[AS INTENDED]Some Controls Appear Twice

[Captain Orso]

There are a hand full of controls which appear twice. Otherwise they seem to work normally.

 

[BIGNEWY]

Hi

 

this is intended, one is the default assignment for your controller, the other is mappable with other devices.

 

thanks

[Captain Orso]

But I have lots of default assignments. I have a TM Warthog HOTAS, and nearly everything is on default assignment, but only these few have double-entries, which I guess I'm grateful for now :huh:

[Frederf]

The orange highlighting is when there are two different control commands defined that share an identical text label.

 

\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\A-10C_2\Input\A-10C_2\joystick\default.lua

\DCS World OpenBeta\Mods\aircraft\A-10C_2\Input\A-10C_2\joystick\Thrustmaster Combined.lua

 

These two files both have a command called name = _('HOTAS Boat Switch Aft'), but they are different in content.

default.lua
{down = iCommandPlane_HOTAS_BoatSwitchAft, name = _('HOTAS Boat Switch Aft'), category = _('HOTAS')},

Thrustmaster Combined.lua
{combos = {{key = 'JOY_BTN10'}}    ,down = iCommandPlane_HOTAS_BoatSwitchAft,up = iCommandPlane_HOTAS_BoatSwitchCenter, name = _('HOTAS Boat Switch Aft'), category = _('HOTAS')},

Same name, different command. So they aren't collapsed into single line on the control setup screen. They appear as two lines because they do different things. The orange highlighting is applied because they have identical text labels. If the labels were even slightly different it wouldn't be highlighted.

 

This has nothing to do with the assignments but how the commands are defined in the first place.

[Captain Orso]

Thanks for the reply Frederf! Everything is clear now.

 

Small caveat though, at least on my installation, the device specific file is 'Throttle - HOTAS Warthog.lua'. I don't actually have 'Thrustmaster Combined.lua'.

 

This naming concept is actually a bad idea from ED.

 

In 'default.lua' 'HOTAS Boat Switch Aft', 'HOTAS Boat Switch Center', and 'HOTAS Boat Switch Forward' are defined, which are good for key-press and (On)-Off press-button switches.

 

In 'Throttle - HOTAS Warthog.lua' is the 'combo' definition for actual On-Off switches. 'HOTAS Boat Switch Aft' in this file actually configures, if your physical switch is in the asserted position (aft), then it does 'iCommandPlane_HOTAS_BoatSwitchAft', but if it is NOT in the asserted position (it is in the middle -- this is the combo part), then 'iCommandPlane_HOTAS_BoatSwitchCenter' is done.

 

The actual issue is therefore that in 'Throttle - HOTAS Warthog.lua' the control is not named for what it actually does. It should be named 'HOTAS Boat Switch Aft else Center'.

 

Additionally, since this is in the 'Throttle - HOTAS Warthog.lua' file, it is not accessible to users of any non-standard controllers, for which ED has not provided a pre-configured lua file, thus forcing them to mod their 'default.lua' to create their own combo control to use.

 

IMHO a more universal and streamlined method would be to have 'HOTAS Boat Switch Aft else Center' and 'HOTAS Boat Switch Forward else Center' in 'default.lua' in addition to the 3 key-press definitions.

 

Well-known controllers could have a file defining the default switch assignments only.

[Frederf]

Yes a labeling convention that describes controls which have a different action for the down and up context would be nice. Lots of modules do have some kind of distinction, ELSE or parentheses or something. They often make a specific category for these e.g. "special for joystick".

[Captain Orso]

But not down and up. Down and up describes how a keyboard key works. Down = pressed = asserted, up = released = unasserted.

 

The toggle switches on the TM Warthog HOTAS Throttle are

 

On-Off - APU START - Forward is On, aft is Off

On-Off-On - Boat Switch - Has two electronic circuits. Forward closes one of the two circuits, while aft closes the other. In the center neither circuit is closed.

On-Off-(On) - ENG OPER L & R - Same as the Boat Switch, except when the switch is in the forward position and released, it will spring back to the center position.

(On)-Off-(On) - China Hat - The same as the Boat Switch, except that the switch falls back to center automatically from both directions.

 

Directions in parentheses

(On)

are spring loaded and spring back to the center or other position when released.

 

Combo controls need to be named for what they do. EG 'Undercarriage Down else Up' for a switch with aft = On and forward = Off. If your switch aft = Off and forward = On you would need 'Undercarriage Up else Down'. The default setting is always assigned to the On position of the switch.

 

The flaps switch is an On-Off-On switch, so it requires two controls to configure:

'Flaps UP else MVR' and 'Flaps Down else MVR'.

 

If we look inside 'Throttle - HOTAS Warthog.lua' that's exactly what we find for the flaps switch :thumbup:.... except they are named 'Toggle Flaps Up' and 'Toggle Flaps Dn' :doh:

 

To compromise with ED I'd could live with 'Flaps Up else MVR' and 'Flaps Dn else MVR', not that I actually expect ED to do anything at all with this. *sigh*