Just to put this out there:
I use the CH software w/ all the games that I play....including AH & the Alpha & it works quite well w\ all of them.
But as most here have stated, since AH has well written controller coding it isn't necessary to use it to program your CH HOTAS ingame.
The CH CM software was written quite a few years back when most games didn't have as well written controller coding within them that would allow setting up controllers separate & individually. Back then most games would only allow 1-2 controllers to be setup--not 3--so CH got w/ the guy who initially wrote the controller software for Thrustmaster Mark II controller series that did the very same thing (I had the full setup back in the day along w\ the game card) to write the coding for CH CM software which will allow multiple CH controllers to be mapped to look like a single controller in Windows to get around the 2 controller limitation in most games back then & to allow special programming to create special control commands that didn't exist in game coding....essentially the same as the old Thrustmaster Mark II controller software did.
1 of the main advantages that using the CH CM software w\ today's games is the ability to switch between control maps easily when switching between games w\o having to reinitialize the controllers in Windows as the software does this automatically once the controller map is loaded into the controller & saved in CM & you can map the control selections to maintain control familiarity to the user across any\all the games you play as if 1 game doesn't have a certain control selection written you can program the function in the CM code & assign it to the control function you want.
This is why I still use it to this day, some 12-14 years running.
I still use the map that I built for AH some years back when in AH1 you could only set up 2 controllers in the game (I combined all 3 CH controllers to look like a single controller in Windows & set all selections in map in Dx Mode so the map can be programmed in AH just as easily & simply as anyone can do now w\ their CH equipment in AH w\o the software). The CM controller calibration routine works just as good thru Windows & subsequently in AH in Mapped Mode as it does in Dx Mode and if the CH controllers were set up directly in Windows.....been there, done that.
So in closing.........is the CH CM software necessary to use CH gear in AH?
No it isn't.
Can the CH CM software be used in AH?
Yes it can, and depending on what you're doing & how you want to use it, can work very well for you.
Not trying to sell it.........just answering your question(s) concerning CH Control Manager software usage in AH.
The rest is up to you.
The person who can tell you more about this software than I can I see has already posted before I posted so I will defer to AckAck from here on.
