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lobsterminator posted:Are you required to disclose your sex offender register status on VATSIM? new thread title
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Apr 26, 2024 13:01
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froody guy posted:But did they ever ask for an ID?
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Apr 26, 2024 15:51
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lobsterminator posted:Are you required to disclose your sex offender register status on VATSIM? you have to inform each controller during your flight and they give you a nonce code to squawk
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Apr 26, 2024 16:07
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VATSIM also just doesn't have time to deal with checking ID. There can be thousands of players connected at any one time and more join every day. They are from all over the world and can be almost any age. The few supervisors won't even notice you unless you try hard to be an rear end in a top hat. And even if you are they'll just give you a warning or time out.
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Apr 26, 2024 16:14
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lobsterminator posted:Are you required to disclose your sex offender register status on VATSIM? That Works posted:Make sure that the parent directories are not marked "Read Only" is my only guess there. It's a default tree structure going in the user documents location. IE: C:/users/slidebite/documents/little navmap I manually went in there and created a directory called "little Navamap Files" and it still didn't work. I have tons of other directories in there from other games and programs though, so I don't know wtf. I certainly didn't do anything special when I installed Orcs must Die but it has a directory in there just fine. e: Fixed. Controlled app access in windows slidebite fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Apr 26, 2024 |
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Apr 26, 2024 16:26
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That Works posted:Yall might not be ready for this but “That Works, PhD” is not my real name I listed you as a reference to get my job with that name....
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Apr 26, 2024 21:55
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Cojawfee posted:I listed you as a reference to get my job with that name.... 
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Apr 26, 2024 22:08
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froody guy posted:It's still considered 'gaming' isn't it? That's the thing, some people take their pixel planes very seriously. Not even kidding there's a bunch of weirdos who get offended when you call their simulation a 'game'. Ignore all of that nonsense and please enjoy yourself.
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Apr 27, 2024 14:31
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Finnair suspends flights to Tartu, Estonia because of GPS jamming on landingquote:The cause of the GPS interference that forced the two flights to return to Helsinki last Thursday and Friday was not immediately known, but Estonian officials blame GPS jamming in the region on Russia. Can't jam ILS! (can you jam ILS?)
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Apr 29, 2024 21:51
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you could probably jam it by flooding the frequencies though spoofing it would probably require more effort
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Apr 29, 2024 21:57
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Squiggle posted:Finnair suspends flights to Tartu, Estonia because of GPS jamming on landing You can definitely jam ILS, it’s just a modulated radio signal.
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Apr 29, 2024 21:58
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Well, they shouldn't!!
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Apr 29, 2024 22:02
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Anyone having trouble starting MSFS? Upon start up, I get a "checking for updates" splash, and just sits there. Several minutes so far.
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Apr 29, 2024 22:12
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Squiggle posted:Finnair suspends flights to Tartu, Estonia because of GPS jamming on landing Die Hard 2
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Apr 29, 2024 22:35
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I don't know Tartu airport, but Tallinn is the bigger city and landing there was almost the most terrifying end of a flight I've ever encountered. I swear the wing was less than a foot from hitting the ground in some terrible cross-wind. The worst was landing in Lisbon ... I had just finished telling my wife during terrible turbulence while landing to just watch the flight attendants -- they know when things are bad. Then they started freaking the gently caress out.
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Apr 30, 2024 02:08
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JayKay posted:Die Hard 2 My first thought there lol
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Apr 30, 2024 02:19
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I know the Hot Start Challenger simulates GPS jamming. I wonder what would happen if you tried to fly it to Tartu.
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Apr 30, 2024 02:48
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When talking about the throttle + grip + base combo, I always thought it was better to get them all from the same manufacturer (ok, the base + grip one is a given) but is that true? Has anyone tried mixing them up and is there any sort of issue with usability, conflicting drivers, problems with managing profiles and maps...? Talking about software, is there a brand among the 'big three' Winwing, Virpil and VKB that is clearly better or worse than the others? In terms of customization, map management, easy of use, regular update and bugfixes... Time to ditch this CH bulky pieces of plastics.
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Apr 30, 2024 17:01
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Kalman posted:You can definitely jam ILS, it’s just a modulated radio signal. You can also park a truck next to it, enough metal will interfere with the beam.
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Apr 30, 2024 17:04
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froody guy posted:Talking about software, is there a brand among the 'big three' Winwing, Virpil and VKB that is clearly better or worse than the others? In terms of customization, map management, easy of use, regular update and bugfixes... VKB's calibration/configuration tool seems to give you the ability to change virtually anything you could possibly want. The UI is pretty brutal though so I haven't really tried to change much because it would require really studying the documentation or following a guide/youtube video on how to do it. I don't think I'd ever try mixing a grip and base, but having a stick and a throttle from different manufacturers is generally fine, it just means that you might have to learn two different calibration tools instead of one but I've never had them conflict with each other.
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Apr 30, 2024 17:39
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froody guy posted:When talking about the throttle + grip + base combo, I always thought it was better to get them all from the same manufacturer (ok, the base + grip one is a given) but is that true? Has anyone tried mixing them up and is there any sort of issue with usability, conflicting drivers, problems with managing profiles and maps...? To some extent, depending on what kind of combinations you attempt, you get similar benefits if you get multiple devices, all by the same manufacturer, since many of the more advanced parts can be set up to communicate with each other. Say, if you want to use your Virpil throttle mode switch to change how your Virpil base and stick behave and what inputs they generate, you can do that. Same goes for the other new big names. Some of it can be done via software linking layers, but it's getting more and more popular to also have the option to physically link them up to create hulking big compound devices, and this is (so far) only really possible if the control hardware is made by the the manufacturer. But note the wording: the control hardware — it's still entire possible to mix and match so you have, for instance, a TM grip on top of a different manufacturer's base, connected to a throttle or button box from the same people. The grip has none of the logic circuitry in it — just a couple of sensors, which is why it's so interchangeable even when you just need a simple adapter. For the longest time, I ran with a frankenmess of a TMWH grip on top of a Virpil base, alongside the TMWH throttle, and with a second Virpil stick and base as a sidestick. And at this stage, no, there should not be any conflicts. The whole peripheral game is mature and well and truly beyond that. quote:Talking about software, is there a brand among the 'big three' Winwing, Virpil and VKB that is clearly better or worse than the others? In terms of customization, map management, easy of use, regular update and bugfixes... I can only really speak for two of those. Virpil's software is made by hardware guys and it shows, but it is also insanely flexible. The only limitation is really what Windows accepts from an input device in terms of a maximum number of axes and buttons on a given device (and even that limitation can be cheated and bypassed to some degree). But the intent there is that you're not really meant to deal with profiles or swap the programming to any degree. Once the device is set up, it's done, and there shouldn't be much need to ever adjust it unless you come up with some very special new need. You then bind whatever buttons and axes you've created in the game the way you want it to work. As such, while the software does get updates and bugfixes, neither really matter because you're not going to touch it again. Winwing's software is easier on the eye and the brain, but it is also meant for a different use case where you are still running a software layer to feed back game data to the device and get button lights and displays and the like to match the in-game state. This is also in line with how much of their kit is meant to replicate a very specific cockpit setup, and if you're not flying that plane, you probably want to swap a lot of that out so it's not meant to be one-and-done to quite the same extent as Virpil. The actual capabilities are, for most uses, comparable, but for some of the more insane complexities in terms of input combinations (and device combinations), the Virpil stuff lets you do more… but it won't really come into play unless and until you have half a dozen different devices to interlink. …or, well… I can also speak of Thrustmaster, but as you correctly imply, they're not really in the big league any more and it looks like even their new offering will rely on the thoroughly antiquated Basically, it's not really a matter of “better or worse” but of use cases and where you want the functionality to exist: in the game, in the software, and/or in the hardware. Tippis fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 17:52
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froody guy posted:When talking about the throttle + grip + base combo, I always thought it was better to get them all from the same manufacturer (ok, the base + grip one is a given) but is that true? No, mix and match to your hearts content. VKB > Virpil > Winwing
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Apr 30, 2024 18:02
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When I win the lottery next week I'm gonna stick my virpil grip on one of those new force feedback monstrosities and trim my life away
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Apr 30, 2024 18:32
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Hard to admit it but it really looks like this is a quite competitive (and niche) market where you really get what you pay for. Meaning VKB really has an edge over the others. Virpil looks like too much squeezed in between the best no-question-asked aka VKB and best bang-for-your-buck aka Winwing. Even if I had infinite money I don't know if I could justify spending all the extra money for the VKB seen what you get with Winwing. I mean, it's not cheap stuff like Saitek or even TM (may it rest in piss). And it's by far the best looking one. So well I'm thinking to get the VKB throttle coz of all them detent galore and overall build quality, but it has one huge issue that could be a deal breaker: it's not backlit!! I mean wtf?? Also aesthetically it's really a bit of a punch in the stomach and not exactly... modern. I also like the 'replica thing' of the Winwing so there's that (too). As for the sticks, I was really keen on the Virpil Mongoost-50 but oh boy I'm not gonna spend 480 euro-dollars when I can have the whole F16EX combo shabang for the same exact price by Winwing!! Too bad they also only offer a bundle for the Constellation, which is clearly aimed at space simmers imo. I believe the Mongoost-50 is also their oldest product so probably getting discontinued soon. Talking about the software, I didn't really get this Tippis posted:Winwing's software is easier on the eye and the brain, but it is also meant for a different use case where you are still running a software layer to feed back game data to the device and get button lights and displays and the like to match the in-game state. This is also in line with how much of their kit is meant to replicate a very specific cockpit setup, and if you're not flying that plane, you probably want to swap a lot of that out so it's not meant to be one-and-done to quite the same extent as Virpil. The actual capabilities are, for most uses, comparable, but for some of the more insane complexities in terms of input combinations (and device combinations), the Virpil stuff lets you do more… Aren't all these management/calibration software exactly a layer between the simulator and the hardware? Something that assigns a certain functionality to a button and it stays there no matter what you're playing? Like: trim up/down on button 5/7, be it DCS or MSFS, if you plug the joystick in, they'll get that assignment correct. And ofc to create profiles so that if you fly an F16 in DCS you have one profile and if you fly an A320 in MSFS you have another. Isn't that what they all do? froody guy fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 20:36
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Chubby Henparty posted:When I win the lottery next week I'm gonna stick my virpil grip on one of those new force feedback monstrosities and trim my life away Talking about Saitek, didn't they make a FF stick already years ago? Everyone talked trash about it. I know now it's a 'new thing' apparently but imo mostly hype and... ain't nobody got time for that.
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Apr 30, 2024 20:40
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froody guy posted:So well I'm thinking to get the VKB throttle coz of all them detent galore and overall build quality, but it has one huge issue that could be a deal breaker: it's not backlit!! I mean wtf?? Where we're going you won't need backlights. VR. We're going into VR.
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Apr 30, 2024 21:32
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froody guy posted:Talking about the software, I didn't really get this No. That's one of the big shifts that have happened since the olden days. What you do nowadays for the high-end stuff is that you program the hardware. There is no software layer — just the standard way Windows reads buttons and axes from any arbitrary gaming device. You use the software to flash the hardware with the logic with which it should translate various physical button and axis inputs into logical output values that get fed to Windows. You still bind game functions to specific buttons, yes, but that's in the game itself, not in a software layer that sits between the game and the hardware. Profiles aren't really a thing because any well-made and worth-while game these days makes them completely unnecessary. Winwing is special because a large part of their “thing” is to have the hardware buttons reflect the game state, and that obviously needs some kind of plug-in to read that game state, and a layer that then tells the hardware what to light up in response to that state. The other two don't really care about that. As a case study… let's look at the CM3 throttle I recently set up. Out of the box, it comes with two throttle axes and two sliders that all go from 0–100%. An analogue stick. A couple of four-way hat switches with centre push buttons (and an 8-way one that nothing will ever take advantage of). A bunch of two- and three-way switches, a couple of plain old buttons and four encoder dials. When I was done with it, it instead had this:  The hats were now 5-way in that they also sent input when they returned to their centre position, because not all games let you bind button releases. Two of the encoders also report as analogue axes. The sliders are also three-position switches. The unlatched switches have four positions (up, middle, down, and long-press down), where previously they had two (on-off-on). Many of the hats have similar long-press inputs that report separate from short presses. The blinkenlights report their own button positions, as well as the throttle position, as well as if a special mode has been activated. The mode switch is actually more of a five-position switch, but does indeed change modes (that I have yet to find any use for) when triggered in combination with some other button inputs. The throttle no longer goes from 0–100, but rather non-linearly from 0–0 (where it activates a button), from 0–80 (where it activates different buttons at each end of the travel), and from 80–100 (where it activates yet another button). All of this is now how that hardware works until the end of time or it simply wears out, whichever comes first. Unless I suddenly feel the need to add even more button states (and I don't quite see that happening), I never have to touch the software ever again. When it's time to upgrade to a new computer, it will still work exactly the same from the moment it's plugged in — no software installs needed. As long as I remember to carry my game config files over, they will just pick up where I left off with minimal setup. Windows just sees “some weirdo game device” that reports that it 8 axes, 2 PoV hats, and almost 100 buttons. And if the game is old, I have made sure that the first 32 buttons (because that's usually the limit) are very carefully selected and come in a useful order so those still get picked up. And this means that no matter what quirks in the game — whether it inherently supports detection of button release states, for instance, or irrespective of whether it detects long vs short presses — I can make it do pretty much exactly what I want because the hardware just reports inputs and state changes in so many different ways that at least one of them will be appropriate for how the game does its thing. I don't need to use profiles to translate the hardware stuff in a way that matches the game because I've already programmed the hardware to meet pretty much all contingencies. This is where the outrageous money for VPC devices goes. There, and just absurd build quality (and ability to bind together separate devices, I suppose, but there are limits to even my insanity). Oh, and ability to adjust and customise springs and cams and the like for the appropriate feel. Tippis fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 21:35
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froody guy posted:Aren't all these management/calibration software exactly a layer between the simulator and the hardware? Something that assigns a certain functionality to a button and it stays there no matter what you're playing? Like: trim up/down on button 5/7, be it DCS or MSFS, if you plug the joystick in, they'll get that assignment correct. And ofc to create profiles so that if you fly an F16 in DCS you have one profile and if you fly an A320 in MSFS you have another. Isn't that what they all do? Not really. Sticks (and throttles) don't send "trim up/down", they send "button 7/8" and the keybinding in the sim software takes care of translating that to trim up/down. Also, the VKB configuration is actually stored in the microcontroller hardware on the stick/throttle, so you don't need any active software running to use it beyond the basic USB HID and the sim software. It allows you to do fancy things like rebinding the scale of an axis, adding a deadzone, etc etc. e: or see Tippis explanation, which is way more detailed.
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Apr 30, 2024 21:36
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This is a great explanation and I learned things!
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Apr 30, 2024 21:36
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Tippis posted:This is where the outrageous money for VPC devices goes. There, and just absurd build quality It's absurd all right
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Apr 30, 2024 21:39
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Tippis, how do you do the long press stuff in the virpil software?
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Apr 30, 2024 21:40
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Bedurndurn posted:Tippis, how do you do the long press stuff in the virpil software? I'll have to open up the software to check, but it's a basic option for any button — I think they just call it “long press”, and you there's a separate setting for how long you have to press it before the button input is sent (it's among the same settings where you set the timing for encoder input pulses and delays). e: "Press and hold" apparently, tied to the "click delay timer". 
Tippis fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Apr 30, 2024 |
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Apr 30, 2024 21:43
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Thanks. I'll take a look at it.
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Apr 30, 2024 22:09
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I don't have anything to contribute over what was already said except to say Virpil is the best and I loooove their base with the warthog grip.
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Apr 30, 2024 22:21
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I really need to check out the Virpil and VKB programming things, mostly I can get around things with joystick gremlin but IL-2 really doesn't like the scroll wheels on my VKB stick or most of the switches on my Virpil throttle. Even without messing around with those much I'd 100% recommend Virpil and VKB, they're both great and I think VKB finally released their throttle maybe so just go with them in general now that you can get a stick/throttle/footpedals from the same place now.
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Apr 30, 2024 22:25
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Just something as simple as being able to turn an axis into a button (or a set of them), and vice versa demonstrates the extra use you can get out of those devices. Even if a game doesn't support, say, a brake axis and only has a button for it, or for that matter, if a plane doesn't really have much in the way of fine control, you can still use your fancy analogue rudder wheel bakes or stick twist to control that game because now your gear sends both inputs. When you can tell the hardware to do just about anything, such limitations in the software simply cease to exist. I don't know if I'd want to control MAME with my rudder pedals… but I can! 
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Apr 30, 2024 22:34
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I'm also not sure I'd want to control a tubeliner with a bunch of fighter jet styled peripherals either but to each their own I've got a basic-rear end Thrustmaster Airbus joystick (that's just what they had in stock) and two of those crappy little Logitech three-lever thingies, oh and some Thrustmaster pedals. Works nice for tubelining and GA. An autopilot panel would be nice too but not to the point where I'd want to run some crap like SPADnext to actually make it work.
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May 1, 2024 00:13
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Tippis posted:facts I just wired that into the 'advanced af' cell in my brain on the sector 'how to HOTAS like a pro' and  What did you say again on the Winwing side of things? How's that they're NOT that? Can't you assign buttons to levers, pushes to presses and presses to releases like any proper simdude should?
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May 1, 2024 05:04
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froody guy posted:I just wired that into the 'advanced af' cell in my brain on the sector 'how to HOTAS like a pro' and They're mostly that. If you ignore the bits where you can make the lights match what's in-game, they're pretty much exactly the same. But since their main conceit is to make replica(ish) sticks and throttles and entire button panels, to get the most out of their stuff, you want to run software that feeds those game states back into the panels. Exactly how that's done varies between the game you're playing, and in a far-flung future, there might even be games that just support it natively (kind of like how Razer managed to worm their way into some games of old to make them talk directly with their branded RGB stuff) but we're not there yet. So they're in this weird position where you could run software-free but if you want to get the most out of your stuff, you need to dabble in profiles and running software in the background again. For just sticks and throttles, it's probably a bit overkill, but once you start eyeing things like the F16 ICP or similar panels with status lights, the need for that software layer starts creeping back in.
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May 1, 2024 09:37
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I picked up a VP Force Rhino after being on the waiting list for… Awhile. I’m using it with the grip from my Warthog, and a short extension, and bolted to my sim rig. Holy. loving. poo poo. The software is excellent, if a bit in-progress. It takes a bit of poking and prodding to get it all working as intended, but in DCS specifically, Holy. loving. poo poo. Force trim in helicopters Just Works. Perfectly. In warbirds, it absolutely shines; Control forces build with speed, trim removes control force in a completely natural way, and just everything related to flying the airplane is so much easier. I haven’t tried it in IL2 yet, but it’s apparently excellent there as well. Bad news: MSFS does not export control forces in any way. VP Force gets around this by generating its own using MSFS aircraft telemetry. This actually works reasonably well, but needs to be painstakingly set up. Good news though, you can set up profiles for individual aircraft. These will override the generic profile, though I haven’t really gotten MSFS working to my satisfaction due to time constraints. Bottom line, it’s pricy but absolutely worth it if you can swing it. If your 3D modeling and printer skills are up to snuff, Walmis sells the motors as a package with the software for a much more reasonable price. Lots of people are using them to build FFB collectives (which I think is kinda overkill) and rudder pedals (which I think would fuckin’ rule) as well.
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