When MSFS (2020) first came out, I spent some time setting up my controls the way I wanted them. I have a CH Pro setup (Throttle, Fighterstick, and Pedals) which gives me enough buttons and switches to allow me to most of what I want to do without having to take my hands of the two main devices and use the keyboard or mouse. And in my case, that's mostly about camera views and just basic aircraft controls (up, down, left, right, brakes, trim, kind of stuff). I don't need fast access to any of the aircraft controls like ATC, AP etc as I never use that stuff.

Than along comes 2024, and fortunately, given that I'm only using mostly basic controls, things seemed to carry across reasonably smoothly once I'd (thought I'd) got to grips with the insanity of the new menus for the controls. I'd still like to know when "translate" became a synonym for "move" though, as I've not come across that anywhere else outside these menus before.

But anyway, with a bit of jigging around I resumed with everything sort of the way I wanted it.

A couple of days ago, I bought a copy of Chaseplane for 2024, as I remember everybody raving about it in P3D days, and lots of praise for it in MSFS. Installed it and panicked as soon as I saw it wanted to erase all my settings, but bit the bullet and let it go ahead. Then found that I'd have to set up everything again using CP. Given that my requirements are for essentially generic views, and realising that in that sense I already had most of what CP provided I removed it and got my native MSFS 2024 settings back.

One of the things I had been wanting to do was tie a lot more of these sort of commands in to a Streamdeck XL I bought a way back. I've had a couple of attempts to get this set up in the past but have found it to be too much messing around, particularly if A&O is involved. I'd always thought it should just be a case of assigning MSFS keystrokes to the SD via the SD's own utility. It worked that way for most other commands but didn't seem to want to do it for things like setting and displaying the ten custom views in the MSFS cameras. I spent several days checking out youtubes about SD, A&O and various other things, and was tearing my hair out over this as I swear I was doing exactly what was said on the videos but it just wan't happening on my system. Yeah, the SD would record the keystrokes ok but using the SD buttons in MSFS 2024 had zero effect.

So I went back to basics. I have a spreadsheet (big fan of spreadsheets) for my controls setups, and I went back in to that and created a new sheet with ALL the MSFS 2024 commands listed by category, and their default keystrokes. Partly to see just what else could be done within the sim (found some potentially interesting and useful stuff) and also to verify my setup, plus being a spreadsheet makes it easy to check for conflicts/duplicates in a much more user-friendly way that those MSFS menus.

And I found some interesting stuff. In that I saw there were two keyboard profiles - "Keyboard2020transversal" and "Keyboard2024transversal" which I assumed were meant to indicate either the same key functions as 2020 or new functions in 2024. And sure enough, most of the commands relating to the ten custom views in MSFS were either different in 2024 or not even assigned in 2024. Which is why my Streamdeck wasn't "working". It was actually working fine but just implementing keystrokes that no longer did anything in MSFS.

So then I thought I'd go back in to 2020 itself, crosscheck all the keyboard command allocations there, and possibly copy them in to my spreadsheet as well. And I immediately found all sorts of discrepancies between the actual MSFS2020 definitions and MSFS2024's "keyboard2020transversal" profile. 

So my question is, does anybody have an actual, official (hah, chance would be a fine thing) explanation for what those two keyboard profiles in MSFS2024 are meant to represent? Because the "keyboard2020transversal" definitely does not match the original 2020 allocations.

My intention is to create one single profile to use for everything in 2024. Where there are differences between the two included profiles I will probably use the 2024 codings, just to try and ensure that as Asobo makes more unannounced changes I might have at least some chance of staying in step. I won't go over to CP, as I don't see it giving me anything I need that I can't get better from the Streamdeck. 

Camera views, screenshots, replays and all such things are potentially far more powerful in 2024 than the other sims, but just about all the other sims make it a lot more simple just to use the basics. As usual, anything Microsoft has any involvement in gets blighted by overly smart*rsed coding that ends up outhinking itself.

And don't get me started on the whole "translate", "transversal" thing.

Seriously, if anyone does know what the thinking behind those two 2024 profiles is I'd really like to know.

If you use the keyboard at all (I don't) stick to the 2024 transversal one.  It has specific mappings for 2024.

dd

Edited December 27, 2025Dec 27 by Sky_Pilot071

It's confusing as h e l l !!

Those profiles are default profiles you can't delete, ultimately.  If you reset all controller settings and come back into the sim that is what you will find was retained.  

If you're after just the basic 10 custom views you used in 2020 they (ones created by Ctrl-Alt+#) will be present in 2024, however you will likely have other controllers, yoke, TQ etc, that will have button assignments which may/will conflict with these default 'transversal' profiles.  So what you can do is start under General Controls presets, create a Duplicate of the Keyboard 2020 Transversal and rename it.   Next, highlight your Yoke/Stick under Devices, enter a known key combination in the input field that gets you for example a particular Saved Custom View.  In the shot below I have selected TCA YOKE BOEING (pc) 2024 Planes just to illustrate a conflict in that default profile for my yoke, and as you can see Button 3 also does DECREASE FLAPS, and I want it to only LOAD CUSTOM CAM 5:

When you EDIT a default profile, up pops a prompt to create a name for what amounts to a new profile since you can't edit these default Transversal profiles, and in the above example under General controls (since it's camera views which I use the same buttons for all planes), it defaults to My new general profile...i.e., I didn't rename it but could have.

In this image you can see my new Planes profile for my yoke, renamed Default Yoke Controls, and I have deleted the conflicting DECREASE FLAPS assignment that was in the default profile:

It's very confusing and I'm guessing whoever was in charge of this project was..."on the spectrum"...

Good Luck!

 

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Noel

The good thing about the read only templates is you can always refer back to them.  Great thinking on Asobos part.

Of course the hardest thing to wrap your head around is that button assignments are contextual depending on the current view.

The thing I've been doing lately is stacking functions.  Like when I hit the brakes, the throttle drops to idle.  A ton of experimentation but also a ton of fun.

I tried counting all the assignments on the XBOX controller and it has to be close to 100.

dd

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sky_Pilot071

1 hour ago, Noel said:

It's very confusing and I'm guessing whoever was in charge of this project was..."on the spectrum"...

They certainly didn't have a degree in plain English, for sure. And yes, I know it may have been produced by non-English native speakers but if it's going to be published in English it ought to make sense in same.

Anyway, I'm in the process now of setting stuff up again. I will create my own keyboard profile, and it will be based mostly on the 2024 profile but with some 2020 stuff re-instated (like the ten camera views). This is all so that I can then get stuck into setting up my Streamdeck, which needs me to provide keystrokes for it to map. I shall also experiment with some of the MSFS commands I didn't know about, or just never bothered with, on the Streamdeck.

All good fun, and I can see I'm going to end up with a system well set up for what I want.

1 hour ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

button assignments are contextual depending on the current view.

The thing I've been doing lately is stacking functions.

Yep, having fun and getting a lot more control now that I've got my Stick and Throttle set up with views and translate/move button sets that work for most of my views. It makes a lot of sense to have the same buttons controlling the same function when you switch views (Cockpit/External/Photo and Character/Avatar so far). It reinforces the whole muscle memory thing, and means I don't have to move my hands off those controls at all.

Mind you, I have to then unclasp my claws when I finally turn the sim off for the night <grin>. But then, that's why Whisky was invented, isn't it?

My take on the transversal thing is that the sim is not complete yet.

And since the SDK is subject to change, so are the controller / keyboard mappings.

dd

OK, so I've got a whole load of things working now, but I still find myself struggling to actually understand some of this.

Specifically -

I have a "General Controls" profile for my Stick (for example). But it quite happily contains both "General" and "Airplanes" commands.

I also have an "Airplanes Controls" profile for the same stick, and that also contains both "General" and "Airplanes" commands. In fact, the same commands.

Both profiles have unique names, I guess from my initial setup, and annoyingly use different order to display the commands (so making it more difficult to compare).

Can anybody explain this?

I would really like to just have one single profile for everything - keyboard and all my controllers, with all my general and airplanes commands coded in it. I might end up with a couple of specific profiles for things like VTOL aircraft or Helis, but apart from that all aircraft will use the same profiles because my specific needs have nothing to do with flying any aircraft - it's all just sim control and views.

Someone pointed out to me that when, for example, you click on the yoke device, the profiles listed below are unique to that device no matter what you name the profile.  So, if you have 4 devices then there are, at a minimum, 12 profiles.  Three profiles per device; general, airplanes, and specific multiplied by 4 devices.  Specific is only for the aircraft that's currently selected.  So, you could have many more depending on if you use any specific mappings.  Some mappings for the C172 and others for, let's say, the Bonanza.  And there are definitely differences in available specific commands between aircraft.  For example, the C172 MFD commands are specific only.  The Bonanza doesn't have any MFD commands under specific or anywhere else for that matter.  They just don't exist.  It's a bug that's been documented for both 2020 and 2024.  I was pulling my hair out until I found that out.  What that means is the MFD commands being specific you will need to create a specific profile for each aircraft to bind them to any device.  

This is a prime example of a programmer designing something with no user input.  

Just now, Sabre57 said:

Someone pointed out to me that when, for example, you click on the yoke device, the profiles listed below are unique to that device no matter what you name the profile.  So, if you have 4 devices then there are, at a minimum, 12 profiles.  Three profiles per device; general, airplanes, and specific multiplied by 4 devices.  Specific is only for the aircraft that's currently selected.  So, you could have many more depending on if you use any specific mappings.  Some mappings for the C172 and others for, let's say, the Bonanza.  And there are definitely differences in available specific commands between aircraft.  For example, the C172 MFD commands are specific only.  The Bonanza doesn't have any MFD commands under specific or anywhere else for that matter.  They just don't exist.  It's a bug that's been documented for both 2020 and 2024.  I was pulling my hair out until I found that out.  What that means is the MFD commands being specific you will need to create a specific profile for each aircraft to bind them to any device.  

This is a prime example of a programmer designing something with no user input.  

If it was me doing it many folks would be involved like MS folks.

You need to play the game with just a controller to appreciate the design.

dd

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sky_Pilot071

A bit more info, courtesy of Google AI.

It answers a couple of my questions. Point 3 explains a lot of my confusion, definitely. Nice to know I'm not going crazy, even if Asobo are.

I also exported a couple of profiles and had a look at the XML. Not hugely useful, as masses of content that I took to be definitions of unused commands all marked as 'off'. But it did clear up another issue for me. I had been hoping that "import" would let you import one profile into another, but it seems not. And anyway, it seems like you have to have all the different profiles for all your devices regardless.

It sort of offends me to have all these badly documented files (the profiles) hanging around my system but I'll just create my copies, name them appropriately, and learn to live with it, I guess. I'm sure once I get everything set up I'll just forget all about them anyway. 

Which is why I keep a spreadsheet <grin>

Why would asobo not make it easier just to have xml file we can port from 2020 and have our same settings.

Its been a nightmare for me , even after copying and my settings from 2020.

And watching videos.

Mike

 

8 hours ago, mikeymike said:

And watching videos.

I really do feel most of these are a waste of time. Badly made, full of people discovering for themselves how stuff works as they go along (how many times have I heard stuff along the lines of "that's interesting, I didn't know it did that"), appalling presentation in most cases (constant "erm, uh, um" etc), and in a lot of cases - wrong.

I avoid them all unless extremely well recommended, and even then usually only last a minute or two.

What I find very annoying is that I can create a profile for a specific plane and then when I bind something it still wants to create e new profile even when custom binds already are made. At a -for me- random point in the process.