ddahlstrom

I agree that FFB pedals wouldn't be very useful. Also, while I suppose you can get used to the current auto-recentering scheme for the pedals under FFB, I never could and is part of the reason I stopped using FFB mode quite a while ago. My wish is for a variant of the 1.01 style trim in FFB mode. In other words, in FFB mode, when trim is pressed, the stick (cyclic) should immediately lock into its new physical position and remain controllable, while the pedals (yaw) should be immediately locked to their current virtual position until the pilot recenters the pedals. Once the pilot centers the rudders, yaw control will be unlocked. It's simple, and preferrable IMHO to blocking rudder trim altogether since it provides the benefits of FFB trimming in the cyclic while preventing the rudder "hiccup" that invariably happens when you don't "dance" perfectly in time.

Not near enough...the post refers to positive results in an early 5.09 build and no schedule for release. But at least something's in the works.

Technically, it's in both courts. Evidently, (given FSX as an example) it's possible to program out the slop. ED hasn't done that, and that decision lies with them. I don't necessarily fault them since I don't know their reasons or how big the effort is, but it is clearly something they could have done if they really wanted to. Given that they haven't, I'm disappointed in ED for not doing it. On the other hand, I remain seriously disappointed in Logitech for apparently doing next to nothing to make this happen, and for (apparently) not using an API model that is compatible with existing FFB implementations. For crying out loud, given the way Logitech was previously talking, ED should have been able to practically ask Logitech to write the code for them. Anyway, if ED isn't properly supporting the G940 in their latest releases, I remain worried about the future of this stick. [Edit] On a positive note, I did just see that CharlesB has a note on the Logitech forum suggesting that an update that addresses the slop may be near. Let's keep our fingers crossed. This post also confirms that slop control can be done at a programmatic level.

I'd actually like to hear from ED on this one. Technically, according to Logitech, this problem may be fully addressed on the game side with appropriate programming. Logitech had also indicated quite clearly that it was working with game vendors to assist them in doing this. I've always assumed ED was among them. Consequently, I have to believe that either Logitech was not telling the truth or ED has chosen not to incorporate G940-specific programming. Unless stated otherwise, right now I'm assuming the latter (which is too bad).

Yup. That's how I do it too.

I'll take a stab at summarizing. TouchPal can be used with or without a touchscreen. The experience is best when a touchscreen display is used, but it works fine with a mouse as well. The position of the buttons in the TouchPal profile are wherever the profile designer wants them. They may or may not match the real cockpit. If you're up to it, you can customize a profile to position the buttons wherever you want. Profiles that feature the ABRIS and/or Shkval are intended to be used on a second monitor attached to the same PC that is running BS. One can also configure TouchPal to run on a remote computer, but will not be able to see the ABRIS or Shkval.

Oh yes. I remember playing the original Comanche on a friend's brand new 66 Mhz 486 machine and being completely blown away by it. About six months ago I managed to get a copy of it running in DosBox and it brought back some great memories.

So much of this comes down to simply how one approaches this sim. In a recent mission I was hit badly enough to knock out all of the AP channels. The return trip to base was harrowing, but I made it and landed safely. So is it good to fly missions to specifically practice flying without the AP channels? Absolutely. On the other hand, if someone accurately tells me that in real-life (non-practice/training) missions, pilots *must* fly with all the AP channels on under ordinary conditions, then I will always do this too. Even if it makes certain things seemingly tougher. Why? Well, my personal goal in this sim is actually not to learn the simplest ways of doing things, feel the satisfaction of blowing things up, or even to win missions. I have numerous arcade games and light sims that let me do that in a MUCH more satisfying way (explosions and power-uping are so dull in BS). Rather my goal in this sim is to accurately understand how the KA-50 operates, both mechanically and procedurally. So if someone tells me with authority that it is procedurally allowable for a KA-50 pilot to turn off the HH channel under normal flight conditions and at his discretion, then I will happily want to learn how to exercise that kind of discretion and will turn it on and off at will. On the other hand, if it is procedurally inaccurate to turn HH on and off at pilot discretion, then I will want to learn the "right" way of doing things--even if it makes things initially harder--and especially if I'm a beginner where bad habits are most easily formed. In other words, in the end its not about how I've made things work best for me, but about how well I've learned the aircraft and its operational protocol. Obviously, if your goals with the simulator are different, then play it in any way you desire. If you haven't tried it, the arcade mode is actually a blast, and does away with all that hard stuff!

The stretched background is completely normal (I see the same thing if TouchPal is not running). When you run TouchPal, it should lie on top of that stretched background so that you don't see it. The ABRIS will "peek" through the mask in the profile. (I assume TouchPal is not running in this screenshot, right?)

Just keep in mind that you don't need FFB to enjoy this game. In fact, even if FFB on the G940 worked perfectly, I seriously doubt that it would improve my ability to play the game in the slightest. I'm looking forward to eventual improvements but I'm not holding my breath either.

Yup. The 1024 version is almost identical to Gadroc's--but slightly enhanced to support the -design mode (which provides right-click editing). The intent was to make sure that Gadroc's design was supported in my updated version since a lot of people like it (including me :thumbup:). The 800x600 profile is the one I run remotely.

Yes, it does work this way, but not exceptionally well. In a nutshell, FFB trim *does* lock the stick in a new position, but it usually causes the aircraft to be jerked-around a bit in the process. And then, when you release your hand from the stick, it will almost always bob off the attitude you just "locked" it into. There is also a secondary issue with rudder trim, which in FFB mode will return to virtual center instantly upon trim--meaning that if you don't also instantly recenter your pedals, you're yaw attitude will be yanked around as well. These problems seem to be the result of both Logitech's drivers and DCS code, and have driven me back to using non-FFB mode almost exclusively. Hopefully, we'll see this sorted out eventually, but in the meantime, its not a feature to base your G940 purchase decision on. The G940 is a cool stick with lots of potential, but its not all there yet.

In fact, you can even run both a networked and local copy simultaneously, providing that one of them limits itself to using keystroke commands (since export.lua can currently only converse through a single port). In my setup, I have Touchpal running locally on a second monitor with a profile that shows the ABRIS and Shkval along with a small set of switches and buttons that use strictly keystroke-based commands. Meanwhile, I have a second instance of Touchpal running on a remote touchscreen machine which hosts buttons that issue a full suite of network and keystroke based commands.

Nicely done...too bad my second screen is only 1024x768 but the graphics for your controls are quite nice. With regards to your question about the eject button, the keystroke handling for this sort of thing is a bit odd...but it can be made to work. When I did my profile, I ended up doing this. <Button Name="Eject"> <NetworkID>5015</NetworkID> <Width>44</Width> <Height>33</Height> <BackgroundImage>blackshark\eject_on.png</BackgroundImage> <PushedBackgroundImage>blackshark\eject_on_in.png</PushedBackgroundImage> <PushedAction>KD:{LCONTROL}</PushedAction> <PushedAction>KD:e</PushedAction> <PushedAction>KU:e{LCONTROL}</PushedAction> <PushedAction>KD:{LCONTROL}e</PushedAction> <PushedAction>KU:e{LCONTROL}</PushedAction> <PushedAction>KD:{LCONTROL}e</PushedAction> <ReleaseAction>KU:e{LCONTROL}</ReleaseAction> </Button> Doing {LCONTROL}e as the first PushedAction didn't work for some reason. I'd have to look closer at the code to figure out why. So while there may be a cleaner way of doing this, at least it works. Perhaps Gadroc might have some ideas.

And don't forget that Touchpal itself can run on a separate networked computer too--especially if you plan to run it without the shkval & abris. If this is an option for you, you can also check-out my touchpal patch here, which provides a profile for this along with support for keystrokes. http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=795212&postcount=117

I also looked at your values and agree that they look correct with the two exceptions pointed out by Gadroc. Seems that it should work. Odd. What exactly does the screen look like without TouchPal running?

I am currently using a G940 stick and after much initial frustration, returned to using non-FFB trim set to the return-to-center mode. When using this in combination with about a 15% deadzone on both X and Y axis and a wide HelicopterTrimmerZoneRudder in FMOptions.lua, I can now at least play the game very well with this stick. Without getting into the G940 issue list (which I am well acquainted with), I'm just curious whether, after several months now, anyone who has a G940 has come up with a configuration using FFB trim that works well for them? This technique must include the ability to achieve a fast and stable hover that permits going hands-free on the stick immediately after achieving the hover, which is the single thing keeping me from using FFB trim mode on this stick.

Your best bet is probably to post exactly what you did. We may be able to help you better. i.e. what changes did you make in options.lua and in the lua file containing the viewports?

May I ask what Lua file, and what setting this is?

...and just a postscript...I don't use BSVP either, so I can't report on its compatibility, other to say that these changes shouldn't have affected it either positively or negatively. I made no changes to Export.lua and tried not to step on any existing functionality so what worked before should still work.

I've just completed a new set of changes to TouchPal to fill in some functional gaps that I had run into. Thanks to Gadroc and DickDastardly for developing this great platform and sharing it. Note that these changes are based on the r16 (0.4) build of TouchPal. Because the changes are fairly substantial, I have included the full source as well as an executable. A detailed readme.txt file with installation instructions is included in the attachment. There are four primary new features. 1. Full client/server remote operation, including integrated support for sending keystrokes from a remote client to the host/game machine. 2. New 800x600 profile based on one that had been created for TouchBuddy designed primarily for operation on a remote machine. 3. New option for hiding the cursor. 4. Right-click editing of button assignments through the GUI for easily tweaking profiles. Dave TouchPal 0.4X1.zip

Ok, I finally got a chance to actually try this (i.e. running TouchPal on a separate machine), and I too couldn't get it to work. Even after turning off the firewall on the client machine, it didn't seem to want to talk to the host. To solve this, I changed the EndPoint for the socket to use IPAddress.Any rather than IPAddress.Loopback in UDPNetConnection.cs. socket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 9089)); Change to.. socket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 9089)); This seems to fix it so that TP runs properly both locally and remotely.

Note that this post has been superceded by this one http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=795212&postcount=117 Given my general aversion to editing xml files :cry:, I've tacked on a new feature to TouchPal that will permit changing button and light controls directly in the GUI. To use this feature, build TouchPal with the attached source code changes (further instructions below), then run TouchPal with the -design command line option. Note that this command line option may be left on permanently if you like as it should not interfere with normal runtime operations. Changing a control To change a button (or light), simply right-click on it in the GUI. This will bring up a small context menu with a combobox and two buttons (Accept and Cancel). The combobox contains a list of all available controls that are the same size as the one you right clicked on. To replace the control, simply select an alternate one from the list and press the Accept button. You may undo your changes by pressing the blue Undo button that will appear near the bottom left of the screen after you've done an edit. Saving your changes Once you've changed one or more controls, a Save button will appear in the lower left area of the screen. Click on the button once to save your changes permanently to the touchpal.xml file. Important note: It is recommended to backup your original touchpal.xml file before saving. Also be aware that all comments in the touchpal.xml file will be stripped out when saving. Usage Notes 1. Most controls have a graphic assigned to them. When they do, you will see icons next to them in the context menu list. Some controls, however, are really just areas on a background template (like the ABRIS buttons). These will not be displayed with an icon and you will not be able to change the graphic, although you can still change its assignment. 2. For convenience, controls that are defined but not currently assigned to a panel, will show up on the list in slightly dimmed italics. You can select these just like any other control. 3. In the course of changing buttons, it is likely that you will temporarily produce duplicate buttons on screen. If you've just changed a button assignment and would like to see if there is a duplicate on screen, simply press the button and watch. You should see any duplicates also being depressed (this doesn't work for controls that don't change visible state when clicked). 4. It is important to note that this feature is not a profile *creation* tool, but a profile *modification* tool. It presumes you already have a fully populated and basically correct profile installed that you want to tweak. If you want to create brand new controls, graphics, or layouts, you will still need to hand-edit the profile. Source Code This post only includes source code. I will let Gadroc inspect to see if he would like to merge it into the project. Assuming the source tip over at Google hasn't changed in the last couple of days, you should be able to use the files in the attached zip pretty much as-is. Just drop in and replace. Note, however, that I haven't included a new project file, so you will need to add the following class files to the project manually using the Add Existing Item option in VS (assuming you're using VS). * ProfileManager.cs, * CockpitContextMenu.cs, * SaveAction.cs * UndoAction.cs * UndoEditItem.cs * UndoEditStack.cs * RoundStack.cs Also be aware that there is a slightly modified replacement touchpal.xml file included that is needed to support the new Save and Undo button panels; and you will also need to add the following graphics to your blackshark folder. * save.png * undo.png * power.png (optional -- to match look of new save & undo buttons) Oh yeah, some friendly reminders: Don't forget to add -debug to the command line arguments in the Debug tab of the project if you are using the debugger (or to the executable if you're running it that way). Also don't forget to adjust the <Layout> X and Y coordinates in touchpal.xml if you have customized them and are replacing your existing file with this one. Dave TouchPalEditor.zip

Just a quick note. I actually run my second monitor below (virtually speaking) the primary display. This has the advantage of keeping the comms menus on the main screen as well as allowing display of gauges in cockpitless view.

I just noticed a response from Logitech_Mark on the thread just below this one from yesterday (i.e. G940 Problem). Also, based on a detailed response from him not too long ago on the Logitech forums about some of these issues, I remain hopeful that they will make some of the improvements we're all looking for.