bax

I've been away from DCS for a few years doing other stuff and am just getting back into things; I recently "upgraded/side-graded" from original Rift to the S, and I've 99.7% convinced myself to trade up from my Warthog to a VirPil T-50 CM2 rig. Then I come across *this* awesome piece of kit which actually seems more useful and game-changing to me than the rest of those upgrades. Wish I would have been paying attention a year ago; this would have gotten me back here much sooner! I've PM'ed FireCat but wanted to also post here; please add me to the list as well!!! Thanks! bax

Sign me up for one as well... Thanks for your efforts!!

Now, if Microsoft hadn't abandoned flight simulation altogether or had at least 'officially' transitioned it to someone then FSX (and successors like Microsoft Flight was supposed to be) would still be a viable developer's platform. Sure, it still works, and there are still developers making money off of the platform but realistically there is a void there and the true remaining platforms (X-Plane, Prepar3D) aren't effectively stepping in to fill it. I'd LOVE to see (read: WOULD TOTALLY PAY FOR) something along the lines of a Digital Flight Simulations (DFS) World from ED which would hopefully have a similar look/feel/approach to flight simulation as DCS World and possibly even enjoy some interplay with existing DCS infrastructure (shared terrain/airports/etc.). If you opened the system up to third party devs as far as that goes and could actually attract enough critical mass as far as paying customers that could be a very good thing for ED in both the short and long term... If that 'world' were big enough and populated enough, I could even see it being worth it to extend the model to allow for "freemium" type functionality - i.e. everyone can get into DFS World for free and have limited access (1-2 planes, 1-2 geographical areas to fly in, a few missions, limited MP capabilities) but could then directly purchase or subscribe for additional stuff (more planes, more terrain, serious training resources, etc.). Maybe it could be a mixture of outright purchase of stuff for those just wanting to have certain parts of the whole with the option to subscribe for reasonable tiered monthly/yearly membership fees for access to premium content? Something like that could help provide reasonable and consistent cashflow to fund the back-end infrastructure to actually do something like this and do it well...just my thoughts. I'd imagine selling THAT idea to venture capitalists and investors would be a lot more palatable than limiting the business model to study-level combat sims. You would also probably have a lot more potential partners coming out of the woodwork to play which would obviously require some standards to be enforced, but ED is doing that already with DCS Partners. IMHO, expanding our world to civ sims would bring more development resources and more variety in a shorter timeframe. Like it or not, the 'hardcore' DCS demographic is a small percentage of an already small flight sim market...and not all of us can afford to buy 3 copies of each DCS title just to help keep them in business. :) Thanks! bax

+1... The X-52 stick is not great and requires a lot of modifications to make it "tight" and work reasonably well. For the price the CH Fighterstick can't be beat and is very customizable. The X-52 throttle is pretty good and has a lot of controls (although watch out for the scroll wheel to wear out quickly if you actually use it and the ministick is almost useless). The Saitek Pro Flight Rudders are great - zero complaints there. I just upgraded from an X-52 system to an X-65 Setup, but I was very close to going "Frankensystem" using a CH stick and I am still considering that as an option if the force-sensing stuff doesn't work out. Thanks! bax

I just upgraded from an X-52 to an X-65 a few days ago and this mod sounds like something I am very interested in. I have rudders so I would want to sacrifice the twist axis on the X65 stick in favor of having the mini-stick set up to work as axes. I would also very much like to have both throttle levers correctly work as axes. I am interested to know if anyone has tested this and/or has it working under the following circumstances: Windows 7 64-bit (Enterprise, shouldn't make any difference) SP1, all patches up to current Saitek X-65F System Drivers 7.0.0.0 Software 7.0.2.7 Saitek Pro Flight Rudders Drivers 6.2.2.0 Software 7.0.2.7 Any confirmation or tips/tricks/advice on how to make this work well would be greatly appreciated... Thanks! bax EDIT: I can confirm this does appear to work correctly in the hardware/driver/OS scenario listed above.

Finally getting out of "lurker" mode here :) Sorry for the novel... I just this week upgraded from my X-52 setup to an X-65F setup. The X-52 was decent, but I had to set up deadzones all over the place and the controls were sloppy even after I performed each and every one of the various stick and hall sensor mods out there to tighten things up. I am much happier so far with the X-65, especially the throttle. I have done a lot of searching (on this forum and others) for profiles and programming advice for the X-65 and there is some stuff out there, but this brings me to the reason for my post and my actual question... Has anyone ever sat down and analyzed the various real-life HOTAS setups from various sims/airframes and come up with a generic, lowest-common-denominator, standard conventions "template" on how to most logically map any given controller? What I'm trying to get at is that we have basically 3-5 true "HOTAS" options, all of which are different but have some similarities. They each have a stick and throttle, trigger, pinky switch, etc. Most sims/airframes have at least similar functions regardless of their acronyms (target management, countermeasures, navigation, radar, weapons, trim, etc). The big differences can really be found in the physical number/placement of buttons, hats, rotaries, etc. Has there ever been an effort to take a look at all of the hardware options versus the various sims and come up with a basic foundation for mapping controls that would be applicable as a starting point for *all* the popular HOTAS controllers? I'm talking about a document or diagram here, and not necessarily an actual software "profile" or "key file" or whatever each particular sim/controller software requires. Obviously everyone would probably want to customize their own based on their own preferences and hardware but there has *got* to be a better way than a bunch of different people re-inventing the wheel each time... What brought this idea to my mind was my consideration of the daunting task of getting my new X-65 configured as closely as possible to the real-life setup for A-10C. I then thought about having to do the same thing for Falcon BMS...and then considered all of the upcoming DCS stuff (F-15C, F-18C, MiG-21) which was truly the biggest reason I made the jump to a better HOTAS in the first place. I totally realize that there isn't a ton of commonality between HOTAS functions across airframes, but unless everyone can afford to purchase a "plug-n-play" controller (if they exist) for each sim (TM Warthog for A-10C as an example) we have no other option than to go through a LOT of work to make different profiles for every airframe using the one controller each of us eventually end up purchasing. I realize that is just "the way it has to be" but IMHO it would be very helpful to have at least a generic template to reference when mapping controls that is somewhat rooted in reality and/or a general consensus of what would work best and be most efficient. I hope that's not too confusing, but does anyone know of anything out there (research, documentation, diagrams, discussion, whatever) that has already been "worked on" towards this end or would it be better for me just to go find a lot of documentation about the real-life HOTAS configurations and functions for each and every airframe I want to fly and roll my own (or heavily modify previous efforts)? Thanks! bax

Just got mine! Been waiting for this for a while...and preparing for it...busy month: Upgraded gaming computer (Intel i5 3570k, 16Gb RAM, Radeon 7950 3Gb) Saitek x52 (and did all the mods) TrackIR 5 with the Pro clip Planar PX2230mw 22" touchscreen for Helios Took advantage of the getgamers deal on BC2 and A10C, and now with FC3 here I am totally in Hawg (and Shark, and Eagle, etc.) HEAVEN!!!!! :pilotfly: Thanks! bax

Thanks for the heads-up... I just recently installed DCS World in anticipation of FC3, but for that price I have NO problem adding BC2 and A10C to the list! I guess we have some time to wait before FC3 arrives, so these will certainly keep me busy... Thanks! bax