MW5 Remap

A small, fast visual joystick binding editor for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries — with Ace Combat 7 support too. Point-and-click your HOTAS bindings, see them laid out on photos of your real sticks, and — crucially — have them actually work in-game, because each game's joystick handling is more complicated than it looks.

Games (all real — no stubs): MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, Ace Combat 7 (Input.ini), Star Citizen (actionmaps.xml). MSFS 2024 Game Pass isn't supported — it keeps bindings in a protected UWP container that can't be reliably file-edited.

Devices: MOZA AB6 + MHG, MOZA MRP pedals, Thrustmaster Warthog (stick + throttle), and a custom-pedal template you can fill in — all defined once in src/devices.rs and rendered into each game's format.

Why this exists

MechWarrior 5 maps a joystick through two separate files, and most "it won't bind!" pain comes from only knowing about one of them:

File	Maps	Edited by
SavedHOTAS\HOTASMappings.Remap	physical device → token (GenericUSBController_Button1 → Joystick_Button1), per device by VID/PID	hand-edited (no full in-game UI)
GameUserSettings.ini	token → action (Joystick_Button1 → FireWeaponGroup1)	the in-game controls menu

If your stick has no block in HOTASMappings.Remap, none of its inputs reach the game — so the bindings you set in GameUserSettings.ini do nothing. MW5 Remap writes both files for you and keeps them consistent.

It also handles two MW5 gotchas:

• Joystick_Button21+ is invalid — MW5 only has buttons 1–20. The editor never emits dead tokens.
• MW5 rewrites GameUserSettings.ini back to stock defaults on launch. One click (🔒 Lock config) makes the file read-only so your bindings persist.

Features

• Press-to-bind — click Bind, press the button / move the axis, done.

• Live device panel — your actual MOZA AB6 base, MHG grip, and MRP pedals as labelled photos. Numbered callouts (① = Aim Up/Down = Axis1) line up with the grid, and they light up green when you press/move the control — including a 1–20 button board for discovering which physical button is which number.

• POV hat → look in 4/8 directions, with the hat's "ways" drawn as spokes.

• Writes HOTASMappings.Remap for your MOZA devices (preserving any other devices' blocks).

• 🔒 Lock config to stop MW5 resetting your bindings.

• Export diagram — a self-contained HTML control map built from the real device photos:

  

• Auto-update via GitHub Releases (native WinHTTP, no extra runtime).

• Every write is backed up first (to %LOCALAPPDATA%\MW5-Remap\backups).

Install

1. Download MW5-Remap-Setup.exe from the latest release and run it. It installs per-user (no admin) so the in-app updater can replace itself freely. (Or grab the standalone MW5-Remap.exe and run it directly.)

First-time setup

1. Launch MechWarrior 5 once, then quit — this creates the config files.
2. Open MW5 Remap, pick your bindings (or start from the built-in defaults).
3. Click 🎮 Fix HOTAS file — writes your MOZA stick + pedals into HOTASMappings.Remap.
4. Click 💾 Save to game — writes the token→action bindings.
5. Test in-game. If your bindings revert after relaunching MW5, click 🔒 Lock config and they'll hold. (While locked, in-game graphics/audio settings won't save until you unlock.)

Close MW5 before saving — it overwrites its config on exit.

Ace Combat 7

AC7 binds a device's axis/button directly to a flight action in per-device [Joystick-…] sections of %LOCALAPPDATA%\BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment\ACE COMBAT 7\Config\Input.ini. Pick Ace Combat 7 in the game dropdown, bind, and save — or apply the built-in Warthog + pedals layout.

⚠️ AC7 ignores joysticks unless Steam Input is disabled for the game (Steam → AC7 → Properties → Controller → Disable Steam Input).

Hardware

Built and tuned for a MOZA AB6 FFB base + MHG grip (the "Joystick") and MOZA MRP rudder pedals (the "Throttle"), but the file formats and most of the app are generic. The default layout maps:

• Stick gimbal → aim (pitch/yaw), grip buttons → weapons/systems, POV hat → look.
• Rudder slide → turn legs (left/right); press a toe pedal → throttle/forward.

Command line

The same actions are scriptable (handy for headless fixes):

Flag	Does
--write-hotas	write/refresh every known device's block in HOTASMappings.Remap
--ac7-setup	write a default Warthog + pedals layout to Ace Combat 7's Input.ini
--force-defaults	overwrite every action with the known-good default layout
--apply-defaults	fill only unbound actions from the defaults
--lock / --unlock	toggle the read-only lock on GameUserSettings.ini
--diagram	export the HTML control map next to the exe
--devices	list connected joysticks (role, axes, buttons, live tokens)
--selftest	round-trip + structural integrity check on a temp copy

Building from source

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the toolchain, architecture, and release process. Short version:

cargo build            # debug (shows a console for CLI output)
cargo build --release  # release (windowed, no console)

License

MIT © Falkoro