Control Drone camera with mouse or joystick?

[Bitflo13]

Hi all.
I am trying to better understand the many controls of the MSFS camera system. In particular for the beautiful Drone camera, I did not find information about a simple question. Apart from keyboard or controller, is it possible to use the mouse or the joystick to control the Drone camera?
I find the keyboard a bit clunky to obtain a fluid and continuous movement, and I would prefer to use the mouse or directly the joystick instead than a further peripheral. Is it possible?

[DizzyBasket7278]

You can slow down the speed of the external camera. Bring up the ingame menu and select the camera icon. There is an adjustment in there, and also via the main options screens.

[Crunchmeister71]

If you have an XBox controller or some other with dual analog sticks, that’s by far your best bet for controlling the drone. Using the mouse or keyboard works, but it’s kind of awkward, depending on your setup.

[CaptainRude91]

I haven’t found an option to use the mouse. I would prefer this as well, mouse for orientation (yaw and pitch) and WSAD keys for translation (forward, aft, left and right) would be more intuitive. Best would be if the translation is according to the current orientation, e.g. when translating forward you are moving towards whatever you are looking at.

[BobbyFuzzy]

You can use the mouse by setting up the yaw and pitch on the x and y axis of your mouse respectively.

Used it like this for a while. Using WASD for translate, Q&E for zoom.

It’s not as smooth as a controller but it works for just quick shots.

@anon50268670

[CaptainRude91]

Should give that a try then, still it would be best if translation is done referring to the current orientation. The free camera in X-plane works this way and it works perfect.

[Bitflo13]

Thanks guys.
After your answers I tried again, and I was able to map the Drone camera controls directly to my joystick. I still have to experiment to find the best solution, but now it is already much better than using only the keyboard. It is much easier to quickly look also at the minute aircraft details (for example for preflight inspections).

[Voyager4871]

Right on spot man !

+1

I’ve been waiting since August for somebody to ask about this - the traditional and most intuitive way of controlling drone-type cameras’ translation with WASD keys, and the rotation with the mouse while holding the right mouse button (or by using the hat-switch)…all of that including the camera translation going towards the point the camera is aimed at.

It is a bit odd that it hasn’t it been implemented, but I might make a small mod for the drone camera the traditional way:

public class FirstPersonCam : MonoBehaviour {

    public float speedH = 2.0f;
    public float speedV = 2.0f;

    private float yaw = 0.0f;
    private float pitch = 0.0f;

    void Update () {
        yaw += speedH * Input.GetAxis("Mouse X");
        pitch -= speedV * Input.GetAxis("Mouse Y");

        transform.eulerAngles = new Vector3(pitch, yaw, 0.0f);
    }
}

Although I have just begun today.
Also, let’s not forget the good old flyby view that’s still nowhere to be found within the MSFS2020 !

It actually exists in the simulator since the beta days, but still not configured to appear in any menu nor anywhere.
For anyone willing to try it out, you can find all default predefined existing camera views in:

…\LocalCache\Packages\Official\OneStore\fs-base\cameras.cfg

Open it with Notepad++ (careful not to change/break anything) and you’ll see the [CameraDefinition.005] is the flyby view - it even has its GUID !
With the SDK in dev mode with some trial and error with the view positioning it is possible to copy that flyby definition to the custom views config file of any plane you enjoy - for example the classic Cessna 172’s custom views are in:

…\LocalCache\SimObjects\Airplanes\Asobo_C172sp_classic\cameras.cfg

if somebody skilled with programming comes along and gets a brilliant 5 minute solution for these, then it would be pretty.

[Bitflo13]

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.
Actually I was a bit surprised noting that there is only little attention to alternative mapping of the powerful Drone Camera, also considering the presence of so many details in aircraft and environment.
I sincerely find cumbersome to add another peripheral, after keyboard, mouse and joystick, just to control the camera.
At present I reached a good situation mapping the various functions to the axes and buttons of joystick, but it would be really interesting if someone will develop a mod to also enable the flyby view.