Question on views setup.

[boomerlu]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest:

Mouse look.

Here's my setup. Left hand controls the mouse, right hand controls the joystick.

Sidewinder Precision Pro
Button 1 Fire All
Button 2 Zoom Toggle
Button 3 View Look Forward (I have a different view than standard so as to remove cockpit obstructions)
Button 4 View Look Backward
Slider Control Mapped to Zoom (how much zoom)
Hat Up Flaps UP
Hat Down Flaps Down
Hat Right WEP
Hat Left Range VOX
It's an 8 way hat, the rest of the functions are not mapped in order to minimize accidental triggering.


Mouse
Button 1 Toggle Mouse Look
Button 2 Toggle Mouse Control (I have the mouse controls set to control head position up/down left/right - good for checking both left and right of your six for ex)
Mouse Wheel Throttle

Takes some getting used to - the main benefit is that you can zoom WAY in on an enemy con even if he's not perfectly centered in one of the snap views.

[fd ski]

I'm using x3something. Old one. Had it for 7 years now and it works just fine. Then again, i don't play as often as i used to.

I live in europe so no idea on prices.

Correction X45 it is.

It must be 7 or more years old at this stage. Still going strong.

[Ghosth]

Boomerlu

MS Sidewinder Prec 2 usb

Button 1 trigger, primary guns/ all guns.
Button 2 Secondary guns
Button 3 mode select in mode 1 it jumps to mode 2, & vice versa.
Button 4 Flaps, mode 1 = down, mode 2 = up

Hat switch, mode 1 = flat views mode 2 UP views.

Instead of having to hold a button to look up. You setup a button to work as an alternating switch.
Flipping you between modes.

So typical merge nose to nose start in gunsight view, we pass, I go to straight back on hat for rear view, then flick button 3 taking me to mode 2, which jumps view to up rear, then forward on hat taking my view to straight up as I'm pulling through my loop. Then as I come around I flick the mode switch again bringing me from straight up to upforward, once he's slipping out of that view drop the hat as he's back in my gunsight.

Not to say that the way your doing it is wrong, because as long as it works for you, its not wrong.

Just wanted to point out that there is another option out there. One that actually gives you more flexibility. And in effect, doubles the number of buttons you have available.

[Grind]

Thanks, but that was only half of my question, how do you have the views set up on that stick so that you can keep a hand on the throttle while looking up?

If I had a throttle I would use one of the buttons on it for the up view.  On the TM T16.000 I use one of the buttons on the base for the "up- view".  Two of the buttons are used for "flaps" (extending and retracting).  One for the "landing gear", one for channel number "vox" and one for "combat trim" or "dive brakes" depending on the plane I'm flying.  I use my thumb for the "throttle". For right my right hand I use my thumb for the  "8-way hat", I also use my right thumb to control  the three buttons adjacent to the hat that are mapped to control "wep", "zoom" and the "clipboard", my index finger is used for the "trigger" the other three fingers help control the "rudder".  The keyboard is used for everything else......  

<S>

Grind

 

[boomerlu]

So typical merge nose to nose start in gunsight view, we pass, I go to straight back on hat for rear view, then flick button 3 taking me to mode 2, which jumps view to up rear, then forward on hat taking my view to straight up as I'm pulling through my loop. Then as I come around I flick the mode switch again bringing me from straight up to upforward, once he's slipping out of that view drop the hat as he's back in my gunsight.

Just wanted to point out that there is another option out there. One that actually gives you more flexibility. And in effect, doubles the number of buttons you have available.

Erm, not sure why you directed this at me Ghosth (might be my question back in the help forum?). No offense taken or anything, it's just odd. I'm not OP on this.

Yeah, I have messed with this idea of having a mode switch. As I've been acclimating to mouse view, I actually find I like it just fine so I suggested this idea to OP because it avoids having to buy anything fancy for the stick itself but I see your idea looks fine too.

Personally I haven't thought about what exactly I'd find as a use for the extra buttons. Right now I have too many buttons and not enough fingers to access them all so some of them go unused (keep in mind the Precision Pro 1 has 4 buttons on the stick itself plus 8 way Hat then 5 more on the base; I used to use the four base buttons as my snap views for my left hand).

Currently those are still mapped to the view buttons - perhaps a mode select would be useful to go back to the "old" control config. Mouse look is pretty bad on planes with inherently bad visibility like the 109 and A6M - snap view has a huge advantage in that every view is "pre-optimized" for one of these rides. On the other hand, I think mouse look is much better on bubble canopyish rides like the 51, spit, and 190 - it reduces the micromanagement of setting up views significantly. All you need is to set rear, default, and forward.

[Vinkman]

I have a Pro Throttle from CH products. and it has a very cool  [and unique?] feature for viewing. It has a mini analog joystick for your left Thumb. This lets you acess all 17 (plus 9 downward views) with just 1 thumb. Also I always found that working views with my trigger hand lead to a lot of neuralogical cross talk and caused me to push the wrong buttona all the time. Toggling between up views and level views can be affective, but it's still an extra step that can be avoided with the right equipment.
CH products (and probably others) has a reputation for not frying, and having excellent [clean] voltage outputs. since you've already lost 100+ dollars on other sticks with multi function capability, you might try investing in a Pro Throttle instead, and then buying a very basic flight stick which you will only need for flight controls and trigger.

Summary:  Put your money in the high function throttle. Use the flight stick money to buy one with good reliability and voltage accuracy for flight control and trigger...ILO lots of bottons and switches.

[FBGrave]

"A short note, I recommend not using the "SST" software that comes with it. It provides the same functionality as most games already do and only seems to cause problems. After you plug it in, I also recommend getting the updated drivers from Windows Update"

Is there a driver specific to saitek x52 available from Microsoft ??  As does everyone else using SST , the stick loses
cal very often.

[OOZ662]

SST is not a driver. It's a standalone program that never needs to be installed. You can install the joystick by putting in the disk, plugging the controller in, then pointing the "driver search" to the disk. That installs the "release" version of the drivers, which are old. If you then go to Windows Update via the top of the start menu (in XP, at least), there will be an option to download updated drivers for it. They seem to be much more stable and change the way the joystick works.
In the old version, the Mode rotary is actually a "button" that repeatedly spams itself depending on which one it's set to. In the updated version, the Mode switch is all "internal," not revealing itself to games. I play a game called X3 where it can only take one button input at a time, so having the old drivers cripples the joystick.