DCS Options/Controls

[jaydee]

Hi all ! In my opinion, the DCS/Options/Controls menu is the worst implementation of Controls Binding that I have come across in Any Sim.

I now have 14 DCS Aircraft to Program. Ive only setup 2 at this stage.

For a first time user,here is what I find. Somone in their Wisdom has Decided To Bind ALL my Devices to multiple Game Keystrokes. So I open the menu to find,My Rudder and Throttle and Saitek Quad are all assigned to the same functions. ......So its off to "Clear Category" again and again.

NOW, I can start with a Clean Input. So off I go to test and after a couple of hours of testing while flying, I am Happy with my Setup....Yippe ,now I will save it and bring it with me to my other Aircraft.

Forget about that Idea !...Its back to "Clear Category" again and again.

Whatever, Ive done that,now I will load my each and every Device Profile and everything will be Fine....None of them Loaded.

Ah well ,One Plane Down (No pun Intended),13 to Setup next.

Next I find Bindings are diffrent for some Aircraft. Why would Open/close Canopy be Diffrent for the 86 and the K4 ? RWin home for Autostart for some...Lwin home for others ?

I dont mean this as a rant ED. Look,I suspect some new Pilots are comin along soon that may come to DCS for that extra "Realism" factor. Its gonna be hard enough learning to fly with all Systems Real. This Controls Menu is going to make it Harder.

Please ED (1) Let us start with NOTHING bound.

(2)Harmonise (as much as possible) all keystrokes for All Dcs aircraft...IE Trim,Canopy etc

(3) Let the user save a generic Profile that overrides all othe input files.

Respectfully j ~S~

Edit: my pedals died so I bought new ones. I set up my rudder and toe brakes ant thought, Good to go now!.. Forget about that idea !., They were bound to Throttle/View by Default .... Clear Category Again and Again for each and every Aircraft.

[tintifaxl]

Setting up the controls for each plane is a hassle and could be much easier and comfortable with you suggestions. Add different commands for on/off states of swiches and it would be perfect.

[hollywoodvillain]

IMO it's easier in DCS than for most other muli-aircraft sims. If anything, like you said, it should all just be blank, setting up controls is just part of the experience. Why take the time to learn something that should ultimately be customized and tailored to your specific needs/style/aircraft? I would venture to bet most if not all experienced pilots have modified plenty of keys down the line because of different control setups and simply personal preference. What you prefer a key to be and what John doe does are going to be different. Remember this is not a console game, it has many more buttons and functions associated with it, so any generic key bindings will not work for everyone, and certainly not for every aircraft. The present key bindings are legacy and I don't think it's very big on the list of things to do considering those facts.

 

And you can setup a generic profile to a degree. Setup controls for a flanker for example, save it, and load that profile for a fulcrum (you have to do it for each controller since DCS is concerned only with axis and buttons, rather than what the specific controller is and what its theoretically supposed to be used for, and rightfully so considering there's so many combos and custom joysticks, therefore it doesn't distinguish between controller axis, hence everything being binded the same by default). Most of the stuff will be setup now with a few exceptions you will have to go through and correct. Obviously this would not work very well going from flanker to for instance eagle or frogfoot

Edited December 15, 2014 by hollywoodvillain

[Belgeode]

I agree that there should be a generic profile which can be tweaked for individual planes. As it stands now, I use my Su-25T profile as the default profile for most of the modules I own, and wherever possible any saitek profiles born of it are variants of this main one.

 

When it comes to things like the warthog or even the huey, that all changes though since the layout is so radically different from the "simpler" aircraft.

 

I do feel that commonalities to all aircraft should be bound the same way though.

[cichlidfan]

I would be satisfied if they just left everything unassigned. That alone would save a significant number of steps in the process.

[rrohde]

For me, there are two things that would make setting up controls for multiple modules less frustrating:

 

a) have a search function that allows me to search for actions based on keywords.

 

b) have a "copy from..." option that allows me to copy controller configurations from a plane that I've already configured to a new one. This would give me a base configuration that I could then easily tweak.

[hollywoodvillain]

b) have a "copy from..." option that allows me to copy controller configurations from a plane that I've already configured to a new one. This would give me a base configuration that I could then easily tweak.

 

You didn't read my super long post sry. Configure an aircraft for basic controls. Save it. You will have to save for joystick, throttle, and pedals independently. Then load that profile into another aircraft. You will still have to then configure everything else that is not applicable to said airframe

[skunk160]

im not near my sim rig...but can you not edit an .ini file outside of the sim? and clear them out that way?

[Grigs]

It would be neat to have a small user space available on dcs' website dedicated to saving our configurations, especially key bindings. It is actually already possible to save one's files using the upload function in the "user file" menu. I am rather thinking about a personal space. Proposing clouds is so trendy I know :)

[AceRevo]

I would be satisfied if they just left everything unassigned. That alone would save a significant number of steps in the process.

 

No.. NO NO NO..!

 

This is how I setup my HOTAS.

 

 

As it is now, I will never worry about changes to an update that may cause my profile to be messed up. Worst case scenario, some bindings ingame may be changed, removed or added, which again will be a QUICK fix. With a decent programing software that comes with most up-to-date devices, this is how it really should be done. I am glad the way they setup our pre-fixed/default controllers.

 

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/1018080/

[vicx]

OP, I think you are wrong. I honestly think that the more you use the system the more you will see why it was done the way it was done.

 

All the configurations are saved in text files so have at it anyway you like.

 

Realise that anyone can write their own configuration utility for controllers but noone has done this. The reason is that it's a thankless task and ED has already done a good job of it.

[AceRevo]

OP, I think you are wrong. I honestly think that the more you use the system the more you will see why it was done the way it was done.

 

All the configurations are saved in text files so have at it anyway you like.

 

Realise that anyone can write their own configuration utility for controllers but noone has done this. The reason is that it's a thankless task and ED has already done a good job of it.

 

This! +1 (edit: must spread some rep first:))

[Holbeach]

I find that the DCS control setup is about as easy to use as it gets and is one of the best out there.

 

With an X52 it takes only a few minutes to set up a new plane rather than use the clunky Saitek programmer.

 

.

 

Even if I lost the A10C profile, it would take about 10 minutes to redo.

 

With so many different types in the game there wouldn't be much commonality anyway.

 

I like it just the way it is.

[OnlyforDCS]

Here is my suggestion. ED should just add two buttons to the options menu.

 

"Clear all bindings"

 

"Reset bindings to Deafault"

 

That alone would make things much much easier.

[Sarge55]

I find the controls very easy to set up in DCS compared to other sims. However, a clear all settings option would be great. Not that using clear category a few times is all that onerous really.

[jcbak]

:thumbup:+1 Easy!!!

[thawall]

I'm also basically clearing all default mappings before I setup a new plane, so +1 for a "clear all" button.

 

I find the current solution very flexible, especially as you can define your own modifiers (I use 4 layers on my HOTAS ;-))

 

The only two features I miss are:

- being able to map the comms menu to the HOTAS (layer 5 xD)

- create a graphical button mapping out of my configuration

 

The latter takes a lot of time, if you do it manually, but otherwise it gets too confusimg for meI if I switch between different aircraft. Usually it only takes a look or too to remember all the assignments but without it I'm lost.

[doveman]

I'd love to be able to map my stick/throttle/pedals axis and FFB settings (swap axis, etc) once for all aircraft. It's quite tedious doing that separately for every plane and every so often the mappings get reset and I have to re-do them all.