Released: Multi-Throttle Support for IL-2

[MikkOwl]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I hope you can incorporate that into the next update.. That's a great feature... especially the radiator axis...

I will put it back, fuel mix too. I mainly took them out before because it was a mammoth sized job to upgrade the whole thing to a more user friendly level (config free setup) and the documentation. I was afraid I would never finish that update if I had to do it for all features, so I prioritized.

Regarding radiator on axis (with bonus unecessary exposition! ): I found a Bf 110 manual from WW2 yesterday, written in English (it was based on captured specimens by the British who tested it and wrote a manual for their own pilots on how to use it). It had separate coolant radiator settings AND seperate oil cooler levers. In the game I noticed that when messing with the coolant radiator settings, the oil cooler levers actually moved separately. But like everything else, their setting copied themselves over to the other engine whenever selecting another. But hey, neat, separate radiators at least. Wonder if Team Daidalos will bother implementing the radiators separately or not (going to have to ask them). They do have radiator on axis, but their test vid showed the radiator levers moving in unison, as if not separate for each engine.


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New features planned for version 3.3:

1. Radiator and fuel mix making a return
2. Possibility of prop pitch (because I have an itch for that).
3. Toe brakes (which have to manipulate the rudder to work properly on the ground) no longer manipulates rudder during take off, in flight, or landing.
4. Possibly .ini free setup method for individual engine buttons (toggle & feather).
5. Separate engine kill switches.

[Bearcat]

I actually have better simulated differential braking (better than stock) by changing a few lines in my User folder @ C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\Users\wells. When you use rudder pedals and set your brake axis it will become either an X or a Y depending on which toe brake you press (L or R).. what ever it becomes.. just add the other line (If X add Y, if Y add X) and then make it a read only file and it wont change. I lie your idea better though...

[HotKey move]
AXE_RX JoystickDevice2=trimaileron
AXE_RX JoystickDevice1=trimrudder
AXE_RZ JoystickDevice2=rudder
AXE_U JoystickDevice1=-power
AXE_U JoystickDevice0=-pitch
AXE_V JoystickDevice1=-trimelevator
AXE_X JoystickDevice2=brakes
AXE_Y JoystickDevice2=brakes
AXE_X JoystickDevice0=aileron
AXE_Y JoystickDevice0=elevator

[MikkOwl]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

I actually have better simulated differential braking (better than stock) by changing a few lines in my User folder @ C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\Users\wells. When you use rudder pedals and set your brake axis it will become either an X or a Y depending on which toe brake you press (L or R).. what ever it becomes.. just add the other line (If X add Y, if Y add X) and then make it a read only file and it wont change.

Won't that make moving the rudder (no matter the situation) also apply braking? I thought of this back before I had the G940, but thought that taking off (where plenty of rudder deflection is necessary on many planes) this would result in braking, slowing the plane down, as well as braking on the side the rudder is turning toward.

Right now I'm trying to figure out if I can somehow send and recieve UDP packets (the communication method of devicelink) directly, without netcat. That would open up some possibilities with all kinds of things.

[Bearcat]

No... you still have to press the brake.. but now you have brakes in either pedal.. because the brakes are modeled on an axis and rudder pedals have 2 toe axii (L & R) it would only allow one or the other.. so if say you had the left one active.. youd be turning right and pressing with the left.. This way, brakes are modeled in either foot.. so while you have to still turn the rudder to brake.. you can achieve better simulated differential braking because you can pres the toe brake in the pedal you are using in the turn.

[MikkOwl]

Aha, using toe brakes! Then it makes sense.

Mine measures both wheel brakes, checks which one is braking more at the moment and assigns that as 'brake power'. Then it checks the difference between the toe brakes - if they are level (no matter how much pressed) then it sets the rudder to be straight. If one is more pressed than the other, the rudder is manipulated accordingly in the direction of the toe brake being pressed more.

They also exaggerate the rudder movement if one toe brake is not touched at all (so one can turn and not come to a halt even when braking only gently on one brake under low engine power and slow forward movement).

And some success! Managed to read the replies from devicelink. Now I should be able to get the G940 led lights to react to info from IL-2 instead of guesswork!

[MikkOwl]

I've managed to read the responses from DeviceLink with my program now (complicaaaated). I've also managed to control the G940 led lights using info from IL-2. All this I'm going to put out in the next version (possibly labeled 4.0).

What can be read is mostly relevant to G940 users, as it can be used to control the 8 throttle button background lighting. But they can be useful for others too, completely safe to use online as it's not a mod.

If anyone can think of any good use relating to these things available, then post it. Who knows, maybe it's a brilliant idea.

The following systems are allowed to be read (which is relevant to any utility like this one) in multiplayer.

Trim positions. This is useful for G940 owners. I intend to make the G940 buttons be usable as indicators for if a trim is centered or not, just like many real WW2 era aircraft (Try the PE-3 for example to see)). Should be a welcome addition as it is impossible to see or feel that a trim wheel is centered on the G940. And it is realistic too.

Landing Gear. Not a big deal, because all aircraft pretty much have clearly marked gear indicators on the dashboard that work. But hey, why not. This will also come in handy with the toe brakes - if the gears are up, the plane must be airborne and the toe brake rudder manipulation can be completely disabled. In combination with the tail wheel below, the toe brake system will only be manipulating the rudder when the tail is unlocked and the gears are down.

Tail wheel. This one is great, because I hate seeing that 'tail wheel locked/unlocked' on the HUD, and I removed it ages ago. So much more realistic this way.

Arrestor hook. Useful - can get rid of hook helmet mounted display message, and most aircraft don't have any indicator nor sound effect at all regarding the arrestor hook.

Chocks. Not useful. If the plane does not move, it is obvious the chocks must be on.

Flaps position (unknown at this point if it is the position of your axis or the actual flaps. The two can be significantly different so I hope the latter). Could be used for adding that chiming repeating horn in the Bf 110 if flaps are down but gears are not (yes, that's how it works). I know the Bf 109 is like that in the modified versions of IL-2 I use but I don't know about the stock versions. As it's not a mod to do it this way, it is good. I could make flaps that work just like the real Bf 110: two pull switches. Pull one out, and the flaps start moving in that direction until reaching the max position. To have the flaps in a position other than completely up or down, one has to push in the switch a bit, which will make them stop in their tracks. The flap position indicator of the Bf 110 doesn't exist in IL-2's cockpit, but I can make the G940, which has lights, show different colors depending on the position (To understand how this would work, have a go in the Ju 88 and look at your lower left panel while manipulating the flaps. Three lights, same color as G940 leds).

War Emergency Power (WEP). This one is very cool because practically NO planes at all have indicators for WEP (the ones that do are pretty much all american fighters with auto-wep that lights up if throttle is beyond a certain position). I already added nice support for this for the G940 (and could make it useful for non G940 users as well somehow, sound effect maybe): it currently blinks a button on my throttle red for as long as WEP is activated. I love it! It is impossible not to notice and an urgent reminder to turn it the hell off when you don't absolutely need it anymore. Best of all, being able to ditch that ugly, awful, immersion breaking "NAAAAWZ ENGAGED!!!!!!" constantly glowing in the mid right part of the screen.

Magneto position. This one is truly useless for three big reasons: Have to select the engine in question, to even be able to send a query to IL-2 (it works that way) so IL-2 can send back a reply with the status of that engine's Magnetos. This is a big problem because selecting an engine makes it take on every single setting of the previous engine selected, requiring an update of all it's systems to be re-done. Secondly, messing with the magnetos is dangerous because if it is set to none, and then another engine is selected, it will stop that other engine too (as it's magnetos are set to off as well). Thirdly, magnetos serve no useful purpose even if they worked well.

Level Stabilizer. A minor thing, practically useless. Because anyone likely to use level stabilizer is going to heavly be manipulating the bomb sight, which has no proper graphical interface or interaction other than keypresses and a helmet mounted display projection showing the current settings of the bomb sight. To be able to eliminate a single HUD message in this context is akin to a water drop in the ocean.

Supercharger stage. Maybe not entirely useless. I don't fly any aircraft that have superchargers, but the times I have tried (without HUDLOG) it would have been nice to have some kind of sound effect at the very least to tell me what mode it was just put into, and if it can't move into a higher or lower stage than current.

Propeller feathered or not. Nice to have, as there's no indicators for that in terms of graphical switches or markers in cockpits. Only some aircraft let you see the blade angle being a certain way. Unfortunately it is very difficult to check because the engine being checked must actually be selected in the process, bringing the problems mentioned for magnetos mentioned earlier. Sooo.. have to think of something. Glad to be rid of the Helmet Mounted Display message saying "Engine 1: un-feathered" at least. Can display it in color on the G940.

Air Brake. Not the most useful thing around, few aircraft have air brakes, and it is quite obvious if the air brake is engaged even without any sound effects or instruments. Still, why not, for the man with a bad Junkers addiction. Technically I can manipulate trims or even controls when air brake is deployed, if there's something unrealistic going on in how the game treats air brakes in some aircraft.

Gun pod on/off. This one must be 100% useless. Is there any time, ever, that the gun pod toggle is useful for anything? It doesn't even work most of the time.

Wing fold. Useless? I think so. One can just look out the window to see if they are folded or not.

Canopy (open or not). Mostly useless. Although I could play a loud wind noise effect if it is open and the plane is (probably) airborne. Not that people fly around with it open or would want a loud wind noise effect anyway.

Prop. Pitch. Could possibly be used in some way for multi-prop pitch use before the official 4.10 patch, but I doubt it'll be worth trying. Then it would be checking if the plane prop pitch was in the same position as the controller lever for that engine, and forcing another update if not (the biggest problem for dual prop pitch is making them not move around constantly to match the other engine due to the engine selection problem inherent in IL-2).

Throttle. Useless.

Time of day. Useless.

Plane type. Could be relevant to adjusting some functions to if the plane has them or not, but I don't really see how. I don't think it tells what kind of loadout the plane has either, making it even less useful.

Number of engines. Useless.

________

The list is severely lacking. One cannot even check if an engine is even turned on or not or if the aircraft is airborne or standing still! Can't see anything about fuel mixture, radiators, temperatures, fuel drop tank, ammo counters, dropped bombs, low fuel warning. Can't even check if the plane is airborne. Only check if gears are up and assume it must be flying then. For this reason I cannot even make the G940 button lights show if the engine is turned on or off.[IMG]chrome://dictionarytip/skin/book.png[/IMG]

[MikkOwl]

Multi-Throttle 4.0 is done.

http://hem.bredband.net/mikko.artist...by_MikkOwl.zip

I'm working on writing the updated forum text, edit first post etc (not just this but several forums) but I'm so incredibly exhausted from trying to get it done so it may be a bit slow. But the link is here at least. I thought I would post it here first.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where the brakes would not release fully when having used the toe brakes.
- Fixed a bug where if both toe brakes were pressed completely the brakes would set to zero.

Changes & Tweaks & New stuff:
- Can now close all windows it creates when exiting (ALT-E).
- Can now detect if user is in an aircraft and at the controls. Does not try to send any commands if escaped, not in control of the aircraft's flight controls, bailed out, main menu (being alt-tabbed does not count).
- Toe brakes no longer manipulate the rudder (for differential braking function) if either the tail-wheel is locked or the landing gear is retracted (no more accidents for some of you and landings should be much be more stable).
- Added ability to detecting button presses for setting up individual engine key controls (start & feather prop).
- Added support for trims (in order to make new trim tweaking possible). Assign any axis to any trim.
- Added ability to limit the range of trims for a much smoother, accurate, realistic and relaxed trim experience (all IL-2 aircraft have an enormous trim range in all directions, but our controllers do not = hypersensitive trimming).
- Added feature to off-set the trims to either side (most aircraft only need to trim the rudder/ailerons in one direction, meaning the other 50% is wasted movement range on our controllers and making trimming twitchier).
- Replaced the dozens of individual config executables with a single, graphical user interface setup program (phew.......). The Setup folder is also gone. G940_tweaks.ini merged into mikkonfig.ini and moved to DATA folder.
- Ability to assign any of the G940 trim wheels to any trims in-game instead of just R1 and R2 to Rudder-Elevator. With reversal bug removal extended to these other trims.
- Radiator support is back (the code is revised but no full setup program support - edit the .ini file if you really want to use it).
- Dual Prop. pitch support.
- Support for G940 throttle button LEDs for IL-2! (Am I the man or what? Logitech owes me a paycheck and you G940 users especially owe me a donation ).
- Bonus: As information from devicelink and IL-2 is limited, wrote program functions to 'guesstimate' certain functions in order to provide more realistic LED behaviour.
- Bonus: One of the extra functions is a flap position indicator light, like the one in the Ju-88 A-4.
- Bonus: Like the real world Pe-2 and Pe-3, a LED button can now light up when the rudder trim is centered. (Knowing when the important rudder trim is centered can be difficult, especially on the G940 and even more with the new trim tweak abilities. Especially important for take-off).