Thrustmaster SOL-R 4 HOTAS for Star Citizen

Set the stick to right-handed

The stick base has a LEFT HANDED / RIGHT HANDED switch on the back. Set it to RIGHT. Windows then lists two controllers, Sol-R [R] Flightstick and Sol-R 6 Throttle, and the profile is written for exactly those names. Leave PoV enabled on the stick (the factory setting).

Update the firmware, skip T.A.R.G.E.T.

Install the driver package from Thrustmaster support and update both devices; Thrustmaster says they need current firmware to work properly in games. You don’t need T.A.R.G.E.T. for this profile. While a T.A.R.G.E.T. profile runs it hides the real devices behind a virtual controller, so stop it before you fly.

Check both devices in Windows

Press Win+R, run joy.cpl, and open each device’s Properties. Move every axis, including the throttle’s rudder (twist the handle), its mini-stick and the antenna knob, and press a few buttons.

Copy the profile into the game

Put your XML (ours is layout_AbsoluteGaming_SOLR4.xml; yours is whatever the generator named it) in your mappings folder:

Load the profile

Start the game, open the console with ~ and run this, with no .xml on the end (the generator shows the command for your own file):

Or use Options › Keybindings › Advanced Controls Customization › Control Profiles and load it there.

Make sure the stick is joystick 1

The stick must be joystick 1 and the throttle joystick 2. If moving the throttle slide pitches the ship, they are swapped. Open the console and run this, then run the pp_rebindkeys line again:

Check the throttle direction

Slide forward should fly forward, the middle is stop and back is reverse; the 50% detent makes a handy stop marker. If it runs backwards, go to Options › Keybindings, pick Joystick / HOTAS 2, open Inversion Settings and flip the strafe forward/backward invert.

Deadzones, only if you need them

Both devices use Hall-effect sensors, so drift is rare. If something creeps at rest, give that axis a small deadzone (0.02 to 0.05) in Options › Keybindings. The stick twist and the throttle mini-stick usually want the most.

Pick a starting form

Start from scratch with the blank form, or start from our layout with the Absolute Gaming map, where every box is already filled in and you only change what you don’t like. Both have all 74 controls: 44 buttons and 7 axes on the stick, 18 buttons and 5 axes on the throttle.

Blank form (PDF) Absolute Gaming map (PDF)

Fill it in

Open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader, or in Chrome or Edge. Each page shows the stick grip, the stick base or the throttle with Thrustmaster’s button numbers tagged on the photo. Click a box and pick an action from the list, or just type your best guess (“flares”, “deploy gear”, “more power to shields”); the generator works out what you meant and lets you check it. Leave a box empty to keep that control unbound.

Not sure what something is called? In the game, Options › Keybindings lists every action. The community Binding Database lists every action with CIG’s default bindings.

Save the PDF

Use Save (Ctrl+S), not Print, so your choices stay in the file.

Drop it below and check the matches

Every box you filled appears in a list. Exact matches are ready. Check this means we matched what you typed to the closest game action, so make sure it’s right. Pick one means we couldn’t tell, so choose from the list. You can change any row. If you put the same action on two controls, we tell you and keep the first.

Name it, tell us where the game lives, download

Give your profile a name and enter your RSI Launcher library folder (in the launcher’s settings; the default is C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries). We show the exact folder the file goes in and the command that loads it.

Install and load it

Put the downloaded XML in the folder shown, start the game, open the console with ~, and run the command shown. If you haven’t yet, do steps 1 to 3 and 6 to 8 of the HOTAS setup above.