Hide/Show Yoke?

1st Official Post

    Is there currently functionality to hide/show the yoke on applicable aircraft?

    I suspect not at present, so if this is the case I would like to request this be considered for inclusion in a list of future enhancements. Better visibility of instruments/switches (particularly in 2D) as well as the realism when using a hardware yoke is my primary reason for request. I ponder if this is similar programming as would be needed for the addition of wheel chocks/engine bay panels/pitot covers/opening doors/windows etc so I understand it may be a long time coming or perhaps best left to 3rd party developers for now; nonetheless I thought I would ask.

    Thanks!

    Hi,

    This feature is implemented in the C172 "unofficial" mod made available here in the downloads section.

    I didn't check in detail how it is actually implemented, I assume a switch must be defined in the controls and linked to the yoke visibility in the tmd file.

    I'd assume one can modify each aircraft accordingly with some trial and error.

    It would be good anyway IPACS to make this feature standard.

    Cheers

    Antoine

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    • Official Post

    Hi,

    my mod is once again outdated and due to the changes to the default cessna, which is now also cold and dark, I have to do a bit more programming to get my mod up to date, which I haven't had the time for. Maybe today :)

    If you already have the mod you can copy the default tmd file and paste it in the mod's folder. Then delete the mod's tmd file and rename the copied tmd so that you essentially replace the c172mod.tmd with the c172.tmd. When you keep the controls.tmd you will have at least one yoke that you can hide and you should also be able to open the doors.

    But back to the original question:

    I have prepared a yoke hide/show feature on couple of aircraft: C172, B737, LJ45 (and maybe one more that I forgot, maybe q400, I don't remember). You can manually edit the controls.tmd files of these aircraft and un-comment the section for the yoke hide. But that could be reset with an update to the Aerofly.

    If we wanted to do a yoke hide feature I'd have to do it for all aircraft that have a yoke. That is not a big problem on its own but what do we do for the pilot animation? The hand then has to do something else instead of grabbing the yoke. Also if we ever want to grab the yoke with VR controllers then we have to make sure that you aren't grabbing an invisible yoke, too. And on top of that we should probably make it look nice even with the yoke removed. There shouldn't be a hole in the panel... so we would need to change a couple of models for this.

    So there is more to it than you might think. And that is one reason why we haven't done this yet. But it is on our long long list and I think it is a nice addition to see what is behind the yoke. Good thing is: all aircraft with a good real world cockpit design (e.g. side stick) don't have this problem 8o

    At the moment I don't think there have been that many requests for this, if you would like to see yoke hide/show, go ahead an like the original post or this one here, that might speed things up :D

    Very good, thanks for the response and follow-up info guys. In the meantime, I may try playing around with control.tmd files as suggested - regardless, thanks for the work to date; somewhere down the line I may be surprised to find it has been included in an update/download somewhere ;).

    • Official Post
    Quote from uoutoftoon

    Very good, thanks for the response and follow-up info guys. In the meantime, I may try playing around with control.tmd files as suggested - regardless, thanks for the work to date; somewhere down the line I may be surprised to find it has been included in an update/download somewhere ;).

    Just make sure not to touch the original file or you risk loosing the default C172 or your work will be overwritten with the next update...

    My thanks to IPACS for their outstanding update in July 2018! This update included the addition of Hide/Show yoke click spots in applicable aircraft. Not only does it function as I was hoping,to provide better visibility of gauges and switches for those of us who like that option, but they went so far as to make each yoke hide independently in aircraft that feature a co-pilot seat. This attention to detail and response to user feedback/requests is something we should recognize and commended them on!

    Long live AFS2!