Virpil CM3 throttle and IL-2 power settings

[1Sascha]

Still waiting on delivery, but I'm already curious:

 

What's the best way to set this thing up for IL-2 fighters? I fly almost exclusively German stuff, but even with those you have different throttle percentages/settings at which the changes from continuous into combat into emergency power occur.

 

There's probably no way to have two upper detents from what I can see (one for cont > combat, another for combat > emergency), but having a single one that will reliably separate combat from emergency would be totally fine.

 

Will I have to manually/physically adjust my upper detent every time I switch from, say, a 109 F-4 into an FW 190 A or D? Or is there a way to do all this in the software, either using profiles in Virpil's configuration tool or even inside IL-2 itself?

 

I never looked into doing any of this on my WHT because it only comes with one fixed detent and that thing seems to cut in at around 66% throttle - so.. not much use. And I never got to grips with TARGET which seems even more complicated than VKB's config SW (haven't tried Virpil's configuration tool yet, obviously).

 

 

S.

Edited January 11, 2023 by 1Sascha

[dburne]

13 minutes ago, 1Sascha said:

Still waiting on delivery, but I'm already curious:

 

What's the best way to set this thing up for IL-2 fighters? I fly almost exclusively German stuff, but even with those you have different throttle percentages/settings at which the changes from continuous into combat into emergency power occur.

 

There's probably no way to have two upper detents from what I can see (one for cont > combat, another for combat > emergency), but having a single one that will reliably separate combat from emergency would be totally fine.

 

Will I have to manually/physically adjust my upper detent every time I switch from, say, a 109 F-4 into an FW 190 A or D? Or is there a way to do all this in the software, either using profiles in Virpil's configuration tool or even inside IL-2 itself?

 

I never looked into doing any of this on my WHT because it only comes with one fixed detent and that thing seems to cut in at around 66% throttle - so.. not much use. And I never got to grips with TARGET which seems even more complicated than VKB's config SW (haven't tried Virpil's configuration tool yet, obviously).

 

 

S.

 

I will tell you how I have my upper detent set up for DCS Hornet, works pretty well for IL-2 - at least in the Spit.

They are very easy to adjust physically if needed. Just loosen the screw and slide detent to where you want it.

Here is a good thread on setting up detents in the Virpil Software as well :

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/260319-virpil-cm3-throttle-setting-up-detents-and-comparison-with-cm2/

Edited January 11, 2023 by dburne

[1Sascha]

Yikes! This looks pretty complicated...lol. And I'm not sure IL-2 has the level of axis "tune-ability" as DCS does.... or does it?

 

No wonder VKB are working on digital detents, but yeah.... let's not talk about the Throttle That Shan't Be Named...

 

Another question (probably kinda answered in the thread you linked to, but I'm too lazy ATM:

 

Does idle cutoff work the same way as on the WHT? Meaning... are there two buttons at the lower end of travel that get triggered when you push over the idle-detent?

 

 

 

S.

[dburne]

1 hour ago, 1Sascha said:

Yikes! This looks pretty complicated...lol. And I'm not sure IL-2 has the level of axis "tune-ability" as DCS does.... or does it?

 

No wonder VKB are working on digital detents, but yeah.... let's not talk about the Throttle That Shan't Be Named...

 

Another question (probably kinda answered in the thread you linked to, but I'm too lazy ATM:

 

Does idle cutoff work the same way as on the WHT? Meaning... are there two buttons at the lower end of travel that get triggered when you push over the idle-detent?

 

 

 

S.

 

Yes idle/cutoff very simiilar, you can assign buttons for that and tune the axis to not start until you push over the idle/off detent. That is what I did for idle/off. I push the throttle over the idle/off detent to idle state.- then the axis starts kicking in. Very cool.

 

And again on the full power detents, it is very easy to physically adjust those to where you need. Don't sweat it you will be fine. And like I say full power detents are very easy to physically adjust. 

 

Havoc has some good videos over on the Virpil site as well.

 

https://www.youtube.com/@HavocCompanyClan

Edited January 11, 2023 by dburne

[Sabot_]

It comes with several detents and you can mix and try to find your sweet spot.  I think I have a Warthog on the bottom and and Classic Plus on the top.  Be advise though, for some reason my DCS tends to read flipping the mode switch (2 to 4 or 1 to 5) as a keystroke so you may need to map it to something that you don't use, not sure what IL2 will do.

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Sabot_

[JG27*PapaFly]

You can easily set electronic detents using an autohotkey script. All you need is a timed routine that reads the position of the controller axis in question,  say every 5 ms, and plays certain sound files at e.g. 80% and 85% in case of the FW190A series. This won't slow you PC down at all. The only caveat is that it doesn't work well if you  throw the throttles around really fast. Move them smoothly and this will work like a charm.

Edited January 11, 2023 by JG27_PapaFly

[JG7_X-Man]

The ideal cut-off/on is how I set mine too. Set the single hard indent to 100% - 2% b/w 0-1% cuts the engine off or starts. Because it's a hard indent, you never shut off your engine by mistake as you have to lift up on the twin levers.

 

I use the LED lights instead of indents to throttle settings:

1.0% - 62.0%:   GREEN

62.5% - 84.0%:  YELLOW

84.5% - 100%: RED

 

quick glace and I know my ATA is either Max or Combat which comes very handy in PvP combat.

Edited January 27, 2023 by JG7_X-Man

[1Sascha]

Oh wow... this looks more complicated than I'd thought... ?

 

On 1/27/2023 at 2:44 AM, JG7_X-Man said:

Set the single hard indent to 100% - 2% b/w 0-1% cuts the engine off or starts.

 

I suppose you're talking about the WHT-style lower detent when you say "single hard indent"? Meaning lift-over to shut off, push-through to start?

 

 

 

Thanks for the answers - sadly, I got my second "two weeks (TM)"-answer a couple of days ago. Looks like my adapter rails *still* haven't arrived and are now expected by the end of next week (around Feb 3rd, I suppose) ... no idea how long actual processing and shipping will take once those things do come in.

 

Seems that part is what's holding up my order, because the throttle was already classified as "ready to ship" when I first asked support for an ETA on Jan 7th.

 

Which kinda makes me wonder if there would've been a way to directly mount this thing to my VKB UCM, but I *think* those four central screws on the throttle are too large to fit through the VKB's universal base-plate, so ...

 

Oh well...

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by 1Sascha

[Youtch]

16 hours ago, JG7_X-Man said:

The ideal cut-off/on is how I set mine too. Set the single hard indent to 100% - 2% b/w 0-1% cuts the engine off or starts. Because it's a hard indent, you never shut off your engine by mistake as you have to lift up on the twin levers.

 

I use the LED lights instead of indents to throttle settings:

1.0% - 62.0%:   GREEN

62.5% - 84.0%:  YELLOW

84.5% - 100%: RED

 

quick glace and I know my ATA is either Max or Combat which comes very handy in PvP combat.

Cool trick, but unfortunately not applicable in VR.