Can a Joystick, Throttle, and Pedals be Used with CC?

[scrapser 11]

I have a complete CH Products Pro USB series joystick, throttle, and rudder pedals and would like to set them up with CC. Is this possible? To me, flying anything using the mouse is clumsy and unrealistic. It would be great if I could let go of the mouse/keyboard and grab my HOTAS when piloting a Manta or even the Walrus for that matter. I use a HOTAS setup with my Battlezone 1 & 2, EarthSiege 2, StarSiege games (not to mention flight sims) and it really adds to the immersion aspect.

[Appogee 1]

''clumsy and unrealistic''? Ideal setup for a Walrus, then ;-)

[scrapser 11]

I'd say so. Rudder pedals for steering, throttle slider for forward/backward movement, joystick for aiming/looking, and all the buttons, thumb controlled mini-joystick, and hat switches for controls and commands. For the Manta, a true set of flight controls with all those buttons equally available. What more could you want?

I use these controls in Battlezone for the hovertanks and it works great. For games like EarthSiege and StarSiege, I control the hercs twisting at the waist with the joystick left/right, movement with the throttle slider, and rudder pedals for steering. I should add that having voice recognition software can also greatly improve your in-game presence. I have Game Commander 3 for most of my older games on Win98SE and WinXP Pro. For games on Win7 like CC the voice recognition software is available from MicroSoft although I haven't had time to work with it yet.

I guess it depends on how much you like sims and games.

[Appogee 1]

interesting. Which commands do you activate with the voice recognition?

[scrapser 11]

With my other games such as Battlezone or combat flight sims, I use voice to give orders to other units such as wingmen or other tanks. Anything that would be done in real life. I haven't had time to dig in to Carrier Command to see what commands could be set up with voice but I will do it if there are any to be had. It depends on if there are orders you could give to other Walruses or Mantas I suppose. In Battlezone I can put a waypoint on the map and order tanks to go to that location and defend it as an example. In flight sims if I have a squadron under my command I can order my wingman to cover my six as we engage enemy planes or order an entire squadron to attack from above by give the order "Break high". It's pretty cool when you hear them acknowledge your order and then see them all peel off in a steep climb. Another thing that's great about having the full set of controls (joystick, throttle, pedals) is you don't have to take your hands off any of them since the buttons are all right there at your fingertips.

[Appogee 1]

Sounds way cool. When I retire I will be building myself a Mech cockpit simulator.

I hadn't thought about the potential for voice rec though - thanks for the ideas!

[Tradesman 1]

Any answers to the question?

I too am interested.

[species1571 65]

I don't have an answer, but all I can say is that CC is not a simulator, so commands issued to other units are very basic, such as "assist", "dock" etc. so there's no complex orders to give them about exact formations and positions like you describe, so IMO voice commands would have limited usefulness.

How does the voice recognition work, does it just simulate the sequence of keystrokes that would normally be required to carry out an order? If that's how it works, I don't see a reason why it wouldn't work. In fact, it may make it easier for some trickier commands, like if you were controlling manta 2 and you see that manta 3 is taking damage. Instead of switching to 3 and selecting assist or dock, you could just say "3 assist" or "3 dock".

[scrapser 11]

The program I use with my older games is Game Commander (version 3) which is no longer made. You open the program and create a game profile which is a matter of typing in the verbal command you will speak and assigning the corresponding key or keys that you would otherwise be pressing. After you're finished you save the profile as a file. You also associate it with the EXE of the game it will be used with. So when you start the game, the Game Commander profile is loaded and activated automatically. When you shut down the game, the profile is deactivated and Game Commander also shuts down. If your commands are not immediately recognized, you can train the profile to recognize your unique voice by speaking the command three times and the program saves your voiceprint. It was a really great tool...I'm surprised it didn't survive over the years.

I still have "M1 Tank Platoon 2" by the famous military sim developer, MicroProse. In that game I set up commands to give to the other crew members and additional tanks assigned to my unit. So (wearing a microphone) I can say, "Load Sabot" and you hear the main gun being loaded and then the loader reports back, "Sabot Up!".

I guess consoles are not friendly for these types of things and we all know consoles have really had a negative impact on PC game development. Anyone who never experienced the golden age of PC games (mid-80's to early 2000's) would not be able to appreciate what they're missing because they have no way to contrast and compare. So what a lot of people think is really hot today could be seen as mediocre when compared to some of the stuff that used to be mainstream. Granted the graphics and sound have really come far making the older games look primitive but what is overlooked is the "concept" of the game and how you interacted with it, plus all the unique hardware that was developed. There was a time when the various software publishers didn't really know which types of games would be the best sellers, so there was a lot of creativity being expressed. But once consoles got traction and encouraged the "cookie-cutter" approach to game development, the elaborate games dried up and now only a handful of genres are still being made.

But that's life I suppose. Bohemia Interactive is one of the rare companies that seems to still be making games for the sake of the game and not for how much corporate profit they can rake in. There are car companies that make exotic cars that a niche market will buy. I don't understand why something similar couldn't exist for complex and well developed games that require some thinking and planning in addition to all the action. I know for a fact there are people who would pay a lot more money per title for such games if they were out there.

[neojd[ny] 10]

In ArmA i used a free program called Shoot

Link

Maybe after some work it will work great for CC too? :)

[RichardCranium 1]

No. I have a CyborgX joystick that I'd love to use to fly Mantas or drive Walruses. Doesn't work. I even have a Logitech USB game controller that I'd use in place of the joystick. That doesn't work either.

After all, who would expect that the game would support devices from small, unknown companies such as Logitech. :d:

There's a hack posted in one of the other threads where you can supposedly run a program that will make your joystick/not-XBox-game-controller act like an XBox game controller.