"Special for Joystick" Landing Gear options

[TORC]

Hello,

F-18 Hornet does not seem to have 'Landing gear up else down' binding in the Special For Joystick menu (in Sim mode, not sure about game mode), does this option exist for the F-18? It is for the F-14 by Heatblur, and helps a lot to bind to controller with only one "engagement" for landing gear switch?

[LeCuvier]

It does not exist for the Hornet. It would be easy to create it by adding a simple line of code to the file "efault.lua".

Note: I created this command for several aircraft, but stopped using it. That's because, if you don't have the switch in the right position at mission start, you wil find your fighter dropping on its belly in a mission that starts on the ground, or your landing gear extending in a mission that starts airborne.

[TORC]

Thankyou for the information about "default.lua" - if I make the change in this will it cause problems e.g. with joining multiplayer servers?

 

[LeCuvier]

No. Changes to this file pass Integrity Check, no problem at all. I have more than hundred such additions.

I created two lines of code, you decide which one you want to use:

{down = iCommandPlaneGearUp, up = iCommandPlaneGearDown, name = _('Landing Gear Control Handle 2-Position UP/DOWN'), category = {_('Left Vertical Panel')}},
{down = iCommandPlaneGearDown, up = iCommandPlaneGearUp, name = _('Landing Gear Control Handle 2-Position DOWN/UP'), category = {_('Left Vertical Panel')}},

The first one retracts the gear when the switch transitions to ON and extends it when the switch transitions to OFF.
The second line does the opposite.

When you open the file "default.lua" with Notepad++ you see these lines at the beginning of the file:

The line of code you want to add must be below line 7. I recommend you add it in line 8 so you can easily find it.
Note:
1. The line numbers are not in the file, Notepadd++ adds them in the view.
2. DCS Update or Repair restores the original file. Therefore, save a backup copy of the modified file. If you have multiple modified files it's a good idea to use OvGME to manage updates.

Edited February 15, 2022 by LeCuvier

[TORC]

Thankyou very much for all your help! I was having trouble working out how to make the code, yours works perfectly

[Gruman]

As far as I know, there is still no default landing gear option in "Special for Joystick" which gives the option to bind the landing gear to a ON-OFF Toggle switch.
Fuel Dump switch is missing as well.

Any chance those could be included by default?

Thanks.

[LeCuvier]

53 minutes ago, Gruman said:

As far as I know, there is still no default landing gear option in "Special for Joystick" which gives the option to bind the landing gear to a ON-OFF Toggle switch.
Fuel Dump switch is missing as well.

Any chance those could be included by default?

Thanks.

ED has added a lot of lines under "special for joystick", but the two items you mention are still not there. Historically, ED has been very slow adding such bindings although these are very low-hanging fruit. For the fuel dump switch I have added this line to "default.lua":

{down = fuel_commands.DumpSw, up = fuel_commands.DumpSw, cockpit_device_id = devices.FUEL_INTERFACE, value_down =  1.0, value_up = -1.0, name = _('Fuel Dump Switch 2-Pos ON/OFF'), category = {_('Left Console'), _('Fuel Control Panel')}},

 

[Gruman]

Thanks. Already using those lines. Just wanted to bump this thread in the hope ED would simply add this in the future .