[mikkowl]

Summary: solved multiple limiting issues regarding control limitations in IL2 as well as added more realism to cockpit interface and I'm wondering if anyone else could have use of them.

Background:

• 1. Bought a Saitek throttle quadrant along with a huge yearning for realism and immersion.
  2. Took the pedal set from my G25 to use as rudder.
  3. That included needing to turning off all the HUD messages/texts.
  4. Using 'shoot' voice recognition software to let me talk to AI units through actual voice.
  5. Using the throttle quadrant to fly multi-engined planes.

Problems:

• 1. IL2 did not support multi-throttle axis and the 'throttle' third party software for IL-2 did not support the Saitek quadrant.
  2. IL2 did not support fuel-mixture on an axis (lever for quadrant).
  3. Only combined axis was supported in IL2, and that G25 pedals only supported combined axis on the gas pedal and brake (brake pedal is very stiff) instead of the clutch and gas pedal.
  4. Turning off the HUD messages meant it was often very hard or impossible to know if a button pressed even had any effect (no sound FX, no nothing).
  5. Many functions usable only as single toggle button (i.e. one button both raises the gear and lowers it causing problems as since it was not always clear what state they were already in, clicking the button could toggle it unintentionally in the opposite state you wanted it to, and you might not even know it due to lack of sounds and HUD messages.
  6. One very important function, the engine radiator flap, with six (normally) different states was on a SINGLE button. I could not use it while flying without any indication of what state it was in beyond seeing the engine cook.
  7. Even when using "Shoot" and the official IL2 profile, the radio command interface appeared every time in red text and being auto clicked through by the macros stored in the shoot profile. Quite an immersion breaker.
  

Solutions:

• 1. Made dual-throttle work on the quadrant using "PPJoy" and "glovepie". It works very well with one exception - moving the two throttle levers at the same time messes up accuracy a bit - moving them one at a time is necessary for absolute accuracy. Can have as many engines as you have axis, but the 'move one at a time' limitation remains.
  2. Made fuel-mixture work on analogue axis (in a sense) using the software that came with the Saitek Quadrant. Moves the fuel mixture in 10% increments. Works flawlessly.
  3. Made the G25 clutch & gas pedals work as rudders using the clutch and gas pedals using "PPJoy" and "glovepie". Works perfectly (set up the brake pedal as wheel brakes btw).
  4. Made any two-state toggle key (such as gear up and down, arrestor hook up down, rear wheel lock, parking brake etc) work as two way switches (such as for the front row 'up-down' rocker switches of the Saitek Quadrant), using "AutoHotKey". Works flawlessly but can be unsynchronized if you do something silly like have the gear set as 'down' in the program when you launch, yet you choose to launch already flying instead of from the landing strip (that way AutoHotKey will assume the gear is down when it's actually up and the buttons will be reversed).
  5. Made the single key radiator function bind-able to two buttons that cycle up and down through it's six open and closed states, again with "AutoHotKey". Works flawlessly, with the same possibility of being unsynchronized just like with the two way toggles mentioned above (not an issue). It should be technically possible to bind it to an axis as well but I don't know how to do this yet, and I'm not 100% sure it'd remain perfectly synced.
  6. Made any key or button of my choosing play an instant sound effect of my choosing when pressed using "AutoHotKey". I especially love this, as for example it only makes a 'switch' sound when a two way switch is 'activated' - clicking landing gear down twice on your controller will only produce a sound the first time, then nothing, indicating that the switch is already in the down state (if anyone understood). It helps immensely with immersion and with generally interface when flying without any HUD text. I'm still looking for sound effects more suited for this than the stock ones in the IL2 folder.
  7. Made the radio communication dialogue text on the HUD go away completely by rewriting the official SHOOT profile for IL2 to send all keys nearly instantly (so fast that the dialogue text has no time to open). I talk and then the wingmen or tower responds (I had to put in some delay so they don't respond within a millisecond, which sounded unnatural). I wish I understood Russian, and remembered more of my German language studies... Seriously, shoot works so incredibly reliably well. If you use the English voices and you're an English speaker, turning off all the HUD texts/subtitles and you just talk, and they talk back, naturally.

And that's it. Many different issues dealt with requiring different solutions. If anyone is interested I'll try to point you in the right direction and I can share some files I have made, but I will not take it upon myself to guide you through everything and make it work for you. Most solutions require custom 'fitting' for your computer, since people's devices and keys all have different Id's and all that, but you should be able to work it out. Then again, I don't know if anyone else even have these problems, or already solved them all ages ago.. I do hope it can be useful.

Apologies if this was posted in the wrong forum. Saw other similar topics here before.