Thrustmaster Joystick not recognized - "No controller connected"

[Damiana]

Hello everyone,

I am playing on a PC with Windows 10.
I recently dug into No Man's Sky and figured that it could be much fun to fly the spaceship with a joystick. I had an unused Thrustmaster USB (that is the exact name, it's the simple version, not one of the expensive devices) sitting on the shelf and connected it. It works with generic windows drivers and got installed.
Now windows has an "USB game controller" installed and it reacts on the calibration tab.
When I launch steam, however, it does not seem to recognize the stick properly.
In the games, it does not work.
When I want to remap the controller settings in normal view, it always says "No controller connected". In Big Picture Mode I have the same issue.
I have played around with all the recoomended tricks - forced off in BMP, different controller support boxes checked, etc.
Nothing helps. Steam does not recognize the joystick.
However, there seem to be many people using this exact stick and having success.

Can anyone help me getting this thing recognized and workin with steam?

Thanks!

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Steam is never going to show Joysticks. For example, Steam would never show a Microsoft or Logitech USB Joystick or Thrustmaster or Saitek Flight Stick + Throttle.

You should see the device and be able to see it all working by pressing WINKEY+R and type JOY.CPL and click OK. Look through there.

In games that support such input devices it should be plug and play. Long as the device is plugged in prior to game launch.

If you have multiple controllers, only plug in the one you are about to use for the game you are about to launch.

Flying and Driving games I have no issues with old USB joysticks such as various ones from Microsoft, Logitech, Thrustmaster. Steam won't see them, but the games do.

[Damiana]

Well, in JOY.CPL Windows shows an "USB Game Controller".
However, in No Man's SKy it does not work.
And steam says "No controller connected".

I am usually playing with mouse and keyboard, so there is no other game controller connected.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Again, Steam is never supposed to show Joysticks, that is not the problem. That game most likely just doesn't work with Joysticks. It's meant for controllers like Xbox One, One X, Core... or Sony DS4/DS5 types. The cheap Logitech F3/F7 series also works just like an Xbox controller.

No Man's Sky was meant to play either KB+Mouse or with those console game controllers. It's not a flight Sim by any means. Now in Microsoft Flight Sim, Euro Truck, American Truck, Project Cars, Ace Combat and similar games your generic usb Joystick should work in-game.

[Damiana]

But shouldn't Steam recognize the Stick at least in general?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

NO.

It never has. Steam only shows hand held console game controllers.

Now it might be possible with many games that if you launch Steam > BigPictureMode > launch your game > after the game loads up go to the BPM Overlay and customize keybinds for that game. For example, assigning Keyboard controls to a Joystick for example. I've done this for a couple of games that didn't give me any other options. A few alpha or beta games I ahd tested were a work in progress and only offered Keyboard + Mouse controls so I used BPM to assign keybinds to the Joystick. Which worked just fine doing that.

But no, Steam is not going to show your Joystick, not a picture of it, not a config you can assign to it, etc. That is normal.

[Julien, cut it out.]

Depending by which means (API) the controller communicates with the OS/ game, you need additional drivers and/or software.
If a joystick is in the end usable in any game, depends on the game itself (native support) or on how the software translates the joystick input.

If the joystick uses XInput, Windows should recognize it as an Xbox controller. All (modern) games support XInput. Steam Input can support the input device, but does not have to. Disabling Steam Input is then the best option.

Very likely, the joystick uses DInput, indicated by Windows recognizing it as USB-Gamecontroller.

https://support.thrustmaster.com/en/cat-joysticks-en/

Red the manual. Download the driver/ software.
Depending on how the software translates the usb input and how the No Man's Sky handles input, the easiest solution might be a 'DInput to XInput wrapper'.