HOTAS Cougar FOxy programming question

[Rudel_chw]

Ok, thats good to know. So I recall seeing "Logical Flags" (Example Below) in older profiles that I once downloaded and used. I dont really know how I would make use of these, but Im willing to try and learn if they will work if written correctly for that switch. Would I be wasting my time or is this approach for that switch workable?

 

I'm not really an expert at Logical Programming, but I dont think that Flags would help you on this specific case.

 

Flags are very similar to the physical buttons of your Hotas and are defined in relationship to other buttons. For example I could have a Flag that behaves like an Eject Button: it turns on when I press three other buttons simultaneously for a certain amount of time; off otherwise:

 

Rem ###########################################################
Rem   X22 : Initiate Bailout sequence (hold TG2 & S3 & S4 for half a second)
Rem ###########################################################
DEF X22 DELAY (500) TG2 AND S4 AND S3
BTN X22 Bailout 

Or a flag could be like a button that is ON when the Throttle is at Idle range and at the same time you have two other buttons pressed .. here is an example:

 

Rem ##########################################################
Rem     Define start-stop of engines when Throttle is moved past idle position
Rem
Rem   X24 : Throttle below Idle detent
Rem   X23 : Shutoff engines: Throttle at zero and press S3 for 2 seconds, works only on Navigation Mode.
Rem   X25 : Throttle at Idle detent
Rem   X26 : Start engines: Throttle at Idle and press S3 for 2 seconds, works only on Nav Mode
Rem
Rem   The second engine starts/stops 10 seconds after the first
Rem
Rem ##########################################################

USE THR_RANGE (22%, 100%)
THR 5 3 (0 15 22 100) (KD(X24) KU(X25)) (KU(X24) KD(X25)) (KU(X24) KU(X25))   

Rem On my Cougar the idle detent is at 15-22 percent of throttle travel. Adjust if necessary

DEF X26 DELAY (2000) X25 NOT X24 AND S3 NOT T7 NOT T8
BTN X26 Engine_Left_Start DLY(10000) Engine_Right_Start   

DEF X23 DELAY (2000) X24 NOT X25  AND S3 NOT T7 NOT T8
BTN X23 Engine_Left_Stop DLY(10000) Engine_Right_Stop

Best regards

Edited December 23, 2019 by Rudel_chw

[Fakum]

Thank you Rudel, I did not want to waste a few days trying if it were not applicable. Guess i will just map a different way,,, thanks again

[Sn8ke_iis]

OK, you got me messing around with it, I actually strted to copy your Rad-Oil switch... it worked..and then I found out my Stick didn't work...ahhh...and the trial & error starts.

 

Gonna give a shot tonight, maybe 3-6h LOL....

 

 

I got you Bit, when you run the script it will create a new device called Thrustmaster Combined and you will still need to assign stick and throttle axis in the DCS spreadsheet.

 

The P-51 is one of the more basic layouts, the cockpit is very intuitive to use with a mouse for start up especially in VR.

 

In the diagram attached the [D] represents the down layer for use in conjunction with the paddle switch as modifier. As you can see I have all the basic functions that are part of my standard template. Kneeboard, zoom, TIR center and reset, etc. I have all the function keys F1-F12 mapped to the hat switches for views and the comms menu as well. They follow a clockwise convention left to right for the 3 hats, with the trim hat switch moving your cockpit head position with the paddle pressed. Otherwise it's just a normal trim switch. It sounds like a lot but it's very intuitive with a little practice. I keep those consistent regardless of module. You can move your head around, change views, check kneeboard, reset TIR, all with HOTAS.

 

Note: I changed the default TrackIR keys for recenter and pause IIRC. But that's easy to do, so if that doesn't work you'll need to adjust yours accordingly. Sometimes I have to add custom keyboard combos in the DCS spreadsheet to prevent conflicts but I don't think I had to do any for the P-51. The F-16, that was a struggle with the Cougar/TUSBA and the Warthog stick together. I actually tried to use Rudel's template for Foxy but couldn't get my Cougar throttle to be recognized without the TUSBA.

 

You might get an error if you don't have the MFDs but you can adjust the profile to exclude those with a few mouse clicks. To use an imported script for the first time you have to press edit configuration in the TARGET GUI and then use the file explorer to pull it up. Then go through the pages and press save and finish then it should save to the default path on your machine.

DCS P-51D.zip

[Sn8ke_iis]

 

It also provides easy access to a lot of nice utilities, like a button tester, logical flag viewer ... even a nice graphic editor for creating this type of diagrams:

 

 

Target however, is a whole different animal .. it's like learning C++ all over again :( ... and it is the main reason why I never got around to replacing my Cougar with a Warthog.

 

TARGET does all that too. Maybe something is getting lost in translation here, I can barely code "Hello World" in C++. The GUI generates the code for you. There's no coding necessary. There's no way I would be able to do that without the GUI. The user interface makes it all point and click. Easy peasy. It even gives you a 3D model of the controller and you just click on the button you want to assign. Much better than the wall of text in the DCS speadsheet. If I can do it, anybody can do it. I'm into hardware and benchmarking, I'm not a coder by any stretch of the imagination. I can't even read the text scripts you guys keep posting. Looks like Ancient Greek to me.

 

One thing I noticed when I was working through your F-16 script in Foxy is that you went through a lot of trouble to emulate key presses for a lot functions that were already in DCS as joystick buttons. I'm not sure about FOXY, but TARGET can emulate all 32 joystick buttons and the 8 way hat. The DCS developers did a fantastic job of mapping all the joystick functions already and you were kind of reinventing the wheel. I just emulated the joystick buttons as typical press and releases like the default and it worked great. I did steal your idea for mapping the landing gear lever as a layer under the speedbrake switch and it worked great. Just an FYI.

[Rudel_chw]

... The DCS developers did a fantastic job of mapping all the joystick functions already and you were kind of reinventing the wheel...

 

ED provides fantastic (default) mappings only on a couple of their aircrafts, so I'm by now used to edit my own whenever a new plane arrives to DCS. So, I didn't even try the default, but went straight ahead to modify my F-18 profile for use with the F-16, since they are fairly similar.

 

Also, while I do try to mimic the real plane Hotas as much as possible, there are some standard DCS functions that I want mapped the same on every one of my aircrafts, like the Snapviews, the Kneeboard, the Communications bindings, the flaps, speedbrake, landing gear, the eject, etc ... so, I always create my own profile, rather than using a default.

 

Finally, having the mappings on my profile makes my setup immune to those frequent cases where DCS re-maps things by itself when DCS is updated .. it isnt frequent, but happens at least once per year .. when it happens, I'm so glad to have my Hotas profiles independent from the DCS mappings :)

 

So, in the end its a matter of personal preference .. you like using a Gui to generate the Target C++, other people is happy with using ED's defaults ... I prefer to use the text editor to do the same and then print the diagram and pin it next to my monitor while I learn each new plane :D

 

Best regards.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Rudel_chw

[Sn8ke_iis]

Cheers! Merry Christmas!

 

Hopefully we don't have any more friendly fire incidents this year when Santa is inbound from the North Pole. It was unfortunate what happened last year :D

 

 

[BitMaster]

TARGET does all that too. Maybe something is getting lost in translation here, I can barely code "Hello World" in C++. The GUI generates the code for you. There's no coding necessary. There's no way I would be able to do that without the GUI. The user interface makes it all point and click. Easy peasy. It even gives you a 3D model of the controller and you just click on the button you want to assign. Much better than the wall of text in the DCS speadsheet. If I can do it, anybody can do it. I'm into hardware and benchmarking, I'm not a coder by any stretch of the imagination. I can't even read the text scripts you guys keep posting. Looks like Ancient Greek to me.

 

One thing I noticed when I was working through your F-16 script in Foxy is that you went through a lot of trouble to emulate key presses for a lot functions that were already in DCS as joystick buttons. I'm not sure about FOXY, but TARGET can emulate all 32 joystick buttons and the 8 way hat. The DCS developers did a fantastic job of mapping all the joystick functions already and you were kind of reinventing the wheel. I just emulated the joystick buttons as typical press and releases like the default and it worked great. I did steal your idea for mapping the landing gear lever as a layer under the speedbrake switch and it worked great. Just an FYI.

 

 

The P-51 was among my initial DCS purchases years ago and I know that bird pretty well and love it but having your layout in front of me makes it easier for me to get all the ( a few only tbh ) controls bind to my Hotas.

 

Off topic, many say its hard to take off in her, I don't, dial in 5.5° right rudder and go full bore, she tracks like a train down the strip, with full aft tank and extra tanks on the wings :joystick:

 

I thought I had time over the days to get into TGui but family kept me busy, all 6 kids were in, big fest etc... it's #1 on my list to get back into Hotas programming and having a little Intro makes it that much easier, like the tip that I now have to work DCS as well to tell it Ia m using TG...I thought something like that must be the reason why I had no stick..LoL.

I stopped at that point a few days ago due to time constraints but such tips make it so much easier to get into it. Thanks mate ! :pilotfly: