streakeagle

You can't finish this fast enough. I will probably get this as soon as I see some end-user reviews. But given how much I like the throttle/startup panel, I just might pre-order it.

I can assure you, I have pared the VKB GF stick with the WinWing throttle. I may as yet find a use for the WinWing stick, but it won't be for my main cockpit setup with the throttle and TPR rudder pedals.

Ok, I now have this throtttle/panel and there is a very simple solution: Map RESET to the up switch position Map Cover Open/Close to the down switch position. Starting with the cover is closed, the switch is in the normal position. To open the cover and reset: 1. Move the switch up. This has no effect because the cover is closed. 2. Move the switch down. This opens the cover. 3. Move the switch up again. This moves the switch to the RESET position. To return to norm and close the cover: 1. Move the switch down. This closes the cover, which also moves the switch to the NORM position. This is not as elegant as using the tools to cause delayed virtual button presses, but it only costs two extra switch movements and will work for most situations. I don't really expect to use this switch very often. So I can live with having to cycle the switch up then down to open the cover, then up again to RESET. For those that really care, you should go the F/A-18C forum and request the control mappings that should be there: a combined open/reset and a combined close/norm. It doesn't bother me enough to complain, but I will gladly thank anyone who pushes ED to fix it the right way so people don't have to use virtual buttons or other tricks to get this to work.

Installed the latest version of SimAppPro and installed the latest firmware with no problems. The software looks really nice. I am out of time. I have to get up early for work tomorrow. But this really cool!

On the bright side, the desk mount for the WinWing stick appears to work just fine with the VKB Gunfighter base. The spacing between the mounting holes is almost identical. But the VKB mounting holes are just a tad too small for the provided bolts. So I could either make a custom bottom plate matching the WinWing plate or use slightly smaller bolts. The advantage of the deskmount over my current setup is being able to adjust the height of the stick. If I use a shorter grip with the 10 cm extension, I can raise it up. If I use a longer grip and the 20 cm curved extension, I can lower it down.

I put the Warthog stick with the Warthog grip and 15 cm extension, the VKB stick with the MCG Pro grip and the straight 10 cm extension, and the WinWing stick/grip with minimum extension side by side. The MCG Pro grip is tall, so it is almost as high as the other sticks despite the short extension. So they all have similar ranges of motion from fully forward to fully aft. The WinWing stick feels almost identical to the Warthog stick crossing the center. The only difference I really feel is that the WinWing has harder spring resistance out of the box (I haven't tried the different cam springs provided). Despite harder springs, the WinWing feels smother than the Warthog... i.e. no sticktion of any kind, just the cam detents as you cross the center and the spring forces. So, if you have a Warthog, the WinWing is an upgrade. But the VKB is by far lighter and smoother as you cross the center while still using heavy springs. I can still feel the cams moving across the center, but it is buttery smooth. I don't feel any kind of hard click or transition the way the Warthog and WinWing do. I originally bought the VKB looking for a better feel near the center. I didn't want to deal with the clunky transition nor the sticktion that made precision flying difficult. I didn't know there was going to be an F-14 grip. I didn't plan on getting an adapter for my Warthog grip. I didn't know TM was going to release a Hornet grip and that I would be able to adapt it to the VKB, too. I haven't tried the Virpil stick yet, but among the HOTAS I have owned (Saitek X-36 USB, X-45, X-52 Pro, Warthog, VKB, and WinWing), the VKB still has the crown.

I have the throttle and startup panel plugged in and working. I am very happy with the results. Have fun when you get yours up and running!

The startup panel has what is really needed to support the chaotic mess that DCS modules have with control mapping: switches with on indications for every position. The Warthog Throttle has maintained switches that only provide an on indication in one position. A lot of control mappings require a button press for each position, for example flap switches. So, to use the Warthog flap switch, I have to edit the throttle or default input lua file to get the middle position to be covered by the off status of the upper and lower positions. There is a benefit when control mappings look for an on indication for every switch position: if you enable synchronization between in-game cockpit controls and game controllers, the switches in-game will move to match your real switches from the moment the mission starts. There is a price to pay though: you need to make sure you have your switches in the right positions before you start the mission, especially if the mission starts in the air or with the aircraft already started and ready for taxi/takeoff. Realistically, if you are performing a cold start, you need to get all the switches in the correct positions before initiating the startup procedure. But no one if forcing me to map all the positions. I can still use this the way I used the Warthog, which allows me to put all the switches in the "safe" unmonitored "off" positions so that when the mission starts, nothing will be messed up by a switch being in the wrong position. Disabling synchronization also prevents this problem. So, the startup panel maximizes your options to make your controls work the way you like and/or the way the module's developer intended rather than having to edit lua files or deal with poorly mapped controls. If I were going to build my own panel, it would be a lot like this one.

On the throttle, there should have been switches to detect whether you have pushed past the afterburner detents. Some DCS modules (and some other sims), can use a button to permit afterburner, which helps overcome problems with the location of the detent versus the position of the analog axis versus how the DCS module and/or real aircraft toggles between military and afterburner. I have a real F-101 throttle quadrant with F-4 throttle levers mounted on it. On the F-4, you go to outboard position before you can advance to afterburner, and there is a switch that knows when you are outboard. On the F-101 throttle quadrant, it is a little different. Max military power is at the same limit as max afterburner. But if you are past a certain position, you can shift outboard to engage the multi-staged afterburner anywhere between minimum (the first point you can go outboard) and maximum (you transition between max military and max afterburner when the throttle is all the way forward and you click inboard or outboard).

Leap Motion should arrive on May 28th... 2 days. I just got a WinWing F/A-18C HOTAS today, so it is like Christmas in May :)

The only penalty I see with ASW is ghosting of aircraft in a dogfight. When I have my settings tuned well enough for speed over quality, it isn't an issue. But I love quality! Shadows kill fps. Mirrors kill fps. Not to mention anything that gets rid of jaggies and shimmering like MSAA and PD. I have reached the point where I give up shadows, keep mirrors, and run MSAA at x2 with PD at 1.0. The lack of shadows only looks really horrible when sitting on the ground. I can maintain a fairly steady 40 fps on my Rift S/GTX 1080/i5-4690K@4.4GHz using that approach. Medium shadows kill my performance on the carrier deck, but are manageable while flying, but it is annoying to see any stuttering at all, which I didn't have before Supercarrier. So for now, I am living without shadows.

You can program the analog axis to act as either a 4-way or 8-way hat. I have mine programmed to be in parallel: that is you can see both the analog axes and the virtual hat switches at the same time. It is working very well for me. I am sorry that I was too lazy to bother doing so earlier.

One other comment: I haven't taken it apart yet to see what it is, but something is loose and rattling around in the stick base. It sounds like a screw. I opened it up. The screw came out of one of the cam bearings. Fixed. Probably fell out during shipping, but that means it wasn't torqued to specification. No harm done, but I wasn't planning on opening up my brand new stick. To be fair, my MCG Pro grip had a slight wiggle in it. I looked it up on the forums and found that some were shipped without the screws being tightened on the connector. I opened mine up: one screw was loose and one didn't even exist. I put in my own screws and it worked perfectly, but that was a bit of a QA miss.

I had to work all day then follow my normal routine: feed and walk the dog, go grocery shopping, ride my bicycle, cook/eat/clean up, and shower. So at this point, all I have done is get the throttle clamped to my desk. First impressions: Love the throttle. The available controls seem to be a better setup than the Warthog with center depress buttons on all the hat switches and the nice spring loaded radar elevation knob that could double as a DLC switch for F-14 pilots using the F-18 HOTAS. Love the panel. It will do well for many aircraft with a nice variety of maintained and momentary switches, a selector switch, and two twist knobs. The stick will collect dust. The installed cam has a center detent feel not unlike the Warthog or using the optional hard detent cam on the VKB. I can't stand that feeling and after paying $950, I don't see alternative cams in the supplied parts and I won't be buying extra ones because I can see that at best with the right cams and springs, the stick base will equal the VKB. So, I wish I had waited another week and saved the $300 just buying the throttle. The grip itself is comparable and in some ways better than the Thrust Master Hornet grip. Like the throttle, it has slightly more buttons and all hats have center depress switches. The TM grip added a control that doesn't exist on the real grip to use up three spare button inputs leftover from the Warthog grip. But this grip gives you the correct appearance while providing a much better bonus control: a hat switch hidden under the little pushbutton: a much more useful control that allows this grip to be used in place of a Warthog grip because it has the necessary three hat switches. If I could use this grip with the VKB GF base, I would. I like the adjustable extension so you don't have to buy exactly the length you need: set it where you need it and forget it. Other people providing stick extensions might want to take notes. I don't care for the loose PS cable connectors on the stick grip, base, and extension. It is similar to the way I have to connect my Warthog extension, which I never liked and was a hassle when swapping grips. I much prefer the VKB solution with a simple, fixed connector that fits only one way and virtually no chance of bending a pin. VKB's only flaw is their little locknut device that has to be rotated to exactly the right position to allow you to slide the grip on and requires and allen wrench to install or remove the grip. The WinWing has simple threaded collars, which I love. But they require small locking screws. Of course, once you have the extension set to the right height and the grip canted to the angle you like, you won't ever have to touch it again because there are no other compatible grips at the moment. So, if you like the stock cams or can get cams you like, this stick would be roughly equal to the VKB. But it doesn't have an analog break lever, and I don't know of another grip with more/better control options than the MCG Pro. If I didn't already have the VKB setup and had bought this first, I wouldn't have known what I was missing and would never have bought the VKB. It is very good, just not as good as the VKB for my purposes/preferences. In all honesty, I got exactly what I expected. I have been following this setup since it was announced and paid attention to all the comments, both negative and positive. I was pretty sure I didn't need the stick but wanted the throttle bad enough that I bought it anyway because the throttle wasn't sold separately. Maybe some day I will use it, but right now, I have two VKB GF MK2 bases upgraded to MK3 and six different grips that work with them. If I had just waited another week, I would have saved $300 instead of having another paper weight to collect dust with my two unused Warthog sticks.

Order has arrived! I opened the box, but I have to work until 3 PM, so I can't assemble and play with it yet. Per previous reviews, the throttle is a lot lighter than it looks, especially compared to the Warthog. Being light is a good thing for the desk mount. I can't wait to set it up. With this installed and working, I will be able to move my F-4 throttle console to the side, remove the Warthog throttle, and begin installing the real F-4 throttle without any hurry since I will be solely using the WinWing throttle until I have the F-4 console/throttle changeout completed. So, I am going to end up with three throttle choices for flying: WinWing F/A-18 throttle, Warthog throttle, and real F-4 throttle. I will also have three stick choices for flying: WinWing F/A-18 sick, VKB GF stick, Warthog stick. But since I have adapted one of my TM Warthog grips and the TM Hornet grip to VKB as well as having a spare VKB GF base, there is no reason to use the Warthog stick. I have two PCs, one with Rift S and one with the old Rift, and I still have my old Saitek pedals, so I can setup up two cockpits with stick, throttle, and rudder with VR and still have a pile of leftover hardware for a third cockpit minus the rudder pedals and VR.

I had not realized this. I will make sure to either leave radio subtitles or player voice enabled when flying multiplayer.

I don't map in-game radio ptt buttons per the VAICOM instructions. But I prefer mapping ptt buttons to custom buttons per aircraft, so I have gone against the instructions in having a separate Voice Attack profile for each aircraft and customizing the TX button maps as I see fit. Many aircraft only use one or two of the TX buttons, which can be seen on the VAICOM tab while flying that aircraft in a mission. So, I duplicate either the base DCS profile or one that I have already made for an aircraft that has a similar mapping, fly a mission with the desired aircraft, identify the active TX buttons for that aircraft, then customize the TX button maps to suit my preferences. I try to make my PTT buttons match both their location and switch type as close as possible. One problem I have is that some aircraft have PTT buttons on their stick grips and I change stick grips all the time whereas I always use the same Warthog throttle. So, I have to decide: always make sure to install the grip that my profile uses, customize the profile per grip, map multiple grips, or map the button to the throttle so that it doesn't matter which grip I use. There is a limit to the number of controllers you can map and each VKB grip type counts as a separate controller, so mapping multiple grips only helps for the grips I commonly use. The other problem with my approach is that I have to change profiles every time I change aircraft. With VR, that means briefly peeking out of the headset while alt-tabbing into Voice Attack to select the desired profile. Changing profiles while in-game seems to increase the odds of Voice Attack crashing. But if it crashes, I restart it and it works fine after that. The end result of my approach is that I typically decide what type of aircraft I am going to fly for that session, install the desired grip, start Voice Attack, select that aircraft type's profile, then start DCS World. But I am trying to get into multi-player and I am likely to frequently switch aircraft. The grip problem is solved by generally flying with the MCG Pro, which has so many control options that I can emulate any other grip in the game. But I still have to change VAICOM profiles per aircraft. Interestingly enough, SRS has an option to automatically change profiles per aircraft being flown. It would really be nice if VAICOM had this same capability.

I have to agree with others. The latest open beta FM feels awesome. Now if the sound mod would get incorporated to the release version and the gunsight worked as it should, I would be pretty happy. But I still dislike the canopy looking like it was used on a static gate guard for 10 years in really bad weather. I also can't wait for a pilot body in the cockpit, especially when flying VR.

It takes a little bit of concentration and practice to push it to the left out of the box. It really shouldn't be that hard. Looks aside, your mod makes a lot of sense. I bet someone could make a 3d printed design to slip over the button, or better yet replace the entire button with something similar that looks better but functions as well as your mod.

If you can see the contact clearly enough, dogfighting in VR is not only a better, more immersive experience, but maintaining situational awareness is far easier. But you have to get past that first little tick: spotting the contact and preferably keeping the contact close enough to see his aspect. Supercarrier bogs down my VR headset a bit much, so I had to turn off shadows. My desktop monitor is a 49-inch TCL 4K TV. The image quality is amazing and I can generally maintain 60 fps with very high quality settings. I have TrackIR tuned very well: smooth but able to look around quickly enough. Supercarrier is stunning in 4K as well as flying over Nevada and the Persian Gulf. If I could keep only one way to fly, it would be a tough call. 1:1 head tracking and feeling like you are really in the cockpit or amazing visuals and the ability to relax and see everything around me besides the VR world: i.e. my rum and coke, MFDs, and keyboard. But I don't have to choose one or the other. I only have to shut down DCS World, switch tracking software between Oculus Home and TrackIR, then choose the right shortcut to automatically start DCS in the correct mode. I am using the DCS Configuration Manager to generate shortcuts for all four possibilities: regular install, VR regular install, open beta, and VR open beta. The big strike against the large flat monitor with TrackIR beyond the lack of 1:1 movement is the vertical field of view. The width of my screen almost covers the VR field of view so it is only in the vertical that I lose so much of the view, but that is exactly what I need for dogfighting and flying helicopters. But the ability to spot and identify contacts at much longer ranges as well as clearly see their aspect is extremely useful. One can only hope that VR for PC flight simulators will stick around and that the cpus and gpus will progress to the point to equal or exceed the visual quality of 4k displays and maybe even use a field of view larger than peripheral vision. All I can do is wait and see... and make the best of what is already available.

1) I ordered the Leap Motion controller and VR mount from Mouser, should be here in a few days (2nd Day Federal Express, but order delayed by holiday). 2) I created a shortcut on my desktop for the DCS.exe and used the "--force_steam_VR" switch. It definitely works. It is a little glitchy when transitioning between screens, but once I am in the mission, performance and quality seems to be about the same. So, now I am just waiting for the package to arrive.

The real life sight was problematic. Some pilots swore by it, others left the gyro off because of reliability issues and trust in their own ability to judge lead. I find the DCS P-51D sight to me more accurate. I don't know why. The radar ranging should make it at least equal if not better.

I guess I will go ahead and get a LeapMotion and see if I can make with work with the Rift S and DCS World.

I just ordered the whole set, too. I really only needed and wanted the throttle. But I can live with my decision, especially since the price difference was only $300. I will try the stick just to see how it feels compared to the VKB GF and TM Warthog. Maybe I will fall in love with it and keep it matched with the throttle while having a separate setup with the VKB stick and Warthog throttle?

"Salute" was a new command that had to be added using the "finish" process. For me, it works perfectly for the F/A-18C. But for me, it doesn't work with the F-14. The deck crew moves correctly, but the F-14 pilot never salutes and the aircraft never launches. So, I made my own solution: I added a new command "Tomcat Salute" that provides the <SHIFT><U> key command that is native to the F-14 module, which works perfectly.