Increase /Decrease keys for radiator - Request for 4.11.1 or 4.12

[Syrius]

4.11 has introduced a much welcome (IMO) improvement to engine management, with better modelling of engine overheat that requires more detailed adjustments of rpm, radiator, throttle and mixture. As currently implemented, radiator opening is controlled by a single key binding ("Cowl or Armor Flaps" in the controls screen) that keeps increasing radiator setting by 2 notches up to 'Open' and then cycles over to 'Closed' and so on. Because we now need to adjust radiator more often and more precisely, it would be helpful to have two incremental keys available for radiator status: 'increase' and 'decrease', similar to what is available for prop pitch, mixture and throttle. 'Increase radiator opening', for instance, would add a notch to the current setting and would stop at the open setting without cycling over; 'decrease' would work the other way round and stop at closed setting. This would help operating the radiator more quickly and predictably, without risking that one extra keypress will close the radiator when we want to set it open.

I'm aware that radiator can be assigned to a joystick axis, but I simply don't have any additional axes available after assigning the ones on my HOTAS throttle to trim controls and prop pitch, and I'm guessing this will also happen to most users. Would it be possible to add those incremental key bindings for radiator in 4.11.1 or 4.12?

Thanks Team Daidalos for all your work.
Cheers,
S.

[Snake]

I think, in Hotas controls, you can assign an axis to Radiator so in this way you can obtain values from 0% to 100%.
P.S.
So you know about axis asigning. Sorry for my useless post.

[WTE_Galway]

+1 on this feature.

On many planes the radiator is the only remaining reason to leave the HUD turned on. Everything else can be worked out from cockpit view.

[Mabroc]

Yes, you can use a "wheel" control or slider in a HOTAS setup to get full control of the radiator, it was just recently implemented on the 4.10 patch. Before that I was using the single key method....and yes, is really annoying

[Blackjack]

I myself use an axis , but I understand the need for increase decrease via key , maybe support controls like the prop pitch , so for every 10% step 0-100% AND increase / deacrese keys?

At least that would make the control scheme more consistent


-my humble 2 € cent

[Artist]

I use Autohotkey for all key-mappings and I solved that for myself in the following way:

In IL-2 I mapped the 'r' to the radiator, so pressing 'r' repeatedly will cycle radiator through 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 0...

In Autohotkey I defined the following two functions:

MapCommand_RadiatorOpen:
    Send r
    return
MapCommand_RadiatorClose:
    Send rrrrr
    return

and map two keys or buttons to them respectively:

Hotkey, %iIdSelfMade1%Joy32, MapCommand_RadiatorOpen, On
Hotkey, %iIdSelfMade1%Joy17, MapCommand_RadiatorClose, On

Now one key/botton will open the radiator by one step and the other will close the radiator by one step.

Not perfect, but useful.

Artist

[Syrius]

Hi Artist,

I'm using the X52Pro HOTAS, and the Saitek profile software allows quite complex programming of macros for the joystick/HOTAS buttons; I use those macros for other functions, like continuous zoom in/out and others. I also tried to use a macro for the radiator settings long time ago, but there is a particular problem with the radiator control for different planes. A few plane types, like the the late Spitfires, simply don't have manual control of radiator, the radiator is always automatic in these planes, so they are of no concern here. But most aicraft types fall in one of the following two categories:

- Planes with automatic radiator setting: the radiator key (I use 'R' as well) cycles through
Closed/Auto (default position at start) -> Closed -> 2 -> 4 -> 6 -> 8 -> Open -> Closed/Auto, etc. That makes 7 different positions and then repeat.

- Planes with no automatic radiator setting: the radiator key cycles through
Closed (default position at start) -> 2 -> 4 -> 6 -> 8 -> Open -> Closed, etc. That makes 6 different positions and then repeat.

In other words, Closed/Auto is an additional position that only some planes have. One group of planes have an even number of radiator steps, the other has an odd number of steps. Some aircraft types (for instance Fw190, Yak and possibly others) go from one group to the other as they evolve throughout the years and models. As an example, the macro for 'RadiatorClose' you showed in your post, with 5 key presses of 'R', will work as intended in the FW190-A types (no Auto/Close setting), but won't work well in the FW190-D9 which does have an Auto/Close setting. Same thing happens when going from an early Yak to the Yak3P or when switching from P51 (has auto) to a Zero (no auto) in the next sortie or mission and then to a Bf109 (has auto) in the next. One macro does not rule them all!

Of course, one could use two different macros for decreasing radiator setting in planes with/without auto radiator, but that would still make things complicated. If it is at all possible (programming-wise) for the developers to add the two incremental keys as explained in the first post, that would be a much simpler solution that would work in all cases.

Cheers,
S.

Originally Posted by Artist

I use Autohotkey for all key-mappings and I solved that for myself in the following way:

In IL-2 I mapped the 'r' to the radiator, so pressing 'r' repeatedly will cycle radiator through 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 0...

In Autohotkey I defined the following two functions:

MapCommand_RadiatorOpen:
    Send r
    return
MapCommand_RadiatorClose:
    Send rrrrr
    return

and map two keys or buttons to them respectively:

Hotkey, %iIdSelfMade1%Joy32, MapCommand_RadiatorOpen, On
Hotkey, %iIdSelfMade1%Joy17, MapCommand_RadiatorClose, On

Now one key/botton will open the radiator by one step and the other will close the radiator by one step.

Not perfect, but useful.

Artist

[Artist]

Hi Syrius,

Originally Posted by Syrius

a particular problem with the radiator control for different planes.

you're quite right: that's one of the reasons I concluded my post with "Not perfect, but useful." Naturally a solution by TD would be the optimum, I agree. My proposition was more of a "in the mean time" type

And "in this mean time" I use different Autohotkey-files for different planes.

Cheers,
Artist

[TheGrunch]

I would appreciate this too as I'd love to use the throttle mousewheel on my X-52 for radiator settings.

[WTE_Galway]

The axis mapping is a great improvement but not everyone has a spare control axis.


The current problem is this ...

Very few aircraft have a visual indication of radiator settings. yes, the Hurri does on the floor and in early 109s you can look at the wing and see the radiator opening and closing - but most IL2 aircraft provide no way of telling radiator position from the cockpit just by looking.

Hence if you are limited to keyboard controls only for the radiator and turn HUD messages off you have no way from cockpit view to tell the current radiator position once you forget what you last set it to.