Touch Portal anyone...?

[tup61 1,565]

I would LOVE to get access to some LVAR controls (I still don't understand why not ALL controls can be assigned in MSFS itself) but I really can't spend the money on a Streamdeck right now. So I was looking at some cheap (or even better: free) alternatives. I have an old Android phone lying around and I thought that maybe I could somehow use it as a cheap man's 'Streamdeck'.

I did a bit of searching and found Touch Portal. It seems to even have a plugin for MSFS. I have no clue though if it is possible to assign LVAR's (and HVAR's...?) to it... Does anyone here have experience with non-Streamdeck solutions? Maybe someone here actually uses Touch Portal? Or perhaps another app? Will it work with LVAR's?

At this moment I am flying the Vision Jet and I would for instance like to assign the checklist knob to a controller. Little things like that to make life a little bit easier. 😉

[qqwertz 782]

You could have a look at the registered version of FSUIPC7.

Peter

[tup61 1,565]

1 hour ago, qqwertzde said:

You could have a look at the registered version of FSUIPC7.

Peter

Okay... I googled FSUIPC and MSFS plus keyboard but it's quite hard to find some useful information that I can actually understand LOL Seems all tutorials are about controllers: I can't find a single tutorial that (simply) explains how to assign a LVAR function (or whatever you call it) to a regular keyboard key. Complicated stuff...

EDIT
Well, okay, I've given up. There isn't a single piece of information about all this that I can actually understand. This is all way over my head. I will keep on clicking stuff in the cockpit with my mouse then.

I really wonder why this all has to be so complicated... You'd think someone would have created a simply utility for this that doesn't require a degree in mathematics or whatever. 😦

Edited June 5, 2023 by tup61

[c912039 112]

Apparently Elgato (who make StreamDeck equipment) will be releasing a new update for the software based StreamDeck iPhone/iPad software at the end of this month.

This means that you would be able to set up a 64 button software based Streamdeck on your ipad, instead of having to buy the hardware based Streamdeck units.
And with the June release they will also be selling a lifetime license for this software, as a different option to the existing monthly subscription pricing.

Given that there are many prebuild Streamdeck profiles on flightsim.to, the iPhone/iPad software version of Streamdeck hardware might be something to look at.

NOTE: The streamdeck aircraft profiles on flightsim.to will require some sort of additional plugin (like AxisAndOohs) but at least with this combination, someone will have done the hard yards detecting all the lVars and designing the button interface for SD for you.

[Paladin2005 440]

If this would help to get some Fenix Airbus autopilot controls on my Ipad at least (instead of my Honeycomb), it would be worth a look.

Hat that virtual cockpit button handling with the mouse.

[qqwertz 782]

4 hours ago, tup61 said:

Okay... I googled FSUIPC and MSFS plus keyboard but it's quite hard to find some useful information that I can actually understand LOL Seems all tutorials are about controllers: I can't find a single tutorial that (simply) explains how to assign a LVAR function (or whatever you call it) to a regular keyboard key. Complicated stuff...

EDIT
Well, okay, I've given up. There isn't a single piece of information about all this that I can actually understand. This is all way over my head. I will keep on clicking stuff in the cockpit with my mouse then.

I really wonder why this all has to be so complicated... You'd think someone would have created a simply utility for this that doesn't require a degree in mathematics or whatever. 😦

You can download the FSUIPC user guide at

https://forum.simflight.com/topic/66137-documentation/

The stuff about Lvars is in the Advanced user guide. And yes, you are correct: it is not straightforward to assign Lvars. The reason why this is so complicated is that airplane models include hundreds, if not thousands, of variables to describe all kind of behaviour. For instance, if you change the course in the autopilot, you would need a variable for the course change button, for the the associated change in the display of the autopilot, to the change in trim axis, to the change in the actual flight behaviour. Furthermore, each developer generates custom code for their systems, which adds many more Lvars. Creating a program that can assign any Lvars to any controller needs to be very general, and that makes it hard to work with it, unfortunately.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

4 hours ago, tup61 said:

I can't find a single tutorial that (simply) explains how to assign a LVAR function (or whatever you call it) to a regular keyboard key. Complicated stuff...

FSUIPC does allow you to do this.  Unfortunately, the documentation is indeed hard to work your way through..

[orchestra_nl 931]

If you are planning to buy a streamdeck in the future AxisandOhs might be a better option than FSUIPC since most StreamDeck profiles use AxisandOhs.
In the meantime you can probably use it to assign keyboard shortcuts to LVAR's instead.

We all would benefit of standardisation in the case of LVAR's but that is up to Asobo I think. The very least developers can do is to provide a list of all the Lvars and their function with their products.

[tup61 1,565]

1 minute ago, orchestra_nl said:

In the meantime you can probably use it to assign keyboard shortcuts to LVAR's instead.

I am trying to find a tutorial that explains (in simple terms) how to do this. The manual of AAO is way too complicated.

1. the manual of (in my case) the Vision Jet has a list with non standard bindings
2. I'd like to assign regular keyboard keys to a few of them
3. sounds like a simple thing to do but after a few days of trying to find clear information about it (and watching video's about SPADnext, FSUIPC and AAO) I still don't know how to do something what apparently is (or should be) extremely easy

You'd think the above could be explained with one or two sentences or a video of 2 minutes but apparently they decided to make it complicated for some odd reason. Or perhaps it's just me since everybody else seems to get it LOL

[Adrian123 1,015]

1 hour ago, tup61 said:

(or should be) extremely easy

It is not and unlikely ever will be. Takes patience and time.

[tup61 1,565]

29 minutes ago, Adrian123 said:

It is not and unlikely ever will be. Takes patience and time.

Well, bummer. 😉