Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
doveman

Problem with Helicopter Throttle

Recommended Posts

I'm using a Thrustmaster Hotas X and find the stick to be fine but the Throttle doesn't work so well with ArmaII to control the choppers.

If I assign it to the Analogue Thrust/Brake, I get lift with the throttle above mid-point, but at mid-point and below it just drops to the ground as if the throttle had been set to 0.

If I assign it to Increase/Decrease Thrust, it's better in that there is some control below mid-point but it still doesn't give me very good control. I have better control using the keyboard keys, which I could map to a couple of buttons on the Hotas X but I would expect the throttle to give me more precise control than tapping buttons. If I monitor it in Xpadder I can see it goes from 0-65535 and whilst it's only possible to adjust it in steps of about 1000, partly due to resistance, that's still about 65 steps which I'd think would be enough to give me a fair degree of control.

I have the following set in the .cfg which are based on tips in another thread somewhere:

sensitivity="High";

joystickSensitivity[]={0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,1,1,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,1,1};

Z-axis is the throttle and is set to 1, with the other axis set to 0.5.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the only way to properly use throttle in ARma is to use GlovePie with PPjoy. make a 4 axis joystick with ppjoy and then in glove pie put this line: PPJoy1.analog2 = (MapRange(-Joystick2.x, -1, 1, 0, 1)) where analog2 is half of the real joystick throttle. In arma map the analog trust to ppjoy. i have a g940 and i put one of the sliders for analog brake but u really don't need it because now the full range of ur throttle is used by arma helicopter. The only difference is the chopper is clibing faster or slower depending of how much brake i use. The probl u had it was that the altitude change of ur choper was read only by the first half of ur thrustmaster. really hard to get used to. The little script in glove pie take half of the thrustmaster trust & map it to full trust for ppjoy's throttle. make sure u put the corect number for ppjoy and for the joystick. PPJoy1 where 1 is my ppjoy and joystick2.x 'becouse G940 cames with three separate devices Joy1, Thrust2, pedals3. Maybe for ur thrust master is just joystick1 but different axis. First i read about this i thought i'll never get it but after a bit of studying everything works just fine; years since used autohover...:) The down side is u need to start the glovepie script every time u want to use this throttle. If u start with a command line "/run <pathToYourScript>.pie /tray /r <pathToArmA>.exe" u can bypass that but i never used it because i'm testing mods all the time

cheers

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, I have to do all that just to make the throttle work! How come BIS can't fix the problem in ArmaII? It's meant to support joysticks after all.

Thanks for the advice though, I'll have a go at that some time.

---------- Post added at 01:29 ---------- Previous post was at 00:31 ----------

Well I've added the "PPJoy Virtual Joystick 1" with 4 axis but on the "Configure mapping for axes" screen it doesn't detect my real joystick axes when I press Scan and move it and if I look at it in Control Panel - Devices and Printers - Game Controllers, moving the joystick doesn't make any of the bars move.

---------- Post added at 01:51 ---------- Previous post was at 01:29 ----------

Ah, I see I misunderstood how this works and I have to run Glovepie to connect my real joystick to PPJoy.

What's working for me is

ppjoy.analog2 = (MapRange(-Joystick1.z, -1, 1, 0, 1))

however, when I monitor in the Windows joystick screen, it shows the PPJoy Z Axis moving but only from mid-point (32767, real throttle all the way back) to maximum (65535, real throttle all the way forward) so surely if I map this to the throttle in ArmaII it will give me even less control than I had before, as the real joystick Z axis moves all the way from 0-65535.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

nope. you did it right. same here. the control it's better. try it.:nerner:

oh..one last thing: don't ever try to calibrate the ppjoy. if done so, reset it back to defaults. i use deadzone to zero,linear curves and for joystick sensitivity set to 0.

Edited by ionica

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I can see the PPjoystick in Arma under Controllers, but when I move my throttle it still just assigns the Thrustmaster Z axis to Thrust/Brake, not the PPjoystick.

When I check in Windows, the PPJoy Joystick no longer responds when I move the Throttle but instead shows response under the HotasX screen, despite still having the same script running in GlovePIE: ppjoy.analog2 = (MapRange(-Joystick1.z, -1, 1, 0, 1))

Where do you set the deadzone to 0, linear curves and joystick sensitivity to 0? I don't see a way to set those in ArmaII.

---------- Post added at 00:34 ---------- Previous post was at 23:38 ----------

Ah, I found this thread http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?108410-A-fix-for-Full-Axis-throttle-mapping&highlight=throttle and it seems because I already have two joysticks, I need to create the PPJoystick with Controller Number 3 and then use PPJoy3.analog2 in the GlovePIE script. This seems to be working OK now. With the PPJoy Z Axis sensitivity set to about 60% in ArmaII, mid-position roughly maintains current altitude in auto-hover and above and below mid-point allow me to ascend/descend at variable rates, so it's much better now thanks.

Wish BIS would just sort it out so we didn't have to go through all this though!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i hope in arma 3 they will use the same system as in TOH where the throttle is just fine.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just found this is supposedly fixed in the beta by mapping both axis of the throttle to thrust but I just tried this and found it still doesn't work as well as using PPJoy/GlovePIE. With the later, by adjusting the sensitivity to about 60% in ArmaII, in Auto-Hover with the throttle at mid-point it maintains altitude and above/below midpoint I can increase/decrease altitude at variable rates. Mapping the throttle in ArmaII directly, at mid-point and even below the helicopter increases altitude when in auto-hover and I don't have the same precision in controlling altitude. I tried adjusting the sensitivity all the way from 60% down to 0% but it doesn't make any difference, unlike with the PPJoystick where it allows me to fine-tune the collective response to achieve "maintain altitude at mid-point".

EDIT: I've posted a ticket about this here: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/35366

Edited by doveman

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Feel free to test build 94912 or higher, some adjustments were made

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I've just tested 95099 and whilst the sensitivity of the Hotas X Z-axis does now have effect, it's still not possible to adjust it so that the mid-point on the throttle maintains altitude. All it seems to do is change the responsiveness of the throttle, so at low sensitivity it takes longer for the collective to change and vice-versa, but the position of the collective in relation to my throttle remains the same regardless, so that somewhere below mid-point is where my throttle needs to be to maintain altitude, which is far trickier than when I use PPJoy and can put the throttle at mid-point to maintain altitude.

I tried 94700 as well (that's what I'm using normally at the moment as I'm not ready for 1.61 yet) and that seems to be the same.

I also found the altitude change circle on the HUD (might only be on the AH64) would vanish. When I first tested in the editor, this circle was visible and would be in the middle of the screen when I was maintaining altitude and would go up or down the HUD if I adjusted the throttle and would soon go above or below the HUD so that it was no longer present, until I adjusted the throttle again when I'd see it go the other way. After that, sometimes I would see this circle off to the side of the HUD but then it disappeared completely and I tried rotating the helo to see if that would bring it back but no luck.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

same deal. the engine starts again only when u go over half throttle. i'll stick to my pie.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is this being looked at? It wouldn't seem particularly hard to make the centre position on the throttle (32767) maintain current altitude in a hover (i.e centered collective) but at the moment this seems to be set at somewhere lower than center (maybe 41869, my throttle is 0 at top and 65535 at bottom) with no way to adjust it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Any more input on this? Currently it's impossible for me to maintain a hover with my throttle as wherever I put it, it's either causing me to lose or gain altitude. I can tap Q or Z on the keyboard and establish a hover that way but I shouldn't need to do that.

I'm also finding it almost impossible to maintain 0 airspeed and am either going back or forward slightly. Auto-Hover does it for me but I think I should be able to achieve it manually but it seems the joystick sensitivity settings may be too coarse to allow me to do so.

In my profile I've got

controller="Default";

sensitivity="High";

Then there's

joystickSensitivity[]={0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,1,1,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,0.5,1,1};

which I'm not sure is even used for anything as there's a specific section for my stick

class Joystick3

{

guid="1862C880-B107-11E1-8001-444553540000";

name="T.Flight Hotas X 2";

offset=768;

isXInput=0;

sensitivity[]={0.75,0.75,1.5,1,1,1,1,1,0.75,0.75,0.75,1,1,1,1,1};

mode="Custom";

};

I tried increasing the throttle/Z sensitivity in-game which didn't help and gave me this:

sensitivity[]={0.75000006,0.75000006,5.1572442,1,1,1,1,1,0.75000006,0.75000006,5.1572442,1,1,1,1,1};

So what should I set these to?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

EDIT: Nevermind, a uninstall/reinstall of PPJoy got it working properly.

---------- Post added at 06:58 ---------- Previous post was at 06:38 ----------

So now that Arma reads the full throttle axis, should the GlovePIE script be adapted?

Edited by doveman

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How can I reverse the throttle with GlovePIE? Currently the actual throttle mapped in Arma works as pull towards me to increase collective, which I like, whilst the GlovePIE one works the opposite way.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

ad *-1 at the end of the line :) it will reverse the data. i just now saw your question. sorry. better late then never.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
ad *-1 at the end of the line :) it will reverse the data. i just now saw your question. sorry. better late then never.

Cool, thanks :)

I haven't used GlovePIE in a while, so I'll have to try it with this and see whether I prefer it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×