Cannon and Weapons Release, same button?

[windsurfingstew]

I'm a little limited for HOTAS buttons. It seems overkill to have a separate fire button for the cannon and missiles. Is there any easy way to combine these into just one button?

[BIGNEWY]

1 minute ago, windsurfingstew said:

I'm a little limited for HOTAS buttons. It seems overkill to have a separate fire button for the cannon and missiles. Is there any easy way to combine these into just one button?

Hi, 

it is correct for many aircraft, unless you have evidence a switch should have combined functionality it is unlikely to be changed by us. 

You could use a modifier however, so you press one button for cannon, and the same button with a modifier button for weapon release. However this is still using two buttons so probably defeating the point. 

[Hiob]

46 minutes ago, windsurfingstew said:

I'm a little limited for HOTAS buttons. It seems overkill to have a separate fire button for the cannon and missiles. Is there any easy way to combine these into just one button?

With some third party tools for Joysticks (like Virpel, or Thrustmaster) you can assign virtual buttons to your joystick. E.g. assign a virtual button to your trigger button, so that in effect two buttons are pressed - one real and one virtual. You can then assign the virtual button to the weapons release and the other (real) one to the trigger.

Edit: If you don't own a virpil or vkb or thrustmaster, I think some of those programs work with other joystick brands as well. And there is a "universal" Joystick utility, but I can't remember the name, sorry.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Hiob

[sthompson]

@BIGNEWY's solution worked well for me for years until I upgraded my HOTAS. I chose a dedicated "modifier" button on my throttle, which then let me double up functions for every other button. Bignewy is correct that you still need two buttons. However the doubling of functionality on all other buttons more than makes up for that.

Regarding "universal" joystick utilities, perhaps @Hiob is thinking of Joystick Gremlin, available at https://whitemagic.github.io/JoystickGremlin/.

[Hiob]

3 minutes ago, sthompson said:

Regarding "universal" joystick utilities, perhaps @Hiob is thinking of Joystick Gremlin, available at https://whitemagic.github.io/JoystickGremlin/.

That I had in mind, thank you!