Starting to make little progress

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by d.burnette

Hmm don't know if that information is dated or what, I have no such condition zero folder, or file, in the paths it is telling me in the Steam folder.

I have a key file I got for CLoD somewhere around here I guess, and have printed it out - I did not change too much at this point , so should be easy to go back in and manually change the ones I did.

Thanks,

condition zero was given just as an example game name

I have a key file you will not need that, all you will need is your registered name/password/and e-mail account...try doing a search if no one here responds to your requests for help right away. You may get more help and sooner if you post in the proper sub forum.

[d.burnette]

Thanks SlipBall,
The key file was just a document showing all the default keystrokes for their respective commands - plus some extras I guess, can't remember where I got it but it was a handy reference. Looks like it was put together by a particular squadron. No need now for me to reset to defaults, it would have been a nice feature to have in there though.

Anyway I stayed up late last night using this reference and going through a lot of controls and mapping keystrokes to them last night. I think I got all that at least I will need, and probably several I may never use.

Now I need to create my actual joystick file for my cougar, which would be the macro file containing all these key commands and their corresponding control actions, then the joystick file using this macro file and assigning which buttons do what.

I am getting there slowly but surely lol.

Thanks,

[d.burnette]

Originally Posted by mxmadman

You may not have this ability, but can still do something similar. Map all of your preflight keys in a sequence somewhere, like having 1 as fuel cock, 2 and 3 as magnetos, 4 as toggle sight illumination, and 5 as ignition.

This way you can't forget what to do, just hit the fly button and slam 1 2 3 4 5 in succession, and as long as your engine is in the proper start-up condition you'll be ready to go.

Hey mxmadman,

If I may, can I ask you to elaborate a little for me? I have been assigning keystrokes in the controller menu, actually got a lot of assigning done last night. Still have a ways to go though, as I still need to create my joystick file for my Cougar,but will be able to make use of a tremendous amount of buttons configurations.

Anyway in regards to starting the engine or engines. Obviously here in the early going, my main focus will be on single engine aircraft.

First:
The simple route - say having a button that simply does everything for you and fires the engine up - I am sure that exists, but I can not identify by what I read in the controller menu? I would like to have this mapped to a button for those lazy moments.

Second:
I am sure I will get more satisfaction by going through the actual routine as you stated above, and will have this method mapped to buttons close by on my stick, ie puncing 1 through 5 as you described.

I went back in the controller menu this morning, have begun assigning to keystrokes.
However, there are so many options it confuses me. Like in the magnetos you mention above, there is previous magneto regarding a specific engine number, next magneto, etc. I truly am unclear , with all the options available in there, what I truly need to assign to keystrokes and map to my stick? I see in addition, like a magneto toggle, etc. Same goes for things like fuel cock, radiator, oil radiator, etc...

I hate to ask for elaboration but I am really confused by all the choices... For this 5 step process as you mention, what exactly do I need to assign to complete that 5 step process?

Lastly, one of the steps you mention for starting engine is " toggle sight illumination". What is that in regards to starting engine? I do not see that command listed, at least under aircraft?

Sorry for my confusion and perhaps this is better suited in another subforum, just wanted to ask you directly here as you had already given me great tips to get me started in this control assignment daunting process..

Thanks for any help in this regard, it is truly appreciated! I really want to get much of this accomplished this weekend and actually get to spending some quality flying time with this sim in the upcoming days...

[addman]

Originally Posted by d.burnette

Hey mxmadman,

If I may, can I ask you to elaborate a little for me? I have been assigning keystrokes in the controller menu, actually got a lot of assigning done last night. Still have a ways to go though, as I still need to create my joystick file for my Cougar,but will be able to make use of a tremendous amount of buttons configurations.

Anyway in regards to starting the engine or engines. Obviously here in the early going, my main focus will be on single engine aircraft.

First:
The simple route - say having a button that simply does everything for you and fires the engine up - I am sure that exists, but I can not identify by what I read in the controller menu? I would like to have this mapped to a button for those lazy moments.

Second:
I am sure I will get more satisfaction by going through the actual routine as you stated above, and will have this method mapped to buttons close by on my stick, ie puncing 1 through 5 as you described.

I went back in the controller menu this morning, have begun assigning to keystrokes.
However, there are so many options it confuses me. Like in the magnetos you mention above, there is previous magneto regarding a specific engine number, next magneto, etc. I truly am unclear , with all the options available in there, what I truly need to assign to keystrokes and map to my stick? I see in addition, like a magneto toggle, etc. Same goes for things like fuel cock, radiator, oil radiator, etc...

I hate to ask for elaboration but I am really confused by all the choices... For this 5 step process as you mention, what exactly do I need to assign to complete that 5 step process?

Lastly, one of the steps you mention for starting engine is " toggle sight illumination". What is that in regards to starting engine? I do not see that command listed, at least under aircraft?

Sorry for my confusion and perhaps this is better suited in another subforum, just wanted to ask you directly here as you had already given me great tips to get me started in this control assignment daunting process..

Thanks for any help in this regard, it is truly appreciated! I really want to get much of this accomplished this weekend and actually get to spending some quality flying time with this sim in the upcoming days...

Forget about magnetos and forget about "toggle sight illumination", sight illumination is for turning the gunsight light on only you don't need to map them, they are not necessary for starting engines in this case. Generally speaking with regards to starting engines you only need to do the following:


1. Toggle fuel cock(s), some planes (like bombers) have more than 1 fuel cocks but most have only one. Assign a key to toggle fuel cock.

2. When you start many engines - not all - you need to have like 5-10% throttle so make sure you apply that amount before starting engines.

3. Simply press I or assign I to a button of your choice.

4. Multi engine planes, make sure you assign keys to "toggle engine 1", "toggle engine 2" etc because you can't start two engines at once, you need to select, for example, engine 1 first and do the start-up procedure then you toggle engine 2 and repeat the procedure there.

There are of course planes - like the Blenheim - that requires extra care when starting and warming engines up so make sure to read the gameplay forum from back to back, some really good help there.

I hope this helps, it takes time to assign buttons and get to know your setup but when you've sorted out irrelevant commands and used it for a few hours it will stick like glue. Setting up the controls and getting to know them is IMO the biggest hurdle to overcome for new players and it can be daunting for someone who doesn't fly sims a lot, the rewards far outweighs the steep cost of entry.

[d.burnette]

[QUOTE=addman;402551]

1. Toggle fuel cock(s), some planes (like bombers) have more than 1 fuel cocks but most have only one. Assign a key to toggle fuel cock.

2. When you start many engines - not all - you need to have like 5-10% throttle so make sure you apply that amount before starting engines.

3. Simply press I or assign I to a button of your choice.

4. Multi engine planes, make sure you assign keys to "toggle engine 1", "toggle engine 2" etc because you can't start two engines at once, you need to select, for example, engine 1 first and do the start-up procedure then you toggle engine 2 and repeat the procedure there.

QUOTE]

addman, very helpful and thank you sir for the quick response. That certainly simplifies it for me and not quite so overwhelming by what I see in the controller menu regarding engine start ups. Thanks for that info and for the tips.

I will go back into the controller menu and make sure my toggles are assigned to keys appropriately. Indeed this is a daunting task, mainly due to the fact that I am assigning keystrokes to a lot of controller comands that do not have them already- but when I write my joystick file, while I will have all those macros already in the macro file for it, I do not have to assign all of them to the buttons on my sticks - but will be available to me down the road should I wish to and would be a simple matter to add to the joystick itself. I am hoping " short term pain will equate to long term gain" for me.

Thank you again for the great info, I really appreciate it.

[d.burnette]

May I ask another much simpler question?

I notice while looking through the various controller menus, the M key is actually assigned to two different commands. Specifically, the Map toggle, and the Mirror toggle...

How can this be? I did not think one single key could be used for two different commands? Would not that keypress then generate, both the map toggle and the mirror toggle?

I believe so far, that is the only key that I have seen assigned to two different commands?

Thanks,

[d.burnette]

Originally Posted by addman

3. Simply press I or assign I to a button of your choice.

Well I have run across another question.
I am in the controls menu and have made the other necessary key assignments regarding the fuel cock toggles. I went ahead and assigned fuel cock toggles for engines 1-4 to have just in case.

I have looked through all the controls menu, and do not see an I assigned to any control function whatsoever. I fear in my early haste to go in and start assiging stuff a couple of days ago to try and get in the air sooner rather than later, I was mapping some stuff directly to my stick buttons versus using key presses like I will be doing now for my joystick file - I am afraid I must have erased the I command from the appropriate corresponding control function to start the engines.

Can you tell me which control function exactly, the I keypress is supposed to relate to, to start the engine?

Sorry for my ingnorance, again it is hard for me to tell which one it should apply to in the controls menu.

Thanks,

[bolox]

I = toggle selected engine(s)
in menu- like IL2 some of the names are not very intuitive

[d.burnette]

Originally Posted by bolox

I = toggle selected engine(s)
in menu- like IL2 some of the names are not very intuitive

Ok thank you very much, I had somehow wiped out that key press command. I have gone in and assigned "I" key, to Toggle Selected Engine(s - I would never have guessed that toggle selected engine would actually fire it up. Start Engine as the command would have worked better for my simplistic mind.

Ok so now I think I am set, once I get my joystick file compiled for all the key commands for the controls I have assigned.

Let me make sure I have this correct in my mind:
Once I am in the aircraft I will do the following to start my engine and get to taxiing, in this order- this list assuming I am in a single engine aircraft:
1: Select EngineOne
2: Toggle Fuel Cock#1
3: Move Throttle to app 10-15%
4: Toggle Selected Engine

That's it? Once these are done, ready to taxi and fly? No need to mess with radiators, magnetos, carburator heat, supercharges, mixture, prop rpm?
If so, that sounds very good to me - I can wrap my feeble mind around that just fine LOL.

ps: I did go ahead and assign selecting engine 1-4, fuel cock toggle engines 1-4, to have for the future if I need.

Thanks again,

[addman]

Originally Posted by d.burnette

Ok thank you very much, I had somehow wiped out that key press command. I have gone in and assigned "I" key, to Toggle Selected Engine(s - I would never have guessed that toggle selected engine would actually fire it up. Start Engine as the command would have worked better for my simplistic mind.

Ok so now I think I am set, once I get my joystick file compiled for all the key commands for the controls I have assigned.

Let me make sure I have this correct in my mind:
Once I am in the aircraft I will do the following to start my engine and get to taxiing, in this order- this list assuming I am in a single engine aircraft:
1: Select EngineOne
2: Toggle Fuel Cock#1
3: Move Throttle to app 10-15%
4: Toggle Selected Engine

That's it? Once these are done, ready to taxi and fly? No need to mess with radiators, magnetos, carburator heat, supercharges, mixture, prop rpm?
If so, that sounds very good to me - I can wrap my feeble mind around that just fine LOL.

ps: I did go ahead and assign selecting engine 1-4, fuel cock toggle engines 1-4, to have for the future if I need.

Thanks again,

That's pretty much it, superchargers you don't have to worry about until altitudes of 2500 m and up. I recommend assigning buttons to "supercharger next/previous stage". No need for magnetos messing about IMO. Mixture will be fine at default up until a certain altitude, you'll notice when your engine starts sputtering/belching black smoke (I think) then you need to lean out the mixture (lower it). Assign buttons to "increase/decrease mixture" and you're good, same goes for "open/close radiator", "open/close oil radiator". I only have these 2 button "add/decrease" setup for most of that stuff, same goes for prop pitch.