Shkval movment with 8 way hat switch

[karambiatos]

Currently if you have a 8way hat switch theres no option in the controls list where you could make the shkval move up left, up right, down left, down right simultaneously. It can be done with the keyboard or a 4way hat switch, but it doesnt work with an 8way hat.

[Suchacz]

It can be only done with programming software of your joy.

[Devrim]

Right. I can do it with X52Pro's software only.

[doveman]

Xpadder will let me set my hat to 4-way or 8-way but can't map two arrow keys (i.e. up and left) to one diagonal direction on the hat, so that's no good. Could probably do it with AHK but I don't want to have a script running just for that.

[Bast]

Hello Karambiatos,

 

Find a little program online called Xpadder and use it to make an 8-way hat assignment profile.

 

Then make the four diagonal positions of the hat be recognized as two key presses. Example (I use default dcs keybindings for Shkval movement and not these example keys); w=up, s=down, a=left, d=right.

 

So to make the Shkval go on a diagonal to the upper left you would need to press A, and W on the keyboard at the same time, so use Xpadder to recognize the upper left position of your eight way HOTAS hat as AW, up to the right as WD and so on....

 

You will then need to run Xpadder when you want your 8-way HOTAS hat to allow diagonal movement of the Shkval. I have no problems starting and stopping Xpadder during a session when switching between aircraft.

 

This has worked for me for a very long time without issue :)

 

 

Bast

Edited December 15, 2012 by Bast

[doveman]

Ah, perhaps I can do it by going into Advanced and setting two keys per direction there.

[Tucano_uy]

I wonder how tough can it be to add this feature to the DCS series. I requested 8 position slew control long time ago (thread must be somewhere) but so far it is not implemented.

I see I am not the only one that would like to see it happening. Keep making noise, maybe one day... In the meantime, workarounds...

[Devrim]

I may be wrong, but, DCS has already 8-way slew control. We can do it via cursor keys on the keyboard.

 

But I think main problem is that joysticks don't act the same way like keyboards. So it's needed a interface softwares like SST or etc...

[doveman]

I think Tucano_uy's right that it should be simple to add 8-way control.

 

In Windows Game Controller properties for my stick, I can see that the hat has 8 positions (without using any additional software like Xpadder), so DCS should be able to let us assign those 8 positions to anything we want (i.e. up-left=snap view 1 or start countermeasures, etc. I find it's not possible to select diagonals with sufficient accuracy to use it for anything other than slew/views/mouse cursor though but that might just be my stick).

 

For the slew control however, it should be clever enough to let us just assign slew control to the hat and that would auto map all 8 directions, in the same way that we don't have to individually map the stick axis to up/down/left/right/up-left, etc. It could be that the hat only controls slew when in a certain mode/view and then it can be used for other things in 8 directions (i.e. look around cockpit or mouse cursor) at other times.

[Tucano_uy]

I'm no programmer, so I actually I don't know how hard or easy or lenghty the process of adding 4 new key assignments could be (and I know programmers don't enjoy people telling 'em what should be easy to do ahahah). So please let me rephrase it. IT WOULD BE MOST USEFUL AND REASONABLE to be able to have key assignments for left-up, right-up, left-down and right-down slew natively in game. Those of us whose joystick POV doesn't work as an axis, need it. Just imagine slewing your mavericks in the heat of battle by moving first left (or right) an then up (or down) at 90 degrees angles instead of being able to take a shorter route, 45 degrees angles!!!! IT SUCKS!!!!

 

@Devrim: with the keyboard one can press one vertical + an horizontal arrow at the same time and then you get diagonal movement. With the 8 point POV however, it seems to work differently, at least in my stick. Each of the 8 positions is a different "keystroke" to call it some way. Left-up position for instance is not the addition of the "left"+"up" stroke, but an independent one. Hence the need to have 8 definable keys for the slew control.

 

 

Edit: the 8 view POV works perfectly for everything else, views, snaps, external views, etc.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Tucano_uy

[BaD CrC]

Xpadder is the way to go. I'm using it to control my 15 peripherals at once and it works no sweat.

[Clyber]

Currently if you have a 8way hat switch theres no option in the controls list where you could make the shkval move up left, up right, down left, down right simultaneously. It can be done with the keyboard or a 4way hat switch, but it doesnt work with an 8way hat.

 

Does the game support this diagonal movement for the skaval with commands?

[Clyber]

Currently if you have a 8way hat switch theres no option in the controls list where you could make the shkval move up left, up right, down left, down right simultaneously. It can be done with the keyboard or a 4way hat switch, but it doesnt work with an 8way hat.

 

Ah, perhaps I can do it by going into Advanced and setting two keys per direction there.

 

Did this worked for you Doveman ?

[doveman]

Did this worked for you Doveman ?

 

I actually forget to try this but just did and am glad to report that it works nicely :)