whatever

Hi Folks, I have 2 monitors of different sizes and none of this was helping (weapons control was "appearing" on the lower right of the 2nd monitor offscreen (could be seen in tiny alt-tab view)). Fortunately the compass was always appearing in the right location regardless of the "viewport stuff" code (lower LHS of main monitor) so I edited the lines above the "viewports stuff" to make the compass and weapons control appear in the same place: Pre Edit --not for VR! compass_pos = {-0.82 * total_aspect, -0.7} --relative to screen center, 1 means half screen height ~~afaik~~ weap_control_pos = {0.8 * total_aspect, -0.75} Edited to --not for VR! compass_pos = {-0.82 * total_aspect, -0.7} --relative to screen center, 1 means half screen height ~~afaik~~ weap_control_pos = {-0.82 * total_aspect, -0.7} --relative to screen center, 1 means half screen height ~~afaik~~ This change puts the weapons control in the same LL mainscreen position as the compass and seems to work with the default current code and with the updated "viewports stuff" discussed above. I'm not entirely sure why this works at all as the "viewports stuff" code block straight after seems to recalculate these variables? But its working for me and I thought I'd pass it on in case it helps someone else.

Hi, Answering your query above, I think you'll have to add a button to the controller itself (or 2 bits of wire to button and ground and short them i guess) Sorry for the delay answering

UK distributors are www.networkmusic.biz Mail Mike U'Dell <mike@networkmusic.biz> Arranged to have mine (from 2012) fixed june last year

Its hard to give a definitive answer as there are many types of hall sensor and they react to magnets in different ways. However if your problem is that the amount of rotation in your device is not allowing you to cover the full range of the sensor, then you should fix it with the windows calibration tool. Find by searching USB game controllers. Select your device, and click Properties. Open the Settings tab. Click Calibrate. This process will ask you to move all of the axes on your device to their maximum and minimum position and then press a key. If your devices maximum and minimum positions are e.g. 40% and 10% of the available sensor range, then the tool will make those values the new max and min for the device. DCS will then see values between 40 and 10% as values between 100% and 0%. Hope that makes sense? (I've used a similar method to get my collective (which only uses 40° of a 180° sensor)).

I noticed this and its fantastic. The only downside is that a large number of the easily found glowing things are now able to hide behind the new trees :O)

Hi there, I just "finished" (continuous work in progress) building my own collective, and I thought it might be useful to let you know the way I used the hall sensor. I have also used the "bic pen and magnets" method for the throttle (to get 180° travel), but for the collective itself I used a magnet from an old hard drive (one of the long curved ones). I discovered that these are unusual as they have two sets of poles and (more importantly) a N and S pole on each flat side. As a result; if you run a hall sensor held flat along the curve of the magnet it goes from N to S over a space of about 10mm. This means that if you attach the hall sensor to the end of the axle on a piece of plastic card screwed to the end of the axle so that it moves about 2-3mm above the magnet, and choose the distance from the magnet to the axle correctly you can use the full resolution of the hall sensor within about 30 degrees travel (as shown .. red lines are where i calculated the position of the poles using the sensor). It works pretty well as the HDD magnet is generally mounted on a piece of metal with holes in to allow easy attachment to your contraption. Heres a picture of the sensor over the magnet (I usually have a peice of 2-3mm plastic card in the gap). And heres a picture of the Axle with small washers to get the spacing right and give the best results. (the axle is an 8mm aluminium tube, and I hammered a rawl plug in the end to get a central screw hole :). The only doubt I have is about the linearity of the change (which is quite sudden when the sensor is touching the magnet but seems much more linear at 2-3mm distance). I hope the pictures a) work and b) are clear enough to show what I'm getting at. As an aside, I used 20mm thick sections of an 8 by 10cm nylon block to make most of the body (chopped with a circular saw). This meant I could make a clamp for the other side of the axle by a) making an 8mm hole and then b) drilling a hole for a clamping bolt alongside it c) using a tap and die set to put threads in the bolt hole, and then d) sawing through the bolt hole sand into the axle hole to create a space for clamping, and cleaning the threads out of the top section. I highly recommend nylon as a making material. Hope you find this useful.

Good idea and yes please :) I agree we need something to help with this and thats a good idea. My idea (which I asked a week ago in Input and Output) is that they should add "rumble" in addition to ffb (can be felt via simple usb game controllers). It could help to give this sort of feedback (particularly in P-51). But no-one seems that interested (maybe it was in the wrong bit of the forum? :) http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=94022

I see what you mean, yes it is definitely the seat I'm talking about :)

I like it :) but do you agree that DCS could benefit from a bit of rumbling?

After searching the web for a half way house solution to my lack of force feedback and buttkickers etc, I came across this old link: http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/531129-Non-FFB-sticks-and-rumble-achieved It suggests that by adding a simple cheap rumbling controller to your system (attaching it to your chair or under your joystick mount) you could perhaps get some vibration/buffet feedback from stall warnings and maybe guns firing, getting hit etc. in flight sims. This hope was dashed (for DCS World) when I a) bought a controller for £8, tried it and found it didn't work :( and b) found this post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=90845 which suggests that "rumble" and "ffb" are two different things and the first is not supported in DCS world. But why not? If implemented, I assume it could use a similar output to that for ffb and it would add a degree of immersion and feedback relatively cheaply for users (perhaps £8 and a few zip ties). Any thoughts or opinions on this? Cheap and realistic aren't words seen together often in the world of flight sim kit, so surely its worth considering as an addition? (The only downside I can see is that the bolts on my old chair might come undone eventually and throw me to the floor, but I'm willing to try!)

Echo38, you seem to be happy with optional sounds for buffeting/stall warning so I don't disagree with you on that at all :) I disagree in that I'd prefer them to include some well thought out "less real" effects to replace effects we can't actually experience in a simulation. (with the emphasis on "well thought out"; for example I would consider implementing an a10 style "beep beep" stall warning in P-51 a travesty, but including a buffeting sound warning (in the absence of force feedback) a fair compromise.) To the person who mentioned a buttkicker, I think that it only uses sounds, not FFB signals (correct me if I'm wrong?). Something like a buttkicker that used ffb signals would fulfil my requirements (especially if it cost less than £50 and was available in the UK :).

Its also less realistic to only see a 80° x 40° (ish) view out of your eyes and to be flying at 10000 feet in your basement :-) There is always a balance to be struck between what you would experience in real plane and what you are capable of experiencing in your basement sitting in front of a PC. Personally I want the option of "less than real" cue IF it provides information that would be available in the actual plane, but isn't clear in the sim. Visual cues are useful up to a point, but no use at all when you are looking in a direction where you can only see the sky and your view is shaking anyway (because of frame rate or freetrack/track-ir weirdness) and you have no reference for the "buffeting" effect. Using sound as a subtle substitute for vibration seems to be a completely fair compromise in this case (optional or not). PS What I REALLY want is a simple cheap device (about the size of a mouse) that can reproduce a limited amount of force feedback wobble, and be zip tied to my chair or joystick mount.

The economical route I went down was to use my old (non widescreen) 17" monitor, (under a 32" TV :) (i tried to upload a picture with this answer .. hope it worked :) sorry no picture here of it working) It's pretty good with 2* TM MFDs blu tacked to the bottom corners, and a cut down helios with basic instruments (and cheap cheap cheap!). The other advantage of smaller (non widescreen) second monitor is that if (like me) you sit back and move the monitors towards you for games, (until front monitor is about 6" over the edge of the desk, supported on a flat bit of metal) it will be less likely to interfere with your joystick & throttle (if mounted, like mine, on the side of the chair) Another point (which may be unique to old monitors?) if you are mounting the monitor low down. The picture can be brighter if you turn the monitor upside down and rotate the video (because of the way viewing angles are designed). Worth trying.

Serial #: 08886 Location: Inverness, U.K.

Hi again, Me again :) I have a suggestion for your startup check list. The "Aircraft Startup preparation" list seems to include setting most things back to default/off settings. Except radio frequencies and turning on BOOST PUMPS MAIN to MAIN and BOOST PUMPS WING to WING. This means that if you are in a rush (:-) and skip the "Preparation" list and jump straight to the "Aircraft Startup" list the engines do not start. Would it be possible to add a reminder for the boost pumps in the "Aircraft start" list, (perhaps between APU GEN switch and ENG oper switches lines?) saying something like "Confirm boost pumps set to MAIN and WING"? I hope this makes sense (I notice you already have a "Confirm" line for ENG OPER switches). Its a small change but would make the Aircraft startup list stand better on its own. Thanks again for making this application available... I highly recommend getting an android tablet to use alongside this game. Applications like this and some of the DCS training videos on youtube make it well worthwhile. (You can also play angry birds and dream of a gau-8 add-on :) Thanks again.

Apologies -I meant that I wasn't sure if the Apk was a new addition or if it was in your signature already ( and I had missed it by not looking carefully enough ) I assume was a new addition so thank you very much -- I used it tonight and its excellent!

Yeepee, I can't work out if that's new or I'm blind :0) But thank you either way - Looking forward to giving it a go!

Kind of seconding what ZQuicksilverZ said above. I'm a kindle fire user (and new forum member .. Hi everyone). I also have no access to the Google Play/Android Market (and using it from the UK no access to the kindle market either. Is there any chance that someone could let us poor cheapo tablet owners have a copy of the apk file to install?