RigReady

RigReady and other tools

Many good tools already do parts of what RigReady does, and some do their part better. If one of them already works for you, keep it.

This page groups those tools by job, says what each one does well, and says where it goes further than RigReady. At the end: what RigReady adds when you want these jobs in one app, and what it does not do.

As of November 2026. Each description comes from the tool's own page; the tools were not tested for this page. Projects change quickly: if something here is wrong or out of date, or a tool is missing, please say so through the issue forms.

Launching games and apps

If starting the sim and its helper apps in the right order is all you need, one of these is the more focused choice. A batch file works too.

  • SimLauncher

    One click starts a sim together with its helper apps (SimHub, Crew Chief, Trading Paints, Garage 61 and up to 20 of your own), in the order you choose and with a delay between them, and can close the helpers when the game exits. Its list of sims covers racing and flight, and its installer is code-signed.

    Licence: GPL-3.0

  • RigStart

    One click or one Stream Deck key starts a racing session: the VR runtime, the wheel software, SimHub and a spotter in order, skipping what is already running, then the game. End session closes it all again. It has VR and Flat profiles per game, Home Assistant webhooks, five languages and a portable version; the webhooks, the other languages and a portable version are not in RigReady. It was called SimLauncher until version 1.8.0, and is a different project from the one above.

    Licence: MIT

  • DCS Pre-Flight Launcher

    For DCS: it finds the companion apps on your PC (SRS, OpenKneeboard, SimAppPro, Virtual Desktop, TrackIR, VoiceAttack, Tacview and more), starts them in order, replays the clicks some of them need after starting, and launches DCS after a countdown you can cancel. Replaying those clicks is something RigReady does not do.

    Licence: MIT

  • Blue Runner

    A launcher for DCS: helper apps started in the order they depend on each other, each with its own delay, DCS started in 2D or in VR, CPU affinity, clearing the shader caches, and backups of MissionScripting.lua and Export.lua. Choosing 2D or VR at launch, CPU affinity and the shader caches are not in RigReady.

    Licence: proprietary, free for personal, non-commercial use

Switching monitors and audio

  • DisplayMagician

    Display profiles, and a desktop shortcut per game that switches the displays and the audio device, starts helper programs, runs the game and can switch back when it closes. It handles NVIDIA Surround, AMD Eyefinity and HDR, which RigReady does not set up, picks games from Steam, Epic, GOG, Uplay and Origin, and has a field-of-view calculator. It has had releases since 2020.

    Licence: GPL-3.0

  • RigShift

    Switches one PC between desk and rig in one step: displays (HDR and NVIDIA Surround included), audio, apps, window positions and desktop icons. It can switch when the wheelbase powers on, and a layout that leaves you without a picture reverts by itself. Switching on wheelbase power and putting windows and desktop icons back are not in RigReady; RigShift also works out the field of view for 18 sims.

    Licence: MIT

DCS bindings, cheat sheets and kneeboards

  • JoyPro 2

    One profile for all your devices in flight and space games (DCS, IL-2, MSFS, X-Plane, Star Citizen and more): a control is placed once and lands in the same spot in every aircraft, with curves, force feedback and a backup before every export. It reaches more games than RigReady, whose bindings editor covers DCS and iRacing. It follows JoyPro, which did this for DCS.

    Licence: GPL-3.0 or later

  • Joystick Diagrams

    Reference cards drawn from your games' binding files, for DCS, MSFS 2020, IL-2, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, Falcon BMS, Joystick Gremlin and OpenKneeboard, with a plugin system for more. It has templates for many more devices than RigReady (Virpil, VKB, WinWing, Thrustmaster, Saitek, CH and others), runs on Linux too, and has had releases since 2020.

    Licence: GPL-2.0

  • VEAF HOTAS Kneeboard

    DCS kneeboard pages and printable sheets of your bindings, drawn on your own devices and written into the aircraft's kneeboard in one click. It has 45 device drawings and an editor for more, reads the buttons SRS and VectorXR use, tidies DCS's default bindings with a backup and undo, and works in English and French. RigReady has drawings for fewer devices.

    Licence: GPL-2.0

  • DCS Keybinds Manager

    An AutoHotkey script that backs up your DCS keybinds to a zip file and brings them back after a device gets a new ID (another USB port, a Windows reinstall), replacing the old ID in the file names and in modifiers.lua. If that is your only problem, it is a small, single-purpose fix.

    Licence: none stated in the repository

  • OpenKneeboard

    Shows reference pages and notes in games, especially flight sims, including in VR, controlled from your HOTAS or a graphics tablet. RigReady's kneeboard pages go into DCS's own kneeboard and its overlay is a window on a monitor, so in VR OpenKneeboard is the one to use. It has had releases since 2022.

    Licence: OpenKneeboard Public License

iRacing bindings and backups

  • iBinds

    Edits iRacing bindings in bulk: one binding applied to many control profiles at once, the all-cars profile and per-car ones, with a preview for each, and calibration copied between profiles, all with iRacing closed. Changing many car profiles in one go and copying calibration are not in RigReady, which copies buttons and keys from one profile into another.

    Licence: MIT

  • iRacing Config Tracker

    Keeps a history of iRacing's settings and control files by itself, with what changed between versions and a restore of any older one, from a desktop window or the command line. It installs with Python, or as a standalone .exe from its releases that needs no Python. A history of every change goes further than RigReady's backups and snapshots.

    Licence: MIT

Input testing, remapping and USB

  • Fred's Controller Tester

    A small DirectInput and XInput tester for any device and any number of buttons, axes and hats, identical devices included, with colours that show how much of each axis's range has been tested. It tests gamepads through XInput as well; RigReady's tester reads DirectInput only.

    Licence: ISC

  • Joystick Gremlin

    Remaps any joystick-like device, merges several into one virtual device, and adds response curves, deadzones, macros, modes and Python scripting. RigReady sets an axis's curve and deadzone only in DCS's own bindings, and its virtual controller maps a stick, wheel or pedals onto a gamepad; it has no general remapping, merging, macros, modes or scripting. It has had releases since 2015.

    Licence: GPL-3.0

  • Deez USB Hub

    Maps the USB controllers, hubs and every port, empty ones included, with details for each device. It shows the empty ports, which RigReady's USB map does not. Its page has you build it from source, with Node.js and Rust.

    Licence: MIT

Which controllers a game sees

  • HidHide

    A driver that hides chosen controllers from programs, so a flight sim sees the HOTAS and not the gamepad, or a racing game sees the wheel and not the joysticks. RigReady does not replace it: it can check that a device is hidden by HidHide, and its virtual controller can use HidHide to hide the real ones.

    Licence: MIT

  • Controller Manager

    Per-game profiles, built on HidHide, that choose which devices a game sees and which appear only a few seconds after it starts, so that force feedback goes to the wheel and a gamepad stays out of a racing game. RigReady does not choose per game which devices appear, or in what order.

    Licence: MIT

  • Mojo Input Manager

    Creates vJoy virtual controllers, forwards and combines physical devices onto them with curves and deadzones, and uses HidHide to choose which devices each game sees, with a profile per game.

    Licence: MIT

What RigReady adds

RigReady's part is doing these jobs together, for flight and racing, with a check before the session, so that less time goes on rig chores. In version 2.0:

  • A check before the session, with a fix for each problem. Each setup checks the controllers, helper apps, monitor layout, audio and game files. Make ready and launch runs the fixes in order and starts the game; Stand down puts the desk back after it closes. For iRacing, a setup can also switch the control profile at Make ready and put the old one back at Stand down, and warn when iRacing will ask to calibrate the wheel or pedals plugged in now.
  • Bindings with a safety net, for DCS and iRacing. A preview before anything is written, a backup first, and Undo on the Safety page. In DCS: editing, clean-up of the defaults DCS binds on every device, copy between aircraft, and a repair when Windows gives a device a new ID. In iRacing: binding an action to a button or a key, or clearing it, in the control profile iRacing uses (a button and a key bound this way were used by iRacing in a test drive); the control profiles and which cars use each, with buttons and keys copied from one profile into another; clearing the bindings of controllers that are gone; and the same kind of repair.
  • Binding guides. Twenty for DCS aircraft, and for iRacing one for each class of car: GT3, GT4, LMDh and prototypes, formula and open-wheel, oval, and dirt. Each lists what to bind first and walks you through binding it. For another aircraft you can import or write a guide of your own. The guides were written from general knowledge and have not been reviewed by a pilot or a racing driver.
  • Cheat sheets, a trainer and an overlay. Cheat sheets of what every control does, for DCS, iRacing, Le Mans Ultimate, BeamNG.drive and Assetto Corsa, for print, PDF or DCS kneeboard pages. Some WinWing and Thrustmaster devices have an outline drawing; for any device you can make a sheet from your own photos. The trainer names an action and waits for you to press its button or hat. The overlay lists each button or hat you press and what it does in the aircraft or car you are in, with a switch in each setup.
  • A hands-off health check and a USB map. The health check has you take your hands off for ten seconds, then lists stuck buttons, inputs that fire by themselves and noisy axes. The USB map draws each USB controller through its hubs to every device, says how close each controller is to its limits, and what to unplug.
  • Every change can be undone. Any file outside RigReady's own folder is backed up before it is changed, and the change is listed on the Safety page with Undo. Free and open source (MIT), with no account and no telemetry.

What RigReady does not do

  • Bindings for other games. Binding an action to a control is for DCS and iRacing only. Le Mans Ultimate, BeamNG.drive and Assetto Corsa have their bindings shown, with cheat sheets; Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, IL-2, Falcon BMS and the other racing games are found, launched and backed up, nothing deeper.
  • Every binding in DCS and iRacing. In DCS, many actions, mostly keyboard and view commands, are shown but not edited; they are marked "bind in DCS". In iRacing, RigReady binds buttons and keys; axes, hat switches and the number pad keys are bound in iRacing itself.
  • VR. There are no VR checks, and the overlay that shows each press is a window on a monitor, not inside a headset. Over a game in exclusive full screen the overlay may not show at all.
  • Placing the DCS kneeboard. DCS opens it in the bottom right corner of its whole window, which can be on a small screen; RigReady shows where, but cannot choose the place yet.
  • General remapping. It does not merge devices, put one control on another or add macros for games; it sets axis curves only in DCS's own bindings and on its virtual controller.
  • Choosing which controllers each game sees, apart from its virtual controller hiding the real controllers while it runs.
  • Display modes such as NVIDIA Surround, AMD Eyefinity and HDR.
  • Replacing the makers' software. WinWing backlight sync, the UFC and ICP displays and vibration still need SimAppPro. A Fanatec base keeps its tuning values on the base, where RigReady cannot read them; the Wheel page keeps a copy you enter by hand. TrackIR's active profile cannot be switched from outside TrackIR.
  • Backups over 2 GB. A single backup is built in memory and capped at 2 GB.
  • Linux or macOS: it runs on Windows 10 and 11 only, and has not yet been tried on a real Windows 10 PC.

RigReady 2.0 is new and has been used on one rig. The Wheel page has been tried on a real Fanatec base only; other brands were tested on recorded data made from their published USB IDs. The iRacing repair for a controller with a new Windows ID, and the Assetto Corsa repair for controllers Windows lists in another order, were tested on recorded files, not yet with a controller that really changed. The virtual controller has run on the real driver once; hiding the real controllers while a game runs has not been tried. How it was built lists everything not verified yet.

Corrections

If a tool here is described wrongly, has changed, or is missing, please open an issue through the issue forms, and this page will be corrected.