Flightsim Hardware

[Skiiwa]

I have, Saitek-Switch Panel, Autopilot panel, Throttle qudrant, CH-Fighterstick, Pedals, and Quadrant, as well as Track IR and 2 monitors.
FSX is the only game I have that I can Use ALL axis and ALL buttons.

Please Support all my Crap!:)P

On a side note, I just played the demo for WOP, and The graphics blew me away!
I only had a few problems setting up my sticks.(Mostly invert)

If Olegs new game gets Dynamic Campain, Good Instant action Missionbuilder, and supports All the Crap us simmers can hook to our puters, I will buy 4 Collector versions!(I think the Collector version will come with Plans to build a Real ME-109 G10?):mrgreen:

I Can't wait for this newest Oleg Game no matter what!

[zakkandrachoff]

I have a Microsoft Sydewynder jostick and dont work in the Wings of prey demo. Someone told me that i need config the jostick in the setup, if this is correct, this is very stupid, i dont want config nothing, for that is the "game device" of windows. Hope Oleg watch this for dont copy this error in SOW

[MikkOwl]

Display: Iiyama 24" 16:10 LCD
Headtracking: NaturalPoint TrackIR 5
Sound: AKG K271S sealed headphones
Stick, throttle, rudder: Logitech G940
Additional controls: Saitek Quadrant
Environment/Misc: Reclinable TV-chair (with arm-rests, temporarily removed for HOTAS accessability♦), monitor standing on box in front of me, stick on a small table that used to have wheels underneath to my right side low down, and the throttle placed on a floppy disc box from 20 years ago, placed in the middle drawer pulled out from under teh desk on my left side (to get it low enough). Quadrant is placed underneath and to the left, on the edge of the desk.

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The screen is just a screen. It's pretty good as far as LCD's go with some darkening and brightening on top and below, noticable when sitting close. The response time is about 2ms which is comparable to none at all (an issue with TV set screens not intended for gaming). The size is large enough if seated close when flying, and having headtracking. Due to my TV chair seat being reclined compared to any other chair, the screen is placed on a box to move it up about 20cm from the desk, or I'd have to look down too much with my eyes to see it properly.

The AKG headphones are on the pricy side as far as sound goes (160€ about), but they sound SUPERBLY good, I can't believe how bad the cheap stuff people use (and I used to) sounds in comparison. I have no speakers and use them them at all times. Since they are sealed, they muffle any sounds in your environment. When flying with sounds it's not possible to hear your own sim gear or anything else except the sounds from the sim. This helps immersion a whole lot, with no imposing plasticy sounds, clicks, chair squeeks or anything else in the environment. They also don't bother anyone in the environment. If set up with a decent sound card (Audigy 2 in my case) 3d positioning is excellent (except up-down) and the quality of the sound is much better than any speakers or surround sound sets. The reason for this is that speakers of any kind send sound out in all directions, which bounce off of the walls, floor, ceiling, objects, create resonance and many things like that which affect the quality greatly compared to headphones. The 3d positioning is emulated quite well these days too, and sounds convincing (though less than a very well set up surround system environment).

The TrackIR 5 along with the sound is the most essential of these I think. A cheaper monitor and a cheap spring joystick with some cheap pedals from a steering wheel set will still be an amazing experience if one has that.

The G940 set has some flaws, but is probably the best one could use for propeller plane sims. It increases immersion 'a lot', especially the force feedback, the strange real feeling of using actual rudder pedal action, and having a nice throttle to hold. As much as it does help with immersion, note that the TrackIR is still the most immersive thing anyone could buy for their simming. I have them both, fortunately. The G940 will take it to another level again when sims start utilizing force feedback fully (most use antiquated setups for joysticks built in the late 90's). And the color light buttons, of course.

The Saitek Quadrant has three levers, intended for engine management. Six buttons in the form of three two way switches on the front, too. This is a very good option for IL-2 players who do not have a throttle/HOTAS setup. In my own case, I had a spring centered joystick with a hard to reach throttle flap on it which couldn't be reached by my other hand when having the stick on my right side. The Saitek quadrant I bought as an intermediate device to use as throttle, prop pitch, fuel mix or flaps etc, until I got something better, if I still liked flying, and for this purpose it was great. It's not the feel of a real throttle in your hand, but at least it's miles better than using the keyboard or some flap on the base of a twist stick. With the G940, the quadrant levers now provide flaps, prop. pitch and fuel mixture, and the rocker switches provide landing gear, supercharger and radiator control, so it's still useful.

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I have G25 from earlier. Got curious of flight sims again after a long hiatus for 10 years. Bought a cheap Logitech Extreme 3D Pro and I set up the pedals as rudders using GlovePie and PPJoy (worked kind of OK, some issues with centering and accuracy). The G25 wheel (900 degrees rotation) as trim wheel, mounted correctly on the low left - it worked awesome and was lots of fun. Most realistic trim anyone ever had :) But USB issues and the bulk of the thing was less fun, especially if it recalibrated itself suddenly, pulling on headphone cables and other things, plus my chair bumping into the wheel in unhealthy looking ways.

Add the Quadrant to this, and I had a throttle + other things. Much more fun.

Enter the TrackIR 5 and woah! Blown out of my chair, what an unbelievable piece of equipment. I can only think of a few moments before in my gaming career where something blew me away approaching that: Going from Commodore 64 to Amiga 500, playing DOOM and castle wolfenstein for the first time, and getting the first 3D accellerator cards (3DFX Voodoo) with quake run at 640x480 with bilinear filtering, mipmaps and high framerate all at once (that was unheard of back then).

Finally the G940 recently and things are peachy. I suppose new graphics card will be in order in the coming year or so to keep up.