Last night I downloaded the hour long AOA cockpit video and watched it this morning. Truely incredible job done inside this a/c and when watching the video made me realise that its even better than what I thought it would be. When the fellow was going thru the FMC menu for the a/c options I noticed the area where you can put your key assignment to control various items, however I wasn't sure if the key assignment menu will also work for assigning joystick or yoke buttons. I know that in the 747 some of the buttons you assign to your joystick in the FSX menu will also control some of the stuff in the 747, but not everything and the use of FSUIPC or Linda is required. So what I am wondering is, will be able to set joystick buttons for functions in the NGX or will we still need to do that using FSUIPC?Currently I think the only airliner I own that will allow you to assign joystick buttons is the LDS767. I do own FSUIPC but admit that I basically only use it for the wind smoothing options and have never really gotten into figuring out how to use it for a/c specific joystick buttom commands. If that ends up being the case for the NGX then I will need to start learning more about setting up joystick buttons in FSUIPC to work various commands in the NGX.This may or may not have been covered aleady and while I have read a staggering amount of posts in this forum about the NGX in the last year or two I dont recall if it was mentioned.Sean Campbell

Sean-The key command functionality will allow you to assign key commands to the simulator.If your hardware's interface kit allows you to assign key commands to your hardware then you should be all set.It is not our intent or our interest to provide access to hardware from within the simulator at the driver level. We will make an SDK available to hardware manufacturers to do this on their own.

Sean-The key command functionality will allow you to assign key commands to the simulator.If your hardware's interface kit allows you to assign key commands to your hardware then you should be all set.It is not our intent or our interest to provide access to hardware from within the simulator at the driver level. We will make an SDK available to hardware manufacturers to do this on their own.

Ok, so if we assign a keyboard key to toggle the auto throttle switch on and off and we assign the the auto throttle switch in FSX to the same key as well as a button on a Saitek X52, then the joystick button should work? I've tried assigning some keys like that for the 747 to map to my X52 but for some reason can never get it to work correctly.I'm guessing since I dont have much experience with hardware interface kits or FSUIPC functionality, that unless a joystick button already works on the NGX, like a button to raise or lowere the landing gear then we will need to do it in FSUIPC or Linda. I better get started learning it now so I will be ready when the time comes. Really all I want to be able to do is assign joystick buttons to toggle the auto throttle switch, toggle the auto pilot on/off, toggle the flight director, raise or lower the landing gear, and activate reverse thrust. That probably shouldn't be too hard to accomplish.Sean Campbell

FSUIPC is a really simple tool to assign joystick buttons as key commands. Just set the keys in pmdg menu and then do the assigning to the joystick buttons through fsuipc. It does not work if you do it from fsx joystick options, as it simply assigns the joystick button to perform the function, instead of making it emulate a key press.

Sean,You'll be able to do what you want either through FSUIPC or through the X52's programming software (probably the easiest thing) for now. The ability to directly assign joystick buttons through the same page as the key commands are in right now is something that was asked about during development but it won't happen until a service pack if we decide to do it. It's not the easiest thing to do, you have have to access the joystick at the Windows input driver level.

Sean,You'll be able to do what you want either through FSUIPC or through the X52's programming software (probably the easiest thing) for now. The ability to directly assign joystick buttons through the same page as the key commands are in right now is something that was asked about during development but it won't happen until a service pack if we decide to do it. It's not the easiest thing to do, you have have to access the joystick at the Windows input driver level.

Will do Ryan. I am going to experiment with FSUIPC on the 747 tonight and try doing some of those assignments I mentioned. It's probably not as hard as it seems, but from some reason FSUIPC and some of the stuff that you can do with it seems to be a daunting task when first getting started. Although assigning buttons thru it surely can't be as complicated as I keep thinking it will be.Sean Campbell

If you find FSUIPC confusing take a look at LINDA which errrm sits on top of FSUIPC :) and makes joystick button assignments even easier still.

If you find FSUIPC confusing take a look at LINDA which errrm sits on top of FSUIPC :) and makes joystick button assignments even easier still.

Well, I am happy to say it wasn't as confusing as I thought it would be. I went into the PMDG keymenu and set 5 keyboard keys AP Disconect, AT ARM, Press CMD L, FD-L, and TO/GA, then opened FSUIPC, and assigned my X52 buttons to match those key presses. Went back into FSX to test it out and it worked like a charm, with a lot less fuss than I expected. Perhaps I was thinking about the confusion with assigning numeric values to calibrate a joystick or throttle?Anways, I am glad to have finally given it a shot and see that it's really easy to use FSUIPC to assign button commands. The only thing that is kind of time consuming is that I selected a/c specific, so now I need to set them for each livery of my 747's. However, I think I may have found a way to cheat that. I opened the FSUIPC.ini file and see the two 747 assignment sections that I just did for two liveries and it looks like I could just copy and past them again and copy the "title" section from each new livery to match them up. Fortunatley I dont use a boat load of liveries for my 747, but the cut and paste method by substituting the "titles" from each livery, if it works, will save me a lot of time.Looks like I will be able to skip Linda for now.Sean Campbell

Read up on profiles rather than using Aircraft Specific settings, it is a far better system especially if you are only just starting out using these features.

Read up on profiles rather than using Aircraft Specific settings, it is a far better system especially if you are only just starting out using these features.

Thanks for the advice, I will crack open the PDF again and check out the profiles section.Sean Campbell

Thanks for the advice, I will crack open the PDF again and check out the profiles section.Sean Campbell

The ini edit you mentioned should work, but there's a way to do that with the FSUIPC GUI. Everytime you setup a new plane (with no profile assigned to it) you can tick the "profile specific" checkbox and a list with all your previously configured and saved profiles will show up. Pick the one you want and you're good to go.That way you can easily assign different A/C to a single profile. The "profile specific" checkbox is in "Buttons & Switches" tab, the "Key Presses" tab and the "Axis assignments" tab. Any of them should do

The ini edit you mentioned should work, but there's a way to do that with the FSUIPC GUI. Everytime you setup a new plane (with no profile assigned to it) you can tick the "profile specific" checkbox and a list with all your previously configured and saved profiles will show up. Pick the one you want and you're good to go.That way you can easily assign different A/C to a single profile. The "profile specific" checkbox is in "Buttons & Switches" tab, the "Key Presses" tab and the "Axis assignments" tab. Any of them should do

Only if you have UseProfiles=Yes in the [general] section of the FSUIPC.ini, its still best to read up more on the subject though to get a better understanding of the process, especially if you have many pre-existing aircraft specific settings, both methods cannot exist side by side.

Only if you have UseProfiles=Yes in the [general] section of the FSUIPC.ini, its still best to read up more on the subject though to get a better understanding of the process, especially if you have many pre-existing aircraft specific settings, both methods cannot exist side by side.

I read the Profiles chapter and set UseProfiles=Yes and deleted the 2 a/c specific settings I had done earlier. Fortunately I hadn't spent much time on it already setting up a bunch of a/c specific, so starting over isn't that big of a deal. Also for the 747 those 5 assignments area the only ones I need to set in FSUIPC since my X52 is already working for flap, parking brake, and spoiler arm control.It looks like the profile way is probably the easiest way to go since I haven't gotten to far into it yet. I'm loading FSX right now and will give the new way a shot before I go to bed.Thanks for the tip Andy.Sean CampbellPOST EDIT: Looks like setting it up the same way in the NGX should be a piece of cake once I set the keyboard keys.

Sean, you could also just set up the keypresses and then bind those keys to your buttons in the X52 profiler - that's what I'm doing with mine. Just load the profile you want before you fly whatever plane.

FSUIPC loads the profile automatically though as it detects which plane you are using, much more convenient than having to remember to activate a profile in SST first.