Convert from DCS to FOXY (for TM Cougar)

When I first started with DCS World, I programmed my Thrustmaster Cougar using the sim's configuration screen, but I missed the advanced capabilities that programming with Foxy made possible, for example to have a button that pressed singly does one thing, but a press and hold does another thing.

So, I started to make my own Foxy profiles for the Cougar ... but realized that manually converting DCS keyboard shortcuts into Foxy macros was a long, boring and error prone task.

When Foxy was designed, most simulators had less than 100 keyboard commands, but on DCS it isn't uncommon to have more than 200, the latest Viggen has about 450 commands.

So, to speed up the creation of Macro files for Foxy, I wrote a small function in Excel VBA to automate this step as much as possible, and I want to share it here, in case it would help other Cougar owners.

Next I will describe the steps involved in converting from DCS to Foxy using this Excel function:

1.- Export from DCS to HTML file:

The first step, is exporting the keyboard commands of the DCS aircraft that interest us; for this example I will export the commands of the Viggen. We need to go to Options -> Controls and click on the "Make HTML" button:

The button will take just a second to perform the export, the HTML file will be stored on this folder, within the Saved Games folder:

2.- Copy from HTML to Excel:

Even tough it is possible to import HTML from within Excel, I've found that it is quicker and easier to just copy the data. For that, we open the html file with a browser, by clicking on it:

Then we select all the rows and copy the text with CTRL + C; now we go to Excel, and paste it as text (not html), like this:

I've a blank spreadsheet that I use as a template, will put it on a link at the end of this post. When we paste, the spreadsheet immediately does the conversion for each row and put the converted Foxy macro definition on column E, like this:

3.- The convert function:

Here we can see how the convert is done on each cell by calling the Convert_DCS_to_Foxy function twice ... the first time it converts the Command Name and the second time it converts the keystrokes of that command:

The function is very straightforward, no complicated lookup tables :) ... it gets a bit long but works much quicker ... this is the part that converts the Command Name:

... and this converts the DCS keystrokes into a Foxy macro:

Copy from Excel to Foxy:

Lastly, we have to manually copy the text from Excel into Foxy, but rather than copy all at once, I've found easier to copy Group by Group, for example here I've selected in Excel, using its filtering abilities, only the Navigation commands:

now, I copy and then go to Foxy and simply paste the text, like this:

once we have the command macros, assigning them to the Cougar's hats and buttons is a simple task:

So, thats all ... now I will see how to attach a Zip file with the template Excel sheet and modify this post :)

Cheers!

Convert DCS to Foxy.zip

You did put a big smile on my face... :-)

I went like: YES!!!

You did put a big smile on my face... :-)

I went like: YES!!!

I'm glad that you found it useful :)

Cheers!

I still have one little problem though.

After the conversion i always have an extra space between the { and the key command.

Like this: { DEL} instead of this {DEL}

I still have one little problem though.

After the conversion i always have an extra space between the { and the key command.

 

Like this: { DEL} instead of this {DEL}

Sorry, here I've attached a new version of the speadsheet with the bug solved.

Greetings.

Convert_DCS_to_Foxy.zip

Super...:-)