not planned or realistic Directional Trim Buttons "Cheat"

[cow_art]

Hey ED,

great work with the Apache, thank you so much for bringing one my all-time favorite helicopters to DCS in such amazing quality! 

A humble suggestion: Could you please consider adding directional trim buttons like in the Hind (digital buttons that move the trimmed position of the cyclic/rudders by a tiny amount)? I think that would be extremely helpful for people who have to live with non-optimal input devices.

Disclaimer: I put this as cheat, because I fully understand that the real Apache doesn't have this function. I guess the real Apache cyclic/rudders are so precise that such a function is not needed on the real thing. But I imagine for the average gamer who has typical fixed wing gear (= a short spring-centered stick with limited precision) these functions will be very helpful, for example when fine-tuning trim to get within hover-hold conditions.

Thanks!

Edited March 23, 2022 by cow_art
fix grammar

[Raffson]

Try out what’s already available, just map buttons for cyclic up, left, right and down. Depending on how sensitive you want the buttons to be, this could be your solution.

[cow_art]

3 hours ago, Raffson said:

Try out what’s already available, just map buttons for cyclic up, left, right and down. Depending on how sensitive you want the buttons to be, this could be your solution.

That's a good idea, and in fact I have already tried that. But while the available keys are indeed similar, they unfortunately don't do exactly what I need. The currently available buttons move the virtual stick (white diamond icons in controls indicator). What I am asking for, are similar keybinds that move the trimmed position (red cross icons in controls indicator).

Nevertheless, the available buttons can be used to make a "poor man's version" of what I am asking: Use key presses to move the white diamond a tiny amount, then immediately press the force trim release button to "store" the new trim position; finally move your physical stick a little (to reset the offset you introduced with the key presses). That works in principle but it's quite complicated, quirky and unreliable (if your physical stick moves even the tiniest bit while you do this, the white diamond immediately resets and you have to start over ==> with that technique I definitely couldn't keep the trim buttons on the stick).

Dedicated buttons for this functionality would be highly preferable. And my guess is, they could be useful to a lot of people who have to live with lower-end input devices.

[Raffson]

On 3/27/2022 at 12:31 AM, cow_art said:

if your physical stick moves even the tiniest bit while you do this, the white diamond immediately resets and you have to start over

Deadzones might help with that. Also, I’m trying to imagine in which situations you need this and what means you have at your disposal, i.e. what stick are you using etc.

I’ve tried it out myself and find this to be more accurate than making corrections with the stick when it comes to finetuning. Even though I keep the default bindings on the keyboard cause in the situations that I’ve used this I’m already in a “controlled attitude” which allows me to take my hands of the stick for these tiny corrections.

[cow_art]

12 hours ago, Raffson said:

Deadzones might help with that. Also, I’m trying to imagine in which situations you need this and what means you have at your disposal, i.e. what stick are you using etc.

I’ve tried it out myself and find this to be more accurate than making corrections with the stick when it comes to finetuning. Even though I keep the default bindings on the keyboard cause in the situations that I’ve used this I’m already in a “controlled attitude” which allows me to take my hands of the stick for these tiny corrections.

I think you describe the situation where one needs this pretty well. One situation where I would find this useful is, if I have managed to establish a decent hover but keep drifting forwards a bit too much (have to repeatedly make corrections that fight the trim position by nudging the cyclic backwards). If I had a very precise stick I could just pull the stick back a tiny amount and press the trim button to correct this. But even with pretty extensive tuning of my CH Fighterstick's curve and deadzones I still find it pretty hard to make such tiny corrections reliably without overcorrecting (only really possible when I have my eyes glued to the control indicator).

Simply having buttons that move the trimmed position a tiny amount would instantly get rid of this problem. I think that would allow players to have a better experience that requires much less tuning of joystick curves and deadzones (I get that this is probably a non-issue for users with better hardware... or way better motor skills than I have).

And yes, the workaround mentioned above (move virtual stick with button presses, then trim, then reset virtual stick) also works in principle. But that's just a workaround; I currently use it and find it unreliable and needlessly complicated. A better solution would be to add a few more keybinds that give players direct fine-control over the trimmed position. Hence my post in the Wishlist section