New at this Question

[SlapStik]

Hi,

I have a new Fighter Stick and Pro Throttle hooked up and working so no problems there. My confusion is how to program these things?? Is there a tutorial or manual available?

I've printed out some of the Help section but haven't had a chance to dig into it. What is the best method to learn this?

PS- I've been building and tweeking PC's for years and enjoying Flight sims so I'm no dummy, just don't ask my wife!!

Thanks for your help!

[ronnied316]

Hi SlapStik,

I believe Michael, one of the most helpful people on the board, is working on a Programming PDF. Until that's released, your best bet would be to download a pre-programmed file, and play with the different features in the Control Manager software. It took me a little while to figure it out, but it's been a breeze since then. Remember that .cmc files are your friends, and if you want to be adventurous, you can delve into .cms programming. Welcome aboard.

Ron

[SlapStik]

Thanks ronnied316,

That PDf will be warmly received from me thats for sure!

I have downloaded the lomac file and can load it to the stick but see elsewhere on this board that there are 2 other files such as a map that I don't get.

Also, if I understand it correctly, I should be changing the stick controls through Manager rather than in the Options section of lomac. I don't have the foggiest idea of how to do this.

I'm sure I'll get it, it's just a matter of when!!

Thanks

[Bob Church]

>> I have downloaded the lomac file and can load it to the stick but see elsewhere on this board that there are 2 other files such as a map that I don&#39;t get. <<

There can be 1, 2, or 3 files involved:

.MAP - This holds the axis and button assignments and the keystrokes that you&#39;ve programmed, basically all the stuff that you do in the main GUI screen.

.CMC - This is the command file. Its main function is to let you name commands. You can put an entry in the CMC file like:

LandingGear = g

for example, then when you program in the GUI you can put "LandingGear" in as the Normal Action "Press" code and it will play back the "g" when the button is pressed. Makes it a little easier to remember the controls and it makes the map a little bit easier to understand. Also, if you can find a MAP for the game you want to play posted somewhere and it has a CMC file, you can use that to speed things up even if you&#39;re going to write the map yourself.

.CMS - These are the CMS script files. They&#39;re just plain text files that come into play if you using the CMS scripting facility.

You have to have a MAP file, the other two are optional depending on how the map has been set up.

>> Also, if I understand it correctly, I should be changing the stick controls through Manager rather than in the Options section of lomac. I don&#39;t have the foggiest idea of how to do this. <<

You can change them either place, it doesn&#39;t matter. If you want to move them around in the Control Manager, select the axis and look at the right half of the GUI screen. You&#39;ll see it will have setting for the DX Device and DX Control. The device will be "Control Manager Device 1" or "Control Manager Device 2" or something like that up to CM Device 16. That tells the Control Manager which virtual device to assign the axis to. The DX Control tells it which axis on the virtual device to assign it to. So, if you had the X axis on your stick assigned to Control Manager Device 1, X Axis, it would be the X axis on the first virtual device. If you wanted to move it to, say, the Y axis on the second virtual controller, you&#39;d change the assignments to Control Manager Device 2 and Y Axis.

Normally, if the game recognizes the separate controllers, then there&#39;s not much need to move the axes around. You can assign them in the game. Where it&#39;s really useful is if you&#39;ve got a game that only recognizes one joystick and you&#39;ve got a FighterStick, ProThrottle, and ProPedals, or something like that. Then you can assign the X and Y from the stick, the Z from the throttle, and the R from the pedals all to Control Manager Device 1 and end up with a single controller that keeps the game happy but lets you use all of your controllers anyway.

- Bob

The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com

[SlapStik]

Thanks Bob!

I&#39;m beginig to understand it now. So as long as my controler is being recognized in the game as Control Manager 1 &2 for the stick and throttle, I can assign the various hats and buttons as directx controls through the option screen of the game!??

Now I just have to figure out how to custom program.

Thanks again!

[MichaelCHProd]

I can assign the various hats and buttons as directx controls through the option screen of the game!??[/b]

Yep :)


Now I just have to figure out how to custom program.[/b]

Ask away

[SlapStik]

Thanks Michael!

With Program Manager running and a basic Map loaded, how do I assign key strokes to the various buttons? Or, should I just assign them in the game??

PS, I&#39;ve had TM F-16 & TQS for many years and I have to say I am very impressed and happy with the feel and quality of this product! :thumbsup:

Thanks

[Bob Church]

>> I&#39;m beginig to understand it now. So as long as my controler is being recognized in the game as Control Manager 1 & 2 for the stick and throttle, I can assign the various hats and buttons as directx controls through the option screen of the game!?? <<

Sure. As long as the game sees them all, it&#39;s easier to deal with them separately I think. And you have more possible inputs to the game since a single Control Manager Device can carry 8 Axes and 32 Buttons max, having more than one lets you control more of the sim directly without having to fall back on characters. The thing to remember is that the right half of the screen is really defining the joysticks that Windows will see. The Control Manager will create Control Manager Devices in Windows for every Control Manager Device that you reference on the right side of the screen, so you just need to create a set of Control Manager Devices that suits the game you&#39;re playing. You can have stick, throttle, and pedals, and so long as you only assign their axes and buttons to go to Control Manager Device 1 (or have them send characters), you&#39;ll only have 1 joystick in Windows. OTOH, assign one button to Control Manager Device 2 and you&#39;ll get a second joystick with the button you defined working. Taking it to the other extreme, if you assign every axes, button, and POV in the map to send characters then you&#39;ll actually end up with no joysticks in Windows but the sticks and things will still send the characters. It depends entirely on how you assign the stuff on the left side to the stuff on the right side.

>> With Program Manager running and a basic Map loaded, how do I assign key strokes to the various buttons? Or, should I just assign them in the game?? <<

When you select a button or an axis, over on the right side of the screen up towards the top you&#39;ll see a check-box that&#39;s marked "DirectX Mode". It normally defaults to being checked which logically connects it to a Windows button or axis. Uncheck it, the right half will switch to "Programmed Mode" and you&#39;ll have edit boxes for the Press and Release sides, both Shifted and Unshifted.

If you know the FLCS, you shouldn&#39;t have any trouble with the basics. Press and Release boxes are similar to /P and /R in a B50 file. Shifted and unshifted are like IO codes but the shift button is assignable, it&#39;s not locked to the pinky, and the Modes work about like UMD codes. The scripting is a bit of a leap, even from the F22, but you don&#39;t have to use it to make a map. It&#39;s there if you need it, but most of the common stuff you can do directly from the GUI without needing CMS at all.

Anyway, it takes a little getting used to but I think it&#39;ll all fall into place for you after you play with it a little. If you run into something you can&#39;t sort out, just give a holler. Somebody&#39;ll come along and help you out.

- Bob

The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com

[SlapStik]

Thanks Bob that really helps!

I wasn&#39;t aware that getting out of Directx would allow me to assign the keystroke which is what I wanted to do!

I&#39;m gonna go play around with it!! :whip:

Thanks again

[Bob Church]

You&#39;re quite welcome. I&#39;m glad it was some help! If you&#39;re really looking to program mostly characters, there&#39;s a trick you can use that will speed things up a bit. Add your controllers to the map and then click on the "Control Wizard" button (two joysticks with a yellow lightning bolt across them). Tell it you want it to build a 4-Axis/4 Button stick. What will happen is that it will pull in the first 4 joystick buttons, the X/Y from the stick, the Z from the throttle, and the R from the pedals. The normal joystick stuff. All of the other buttons and axes will be set to "Programmed Mode" for you, but with nothing programmed. It saves having to uncheck the "Use DirectX" box for everything. You just need to go through and enter the characters, things will go much more quickly.

Also, when you&#39;re programming characters you can right-click on the edit box and use the keystroke recorder ("Record Keystrokes" on the right-click menu), or if you&#39;ve created a CMC file (essentially the equivalent of an M50 file) you can right click the edit box and have it pop up the CMC command list and pick the commands by name ("Insert Command" on the right-click menu).

Anyway, it&#39;s good to hear you&#39;re making headway! If you need any more help, let us know!

- Bob

The StickWorks
http://www.stickworks.com