Falcon BMS Alternative Launcher (Easy Setup, Keep Joystick Assignments)
-
Hi, Chiri, and Good Day to you. I was wondering if you would answer a question for me. I have been experimenting with setting up certain aspects of my Warthog HOTAS, specifically set up the slider as a landing gear handle. I did that with TARGET, but want to continue to do the bulk of the programming with AL.
When I’m running the TARGET profile, AL lists the throttle as “Thrustmaster Virtual Controller” instead of it’s normal " HOTAS-throttle". I can still set the axis’ via AL normally. So, AL seems to “see” the TARGET profile. However, I can not make any switch/button assignments to the throttle or the throttle base.
Do you have any suggestions? -
@drtbkj As I mentioned in the other thread, you need to program every other button/switch on the throttle base through TARGET as well. The reason it doesn’t see any of those buttons is because your TARGET profile doesn’t include any of them.
Best course of action would be for you to load a full profile into TARGET and then just alter the bit relating to the Slider, leaving all of the other buttons functioning.
From what I remember messing with TARGET it should include some default profiles for you to mess with. -
@sobo-87 said in Falcon BMS Alternative Launcher (Easy Setup, Keep Joystick Assignments):
@drtbkj As I mentioned in the other thread, you need to program every other button/switch on the throttle base through TARGET as well. The reason it doesn’t see any of those buttons is because your TARGET profile doesn’t include any of them.
Best course of action would be for you to load a full profile into TARGET and then just alter the bit relating to the Slider, leaving all of the other buttons functioning.
From what I remember messing with TARGET it should include some default profiles for you to mess with.Thx, Sobo. I see what you’re saying. Just as AL overrides the UI, TARGET overrides both
-
@drtbkj Well, I would say TARGET goes between your hardware and AL/BMS rather than overwriting anything. When TARGET is running if you press button 1 on the controller, TARGET intercepts that signal, looks at the profile and checks to see what it should do. If the profile says activate DX Button 1 on the “Virtual Controller”, then that’s what it’ll do. If it says press K on the keyboard it will do that etc.
This is why if you don’t have a programmed function for that button in the TARGET profile, it will do nothing. It’s been years since I messed with TARGET but I remember there being a default profile that had all the buttons assigned and working like a “normal” controller. That would be the best place to start.
And remember its not programming anything ON the actual hardware, its simply a software layer that translates the signals from the hardware to whatever you want. This is why it only works while the software is running.
-
@sobo-87 said in Falcon BMS Alternative Launcher (Easy Setup, Keep Joystick Assignments):
@drtbkj Well, I would say TARGET goes between your hardware and AL/BMS rather than overwriting anything. When TARGET is running if you press button 1 on the controller, TARGET intercepts that signal, looks at the profile and checks to see what it should do. If the profile says activate DX Button 1 on the “Virtual Controller”, then that’s what it’ll do. If it says press K on the keyboard it will do that etc.
This is why if you don’t have a programmed function for that button in the TARGET profile, it will do nothing. It’s been years since I messed with TARGET but I remember there being a default profile that had all the buttons assigned and working like a “normal” controller. That would be the best place to start.
And remember its not programming anything ON the actual hardware, its simply a software layer that translates the signals from the hardware to whatever you want. This is why it only works while the software is running.
Thanks for the clarification, Sobo.
-
@drtbkj No problem! I hope I vaguely make sense lol. I remember it confusing the heck out of me when I first started fiddling with it many moons ago.
-
-
Hello! I’m using the newest version 2.0 from Github. Trying to map my new Winwing F16Ex throttle using AL. Buttons on the base of the throttle are registering but aren’t mappable. For instance, I can flick the physical 3 way switch that I intend to use for Autopilot Roll functions and see that AL recognizes that I’m flipping between the different unbound DX functions in its log readout, but once I double click the keybind to try to map it, it won’t bind it.
-
@ghastlytt does this thing have >32 buttons?
What does your DeviceSorting.txt file look like, for this setup?
-
@airtex2019 It does, yeah. I recognize that BMS is/was limited to 32 buttons per device. I guess my real question is, does/should the 2.0 version of Alt Launcher work around that limitation since it is telling me that the function is unassigned in the bottom left? The 1.6 version of AL just doesn’t recognize that button at all.
The firmware for this particular device can be split into 4 virtual devices in windows, so I can work around this. I’m just trying to prevent having more identically named devices everywhere.
-
@ghastlytt Do the 4-way split and post the resulting DeviceSorting.txt file here.
(I do not know for sure that this is a bug/limitation of AL, but if it is, then seeing an example config might help illuminate what the fix should be.)
Eg. if there are multiple instances with the same GUID (PID and VID) then they have to be enumerated in the same order as BMS enumerates them, then shuffled into the slots prescribed by DeviceSorting.txt maintaining that relative ordering.
I can see how that would be very tricky code to write and test… so my guess is it’s a bug or limitation of AL. But I haven’t tried it. I suppose one could setup multiple vJoy instances to test that configuration…
-
As you said, BMS still has the limit of 32 buttons per device. Windows does not have that limit. Nothing new there, but AL 2.0 may show what Windows recognizes in the lower left corner as you click stuff. That could be the reason for the discrepancy between what AL 2.0 shows and what you are able to bind.
My theory is that despite showing Windows values, AL knows that some of what Windows recognizes will not fly in BMS due to the BMS limit, so will not allow you to bind DX values outside of the BMS subset.
What does your Mapping window look like, do you only have one column shown (here are my 3 virtual ones for my CM2 throttle):
-
@jayb Does that setup work as expected? If so, cool… then the only real AL bug is lack of a helpful error/warning message when pressing a button >32 on a device.
I’d recommend opening an issue on
https://github.com/chihirobelmo/FalconBMS-Alternative-Launcher/issues -
@airtex2019 It works fine, I have been running with the virtual devices for quite some time now. I am still on AL 1.60
-
Yep, I’ll just chalk it up to a misunderstanding on my end since part of the program sees it but doesn’t point out it can’t map it for BMS. No problem. I can go back to using the duplicated virtual devices. I’m not quite to 16 devices yet Thanks for chiming in, @jayb and @airtex2019 !
-
<p>I installed version 2 Alternative Launcher, <br />I have a bug with EMF theatre. <br />When i start the game from the new launcher the airports on the map are in wrong position.<br /><img class=“ql-image” src=“https://i.imgur.com/bNzi9Vt.jpg” /><br /> I noticed on theater.lst , launcher adds by it self this lines :<br /><br />Add-On emf\F4patch\Big Map\emf.tdf<br />Add-On emf\F4patch\Reddog Map\emf.tdf<br />Add-On emf\F4patch\Small Map\emf.tdf<br />Add-On emf\Theaterdefinition\emf.tdf<br /><br />When i start the launcher, i delete the 3 firsts lines<span style=“background-color:#dcdcdc”> , then I press run game </span>, <br />the map is ok and the airports. <br />If I don’t delete the lines and run the game i have this airport wrong position bugs on map.<br />Does anyone knows why is this happening? how can I prevent this auto adding lines?<br /><br /><br /></p>
-
-
<p>really useful tool, thx. <br />two questions:</p><ol><li>will it be compatible forever? if u stop update, i hope the keymapping still works at least.</li><li>u suggest no deadzone for joystick, will it cause the plane off center all the time?</li></ol>
-
<p>@Gear5 it’s open source, and it’s probably the #1 most popular BMS add-on, so safe to say it will live for as long as BMS (arguably it should get integrated into BMS but that’s a topic for a different day)<br /><br />re deadzone … for things like aerial refueling, it helps to have smooth, light, continuous control inputs<br /><br />but depending on your stick (noisy or inconsistent return to center) that may not be practical.<br /><br />NB: you can hit [alt+C][J] while in flight, to recenter your stick … if your jet is still drifting off, after that, apply some trim</p>
-
<p>@airtex2019 recenter key must be pressed every time play, it is little frustrated.<br />small deadzone is only 1% of full range, i think it is ok.</p>
-
<blockquote>@airtex2019 recenter key must be pressed every time play, it is little frustrated.<br />small deadzone is only 1% of full range, i think it is ok.</blockquote><p>Try recalibrating. If it still drifts after proper recalibration and recentring you probably have hardware issue. </p>
-
<blockquote>recenter key must be pressed every time play, it is little frustrated</blockquote><p><br />@Gear5 do you even ramp-start bro? (j/k)<br /><br />I don’t think of it as any more or less frustrating than the recenter-TrackIR key … or the recenter-Trim key.<br /><br />One final note: if your joystick config has settings for a hardware/driver deadzone, I recommend using that instead of BMS deadzone. That way it’s the same for all games/sims … and your PC will actually go to sleep when you’re away</p>