What is Analogue Controls?

[ArchAngelAlien 1]

Okay so I tried to do some research on this before posting and all I can really find is threads of people 'talking' about how it doesn't work well or how they don't like it but I can't find any direct information to exactly 'what it is."

Can anyone explain to me what analogue controls are? From my experiences can I benefit from this? My current controllers I use are:

Head Tracking: TrackIR 5 for head-tracking.

Controller for Driving: Razer Onza Tournament Edition Xbox 360 controller for driving vehicles, it feels a bit better than the mouse and keyboard and offers force feedback.

Thrust-master T-Flight Hotas X flight simulator joystick for helicopters and jets. (Still trying to setup perfectly.)

Keyboard + mouse for on foot infantry operations ect.

So currently from my experiences, I set the 360 controller to a default customization layout they had in the game. It allows all the buttons to be setup without me having to adjust them, but also locks them down so I cannot change them. Honestly this is okay with me as I can drive fine with TrackIr 5 to look around.

The flight simulator stick I use comes with a side thrust hand thing. So I guess you can decrease thrust and increase thrust. I currently just used the increase and decrease thrust and not the analogue controls section as I don't know what they are for.

When I am in a helicopter for example, and my thrust pad is centered, it in fact keeps the heli centered. When I press the thrust up a bit, about 1/4 I begin to climb in altitude very slowly and can center out moving my hand pad back to center. Also if I force the thrust pad all the way forward (4/4) I climb in altitude very quickly and mimicks the Q key.

What is the point of analogue controls and why do I need them?

[dm 9]

Simply:

A key press is a digital control, because its either pressed or not. Theres no middle ground.

A mouse cursor, joystick, xbox controller main trigger and thumbstick are all analog controls, because they have a theoretical infinite number of positions they can be in.

As to the point: driving with just the keyboard is possible, but difficult. You have to constantly tap w/a/s/d to have any form of "smooth" control (because by tapping you apply maximum control input for a short time, meaning it has limited effect). Driving with a wheel/pedals is much easier because it means you can position the throttle where you want it and make minor adjustments to the steering.

[ArchAngelAlien 1]

What settings should I set to my flight simulator joystick? It seems they act as analogue even though they are set to digital keys in the key editor.

[thecoolsideofthepillow 22]

I only use the analogue thrust settings because my joystick has an analogue thrust lever. It's better than just using the non-analogue thrust controls, because when you use the non-analogue ones, your thrust will normalize as long as you are not holding the key, where as if I use analogue thrust and push the thrust lever to max, my thrust in a chopper will stay at the max speed.

[Onjin 1]

I completely understand analog controls, but had no idea I can have a 'console type controller', a joystick for flying and the mouse and key board all hooked up at the same time and can be used on the fly while in game? I am correctly assuming this? I am new to PC gaming. And it is difficult to drive (not impossible, use Q in place of W and steering is a lot easier with A/S) and I can't fly to save my life even in the tutorial.

[doveman 7]

When I am in a helicopter for example, and my thrust pad is centered, it in fact keeps the heli centered. When I press the thrust up a bit, about 1/4 I begin to climb in altitude very slowly and can center out moving my hand pad back to center. Also if I force the thrust pad all the way forward (4/4) I climb in altitude very quickly and mimicks the Q key.

What is the point of analogue controls and why do I need them?

The analogue controls give you much better control over collective BUT it doesn't currently seem possible to get it so that when centered it will maintain current altitude in a hover. I previously achieved this using PPjoy but then a newer beta broke even this so there's no point using PPJoy anymore and adjusting the in-game Throttle sensitivity doesn't help (just changes the speed at which the game responds to throttle movements but doesn't change where the throttle needs to be to maintain current altitude in a hover, which is stuck at somewhere below center).

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?136509-Problem-with-Helicopter-Throttle&p=2180611&viewfull=1#post2180611

Anyway, to use the analogue controls, you need to map both axis of the throttle to Thrust (analogue) (so move the throttle all the way up and down so that it shows T.Flight Hotas X Stick Z+ Axis AND Z- Axis) and make sure you unmap the Throttle from Increase Thrust and Decrease Thrust.