Joystick axis as lateral thrusters

Axel Kolle · Post by **Axel Kolle** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 11:38 am

Ok. Try the free software JoytoKey If you want to use the axis to emulate a button press, as I suspect you do.

I have not had any experience of this, but came across it by accident during my search for ppjoy and other Joystick utilities.

You should actually be able to do that at least on your HOTAS Setup natively anyway. (My G940 TRIES to do that, not that it really works)....

Will try to keep track if this topic is moved.

I would suggest joining AFS simply for the privilege of being granted early PM privileges... (You know you need 10 posts to PM, don't you?)

Let me know how it goes....

But that is really the closest you are going to get to what you wanted to do at the moment.

FIZ · Post by **FIZ** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:53 pm

Considering how teamwork based alleg is and not everyone is always on mumble and their is not implemented chat (game is over a decade old) your gonna have to abandon a joystick just for communication purposes in order to communicate in the game.

But good luck getting the setup you want to work, to each his own.

Axel Kolle · Post by **Axel Kolle** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 4:35 pm

True, but there is always Allegchat for voice chats. Backtrak I think is the culprit there. The most recent version is linked in his sig.
Beware though. While Voice Rec sounds cool it can be iffy. However quite a few people use it successfully in ArmA.

However:
On Windows XP you can try a prog called PIlfius to program Macros. It is not maintained any more though. There is also Shoot 1.6.4, but I could not get it to work, personally.
On Windows 7 Vocola will allow you to prog Voice commands at no expense. There is DWVAC as well, if you have got 10$ US. This has the nice feature that you can record an appropriate response such as Wilco or Executing and have it play back when you give an order or voice chat.

Anyway, these are possibilities, but in the end hitting ENTER and typing usually suffices. And is always necessary at some point.
Autohotkey is also mentioned as a possibility if you feel like scripting a bit.

alexheartnet · Post by **alexheartnet** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:06 pm

FIZ wrote:QUOTE (FIZ @ Jul 23 2011, 10:53 AM) Considering how teamwork based alleg is and not everyone is always on mumble and their is not implemented chat (game is over a decade old) your gonna have to abandon a joystick just for communication purposes in order to communicate in the game.

But good luck getting the setup you want to work, to each his own.

I am not quite sure what you are trying to say. Are you implying a loss of control when typing? Isn't that a bigger handicap for keyboard users then it is for gamepad/joystick users?

While I do need to take my hands off the joystick in order to type, this is not any different from keyboard users not being able to use WASD while typing. And I can just quikcly puts my hands back onto the controls if something happens while I am typing.

alexheartnet · Post by **alexheartnet** » Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:47 pm

Okay, I think it is time to bounce these type of questions back to you guys. With joystick control, I can make my craft do PRECISELY what I want it. Barrel rolls become easy - just pull up on the stick + rotate my craft clockwise. Tada, I am now doing barrel rolls. Can you pull this off using a mouse with any kind of efficiency?

This type of complete control over all 6 axis also gives me much better handling when piloting something that turns better on one axis then the other axis. I don't have to push a button to switch between yaw and roll, and I don't have to replace my left/right side thrusting keys with roll either. Nor do I have to switch mouse control on and off if I want to steady my aim - how the heck you guys even hit anything that isn't flying straight when using mouse control is beyond me...

All 4 axis of control (or 6 in this case, this is space) are absolutely critical for flying a craft. There is just no order of importance. Hence why real life aircraft use flight sticks. Plus, it just feels right to use a flight stick rather then a mouse.

The mouse that is seen next to the controls of some drone fighters? There are a number of things it could be useful for, but probably not as an axis control. Mice are just too unsteady for that.

Axel Kolle · Post by **Axel Kolle** » Sun Jul 24, 2011 10:01 am

Ultimately, it is your boat. YOU do as you please. aka tastes differ. You and I are joystick jocks, not everybody is. Hellsyng uses mouse and he smoked me in 20 secs. Had no issues putting bullets on target either. Many people also rarely use roll. And don't tell them about barrel rolls. Scout secret, y'know. Good maneuver to pull in Alleg, btw. Done right average players do not easily cope with it.

I would guess you definitely are an old and die hard flight simmer. What else do you fly?

Checked out JoytoKey/Joy2Key and you might even use a stick as a mouse in the minimap just by pushing a button. You want version 3.7.4, btw. The one at sourceforge is old and looks unmaintained.

See you in game, hopefully, and do give AFS a try, please.

Post by **Raveen** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 8:23 am

I totally understand what Alex is after (sadly I can't help with achieving it). I use a JS and a MS Strategic Commander to give me 9 axes in total. Happily the SC axes are not proper axes but work as key presses. Communication isn't an issue and having all flight controls at my fingertips makes life a lot easier (for me).

Axel Kolle · Post by **Axel Kolle** » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:51 am

Got one of those Stratcomms lying around as well. Very nice in Freelancer and Alleg, for sure. Funnily I only ever used it in flightsims of sorts.

Anyways, good luck Alex, and let me know if you are getting there. You made me think and I am going to implement a joystick to mouse Autphotkey script, which will allow me to use the G 940 mini joystick as a mouse, like I could with the old Thrustmaster. Love to tinker....

See you in game.