Setting up input devices for twin engines

[Guest Chris13]

Hi all,I have never bothered to map all axes to input devices because I don't have that many anyway. However, the manual explicitly says that one can control the engines of multiengined aircraft together or individually using a single throttle axis (page 11). When looking at the axis mapping utility I find it asking a separate axis for each engine. I can get away mapping "throttle" to my throttle axis which takes care of all engines simultaneousy, but how do I then restrict this axis in-game to say engine 2 only? Or am I getting something wrong here?ThanksChris13

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Chris,This one is not too hard.Go to options/keys and buttons/aircraft and map engine focus next to your preferrence. I have it mapped to alt+E . Just make sure that you dont use a key selection that is already spoken for. Remember that add ons also may use key mapping.Now every time I press alt+E engines focus ( on 707 say )cycles through Engine 1Engine 2 DISPLAYED IN LOWER LEFT OF SCREENEngine 3Engine 4All EnginesThe throttle slider only affects the engine(s) in focus. The engines not in focus retain their setting at the time you take them out of focus and stay at that value until they are brought back into focus where the will then assume the setting of the throttle postion.with the B707 the default is All Engines in focus so push the throttle forward and all engines increase power. Once you have started the take off roll press alt+E until Engine 1 is in focus (displayed in the lower left corner of screen).Just after reaching V1 pull back the throtlle. ONLY engine 1 will come back to idle power. The other three engines will stay at take off power. Be quick to catch the swing as the aircraft will yaw something severe. :-)Now you can continue to climb out on three engines.To bring all engines back in focus press alt+E and cycle engine focus to All Engines.BUT... make sure you push throttle forward before you do or you will bring 2,3 and 4 engines back to idle with embarrassing results.Hope this helps.Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Guest Chris13]

Roger, thanks a lot. I am using a localized version of Fly2 and it never occured to me that "cycle through engines" could possibly be translated this way. To make things even harder, they abbreviated it :(But it works now and this is what counts, doesn't it? It is not perfect though. 1) I would prefer to be able to focus on a particular engine directly rather than cycling through all of them, preferably by pressing and holding a button for a particular engine. 2) The rest of the axes should be locked and stay locked regardless of changes in focus. As it is now I can reduce thrust for, say, engine 1 with the rest of them remaining at full thrust. But as soon as I change focus again things become illogical. By simply focussing on say all engines again they either all jump to full thrust again (including engine 1 that I just silenced) or they all fall asleep. Neither outcome is what I really want. There should be a way to change focus without setting its thrust to the position of the throttle at the same time. Or am I missing something here? Again? :)Thanks anyway!Chris

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

G'day Chris, >2) The rest of the axes should be locked and stay locked>regardless of changes in focus. >As it is now I can reduce thrust for, say, engine 1 with the>rest of them remaining at full thrust. But as soon as I change>focus again things become illogical. By simply focussing on>say all engines again they either all jump to full thrust>again (including engine 1 that I just silenced) or they all>fall asleep. Neither outcome is what I really want. There>should be a way to change focus without setting its thrust to>the position of the throttle. >Or am I missing something here? Again? :)I don't quite follow you here Chris? When you focus on All Engines again they should ( logically ) all jump to the current position of the throttle slider. You didn't SILENCE #1 engine but merely dragged it back to IDLE. If you really want to shut down #1 engine then swith off the fuel to that engine ( just as you would in real life ). Then if you go back to All Engines focus you will find that you are flying on 3 engines only. To help eliminate unwanted focus changes as you cycle through engine focus you can also map "Engine focus previous" which allows you to cycle forwards or backwards through engine focus.Yes it is a bit cumbersome on 4 engine aircraft but using engine focus to control individual engines with only the single throttle slider does work. On twins it is much easier and is brilliant for doing tight turns just as you start to taxi. Cheers,Roger @YSSY

[Guest Chris13]

Ah, serves me right not being a native speaker :)You are right, of course, I meant dragging engine 1 to idle (not switch it off completely) while leaving the other three on full power. Now imagine I want to change power settings for the remaining engines 2-4 .What happens when I put the focus back to ALL depends on the position I set the throttle to before:a) leave it on idle: All engines (including #1) will be at full power:( leave it on idle: All engines will jump to idleMaybe it is unrealistic to change powersettings on all engines but one without switching this one off completely, but I would imagine that there are situations in which this would make sense. Never having flown anything bigger than a Cessna I can only speculate, however. I agree that this would be nice to have but I can certainly live with as it is now.Thanks for your helpChrisPS: I just realize that the proper title for this thread should have been "multiengine".

[Roger Mazengarb 0]

>Ah, serves me right not being a native speaker :)>You are right, of course, I meant dragging engine 1 to idle>(not switch it off completely) while leaving the other three>on full power. >>Now imagine I want to change power settings for the remaining>engines 2-4 .Aha! Now I think we are on the same wavelength. :-)Yes you can now alter the power settings of the engines 2,3,4 BUT.. NOT SIMULTANEOUSLY. you must set each engine individually. Keep you pretty busy in the cockpit selecting the engine focus and moving the throttle. But it can be done, but extremely cumbersome. In reality the flight engineer would just nudge the throttles individually to equalise power differences due to rigging/engine condition idiosynchosies, but fortunately TRI has given us identical engines so no individual trimming of the throttles is required.Thank heaven for twins :-)Enjoy your simming.Cheers,Roger @YSSY