If you assign a virtual keystroke to a button in SST it no longer produces the DX button output. It’s a replacement not an additional input so it doesn’t matter if you still have button bindings because you aren’t pressing those buttons logically even when you press those buttons physically. But it’s good to be tidy.
I find the process of creating it means I memorize the controls as I assign them rather than starting with someone else’s profile and having to learn it.
Good man.
My main reason for wanting this is consistency with my profiles for DCS.
Consistency with another plane for certain functions is pleasant but it’s more important to be consistent with the real airplane. A lot of engineering time went into the F-16 controls and their placement so a proportional amount of reverence should be given to the real layout. If nothing else check the manual and review the real layout and its functions. I’ve met players that have flown an embarrassing number of hours not knowing what the DMS hat is or does. There is a distinct learning penalty from avoiding the “Think 16” approach.
I just set whatever button on my Saitek BMS profile to be “G”, and it will work, just like any other game, right?
Yup. Be aware a few keys will be time sensitive and problems with modifier keys is somewhat expected due to before/simultaneous/after timing. But there’s nothing special about a virtual keystroke compared to the standard keyboard.
What you will find is that the Saitek marketing line of “just press virtual keyboard keys bound to the default game controls from a profile!” has some frustration. The default key bindings are kinda crap IMHO, relying heavily on lots of modifiers which can be problematic. To make the virtual keys work smoothly you want to make a custom key layout that doesn’t rely on modifiers much and by that time you’re 60% of the way to just doing most if not all stuff direct-to-DX anyway. The amount of work avoiding DX-direct binding, even with luxuries like SimHotasPinkyShift, is commonly in excess of the work to not avoid it with IMO a better outcome.