Flight Simulator 2020 is beautiful. One gets the idea that any idea that would spoil that beauty and “simple user interface” that is “uncluttered” got axed.
However, there are a lot of modes that the flight simulator gets into that you might not know you are in, and might not know how to get out of.
C = disable flight controls.
Y = slew mode.
INSERT = drone view, control of plane is lost, nothing indicates that we’re in drone mode or to hit INS to get out again..
And probably a tonne of others.
You might even get into active pause mode and not know it. It seems to me that each of these should be appearing on the top right corner of the screen, beside each other when active
CONTROLS-DISABLED (Press C to exit)
SLEW ENABLED (Press Y to exit)
ACTIVE PAUSE ENABLED (Press PAUSE to exit)
If someone really wants to avoid those captions, a preference “do not show mode indicators and exit commands” could be set, for people who like the product to be extra hard to use, and super hard to get out of a mode you got into accidentally.
CO-PILOT popups like"you can leave the flight whenever you want", to me, seem incredibly ugly, because they lack even an X to dismiss them.. But that popup format for the “CO-PILOT” message is not helping people keep flying when they get locked out of their plane controls by an accidental key press.
If Control-Space could clears all states and gets you flying again and looking out from your default view, then no matter what wonky thing you do, getting back out again could be one easy to remember keystroke.
Great idea. I get mixed up sometimes so a clear indication of the mode would help.
Recently I started using BushTalk radio. There’s a toolbar tool to login. So you have to type your username and password before it becomes active. Quess what, while I’m typing the login information the aircraft is jumping in and out of all these modes. It’s reacting to the keys I need to press and it takes me awhile to undo all the things that have happened. It’s funny but frustrating too.
I have a suggestion. If you have a microphone you could try using voice command software. I use Voice Attack to create custom commands. It’s fairly simple.
I’ve also added the optional voice pack by HCS, “Co-Pilot Elise”. I particularly like it when flying commercial aviation, because it feels a bit more like you have a co-pilot.
Sometimes my active pause gets triggered and I have no idea because the engine sound is still playing. There should be an indicator that it is active and the sound should stop so that people can be aware. Imagine doing a 7-hour flight and it gets triggered, only to come back and realize you have not made any progress on the route
