PointCtrl in BMS
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@Snake122 Yep, definitely V2 hardware. Got it around April last year. My update process doesn’t exactly mirror what is said, ie resetting PointCTRL does not show the “Arduino LilyPad USB bootloader”, just the COM ports.
I’ve re-installed DCS just to double-check and the expected result does not show up.
I’ve tried with the PointCTRL plugged into my front USB ports, on my powered USB 3.0 Hub, and directly onto the motherboard USB port, no dice.
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@Atlas are your Windows game controllers menu listing a “PointCTRL 2.5A” device?
I used the automatic firmware loader and can’t remember all the details on it right now.
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It’s not even showing up on the Game Controllers but is listed at PointCTRLv2 on Devices and Printers.
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@Atlas are sure you flashed the 2.5a beta? In both my Devices list and Game Controllers it is listed as “PointCTRLv2.5a”
Also do you have any other Arduino based hardware being used? I have noticed that separating PointCTRL and one of those devices off of the same USB hub helped.
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@Snake122 I am trying to flash to the beta version but it doesn’t seem to work. Might be a conflict in some other devices? I’ll try disconnecting to see if that’ll work, but like I said, I’ve tried having the PointCTRL plugged into the front USB ports, my powered hub, and even on the motherboard directly with no luck.
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@Atlas if you have any other Arduino based hardware, unplug it for the flash.
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@Snake122 Unclear instructions or maybe just my foggy brain but Miles was kind enough to walk me through the process and was able to update the firmware accordingly. Big thanks to Miles for his patience and awesome support for his product!
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@Atlas good, that probably what I should have told you to do in the first place. When he is available, he definitely is one of the best at supporting products.
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Any news on getting PointCTRL in BMS? It’s fantastic in DCS, would love it in BMS as well.
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While HTCC can not support BMS until either tablets are supported, or it moves to OpenXR and supports VR controller interaction, the HTCC pointctrl firmware might be useful to y’all, at the bottom of https://github.com/fredemmott/HTCC/releases/tag/v0.2.1
This firmware makes it so that PointCtrl is only shows up to windows as a DirectInput-compatible joystick device, not a mouse - so you could use center mouse lock + custom bindings for FCUs and aux buttons.
The downside is if you also play DCS, you would then need to use HTCC.
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@fredemmott The latest patch at the time (might be released now) made PointCTRL show up as a DX device and can then map controls that way.
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@Atlas the latest firmware makes it a hybrid: the axis and FCU buttons are a mouse/tablet, the aux buttons are DX game device
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@fredemmott Not sure what you mean, but I can map FCU and AUX buttons in the BMS Launcher and they are recognised as DX input.
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Okay guys, after talking to @fredemmott a little more, OpenXR will not be the savior for PointCTRL alone. I finally understand better what he’s been saying in this thread and on the PointCTRL Discord.
His OpenXR only HTCC software that supports PointCTRL still uses a tablet/touch screen mouse input method for DCS (which DCS is apparently the uncommon that it accepts mouse input that way, but Miles just happened to take advantage of this) and then PointCTRL emulated VR controller support for MSFS. So until BMS either supports a less common way of accepting mouse input or adds VR controller support, HTCC with PointCTRL will not be an option even with OpenXR.
However, there maybe another option but it definitely seems suboptimal. I have loaded @fredemmott’s custom V2 PointCTRL firmware designed for HTCC onto my PointCTRL and it does make the FCU movement into Joystick movement instead of mouse. There are several Joystick to Mouse software solutions out there but I’m a little skeptical that it will perform as needed. Does anyone have experience with any of these apps?
One of the main Google hits, Joystick to Mouse has some interesting features, like TrackIR style curves and an absolute mode but so far I can’t get it to move the cursor in the cockpit. I can in the BMS UI though. Also the classic JoyToKey also apparently supports this and I own it, so I’ll be trying that out next. Overall, the little experience I have with making one pointer type into another and general PC experience tells me that this isn’t ever going to be as good as regular PointCTRL, but maybe better than our current option of only using them as mouse button clickers.
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@Snake122 said in PointCtrl in BMS:
Okay guys, after talking to @fredemmott a little more, OpenXR will not be the savior for PointCTRL alone. I finally understand better what he’s been saying in this thread and on the PointCTRL Discord.
His OpenXR only HTCC software that supports PointCTRL still uses a tablet/touch screen mouse input method for DCS (which DCS is apparently the uncommon that it accepts mouse input that way, but Miles just happened to take advantage of this) and then PointCTRL emulated VR controller support for MSFS. So until BMS either supports a less common way of accepting mouse input or adds VR controller support, HTCC with PointCTRL will not be an option even with OpenXR.
However, there maybe another option but it definitely seems suboptimal. I have loaded @fredemmott’s custom V2 PointCTRL firmware designed for HTCC onto my PointCTRL and it does make the FCU movement into Joystick movement instead of mouse. There are several Joystick to Mouse software solutions out there but I’m a little skeptical that it will perform as needed. Does anyone have experience with any of these apps?
One of the main Google hits, Joystick to Mouse has some interesting features, like TrackIR style curves and an absolute mode but so far I can’t get it to move the cursor in the cockpit. I can in the BMS UI though. Also the classic JoyToKey also apparently supports this and I own it, so I’ll be trying that out next. Overall, the little experience I have with making one pointer type into another and general PC experience tells me that this isn’t ever going to be as good as regular PointCTRL, but maybe better than our current option of only using them as mouse button clickers.
Keep us (me) appraised as I have one on order since 2022 and he is only about 11 months out from making it…
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@Snake122 Windows supports “mouse” input through it’s User32.dll interface, however it fundamentally is not equivalent to actual hardware input. Software only solutions are limited by whether the game will actually detect and use that input - and I found that BMS does not. The only sure way would be to use virtual device emulation that would accept software input and translate that at the driver level - like what vJoy does to emulate a virtual joystick. I am unaware of any such virtual mouse software - but if there is any, it could be used to overcome the limitation. I’ll wager JoyToKey will provide no more of a solution either…I have the same functionality in FoxVox and it is not recognized by BMS either.
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I honestly think BMS needs a dedicated PointCTRL cursor mode (that works the same way as DCS I guess) to make it work with PointCTRL properly. I hope one day it comes around.