[MikkOwl]

Sure, I can share the autohotkey scripts. I must say, that night I spent a couple of months ago learning how it works was more than well spent - it's super helpful in customizing anything to one's liking, especially with sims. I do not have the scripts prepared for public use, and I have this one 'basic' that I run for myself with some nonsense in it. What kind of functionality would you be interested in? I will have to clean out that specific part and add some commentary so you can easily swap in the keys you want.

------

I spent more time tinkering with the G940 in and out of IL-2 by the way.

- With effects raised enough, yes, it can be a bit hard to hit stuff from a distance, even when flying level. Hardcore effects.

I found and used two different force feedback programs. One is an editor made by Microsoft from their directX SDK for developers, and I can open and edit the IL-2 force feedback files with it. I already changed the vibration of the machine gun file to about 20 vibrations per second - the RPM of both the MG17 and the Browning .303. The default was slower, maybe 15 or so. Also tweaking the strength of the effects to get the levels I want (less machine gun, much more cannon shake). -- The other program was a force feedback test program where it tells you what effects your device has and you can try out different things.

My findings point to that the old force feedback API simply does not try to enforce a tight center on the devices, allowing some slop/play. The spring.ffe file in IL-2 controls how much it should be centered, the deadzone and other things, and it's already set to the minimum allowed. I got the same results trying to force the stick to center in the other program as well. However, the stick sometimes, when switching programs, alt tabbing, or putting self-centering to maximum, is able to center much more tightly. Maybe about half the diameter of 'slop' compared to IL-2 (approximately 1.5x1.5cm or a bit more, compared to IL-2 and the force feedback programs maybe 5x5cm). And the stick can do this at any point/angle. As if there is no mechanical center it has to deal with.

This bodes very well for future improved force feedback API/implementation, as there is nothing to stop the stick from, for example, having it's force center forward or backward of center, if the plane is trimmed a certain way/speed etc. And when trying to fight those forces to keep the plane level, the force should lighten and eventually go away as we trim the elevator - just like real life.

For fun, I put a sock over my stick, as it triggered the sensor that checks if it's being gripped. And then I could remote control it with the testing programs. That's some awesome show I tell you - it moves instantaneously to the position indicated (moving sliders in a window with one's mouse) without a hiccup. Pretty advanced accurate stuff.

-- More findings. I figured out more specifically how the force feedback screen works in the games tab for the stick (control panel > Controllers etc).

The first slider, Overall Force or what it is called, is the only one that controls stuff like vibrations, including gun shake, buffeting, getting hit, bomb release and so on. Important to note that is also acts as the ultimate multiplier of the other two sliders as well, spring and damping. It's the head honcho slider. If set very low, it doesn't matter what you set spring and damping to, the stick will be lifeless. And if set over 100% just the same, it will also make spring and damper stronger. Something to keep in mind when tweaking.

The second one, spring, is pulling/centering forces, that get stronger the further you move the stick from where it wants to be. In IL-2, this affects how strongly it will resist movement as the plane travels faster (more air resistance on control surfaces).

The third one, damper, is in force feedback a simple effect that is just 'resistance to movement', with no necessary center. Imagine that the cables/wires in the control column leading to the wing surfaces has friction no matter what speed you are traveling, then this 'damper' effect would simulate the resistance that this friction is giving. (When checking out that test program and reading about effects, I saw that the stick also supports 'friction' and several other neat sounding effects that I got to try out. Friction was a variation of damper but slightly different. Doesn't seem to be used in IL-2 and the force feedback editor (which is from 1999) doesn't even support that effect. Either way, I have not ever found proof that 'damper' as an effect does anything in IL-2. There's no resistance what so ever when flying up into the air and going below 120km/h no matter what damper is set to.

Lastly there's the self-centering force. It adds the equivalent of a mechanical spring that only wants it to center all the time, without exception, and it adds to the effects that are already taking place. It does not work well in any form with IL-2 and I don't recommend trying to.

From having tinkered around, I find that the following setup is ideal for me, at least.

Overall Force: 112%. This adds much more sting to the general effects like MG, Cannon, bomb, buffeting/turbulence and such things, without being overbearing or very loud. For some reason there's a HUGE difference between the default 100% (very, very anemic) and even 112%.

Spring: 90%. I tried setting to 150% and thereabouts to get a more 'real' feeling, but two bad things happen instead - Firstly, it's even harder to feel how fast one is going based on airspeed, because the airspeed effect seems to go from no resistance around 120-140km/h, to full force by about 300km/h+. With increased spring tension, it feels like this threshold is even narrower, with it being 'very tense' by something like 200-260, making the whole range smaller. Even going relatively slow at 250 gives the impression of being much faster. Secondly, the point of travel when stick goes from 'slop' to force feedback effects is even more pronounced when the forces are stronger, and it feels even more unnatural - to 'break' into this force one has to pull somewhat hard, and it makes it suddenly 'jump' too far as one puts enough force to make it start moving past this point (often all the way to the edge of travel). With spring at 100% it's more progressive and the range when it goes from loose to firm (that sounds naughty) seems larger and more useful, and the 'end' result, max force, is about the same anyway. In my case, I set it to about 90%, because it's multiplied by the 112% of the overall force slider above to be about 100%.

Damper: I leave it at 90% like spring, not being able to tell any difference. Can't hurt.

And no self-centering, of course.

---

More setup tips for pedals and throttle:

The rudder pedals did not work well when being wound too tight. No matter what, they never give a satisfyingly firm resistance of the hydrualic/cable connected kind, so one must just accept that they are a bit toy-like light. If one doesn't add too much friction, the self-centering force can at least help it return to center so you don't fly all messed up. The ideal spot for this appears to be to first wind it up so much that it does not return to center by itself, when nothing is touching it, after being moved. Then to unwind it until it starts to self center, then unwind it a little bit more beyond that point. More than that and it becomes difficult to fly due to lacking self-centering.

The throttle can be tightened until your fingers almost bleed, and it does give some decent resistance, but the travel isn't as smooth. Mine is set as tight as I could possibly muster and it has a slightly artificial strange feel that I do not like, and I will be unwinding this as well until the movement is smooth, but it has enough resistance NOT to move by resting the hand on it in any reasonable way.

The throttle should be mounted on your left side and low, low, low. I pulled out a lower desk drawer and put some stuff there, and then put the throttle on that to get a decently low height. Any higher and the lower arm will brush against the buttons on the base easily (leading to oops moments) and it's not comfortable to try to reach upwards and hang on to that thing all the time.

The thumb trigger (red fire button) on the stick cannot be reached when the stick is pulled back if the angle of the elbow is too high. I had some luck in being able to put the stick close to my right thigh side in my reclined TV/Makeshiftpilot seat/chair, where it's just about optimal.

EDIT 33: Keep in mind that alt tabbing in IL-2 at any point will mess up the force feedback. Usually some kind of default self-centering is imposed that doesn't go away on it's own. The only way to fix this is to end the flight and "refly", which resets the force feedback. This can be used to alt tab and mess with the force feedback sliders outside the game for example.