Now I have to use mouse to interact cockpit buttons & knobs when I play in VR.
Could it be possible to make samekind of interaction solution like one in DCS? It has small crosshair in middle of VR screen, and universal on/off/more/less shortcut keys what I have binded in my joystick.
I imagine it would be easy to do by forcing hidden mouse cursor in center of VR screen, and cursor would pop up only when I watch directly to cockpit button I could press. That way I could watch scenery without distracting cursor or crosshair in my face.
Cockpit buttons presses could be done just like they are done with mouse buttons and wheel now, but they could be rebinded in options of course.
Whole interaction solution could be toggled on/off by some shortcut key, if I want to use mouse normally for some reason.
That kind of VR interaction is very enjoyable in DCS, and I think it would work with FS2020 too.
Agreed, would be ace. That said I’m relatively happy with the current mouse interaction model bar the occasional pointer freezes and skipping.
Previously, I was trying to map most controls on my peripherals, but it gets clunky fast (especially blindfolded in VR). I’ve now fixed a mouse pad to my sim rig and before I noticed, I started controlling almost everything with a mouse.
Your suggestion would be still superior though. It’s bit of a hassle to fiddle around with a mouse whilst you’re still trying to fly the airplane!
You can program all of these things today to buttons. For example, in the miscellaneous controls section there’s bindings for “plus” and “minus”. So what you need to do is find the binding for the controls you want to control. There will be a binding to “select” the control. Once you select it you then use the plus/minus to adjust the control.
For example, I can control all of the autopilot functions without using a mouse. I can choose each of the different modes like “heading” mode and “altitude” mode. Once those modes are chosen, I can then “select” the heading bug and use plus/minus to control it. I can “select” the altitude bug and then adjust it.
So you don’t actually need the mouse to control the cockpit buttons.
Yes, you need separate bindings. Not for plus/minus, one binding for those but then you need other bindings for all the other options you want to use plus/minus with.
However, did you know there’s a way to multiply the number of buttons you have? Each binding in the controls will take compound buttons. That’s a good thing. Here’s what I do. I choose one button to be a “modifier”. So I don’t assign that button to anything. But with that 1 modifier, all of my other buttons can now have 2 functions assigned to them. The first function is the button by itself and the second function is the button pressed in combination with the “modifier” button. So in that way you can have lots of controls assigned to just a few buttons. If you want to go crazy you could have 2 modifiers or more but I find it becomes too difficult to remember all of the combinations with more than 1 modifier.
Yeah I use modifier buttons in DCS which really helps.
I have a modifier button assigned on my Virpil CM3 Throttle and another one assigned on my Gunfighter Mk III stick.
Good to know this can be done in MSFS as well. Just really getting into it and currently going through the process of flying and getting controllers set up and tuned the way I want.
Me too. That’s why I went searching for something similar in MSFS. There’s not a formal modifier section like in DCS, you just leave a button unassigned and then use it as a modifier. The major difference is that the midifier only works for that device. In DCS, one modifer will work with any device but in MSFS a modifier on your throttle only modifies other buttons on the throttle. You’ll need another one on your joystick of you want a modifier on there too.
Ugh well that is good to know thanks.
That is not good for me, it is much easier for me to have modifier on the opposite device of the one I have the button on I want to use with a modifier. Not so excited about this now. In DCS I have it set up with a modifier on each device ( throttle and stick) and that works quite well when using button on opposite device of the modifier I am using.
I use Joystick Gremlin for all things modifier-like
Basically, it re-assigns functions to a vJoy joystick, then you assign your functions within MSFS to the vJoy device instead of your hardware stick.
Joystick Gremlin supports all kinds of modifier behaviour (i.e. you can toggle, push-to-hold, etc.)
(PS. Hello from another IL-2 VR flyer - recognise your name from when you’ve previously helped me out over there )
Yeah good to know thanks! I have always shied away from using a third party software for my stick and throttle. I don’t necessarily need to have it now for MSFS no further than I am into it so far, but may come a time I will and might take a look at it.
IL-2 is fantastic sim, that one does not support assigning modifier to joystick button at all. So far I have been able to do without ok with it. I guess DCS and their jets/choppers is where I really use a modifier.
Yeah, for IL-2 it’s less necessary due to the simplified engine management and so on.
The thing that got me interested here was when @Mayhem6633 mentioned altitude/heading bugs, etc. as that’s what I currently struggle with most while using the mouse.
Hopefully when SU7 arrives with VR controller support it won’t be an issue anyway.
Still, even typing about Joystick Gremlin has made me think about how I might use it to work the major controls such as the GPS, etc. With it’s programmability I might be able to work a way to “cycle” through the selection of rotary controls in the cockpit, e.g. NAV, COM, and Garmin rotaries, then have permanent “plus” and “minus” assignments to change them.
Same here - at the moment it’s a pain to interact with rotary dials. Luckily most of them I’ve bound to my custom rotary dials and button box, but there are 2 issues there:
As far as I know we still can’t bind buttons to the GPS dials, so entering a flight plan or just a waypoint in them is a major pain. It’s irritating that nothing has changed about it in a year…
I haven’t tried it recently but the Aerosoft CRJ didn’t have dials like the altitude one bindable. That’s also a major pain.
I’m hoping that with SU7 we have a decent implementation of dial interactions as we have in XP11 and then these 2 points won’t be such an issue anymore
)