With the addition of PS5 DualSense controls, “Relative Axis Use” keybinds have now been added for some control surfaces. This takes the input of an axis and “moves” that control surface relative to the amount of input provided and does not necessarily concern itself with the position of that axis when that movement begins.
Compare that to “Absolute Axis” which is what’s currently available for control surfaces like Elevator Trim, which reads the absolute value of the control device and applies that to the control surface in the sim. This issue has plagued simmers with axis-style trim control wheels such as what’s available on the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Flight.
If a “Relative Axis” binding were available for elevator trim, this issue would be resolved instantly, as the movement of the trim wheel would only provide positive or negative input to the simulator rather than a specific position of the wheel.
I owned a V1F yoke and throttle quadrant. Sold it mostly due to desk space issues and setup / tear down hassle.
I lived the pain of the “absolute” behavior of the trim wheel, so I know exactly of what you speak. You would often come out of AP where the trim would have been adjusted, and then as soon as you touched the wheel it would snap back to match the wheel’s position.
However (devil’s advocate here), any trim wheel that has a physical stop couldn’t properly use a relative axis. You could, in some cases, not have enough movement before you hit the stop. My memory is about 60% sure that the V1F trim wheel had a stop on both ends, so you would hit this issue.
Certainly, if you had an infinitely scrollable hardware control, yes, I think a relative trim axis would be fantastic.
Agreed, and that’s why I think giving both options (absolute and relative) would be of value. The V1F wheel is infinite, so “relative” would be ideal. For those with a finite amount of travel, “absolute” would be necessary despite it’s drawback - at least it is still usable in most circumstances.
When Turtle Beach VelocityOne FlightStick trim wheel is setup as “Analog axis”, then you are right, the binding would be “joystick slider X”, what leads to the described pain above . But on Turtle Beach VelocityOne FlightStick itself, you can setup the trim wheel as “Digital Buttons”, and then in FS2024 and FS2020 the bindings for the trim wheel show as “Digital Buttons 13/14”, that would then step up or down from the last autopilot value. This could also be achieved by any other button, but the simple beauty of this is the feeling of using a trim wheel (immersion and so on), and this, I understood, was the desire.
Ah, that’s the thing - I’m talking about the VelocityOne Flight (yoke + throttle) not the Flightstick which I’m aware can be changed from analog axis to digital buttons.
