Hardware, often, doesn't help. I have a bunch of unused switches and buttons because the programming of the buttons can be daunting.

 

I go back and forth on this, but I've pretty much convinced myself that another panel is my next hardware purchase, and then a dive into LUA and LINDA. For me, it's mostly about converting the most common tasks to physical touching rather than mouse and click. I have some things handled (flaps, pitch trim, AP functions, OBS, gear - though I'd like physical indicator lights for planes where the lights aren't very visible -, landing and taxi lights, and cowl flaps) but need to add things like fuel pumps, de-ice switches (pitot and so-on), master and avionics master switches, mags, radios...

 

I hate popups, and I hate mouse click and mouse wheel spinning. The more I can eliminate those things, the happier I am. All it takes is money and time <sigh>. :-)

 

Scott

I go back and forth on this, but I've pretty much convinced myself that another panel is my next hardware purchase, and then a dive into LUA and LINDA. For me, it's mostly about converting the most common tasks to physical touching rather than mouse and click. I have some things handled (flaps, pitch trim, AP functions, OBS, gear - though I'd like physical indicator lights for planes where the lights aren't very visible -, landing and taxi lights, and cowl flaps) but need to add things like fuel pumps, de-ice switches (pitot and so-on), master and avionics master switches, mags, radios...

 

I hate popups, and I hate mouse click and mouse wheel spinning. The more I can eliminate those things, the happier I am. All it takes is money and time <sigh>. :-)

 

Scott

 

Fully agreed! I have unused buttons/switches all over the place. (I have the VRInsight MCP/EFIS/COM panel and more switches on my yoke and quadrant.) The reason is this. It appears that some developers are doing their animation at the click event rather than capturing the FSX event. This appears more common than I had imagined since I've found it on two very excellent aircraft by two different developers. I used FSUIPC to capture the event that was sent when I clicked on a switch. I then mapped that exact same event in FSUIPC, parameter and all to a switch. I tried it and the aircraft responded but the switch did not move. Hmmm. Tried it in Linda...same thing. This is a bit of a guess but this is what I think is what's happening in the aircraft software.

 

1. FSX receives click.

2. It figures out that that click happened on a switch and calls a function:

 

function YourSwitchWasClicked_event()

{

Software does animation and then fires the FSX_FUEL_PUMP1_Set(9);

}

 

3. Instead of writing software to handle the FSX_FUEL_PUMP1_Set(9) event and do animation, the software ignores the event (it already did the animation) and lets FSX handle it...FSX internally sets the pump switch.

 

This doesn't work for hardware. If you fire the FSX_FUEL_PUMP1_Set(9) event it bypasses step 2 and goes straight to step 3...FSX does the fuel pump thing (turning them off or on) but the switch hasn't moved and it won't move because that's handled in step 2. So, from that moment on you can't tell by looking at the switch what state it's in. It looks up...but it may be down. This may have been done because it was a fast way to get the software to market, because it was more efficient or some other reason. Bottom line...it would be very hard to make hardware work on aircraft that work like that.

 

I think this may be the common way to handle 3-position switch events. This is all pseudocode and I'm not sure if you follow it (I write software) but it was my suspicion last night...no way to confirm it without a developer chiming in. If correct, it's kinda sad because it means that hardware, FSUIPC and Linda for these events are useless unless it can figure out how to force a call to the

YourSwitchWasClicked_event() handler (might be possible but how?). Other events are handled properly...flaps, throttles, mixtures, gear...cowl flaps sometimes.

 

I have seen one developer say that they changed their aircraft to make it work better with hardware and I suspect they changed the place that they did their animation from the switch click handling to the actual FSX event handling and I think it was after that that Linda came out with a module for it.

In any case, if anyone can give insight into this it would be HUGELY appreciated.

 

TLDR: Because of how developers are writing their aircraft, a new hardware panel may not solve the problem.

 

Gregg

I go back and forth on this, but I've pretty much convinced myself that another panel is my next hardware purchase, and then a dive into LUA and LINDA. For me, it's mostly about converting the most common tasks to physical touching rather than mouse and click.

Scott

 

That would be the idea.... tactile feedback is king. Just the other day I was writing about wanting a GNS530W unit I could use to input flight plans and manipulate the frequencies. I don't want to part with $700 to do it though...

 

There are always going to be limitations to a PC desktop computer :P

 

Personally I think Gregg should try out TIR a little more.... be sure to download the profile called 'Seth - Flight' it's over at the naturalpoint forums...

Seth - Flight

 

I'll look it up.

It'll make a big difference in the default profile. I almost gave up on TIR after using it for an entire week with default profile.

That would be the idea.... tactile feedback is king. Just the other day I was writing about wanting a GNS530W unit I could use to input flight plans and manipulate the frequencies. I don't want to part with $700 to do it though...

 

It's amazing to me how expensive these things are, too. For $700 it should include a correctly scaled LCD to display the unit...

Personally I think Gregg should try out TIR a little more.... be sure to download the profile called 'Seth - Flight' it's over at the naturalpoint forums...

 

Well...I tried it. It's better than the old profiles. While in cruise it was fine but when it came to the pattern I was disoriented...almost dizzy. Still, I'll keep trying it as a possible solution while I try other things.

Gregg, just out of curiosity, have you tried creating a dedicated view for these steps on another monitor?

 

I see you have 3, you should have room for a pop-up window or two.

 

That way, your main view can remain about the same and you could just glance over as needed.

 

That said, I'm not exactly sure how to create/save these views. I use FS Panel Studio and I think that would work but it would be 2D.

Gregg, just out of curiosity, have you tried creating a dedicated view for these steps on another monitor?

 

The only thing I've done is popped up the throttle quadrant (2D) that has the fuel selectors. On some aircraft that works straight away. (Others...not so much but I'm just focusing on simplifying the C310 at the moment so it's not a big deal since I tend to stay on aircraft for a while.) Then I assign an EZDoc view that is zoomed out so I can see the rest. Can you create mini 2D panels in FS Panel Studio to display on top of the VC? How do you activate them if they do?

 

Gregg

Hi,

 

You can create panels of any size, and I do think they stay on top of the VC, but not sure as I don't have it here with me. I am not sure how to assign them (assuming you want a button or keyboard press to activate).

 

Here's a link to the manual, though!

Still working with TrackIR this morning....I used EZDOC to add *tons* of smoothness to the movement (my stomach made me...LOL). It seems to have helped quite a bit. Right now I can say that I've lost the 'feeling' of the aircraft but maybe I'll get it back with some work.

 

I have to ask...how much does the Pro Clip help? I just have the standard hat thing and it seems to lose where it is from time to time.

Gregg, just out of curiosity, have you tried creating a dedicated view for these steps on another monitor?

 

I see you have 3, you should have room for a pop-up window or two.

 

That way, your main view can remain about the same and you could just glance over as needed.

 

That said, I'm not exactly sure how to create/save these views. I use FS Panel Studio and I think that would work but it would be 2D.

 

Also have seperate screen for all that I need to check. This work a treat without having to spend ample time in VC finding fiddling around things and try to check with controls and mouse and and and....