GregP

Edit: sold. Bought new in July but only used for two hours and no longer needed. In perfect condition with no problems at all. I have the original boxes and all included accessories. Verified to work with both DCS and Falcon4 BMS. Currently sells for $322 direct from WinWing. Note that this does not include the USB displays that WinWing also sells for use with this setup.

I'm unable to actually spawn in a Hind after joining any slot in the 'Weapons Range' Instant Action mission set in the Caucasus. I've even tried hosting a server, thinking maybe it's set up as an MP mission--but same thing, I can join any slot, but it never puts me in a Hind, instead I just get stuck looking at scenery. Has anyone else encountered this or know of a solution?

Interesting, thanks for posting that. My main monitor refresh rate is also 144, and I too use a powered USB hub with individual enabling buttons on each port, so your solution is worth me trying too. Although I thought I saw an option to go up to 90 Hz in the DL manager, but maybe I imagined that.

Given the popularity of the WinWing Viper MIP for use in DCS with MFDs, I'm hoping somebody may have a suggestion for how to resolve this. I found that when I enable my two DisplayLink USB monitors, it ends up disabling G-Sync on my main monitor which makes for a very stutter-y experience. Surprisingly I've found very little discussion of this online and I've only been able to locate one thread from 2012 where somebody mentioned the DL drivers being in conflict with NVCP and removing most of the latter's options (which is exactly what I see), including G-Sync. I haven't yet tried installing a new Nvidia driver set over the DL drivers, so it's possible that may rectify it, but it sounds like somehow the two different display technologies are fundamentally incompatible for a lot of advanced graphics options like G-Sync. The difference in smoothness between with and without G-Sync is huge and if I can't find a way to reenable it I'll have to give up on the DL monitors. Anyone else experienced this before and/or found a solution?

Ugh.....yes, yes I did! I definitely never had that setting on in the past so a reinstall must have re-enabled it without me noticing it. I just turned it off and tried again and now I can finally fly the thing without it fighting me at every turn. Thank you for pointing out the obvious! Entirely my fault.

Thanks for the reply. What you say makes sense to me, but strangely I see nearly the same behavior even with the AP channels off. And yes I have checked for double binds and there aren't any. What about the movement of the in-game cyclic in the cockpit, do you see the same thing that I do? If you bank to the side, the cyclic moves in the same direction but then returns to center, as if the sim is automatically applying force trim regardless of what I'm doing?

Long-time DCS player here, but have taken several long breaks the past few years. I got the Hind when it came out, enjoyed it and learned its quirks, and could reliably trim it and keep it under control. But coming back to it now, it's an entirely different beast and I can't even remotely get the trim system figured out - did it radically change sometime in the past year or so? To start with, whether I use Instant Trim, or Central Position Trimmer, doesn't seem to have any real effect on below results, nor does turning off the AP channels, nor does pressing the trimmer once or repeatedly. Note I have 'Force Feedback Stick' disabled, I've verified that my joystick axes work just fine outside DCS (and in other modules), and I don't have any axes double assigned in my controls setup. With the controls indicator up, I see the following in the Instant Action mission Caucasus - Takeoff: when I spawn in, the cyclic (diamond on indicator) is already trimmed back and to the rear. This makes for a stable hover and takeoff as I apply collective, but this is my first point of confusion: why does it not start with the diamond centered? I'm sure it used to be that way, and you had to manually pull the cyclic back and to the right to not drift when taking off. Even if I try to reset the trim the diamond will never move back to the center. Anyway, I lift off and have no problem transitioning into forward flight. The trouble comes when I want to change direction or pitch with the cyclic: if I, for example, move it to the right, I see the in-game cyclic, as well as the diamond on the indicator, quickly move right and then return to near center - as if, behind the scenes, it's using force trim to recenter the in-game cyclic - but I haven't moved the cyclic from the banked right position. If I then hit the trimmer and return the cyclic to center, intending to stabilize the Hind in the right bank I've established, as soon as I let go of the right bank, the Hind returns to an unbanked attitude (or near it). It's like it's refusing to accept my trimmer inputs. Similarly, if I'm flying along and see that I'm gaining altitude but wish to remain level, I push the cyclic forward, zero out the vertical speed, hit trimmer, return to center, and the Hind immediately pitches up and begins gaining altitude again. It's almost as if there's some other cyclic input that is fighting/counteracting my own, cancelling out any trimming that I try to do and making the Hind completely uncontrollable. The only thing I can do that does seem to work is to use the trim hat to establish the attitude I'm seeking, rather than rely on trimmer (force trim) usage. Am I missing something obvious here? This feels very different from what I remember from flying the Hind a few years ago and it now feels like the trimmer does more to destabilize the Hind rather than help keep a desired attitude.

I find the controls indicator to be invaluable in every DCS module as it can quickly show me how my controllers are being interpreted and translated into actual movements in-game. As a result, I have the indicator open every single time I fly in DCS. But I noticed that in Training Missions 1-4, since the kneeboard page opens on the left, it seems to not allow the controls indicator to open (as the indicator would go in that same spot on the left by default). This seems to be resolved in TM 5, where the kneeboard moves to the right; in that case, the controls indicator opens with no problem. I haven't checked the missions beyond 6 yet, but perhaps, if possible, could the kneeboard be kept always on the right so it doesn't conflict with the controls indicator?

Great discussion here and I would love to see some of this info from @Zabuzard make it into the manual so that other users can also understand 1) the rationale for adding the CAGE and CAA modes, 2) why they work the way they do (as they were grafted on to an existing stick/throttle button layout) and 3) how they differ from what users may have experienced in other aircraft. Speaking at least for myself, not only do I find these explanations very interesting as I'm learning a new aircraft, but also crucial for understanding the logic behind why things work the way they do--and to me that seems like perfect contextual information to include in the manual in addition to the explanations of the functionality alone.

Edit: figured out my issue, deleted.

This works perfectly and is exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much for posting it.

This looks fantastic and I can't wait to try it out. Will you be uploading it to the DCS user files section? And is your latest F-16 cockpit available?

Just wanted to note that in my case, I usually use MT but tried ST and got the same result: using a hat for pitch trim is too rough, but rotary encoder works very well.

In the example above I was referring to the SavedGames folder, but now I think you're talking about the main DCS folder, as the only file in my SavedGames 'keyboard' folder is 'keyboard.diff.lua'. So, in my main folder (\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\F-4E\Input\F-4E-Pilot\keyboard\default.lua'), there are two lines for pitch trim: { name = _('Trim - Nose Up (Hat Aft)'), up = iCommandPlaneTrimPitch, pressed = iCommandPlaneTrimPitch, value_up = 0, value_pressed = 1, category = { categories.flight_controls, categories.stick } }, { name = _('Trim - Nose Down (Hat Forward)'), up = iCommandPlaneTrimPitch, pressed = iCommandPlaneTrimPitch, value_up = 0, value_pressed = -1, category = { categories.flight_controls, categories.stick } }, But if I change the 'value_pressed' to anything other than 1, it seems to disable pitch trim altogether...

I'd love to try that, but where, exactly? Maybe here (\Config\Input\F-4E-45MC\joystick\[joystick name].lua)? Is there a parameter I can adjust there?: ["dnilp2019u2019cdnilvdnilvp-1vu0"] = { ["added"] = { [1] = { ["key"] = "JOY_BTN_POV1_U", }, }, ["name"] = "Trim - Nose Down (Hat Forward)", },

Tried that and it didn't work - it just disabled the trim altogether. Seems that value isn't modable the way it is in other DCS modules. HOWEVER - very interesting results of another test I just tried: I assigned the pitch trim to not only my joystick trim hat, but also to my VKB STECS throttle's pinky rotary knob, which has distinct 'notched' rotation as opposed to being a smooth rotary analog axis. For each 'click' of this rotary up or down, I see the pitch trim change by maybe half, at most, of how much it usually changes by using my stick's trim hat! It seems this method avoids the 'auto-repeat' function because it's (presumably) just sending a single 'press' command each time I click it up or down and there's no way for it to register the button being seen as held down. Trimming out the airplane is now very easy! Might be worth trying if others have similar rotaries.

I'm using a WinWing Orion base + F-16EX grip, with trim set to the trim hat (I've also tried two other hats with same results), and using SimAppPro. I'd hoped SAP might have a way to customize button dwell time, but it doesn't seem to. I then tried using Joy2Key to do same, but had no luck affecting anything. You mention videos - I must be blind, but I'm not seeing any linked above?

@Victory205 I appreciate the time you took to explain your results, but I don't think it addresses the problem I and others are having: The issue is that the actual incremental change in pitch trim that occurs with each press of whatever joystick button we've assigned to it, is seemingly too big and thereby creates too much of a response, leading to a constant porpoising around level flight. My theory is that this is a joystick issue, not a user issue, because, for example, if I assign a key combo to pitch trim, and I tap that key as fast as I possibly can (i.e. for aa short amount of time as possible), I see that on the controls indicator, the pitch trim position changes a smaller amount than when I try to do the quickest tap of my joystick button. And even if they matched, it's nearly impossible to do as quick a tap of that joystick button as it is on the keyboard. It seems to me that the trim is acting like an 'auto-repeat' function based on how long the button is held down; therefore, ideally what I would like, and what others users have wanted across a variety of DCS modules, is a customizable trim increment value. If our joysticks aren't letting us set the amount of time that each press of a button is registered, then at least slowing down how much the trim changes per unit of time would seemingly solve the issue for everyone.

I'm also having a problem with pitch trim being too sensitive; not quite as extreme as others have encountered above, but still rough enough that trimming out for leveled flight for more than a second or two seems impossible. Some other DCS modules have parameters in the clickabledata.lua files that can be tweaked to make the pitch trim smoother, but I'm not seeing any analogous lines in the F-4E's code. Anyone else found a solution yet?

Sorry for the late reply. To turn off admin, just right click on the DCS.exe, go to properties, then compatibility tab, and make sure 'run this program as an administrator' is unchecked.

Just wanted to say thank you for such an amazingly simple tool. I've been a DCS fan since the early days and could never wrap my mind around how to properly set the user curve to get the afterburner detent working. Using your tool, I was able to get it done in just a few minutes. Really great work, thank you for making this available to us all!

Possibly not! I just came across that suggestion in Casmo's video about the AP too, and I don't recall whether I changed power, but I'll try that next flight.

I can get the AP alt hold to work, but not alt select; I've tried as many combinations and orders of options as I can think of and nothing will force the plane to climb or descent to my selected altitude. Hopefully AP functionality is still WIP?

Six months later and I finally solved it! Actually I put DCS aside for several months and just came back to it, and this problem continued to bug me, so I kept at it. Initially the different folder structure of the F-15E compared to say, the F-16C and F/A-18C, which had known solutions to the same problem, confused me, as I was trawling through several LUA files trying to find the same parameters. But then finally today I found the very simple solution, which actually is the same fix that the F-16 and F-18 use - I hadn't realized the F-15E has the same file: you have to edit the Display_StrokeDefs.lua file in X:\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\F-15E\Cockpit\Displays\. Default vaules are: stroke_thickness = 0.6 stroke_fuziness = 0.4 Which I changed to 0.2 and 0.4, respectively, which looks good on my 7680x2160 resolution. Hope this helps somebody else too!

I too really like the idea of a more Cold War-esque setting for the Apache. Did you make any progress exploring the mission editor?