Jester menu not available in front seat

[KrisJ]

Hi,

I am having strange problem. In the front seat i cannot open Jester menu at all. In the back seat I can do it but its a menu that should be present in tne front seat.

Any idea what went wrong and how to fix it?

Kris

[Zabuzard]

The menu can be used from both seats. Id suggest to check your binds, perhaps it got deleted or there is a clash. The default is A.

[scoobie]

Hm... after the latest update, I'm having a similar thing. I haven't checked if Jester menu is available from the rear seat, though.
Launch DCS, launch a mission with the Phantom. No Jester menu. No bindings work - neither mouse, nor joystick.
Now the trick: exit the mission and launch it again - Jester menu is now available.
Also, interestingly, on the second mission launch, Jester immediately asks me for the type of INS alignment I want. She's still cold and dark, no action taken on my part yet and this small "talking circle" pops up with "What alignment do you want?" (or whatever he's saying).
No idea what's going on. Maybe it's something on my end, though the Jester menu used to work normally some time/update(s) ago.

[KrisJ]

I am also being asked by Jester for the allignent soon after plane is loaded.

As for the missing Jester menu - workaround that works for me: do not try to open it in front seat first. Instead go to back seat, open it and close. Than move back to front and you should be able to open it.

[Zabuzard]

I am also being asked by Jester for the allignent soon after plane is loaded.
As for the missing Jester menu - workaround that works for me: do not try to open it in front seat first. Instead go to back seat, open it and close. Than move back to front and you should be able to open it.

Just as a note, it is correct behavior to ask for the alignment as soon as any power is on the plane. For example when you flipped the gen switch to on for battery power or to external. That is, before engine startup.
Jester will then start the warmup phase of the alignment.

[XpRiV]

On 11/14/2024 at 10:55 AM, scoobie said:

Hm... after the latest update, I'm having a similar thing. I haven't checked if Jester menu is available from the rear seat, though.
Launch DCS, launch a mission with the Phantom. No Jester menu. No bindings work - neither mouse, nor joystick.
Now the trick: exit the mission and launch it again - Jester menu is now available.
Also, interestingly, on the second mission launch, Jester immediately asks me for the type of INS alignment I want. She's still cold and dark, no action taken on my part yet and this small "talking circle" pops up with "What alignment do you want?" (or whatever he's saying).
No idea what's going on. Maybe it's something on my end, though the Jester menu used to work normally some time/update(s) ago.

I have this same issue too since the last update.

[scoobie]

@Zabuzard - yes, what you're saying makes sense, but we're talking about the very first second of the mission.
Incidentally, there are two things here.
The first one, which is the trouble, is the lack of the Jester menu in the front seat. It used to work no problem, now it doesn't. To correct for that, I just re-launch the same mission - that solves the issue. KrisJ instead hops into the rear seat, invokes the Jester menu from there (which allegedly works - haven't tried myself yet), then closes it, then he jumps back to the pilot's seat, and now the Jester menu works.

The second issue, which is not a problem for me, just a strange phenomenon I've noticed, is that on the second mission launch the Jester immediately asks for alignment type, he doesn't do that on the initial mission start.

Again - what I'm doing:
1. Launch DCS
2. Lanuch Phantom mission. Observe you can't get Jester menu to show up, at least from the pilot's seat (I use joystick and mouse bindings for that - neither work). The Jester will NOT ask you for alignment type just yet (seems correct). He would ask that later, but not at the very mission start, with no power yet.
3. Exit the mission.
4. Launch the same mission again. Jester now behaves differently - he IMMEDIATELY asks for alignment type, at the first millisecond of the mission. The mission barely loads and you immediately hear that audio amp noise from him, the "talking circle" pops up and you have to answer him. No power attached yet, not a single switch flicked yet.
This is just an observation, it doesn't bother me that he asks. On a bright side - the Jester menu now works, so I can ask the crew chief for GPU power etc.
It's as if a "part" of the Phantom survives the mission exit, at least briefly (a process/thread or something doesn't get killed, maybe?), I have no idea how it all works.

 

[scoobie]

OK, I solved the problem for myself.

In my case the reason for this behaviour was launching a Phantom mission with Engine Master Switches both set (a priori) to ON/forward position.

This somehow messes up Jester logic in a funny way (different effects on the very first mission launch compared to any consecutive launch).