Fly-By-Wire 0.9 Discussion

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

I'm a tad bit confused about this, I was hoping that when I held a button down on my joystick then push the throttle forward I would get either Main\retro\hover depending on the button pressed, no button would mean nothing happens. Also I was hoping that I could use other buttons to control what AF Control\RCS Rot\RCS Lin I was using.

Does that make sense? I need to get a better joystick so I have all the buttons I need, currently I have 8 (including the trigger) and a hat, which I've been ignoring. That doesn't matter to you though.

Perhaps I could use a better documentation, one that explains what everything does. Right now your wiki is a readme, which is not helpful for figuring out how to use this. If you can't explain how to use your program, I'll just go back to using the default joystick controls.

 

[Redburne]

I'm a tad bit confused about this, I was hoping that when I held a button down on my joystick then push the throttle forward I would get either Mainretrohover depending on the button pressed, no button would mean nothing happens.

Unfortunately, this mode of operation is not quite possible with FBW.
At best, you can assign a button to switch your selected throttle axis from main to retro (it will control the main engine as long as no button is pressed, and will controll the retro engine if the selected "retro button" is pressed).

Also I was hoping that I could use other buttons to control what AF ControlRCS RotRCS Lin I was using.

Alas, this is not possible with FBW (in its current form). FBW is mainly intended to be used with game devices with multiple throttle axes.

If I understand you correctly, you are basically using a single joystick (two, maybe three axes) and are looking for a way to use your buttons to assign different tasks to those axes. FBW has not been designed for this.

Perhaps I could use a better documentation, one that explains what everything does. Right now your wiki is a readme, which is not helpful for figuring out how to use this. If you can't explain how to use your program, I'll just go back to using the default joystick controls.

Yeah, sorry about that. I know how you feel. It has happened to me, too, with other add-ons.
Unfortunately, writing documentation is a tedious task, and, unlike programming, usually no fun at all.

If this will help you, I can try to write a little tutorial on how to set up an axis and a button for shared main/retro control. But I'm not sure if you intend to stick with FBW, as it does not quite seem to be what you need.

 

[aebrett]

Is it possible to map a joystick axis to the scramjet controls on the XR2 Ravenstar?

 

[Redburne]

Is it possible to map a joystick axis to the scramjet controls on the XR2 Ravenstar?

No, unfortunately, this is not possible.

 

[aebrett]

Thanks for the response - great addon by the way. Are there any plans to support this in the future, or is it simply not possible as a result of the way the scramjet controls are implemented within orbiter?

 

[yagni01]

No, unfortunately, this is not possible.

If you were talking directly to the vessel, like using setThrusterGroupLevel, it would be possible, just more work. The XR-series vessels implement a public XRVesselCtrl interface that you could cast the vessel to, and it has methods to set levels for all the engines. I can't find the source I thought you sent me, so I can't check, though. I do that in Orb:Connect to provide the enhanced functionality for the XRs.

Maybe Doug could give you the thruster group id. Probably a better option is to provide spaces for n THGROUP_USER thruster groups and just let the user figure out what is what. That would allow other vessel types to share the joy (stick).

 

[Hielor]

If you were talking directly to the vessel, like using setThrusterGroupLevel, it would be possible, just more work. The XR-series vessels implement a public XRVesselCtrl interface that you could cast the vessel to, and it has methods to set levels for all the engines. I can't find the source I thought you sent me, so I can't check, though. I do that in Orb:Connect to provide the enhanced functionality for the XRs.

Maybe Doug could give you the thruster group id. Probably a better option is to provide spaces for n THGROUP_USER thruster groups and just let the user figure out what is what. That would allow other vessel types to share the joy (stick).

I don't think having it directly support the XRVesselCtrl interface would be the best idea, but allowing additional throttle controls to be mapped by thruster group would be a nice general solution.

 

[Puma]

Fly-By-Wire 0.9 missing files

hello, i just downloaded the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 from orbiter hangar and i found that the current folder is empty, there is not any ini files there , now i know that`s the reason why the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 tab does not appear at the extras menu, do any one have those so i can get them. Thanks.:search:

 

[blane]

I just downloaded and installed it -- no problems at all. All files are there.

 

[yagni01]

hello, i just downloaded the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 from orbiter hangar and i found that the current folder is empty, there is not any ini files there , now i know that`s the reason why the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 tab does not appear at the extras menu, do any one have those so i can get them. Thanks.:search:

Make sure to read the install doc. I don't think it gets unzipped to the normal Orbiter folders, which could be why you don't see it.

 

[blane]

Actually that's just what I did. It comes with a Modules folder and the SDL.dll which should be placed into orbiters main directory -- just extracting the zip there did the trick for me.

 

[Redburne]

hello, i just downloaded the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 from orbiter hangar and i found that the current folder is empty, there is not any ini files there , now i know that`s the reason why the Fly-By-Wire 0.9 tab does not appear at the extras menu, do any one have those so i can get them. Thanks.:search:

The empty "current" folder is correct.

If FBW does not appear on the "Extra" tab, you may have forgotten to activate it on the "Modules" tab.
Make sure the module "FlyByWire" is activated, not "FlyByWireMFD", which is an old version without an entry on the "Extra" tab.

 

[Puma]

yes, I did as you said the fly-by-wire folder on the orbiter`s root directory, also there the SDL.dll in the root directory, the modules and plugings in their folders. modules/plugins, then selected the FlyByWire in modules. but my point is inside the fly-by-wire folder there is a folder named current and is empty, i have read in the forums that the folder may contain some ini files, if you right click the rar file on orbiter hangar and click just open , you search inside the current folder and there is nothing there, can any one of you guys send me those files. Thanks.

 

[Redburne]

if you right click the rar file on orbiter hangar and click just open , you search inside the current folder and there is nothing there, can any one of you guys send me those files. Thanks.

When you install FBW for the first time, the current folder is supposed to be empty. This is not a bug, and it does not affect the operation of FBW in any way.

The ini files of someone else won't help you, anyway (except maybe for the unlikely case that he uses the exact same joysticks as you).

As soon as you save your configuration, those files will be created.

 

[Puma]

what is the step by step installation method to try it again, do i need any addon or maybe my joystick is not supported i have a genius maxfighter f-16u

 

[Redburne]

what is the step by step installation method to try it again, do i need any addon or maybe my joystick is not supported i have a genius maxfighter f-16u

Your joystick should be OK.

I. About the installation, here's what you have to do. If you have trouble with any particular step, just ask, and I'll go into more detail:

1. Download the ZIP file from Orbit Hangar
2. Extract the files to your Orbiter folder, keep the folder structure intact
3. Start Orbiter
4. Go to the "Modules" tab and activate "FlyByWire" (not "FlyByWireMFD"; deactivate this, if you find it). If you cannot find "FlyByWire", revisit step 2. Something went wrong there.
5. Go to the "Extra" tab. There should be an entry "Fly-By-Wire", now.
6. Expand this entry. "Configure" should appear. Double-click "Configure" or highlight it and press the "Edit" button.
7. The FBW configuration dialog should pop up.

II. Now you have to configure FBW to use your joystick. Unless you need FBW's advanced features, that's pretty straightforward. As an example, let's configure the main engine controls.

1. In the FBW configuration dialog, select "Main egine" from the list on the left. Some stuff will appear on the right hand side.
2. Click the upper "?" (the one with "Device" and "Input" written next to it). A new window "Select input" will appear.
3. From the "Device" drop down list, select the joystick you want to use. One of the entries should be "Genius Maxfighter" or something similar). If the joystick does not appear on the list, you may have to configure it as legacy device in Windows (instructions below).
4. After you have selected the device, a bunch of axes will be displayed on the "Axes" tab. Move the controls on your joystick to see what axis corresponds with what control.
5. Click the unmarked button next to the axis you want to use for your main engine. FBW will jump back to the main configuration dialog.
6. Close the dialog and answer "Yes" when you are asked if you want to save the configuration (you may actually have to select "Ja", I have no idea if these buttons get translated correctly ...).

That's it. You should now be able to control you main engines with your joystick. You may have to (fine-)tune the controls, later, but something should happen in Orbiter when you move the joystick.

Configuring your joystick as legacy device
(the following works for Windows XP; I'll have to look it up for other Windows versions)

As mentioned in step II.3., you may have to change a setting in Windows, if your joystick does not appear on FBW's device list.
If you know where to find the joystick settings in the Windows Control Panel, go there. Otherwise, the easiest way to get there is to press [Windows key] + [R] and type "joy.cpl" in the window that pops up. Press OK and you should be in the game controller setup.
Click the "Advanced ..." button next to the "Troubleshoot" button. Another window opens. Here, you can select your joystick as "legacy device". After you have done this, it should work in FBW.

Good luck!

 

[Puma]

yes i did as you say , and activate "FlyByWire it shows fine, but no extra tab, here is what i did: the FlyByWire folder in orbiter`s main folder or directory, inside the module folder i put the flybywire folder that contains the FlyByWirecore.dll, inside the plugins folder i put the FlyByWire.dll, then i run orbiter and i see the FlyByWire.dll, fine on the modules tab and i selected, but as i have explained previously is the fact that the extra tab doesn`t show up, any ideas ? thanks.

 

[Redburne]

Two ideas. No, make that three.

First, this time you write "the extra tab doesn't show up". This is probably only sloppy writing and you actually mean "FBW does not show up on the extra tab". But if it isn't you may be using an older version of Orbiter without the Extra tab. In that case, you'll have to get the latest Orbiter version, first.

Second, you write "I put <some files> <somewhere> and <some other files> <somewhere else> and <even more stuff> <in yet another place>". There is no need to copy individual files to certain folders (in fact, this may lead to problems if you forget something or put it in the wrong place).
Either unzip the file from Orbithangar directly to your Orbiter folder or extract it to a new folder and copy everything inside that folder (i.e. files and subfolders) in one go into your Orbiter folder. This way, it is a lot less error prone.

Third, if all else fails, make a fresh Orbiter installation (in a separate folder, no need to delete your current Orbiter) and try to install FBW there. Maybe a fresh install will cure the problem.

 

[Puma]

now it works !

i don`t know what had happen but i installed several addons in this month
and the tab show up, it seems that i was missing some addon before. but now it works. thanks for your help. any way i checked the wiki site but there is not update about how to best configure the joystick with fly-by-wire.
if any one has a brief tutorial will be great!

 

[Redburne]

now it works!

Great!

i don`t know what had happen but i installed several addons in this month
and the tab show up, it seems that i was missing some addon before.

Now that you mention it, there may actually be a problem with missing DLLs. I've read of similar problems with other add-ons (module can be activated, not error message, but no new MFD either) but never made a connection to your problems. It is entirely possible that some Windows runtime DLL was missing and one of the other add-ons installed it. I will have to investigate this.

any way i checked the wiki site but there is not update about how to best configure the joystick with fly-by-wire.
if any one has a brief tutorial will be great!

Did you see my "mini-tutorial" a few messages up in this thread? Part II deals with setting up your main engine throttle with FBW. I hope this gets you started.