So apparently 1.2.8 came with an unannounced change in input lua scripting. The files it uses now have a different name format (.diff.lua instead of just .lua) and seem to be completely incompatible with old profile export files.

Is there any information available on this? I've looked and I can't find it mentioned anywhere, but I can't believe I'm the only person to have noticed. The new file structure looks considerably more cryptic than the old one with bizarre entries like "d109pnilunilcdnilvdnilvpnilvunil". It also looks like the new files are missing a lot of the commands. The A10C in particular shows this, the new file is tiny with only a handful of commands shown, the old one has every single one including the unbound ones.

I'm more than a bit puzzled and frustrated here. It seems that DCS can still read the old lua config files since it kept my old configurations which were stored in the old format, but now it refuses to read from the files that I imported them from in the first place. It auto converts as soon as you select the key config in game of a platform, but it refuses to convert from a saved configuration file of the kind used to share key binds.

I've figured out a way to maintain compatibility with the old export file type though. What you do is take the file, copy it to the game's config directory for the platform of choice (you know, inside config/input/platformname/joystick), and rename it as the name that game uses to identify the control. So my Warthog joystick uses a file named like "HOTAS Warthog" which then has a ton of numbers after it. It used to use a .lua extention, now it uses .diff.lua, but the first part of the name is the same. I take the config file I downloaded from wherever, I rename it with that HOTAS Warthog plus a bunch of numbers name, with the normal .lua extention. First deleting the file of the same name, if it's there, and delete the diff.lua file before loading up the game just to be sure. I'm not sure what happens if you don't.

If you do that it seems that DCS will go through the autoconvert process and create a useable diff.lua file out of the original lua file. I just tested it with a friend's system and it seems to have worked.

Now why ED couldn't build that functionality into the load command I'll never know.

I'm still left wondering if this is the end of manual key binding. Which is a concern since there were some things that could only be done through manual file editing. It almost looks like you'd need to get ahold of an old lua file, make the changes to it, and then let DCS autoconvert it.

The diff.lua is long overdue, and is the answer to not having to redo all of your controller profiles every time something is updated.

Instead of a lua file containing an entire profile, the diff lua only tracks deviations from the default luas. This means that if/when ED changes their default lua files, the diff.luas will still be valid.

Also, FWIW, as long as you keep your old lua files in place when updating to 1.2.8, DCS World will use those lua files to create the diff.luas in your DCS\Config\Input\<aircraft> folders.

Yes, I know it can upgrade older lua files, I thought I made that clear based on my description of how you can exploit that to force it to upgrade a saved config file and my frustration that they couldn't give the load command the ability to do the same thing.

My concern was that manual editing had just been made impossible, or at least more difficult and possibly significantly more clunky.

But further testing seems to suggest that the only reason to manually edit the input files has been removed. The "up" key command seems to have stopped working. The ability to set a different command for when you push a button down (or turn a toggle switch on) and when you release it was the main reason to manually edit the input files. But it looks like it doesn't work any more. It's still in the original lua files, but if I mess with any assigned up commands nothing happens. That was the one thing that wasn't accessible from the in game configuration screen.

I'm not sure, but it looks like the A10C, the only platform where that function ever really worked, has been reconfigured so that it's no longer needed.

So... maybe they managed to make manual editing unnecessary. But I'm wondering if any home cockpit users have been unable to get the game set up right for their setup. Every theoretical config I've looked at would seem to still work, but I can't help but feel that some flexibility has been lost. There have to be some things that used to be possible that can't be done anymore.

Using the instructions from

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2036361&postcount=40

I am able to continue using my 1.2.7 configuration file for the Black Shark, which makes use of the "up" functionality. Also, the default profile for the A-10C for the HOTAS Warthog still makes use of the "up" functionality.

As you pointed out, it is the main motivation for manually editing the input config files (at least for me), and I fail to understand why ED did not update the input configuration system properly, and started supporting "up" both in their new .diff.lua format and, more importantly, in the configuration interface.

Let's hope that one day ED will improve their input configuration interface -- which is already rather good compared to what other games and sims offer -- in that way.

You can still do manual configurations, but any additions need to be in the controller LUA files in the DCS World\Mods\aircrafts\<module> folder. I have done this to add NVGs to the A-10A and Su-25A/T, as well as add the UH-1 XM60 sight elevation to an analog axis.

My files got all messed up when upgrading, I ended up erasing the saved game dcs folder. I was still having CTD . I downgraded to 1.2.7 for now, which sucks because I was having fun with the TF51D , I will probably upgrade again without the input files and rebuild them

This change really screwed up the Lua profiles I was working on for the Warthog, and if you edit the default Lua bindings, those will just get erased with the next update, completely defeating the purpose of the diff.lua system.

The F-15C in particular has a few new bindings and a completely overhauled autopilot interface, so I'm not sure I should just carry over the old 1.2.7 profile.

Unfortunately, the diff.lua files are so different in format and syntax that they're much harder to read and edit, and the reason I dove into Lua editing in the first place was, as mentioned, to add proper bindings to the release states of the DirectInput buttons. Getting the autopilot and flaps switches on the Warthog throttle to work as intended absolutely relies on this, among other things like cannon mode.

Of course, this wouldn't be a problem if Eagle Dynamics just had good controller profiles in place to begin with. The fact that they have a near-perfect, plug-and-play A-10C profile for the Warthog and yet don't even bother with all the other aircraft, even the A-10A of all things, is quite baffling. Then there's that Saitek X-52 profile that changes little more than mapping both trigger stages...

The nice thing about "converting" a lua to a diff.lua is that you can have a different command structure, but you won't carry over the obsolete baggage that you would with the old lua system. For example, you mention the autopilot (which is now two commands instead of 8 or 9). You will likely have to remap these, but that's because they have a new name and the diff.lua won't bring over anything that is obsolete.

In other words (providing everything works as it should), the most you lose bringing a lua to a diff.lua is anything that has changed in the most recent update. Anything that remains the same as far as structure in the default luas should carry over.

What a load of [edited] again from ED.

Forgot to change accounts?

The OP is a year old. It's a bit late to fuss about it.