Quote:
Originally Posted by Antoninus
We know that Oleg considers clickable virtual cockpits as not very useful for a combat flight simulator, but what do you think about them?
Personally I love this feature in FSX. It's very immersive to really fly the plane from the cockpit, adjust the altimeter or switching the lights as in the real thing. In Il-2 the cockpit is much too often just an obstacle that limits your view than your workplace, especially if you fly with speedbar and text messages switched on.
Of course nobody would (regularly) use the mouse to manipulate throttle, mixture and prop pitch/rpm controls or even the gun triggers, but there are already now lot's of of functions you use only once or twice during a mission. Currently things like lock/unlock the tailwheel, switch magnetos or aircraft specific features as folding wings, fire extinguishers or feather the props all have to be assigned to your keyboard.
Oleg has already stated that SOW will offer the possibility to simulate aircraft systems in greater detail, at least for 3rd party aircraft. Thus many more commands for things as switching fuel tanks etc. will become available and further overcrowd the keyboard layout.
I would prefer to have just the most important aircraft functions, that I need to access regularly or quickly during combat, mapped to my stick or keyboard and the more rarely used only as working switches in the cockpit. |
Clickable cockpits don't work well in CFS, because when you are in the heat of conflict finding the right button to push or pull,etc. will get your butt killed.
If you want clickable elements get a X-Keys macro programmable keyboard. You can program a number of keystrokes to work with one key stroke on the X-keys. This is fast and on the fly in combat you'll find it is a best way.
ALso, the voice command things aren't bad if you articulate your words the same all the time and don't mind talking to yourself.
It is one thing to view the cockpit panel and find the switch, but it becomes very tedious having to view the switch, move the cursor over the switch and click it. Moving the mouse cursor and aligning it over the switch is definitely the slow part.
A best solution that may be implemented at some point will be touch screen technology, like in restaurants or McDonalds. The user sees the key function on the screen and touches it, that would work in combat.