Best set up for flightstick controls for Aircraft.

[nettrucker 142]

Hi there

I'm having troubles with setting up controls for aircraft for my thrustmaster joystick. I'm having a hard time to fly with mouse and keyboard in Arma II.

Would some of you experienced "flyboys" :D be so kind and post an example of his mapping controls.

Thanks in advance

kind regards

[Ike_fin 0]

I have a X52 pro but Armas flight model is no good for joystick so i just use mouse,keyboard+trackir and its much more accurate flying than with joystick. The analog throttle control is horrible.

I heard that gamepad like 360 controller works pretty well though.

[paragraphic l 2]

I love flying with the 360 controller! But don't use the default settings.

I believe you should just go flying and change buttons untill you're happy with every button. The x360 controller has 16 buttons in total to set and two analog sticks so I have lot's of stuff I can do with the controller besides flying.

If you don't have buttons to fire and to use the action menu, set thrust, flaps, look around you're going to have a hard time flying around I guess.

[Hud Dorph 22]

Arma works just fine with a joystick which imho is the only right way to fly.

increase trust z- axis

decrease trust z+ axis

bank left x- axis

bank right x+ axis

left pedal z- rotate

right pedal z+ rotate

nose down y- axis

nose up y+ axis

then configure buttons for ur needs eg wheels up/down - next target - flaps up/down -trust increase/decrease - toggle weapons.

I find this config to work well for both planes/choppers.

(i dont use left turn - right turn - trust analogue - brake analogue in the config)

Edited May 15, 2010 by [HUD]Dorph

[nettrucker 142]

Hi there

thanks for all your replies. I 'm trying to get a hang on it. I was always more an Infantry guy rather than a flyboy.LOL:D

Thanks for the headup Dorph and your instructions helped me very much, but I still gotta practise.

Kind regards

[Evil_Echo 11]

Agree with Dorph - disable the turn settings so you can use the rudder independantly. I like the analog throttle settings for fine-tuning my engine speed, much easier to hover or refuel that way.

Then comes the fun, using the other buttons on the stick for other flight functions. I use CH Products, so have multiple hat switches on mine. One group for gear/flap management, one for weapons selection, one for autopilot functions, ....

You might want to make a cheatsheet until you get used to it, but a good mapping of buttons does help you a lot. No more worrying about hitting "eject" while fumbling to raise the gear. :D

[Tankbuster 1740]

a good mapping of buttons does help you a lot. No more worrying about hitting "eject" while fumbling to raise the gear. :D

Amen to that. on the keyboard, I bound eject to double tap e; prevents accidental punch outs. On the joystick, it's on a button that's quite stiff and well away from others on the stick.

[alef 0]

I'm using PPJoy and Autohotkey plus thils library to glue them together. Then, an .ahk script like this:

#NoEnv
#Persistent
#SingleInstance force

SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%

hModule :=  DllCall("LoadLibrary", "str", "PPJoy.dll")
Result := DllCall("PPJoy\Initialize")
stick := 2 ; X, Y, Z=throttle
SetTimer, onTimer, 40
return

onTimer:
GetKeyState, MainTh, %stick%JoyZ
MainTh := 100.0 - MainTh/2.0 
DllCall("PPJoy\SetAxisPercent", "char", 2, "char", MainTh)
DllCall("PPJoy\Update")
return

stick := 2 must match you joystick number, JoyZ is the throttle axis, 40 are the milliseconds between each update, and SetAxisPercent 2 is the PPJoy axis ArmA2 will use as analogue throttle.

This will overcome the arma2 limitation where you can't use full axis in-game (DH feature request).

Edited May 19, 2010 by alef
code

[Cyborg11 10]

Thanks for the script, alef! :)

And this script only overwrites the Z axis right?

So I can map the other buttons on my X52 with the Saitek SSD software?

[-=seany=- 5]

I have some serious issues with controls recently now that I am flying on a regular basis.

Firstly is the way the game activates single key presses every time a double key press is pushed eg: Toggle landing gear is set to "Right Control + G". But GPS is also set to "G", so when I press "Right Control + G" it toggles my landing gear and shows the GPS.... pretty stupid. And as you can imagine very frustrating depending on what keys it presses. Another example of this: By default "A" is set to move left on ground, air and on foot, fair enough. I wanted Toggle Auto Hover to be "Right Control +A", but when ever I press the button that activated that on my stick it banks the helo left, because "A" is part of the key combo....annoying. "CTRL+A" Keypress Should Not Activate "A" keypress, it should be treated as a separate command....

There are others too, like some times CTD when changing mapping in game. Crash relates to Directinput.dll.

Another very irritating one: If your in a hover in a chopper and use Chat, Player list view, map etc your throttle is cut and you plummet to the ground unless your quick.. I mean seriously.... these are 101 bugs that should have been eradicated long, long ago.

And another: There is an option in controls called toggle zoom ( which I have set to double tap num- or num+). However for some reason these controls only work on foot, where they are least useful... not in any vehicle, ground or air...why??

Do any of these bugs make anyone else's hair fall out? :banghead:

They are so basic why have they not been fixed?

I swear every time you try some thing new in this game you have to first learn to live with a myriad of quirks.

Edited May 16, 2010 by -=seany=-

[Evil_Echo 11]

A bunch of those issues are the same problem, seany. That being a feature taking total focus of all events and not passing though stuff properly. Could be the mod you are using - at least one of them had issues with keycode passthrough, etc.

[alef 0]

Another very irritating one: If your in a hover in a chopper and use Chat, Player list view, map etc your throttle is cut and you plummet to the ground unless your quick.. I mean seriously.... these are 101 bugs that should have been eradicated long, long ago.

This sound the same as http://dev-heaven.net/issues/10579. Vote for it. A workaround is to use Q/Z keys to enable the hold altitude before.

And another: There is an option in controls called toggle zoom ( which I have set to double tap num- or num+). However for some reason these controls only work on foot, where they are least useful... not in any vehicle, ground or air...why??

I had a GlovePIE script in arma1 to overcome this: simply a toggle that keep pressed num-/+ triggered by joystick buttons.

By the way, I'm converting those old scripts to Autohotkey. I hope to have time to fihish them and release for public, probably after OA. An extract, a couple of posts ago.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

I have a X52 pro but Armas flight model is no good for joystick so i just use mouse,keyboard+trackir and its much more accurate flying than with joystick. The analog throttle control is horrible.

I heard that gamepad like 360 controller works pretty well though.

With a lot of practice I can now use my X-52 in a manner better than any mouse/keyboard user I've yet met.

One absolutely critical tip I will give is that you do not have both Left/Right Turn and Left/Right Rudder assigned to the same keys.

[-=seany=- 5]

Echo- all of these bugs happen without any mods being used.

Alef- cheers, yeah I searched dev heaven and voted up any that looked related.

I really hope they can get it sorted soon, in the next patch. I''ll be unimpressed if these bugs are carried over to OA.

[Evil_Echo 11]

Hope it gets fixed as well.

[andersson 285]

Agree with Dorph - disable the turn settings so you can use the rudder independantly. I like the analog throttle settings for fine-tuning my engine speed, much easier to hover or refuel that way.

Then comes the fun, using the other buttons on the stick for other flight functions. I use CH Products, so have multiple hat switches on mine. One group for gear/flap management, one for weapons selection, one for autopilot functions, ....

You might want to make a cheatsheet until you get used to it, but a good mapping of buttons does help you a lot. No more worrying about hitting "eject" while fumbling to raise the gear. :D

Have the full CH hotas myself, love it! A tip for you is to change the throttle axis for plane and helicopter. Right now I have mode 1 for plane and mode 2 for helicopter.

[armapaddy 10]

I have some serious issues with controls recently now that I am flying on a regular basis.

Firstly is the way the game activates single key presses every time a double key press is pushed eg: Toggle landing gear is set to "Right Control + G". But GPS is also set to "G", so when I press "Right Control + G" it toggles my landing gear and shows the GPS.... pretty stupid. And as you can imagine very frustrating depending on what keys it presses. Another example of this: By default "A" is set to move left on ground, air and on foot, fair enough. I wanted Toggle Auto Hover to be "Right Control +A", but when ever I press the button that activated that on my stick it banks the helo left, because "A" is part of the key combo....annoying. "CTRL+A" Keypress Should Not Activate "A" keypress, it should be treated as a separate command....

There are others too, like some times CTD when changing mapping in game. Crash relates to Directinput.dll.

Another very irritating one: If your in a hover in a chopper and use Chat, Player list view, map etc your throttle is cut and you plummet to the ground unless your quick.. I mean seriously.... these are 101 bugs that should have been eradicated long, long ago.

And another: There is an option in controls called toggle zoom ( which I have set to double tap num- or num+). However for some reason these controls only work on foot, where they are least useful... not in any vehicle, ground or air...why??

Do any of these bugs make anyone else's hair fall out? :banghead:

They are so basic why have they not been fixed?

I swear every time you try some thing new in this game you have to first learn to live with a myriad of quirks.

Are you using the saitek programming software? because I don't get any of these problems. I find it's much easier to map the x52 buttons directly in arma II and I have no issues (there are more than enough buttons on the x52 for flight in arma).

When using the keyboard I also do not have these issues i.e. the gps coming up when I try to toggle gear.

As for the toggle zoom, I don't use it - but the other 'hold to zoom' button is mapped to the pinkie switch on my x52p and it works fine in most aircraft.

[alef 0]

I've released the complete script I'm using for overcoming joystick issues.

You can download it at dev-heaven, it's named A2Joy.ahk.

You can test it with the inputAction.Chernarus.pbo single-player mission you found there. The mission will show the inputAction values for some controls, and your vehicle vertical speed. You don't need to enter a vehicle to show the inputAction values.

The steps to have this working are:

• Install Autohotkey
  
• Install PPJoy (32bit)
  If you run 64bit, you need to run in "test" mode because the author doesn't pay $500/year to sign his drivers
  
• Install PPJoy.dll for Autohotkey
  
• Create a virtual joystick with PPJoy with many axes and buttons are allowed
  
• Edit A2Joy.ahk to reflect you setup
  This AH script shuold help you find the numbers
  
• Double-click A2Joy.ahk to run it
  

ArmA2 should show in its controller list your "PPJoy Virtual joystick 1".

To assign the new throttle and zoom buttons:

• Disable the physical joystick
  
• Assign the analogue throttle or buttons
  
• Enable the physical joystick
  

These steps are needed otherwise ArmA2 will receive two inputs.

The main feature of the script is that for analogue throttle it use the full range as input and map it to half of one of the virtual joystick. This half axis needs to be assigned as analogue throttle thrust.

Remember to use another axis or button to assign the airbrakes. I use my rudder pedal brakes for that. They don't need to go through the script.

By default, buttons 10 and 11 are mapped to zoom in or out. The difference is that they are kept pressed on the virtual joystick so you need to press only once to activate and deactivate. You need to assign them to the zoom-in and out actions that are by default assigned to numpad - and +.

I'm running XP 32bit and works here. Never tested on a 64bit system.

Enjoy,

alef

Edited August 27, 2011 by alef
New version available. Ability to lock zoom.

[Cyborg11 10]

If you have Windows 7 64 Bit you need to run Windows 7 in test mode to install unsigned drivers and you have to disable UAC to install PPJoy correctly.

Best way to achieve this is to use Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider. Enable the test mode with this tool, deactivate UAC, restart your computer and install PPJoy.

[KeyCat 131]

Another very irritating one: If your in a hover in a chopper and use Chat, Player list view, map etc your throttle is cut and you plummet to the ground unless your quick.

I have noticed that one and had quite a few "chat crashes" due to this and learned the hard way to only chat while firm on ground ;)

Would be much nicer if the joystick input was still valid also while chatting etc.

/KC

[wolfbite 8]

To be honest Ive never had a problem with the gps coming up when I press the landing gear button or other ctrl+any key setups unless I miss ctrl....