sthompson

I've replaced my CH HOTAS with VKB gear but still have the CH Pro Pedals. I have a new rig with Windows 11 and am unsure how to calibrate the pedals. The Windows calibration widget sees the device but it keeps asking me to press a button on the device, and to take other actions that only make sense for a joystick. I tried installing the CH Control Manager (which was working fine for me on my old Windows 10 machine) but it doesn't seem to recognize the pedals. I'd like to know how to install it on Windows 11 such that the CH software sees the device. Suggestions would be welcome.

Thought I should report back here about the solution to this problem. Turns out that uninstalling Citrix Workspace solved the problem. I've used Citrix Workspace for years on my old rig with no conflicts. I found some posts online where people reported suddenly having problems with TrackIR, and uninstalling Citrix worked for them. Now it has worked for me as well. Citrix must have updated their USB drivers sometime in the past year that caused the conflict. The curious thing was that everything worked well if I kept the camera unplugged. And when I plugged it in the NZXT software stopped working along with TrackIR not working. So I finally got to fly using the new rig last night and it's buttery smooth. Phew! @BIGNEWY could you please change the title of this thread to TrackIR incompatibility with Citrix Workspace.

What do you propose to say instead of "options" if you want options? Regarding #2, have you looked at the "take" commands. These let you select options with your voice. No need to have all those bindings.

I can't recall where exactly I reported it, but was on one of Reflected's BNBB missions over Normandy. I watched a dead AI Mustang with no operating engine (propeller stopped) and a dead pilot (based on bullet holes through the canopy) fly slowly INVERTED in very large circles (radius of 10 miles or so) without losing altitude and occasionally gaining some before returning to the original altitude. Curious about how long that could last I accelerated time and found he was still going 24 hours later of simulated time. This was admittedly a long time ago, and I don't know if it ever got fixed after I submitted the bug report.

I finally took the plunge to buy a new gaming rig to replace my ancient PC. Since I don't feel competent to build my own I bought the top of the line Player Three Prime from NZXT. It arrived a few days ago and I spent the weekend setting it up. However when it came time to install TrackIR the installation went fine but I started having troubles as soon as I plugged in the TrackIR 5 camera. I noticed three symptoms. First, NZXT's software for controlling cooling and lighting would no longer start properly. Second, when I tried to shut down the system motherboard power (as evidence by LED's on the RAM), cooler, fans, and fan lighting all would not shut off, and the fans spun up to full RPM. This after the screen went black. Those two problems occur even if I do not try to start TrackIR itself. However if I try to start TrackIR it hangs instantly and the camera does not turn on. Furthermore, while I can kill the TrackIR UI, there is a background task that I can't terminate, even with admin privileges. So my very expensive new gaming rig (which otherwise is working fine with all of my peripherals) seems incompatible out of the box with TrackIR. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling TrackIR and the NaturalPoint USB drivers that come with it. I've checked Device Manager and all devices report they are working fine and there are no unidentified devices. I've tried updating drivers but Windows 11 always tells me I already have the latest. Since NaturalPoint has posted on forums that TrackIR needs a true USB 2.0 port (and not a 3.0 or 3.2 port with backwards compatibility) I've tried plugging the camera into all of the available USB ports. Nothing makes it work so far. It works fine on my old Windows 10 rig. NZXT says that it is a TrackIR problem even though there seems to be a conflict with their own software. The Kraken cooler is installed as a device on the internal USB 2.0 hub, which it shares with the two external USB 2.0 ports. Any thoughts about what to do are appreciated. I'm very frustrated that a state of the art gaming computer seems to be incompatible with one of the most widely used pieces of gaming hardware. The only solution I've thought of as a next step is to install a PCIe card with USB 2.0 external ports, assuming they are still available, and hope for the best. Either that or abandon TrackIR, since NaturalPoint seems to have stopped supporting it. (No software updates for years now.) But I'm not sure whether there is a good alternative short of going the VR route, which I'd rather not do right now.

@AlaskanGrizzly did log on to this forum about two weeks ago so still is active at some level. I've wondered whether anyone in the developer community would be willing and able to take over if @AlaskanGrizzly is too busy and willing to let others have access to the code. There recently was a very sucessful transition of VAICOM PRO from a paid app to a community supported version because the original developer could not keep up with the changes in DCS that required updates to the app. That might be a model if @AlaskanGrizzly would support it and someone else would step up to take responsibility. I'm not experienced enough as a coder to volunteer myself, nor do I have a lot of time. I hope this is not taken the wrong way. If he isn't interested in such a transition then that is his right and I would support such a decision. We all owe him thanks for the contributions he has made.

I can't speak for the Xbox controller specifically. However there are a number of joystick control programs out there that let you convert movement of analog axes to virtual button presses. One I've seen mentioned often (but have not used myself) is Joystick Gremlin. https://whitemagic.github.io/JoystickGremlin/

@BIGNEWY's solution worked well for me for years until I upgraded my HOTAS. I chose a dedicated "modifier" button on my throttle, which then let me double up functions for every other button. Bignewy is correct that you still need two buttons. However the doubling of functionality on all other buttons more than makes up for that. Regarding "universal" joystick utilities, perhaps @Hiob is thinking of Joystick Gremlin, available at https://whitemagic.github.io/JoystickGremlin/.

I sometimes want to search the User Files Download area of the website to find files related to a certain module. However the search results are dominated by skins. I know I can exclude them by searching for one file type at a time, but that is tedious. So my wish list is to have a more flexible filter for file type so that I can exclude skins (or missions) while finding everything else.

What a tease! When will there be a new version?

Well maybe on some monitors with some video settings. I run at 2560x1440 and haven't really noticed much of a change. Nothing that I would call "unsightly." Spotting now seems marginally easier than before. Spotting is still very difficult with dot labels turned off.

P-51 has them too.

I've tried that and it doesn't work in practice. I tried installing the South Atlantic map on my non-SSD c drive as part of a "stable" DCS installation there that I don't actually use. This let me identify which folders need to get symlinks to install it as part of my OpenBeta installation on an almost full dedicated SSD. I created those symlinks, and another one for the downloads folder. The OpenBeta installation program happily downloaded the map using the symlink for downloads, but then refused to install it, because it said I had limited space on the SSD. Nevermind that the installation wasn't going to be stored on the SSD. If you have a workaround I'd like to know more about the details.

I'm very appreciative to all who contributed to the Community Edition. Thanks and let's hope VAICOM can stay relevant for DCS for many years. However you might want to check the spelling in the title of this thread. VAICOM and VIACOM are two different things!

I run VAICOM PRO within VoiceAttack with VA not running as administrator. It works just fine provided you make sure VA/VCP can modify the files they need to modify. If DCS is installed in a user changeable directory this is not a problem. If DCS is installed in The Program Files directory you may have to change its permissions to allow updates by an ordinary user. In my view this is a safer solution than giving VoiceAttack full admin rights on my computer.

I also started with Flanker 1.0. It was major fun, and didn't require much messing around with settings. I'm sympathetic to the OP despite all of the eye candy bells and whistles we have now. Maybe if I bought a new PC ...

That's the first thing I did. There are no double bindings that I can find. And if there were I would not expect the problem to go away by simply opening and closing the controls menu without even going into the Axis settings page. Nor would it go away by turning off the initial synchronization at mission start. BTW, I have this problem in both Flankers (the Su-27 and Su-33) but not in any other modules I've tested.

I'm skeptical that it will ever be fixed. Right now tracks record inputs from your controllers, keyboard, mouse, headtracker, and other input devices recognized in the DCS controls menu. VAICOM communicates directly with the underlying code, bypassing that layer altogether, which is why your inputs from VAICOM are not recorded in the track file. I've seen no indication that ED ever plans to fix this. If I need to make a track file I turn off (or don't use) VAICOM.

I recently upgraded my throttle to a VKB STECS. On my old throttle the mini-stick was unreliable and so I used button presses for TDC slew. On the new throttle the mini-stick is rock steady and tests nicely in the VKB calibration software and also in the DCS axis control page for the Flankers. I have the mini-stick axes assigned to TDC vertical and horizontal skew and do not have any buttons bound to the TDC functions. However, when I enter a mission and turn on BVR the target cursor gets stuck in the upper left hand corner of the HUD and I can't move it away with the mini-stick. It sometimes moves a short distance but then jumps back to the corner. When this is happening, if I hit Escape, then Adjust Controls, then immediately click Cancel to return to the mission the mini-stick starts behaving properly and works properly for the rest of the mission. If I restart the mission the problem is back. I'm wondering if anyone has an idea about what is going on. This is a real pain for air start dogfighting! I have not tested the mini-stick in other modules, or tried to use it for other functions. Edit: I turned off "synchronize cockpit controls with HOTAS controls at mission start" in the Misc Options and the problem went away. Nevertheless this seems like a bug.

I see no problem with giving player control over visibility, provided multiplayer servers have the option to turn it off. A lot of the user base is not on multiplayer.

That's only a problem if you insist on mapping different PTT buttons per aircraft. And if you must do that then there are workarounds via more sophisticated programming within VoiceAttack. Many of us have been using VAICOM alongside SRS for years without any problems to enable both voice chat and voice interaction with the AI. ED has some catching up to do. I'm encouraged, however, by a Wags video posted today that closes with a hint that the new DCS voice chat will (perhaps not right away) enable a variety of user-created options.

You can do that already with VAICOM PRO Community Edition.

Glad to hear that this is working for you again. But for the record, that is the VAICOMPRO log, not the VoiceAttack log. Also, it would be helpful for the future if you could report back what the fix was.

That happens to me as well. It's caused by some switches on my throttle that turn a particular button on continuously until I move the switch to a different setting, at which point another button goes on continuously. Evidently VA polls the stick immediately and finds a button pressed and assumes that's the one you want. Fortunately reset clears it, at which point you can press the correct button. So I don't think this is the source of your problem since everything is working fine for me event though I experience the same thing when I assign buttons within VA. But what's happening in your VA log? There may be some clues there if you have enabled VAICOM debugging. (I leave VAICOM debugging on all of the time. Doesn't seem to add noticeable overhead.)

It might help to see the VA log (with VAICOM debugging turned on first) when this happens. I don't have Virpil hardware and so cannot provide detailed advice. However if I were having this issue with my VKB hardware I would first go into the stick configuration software and run some button tests to make sure the press and release are working as expected. It's possible, for example, that your stick is sending a pulse when you press and hold, instead of holding the virtual button down. It also occurred to me that this might be related to the SRS/VOIP integration settings in VAICOM PRO, some of which require special setup of the TX commands. You might look into that if you have used SRS/VOIP integration. I've found it to be very unnatural and so use a completely different approach from the one in the VAICOM PRO manual. Finally, are you sure you have the TX programmed correctly? Consider activating a clean VAICOM PRO profile, then export the TX section to its own profile. Then import and switch to that profile (which will have only the TX commands) and edit it until it's correct, and export it as a new VAP file. Finally, switch to your regular VAICOM PRO profile and import the edited profile for your TX commands. One last thought: If the switch in GUID you experienced was not related to a hardware change (e.g. replugging in the stick after having it disconnected from its usual USB port) then you might suspect a hardware problem, such as a loose connection somewhere, as the ultimate culprit. Personally, I never unplug my flight sim peripherals to avoid such problems.