Using faders as Sliders

[malcheus]

I've just started to play BOS, and what has caught my attention is the huge amount of analog axis involved in these planes;

For instance:

Throttle

Vertical stabilisers

Oil radiator

Water radiator

Mixture 

Prop pitch

Flaps (some are analog, some seem to be step-wise)

 

These are 7 axis that need more or less frequent attention; ideally I would put all these on one joystick, but like most joysticks, mine has only one slider.

I've set up buttons now for + and - on the axis, but that takes up all the button of the stick, so flying still requires keyboard input now and then. 

 

So the best solution would be to add more sliders; and that's where my search began. 

There's companies selling super pro flight sim gear for super pro amounts of money, cheapest of which is (I think) the saitek variant, which has 3 whole sliders and costs about 85 euros.

To me, this just doesn't compute, I refuse to believe USB sliders are this expensive; the cheapest of joysticks (20 euros) already have one sliding axis; so it would be more efficient to get 4 of those than to get one saitek "throttle quadrant". 

I understand that it is nice to build yourself a virtual cockpit, with authentic controls and whatnot, but I'm not that rich, and not that fanatic. I just want more sliders.

So then I started looking around a bit and found out that the hip cool, non-nerdy music people actually have an abundance of sliders at their disposal, they just call them faders. While looking a bit, I already saw a lot stuff that would be quite the outcome: 

(Exibit A: http://www.recordcase.de/shop/default/pix/a/n/icon-mini-usb-midi-controller-i-control-zwart_1342453594-19480-1.jpg)

 

But, my big question would be: do these USB "fader panels" work with flight sims, and BOS in particular?

Has anyone tried to use a cheap fader panel for analog control in BOS?

Any advice in finding a proper one? 

 

 

[Sokol1]

Your 1st problem: These things  are not seem be Windows as "game controller".

 

So you need find or write a program that translate their inputs in commands for games. Maybe this help:

 

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22463

 

PPJoy...

 

 

BTW - Prop pitch on Bf 109 and Fw 190 are not in "sliders" (axis), is in momentary thumb buttons.

 

Sokol1

Edited August 18, 2014 by Sokol1

[39bn_pavig]

If you have a tablet or smartphone you could combine that with this http://hexler.net/software/touchosc

I have it as a customisable midi controller before and it is awesome. My brother regularly uses it to get away from the keyboard at his electronic gigs. Very solid system.

 

Which is what I was going to do until I realised what a pain it would be to program it all. I went with this http://touchpilot.com/touch-pilot-one/ which gives a nice little control panel that is enough to complement my stick. It is basic and I think overpriced, but cheaper than hardware.

[malcheus]

Your 1st problem: These things  are not seem be Windows as "game controller".

 

So you need find or write a program that translate their inputs in commands for games. Maybe this help:

 

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22463

 

PPJoy...

 

 

BTW - Prop pitch on Bf 109 and Fw 190 are not in "sliders" (axis), is in momentary thumb buttons.

 

Sokol1

 

That is actually quite helpful, I'm inclined to try this and combine it with Xpadder, as that seems to be quite a versatile program and I already run it with BOS to look around more fluently with the D-Pad on my joystick. 

 

The Ipad method looks cool, but it does require some background program; and our Ipad was stolen last week, so we currently don't have one lying around anymore... 

[malcheus]

Sorry for double posting, I can't edit my post for some reason.

 

I'm studying the script in sokol1's link a bit, and it all seems pretty straightforward, the MIDI controllers are sold for 50 euros, which is fine. 

Just one question; would I have to run my own joystick through the same "PPjoy" program for it to work in combination with the MIDI-to-controller device?

In other words, does BOS accept input from multiple controllers at the same time, or do I have to combine everything into one virtual controller? 

[malcheus]

So today the device I ordered has arrived; I went for a Korg NanoKontrol 2, which most closely resembles the one named in the topic posted by sokol.

The information posted in that topic is about 3 years old, so I was afraid it was going to be a challenge. 

 

So for posterior's sake, this is how I got it working:

 

Finding glovepie wasn;t difficult with a google search; finding PPjoy was, in the end I found it at this location: http://uploaded.net/file/fzhe96kn

Click the greyed out "free download" button for second-rate citizens, and wait 30 seconds, extract and run (it's not a virus).

The glovepie script on the sokol link is designed for an other MIDI board, so the CC numbers aren't accurate. 

To find out the CC numbers of my own board I had to use the Korg control editor (from the korg website). This program shows you the CC numbers for this partcular board.

So I edited the script with the correct numbers.

Then I set up a PPjoy virtual joystick with 8 axis only (will setup buttons later), after which it already worked in IL2 BOS. 

Currently I am using 7 of the 8 axis in a PE2:

from left to righ:

Prop pitch/RPM limit

Mixture

Water radiator

Oil radiator (not used in Pe-2)

Engine Cowl (don't know if this is being used in the Pe-2 so I guess not)

The right most controls are for left and right engine throttle, so I can quickly shut one down in case of damage.

 

The next step is assigning the buttons next to the sliders; there's three next to each slider so I think I can assign pretty much full aircraft control to buttons to the stick/board combination. 

Then there;s also a turnable knob above each slider, but I haven't thought of a use for those, other than sound volume...

Thanks for the advice everyone (and sokol in particular)

[AndyJWest]

Yeah - I'd be interested to know how well this works too.

 

The only real snag I can see is that MIDI sliders only have 7-bit resolution (0-127) which may be a bit on the low side for trims etc.

 

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in developing their own software for interfacing such things, an alternative virtual-device joystick driver to PPJoy can be found here: http://vjoystick.sourceforge.net/site/ I've not tried it myself, but it looks as if it might be useful.

[malcheus]

I have 29 of the buttons set up now too, and it works magnificently.

I'm using a piece of paper now, to write down what is assigned, but everything seems to work.

Having 3 buttons next to each slider is very convenient (almost as if by design) for BoS; because some planes use analog input while others use digital input for the same aspect.

 

For instance I have now mapped the vertical stabiliser to one slider, the three buttons next to it I've set up as vertical trim up, trim reset and vertical trim down. 

This way, the vertical trim is always at the same position.

For the engines I have a separate throttle for each, the top button next to the sliders is relevant engine on/off, middle button is select engine (although this does't seem important anymore)

 

The resolution issue I have not had a chance to properly test, but most things like throttle, mixture etc. seem to be from a scale from 0-100, so I don't suppose it's a problem.

I'll play a bit more with it, and maybe post a picture with my setup.

One small issue I'm still looking at is that PPjoy only works when windows is running in test mode, but that doesn't seem to be a big problem.