Configure Devices

The Configure panel gives you full control over how each device's inputs appear in the overlay. To open it, go to the Devices tab and click the Configure button on the device you want to customize. Every change you make takes effect instantly in the live preview at the bottom of the panel.

Axis Configuration

The top section of the Configure panel lists every axis detected on your device (e.g., X Axis, Y Axis, Slider, Rx, Ry, Rz). Each axis has several controls:

Rename an Axis

Each axis has a text field showing its current label. Click on the label text, clear it, and type a new name. For example, you might rename "Y Axis" to "Pitch" or "Slider" to "Left Throttle". The new label appears in the overlay immediately. This is a Pro feature — on the free tier, axis labels use their auto-detected names.

Invert an Axis

Next to each axis label is an Invertcheckbox. Check this box to flip the axis direction. This is useful when a device reports values opposite to what you expect — for example, if pulling your stick back shows as "forward" in the overlay. The live preview updates immediately so you can verify the inversion is correct.

Set a Deadzone

Each axis has a Deadzone slider (0% to 50%). The deadzone defines a region around the center position where small movements are ignored. This is useful for axes that have a slight drift or jitter at center. Set the deadzone just high enough to eliminate the jitter. You can see the effect in the live preview — move your axis slightly and see if it registers.

Show or Hide an Axis

Each axis row has a visibility toggle (an eye icon or radio button). Click it to hide that axis from the overlay. The axis turns grayed out in the configure list to show it is hidden. Hidden axes are still read by StickViz — they just do not appear in the overlay display. This is useful for axes you do not want viewers to see, such as a ministick axis you never use, or a redundant slider.

To show a hidden axis again, click the same toggle. It will reappear in the overlay immediately.

Reorder Axes

On the right side of each axis row, you will see up and down arrow buttons. Click the up arrow to move an axis higher in the list, or the down arrow to move it lower. The order in this list determines the order axes appear in the overlay panel — top-to-bottom in the configure list corresponds to left-to-right (or top-to-bottom) in the overlay. Use this to put your most important axes (like Pitch and Roll) first.

Button Configuration

Below the axes section is the button configuration area. Your device may have dozens of buttons — StickViz detects all of them automatically.

Master Show/Hide Toggle

At the top of the buttons section is a Show Buttons toggle. This is a master switch that controls whether the entire button grid is visible in the overlay for this device. If you do not want viewers to see button presses at all, turn this off. When it is off, the entire buttons section disappears from the overlay.

Rename Individual Buttons

Each button is listed with a number (e.g., Button 1, Button 2, etc.). Click on the label text field to change it to something meaningful, like "Trigger", "Pickle", "TMS Up", or "Countermeasures". Custom labels appear in the overlay button pills. This is a Pro feature.

Panel Scale

Below the button configuration is a Scaleslider that adjusts the size of this device's overlay panel from 50% to 200% of its default size. Drag the slider left to make the panel smaller or right to make it larger. This is useful when you have multiple devices and want to make the throttle panel smaller than the stick panel, for example.

The scale value is shown as a percentage next to the slider. The live preview at the bottom of the configure panel reflects the scale change immediately.

Live Preview

At the bottom of the Configure panel is a real-time preview of how your device will look in the overlay. As you make changes (rename, invert, deadzone, hide, reorder, scale), the preview updates instantly. Move your joystick, push your throttle, or press buttons to see the overlay respond in real time. This lets you verify all your settings before switching back to OBS.

Saving Changes

Changes are saved automatically when you make them. Your configuration is stored locally on your computer (in %AppData%/StickViz/configs/) and tied to your device's USB VID/PID. This means your settings persist across restarts and even if you plug the device into a different USB port.

Reset to Defaults

At the very bottom of the Configure panel is a Reset to Defaults button. Clicking this erases all custom settings for the device — axis labels, inversions, deadzones, visibility, order, button labels, and panel scale — and reverts everything to the auto-detected defaults. This is useful if you have made many changes and want to start over. A confirmation will appear before the reset takes effect.

Tips

  • Start by renaming your most-used axes (Pitch, Roll, Throttle, Yaw) so the overlay labels make sense to viewers who do not know your hardware.
  • Hide axes you never use to keep the overlay clean and focused on what matters.
  • Use the up/down arrows to put the stick crosshair axes (Pitch, Roll) at the top of the list so they appear first in the overlay.
  • If an axis seems to move in the wrong direction, try the Invert checkbox before adjusting your in-game bindings.
  • Use the Overlay Preview (from the tray menu) to see how your configured panels look at full stream resolution with the correct positioning.