Please Dean, just don’t go all in on Discord 
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I purchase the F-14 from Just Flight. What is the current version? How do I update the plane when it was not purchased in the marketplace?
Oops - think I might have failed to explain myself clearly. (Not the first time…)
I don’t think you guys should change the throttle settings in the flight model. They are, as far as I can tell, correct. The calibration I’m talking about is something between the physical throttle output and the input to the flight mod/sim. Me no good with words, hard explain magic thrusty box… but I’ll try! Sorry if I restate the obvious, too.
It might be easier to describe what I think the built-in calibration tool SHOULD be vs what it is. You have, on the one hand, your throttle, which takes a potentiometer voltage and translates it into a number (I think it’s a scale from -65k to 65k?). Then you have your sim/flight model, which takes an input number and equates it to a throttle position, and displays/thrusts accordingly. In between, you have the calibration tool, which (in MSFS) is a graph with the number generated by the hardware, based on the actual voltage coming off the throttle, on one scale, and the number being fed into the sim on the other. At least this is my understanding of how this all works. (It’s a DAC, in other words.) On a linear scale, this is all 1:1 – what you see is what you get passed to the sim. Which usually works fine.
The issues arise when the real-world throttle isn’t directly linear – which pretty much applies whenever the throttle has a reverser. The Thrustmaster TCA is modeled after the actual aircraft throttle, which has a reverse range below the idle throttle point, which is at about 20% on the physical throttle.
The fix is recalibrating the output so that the sim sees 20% as “zero”, and the negative range is entirely output between the physical 20% and 0% range on the hardware. MSFS does this just fine; it’s just a case of modifying the curve to move the zero point to where the physical output is whatever number the idle detent on the throttle is. Since Thrustmaster is a partner with MS/Asobo, MSFS has the proper calibration for the TCA Quad built in; it’s the default profile when you connect a TCA Quad.
And that works fine for the A320. The problem is that other aircraft have different ranges and different reverser methodologies, etc. – and afterburning military jets have a small range beyond max to activate the burners. It SHOULD be easy to adapt and calibrate for any other plane you can think of; it’s just a matter of getting the “translation” from hardware to sim input correct. The problem is that the built-in calibration is INCREDIBLY coarse in its ability to fine tune that curve. You can change that zero point, and you can change the overall slope/shapes of the response curves on either side of the zero point – and that’s it.
I would like something like the system for editing color intensity/tint by channel I see in all my photo editing software tools – a system where I can click on any point on that curve, and move it up/down/left/right as I see fit. To make a long story short, that would let me tell the throttle and the sim exactly how much throttle each detent on the physical throttle should represent in the game, AND how steep or shallow the curve slope is between the detents – so instead of a single curve, you can have a chain of curves with different shapes that apply to different parts of the physical throttle’s range. The in-game calibration tool only lets you have two curves, which means to get things the way you want takes a lot of trial and error with the sliders (assuming you can get it to where you want at all).
To reiterate: THIS IS NOT YOUR PROBLEM. This is Asobo not paying enough attention to one aspect of the control input system; it’s really something they should address, not something 3rd party developers should have to create workarounds for. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen at all, though – not from the company that takes two months to push an update through the marketplace.
But FBW and Aerosoft have, to some extent, done exactly that – at least that’s what it looks like to me. To use the FBW version (which I have the most experience with) – in the EFB, you calibrate your throttle based on the (real) Airbus detents by putting the TCA Quad into the detents, then clicking on buttons (one each for the L and R throttle) for that setting. You do that for all six of the fixed positions on the Airbus throttle: TOGA, FLEX, climb, idle, reverse idle, and full reverse. I can’t code beyond an intro-to-computer-science level, but I assume there is something in the A32NX code that sits between the sim’s throttle output (AFTER the in-game calibration has done its thing) and the data going into the flight/systems model and “translates”.
After all that verbiage… my basic question was “is it possible to do something like that for the Tomcat?” And if the answer is no, I get it completely – because it’s not your issue, and shouldn’t be. If it’s something that’s relatively easy to do, though – and again, I have no clue – it would be super useful for me. (I really wish someone would just do a mod or a standalone program that did all of this…) But again, it’s not your job to fix Asobo’s messes.
Off to flame out some engines now…!
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You will receive a Justflight email once the update were available to download. Anyway we will announce it here once Dean uploaded the package to them, same goes for f-15 and stearman. We have a fix update for the Justflight version solving minor issues we detected like hdg bug stuck when ap on, vnav managed speeds revision, and minor flight model revision etc, and updates on 3D model. If I’m not mistaken the marketplace version has this fixes already applied, and Justflight users will have the update ready around the next week.
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If you got it from JustFilght you have the current version.
You should receive an email notification with a download link from JustFlight when new versions are released.
EDIT: Beaten to it!
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Thanks for the prompt response. I purchased the F-15 in the Marketplace, but the updates take forever. I will only buy from Dev’s going forward.
yes, in that sense the update times of both stores are different. marketplace is beyond our control while Justflight does not. but in any case we try that both platforms have the same lastest versions.
Just curious if the update will have a fix for the wing sweep control being labeled as “Engine Anti-Ice”, or if that’s some silly Microsobo template change you can’t override? That’s honestly my only complaint, cosmetic though it is.
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You have explained it well, the TCA as well as the Logitech throttle quadrant were designed for aircraft with reverse and even propeller control (in the case of logi) but the fighters are, since they do not have reverse, for the most part they are more akin to TWCS type throttles and similar (for example twcs lacks two throttles to drive the motors separately). I understand the problem you are raising.
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Yes, because asobo “broke” that precisely, in the next update the tooltip should simply displays “manual” for the manual wing sweep leveler instead of toggle anti-ice. I was trying to get a custom one to be accepted, but it no longer does (when I try it, what you see is a “.” or an empty text, so the only applicable tooltip I have found has been that one.
asobo uses a tooltip system that translates into several languages trough @TT_Package.", Inside that package, what would fill our purpose would be @TT_Package.GT_STATE_MANUAL . With the old tip system I could easily overwrite it but now I can’t unfortunately (I have not yet discovered how). I am trying to find where that core package file is and check if is possible to add custom tooltips there, so when it were called, it would be displayed.
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I have a few questions about the F-14 on Xbox.
1. Do the cold start/stop shortcuts work? (RB+Right to start, RB+Left to stop the engines.) Can the plane be started this way at a parking spot?
2. When parking and setting the wings to fold, do they fold completely, or only as far as in-flight? This was a problem in the first version when it came out on PC.
3. Is the autopilot reliable? Can it manage speed and direction or only the latter?
I can’t say about the Xbox start up procedure as I don’t own one yet, but it should work as per the controller commands.
The oversweep function operates when the wing cover lever is down and the sweep lever is fully aft - it works fine in the PC version and has never been a problem.
The autopilot is very advanced ( thanks to CodenameJack ) and can do all sorts beyond the basic three-axis version. The Tomcat also has an active ACLS system.
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If the Xbox commands are equivalent to ctrl+E and ctrl+shift+E in PC then yes.
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According to our script, the oversweep function (75 degrees sweep) will only work when engine is completely off. Otherwise max sweep will be 68 degrees. We have not changed it since launch.
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Yes autopilot is able to manage selected and managed speeds (Flight plan) and also you have FLC and VNAV.
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Thanks. In this video, if you go to 10:40 it is shown that the wings don’t sweep back completely in the parking position which is a bug.
This is why I asked - I know it’s not a huge deal in itself but it would be nice if it worked like in real.
You will get an email from Just Flight when one comes out. You just download the updated version again from your Just Flight account.
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Not exactly a bug, is just the 3d animation could be not covering that angle, while 68 degrees sweep is well simulated maybe the max animation is covering 72 degree instead of 75 if we compare it with the real thing:
anyway, if possible, try to look at it from the highest possible top position (not from the tail view) to see how much we can have it deviated.
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So this is something that hasn’t been changed since the first version then? I know it’s only cosmetic, but it’s these little things that often matter a lot.
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thanks for the report!
Yes, it has oversweep but is not matching the 75 degrees:
while 68 degrees is more or less accurate:
It would be a more precise adjustment at the animation level.
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I understand you perfectly, as more accurated more inmersive the experience is.
Hello everyone, It’s gonna be my first comment and English isn’t my native language so sorry in advance if i sound weird.
I just bought the F14 on the marketplace (On Xbox Series S to be precise) and i’m enjoying the plane so far. That said, i’m having “an issue” with the textures in the cockpit. The canopy has very low res texture and it doesn’t look nice at all. I was wondering if it was a limitation on console (since i haven’t seen that on PC) or if it’s a bug that will be fixed at some point.
Thank you for the help
Is it “fuzzy” looking and only in certain lighting? This is a sim side issue with AA, render scaling, and back end image sharpness values that plagues many add on aircraft (I’m on series S).
Try turning down the sharpness setting on your TV. It does hurt overall picture quality a little but it significantly reduces fuzzy cockpit, water, and cloud reflections.