FS2Crew General Question

[PiperPilot21 0]

Brian,I've known of FS2Crew for a while now and it is a really great program. I own the WIlco Airbus version (which is unfortunate since I get terrible frame rates in Wilco and no longer use it) and am especially interested in buying the PMDG 747 Voice Edition and the LDS 767 Voice Edition upon the request of one of my fellow Virtual Airline friends. He has bragged about the 747 and posted his own videos on our VA forum since he bought it and has given nothing but great reviews of it. Within the next couple weeks, I am expecting to buy one or both of these in the next few weeks and have just a few questions before I do so. On both the PMDG and Level-D drop downs from within FS9, users are able to change the key strokes for certain systems and switches. I am slowly working on a secondary keyboard set up with a freeware program called HIDMacros which simulates multiple keypresses into just one button (for example, instead of Shift-Cntl-Q you can just press the 'A' key on the second keyboard to simulate this, and still use the main keyboard normally). This, I believe, will make the simulation much more realistic as it allows one to reach up to the "overhead" panel to turn on the battery instead of actually having to open the panel or remember which keys combination to press.Now, I assume both of these planes, made by different companies, will have different key presses for each event. PMDG might use Shift-Cntl-Q for the "battery" while LDS may use something totally different. My question is does FS2Crew use simulated Co-Pilot "key strokes" to turn switches on and off? And would changing either of these planes' default key presses negatively affect the operation of FS2Crew? Either way, I still look forward to buying such a promising product but it would be really great if I could make my FS life even easier by synchronizing all my aircraft controls to each other so I don't have to remember what each one does.Thank you in advance.Matt

[byork 2,259]

Hi Matt,Level-D 767.... An SDK is available for it so FS2Crew doesn't use any keystrokes to interface with the plane. So no problems there for you.PMDG 747.... PMDG has limited keystroke assignments available for the PMDG 747 (mainly for the MCP panel, EFIS panel, autobrakes, etc). The overhead panel generally is not controllable via keypresses because no key assignments are available for the vast majority of overhead switches.So, regardless of whether you have FS2Crew or not, you cannot control a large chunk of the PMDG 747 switches via keypresses.However, FS2Crew does use some key assignments to control some functions on the PMDG 747, like the MCP, and you would need to use those keypresses.Hope that helps.Best,

[PiperPilot21 0]

So then I would be set with my planned keyboard macros with minimal issue? Great! I honestly don't mind if I do have to open the overhead, as I have to also open the FMC panel, so it's not a big deal, but the majority of things probably could be done via keyboard for max realism. Thanks for the quick reply and I look very much forward to buying and using the voice editions of FS2Crew.