One Direction Switch-Clicks

[Captain Orso]

Switches with more than just two states always move upward or to the right with right-click and downward or to the left with a left click.

 

Switches with just two states toggle when clicked (if it is already On it changes to Off, if Off to On, if Up to Down, etc.) which, if you are not certain of the stated from looking at the switch, can lead to unwanted changes.

 

In reality no one ever just reaches to a switch and dumbly flips it from whatever state it is in to the other, if you know which direction you want to have. In fact it's a typical thing to actually touch the switch and push it in the desired direction, just to insure it is switched they way you wish.

 

It would be very useful if two-way switches worked the same; left-click to flick them upward, right-click to flick them downward, and if the switch is already in the desired state, no change is made and everything is as it ought to be.

 

Would this be possible?

[Brun]

It's a reasonable suggestion, however it's kind of moot considering that in DCS you're forced to look at a switch - and therefore see its state - before clicking it.

[kengou]

I would appreciate this change. In real life, as you said, touching each switch to confirm its state is an important habit and I'd like the option in DCS. Even a special option to choose the behavior of left/right clicks per module would be great.

[LeCuvier]

There is a fair amount of inconsistency in the way controls are handled (both in the clickable cockpit and in the bindings), and it's all over the many modules. A clean-up would be a massive effort. Frankly I don't expect it to happen. However, ED could define guidelines for future developments for both ED and 3rd party developers. I hope, but I'm not very optimistic about that happening one day.

Edited February 12, 2020 by LeCuvier

[CBStu]

It's a reasonable suggestion, however it's kind of moot considering that in DCS you're forced to look at a switch - and therefore see its state - before clicking it.

 

That depends on the switch. Master Arm it is pretty obvious when you look at it. The toggle forward and a little to the left of the stick that needs to be switched before the EW will work is not so obvious by looking at it. It's a small toggle and the angle of view makes it hard to know what position it's in. These two illustrate the problem well. MA just left click and it moves to it's other position. On/off/on/off for each click. The other one, left click moves it down (or does nothing since it is usually already down) while a right click moves it up. I am with the OP.

[Noluck]

As a brand new DCS user I agree with the OP. ALL switches should move the same direction regardless of number positions, types for consistency. In fact all rotary/pot controls also, left click to rotate CCW, right click to rotate CW. I kept on lowering flaps on takeoff until I memorized how it worked.

 

Left Click: switch = down/left : rot/pot = CCW

Right Click: switch = up/right : rot/pot = CW

 

While we are on switches. My last job was as head engineer designing and delivering 8 F/A-18C flight simulators for the US Navy. Many are 'lever-locks', locked into position until you pull the switch knob out to move it to the locked out position.

 

Speaking of hornet switches and controls.

 

Need to get with the dev team. One control that we could not figure out was the HMD control. Since this block was the first to use that, we had no documentation on what type rotary control this was in the real AC. I had to run digital input lines (DI's) and a analog input (AI) channel to the HMD switch due to the I/O harness had to be made and could not wait for the proper data. No one could answer our questions, I mean it was a brand new control at the time.

 

Someone from the Navy called me one day and handed me over to a real F/A-18 pilot sitting in a cockpit over in the Persian Gulf! The Navy rep said here you go, the real thing!

 

The pilot got on the phone:

 

He said "what do you need to know?.

Me "Just exactly how does the HMD control work or feel to you?",

Pilot:"9 click positions, full CCW it's off then increasing intensity as you rotate CW"

Me "Thank you very much sir!, you made our day over here!"

Then we talked a little about the Hornet and a few other items.

Me "Thank you for your time and your service! Stay safe over there, we are keeping everyone in our thoughts."

 

The pilot was elated to have been of help, I'm sure talking back to someone in the states to solve an issue makes for a good day. Go NAVY!

 

I finally could hook up that HMD control to the I/O harness, inform software it's ready and have it working in 2 days. Kind of miss that job!

 

Of note, a little tidbit : we used actual flight hardware switches. Those GND PWR toggles on the ground power panel on the forward LC, well those are magnetically held in position and switch off when ground power is disconnected. 'Someone' had ordered the wrong type before I got involved in the program, the key position was 180 degrees out. Had to re-order the correct ones, 6 month lead time, 16 switches at ~$1,200 a piece. They made very expensive paper weights!

 

 

And before you ask, did I order a 'spare set' of all the cockpit switches, knobs, controls? No, I sure wanted to, for my home cockpit build... ahem.

 

 

Cheers

 

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Edited March 16, 2020 by Noluck

[Raisuli]

 

Left Click: switch = down/left : rot/pot = CCW

Right Click: switch = up/right : rot/pot = CW

 

 

 

[General quarters, general quarters. Up and forward on your starboard side, down and aft on your port side. Submarines and Figs are on their own. Just call up or down ladder and go!]

 

 

I SO agree with the idea of revamping controls. I've had to manually edit too many lua files to get two position switches to work like a two position switch, and having uniform click consistency (not that I click many switches) would be nice as well.

 

 

 

Figure this is a one person job, maybe a couple weeks to go through every mod, at least from a switch position standpoint. Click direction is probably a different beast.

[Vanguard]

Big +1. Plus there must be a fair bit of code that has to deal with switching from state A->C and C->A without having to go through state B (the middle position of the pot for example) that could be done away with, making it worthwhile for the devs too.

 

And of course you have to visually look at it first, but especially at night it's not that obvious which position it's in already and I'm sure we've all clicked watched in wrap around, and quickly put it back to where it was, and dealt with the potential consequences.