Suggestion about mouse keybindings

[Flappie]

Some modules can't have mouse buttons assigned for certain commands (example here). Both Viggen and Tomcat are among them.

 

 

But I realized it was very easy to fix this, by renaming the "DCS World\Mods\aircraft\...\Input\Mouse\" folder for each module so it's not found.

 

Heatblur, can you please modify (or remove?) the \Mouse\default.lua file so we can bind mouse buttons to any commands?

Edited October 7, 2020 by Flappie

[Czar66]

Any plans to fix this issue? Every update, the 'mouse' folder is recreated with its .lua file inside that its only function is limiting possible keybinds to the mouse.

I need some of those functions cleared to bind on mouse buttons and the only working solution is deleting the 'mouse' folder inside inputs for 'F-14B', 'F-14B-PILOT' and 'F-14B-RIO'.

Other modules doesn't build that 'mouse' folder and everything is cleared to be bound to mouse buttons.

It is a nuisance that serves no purpose.

Edited June 21, 2023 by Czar66

[Jayhawk1971]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but +1 on making the mouse bindable in DCS for the Tomcat. It does work in the Phantom, so I see no reason why it shouldn't work with the other Heatblur products.

[Zabuzard]

Its a bug in the lua code around the Mods/Input folder. Its on the list, just needs someone to spend time on it.

(In theory this could also be fixed by a modder - so if anyone feels fancy and does not want to wait on us, feel free to go ahead)

[Sunbather]

+1

[Dangerzone]

I've sadly come to expect some 4 year old bugs to still be outstanding with DCS, but I thought HB were a little more responsive than this? 

Edited June 23 by Dangerzone

[Sunbather]

What I find off-putting with the F-14: 

1. No bindable mouse without workaround. 

2. Jester voice too loud, squelch too loud, jester menu static noise way too loud. 

3. Jester menu not clickable with mouse. Jester menu cumbersome to handle, e.g. in the F-4E you can simply keep pressing the menu button to close it again. Doesn't work here. Or another example: it doesn't remember the last submenu that was opened. When I want to prepare a bombing run I might have to 4 to 5 settings but whenever I made my way to the fourth submenu and made my choice for one setting, the menu simply closes altogether, and I have to do it all over again. Five times in total. Absolutely the opposite of QoL. 

4. Jester making cringe jokes. 

 

If these were new issues, no biggie. But all 4 points have been constantly bemoaned by the community and yet, zero change in that regard. Solutions: just enable mouse from the get-go; and give us a Jester-light version: much quieter standard voice, mute or very quiet effects (e.g. static in Jester menu), jokes deleted and make all of that OPTIONAL as to not aggravate the 3 people who like the jokes and the noise. 

 

EDIT: I love the module by the way. I just don't understand why important QoL stuff like this is still not implemented. 

Edited June 29 by Sunbather

[MAXsenna]

3 hours ago, Sunbather said:

2. Jester voice too loud, squelch too loud, jester menu static noise way too loud. 

Doesn't turning down the ICS volume down work anymore? 

[Zabuzard]

On 10/7/2020 at 9:33 PM, Flappie said:

Some modules can't have mouse buttons assigned for certain commands (example here). Both Viggen and Tomcat are among them.

Just FYI. This has been fixed for the Viggen already last year and for the Tomcat recently (upcoming update)

8 hours ago, Sunbather said:

1. No bindable mouse without workaround. 

Fixed already, upcoming update.

8 hours ago, Sunbather said:

3. Jester menu not clickable with mouse. Jester menu cumbersome to handle, e.g. in the F-4E you can simply keep pressing the menu button to close it again. Doesn't work here. Or another example: it doesn't remember the last submenu that was opened. When I want to prepare a bombing run I might have to 4 to 5 settings but whenever I made my way to the fourth submenu and made my choice for one setting, the menu simply closes altogether, and I have to do it all over again. Five times in total. Absolutely the opposite of QoL. 

This in my opinion is not fair. No other module than the F4 features a mouse-clickable UI and the F4 only has it because the team spend six figures in extra development effort to make it happen, developing a completely new technology. It is very complex on the technical side. As for the other comments, the reason you are seeing these nice QoL things in the F4 is because its development benefited from the lessons learned with the Tomcat. You will generally have this with all modules in DCS, especially also the art quality and how it interacts with the DCS engine.

That said, in case you have not seen it already: It is planned to port this technology over to the Tomcat (and Viggen), so they can benefit from it as well.

8 hours ago, Sunbather said:

4. Jester making cringe jokes. 

Debatable. You can always delete the voice files u dont like, then they wont appear anymore. A setting for a more serious Jester is on the list and has been confirmed already, so it will be done eventually.

Edited June 29 by Zabuzard

[Sunbather]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb MAXsenna:

Doesn't turning down the ICS volume down work anymore? 

It does! But the Jester base volume is simply too loud; everyone who just starts up a training mission will immediately see that if Jester opens his mouth every other voice line or even engine noises become inaudible. Also, having to always turn down the volume knob to 5% is unecessary and the opposite of QoL. 

And even more importantly, the ICS volume doesn't affect the squelch noise when opening the Jester menu. 

Edited June 29 by Sunbather

[Sunbather]

vor 5 Minuten schrieb Zabuzard:

[1] Fixed already, upcoming update.

[3] This in my opinion is not fair. No other module than the F4 features a mouse-clickable UI and the F4 only has it because the team spend six figures in extra development effort to make it happen, developing a completely new technology. It is very complex on the technical side.

That said, in case you have not seen it already: It is planned to port this technology over to the Tomcat (and Viggen), so they can benefit from it as well.

[4] Debatable. You can always delete the voice files u dont like, then they wont appear anymore. A setting for a more serious Jester is on the list and has been confirmed already, so it will be done eventually.

Thanks for the responses but they are focusing on exactly the minor issues: 

1. That's great! 

2. You didn't resond to this. Maybe I should have underlined that this aggravates me the most: the squelch noises etc. I have now installed 3 (three!) mods and while the situation got a lot better, I am still not satisfied. It is, like, objectively obvious that the squelch noise is too loud. I mean, you could even measure it and will see that the Jester menu effects which should be unimportant background noises are the most prominent ones in the whole cockpit. 

3. Well, ok. But did they also spend 7000 man hours on it? I am joking, of course. Still, here again you focus on one thing. It doesn't change the fact that the QoL when navigating the menu is simply missing, see e.g. the many, many, many buttons you have to press to transmit your ground ordinance wishes to Jester. Why not letting the menu stay open until you made all the adjustments? 

4. True. I already thought about that and will probably do that. Not sure that it is possible to simply delete them (might break campaign triggers? might not even let me start the game? every update will also simply replace the files and JGME - to my knowledge - can't be used to delete files) but I might be able to make them inaudible so they still play but I don't hear them. 

[MAXsenna]

14 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

It does! But the Jester base volume is simply too loud; everyone who just starts up a training mission will immediately see that if Jester opens his mouth every other voice line or even engine noises become inaudible.

Fair enough, I remember this. But I have tuned my audio settings in DCS in general to accommodate for it, so I don't even actually need to turn the ICS down. I rather need to turn it up sometimes.  

16 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

And even more importantly, the ICS volume doesn't affect the squelch noise when opening the Jester menu. 

It's probably a personal taste as I can't even remember hearing those. Maybe it's because I'm using VAICOM with the AIRIO, so I'll never even open the Jester menu.

I hope they get around to accommodate everyone at some point.

8 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

Not sure that it is possible to simply delete them (might break campaign triggers?

No, they're just sound files, and if not found will only be logged as errors in the DCS.log. You only want to remove the jokes, right? No campaign is dependant of those. Can even be easily swapped for empty or silent files. 

12 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

every update will also simply replace the files and JGME - to my knowledge - can't be used to delete files)

If you're still on JSGME, you might want to "update" to the newer preferred OvGME, which even has been replaced by OMM, Open Mod Manager, or even SLAM which applies mods in seconds compared to the file copying the others are doing. 

Cheers! 

[RustBelt]

Yea I believe the jester background is actually tied to “cockpit sound” volume or “in helmet” or something due to how they had to pack sound layers. It’a a game limitation. 
 

You can break the knobs in the cockpit out to an HID and that makes life a LOT better. But DCS doesn’t let you adjust its audio sliders on the fly with a  axis or button combo. So that’s a pain of jumping in and out of the menu. But, up side is those stay on shut down, the in plane knobs reset every flight.

The training missions need to suppress Jester’s background chatter better. But any added logic in the Mission Editor eats working resources. 

Edited July 1 by RustBelt
Auto correct can make the word “SHUT” into something bad.

[draconus]

On 6/29/2025 at 12:52 AM, Sunbather said:

2. Jester voice too loud, squelch too loud, jester menu static noise way too loud. 

3. Jester menu not clickable with mouse. Jester menu cumbersome to handle, e.g. in the F-4E you can simply keep pressing the menu button to close it again. Doesn't work here. Or another example: it doesn't remember the last submenu that was opened. When I want to prepare a bombing run I might have to 4 to 5 settings but whenever I made my way to the fourth submenu and made my choice for one setting, the menu simply closes altogether, and I have to do it all over again. Five times in total. Absolutely the opposite of QoL. 

2. Last time I tried to "fight" for even acknowledging the issue they attacked users that we're not supposed to be using the realistic option "hear like in helmet" because they spent so much time and passion on creation of beatiful sounds and the option kills the art. Using the option make some sounds stand out because they are not added to the same category as the rest so they are treated differently (ex. radar altimeter) and turn out much louder. HB also didn't make these to react to common DCS options/audio sliders so we can't adjust it or remove unrealistic lound cockpit sounds including the clicks/switches.

3. If you're not using any headtracking or refuse to use one for Jester menu you can bind some hat or keys that represents the wheel, like S is the menu key, W is select 1, E is select 2, D is 3 and so on. Also maybe you're clicking too much for no reason. Almost any bombing with Jester needs only AG weapon selection - the default settings are already good. Exception may be SnakeEye/AIR to set mech fuse additionally. What else do you need to set every time?

Overall the module is great but the "issues" you selected as deal breaker... if we only had such problems  Free tip: download DCS standalone version and take modules for 2-week trials.

btw: Why did you think it's great idea to tell us all that in this thread instead of a new one?

[Sunbather]

Am 29.6.2025 um 10:12 schrieb MAXsenna:

Fair enough, I remember this. But I have tuned my audio settings in DCS in general to accommodate for it, so I don't even actually need to turn the ICS down. I rather need to turn it up sometimes.  

It's probably a personal taste as I can't even remember hearing those. Maybe it's because I'm using VAICOM with the AIRIO, so I'll never even open the Jester menu.

I hope they get around to accommodate everyone at some point.

No, they're just sound files, and if not found will only be logged as errors in the DCS.log. You only want to remove the jokes, right? No campaign is dependant of those. Can even be easily swapped for empty or silent files. 

If you're still on JSGME, you might want to "update" to the newer preferred OvGME, which even has been replaced by OMM, Open Mod Manager, or even SLAM which applies mods in seconds compared to the file copying the others are doing. 

Cheers! 

Thank you MAXsenna, helpful as always! Accomodating all if feasible should be a viable standpoint, so thanks for having such a mindset despite not having issues yourself. Thanks for the tip how to handle removing sound files! Appreciate it! 

vor 17 Stunden schrieb RustBelt:

Yea I believe the jester background is actually tied to “cockpit sound” volume or “in helmet” or something due to how they had to pack sound layers. It’a a game limitation. 
 

You can break the knobs in the cockpit out to an HID and that makes life a LOT better. But DCS doesn’t let you adjust its audio sliders on the fly with a  axis or button combo. So that’s a pain of jumping in and out of the menu. But, up side is those stay on shut down, the in plane knobs reset every flight.

The training missions need to suppress Jester’s background chatter better. But any added logic in the Mission Editor eats working resources. 

I see! Thanks for the additional tip! 

[Sunbather]

vor 9 Stunden schrieb draconus:

2. Last time I tried to "fight" for even acknowledging the issue they attacked users that we're not supposed to be using the realistic option "hear like in helmet" because they spent so much time and passion on creation of beatiful sounds and the option kills the art. Using the option make some sounds stand out because they are not added to the same category as the rest so they are treated differently (ex. radar altimeter) and turn out much louder. HB also didn't make these to react to common DCS options/audio sliders so we can't adjust it or remove unrealistic lound cockpit sounds including the clicks/switches.

3. If you're not using any headtracking or refuse to use one for Jester menu you can bind some hat or keys that represents the wheel, like S is the menu key, W is select 1, E is select 2, D is 3 and so on. Also maybe you're clicking too much for no reason. Almost any bombing with Jester needs only AG weapon selection - the default settings are already good. Exception may be SnakeEye/AIR to set mech fuse additionally. What else do you need to set every time?

Overall the module is great but the "issues" you selected as deal breaker... if we only had such problems  Free tip: download DCS standalone version and take modules for 2-week trials.

Thanks for fighting the right war, haha. Bummer that we are not supposed to use "hear like in helmet". Will try it out soon if that makes things better. And if so it would also be one more reason to have audio options for each module. 

I find my cheap OpenTrack headtracking too much of a hassle and actually also a bit immersion-breaking to use for the Jester wheel. That being said, I now already am comfortable with the default keybinds "Ctrl" + [number]. Works much better for me. Might change the keybinds as well, just like you suggested. 

It's not a deal breaker. I exaggerated a bit. But I would assume these issues could be easily solved and seeing that people complained about it for so long it is a bit discouraging to see that they haven't accomodated players' wishes. 

 

vor 9 Stunden schrieb draconus:

btw: Why did you think it's great idea to tell us all that in this thread instead of a new one?

Because I was on a roll, baby! 

[MAXsenna]

17 hours ago, RustBelt said:

But DCS doesn’t let you adjust its audio sliders on the fly with a  axis or button combo. So that’s a pain of jumping in and out of the menu.

That's true. One for the wishlist maybe. UI Layer perhaps? 

 

17 hours ago, RustBelt said:

The training missions need to suppress Jester’s background chatter better. But any added logic in the Mission Editor eats working resources.

Absolutely!  

[MAXsenna]

10 minutes ago, Sunbather said:

I find my cheap OpenTrack headtracking too much of a hassle and actually also a bit immersion-breaking to use for the Jester wheel.

I can't remember. Did I ever suggest you tested VoiceAttack/VAICOM? 

Cheers! 

[Sunbather]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb MAXsenna:

I can't remember. Did I ever suggest you tested VoiceAttack/VAICOM? 

Cheers! 

You did, but I have to think about my neighbors. "JESTER YOU ABSOLUTE KANT! I DIDNT ORDER YOU TO TRACK THE FRIENDLY F-16!"

[RustBelt]

4 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

That's true. One for the wishlist maybe. UI Layer perhaps?

ED’s wishlist, so not worth the time.