I had a bit of brainwave about how to help with very annoying White Dot issue that affects some of us using controllers along with other peripherals.
Please kindly note I do not need suggestion about how to stop the white dot from happening, it happens under certain circumstances and those circumstances affect some of us, simple as. So anyone not bothered by the white dot please don’t worry about this.
I do some developing and have been trying to send a simple regular keypress of the Down Arrow key to MSFS using some of my tools but MSFS just does not seem to want to accept key presses from other sources.
So I was wondering if either of the above tools can do this? i.e. Just send a DOWN ARROW to MSFS every 1 or 2 seconds for example.
An interesting solution to an annoying problem.
If it were me, I would instead use something like AutoIT, I believe it changed its name some time ago, to send a down key every second, but only when the MSFS window has focus.
AutoIT is a scripting language for automation, and it can export a binary that can be run. You could even add a hot key sequence to enable/disable the key presses when you don’t need it, like in the map screen for example.
It’s very easy to use, having a BASIC like syntax.
The last time I used AutoIT was with X-Plane, so I could more easily interact with ATC via the buttons on my yoke.
Hi thanks. Yes I have this and various other Macro / Automation tools. None of them are able to send direct to MSFS. Even after setting focus (which works).
I’ve found a solution using Touch Portal at the moment. (I already had Touch Portal for controlling OBS).
All it needs to do is send a key press, so whichever application has focus will work. For example, my Streamdeck can send keypresses, and I have the up/down keys on a couple of buttons if I wanted to adjust my view height for any reason. It’s just a keyboard with a fancy interface in that respect.
You would think so eh, but in some cases it doesn’t work like that. Honestly. Some applications will block auto keypresses from external sources unless they are low level.
My code includes setting focus btw as mentioned above. Setting focus works fine. But the keypress itself disappears into the ether.
I am an automation developer btw. (among other things). Some of my applications use this very method to control various other applications. So I have had quite a lot of experience with this kind of issue.
Maybe you can give it (the DOWN ARROW keypress) a try with your chosen automation tool and see if it works for you.
Meanwhile, Touch Portal is doing it as it does allow sending of low level keypresses and programmable repeats.
btw: In fact our MSFS Hours & Hobbs tool is written using automation tools and Python.
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Interesting tool, I’ll take a look, thanks.
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Just to say, of course thanks for your input here. Didn’t mean to sound ungrateful.
In fact I have posted to the forum of my main automation tool a while ago asking about this and still had no replies on this one.
It is frustrating because as mentioned, (and as you rightly said) you would expect the solution would be so simple, especially when compared to some of my other applications which read and send hundreds of key presses to specific windows and applications etc.
But for some reason MSFS just doesn’t like it.
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Take a look at Autohotkey.
Autohotkey
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Please read above. It’s the same thing. Thanks.
Old thread, I know… but I have experimented with Auto Mouse Click which DOES allow clicks within MSFS.
Worth a shot to see if it works with your application.
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Hi. It’s not mouse clicks that are needed. Thanks though.
@Funghie Yeah… I saw that in your original post… but, for what it’s worth, this program, even though unfortunately named 'Auto Mouse Click" does direct keystroke entry and a myriad of other automated functions as well.
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Cheers. Sorry I didn’t check it out before posting. 
I’ll have a look. 
No worries. I should mention, however, that while I was able to get this to work directly when executing the script from a bat file, when I executed that same bat file from Spad.Next (based on a keypress on one of my FIP guages), the bat would launch but MSFS did NOT get the click.
So… I’m not sure why that intermediary step of having Spad execute the bat file versus me doing it from the desktop is causing it not to work.
I’m still experimenting…
Yes, this is the issue I had with my usual automation software. However, I’m afraid at this point the whole thing is a moot point, as unfortunately the holding / pressing down arrow key no longer gets rid of the white dot. Aw well.