Bearfoot

Maybe something is lost in translation, but for me by default Slider 1 is "GATE CONT" hat switch left/right.

You might want to wait on the official measurements, but if you can make do with some quick and dirty ones, with the GFII + extension + MCG Pro I get ~ 48 - 48.5 cm, depending on the whether you want to err on the short side or long side. Even they don't offer a non-label option, it seems to me that there are so many ways to cleanly erase the labels on your end that it would be a weird route to give up an high quality stick because of this -- rubbing alcohol + elbow grease is going to take of it nicely or you could go the other way and use a dab or two of kit/model paint or even a good black marker.

+1. We have a clickable pit --- indulge in it! I used to try to map everything to my HOTAS (and with the X-55 I had in those days, availability of buttons/switches was not a problem). But I realized that this just complicated things, making it LESS ergonomic simply because it cluttered my headspace with keeping track of what one thing did in one a/c vs. another. E.g., POV hat up = left engine fuel cross feed in Mi-8 and activate the positive power coupling in the X-Wing. Contrived/fake example, but you get the idea. Not only bad for ergonomics, but terrible for immersion! So, I gave that all up, and now only have on my HOTAS what's on the a/c's HOTAS (and sometimes not even all that). For everything else: I use the mouse and click on the switch. HUGE CAVEAT: I use VR. When I used TrackIR, I found MANY of the switches on MOST of the modules extremely difficult or, at the very least, very, very, very irritating/frustrating to reach. In that case, I just used the key commands (mapping them to keys if needed). A little less satisfying immersion wise, but it got the job done with much less frustration. VoiceAttack is, of course, the other solution as suggested here. It's nice, clean, immersive, and works VERY well, plus has much better immersion than either the keyboard or even mapping to a HOTAS (and maybe even more than clicking the switch in cases where, e.g., the startup is typically done by a flight engineer while you chillax in the pilot commander seat, like the MI-8).

Here's the problem you are going to have with getting the info you want for the X-55/X56. Some people are going to tell you it is a great stick that has never given them any grief and to go for it. Other people are going to tell you it is a POS and you should stay away from it like it is the plague. Who are you going to believe? The answer is BOTH, as both groups are telling you the truth in so far as their experience goes. You see, when the problem lies with the essential dual nature of the X-55/56. Ergonomically, especially the throttle is an excellent piece of kit. Beautiful abundance of rotaries, great feeling/precision in throttle etc. etc. etc. On the other hand, it is a very, very, very, poorly built product. I do not mean in the cheapness of materials, but in the fundamental engineering of its internals, which leads to wires sometimes getting chopped. So what we have is a great piece of kit, with a fundamentally high rate of failure. But that does not mean that the gear will fail for everyone, or even most people. E.g., a 40% failure rate is absurdly high, and yet most people will probably not have face any issues. So people for whom the throttle has not failed --- and there are many --- will legitimately, and to the best of their knowledge, say it is a great throttle. And they cannot honestly tell you otherwise, because regardless of what the internet says, their own first-hand experience trumps it all, and their experience shows the opposite. On the other hand, people for whom the throttle has failed will naturally rant and rave and whine and tell you the opposite. I fall in the latter category. Loved my (X-55) while it worked. One by one, rotaries and buttons and switches started failing, either by not working at all, or, even more annoying, sending ghost keypresses so had to be disabled. Until one day, the second axis failed, and I gave up on it. Took about 6-8 months for the first tiny failures to emerge, and about 1.5 years for the last before I gave up. Just my luck that the really serious issues did not start till the warranty ended. Moved since to a TMWH, had it now for twice as long with no issues. Though I still prefer the ergonomics of the X-56. So, my advice to you would be to one of the following: (1) Go ahead and get the X-56, but take on the mindset that this is a "disposable" control, that you might have to end up replacing at the end of a year or so. Now, you might not need to do this, and your "honeymoon" period may well last years, as it has for some folks. But if it doesn't, then at least you are prepared. (2) Get the Thrusmaster TWCS. Not as nice ergonomics as either the X-56 or the TMWH, but it is a permanent buy (and affordable at $65) that will last you through the century https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826280081&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-PC-_-pla-_-PC+Gaming+Accessories+%28Joystick+-+Game+Pad+-+etc.%29-_-N82E16826280081&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnOzSBRDGARIsAL-mUB38FfDUb-8dWzmrylJHXovjIKn3hzaHukaNGwPFvK_sCr4gg3L_ja8aAuspEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds (Also note that the X-55/56 are not comparable in quality to the X-52 and the X-65). The X-52 and X-65 are excellent in internal build quality and last years and years and years and years, and the X-65 I would say easily beats the Hog in both quality and design. The X-55/56 is in a class of its own ... and not for the better)

It honestly is excellent! Here are some screenies:

Soooooooo much F-14 goodness!!!!!!! "Speed and Angels: Navy fighter pilot school (2008)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo_1T5rDHcs&t=1013

You could wear "flying slippers" though if Straits of Hormuz comes out, these would be a better style:

It's called a "deck". And you cannot crater it until you get through the CAP(s). (and the Tico's, and the CIWS's, but I doubt the Tomcats will let any crumbs fall from the table ...)

Do these hook into the "Score" display on the score window (as called up by the player with "`")? Otherwise I typically would just an internal Lua variable to keep track of these rather than flags (e.g., "red_coalition_score", "mission_objective1_success", etc.). But the principle is the same, just less cryptic.

The "pinky" (really middle or ring finger) switch is incredibly easy to use as a modifier. In fact, the problem might be that it is too easy to use. What I mean by this is: (1) by the way I have the palm rest set up, my ring (not middle as I said earlier) finger sits on the loosely on the pinky switch button. This means that I can easily press it by just gentle pressure on my ring finger, and all my other fingers/thumbs are free to and can comfortably reach every other button/switch on the grip without any trouble. Almost "do-without-thinking" action. (2) at the same time, because my middle finger rests on the "pinky" button, sometimes in the heat of the moment as I grip the stick too hard while moving the stick back and forth (so, typically hard banking turns in the excitement of a dog fight), I ended up accidentaly pressing that button. Not a big deal if you are using it as a modifier as it does nothing then, but if you have it mapped to, e.g., flares or rockets, then you are in for a surprise! The key for the comfort/ergonomics is setting the palm rest to the correct height. I set it down one notch from the default. This means that I do have to stretch just a teensy bit to get to the big red button on the upper left (but totally doable, and fine given how rarely I use that), but in turn, my fingers are spaced comfortably and in resting position my forefinger curls in the nice curve on the stick under the box. The thing is though, with something like two billion gazillion switches available without any shift modification, not to mention the other two billion gazillion on the throttle, what would you want to shift modify that you do not have buttons/switches to spare for?! Especially if you use VR. You have switches/buttons to spare even with the A-10C ...

Ha! Yes, I was actually considering adding the Viggen, the Harrier, and the Gazelle (mistral), because I have not doubt that, properly used, these would swat improperly-used a/c from the skies like drunken flies whether or not it is the F-14 or the F-18 or even an F-22!

Thanks! Yes, the software is incredible powerful and flexible. But yes, also tricky to use without knowing how, and difficult to learn without the documentation. You are right about the DCS double assigning, but that was not it as this issue was showing up outside DCS in the VKB Configurator test screen.

So we will soon have these two beautiful birds in the DCS skies. Who is going to win?? My prediction, the ratio of F-18's vs. F-14's players is going to be 10:1. The death/loss ratio, on the other hand, is going to be the other way around ... :) :) :)

I believe the issue might be that I accidentally pressed some buttons during the previous calibration. If so, a note in the documentation/instructions to avoid doing this would be good. Either way, if anyone else is facing this issue, try recalibrating ... without pressing non-axis controls!

So, it looks like a genuine problem, whether in software/firmware or "wires crossed" hardware. Here is what it looks like when I am pressing down on Button 4. Sometimes Button 4 light up by itself, but most of the time, especially if I press and hold down Button 4, you can see Button 14 light up. UPDATE: went through firmware reinstall, DEFAULT-ing, and recalibration. Tested and ... unable to reproduce issue so far. So, maybe that's fixed it? Will open support ticket if it reoccurs.

Ok, this is weird behavior. Latest firmware, etc., MCG Pro on GF2. DCS 1.5.8, SA 342M Gazelle. Button 4 sometimes registers as Button 14. E.g., I will open DCS control assignment window, select an action (e.g., "launch") and press the red upper left button, and it registers as "Button 4". Ok, good. Then I go to another action (e.g., "zoom"), and press the lower center hat to the left, and it registers as "Button 14". Ok, good. Now in game, I zoom etc. with lower center hat to the left, works fine. then I try to launch weapon by pressing red button on upper left, and .... I zoom. WTF? So I go back to control assignment, and confirm that launch is button 4. But when I actually press the red button, it takes me to the zoom action, and when I go back to the fire action and press the red button, instead of registering as "button 4", it registers as "button 14". Quit mission and try again, and, ok, back to red button = button 4. But soon it goes back to registering as button 14.

Worth posting again for the absolutely AWESOME footage of Mi-24's and Mi-8's in action .... dZa86ObSc6w

Ah, OK. So in the ME you essentially tell the engine to track particular flags as contributing to the score, while in the script you update the flags to true as required as particular conditions are met etc. Is that correct? So, if I my mission success condition is, e.g., player lands in zone "x" and destroys unit "y" without damaging unit "z", in the Lua I could schedule a function that (pseudo-code): if player in zone "x" then set flag 1000 end if unit y is dead then set flag 1001 end if unit z is dead then unset flag 1002 end Then in the ME, I would put: (1) Mission goal: (100, Red), Condition: Flag 1000 = 1 (2) Mission goal: (100, Red), Condition: Flag 1001 = 1 (3) Mission goal: (100, Red), Condition: Flag 1002 = 0 Or something like that? Yep, I know I can currently independently track and report a mission score using my own internal Lua variables along those lines ... but what I was hoping to do was to "hook into" the native game engine scoring and reporting system.

So you say, for e.g., flag 1001 tracks the red score and flag 1002 tracks the blue score. How do you let the engine know that these flags are the score value, so that the player sees these values in the score window when s/he hits the '`' key?

Can someone point me in the right direction of where to look for this? I've searched through the docs of all the various classes and objects of "stock"/native DCS, and cannot find anything that references how scores can be adjusted. Is it a specific flag that I have to adjust the value of? Related: mission success/failure setting programmatically (i.e., not through the ME).

Yep.

Went through the steps, including new configurator etc. After flashing completed in ZBootloader, a dialog box asking for Windows permission opened over another window, and kept flickering without letting me click anything (as if the dialog box was being continuously opened). And then the program crashed, and just before it did, sure enough, in the task bar I could see dozens or maybe tens of dozens of windows open before they all closed. HOWEVER, despite the above glitch, everything seemed to work, i.e. firmware updated to new version and buttons etc. all working fine. Not sure if worth reporting as bug/issue?

+1 Though I wonder if you can fake/munge it using other structures, e.g., bunkers, containers, hangars, outposts, or the like. If you are not opposed to using mods, then I think there are quite a few options that will get you 99% of the way there (pretty much everything but the roads).

Have a look here: http://forum.vkb-sim.pro/viewtopic.php?p=28475#p28475 Works like a charm. But FYI, I left it as it is, and it works great as a slew control for modules that support TDC/TGP/etc. axis slewing (e.g., Gazelle, Su-25)

That's not it. It's not the grip. It's the Black Box firmware not recognizing the grip, which requires (a) updating the firmware and (b) "defaulting" the Black Box to reset its settings to fix. Both need to be done. Go through the steps I listed above and you will have a working grip. Exact same thing happened to me --- down to KG12 working perfectly and MCG Pro not. Just a few pages back on this same thread -- I even have images of the program screens. I fixed it using the steps I describe in the previous post.