Help.

[toddrf]

I just broke down and bought a MS Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 and I need some ideas on how to configure it.

Anyone with experience with this joystick I would appreciate your suggestions.

Todd :-wave

PS I can make anyone that wants it a very nice deal on a Ch products Flight Sim yoke USB

[PeteStepanoff]

Which yoke is it? 1 or 3 levers? I might be interested in it. I just bought USB Pro pedals, using it with the Gameport Yoke.
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...cb6d3682a2.jpg

[JonP01]

Oh my goodness. Seeing as with 99 out of every 100 posts Todd makes, he is helping everyone else, this is pretty rare ;-) :-lol

I may be able to help a little. I have used the joystick before but I just use the Precision 2 now instead. Unfortunately my machine can't handle the processing load. Your Pentium 4 can, or should at least cope a lot better than my machine.

I'm not quite sure what configuration help you might need, but I can tell you my experience with the MS FF software and hardware in general. I still happily use the FF wheel for motor sport and again the concept is pretty similar.

1. Do you actually want to use force feedback? This might seem a rhetorical question, but indeed your new joystick is excellent to use without force feedback, due to it's superbly engineered and smooth, damped mechanism. It might also reduce muscular strain, but then again some people might prefer to experience a bit of resistance. You will get a small but noticeable performance drop using FF and there is little you can do about it. This will be worst during landings. I recommend you look at my other post here about removing ground roll sounds, as this will help your machine cope with the huge processing load it faces when you land your aircraft. The trade off with the performance loss is that the MS FF products provide a wonderfully subtle array of feedback sensations and I've not experienced anything like them with a any other product.

2. Using force feedback. I've always found this hardware series are much better on lower levels of force feedback. Some people really go gung ho with the feedback, but I believe small, subtle forces are much, much better. You can either set the feedback at it's lowest setting through the Sidewinder Systray applet in combination with higher force settings from within the FS2002 interface, or vice versa. I've generally found the former combination to work well. You should also seriously consider NOT using the automatic self centering. Otherwise this tends to mask the subtle forces you feel when you initially move a control surface and it meets the resistance of the air flow. I would not check that checkbox in a fit. Ever.

3. Programming button assignments. I love the macro capability of the Sidewinder software. I have set every button for a particular purpose and this enables me to do a lot of hands on flying without reaching for the keyboard too often. I try to keep away from the keyboard as much as I can. This is mainly because I usually fly in a darkened room and if this is during a simulated night flight - well - it's pretty dark all round.

My button assignments are as follows:

1. Trigger. This has a programmed macro to automatically load the view bitmap views for the 2D panels at the start of a flight. I press the trigger once, and it sequentially loads of each of the views in turn. This prevents any "waiting time" for view loading once I am flying proper.

2. POV Hat switch. AS per defaults. Panning. I didn't have to do anything here.

3. Button 2. Brakes (left and right together). A simple press of the right thumb stops my aircraft plummeting off the end of the runway. Once I'm in taxi mode, I just use the keyboard for differential braking.

4. Button 3. Toggles the ATC screen on or off. This is really comfortable as my left hand is free to make the appropriate ATC selections on the keyboard.

5. Button 4. Toggles GPS on or off. It's nice just to hit a single button right next to your thumb so as to confirm your location once in q while during IFR flying.

6. Button 5. I have programmed the key "z" into this button. In the FS2002 UI, I allocated the "z" key to "Cycle Views". So button 5 is effectively performing a "Cycle Views" command.

7. Button 6. I have programmed the key press "w" into this button.

8. Button 7. I have programmed the macro key press of "z" followed by another "z" into this button.

9. Button 8. I have programmed the macro key press of "w" followed by "Shift" and "1" together.


Buttons 5 to 8 work as follows:

When flying from the 2D cockpit, I press button 7. This moves me straight to Spot View. To get back from Spot View into the cockpit, I press button 5. This is intuitive as the buttons are opposite each other. Again, from the 2D cockpit view, I press button 6 to gain the full ahead view without the panel but with the primary instrument mini panel along the bottom of the screen. To get back into the cockpit from this view, I press button 8. Again, this is intuitive as the buttons are again opposite each other. To get to the Tower view, I simply press "z" on the keyboard. To get back into the cockpit from this view, I simply press button 7.

I've used a similar setup for CFS2 for a long time now and it feels very comfortable. Obviously a couple of buttons have different assignments due to the nature of CFS2.

This leaves the keyboard for things such as gear, flaps, etc that are used only at the beginning and end of flights. For anything else, I simply pause the simulation and make the appropriate change on the 2D panel using the mouse, then re-start the simulation once again.

I hope this is helpful in getting an idea of how at least one setup is successfully working :-)

[toddrf]

Three levers and used very little

As strange as it might seem I don't like using a yoke in FS. Yokes are fine for real, but set up as a sidestick the joystick works very nicely. GASP!?! Perhaps the French have finally gotten something right, although General Dynamics did it before they did.

So the FS Yoke USB three levers needs a good home.

Todd :-wave

[toddrf]

I actually have a Sidewinder Joystick that I love because of its simplicity. I only bought the FF2 because it was novel and I thought that it would be fun to experiment with in FS2002.

I'll try your suggestions, but if it doesn't pan out I'll go back to simple stick.

Thanks

Todd :-wave

[ecco123]

Hi, yesterday i also went out and bought a sidewinder ready for the relase of FS2002, because i wasnt happy with my original saitek cyborg. Im having a lot of trouble with it at the moment. I have a post about it a little futhur down the board, but dont seem to be gtting much response - PLEASE HELP. Here is the original message :-

I just bought a new precision 2 joystick ready for when i get a copy of fs2002 but i cannot get it to work. How hard can it be to install a joystick?!?! I run the install program as the instruction manual says, the software installs okay then it moves onto connection and testing. The screen says connect the joystick to the USB port - so I do. A grey windows box then appears saying 'detected new hardware precision 2 - windows is now intalling the software etc' once this happens i click next on the setup screen and i get 'Setup is unable to detirmine wether the joystick is connected blah blah'. WHY DO I GET THIS HORRIBLE MESSAGE?? I have tried both USB ports on my comuter - both with the same results. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling etc. The first time i installed the joystick i got as far as a promp to insert my windows 98 cd - then i got the blue screen because i removed the damn installation cd!! I thought microsoft of all people could make a simple install! I have also checked my device manager - all USB port working correctly and under game controllers the Precision 2 is listed. So why does it not work. I tried setting up the joystick manually using control panel. However the stick is not in the list and i cannot find the drivers on either the installation disk or the windows 98 disk. PLEASE HELP. Sorry for such a long boring complaint!
Cheers
Steve
If anyone has the driver to send to me that would be useful.

[PeteStepanoff]

Hi Todd,
A good, loving home is available for the yoke.:-)
Check your Private messages.

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