Yet Another T.16000M FCS HOTAS Review and Setup
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Thinking about it, maybe we could find a configuration that fits most people, with room for individual tweaking nevertheless.
So just out of curiosity, what would you and others consider vital bindings that aren’t on the current one (v3.1)?Questions i had myself:
When do you guys use Radar Cursor Enable? I dont remembr using that ever. I could put Radar Cursor Zero (which i use more often) on that slot instead.
What key commands are used for standard multiplayer voice comms? -
Thinking about it, maybe we could find a configuration that fits most people, with room for individual tweaking nevertheless.
So just out of curiosity, what would you and others consider vital bindings that aren’t on the current one (v3.1)?Questions i had myself:
When do you guys use Radar Cursor Enable? I dont remembr using that ever. I could put Radar Cursor Zero (which i use more often) on that slot instead.
What key commands are used for standard multiplayer voice comms?Note I am a massive nugget and know very little about BMS (I’m waiting to save funds for a T16000 and TrackIR and possibly have to move my desk or get a new one to make room for such, mine’s a rather crappy desk/bookcase thing with my monitor on a stand-thing built in diagonally to the left) but it does have something called IVC which either came with Falcon 4 or was added in BMS, and is a built-in voice chat client of sorts which works ingame. I.E. radio needs to be set to the right frequency, radio degradation modeled etc.
Are the “View Up/Down/Left/Right/” keys just to move your POV and not targeting pod or anything else? If so, with trackIR I might set them (I believe shifted castlehat?) to the COMMS switch up, down, left and right, up and down are used for talking on UHF and VHF, and left and right are used for datalink related stuff.
EDIT: That leaves the radio menus but there’s ways around it I believe such as Voice Attack, so I can just shout “AWACS! REQUEST BOGEY DOPE!” or “Tower, requesting landing.” or “Tanker, done refueling.” whatever and have VA automatically send the needed keypresses. Frees up my hands although my PC is in the living room and people might get irritated hearing some maniac yelling at his PC.
EDIT 2: The game has built in profiles in keybindings folder or whatever for VAC (Voice Activated Commands) which is a different program than Voice Attack, so you’re pretty much all set there. Again I am a bit of a button lover so I try to free up buttons. On a side note for First Trigger Detent (Manual Lasing) do you have to hold the button down or just push it once to toggle the laser?
EDIT 3: https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?18261-KEYSPEECH-PROFILES-FOR-ALL-CALLSIGNS!!! another example of a set for voice commands, (keyspeech program) I like having many phrases for each call because if you’re in a hurry you don’t have to worry about phrasing. AWACS request homeplate can be activated with just “AWACS where is my base” or “AWACS vector for RTB” etc.
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Updated (v4).
Now with implenetations for “long press” as suggested in https://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/showthread.php?31565-Basic-tips-to-get-the-T16000M-FCS-hotas-working-in-BMS. See first post for details.
Since there are various ways and matter of taste to to handle voice comms, i still left comm management out.
Adapt to your needs! -
I appreciate everyone’s technical talk about scripts and editing and all that.
But can someone comment on the suitability overall of the T1600 to Falcon BMS, and compare it to the Warthog set?
What’s the warthog set cost? - two, three, four times more than the T1600? Can anyone comment if the T1600 is 2-4 times junk-ier than the warthog stuff or just as good for BMS use? I’m currently on a generic $30 flight stick which is fun for MS FSX but limiting for something as cool as BMS; looking to upgrade to something funner and more complimentary to BMS, but at the same time of course trying to be cheap. Would it be fair to characterize the warthog stuff for only serious pit-builders, and the T1600 & saitek X52s & generic sticks for non-pit-builders?
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When do you guys use Radar Cursor Enable?
Need it to fire AIM-120 without radar link, and its a hands on method of toggling between slave and bore for the AIM-9. Handy to be able to look at a target with the HMCS, hold the cursor in (Radar cursor enable), uncage, confirm good tone and shoot. All without a radar lock to alert the bad guy…
Lets see. Its also used to cycle through PRE, VIS and BORE modes for the AGM-65. I feel like Im missing another function besides all those. Nothing is coming to mind, though.
Would it be fair to characterize the warthog stuff for only serious pit-builders, and the T1600 & saitek X52s & generic sticks for non-pit-builders?
Not even slightly. In fact, for pit builders, I wouldnt recommend the warthog as the go-to anyway.
You can think of it a bit like the decision about whether to buy a $3000 camera, or a $300 camera. Both cameras can take photos. Outside of specialist requirements like architectural photography, or super telephoto sports photography, both cameras can take excellent photos of comparable quality. In fact, the biggest factor affecting the photos is not going to end up being the camera, but the doofus behind the camera. I can hand a cheap $50 camera to a 30 year photographer, and they can take better photos than I can with a $5000 camera.
So why get the $5000 camera at all, then? The way I see it, it might be possible to get better results with less money and more experience, but its not usually as easy. Just like that expensive camera has all kinds of features to make my life easier, the Warthog has features that make BMS easier to fly. Do you need one? Well, thats a question for you to answer, but strictly the answer is no. You can fly BMS with a playstation controller - Ive known someone to do aerial refuelling with one. Its a heck of a lot harder, and its not as precise, and it doesnt have anywhere near as many buttons, which can make things harder for you to do - but you can still fly the mission with it.
The warthog might cost more, but its much easier to use, in my opinion.
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Hi, Logic and fellow pilots,
I am not entirely new to Falcon BMS but only completed a couple of training missions (with very basic hardware only) and did not use it for quite some time. I just re-installed the sim and shall use the Thrustmaster T.16000M joystick together with TWCS throttle and Saitek rudder pedals (which I use when flying XPlane11 because I am used to rudder pedals from real life general aviation flying). When following your installation guide I noticed two things I do not fully understand:
1. DeviceSorting.txt: Since I use rudder pedals too, they do show up in my existing (yet unedited) DeviceSorting.txt So I suppose I cannot just copy the one provided by you in your ZIP package but rather have to modify mine to read “Thrustmaster Virtual Game Controller” instead of “TWCS Throttle” in the appropriate line. What should the sequence be – T.16000M, virtual controller, rudder pedals?
2. Editing the key file in the user\config directory: I do not see a key file specific to the two pilots I have in my logbook (the default Viper and my own Lawyer – guess what my profession is…:) ) but rather several key files (see attached screenshot). Which file should be modified by adding the HOTAS bindings? All except the blank one?
Disregard … just entered the first modifications manually and created a user-specific one.Update
Figured out most of these issues, rearranged the DeviceSorting.txt (detected entry of the device after runnung the script in TARGET script editor reads “Thrustmaster combined”). Upon lauching BMS and trying to assign the axes, TWCS Throttle reappeared among the options presented in the UI (as last entry). – I am thinking of leaving the second coolie hat alone (that was the only reason for creating this combined device, right?), forgetting the script and all related modifications, and just manually assigning the rest as needed.Happy New Year, and thanks for this great piece of work!
Sigmar
(home base LOWL = Linz, Austria, combined civ/mil airport) -
Hey Sigmar,
glad you figured it out.
The reason to use the script is not only the coolie, but also the reasons given in “Rationale” in the readme. (See first post)
Thanks, and happy new year yourself and everyone else.
Logic -
Hi Logic,
I just want to say thank you for this script. Spared me quite some time as I have just obtained the T16kM and TWCS and didn’t found the TARGET Software too intuitive. Works well for me. I have tailored it a bit to my Needs in Terms of funtionality.
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EDIT 2: The game has built in profiles in keybindings folder or whatever for VAC (Voice Activated Commands) which is a different program than Voice Attack, so you’re pretty much all set there. Again I am a bit of a button lover so I try to free up buttons. On a side note for First Trigger Detent (Manual Lasing) do you have to hold the button down or just push it once to toggle the laser?
Excellent question, I have this doubt too. :help:
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@Thunderbolt: You need to hold the button down for the time you want to lase.
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Hi,
sorry, but after a few attempts I decided to go ahead with my own setup throught the TARGET software… viewing around with SHIFT plus castle hat is about the least intuitive thing I can think of, and getting the throttle out of the idle detent worked at the FIFTH (!) attempt only. No offence, but this is not the way to operate an airplane (and I have 700+ hrs of real-life stick time). If you can’t even operate it, how do you expect to fight in it?! Thanks for your efforts, but I shall have to make my own to make this work.
EDIT: Enough valuable time wasted on this. Signing off.
Sigmar -
The download link in the first post redirects to the 3.1 version but the text says it is 4.0. Has the 4.0 version has been released? or I am missing something.
Thank you.
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You were right! The link in top post has been updated to the v4 archive.
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Logic, Thank you so much for this post. This should be a sticky for T16000 joystick set ups. This saved me hours of frustration getting my set up going. Again thank you and badass job on this. It works slicker-n-snot. Now I just need to learn how to put it all to good use.
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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, Logic!
I’ve spent hours banging my head against a wall trying to get BMS to recognise my TWCS. Your script finally got it going.
Regards from Ireland! Go raibh maith agat, mo chara!
Strawkalling
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Greetings! I have been using the script myself to much fanfare… it works! My only question is concerning pedals usage, my TWCS is connected to the TFRP pedals and I’d be very happy to use them. I saw in the script that there are lines provided, it seems, to activate the pedals, but when I removed the “//” from the ends of the lines in question it didn’t seem to add the axes I needed. Am I missing any steps? Thanks so much.
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Hi Slicerer,
i don’t have pedals, so i can’t test, but imho you don’t need to change anything in the script.
I’d let the script handle the TWCS only. (The comments in the script aren’t from me - i should remove them probably)
I guess you can use the pedals just by choosing them as the yaw input controler in BMS (instead of the joystick yaw axis).
So no fiddling with the TARGET script is required here.Cheers
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Thanks for the quick reply! I hopped in really quick to see if any of my pedal axes were being recognized, they aren’t. My pedals are connected straight into the throttle and show up as Slider 1 for the rudder, RY for the left brake and RX for the right brake, all under the normal throttle axes mapping without the script. I know very little about scripting, but is there a way for the axes to be included or added into the script?