AFM Collective with Keyboard - alternatives to "Raise" (digital) and "Raise (Analog)"?

[dgrrr_junk]

FYI I now have Rudder Pedals, IR Tracking, & Joysticks with Throttle Sliders. Like many others I prefer, and have spent most flying time with, Keyboard+Mouse+Pedals.

But If I choose to fly with Advanced Flight Model, I am forced to use Joystick. As many have noted, AFM Collective requires analog input to descend safely. Because via keyboard, "Raise Collective" is too slow and "Raise Collective (Analog)" is too abrupt.

I'm surprised that the following simple "incremental" ALTERNATIVE mapping scheme doesn't exist for AFM in Arma 3:
> Imagine the Collective scale has 10 levels (0%, 10%, 20%....90%, 100%)
> Tapping "Raise Collective" (digital) bumps it up a level
> Tapping "Lower Collective" (digital) bumps it down a level

Some would prefer 5% increments, others 25%. Either way, I'm skeptical that most pilots truly need the values between 20% and 30%... (Presumptuous, I know.)

[dgrrr_junk]

Extra credit if anyone can tell me what Dyslecxi uses for throttle while playing AFM

[dgrrr_junk]

Sure, I'm interested, thx

[dgrrr_junk]

I'm sure this is irrelevant to your problem - but autohotkey works well with arma 3.

Did you upload to github yet? Thx

[dgrrr_junk]

Thanks - sorry for delay - am checking out.

Initially I'm getting an error but I think I need to reboot. Will do - and then google this error more. FYI the initial error on running vslide is:
Version of driver '217' does NOT match DLL version '216', returning...
Startup procedure failed, can't continue

Will update you after rebooting (can't do it for a bit...)

[dgrrr_junk]

Sorry for delay - no gaming for me for months. OK! As for Vjoy, I made progress but need help.

I installed Vjoy (2.177), and used Vslide (1.2) with Arma 3 to bind:
'Collective raise(analogue)' to 'vjoy device Stick Slider 1+'
and
'Collective lower(analogue)' to 'vjoy device Stick Slider 1-'


But I can't find any menus to map keyboard presses to Vjoy anything. Vjoy versions 2.17 and 2.18 don't generate any system tray icon to right-click on, and their "configure vjoy" menu doesn't offer keyboard mapping. (Just shows different joystick controls to check or uncheck)

Like you, I found that vjoy version 1.2 at "http://www.headsoft.com.au/index.php?category=vjoy" does have the remap menus, but ends up giving collective values of 0%, 50% and 100% only.

OK, so what do I do next, where's the remap menu, and -- if it has this option -- where do the desired increments get input?

And of course, thanks for the time you've already put into this!

[ZeroReady]

Thank you so much for making this. I'm trying to get it to work but i get this error.

Version of driver '218' does NOT match DLL version '217', returning...
Startup procedure failed, can't continue. You can close this programm.

Thanks again!

[ZeroReady]

Thank you! I'm really excited try this. Some day I'll upgrade to a stick but I'm actually getting pretty decent on AFM with mouse and keyboard. It's just the collective that bugs me. Can't wait!

[ZeroReady]

Got it working. It's really nice, but it seems like sometimes it doesn't register a keypress. Thank you though, it's way better than vanilla collective.

[dgrrr_junk]

LaserSquid - it works! I didn't realize I needed turn off "ping pong lerping" but LEAVE the "feeding" function on Vslide, while I'm playing Arma.

I also found the remapping functions I was looking for (so I can use my usual "collective up / down" keys) in the Vslide "settings" page. Awesome!

This is a TEENY TINY THING -- but IF I wanted to use Y and H for the Level Key Binds, and use Ctrl+Y and Ctrl+H for the Slider Key Binds. is that possible?

Currently, the Level and Slider key binds can't be made to the same 2 keys -- even if you specify the modifiers (like Control or Shift) to set them apart.


But regardless -- Effing awesome! This is EXACTLY what I wanted! What a surprise. This is like going to bed and saying, "God, tomorrow I want to see a video of Stewie Griffin and Maz Kanata fighting to the death over a seat on an AC Transit bus..." And the next day it's just there on youtube! Merry Xmas to me!

Now to try flying as god meant me to fly -- with a keyboard and mouse. In a computer game.

[dgrrr_junk]

Can you give me an example of that? "In order to trigger Y and H you mustn't press ctrl, shift & alt."

Thanks!

[dgrrr_junk]

Thanks so much. How much is Arma paying you again?

By the way, at one point (prior to the 1.3 version) I swapped my "prev/next level" keys with my "incr/decr slider" keys... and suddenly l was getting buggy hesitant weird results with the prev/next level controls.

Then I realized that those keys were still bound in Arma3 to "raise/lower collective"

The binding "redundancy" didn't seem to interfere with "incr/decr slider". But when Arma3 "raise /lower collective" was bound to same keys as "prev/next level", it caused the issue. (I think it was sometimes doing imperceptibly small incr/decr changes, and other times doing full prev/next level changes.)

Just something for others to keep in mind when troubleshooting.

[dgrrr_junk]

One thing that I believe ZeroReady might be experiencing too, happens (for example) if I'm playing Hell Heli scenario, when I reset the scenario (using the "escape bush" option). Most times the game doesn't respond to the collective keys right away. Most times it takes two or three keypresses to respond, sometimes 20 (or half a minute). Usually when the game "wakes" to the keypresses, the collective is suddenly at max or minimum.

Still figuring out what the exact behavior is - I'll update you.

FYI now I have Arma's "raise/lower" collective bound to something totally different that VSlide's "next/prev level" and "inc/decr slider" keys. BUT I do also have the VSlide keys in question bound to other things in "Arma > config > infantry" panel, and the "> common" panel.. Wonder if that's what's affecting it.


Your app makes doing collective via keybd so much better, thanks again! You fixed a totally frustrating experience by removing the unintended challenges but leaving the intended ones.

[Mihsan]

I was always flying with joystick, but then it broke and now I stuck with keyboard+mouse. Can confirm: collective controll in arma from keyboard is terrible. I have tryed two things:

- Controlling collective with CTRL+[mouse up/down]. It works great, but it is very non-intuitive and you lose controll for this short moment.

- Controllling collective with macros buttons on my Razer keyboard. Worked great and it looks just like [s]"incremental" ALTERNATIVE mapping[/s] from OP-post.

M1 button = macros that holds [Collective raise button] for 1 second. This raises collective for exactly 1/6.
M2 = macros that holds [Collective raise button] for 0,5 seconds. This raises collective a bit.
M3 (not used; in future I want to make it to reset my collective or something like that)
M4 = macros that holds [Collective lower button] for 0,5 seconds. This lowers collective a bit.
M5 = macros that holds [Collective lower button] for 1 second. This lowers collective for exactly 1/6.

[Archer]

I can't wait to try this Vjoy + Vslide setup. I might finally be able to fly the advanced model with keyboard and mouse. Bohemia sucks for not allowing simple things like rough landings and heli-taxiing with the basic flight model.

[Archer]

Hey Lazersquid!

Everything worked great after some tinkering. The advanced flight model is quite the challenge, but your program made the throttle control much easier to manage. My only wish is that I could get it to emulate the 'return to center' after control input, as in the Basic flight model. This is probably as close as I'll be able to get for now.

Thanks again!