escar

BTW, this whole thing started as a "wacky idea". I just had a thought that I'd like to have a couple of buttons forwarded outside keyboard like in the abovementioned thread with that gizmo which costs over 200$ for the whole set. When I started thinking about it, all of a sudden from several keys I went to all possible functions. Maybe it happened this way because I thought that it'd be best to forward all cables from the keyboard at once instead of adding them gradually. Don't know. So it went from one dashboard to three and really lot's of buttons. I described the whole idea to my family and they imediatelly said "You're building a pit". I said "No. I'm just making some boxes with switches, to make it more fun and easier to fly. You know, for the fun of it. For the fun of putting something together.". Then I went to shops and when people couldn't understand what I was building I started explaining. At first, that I want to forward some keys from keyboard to external boards. Then I begun to say that it's for a simulator. And at some point, don't know after how many shops it hit me: "Damn, I'm building a pit now, am I? Am I? I'm. It seems that way. But all I wanted was a box with some buttons I could flip. Damn. But now it's three boxes, with a baseboard and a place for keyboard and just 5 seconds ago you were thinking about making a special spot there for the joystick and throttle. So... pit or not? Damn. Next thing you know I'll be adding ... more to it!". :OO Yesterday I had to stopmyself from thinking how to build a crossingboard. And intermediary piece which would change the configuration of the keys without altering original games setups. So that ... well... keyboard<>crossingthingy<>dashboards. Instead of changing all games keyassignments to fit the dashboard's setup, just replace the "crossingthingy". That way for LOMAC, FS and other stuff I'd simply need diffrent "crossingthingys". But... it's going to far. And changing key assignments in game would prolly take less time. I think that I spend too much time thinking about how to build this thing. :P If I start dreaming about it, I'll drop the whole idea. It'll be too scary then. ;)

I simply hate going to such places as Leroy&Merlin. I never get any shopping urges in normal hipermarkets. But in Leroy&Merlin? Or Castorama? Daaaamnn... all those tools and equipment. I could just go with two cart and round up every second tool in the tools department, then go on a round-the-shop trip gathering materials and then... take two weeks off and spend that time at home improving EVERYTHING. :P For the time being I got really stuck by portable generators. Since I moved out from the center of the city to the outskirts I've been experiencing power outs like 3-4 times a year. Every time a tree decides that it's tired and leans down on the powerlines to rest a bit... pooof. No power. For couple of hours usually, because the closest transforming station is located on the premesis of one stupid neighbour. It was placed there in the communist era, when nobody asked people whether they wanted something on their land or not. But now, in new Poland, every time a crew comes to turn of the power to clear the tree, that guys walks out and drives them out from his courtyard. And he's suing the electric company for money, because he believes that they should pay him for keeping that station on his ground. They'd remove it long time ago, but ... he doesn't let in. ROTFL. So everytime there's a power outage, they have to cut power not for the street only, but for entire housing estate. Brilliant. :P But instead of vering off topic a bit, I went all the way in the wrong direction. Anyway... I got stuck by the portable generators and after coming back home, instead of thinking about "the wacky idea" I started calculating power usage and decided that I need 2 kWh generator to keep the house "operational" during power shortages. What's most important, that would mean keeping the central heating furnace working. It's a realy great furnace, remote controlled, dual function, double pumps, etc., but just a pile of junk without electricity to operate it. :P Annyyywaaay... I went there to take a look at birdhouses to check if I could use them. Well... I don't know what these people are thinking, but things I saw there which they called birdhouses were frankly... crap. So I went along the aisles (THAT DAMN GENERATOR! :P ) and after some walking here and there, looking and which materials might best suit my needs I decided to use chiboard for the base and vertical walls of the boxes and a fibreboard for the top. Why? At first I was considering fibreboard only, because it's so easy to work with. You can cut it even with a kitchen knife. But then I realised that it's so thin, that I wouldn't be able to use wood screws (not wooden screws, but screws for wood), because they'd damage the fibreboard if driven into it in parallel. On the other hand I don't want to use chipboard for the top cover, because it would hard to make holes in it for buttons and switches + chipboard crumbles so easily, that after making all the holes I'd probably have the front panel looking like after a heavy case of chicken-pox. So... chipboard for the base, then chipboard walls of the box. All neatly screwed together. Then a fibreboard on top with all the necessary holes neatly drilled in it. Hmmm... each button has it's own "collar" for mounting, so they'll look ok on the board. But that leaves the edges not looking pretty, because you'd see that it's wood. Solution? Aluminium profiles. I'll line each edge with a very small aluminium profile. It should look ok. Especially if I wrap the whole box first with some sort of glossy wall-paper and paint it gray with spray paint. It should get a nice "metallish" look. So, I choose my materials and now I have to put it all on paper to measure the lengths, breaths and angles of the whole thing. If I supply all the numbers and designes probablly they'll cut everything in Leroy&Merlin, so all I'll have to do will be to screw it together. While walking towards the cashregister (accidentally I found bulbs for a lamp I intended to throw out, because I couldn't find bulbs for it) and extra idea hit me. Lots of military equipment has two handles on each side for easy removal from the mounting socket. So... I drifted towards the handle department and after sifting through lots of regular handles I found to that pretty much resemble these that you see on military equipment. Should look ok. And It's only extra 2 euro. Besides all that I kept my ongoing tour of electronics shops. Right now I'm probably best orientated man in Poznan regarding electronics shops localizations. I've got one more to go to, but I think that I have a full knowledge now of what I can buy and what is "Whaaat??? Neverheard of such a thing, mister!". Unfortunatelly some of that stuff will have to be ordered, but... what da heck, I can wait. So, I'm going to use three types of basic elements: - normal, temporary buttons - the type which is ON when you press it and is OFF when you let go, in Polish it's "chwilowe" or "zwierne" - two-section temporary switches - the type which is OFF in central position and which is ON when you push it up or down, right now I've found only one section switches like that, which is not good enough, because I'd have two fires fuzzed all the time. A two-section switch will allow me to connect two buttons to one switch, which will be perfect for airbrake, flaps, etc., virtually every function of the craft which has two states controlled by two keyboard buttons, - 360 degrees impulsator with push in temporary button - it's a sort of a rotating knob, if you press it you get a closed circuit on two pins and when you turn it around it shortens and opens a connection for several other pins, which should be almost perfect for weapons toggle and stuff like that (although I'll have to put in a LED on that switch, so that I'll leave it in open position not in closed position) The cost of one temporary button ranges from 80 gr to 7 zl. Which is like 20 euro cents to 1,8 euro. It's strange that they seem to price those things not by the level of the complicity of the design, but by weight and size. There are cheaper buttons, for 40 gr, but they are so small that... Basically I'll need mostly buttons which cost from 1 to 2 zl (26-60 eurocent). I'll buy only several larger ones, for some special purposes. Like a eject, weapon override and stuff like that. Wouldn't feel right to push a tiny button for "eject" now, would it? The cost of those temporary switches is 1 zl for one section switch, but I'll need two section ones which cost 1,5 zl (40 eurocent). I'll use it for airbrake and flaps for sure. I'm not sure about other stuff. I almost forgot, I'll need 3 normal, not temporary, switches for ctrl, alt and shft. Or maybe not. Then there's the impulsator which costs 12,5 zl a piece (3,3 euro). I'd love to have one for weapon selection. Other might be usefull for cycling targets and waypoints. Maybe MFD zoom in and out. Hmm... that'd be 2 or 4 knobs. Nah, they cost too much. Only two, for weapons and cycling targets and waypoints. Note: 1 euro costs ~3.8 zl. :) 1 zl = 100 gr Chipboard costs ~7 zl per square metre. Fibreboard ~5 zl. Aluminium profiles ~5 zl per 1,5 metre. Screws are cheap and sold by kilograms. I don't expect them to cost more then 5 zl for the whole set. Handles = 3x2x2 = 12 zl. Cable costs 40 gr/m and I'll probably need 20m of it. Let's say 30 just to be on the safe side. 12 zl. I have kalafonia and zinc for smoldering at home, so no cost there. There'll be 204 cables sticking out from the keyboard which means that I'll need 204 female jacks and 204 male jacks. That's... oh damn, that's 61,2 zl (15 gr a piece). Grrrr... I'll need two LEDs for the knobs. But LEDs are expensive. Maybe some small bulbs instead. That'll be 1 zl for two small bulbs. Two knobs is 25 zl. So that leaves buttons and switches. I'll have to rethink the amount of buttons, to cut down the project's price a bit. Hmmm... I wanted to forward many things from the keyboard to the dashboard, but after some considering I don't think I need all of them, especially since I can program them on the stick. Sooo... it looks now that the whole thing will cost up to 150 zl. So under 40 euro. If all goes as planned, etc. I have to go to that one more electronics shop to get the final bearing on all the prices and stuff and after that it all comes down to finding time to sit on the ass for 2 hrs to recalculate how many buttons I need for the functions I want to have on the dashboards and also drawing the whole damn thing in such a way, so that the guys at Leroy's knows how much material I need and how to cut it.

Birdhouses. Little boxes shaped as houses you put on trees in your garden for the birds to have a place to live in! I don't have to build my dashboards. All I need to do is to find a birdhouse in a correct shape, buy three of them and then buy a baseboard to mount them. I don't even have to make holes for the cables, because little doorways to those birdhouses will be great for it. I'll only have to drill mounting holes for the buttons. Will it work... hmm... I have to go to a shop today (prolly Leroy&Merlin) and look at the garden accessories section. :) Hopefully the price won't be outrageous. If it will be... back to the drawing board. :>

Well, I've been to 6 shops and now I'm back home. Bought nothing. My endeavour got thwarted a lil bit due to the fact that: a) those damn parts cost much more then I anticipated, b) shop asortment lacks some needed parts while at the same time having some stuff I didn't think they'd have. Ergo, ... I'm off to two more shops to check prices and hardware and then, with the new learned knowledge of electronic parts... I'll be revising my my plan. Some of it relies heavily on the tests I have to make on the keyboard (I have to check if it's possible to keep several patchways permanently closed, without affecting the whole keyboard behaviour). Basically, due to the fact that those buttons and switches cost 2 or 3x the price I expected, I'll have to rethink what things I want to have on the dashboards and which ... can be left programmed on the joystick. Besides that, I've learned that there are things similar to POV's, but they cost A LOT, so I've started to think now about scavenging a POV from one of my old joysticks. :) Cheers.

Update: I've been sitting in my office today, half of my brain concentrated on work, half on the wacky idea. I've started planning it a bit, but at some point I came to a conclusion that I must draw it all up in order to sort out whole mess. When I sat dawn to some paper during lunch hour I realised, that the one potential problem in all this is getting buttons that'll enable two circuits in sequential order, to get key combinations. I called three shops and they said that they've never heard of such buttons, so whole thing came to a sudden stop. But no worries. I had to revise my initial project a little. I printed out whole key setup for LO-MAC and then a nice picture of keyboard and sat down with a pencil and red marker. At first I marked all functions I wanted to have "transferred" on to the dashboards. Then I went over them to check which ones are single key only and which ones are key combinations with shift, alt and ctrl. Then I went over whole list of keys and marked which buttons on the keyboard are still free. After couple of minutes of foroutious scribbling I realised that I was short of several keys (I knew that I'll be several keys short of course, but thanks to the scribbling I knew exactly how many more buttons I needed). So I started revising default key bindings to get some more free keys or to change some single keys to key combos to get some more free single keys. After something like an hour and guys peaking over my shoulder and giving pointers I came to a point where I had whole keyboard picture marked red and the list of keys revised. BUT, and this is important, NOT TO MUCH revised. It'd be a piece of cake just to change all keys as I liked, but I wanted to keep as much from the normal layout as possible, to still be able to use normal keyboard buttons for gameplay. For some of the cycle functions, I'll need 2 knobs which will short the circuit in "middle" position and open it in "free" position. Just like the knobs you see on ovens with which you set the clock. If I were flying A-10 such knob would be perfect for setting ripple interval, etc. It wouldn't show the actual value of course, but it would work. Then I'll need 4 actuall switches for permanate setting of alt, shift and ctrl (something like caps lock) and one for "eject" function, where I'll have to flip the switch and then press a button three times to eject. And I'll need 91 buttons for the rest of the functions. Some will be straightforward... press... ready. Some will require pushing two buttons. For example buttons attached to " , . / ; " will be located in one group with two additional buttons in close proximity which will be attached to "shift" and "alt" or "control". This way I'll have full control of sensors localized in one place. I wanted to make a knob for flight modes, but after sketching the conections and wires I finally got the idea, that it could only work if shortening wires for keys 1-8 wouldn't cause some other character to be produced. I wanted to make a 8way knob, each position connecting diffrent pair of cables and one side of all of them connected to a "confirm" button, because with only knob in place I'd get a mode loop (key would be pressed all the time). Hence the idea of the "confirm" button. However this button would have to have all 8 wires going through it. I'm not sure (haven't tested) how the keyboard would react to constant short or even quick short of 8 wires. So unless I find a "turn and press" knob in the shop, I'll make just simple buttons for the flight mode selection. :) As for the dashboard itself, I was thinking about it too and I'm coming to a conclusion that whole thing will have to have a base board on which all items will be placed. On the base board, horizontally, I'll place the keyboard in the center with two or four "boxes" surrounding it. Those boxes will have panels placed at 35-45 degree angle. Buttons will be placed on those panels. Whole thing will make it so much easier to mount all the wires and thanks to the base board it'll be very easy to transport. All I'll have to do will be to unplug my regular keyboard, place the whole thing on the desk in front of LCD and plug it in. So right now it all seems pretty well thought through. I'll prolly nip along to the store in an hour or so. I'm thinking about getting semi-see-through buttons, because... I'm thinking about "cabin lights". If I place an extra switch on the "boxes" which will be connected to several flashlight lightbulbs located inside the boxes, which in turn will be connected to an USB port for power... I could have those buttons lit. With proper material used for the panel, whole panel might be partially lit, making it possible to read the descriptions in the dark. I only hope that those buttons won't cost like 1 zl per button, because then I'd be spending 100 zl for buttons and... I hope to keep this whole thing as cheap as possible. :> Mmm.... <more thinking>

As I said, this is a budget solution. :) I also wouldn't call it a piece of shit. It's pretty sturdy, works without problems and if it's indeed as old as you say, then I'm surprised that it's in such a good shape (looks brand new). I managed yesterday to reduce the hypersensitivity to a point where view only trembles a bit in a very "up" position. Did a test afterwards. Flying in circles, trying to keep an object on the ground always in the center of my view. Piece of cake. I had more problems handling the plane (kept going into too tight circles) then keeping the object fixed in the center of my view. Then I tried a dogfight without padlocking. No problems there either. Boogie zoomed pass me, I went into a tight turn and looked up... and there he was. Kept him in my line of sight untill I brought him to guns range and ... pufff. :)

ATM I don't have any questions yet. At least none that I can't answer myself. I'm going to nip along to the store in a couple of hours and maybe then the questions will start if I won't be able to get what I need. So far only thing that scares me are the casings. I'm torn between making an aluminium skeleton covered with thin panels or making each casing from wood all the way. I like the first idea better, because it would be much easier to replace the front panel for diffrent configs, then ripping of something made entirely of wood pieces screwed tightly together. Unfortunatelly I'm not sure if I have the skills and tools to play with aluminium.

BTW, since it was so obvious, there's no need keeping a secret the thread that made me move my butt: http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=13472 :) BTW, I started drolling at that 8" TFTD/MFD made from a touchable LCD. :O

If I were handing out prizes, you'd get one. :> Bingo. Or bingo more or less. Make a switchboard ... not out of a keyboard (because keyboard will stay intact and will be available fully operational)... buy use the keyboard to connect the dashboard to the putter, using chips built into every keyboard instead of making a separate board with extra chips. This gives you the great advantage of ... keeping a working keyboard on the desk which means that you don't have to wire EVERY button, just the ones you're actually going to use. And I'm way ahead of you, matey. :) I considered buying chip enchnced boards to program key combinations into one switch (like combos for shifted commands, etc.), but that would make this project much more pricier. And there's no need to do that, since the solution is MUCH MUCH more simpler although it requires a player to make some additional moves. It's true that I'll have to use only buttons that will break the circuit after press. But such buttons are easy to get and cheap. It's just casing, spring and two pieces of metal that clash together. Such buttons are easier to produce then normal ones, since you don't have to install a locking mechanism in them. So I expect them to be cheaper too. Switches that operate on the same principal may be harder to get though. Most buttons will work in this simplest of ways (simply just like keyboard buttons). Fortunatelly many actions in LO-MAC have not only "toggle" variant, but full fledged wariant. This will make it simpler. (You won't have to check the indicators, just push "flaps up" to make sure that they are up). For all functions that use a cycle and that could be operated with a knob, I'll try to find and use knobs that will close the circuit with each turn and imediatelly open it. Meaning that the circuit will be closed in a "mid" position, while on "station" position it will be open (knob on my owen works this way). Of course there's no way of telling what setting you have judgeing by the knob position, unless you reset the board first before entering the game. It's not a problem. One may make a checklist of the game start setttings and then make a checklist for the dashboard for setting it up before launching the mission. So... you'd actually have to check knob/switch/button position before "taking off". Hmm... sounds kind of like real life. :> ;) And if for some reason things get de-synchronised in game, you'll always have the keyboard to correct it. As for the other functions which may be knob operated, I thought of a following solution. A knob with a press option. You turn a knob, nothing happens. You press it and release it under a given position and an action is taken (circuit closed). Somewhat similar to combination locks in safes, where you have to turn the knob to a certain position and then push it to release the locking clamps on the lock. Even if there are no such knobs, it's easy to circumvent the problem. Some actions on a plane may require pusshing a "confirm/enter" button. Why not make such a button? Consider a knob where each position is connected to pathways assigned to numbers from 1 up. Such knob would operate flight modes. But with circuit constantly closed... nav mode, for example, would go into a loop. So... let's keep the knob that holds circuit closed in a given position, but let's add "confirm selection" button to the picture. All required cables go through this button. When it's up, all circuits are open. When you push it... all circuits close, but only the circuit closed with the knob let's the current through. Automatically in some modes such "confirm" switch could become "cycle" switch for submodes (like in nav mode enr, ret, ldng). Buttons that keep a circuit closed in a given position could be used for "shift", "alt" and "ctrl", to change the function of the board completely with one button. THere could be push-n-hold shifts and push-n-forget shifts. No problem there. Push-n-hold shifts could be placed everywhere where needed (just multiply the cable until a point where current would be too week) while for push-n-forget there could be a separate section on one of the boards. I'm thinking of taking all 204 wires outside of the keyboard and securing them there so that none gets ripped of the board. Each pair would have description with the keybinding. All wires could end with a connector to allow for easy dashboard configuration. I'm thinking of making three dashboards, but actually there's no problem with making more or less. All wires coming out from the dashboards will be tagged to and all that'll be necessary will be to hook up each pair with a corresponding pair on the other side. Whole wireing after succesful setup, can be hidden inside some cover and all three dashboards could be munted on a piece of wood, along with the keyboard in the center of it. This way you'd get nice dashboards with everything described with nice little tags and still retain the keyboard for ... view control, or something like that. :) All things considered, I'm more affraid of constructing those damn dashboards and making mounting holes in them then I'm of getting proper buttons. Because I'm sure they'll have them in my favourite store. Soldering is also not a big deal. But making those dashboards and mounting the buttons so that it looks remotely good... now, that'll be a challenge. :) Another type of challenge will be keeping track of those 204 wires and not mixing them all up. :) Now... if only I have the time tomorrow to drop down to that shop. And if only they'll have everything I'll need. :) ps: They'll have everything. And much more... must... ressssssist .... buying .... gadgets... must.... :O pss: How can ppl waste their lifes watching television. There are so many more insteresting ways to waste your time. Like making switch/dashboards for a PC game. :>

Hi, ppl. I was browsing this forum a bit today (since I've only been here when it started and went away) and I stumbled upon an interesting topic, which now lies burried deep in the archive. Although this topic does not contain any solutions for the realisation of "the idea", it does contain stuff which made me kick myself in a butt and after over a year of fiddling with the thing subcounciously, finally made me move my ass from my armchair and walk 10 steps to my personal junkyard, where I keep all my old putter stuff dating back to the 80ties. What's "the idea". Shhhs... a secret. :D You'll figure it out. Some of you will figure it out after this post. I pity only that ATM I don't have my camera to document it properly. Cos' I want to make a step by step guide. If it works, it'll be a good guide to do something... maybe cool. If it doesn't work... you'll at least get a couple of laughs, me included, and if we were living somewhere close to each other, we'd probably be able to have a bonefire and burn "the failed idea" afterwards. But for the time being... it's something that may work. And I'll try to write about it like in a sort of blog way, so ... So far I've moved my ass from my desk to my junkyard, where I managed to fish out two BTC keyboards model BTC-53. Made in Korea. S/N: K502028625 and K502028627. Date of production? God knows. From some remnants of the stickers and the fact that those keyboards are half metal half plastic I summarise that they were built somewhere in the early 90ties. Regular IBM PC AT model with din connectors and standard 102 keys, no win keys, but there's one described "macro". Who knows what it was supposed to do. Anyway, it doesn't work. Not because the system doesn't recognize it as a key, but because... the macro keys in both keyboards lack the "cushion" which connects pathways when a button is pressed. So, I choose these two from several old keyboards because they are very sturdy, have a lot of space inside their casings and even after all that time all 102 keys work PERFECTLY. I managed to test it because in all the rubble I was also able to fish out a DIN>PS2 cable. I also took two, to have two identical "platforms" in case one of them broke down or got broken due to my clumsines. The design is very straightforward (I really wish I had my camera :| ). Metal casing encompases a laminate board with copper pathways. There are three chips on the board which control the keyboard. Fortunatelly "the idea" doesn't require any such hi lvl electronic fiddling, that would force me to do anything with them. You can see the pathways through the board even when it's attached to the plastic part which holds all the keys, so it's not very thick. Each key (except macro) has a spongy cushion lined with aluminium. When a key i pressed it closes a circuit thus sending a signal from the board to the putter. The fact that the idea behind it is so damn simple, makes the whole "idea" possible, because all I really need to do is to find a way to "forward" the patchway's endings outside the keyboard casing. I wouldn't have to worry about that if I'd simply use the laminate itself and forgot about the casing, but... after I finish with the keyboard, it still has to be operational, even with all the wireing sticking out from it in the back. So, I dismantled one keyboard, checked if everything works and if the laminate is intact and made sure that there will be enough space inside the casing to lay 204 wires. 2 for each key. What's next? I need a drill and two bits for it, one very, very thin, so that it goes through the laminate without damaging it and so that the hole is big enough to fit a very thin wire through. Second bit will have to be very big, but... I'll need it much later on. Right now I'll need the small bit, a soldering iron, couple of meters of thin, copper wire (not aluminium... it could crack) and... some duct tape. Problem is, although I have a small bit and a lot of duct tape, it seems that my bro burned our soldering iron and no one knows where did my 100m pack of copper thin wire went. So... tomorrow I'm of to electronics shop to get a new soldering iron, some wire and... while I'm there... I'll be getting some buttons, switches and maybe even levars, all depending on how much all this stuff is going to cost. Because, I forgot to mention, I'll be counting every penny ("grosz" in my case) spent, to check... how expensive it'll really be to realize "the idea". Note: I'm not going to count the smoldering iron as an expense. I'd have to get it anyways, since I can't imagine being a man without such basics as a hammer, pliers, swiss-knife, smoldering iron, set of screwdrivers, etc. Call me oldfashioned. :> :P So, for the time being, I'm stuck. Because only shop with some electronic hardware which is opened at this hour is Leroy&Merlin and I'm not going to let those bastards rip me of my money (their prices, compared to the prices in normal electronics stores... outrage! They once tried to sell me UTP-5 for 1,3 euro per meter, while the regular price now is ~21 cents per meter of cable and a bit more for cord.). If real life allows, I'll try to get to my favourite electronics store tomorrow, to stack up. BTW, I googled out the keyboard I'm going to "operate" on: I'm guessing that some of you already know what I'm trying to do. :) Stay tuned. :)

No problem. :D I said I'll do it, so it's done. :) And due to the fact that when I'm doing something, I'm trying to make it right.... :) BTW, I'm not a student anymore, but I still value my money, so expect some more ideas from me. Infact, there's something that's been bugging me for over a year now, but only recently I stumbled upon a thread here, that made me really sink into the subject. Soo... expect another wacky idea. :)

Damn. It didn't fit in one post. I knew it. Another one of my "longers". :P EDIT: I hope, you bunch of old timers, that I did not disappoint you with this post and that I've proven that I'm still the same guy with same wacky ideas (like that one: http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/38610606/m/596002127/r/596002127#596002127 ... eh :( pics are gone... and I can't even find them on my HDD to upload them again... bugger. I still have the "throttle" though. But can't take pictures of it ATM, cos' me bro lended my camera to a friend and his friend broke the camera grrr.). :D :PP BTW... today at work I started thinking about another thing... mmm... (see some other post). :)

For the moment I forgot about slider completely (NOTE: When I clean it and make it work ok, I'll probably make it a thrust, thrust lever on the stick will be view zoom control and I'll swap the location of trim settings with flap and airbrake settings betwen the UR and Cyborg base buttons, compared to the setup which I'll present below). I've set up Saitek axis in a following way. AX1 = pitch AX0 = roll ROT2= rudder AX2 = throttle I'm still tweaking those, but I got good results with following fine tuning (although I think, after some dogfighting, that I still have to lower deadzones and increase the curve, because I shoot to many bullets out the window): PITCH: | | | | | X | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | | | | | ROLL: | | | | | X | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | | | | | | | X | | | | | RUDDER: | | | | | X | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | | X | | | | | | | | | | THROTTLE (AS SLIDER!!): default values. Now the buttons. For the UR I used a setup for All flight modes: 1. wheel break 2. flaps up 3. flaps down 4. airbrake Note, that I "velcro" it in such a way that button's 2 and 3 are in vertical position (slider is horizontal, positioned to the left). When I get the slider to work correctly, I'll probably make it: 1. airbrake 2. trim up 3. trim down 4. reset trim I fly mostly Su-33, so trim is VERY important for me. For the Saitek I did some searching and came up with this thread: http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/73610606/m/6351041543/r/6351041543#6351041543 Included in it is a following joystick profile: 1) NAV mode- * button 1(trigger)- wheel brakes * button 2- MFD zoom in * button 3- cycle through submodes- ENR, RTRN, LNDG * button 4- MFD zoom out * button 5- gear up and down * button 6- flaps up and down * button 7- airbrake * button 8- arrestor hook * button 9(left shift)- cycle through waypoints or airfields * button 10(right shift)- drogue parachute 2) BVR mode- * button 1- fire current weapon * button 2- MFD zoom in * button 3- lock on target * button 4- MFD zoom out * button 5- turn on/off radar * button 6- switch to TWS mode * button 7- cycle through weapons * button 8- turn ECM on/off * button 9- deploy chaff/flares * button 10- jetisson external fuel tank 3) Helmet mode- * button 1- fire current weapon * button 2- toggle padlock view * button 3- lock on target * button 4- toggle cannon * button 5- airbrake * button 6- flaps * button 7- cycle through weapons 4) Air tp ground mode- * button 1- fire current weapon * button 2- MFD zoom in * button 3- lock on target * button 4- MFD zoom out * button 5- EOS on/off * button 6- radar on/off * button 7- deploy chaff/flares * button 8- cycle through weapons * button 9- cycle through targets on the MFD * button 10- ECM on/off It's not exactly about my version of Cyborg, but close enough to use it as sort of a reference. NOTE: LO-MAC setup is a bit buggy. If you setup diffrent configs for various operational mods, it can sometimes screw up those settings so it's best to write down everything that you want to setup and then do it with one go, to avoid various "???" poping up. I didn't do it like that and then I had 5 take offs for a mission where I found out that in some modes rudder is stuck or that in HMTD mode my throttle stops responding. Finally I decided to set up my stick according to the following profile (NOTE: as stated above, if all goes well with the UR slider, buttons 7,8,11 will go to the UR control and flaps and airbrake will go to 7,8 and I'll be thinking what to do with 11; at the same time I'll get two extra free buttons, 4 and 6, due to the fact that view zoom will be controlled by Cyborg's AX2 axis, because throttle will go to UR slider): I NAV: 1. wheel break 2. toggle nav mode 3. toggle auto-throttle 4. view zoom out 5. toggle airbrake 6. view zoom in 7. trim up 8. trim down 9. toggle arrestor hook 10. toggle gear 11. reset trim 12. release drogue shute POV RIGHT. toggle flaps POV LEFT. next waypoint or airfield POV UP. MFD zoom in POV DOWN. MFD zoom out II BVR: 1. fire 2. lock target 3. cycle weapons 4. view zoom out 5. center target designator 6. view zoom in 7. trim up 8. trim down 9. MFD zoom out 10. dispense chaff and flare 11. reset trim 12. MFD zoom in POV RIGHT. target designator right POV LEFT. target designator left POV UP. target designator up POV DOWN. target designator down III VS/HMDT: 1. fire 2. lock target 3. toggle cannon 4. view zoom out 5. toggle airbrake 6. view zoom in 7. trim up 8. trim down 9. flaps down landing position 10. dispense chaff and flare 11. reset trim 12. flaps up POV RIGHT. toggle EOS POV LEFT. toggle active radar POV UP. airbrake out POV DOWN. airbrake in IV. GROUND: 1. fire 2. lock target 3. cycle weapons 4. view zoom out 5. center target designator 6. view zoom in 7. trim up 8. trim down 9. MFD zoom out 10. dispense chaff and flare 11. reset trim 12. MFD zoom in POV RIGHT. target designator right POV LEFT. target designator left POV UP. target designator up POV DOWN. target designator down NOTE: Ground mode is set up with Su-25 in thought, which I ocassionally fly when I really want to see some carnage. :> Finally, some impressions from flying. I'm pleased. :D Not to say overwhelmed, but pleased. Union Reality set is not trackIR, so I'm not expecting perfect behaviour from it, but I'm satisfied with the fact that in horizontal plane it works... perfect, whilst in vertical it produces some slight view bobing. Whole thing works well enough to be a great asset in dogfights or just regular flying. For the first time in the Flanker series I'm able to use HMTD mode as it's supposed to be used: I just look at the bugger, press button numer two and "drag" his sorry ass close enough to my 12've to get a hit with R-73s. So I'm glad that I bought it and I'm even somewhat happy with the fact that it's a helmet, because when I turn those speakers on and then muffle them a bit with those big ear-phones and basically put the thing on my head, I get this immersive feeling of wearing a helmet. :) I wonder if it would be possible somehow to configure the sound in such a way that voice would go through rear channels, then I could hook up the helmet to voice (radio) only and... it'd be like IRL, headphones for talking and the rest of the sounds... from the world (speakers). A word of warning, this whole IR-head-tracking thingy requires some getting used to. REALLY. I didn't even realize, that when I pull up I subcounciously tilt my head up. I only noticed this when view got changed each time I pulled up, because the UR responded to my head movement. Also I had to learn to ignore things flashing in the corner of an eye, each time I tried to look at something in our reality and of course my pilot in game followed my gaze. I look at the calendar on the wall and on the LCD I got a view of my left wing. Annoying at first, everything comes down to getting used to it. Old habits are hard to kill, so even after couple of days, when I want to check the gauges, I first reach out to the "ins" button. Tilting the head a bit down is still a second thought but... in one months time I probably won't be able to fly without the helmet. And it really is something when I think "Hmm... let's look around" and I don't have to lift a finger from the stick or UR gizmo. All it takes is a slight move of the head. :) As for the Saitek Cyborg Evo, I start to lean towards a conclusion that it's possibly THE BEST of sticks for simming in the low budget area. Logitechs suck, there's an unbridgeable gap between normal strick and X45 (financially wise), but the amount of buttons this stick offers and very nice throttle... makes it worth every penny. I'm not sure about other models with FF or wireless (AFAIR there are such other two). I'm not sure if they're worth buying (value/money), but I'm sure this one is. After this stick my next stick will probably be another Saitek, either one very similar to this one or a used X45 set from eBay or Allegro (Polish auction system, more popular in Poland then eBay). All in all, for ~44 euro... I made a hell of a deal. I got a set with so many buttons that I hardly have to touch the keyboard at all and I got a newly discovered plane of freedom in the LO-MAC reality, thanks to the helmet. So if you're considering a new stick and you'd love to get a feel of what's it like to look around without having to push all the numpad buttons... go get this stuff. It's well built (khh... well, some objections to the earphones :P), it's good, it WORKS, it's easy to configure and .... what are you waiting for anyway? :) NOTE: Warning, view does bob a bit. It's not PERFECT. But it is VERY GOOD. :) I'll try to post a quick movie maybe, from in-game, if I have the time. :) Hmm... the end. Hope this post is not longer then my original sticky. That'd be some kind of record. :O

KEYWORDS: Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick profile review button mapping UR-F98 Union Reality headset headgear budget low cost bargain trackIR track IR HOTAS Hello and welcome to Escar's review of a budget trackIR&HOTAS solution. :P Since not all of can afford this: X52 or this: X45 or this: TrackIR 4 not to mention this: Pit it's a good idea to find some budget replacement for those, that'll give at least some, hopefully most, of their functionality. I'm one of the people who value their money, especially since it doesn't grow on trees, so when I made this: and still found some spare change in my pocket, I decided to look around for some good joystick and something that would give me trackIR functionality. I bought the following: Saitek Cyborg Evo and Union Reality UR-F98 not even knowing if the latter will work with LO-mAC. If you already bought it and that's why you're reading this post... breathe, it works. If you're still looking to buy that stuff, know that I got it all for ~44 euro with shipment, so if anyone tries to sell you this for 2x this price... they're probably trying to rip you off. To the point... First about Saitek. Before finally buying Saitek Cyborg Evo I was considering two of it's competitors from Logitech. They promised similar functionality for half the price. Don't buy them. I didn't test them myself, but after asking around and googling around I've read a lot of stuff from people complaining about the precision of those sticks. I already owned 3 Logitech's and all of them broke down pretty quickly (fortunatelly they returned my money). I was a bit hasitant at first to spend 2x the price of Logitech's for Saitek which on paper offered same thing, but now I'm glad that I bought Saitek. Joystick comes with an installation CD which contains a profiler which in theory allows setting up shifted profiles with two shift buttons that the joystick offers. For some reason however this functionality is somewhat bugged in LO-MAC so it's best to uninstall the profiler and use LO-MAC's internal profiling, which is much more versitile. One thing that I noticed disappearing after uninstalling the profile were the aditional, combined directions for POV (like up-left, down-right, only 4 basic ones remained up, down, left, right). But it's not much of a pain in the ass. Scrapping aditional software, joystick installation under Windows 2000 or higher is seamingless. Just plug it in, go to Control Panel/Game Controllers to calibrate and voila. 12 buttons, POV, throttle and twist handle ready to do your bidding. Unlike Logitech sticks, readouts for Saitek, once calibrated, are rock solid. When you let go of the stick the position marker stays glued to the center, not woobling madly around. Joystick itself has a very solid construction. Throttle moves like a well oiled telescope, buttons on the base are large and give a reasurring "click". I was surprised to see that those buttons are lit (nice red). As in most Saitek's handle is adjustable. It's also very solid and when you configure it for your hand it fits like a glove. Head of the stick contains trigger, 5 buttons and POV. Head panel with 5 buttons and POV can be tilted with a screw, both up and down and sideways. Very nice touch. Buttons are placed in such a way that you don't accidentally press anything while trying to press something else. One minus is the fact that the buttons on the right side of the base are not so easily accessible. You have to take your thumb of the head of the stick to activate those buttons with your little finger. It made me wonder at first why did they place those three buttons in sucha position, instead of putting them on the left side for easy access. Forgot that all Saitek's are designed for both left and right handed people. :) Now UR-F98. I really wanted to have something that would give me TrackIR functionality, but I couldn't bare the thought of spending 145$ for the thing + shippment, which would probably make it 200$ total. Thus I've begun searching for something else and I stumbled upon this. The firm was totally unknown to me aswell as their product. After some googling I've found out that it's located in Italy and that the users have a lot of problems with the drivers. This + the fact that this controller has to be connected to game port AND COM port... made me very uneasy regarding spending money on this stuff. As it turned out to be... I didn't have to worry. Thing comes with a driver CD, but you can completely forget about it and just configure it yourself. Indeed, it attaches itself to game port and COM port, but the COM port is only used for ... aditional power the device needs to operate. So no friggin problems with IRQ and I/O's. What interests you in the package is the receiver, which connects to the putter via game port (+COM for extra power). It also has two audio cables for front speakers and mic. Then you have a twin cable-set to connect the helmet to the receiver. Ports are color marked (grey and black) so there's no mistaking what goes where. Aditionally you have a controller gizmo which you connect to the receiver via cable and this gives you one slider + 4 buttons. The only minus so far of the whole set is the fact that I have a really big head (that's what you get from reading too much :P ) and the helmet is not so big. Whole thing is plastic and fixed, scalability is assured by really big headphones (lot's of sponge there), so eventually whole thing fits even on my head, but I feel a bit squized in in (Note: This however gives an aditional "feel" to the game, when you stuck your head into the helmet, all sounds get quieted a bit, etc. New level of immersion. Family doesn't like it though, because I now set the volume a tad higher on my 5.1 Creative SB 5900 loudspeaker set... I don't use the audio connectors for the helmet, because I have a better mic on the desk and I don't want to ruin my ears by pumping all that volume directly into them + sound from my speaker set is much better). Now... the installation in the system... COMPLETELY EASY. Go to Control Panel/Game Controllers and "Add" a controler. Make it a custom one, name it what da hell ever you want and make it a 4 button, 3 axis controller. System sees it as a joystick where your head movement are X/Y axis and the slider is a third axis while buttons are... seen as regular joystick buttons. The only diffrence in calibration is, that instead of moving the stick around, you have to move your head around while calibrating. I encountered only one problem with calibration, which was some hypersensitivity on the Y axis and slider. I knew that behaviour from Logitech's and some other, cheap joysticks. You know the case, you keep the stick (in this case, your head) still and the marker keeps woobling around the screen madly. However I had no idea what was causing this in a set which has no ... stick.Regarding the Y axis I managed to get it more under control by correcting the receiver position (I used velcro strips to attach it to the top of my LCD) and calibrating it a couple times more. As for the slider... I guess I'll have to disassemble it and clean it a bit. So, this gave me two controlers, one with X/Y axis (hand controled), throttle, twist handle, POV and 12 buttons and another with X/Y axis (head controled), throttle/slider and 4 buttons. As I said I didn't wanted to try to set it up with the producers profilers. The Union Reality software is really old (designed for Win98, IMHO) and I really didn't see any use for it, since the thing is seen by the system as regular joystick. The Saitek Software failed to cooperate (for me at lest) with LO-MAC. No worries though, since LO-MAC config allows for a VEEEEEEEEEEEEERY broad configuration. First I tried to set up all axis. I tried using the slider on UR as a throttle at first and then as view zoom control, but due to it's hypersensitivity, I had to drop it for the time being. However while trying to use it I used velcro strips to attach the UR controller to the arm of my armchair and with the joystick on the right and this thing on the left it worked like a regular, two hand throttle&stick setup (although the left thing was fixed of course and the throttle was in slider). For the head movement I used AX1 for vertical and AX0 for horizontal. Vertical had to be inverted. I encountered a problem with getting the thing to work which was finally solved by disabling "mouse view". Hypersensityvity kicked in again, so I had to fine tune the axis setup, to avoid constant view bobing. X axis worked perfect, whilst the Y axis still gave some trouble. After some fiddling I came up with the following (X marks the setting): VERTICAL: | | | | | X | | | | | | | | | | X | | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | HORIZONTAL: | | | | | X | | | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | | |X| | | | | | | | IMPORTANT NOTE: For some reason sometimes Cyborg's POV starts interacting with the view, which combined with UR view control creates an effect as if you were going through some turbulence. It only happens when the "lost" directions of POV get activated. Then view starts to act strangely, but you can quickly reset it by pressing any of the view keys on the numpad. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to remove this effect if I install Saitek drivers again and remove up-left, up-right, down-left, down-right POV view references in the config.

My bro visited me just a minute ago. He came in, looked at me and said: "Ooookkkkkkkeeey.... so .... I'm not speaking with you anymore". :> I've been downloading the latest mods for some time. I think I got everything now, except for this one: " Sebastien’s Mig 29, Su27/33 cockpit <--These are great and a real must have. He does have an F15 cockpit too but for some reason I don’t like it .. worth checking out though. (note the cockpit reflections may not be to your taste, personally I prefer Teka’s which come with his Russian seat mod, so you will have to install the Su27/33 cockpit then use file by file mode, in Modman, to remove the PRIBORY-REFLECT-27.tga.dds file then install Teka’s Seat mod) " Can't find it. :| Does anyone know a direct link? As for the hardware... I love the joystick. I think I've become a total Saitek fan in just one evening. As for the wierd head gizmo... lol. I used some velcro tapes to put the receiver on top of my LCD. Initially I put it on the subwoofer, but the angle was not right. There's one immensly thick cable running from the receiver to the putter. Inside are cables for gameport connector, COM connector and headphones and microphone. Receiver from the front looks like a part of this car that David Hasselhoff use to drive in some series (Blackraider??). Especially since when I move my head with the helmet on... red-led indicators flash on the receiver signalling received movement. From the receiver three cables run to the peripherals. :P Two phone cables go to the helmet (I guess one is for the power for the IR and second for the sound). One ??? cable with RJ-45 pin goes to the remote (4 fires+throttle). I mounted this remote on the arm of my armchair (with velcro strips). Although the remote is for the right hand, with proper "velcro'ing" it becomes a very nice left-hand throttle. Going back to testing. :)

Shippment arrived. Hi, So, I came back from a conference and what do I see on my bed... Saitek Cyborg Evo and that weird head gizmo. Plugged both things in, 2 minutes of configuring and... both things work. Aditionally, the helmet has an extra controller, so right now I have free head movement in cockpit and an orgy of 12+4 buttons (2 shifts included in the 12, 4 are from the head gizmo), 2 throttles, POV and a twist handle. Frankly... I don't even have the slightest idea what to program to each button. It may seem not much for all of ya X45 or X52 users, but I'm baffled. :> I can almost get over inistial setup, but then I hang up mentally on the possibilities that shifts give... It seems that this weekend, workwise, will go totally down the drain. :> ps: And it's all for just ~44 euro with shipment. :>>> pss: After 5 minutes with this Saitek, I don't think I'll be considering Logitech stuff for buying in any forseable future. :>

Well, it's done. Well, I bought that weird helm thingy. I just hope that it'll work at least half as good as TrackIR. :) As for joystick... after what I've read here I did some further reading and... decided to show Logitech the finger. I had two of their sticks already and had to return both of them because of decalibration problems. Soo..... I bought Saitek Cyborg Evo. :) Everything for ~44 euro with shipping. Hopefully the stuff will be delivered on Friday, so... weekend full of flying. :D (or cursing, while trying to configure that weir helmet thingy :P ).

Cosmonaut, you sick, sadistic bastard!!! How dare you show such SS's when I still have so much work to do! I'll kill you! ;PPP :DDD <mumbles> Got to get those skins.... <more incoherent babble> ;) ps: 7 hours. Damn... I'm bidding. It's only ~12 euro. That's less then two "O, ****!"* pizzas. *- "Oh, ****!!" pizza - true name is repeatedly unknown, due to the fact that all fans keep forgetting it, aquired name derrives from an exclamation each newbie makes when is first introduced to THE PIZZA, typical situation where a fresh victim is assaulted consist of a group of "old timers", already aqueinted with "Oh, ****!!" pizza and some greens, who yet have to see it, amongst some giggles and whispers a pizza is ordered ("You know, the biggest one, double pie, extra cheese, bacon but with champinions"), then a knock comes on the door and unsuspecting virgin is sent to the door with "Go get that, will you, I have to... errr... make some more drinks" - the doors open, the delivery man walks into the light from the shadow and the words are uttered: "OH, ****!!!! ... It's ALL pizza??? It's NOT just a big box??? ... OH, FUUUUCK!!!!", as time progresses and members of the order try to tackle the pizza more and more fall down, slump from their chairs and couches and writhe in agony little people that live in The Carpet listen to the huricanes passing over the Carpet which bring the sound of "oooooooh, ****... that pizza... I'm soooo full that it hurts when I breathe... ". **- suplement: There's a sub-order in the order. Those ppl argue, that "OH, ****!!" pizza should actually be called "I can't ****in' believe it!" pizza, due to the second shout which always comes after "OH, ****!!". This shout is generated by sheer disbelief when a delivery man hands the bill... which is so f....g small you wouldn't believe it!!! :P Escar, proud member of the "OH, ****!!" pizza order. ;)

Keeping in mind that I just can't afford to buy a TrackIR, so it's absolutelly of the scope... will that thingy work with LO-MAC. Has anyone used it/tried it/tested it/etc.? I've only got 12 more hours before the offer expires. :)

:D Hi, guys! :) Nice to see so many veterans. :D Haha. I'm a bit confused though, whether I should post only on the ED forum or on the Ubi forum aswell. I've checked the old forum too and I see that lots of ppl are still there. :) <note: I'm writing one post for both forums. LOL. > Special thanks for the intel about the near release of BS. I didn't know that it'll have all the features of FC, so it'll be 2in1. I'll wait for it then. <Donkey voice on> Is it out yet? <off> <Shrek> DONKEY!!! <off> ;) But seriously... how near future are we exactly talking about? Like this Spring or... Because if it's longer, I prefer to cough up those 15 bucks. ED's worth it (clap clap clap <- from the fan since the first Flanker). Also, thanks for the links to films. I've got over 1,5 GB of LO-MAC films made by some of you guys and I keep luring new ppl to the game by attacking them with those films. :> Thanks for ALL the intel. I've got some free hours this afternoon and tomorrow, so I'll be checking out those links and prolly finally doing some flying. Each time I rebuild my PC I do it with Flanker/LOMAC in mind, but although I did last rebuild couple of months ago, I didn't have the time to test it (BTW, my current putter looks like this: http://www.escar.republika.pl/specs.htm ). Last time I've flown my Su-33 it was still on A2500XP+, GF5700 and 512MB. Now it's going to be A3200 64, GF6600 (heavily overclocked) and 1024MB. I can't wait to take it all in in full detail. :> My controller setup right now is frankly crap. I had to sell some of the stuff some time ago (but I kept the Ol' Redneck Throttle by Escar, the one made from old quickshot and some rubber bands :P ), bought something crappy just to keep me going and now... I believe I have to invest a bit to get some joy flying, instead of frustration. X52 would be perfect... (I keep drolling over it at the local supermarket :P ) :> ... but I have to watch my bugdet (building a house costs a friggin lots of money :| ). So I came up with this: UR-F98 - http://www.pollin.de/shop/shop.php?cf=produkt.php&ts=0&p=NDk4OTM5 (that's the only description I could find) - I'd love to get TrackIR, but the cost is too great and I can get this thingy here for ~12 euro. Question is: Is it worth it? Or actually: Will it work with LO-MAC? I got a spare game and com port. As for joystick, I'm going to get one with USB conn. So if this thing will allow at least control of yaw + pitch... I'm in. :) Comments, guys? As for joystick I'm thinking about two options (Right now I have a totally crappy Manta... avoid it at all cost, x/y work so so, there's no z and throttle is idle for 1/2 of the way and then it jumps to 1/2 afterburners): Logitech Extreme 3D Pro - http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/EEUR/EN,CRID=2221,CONTENTID=6954 Logitech Attack 3 - http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/EEUR/EN,CRID=2221,CONTENTID=6953 I'm a bit more inclined towards the first one since it has rudder (z) and 12 buttons instead of 11. I can have it for ~15 euro. Any good? Or total crap and I should rethink joystick choice from scratch? :) I'm especially interested in replies about that head gear, since every joystick will always more or less work, as for the head gear... And time is of the essence, since the guy selling it won't be keeping it "safe" for too long. :| Comments will be much appreciated and should I buy this stuff, I'll certainly post a review. :D To answer the question, I was away for several reasons. I quit my job with some companies I worked for as sort of a freelancer, I got a regular job (damn those bankers who demand "normal" jobs :P ) and got a bit toppled over with all the paperwork and long hours. :> Since the job is somewhat connected with IT security, I'm "available" to my firm for 24hrs/d, which frankly is not an arrangement gods inteded for us to endure for more then a couple days (cos' if you do it longer, you really start to growl at ppl). :P When I sort of got the grip of all things and started to look back at LOMAC (I even then managed to make an update of the sticky), some serious shit happened. I had a little typhoon at home, which (skipping the "boring" parts) made me a free man again (available next weekend :P ) and forced me to build a new place for me to live in. Third reason is a fault of my bro. He got me into World Of Warcraft on one of the private servers, to keep my mind of all the trouble with the "typhoon". You know me, I can't stop myself from doing something for the community the moment I start to play somewhere, so after couple of months I became a gamemaster and one of the server's admins (BTW, hello to anyone from Stormnet.gotdns.com that might be lurking here... it's Ess/Esskar-Guildmaster of the Stormwind League :P ). Hence, I was and am a bit occupied, but recently I really got the urge to go back to flying, at least some sight-seeing flying and as for the rest... we'll see. You know the way it goes... you sit on the deck of the Kuz (sorry, I'm still faithful to my Su-33 :P ), take off, admire the views... and then you just can't stop yourself from wanting to shoot something. :> Cheers. :)

Hi. Doubtfull that anyone will remember me, since I was gone from LO-MAC for over a year (not much time to play, I'm affraid :((( ), but nevertheless "HI", to all old camrades and new ppl. :) I made myself a new set up and with it I acquired a taste to play LO-MAC again, especially since the moment I got the news that FC is finally out. :D At least now I'll be able to fly this baby with good detail. Can't wait to see how it'll look on the new putter and with most (as I hear) of the old bugs gone. However, before I start... there's one important question: Guys, what do you recomend to add to the game? I see that sadly there's no such sticky here as mine (on the Ubi forum). I did some browsing here are and I don't see any list of recomended mods. There were lots of mods for LO so I'm guessing that there also should be lots for FC (I still have somewhere ~1GB of addons for LO :) ). So I was wondering which ones you'd recomend most. I'd try to use my old guide, but after a year it has to be seriously outdated. Is there still anything out there similar to ZZZspace's sound mod? Or some sky/water/terrain/overcast mods? Or mega skin packs? Is LOMAN still around and is it compatibile with FC? And all other tweaks that are still recomended and used (like back view, rising pilot position, etc.)? It's a seriously funny feeling returning to this game after such time and dropping from the expert shelf, to the newb department. :D ps: Hehe (even more browsing), I see some old faces. :D Cheers, ppl. :)