JCofDI

Thanks a bunch - haven't had a chance to catch up on all the posts since release so apologies for the repetition. Too busy flying the Goshawk I guess

Loving this mod! Fantastic work by the VNAO team. Hoping to use it to get more folks in to try it out - is there a way to bind throttle increase/decrease to buttons or keyboard keys? I didn't see them in the bindings by default, but it's how I usually set up planes with an Xbox controller if I'm trying to map it for someone with no Hotas access.

@LanceCriminal86understandable! It's a good line of reasoning but the way DCS auto-smoothes its curves (put one at 100 and the next at 50 and see how it overshoots then corrects), it can end up making situations strange to adjust only one point when we're talking about only one or two percent differences. Also worth noting that with the detent at 26 it's kind of in the no-man's-land between the 20 and 30 sliders, so if just doing singular adjustments to the sliders I'd recommend alternating movements between the two instead of just sticking to one. Hope that's good to set you towards finding your sweet spot!

@zildacGlad to hear it's back to being bang-on for you! Could not have done it without your help on how inverted and idle detent things were set up, so thank you again! Any other issues please let me know! @LanceCriminal86 Thanks for the kind words and detailed post! Strange issue - I've tested it with the newest patch and the A/B location for the F-14 hasn't changed, so the curves should be accurate if your detent location is in fact 26. Is this detent set up for both left and right throttles, and do both throttles equally touch off burners in this way? If there's a lot of "travel" through the detent you may want to set it later rather than right up against the "start" point of it. Another way to think of the detent location number is that it should be the last position right before A/B lights off. Jostles shouldn't be causing it, but if it's a big enough bump to travel another percent then that indeed would be doing it. For that reason in the initial testing, some folks did find it preferable to add some cushion to their detent location. Usually subtracting 2 from their calculation was enough to work out for them. From the FAQ portion of the ReadMe: Reducing the detent like that as you suggested won't change the entire line much, but it may smooth it out enough to match up with the detent and still not be as touchy. Please let me know how it goes.

@zildac Took a bit longer than I intended, but here's the latest rework! Absolutely no rush but if you have a chance to test it out feel free. I believe the idle deadzone issue will still exist based on how the Virpil deadzone exist - I can only unfortunately work with what DCS gives me on that front . The latest version has a Saturation and a Deadzone input. Short explanation is that deadzone will always remove from the left side of the graph, while saturation will always affect the right side of the graph. One thing to try may be finding your "DCS" value of the idle detent the same way that the MIL Detent location is found, then inputting that value as a Deadzone. Anyone is free to give it a try. Made some "UI" updates as much as Excel can but previous warnings about working copy still applies . IMPORTANT NOTE: The previous "Detented" column is now just used to build the graph. Please use the "User Values" section below the graph to input the curves and it should be a 1:1 input.

@zildacGlad to hear it! I'll keep fine tuning now that I know I'm back on track and hopefully get you right on-lock for that detent again. Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll have a new version of the sheet to break horribly test. I think the last thing I need to know would just be making sure I understand the idle/off detent. It's set up in the VPC software to use a "range" of the axis to fire the "off" button, right? Do you set that range in the software using a percentage of the throttle axis? (For example: 0-5% range = Hold "End" or a similar setup?) Or are there already physical buttons past the detent like on the Warthog?

@zildacthank you much! I think I see the cause of the issue and hope I have a path forward to fix it. As a pseudo workaround to test my theory, you can try these curves with the "Inverted" box in DCS checked as needed, and a Deadzone of 4, with X saturation 100: 0 10 21 31 41 51 62 72 82 91 100

@zildac thank you so much for the detailed post - I don't believe I expected DCS to change some values based on what it perceives the "positive" side of axis to be and that's what's causing the issue (might just have to see if I can invert my throttle to test it more thoroughly myself ). In short the curve isn't actually following the basic direction I thought it would. To help make sure I'm tracking, would you mind providing the following? Be warned I fully do not expect these changes to make the curves usable - head to a plane you don't use much and assign your throttle axis to the thrust so that everything is default, then enable slider and user curves then take an image. - with above settings, put your X saturation to 50 and share the image -with above, check "invert" then share the image. With those three I should be able to get a solid grasp of how DCS is using your numbers and be able to make some modifications. I really appreciate the feedback and help!

@zildac Thank you for the kind words! Congrats on the throttle upgrade - had I realized that the CM3 was an inverted axis I'd taken extra steps to include it earlier . Better late than never though - hopefully I can get you back to perfect tunings in no-time. If possible, can you and @j9murphygive this spreadsheet version a trial (and any other users who would like an inverted or saturation-limited option)? It's currently a "working copy" so please take care to only adjust the highlighted "input" cells, but all planes should be set to function correctly with it. If you want the curve inverted, place an "X" in the appropriate cell, and if you use in-game X axis saturation limits then please put your value in that cell as well. The detent location should still be found the same way as in the original readme doc and no user conversion required on that - it's all handled in the formulas. If you are not able to use the spreadsheet version you can include your plane of choice, detent value, and saturation setting in DCS and I'll reply with some curves for you to try. Please let me know how you find it and any issues you come across, as it's tricky to self-test with only one throttle at my disposal! DCS Detent Calculator Spreadsheet v1012.xlsx

As-is the sheet does not account for this setup. Just doing some quick testing now that I'm back from weekend travels, I believe I could modify the Excel file to account for these more niche options. Getting around to making and testing the formulas for it may take me a few days with my current schedule however, but I'll get to it when I can and let you know. Thanks for the idea and interest! @BlackLibraryThank you very much! Glad to hear it's a hit with the wingmen too! @Faelwolf Thank you for the kind words! It's this sort of multi-module adjustment I was hoping to find a solution to when I started working on the calculator (thank you free trial events! ) so I'm happy they all worked out!

@stag1978Thank you for checking it out, and glad you found it helpful! One of my favorite parts of the tool is that now that I have the formula all set, it should be an equally short amount of time to set up a new plane in the system. Now I just need some more afterburning planes to get released in order to prove it!

Glad to hear you had a great time (and that the spreadsheet got some love )! Thank you for the feedback on the readme as well - I definitely considered trying to shorten it to more "bullet-point" steps, but given how critical that detent location number is I didn't want folks to rush it. Maybe worth taking another look though when I get some time. Also, just as a quick follow-up to your second post - I have tested and confirmed that Google Sheets works when uploading the spreadsheet from the download. In case anyone else was wondering, that should be a perfectly valid way to use the utility.

Good point! I'm still terribly green in the Viggen so hadn't noticed the external effects on the tape player yet. I'm not sure where I'd ultimately fall on the EQ on/off divide if given the choice, I just found it strange that it had such different behavior between the two - wasn't sure if it would eventually change.

Download the DCS Detent Calculator Spreadsheet by JC of DI on the User Files site: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3315617/ Hello all! I created a way for folks with afterburner detents to easily generate custom user curve numbers so that the MIL location of their aircraft perfectly aligns with their throttle detent. My original creation was in the computer language I am most familiar with - Microsoft Excel. Fortunately, one of my first testers was community member Bailey who has made several fantastic apps. Bailey's testing help expanded into a full collaboration, turning my calculator into the standalone program that you see posted above. The utility has been tested with multiple controllers and multiple detents. In the User Files download you'll have both the standalone and the original Excel versions of the calculator that you may choose from, as well as a ReadMe that shows how to find your physical detent location and generate the numbers that you will put into your DCS axis profile. If you would like to check out the code, head over to Bailey's GitHub here: https://github.com/asherao/DCS-Detent-Calculator Also, find more of Bailey’s work on the DCS User Files site. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/filter/user-is-baileywa/apply/ Feel free to reply in this thread or reach me on Discord, username `@jcofdi`. Thank you very much for your time. Enjoy the flights! – JC 5/22/01 - Thank you so much to everyone who has tried and shared the Detent Calculator so far! The v1015 update now available on the User Files site completes the work done with the help of users in this thread to include options for inverted axes, x saturation, and deadzone changes. These options are currently only available in the Excel file and the new Google Sheets document, created to allow wider access to those without spreadsheet software available. 10/30/22 - Thank you to everyone who have shared and used this tool! My algebra professor would be ecstatic to know that nearly 2,000 people have downloaded something I made using y=mx+b With DCS 2.8 came some changes to the axis tune window which made the detent location much easier to determine. This change spurred me to also release some further requests such as the Mirage-F1, the AH-64D engine lockout range, and some updated values for the AJS37, F-16, F/A-18, and JF-17 to help the MIL location map a little more closely. These changes are only available in the spreadsheet versions of the tool currently. 7/9/23 - Thank you to everyone who reached out and encouraged me to update this for the F-15E. I have taken the opportunity to understand the detent special options supplied by Razbam for the F-15E, M-2000C, and Aerges for the Mirage F1. With these changes I have also made the hard decision to no longer include the software app by Bailey as part of this download. I want to thank Bailey again for the time, knowledge, efforts, and resources provided to me during the previous versions of these releases. With being a code dunce I just can't keep up the software side myself, and so the differences between the two I feel just leads to confusion for new users and offers nothing to users returning to the software for the latest airframes or changes. Thank you also to everyone who continues to support this little spreadsheet nerdery of mine - over 3,000 downloads on the User Files site, a how-to video by OverKill Simulations, and a repurposing of the data into a browser-based tool that reads your throttle position live by Zweihander are just a few of the highlights that I couldn't have imagined when I first made this.

While still something that would be nice to have in-game, I created a spreadsheet to address this issue and Bailey helped convert the original idea into a handy software utility. Takes the "trial-and-error" out of setting up your detents. Hopefully it helps. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3315617/

Certainly not the most critical issue, I know. However, I noticed that the Viggen has an automatic EQ effect applied to the tape player while the F-14 does not. Will this automatic EQ effect be added to the Tomcat as well? Or perhaps a special options toggle for those that would like it or not. See the video for a quick comparison using the same audio file (Song1.ogg from the Viggen walkman folder.)

Thanks for the response, BN. I believe that the issue is a full tanker-wide issue however. Here's a KC-130 exhibiting the same results, caused using the same steps. The unpacked mission file again shows the "System" flag set to 4 with this KC-130. Thanks for your time.

Did some further testing inside the mission file of the unpacked .miz today. I noticed that the only notable difference among the "Activate Beacon" section appeared to be the "system" flag. Here's the full portion of that action from "TCNTestED" in the first post. This tanker gives correct range info on the Y mode. Notice that the `system` flag is set as 5. ["id"] = "ActivateBeacon", ["params"] = { ["type"] = 4, ["AA"] = true, ["callsign"] = "TKR", ["modeChannel"] = "X", ["name"] = "Action Created, No Unit Ever Set", ["channel"] = 40, ["system"] = 5, ["bearing"] = true, ["frequency"] = 1127000000, Looking at the section for the tanker on channel 1Y which did not correctly broadcast range, I noticed that the `system` flag was set to 4. With changing no other variables I set this flag to 5 and repackaged the mission, which correctly gave range info on channel 1Y. Conversely, I can put the system flag to 4 on correctly working tankers and they will exhibit the same "Default to X" mode behavior on their respective channels. The attached .miz is of the same mission as the original post, with only the system flags for each tanker set to the "opposite" of what it was in the original mission, and the results are likewise exactly opposite. 1Y is the only correctly behaving tanker in TCNTestEdit, while 37Y and 40Y only show range info on the X TACAN. Hope this helps. TCNTestEdit.miz

TCNTestED.miz I've included a mission featuring three tankers to represent the stages of this issue, and in this case have only adjusted the "Unit" option, but this bug occurs when adjusting Channel, Callsign, or Unit on this panel. Regardless of the Channel Mode setting, changing any one of these options in the TACAN options will force the Channel Mode to X while it visibly remains on Y. Checking the unpacked mission file from the .miz, "modeChannel" appears to remain on Y for all three tankers as well. While the below uses the Unit option, the same trick to re-enable it applies for all options in my testing. - In the mission for Tanker "Aerial 3" I set the Channel to 1Y, then assigned Unit to "Aerial-3-1". When loading the mission, range info will only appear on TACAN 1X despite still showing as 1Y in the panel. - I similarly changed the Unit on "Aerial 4", which was set to Channel 37Y, but after unit selection I toggled the Channel Mode back to X, then re-selected Y. It now broadcasts range correctly on channel 37Y. --- I also further tested 37Y by changing the unit back to the default "Nothing," and it would again only broadcast on 37X until I toggled the Channel Mode again. - Lastly for a control I changed the Channel to 40, then set mode Y for "Aerial 5" and did not set a unit at all. This tanker correctly broadcasts range on 40Y upon load. I'd be happy to provide any further details. Thanks for your time.

Hi all, Likely not urgent, but given that it's an issue that would most likely would affect new users I thought I would share this small bug. In the third Mig-29 training mission which covers BVR missiles, there's a missing trigger action on message 9. At this step the player should use the spacebar to fire a missile at the incoming enemy, but in order to do so the trigger action "Stop Wait User Response" needs to be added. This can be replicated by playing the original training mission, and at the step when the "Fox 3!" message plays the user will be unable to fire using spacebar. By either adding the mentioned trigger action on message 9, or using the included miz file I've made with this change, you will now be able to fire the missile. The "(Start/Stop) Wait User Response" trigger action only affects the spacebar action, so any hotas/controller users won't be affected by this issue. This was tested on 2.5.6.58125 Open Beta and 2.5.6.55960 Stable. Due to size restrictions on the forum I have included the working mission as a Google Drive link below. Thanks. MiG29S_-_3_-_BVR_R-77__R-27ER_-_Missiles-TriggerAdded.miz