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Flaps


alehead

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As I said, I am probably blind. That is certainly the last place I would look for such a button, particularly when the Flaps Up button is clearly marked on the centre console at the bottom... Russian "technology"? Who knows.

 

However, I do have an issue with the use of this button. Trying to fly this and operate that mouse click spot is nigh on impossible. Its function differs from the incremental flap operation via keyboard (F5-F8), though. If I map Flaps Incr and Flaps Decr to a respective joystick button or switch pair, I can only move the flaps do detent positions, of which there are 9 in total. Using the buttons in the VC though, I can set the flaps to whatever angle I want throughout the range of their use...

 

Confusing...

 

This leads me to a general problem that I cannot map carb heat to a lever, I cannot easily map the trim switches either...

 

This addon is proving to be hardware unfriendly...

 

A

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Is it correct to assume that by "own routines" you mean OctopusG and not me? I use FSUIPC, as many others do, to allow me to set up aircraft-specific controller profiles for the hardware I use.

 

I can update that mapping the trim switches works well, even the animations remain intact. The 4-way switches on the Warthog stick make great trimming switches and are easily controlled via FSUIPC.

 

What I cannot do is:

1: Make the flap system work as the VC clickspot buttons work

2: Assign any control to the Carb heat lever to make it work without having to drag the lever

3: Assign any button to the engine cowl flap or oil cooler flap, given that they are electrical systems

4: Assign buttons to control the magnetos. I don't understand the magneto switching order either, as I am not seeing "both" in the logging messages, just magneto1_off, magneto1_left and magneto_right (twice). Perhaps someone else can explain that :)

 

The flap system is not a major issue really I suppose, as the increments suffice. The carb heat lever is a bit of a problem for me, as I would like it to work as a lever. All I see in FSUIPC logging is ANTI_ICE_TOGGLE, but it confuses me as to exactly how the control is working. The engine cowl and oil cooler flaps are really a problem for me, as it is a slow system and hand flying this aircraft while trying to maintain a clickspot is proving difficult.

 

I can and do understand your point Mathijs. For me, though, when "realistic" departs from "usable", I personally begin to question the tactic.

 

It would be nice if anyone may be able to explain if there is any way I can map this to my hardware, which really isn't uncommon (I use a Warthog HOTAS), okay it is not the cheapest, but it is not a custom-made cockpit solution costing thousands.

 

Andrew

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Andrew, as Mathijs has already mentioned, there is a difficulty to find the best compromise. I understand your point to use hardware levers and knobs, and I do the same.

FS does not know continuous movements based on single button or key activity for flaps, cowling flaps or carb heat. An oilcooler flaps is unknown at all..

So as a developer you have two choices. You use steps, which may be unrealistic for a specific aircraft or program it without standard commands so that at least as activated by mouse in the VC work as they should and still have the available FS commands active for hardware input.

So I live with steps on the flaps as they are fine enough to catch typical settings. And the cowling is a short change of view to the right and keep you hands on the control stick in a firm position. Oil cooler is mostly moved while still on ground and adjusted to ambient temperature and normal ops.

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4 hours ago, alehead said:

I can and do understand your point Mathijs. For me, though, when "realistic" departs from "usable", I personally begin to question the tactic.

 

Sure I can see that. But that means simplifying aircraft functionality to what the default aircraft have. They will still look great, but a lot will simply not be realistic. Certainly in an An-2 with so many systems that the sim simply does not know about it means a add-on that is on the border of being ridiculous. These are not limitations of this product, but of the simulator.  It's been like that since FS2002, it's been like that for every aircraft that uses non default functions to make things more realistic.

 

Just to be clear, we will never do simplified products to make sure they only use default FS functions so all hardware will function. I am sorry of that not matches your preferences of putting it all on hardware controls. As always we are unable to make add-ons that will suit all users though we surely try. You however want the impossible, you want a realistic An-2 that works out of the box (or with minimal tweaks) with hardware designed for default sim functions.

 

What we can do is give the Lvars used so somebody can write specific interfacing drivers. For bigger products like our CRJ and Airbus that is often done by the people who make complex hardware. You can then assign flaps to an axis to set it in very small increments (or 1%) something you can never do with a switch.

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Just to let you guys know, the flaps controls can be easily done via Lvars, and then they mimic the real operation exactly. Oil radiator and cowl flaps are harder, but I managed to put something together via bit of lua scripting. While I am not entirely happy with thew results, I will settle with "good enough" for now. If somebody is interested in my findings (and maybe willing to build upon them and work out something better), let me know here and I will gladly share of course.

 

The magnetos and carb heat lever, on the other hand, proved to be too hard nut to crack for me. Despite my best efforts, I can't make these work. Well, at least I have the (in my opinion) most vital controls covered.

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