls section, but I’m alright with it now. As for the other parts of the UI, that’s not what I paid for so I don’t really care that much. I go to the Graphics settings and mess with them occasionally and I’ve pretty much memorized where everything is, as most of you have done. Sure, they could make improvements, but meh, no big deal.
I was lucky. Because I lost my control settings twice in 2020 I completely transitioned to FSUIPC. And this now also works perfectly in 2024 without a change.
I think this is the same for AAO and Spad.
After playing around with the controls for a few days I still don’t fully understand it. Why they couldn’t have copied the best practices over at x-plane is beyond me.
The way x plane does it: select/create an aircraft profile, and then bind your peripherals. You can copy over aircraft profiles to make new ones without starting from scratch.
The way MSFS does it: click on each peripheral, then you have another 3 layers of controls that need to be set (general, aircraft type, and aircraft specific).
If some of the best users say it took them a couple days to figure out, just imagine what the average user is facing.
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Maybe because:
a) Laminar could held some design patents on their UI in theory, so copycatting is simply a legal risk to avoid if you don’t want to spent money onto a person digging through patents for an in comparison rarely used UI page
b) It’s not XP. If people want something to be XP they shall go for it. It would be more easy to visually turn XP into a MSFSish thing than modeling MSFS into XP, especially on the UI side of things which is not “just” manipulating shaders an exchanging ground textures
I too found it frustrating, but figured it out; however I find it nearly impossible to bind anything to my corded keyboard on XBX. It does the searching thing but doesn’t recognise the key that I press, but the keyboard works when typing in the search bar for airports etc. Even when I do manage to assign a key, it then doesn’t work when pressed, so for now, as much as I want to use 2024, I have been sticking to 2020. I’ll add that I have been using 2024 on Game Pass as a try before you buy. I do like a lot about it, but am happy to wait for a few updates before actually buying it. I’m also contemplating buying a PC.
I said “best practices” and not literally copy the UI. I’ll wager that if you asked anyone that plays both sims they will say the xp controls ease-of-use is significantly better than MSFS, without sacrificing any functionality.
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Still “best practice” in the eye of someone trying to find a patent/copyright violation (lawyers) could be enough to start a court case, just like “Apple” tried on logos which featured an apple, even if it was a random Cafe/Bakery somewhere in Germany (and thus the case basically was revoked).
And if Laminar has a patent on the general layout and functionality of their controls settings page and assignment system (which could be the case as their software is FAA approved and as such likely better protected than any other random flight simulator) they at least could force MS into a situation they’d have to proof they didn’t get too inspired by Laminars brainchild.
As both companies as US based it would be at least that easy.
Finally have my head wrapped around the control UI, I think. A bit of fiddling around.
As time gowes on it will become easier(fingers crossed).
Thanks for the input from the community.
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Hi,
I just can’t understand why MSFS 2024 needs three layers to set up a control function.
Still struggling with this whole setup.
I have no issues with setting up my controls in MSFS 2020, X-Plane or DCS, but MSFS 2024 is just a nightmare for me.
Haven’t they heard of the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) principle?
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The controls UI is terrible and IMHO will have to improve if this sim is to survive.
Many of us who are lucky enough to have the time, and enjoy a bit of a challenge, have got it to work, sort-of. It’s not all bad, but without a decent user manual or description a system of such complexity is going to remain unutilised. Even though I can make things work I have no idea if I’m doing what the designer intended.
By the way, for more than 40 years in real life a long time ago I was an electrical engineer mostly in the new-fangled computer industry, and wrote user manuals and designed training courses for complicated instrumentation and control systems. I saw the birth of the old ISO9000 quality standards, and got accreditation for my company and as a consultant. Training and documenttion used to be important – what’s happened in the age of AI? Is this laxity we’re seeing just a gaming industry thing?
Maybe improvements are still coming, like Christmas, but the result is dozens of unofficial and temporary workarounds by clever people, a handful of useful videos, and much dependence on third party apps like SPAD and AAO, and free plugins for Streamdecks etc.
I hope systems engineering works better than this in serious places, like the military and power indusries. Please somebody, tell me it does?
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I am glad other users here have figured out the control setups. I am pretty good at computers and figuring things out but honestly the control setups in FS2024 just mystify me and I have to think that the person who designed this was a computer genius or his 12 year old son FWIW
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I am going to give this guy a shot.
He did a brilliant tutorial for 2020 and if this one for 2024 is half as good then setup of the controls should be easy enough.
Have a look i8f you are struggling.
One layer is for general functions not tied to flight controls, such as camera controls, that are applicable across the board. You may just need one of these.
The next layer is for flight controls that can be extended to all aircraft within a particular classification, such as single engine propeller, multi-engine jet, helicopters, etc. You may have several of these.
The third is for controls unique to one particular aircraft.
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Hi @TheM00ps ,
Thank you for your explanation.
But is this really necessary?
In all other sims you can assign one profile to each aircraft. I use a profile for all my single engine airplanes, or one profile for all my helicopters, one for my gliders etc. For certain tubeliners I use a profile for PMDG 737s and 777s.
In X-Plane as well as in DCS, the sim KEEPS these assignments and uses them automatically whenever that specific aircraft is selected.
In MSFS 2020 I have to change the assignments because MSFS 2020 uses the same profile of the previous flight, regardless of which aircraft type was chosen.
MSFS 2024 usually loses many control assignments. Even the settings for my mouse and keyboard are changed to some default, which I cannot use, every time when I try to change an aircraft.
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