Feature Request: Control Settings per aircraft

  • Please add the capability to have different control bindings for different a/c vice all a/c with the same bindings.

    also

    Please add the capability to COPY a set of control bindings from one a/c to another so that you can setup say a twin engine a/c and copy all those bindings to all other twins.

  • We are against different control bindings per aircraft. Say you want to change the way you control the landing lights. Now you have to go through 20+ aircraft configurations to change just that? no thanks.

    We are looking into ways to assign axes differently for other aircraft. Main issue are single engine vs. multi engine aircraft. If we can offer a good solution then 90% of the things different bindings per aircraft would allow you do to are already covered by this. Typically there aren't that many differences between the aircraft, other than throttle, propeller speed, mixture and maybe airbrakes and condition levers. There really isn't much more that really justify different control bindings per aircraft. So generally: no, different control settings are more work for the user and are very confusing as well, not as practical from our point of view, there have to be better solutions for this.

    Can you please give us more examples here: What are you hoping to get out of a control setup per aircraft. What is is that can't be generalized for the type of aircraft but has to be for the specific aircraft itself. What would justify a different control setup for A C172 over a C172SP or a C152. Or an Airbus A320 vs. an A330. Or the Boeing 747 vs the A380, what is there that is so fundamentally different between these aircraft that you absolutely need a different assignment for each and every control input that you can have. Why would you for example want to rebind the simulation control or autopilot control etc. for different aircraft? (This is what you are asking for if you want different control assignments per aircraft!)

    Or are you ok with a more generic solution: For a single engine assigment like this, for twin engine like that... for multi-engine some logical extrapolation from the twin setup.

    You can already save the joystick configuration file somewhere else and replaces it with your existing one. Not an in-game option but I think that should work just fine if you are really into different control bindings. You'd have to restart the sim but the Aerofly but that is not that big a deal with the last loading times.

  • We are against different control bindings per aircraft. Say you want to change the way you control the landing lights. Now you have to go through 20+ aircraft configurations to change just that? no thanks.

    We are looking into ways to assign axes differently for other aircraft. Main issue are single engine vs. multi engine aircraft. If we can offer a good solution then 90% of the things different bindings per aircraft would allow you do to are already covered by this. Typically there aren't that many differences between the aircraft, other than throttle, propeller speed, mixture and maybe airbrakes and condition levers. There really isn't much more that really justify different control bindings per aircraft. So generally: no, different control settings are more work for the user and are very confusing as well, not as practical from our point of view, there have to be better solutions for this.

    Can you please give us more examples here: What are you hoping to get out of a control setup per aircraft. What is is that can't be generalized for the type of aircraft but has to be for the specific aircraft itself. What would justify a different control setup for A C172 over a C172SP or a C152. Or an Airbus A320 vs. an A330. Or the Boeing 747 vs the A380, what is there that is so fundamentally different between these aircraft that you absolutely need a different assignment for each and every control input that you can have. Why would you for example want to rebind the simulation control or autopilot control etc. for different aircraft? (This is what you are asking for if you want different control assignments per aircraft!)

    Or are you ok with a more generic solution: For a single engine assigment like this, for twin engine like that... for multi-engine some logical extrapolation from the twin setup.

    You can already save the joystick configuration file somewhere else and replaces it with your existing one. Not an in-game option but I think that should work just fine if you are really into different control bindings. You'd have to restart the sim but the Aerofly but that is not that big a deal with the last loading times.

    I think you missed the point of this.

    If you fly aircraft of similar types in your example C172 and C172SP, you would simply copy the controls from one to the other. BUT when you are talking about setting up a C172 vice a 747, there are a ton of differences.

    I have different controllers for different aircraft. I have a YOKE and a joystick. So when I fly the 737 I use the yoke, when I use the F18 I use a joystick.

    I fly Xplane as well and that has an addon for different controls for each aircraft and it is a godsend. No need to reprogram for different aircraft when I switch a/c

    Which do you think is more likely to occur, Switching a/c or changing the landing lights (per your example). I strongly suggest people will switch a/c on a daily basis, changing how one control operates will not occur very often once you have it set up.

  • I think you missed the point of this.

    If you fly aircraft of similar types in your example C172 and C172SP, you would simply copy the controls from one to the other. BUT when you are talking about setting up a C172 vice a 747, there are a ton of differences.

    I have different controllers for different aircraft. I have a YOKE and a joystick. So when I fly the 737 I use the yoke, when I use the F18 I use a joystick.

    I fly Xplane as well and that has an addon for different controls for each aircraft and it is a godsend. No need to reprogram for different aircraft when I switch a/c

    Which do you think is more likely to occur, Switching a/c or changing the landing lights (per your example). I strongly suggest people will switch a/c on a daily basis, changing how one control operates will not occur very often once you have it set up.

    The ultimate goal for the current controller settings is to make it easy for the majority of the user base out there. Adding complexity, like Jan mentioned above, will make things very confusing for many users out there. We will improve upon what already exists regarding controller settings but not likely to the extreme that you are suggesting.

    IPACS Development Team Member

    I'm just a cook, I don't own the restaurant.
    On behalf of Torsten, Marc, and the rest of the IPACS team, we would all like to thank you for your continued support.

    Regards,

    Jeff

  • The ultimate goal for the current controller settings is to make it easy for the majority of the user base out there. Adding complexity, like Jan mentioned above, will make things very confusing for many users out there. We will improve upon what already exists regarding controller settings but not likely to the extreme that you are suggesting.

    If you have xplane I would implore you to download the plugin that allows unique settings per aircraft and try it for a while. I promise that you won't go back

    My issue with the person above using the 'changing the landing light' example is that he is justifying his answer with an outlier example, something that you won't do hardly ever YET you will switch a/c all the time probably every single day. Right now , when you switch a/c , you have to go in and make sure your controls are proper for a single engine or twin or 4 depending on which a/c you select and you will do this every day.

    The solution is to put ALL settings for all a/c in ONE FILE by using markup tags to separate the a/c. This way it becomes very easy to change that landing light setting by cutting and pasting OR by doing in the game. IOW when you change a setting on one a/c you can have a choice to change it on specific a/c.

  • So you actually don't want a setting per aircraft you want 90% identical controls then.

    If I understand you correctly you want a different behavior of your main controls like joystick, yoke, throttle quadrant, pedals maybe, etc. for the main analog inputs like elevator, aileron, rudder, throttle, mixture and propeller speed, tiller (and maybe a few others). But that is not the same as having separate control settings per aircraft. There are some major downsides to doing actual individual assignments per aircraft. One being that for each assignment you make you'd have to decide: is that a global change or is that just for that one particular aircraft? And you'd have to do that for each and every control assignment that you are able to make, that is just too confusing and that is not something we aim to do.

    Our ideal solution for the control assignments is based one "master" assignment. If you make changes there then it affects all aircraft. For example if you go into the setting and assign one joystick axis as your "throttle" then all throttle axes (1 to 4) will be assigned by this new input. (You may of course deviate from this or just reassign throttle axis for engine 1...) but if you assign something it should work in all aircraft! Barely anyone is willing to go through each and every aircraft setup and repeat the assignment. And if you add options like "apply to all aircraft" you quickly confuse users or accidentally overwrite settings that you didn't want to. Then you'd need to be able to undo such action and it just gets more and more confusing and not straight forward. So we will stick to a solution that is simple to use for anyone, not just the experts.

    Additionally we want to offer more customization options for more experienced users. If you want to create a setup for single, twin or multi-engine aircraft (maybe even distinguish between jets, props and turboprop,...) then you should be allowed to create a deviation from this master assignment. E.g. for an aircraft like the A320 you could have the left throttle lever and right throttle lever control the left and right engine thrust. But for a single engine aircraft you could have one lever control power and the other control mixture or propeller speed. For a glider you could assign airbrakes on one axis and maybe flaps on the other. And for aircraft like the Q400 you might desire one lever for power and one for propellerspeed / condition lever. But these changes are mostly local, mostly affecting the few main controls mentioned above.

    We have already thought about this in the past and discussed a couple of issues that each possible solution comes with. We have found a way that could work great and we might implement that in the future. Give us some time to think about it some more and come up with a good solution that works for us and that is easy to use for beginners but offers great customization for experts. :)

    In the mean time:

    You can already assign multiple devices for the same controls:

    First assign your joystick to elevator and aileron,

    then assign your yoke for them.

    Now if you want to fly with with stick again just unplug the yoke or go into the settings, click on the yoke icon in the bottom and disable the device. Then your stick is master again. This can be quite powerful and may already offer something in the direction you are looking for.

  • I second this request. I've got a yoke, joystick, a HOTAS throttle, two different throttle quadrants, and a couple of switch panels. If I want to use the yoke and throttle quadrant for the Cessna after flying the F-15 with HOTAS, that involves rebinding all of the axes and some buttons EVERY TIME I SWITCH AIRPLANES. That's considerably more tedious than having to set up individual airplane profiles ONCE. Yes I can double bind the axes, but potentiometers wear out and occasionally spike on the unused devices, which can deflect the controls in an undesired direction or put the sim in a position where it's getting two rapidly changing axis values. To be flyable, the secondary bind really needs to be disabled, so again I'm back in the controls panel every time I switch airplanes.

    Per Aircraft control profiles are something that both FSX/P3D and X-Plane have had for years via addons (FSUIPC on the FSX side), and a large part of the community makes uses of these mods for switching between different sets of controls. DCS also has this feature built into the controls menu, and X-Plane is adding native support for it in one of the upcoming betas. While I appreciate your desire to keep the controls menu clean and simple, the OPTION to have per aircraft control configs for more experienced users would add greatly to the enjoyment of the Sim and remove a lot of tedium for us simmers with different controllers. Perhaps a checkbox at the bottom - [] Use a different control configuration for each aircraft. Then if you check the box you get a dropdown box at the top with all the available airplanes listed and an extra button to "Copy the general controls to this aircraft".

  • Same here :)

    have also throuble, dont know how to use in the Extra my stick and left hand power ....

    in Cessna the yoke and throttle quadrant right side ...in jet left powerthrottle and stick ...and so on ...

  • I second this request. I've got a yoke, joystick, a HOTAS throttle, two different throttle quadrants, and a couple of switch panels. If I want to use the yoke and throttle quadrant for the Cessna after flying the F-15 with HOTAS, that involves rebinding all of the axes and some buttons EVERY TIME I SWITCH AIRPLANES. That's considerably more tedious than having to set up individual airplane profiles ONCE. Yes I can double bind the axes, but potentiometers wear out and occasionally spike on the unused devices, which can deflect the controls in an undesired direction or put the sim in a position where it's getting two rapidly changing axis values. To be flyable, the secondary bind really needs to be disabled, so again I'm back in the controls panel every time I switch airplanes.

    Per Aircraft control profiles are something that both FSX/P3D and X-Plane have had for years via addons (FSUIPC on the FSX side), and a large part of the community makes uses of these mods for switching between different sets of controls. DCS also has this feature built into the controls menu, and X-Plane is adding native support for it in one of the upcoming betas. While I appreciate your desire to keep the controls menu clean and simple, the OPTION to have per aircraft control configs for more experienced users would add greatly to the enjoyment of the Sim and remove a lot of tedium for us simmers with different controllers. Perhaps a checkbox at the bottom - [] Use a different control configuration for each aircraft. Then if you check the box you get a dropdown box at the top with all the available airplanes listed and an extra button to "Copy the general controls to this aircraft".

    Can you please tell us exactly what controls you are rebinding? For our research purposes we need to know what controls you need to be able to reassign. Is that just throttle, mixture, prop-speed, maybe flaps and spoilers or is there more? What switches are you changing (landing lights, NAV swap/step, heading bug, flap up/down, parking brake, view controls, simulation controls?