OK, my first question is what kind of controls are you using that you need to "see" them to work them?
1 is voice recognition (“Voice Attack”) the solution for not being able to see the HOTAS controllers?!
Voice attack is software that will do "button pushes" for you. Basically once you get it to recognize your voice you can set it up so that you would say "Gear down" and your gear would go down. I dont use it yet myself so I dont know how limited it is. From what Ive read you cant say "nice fight!" and have it type that out on the radio.
2 Mapping the controller seems to be possible only from menus accessed while at the tower. Anything else seems to be forgotten?
I have never had an issue mapping controllers from anywhere. The most important thing to remember is to be sure you are mapping the controller you want, and to be sure you are mapping in the MODE you want. There is fighter mode, vehicle mode bomber/gunner mode and one other that I cant think of right now
3 I figured out that it’s necessary to select menu options using the mouse dot but I haven’t found out a way to replace the mouse click to confirm entries. This is pretty inconvenient, as I can’t see the mouse (it seemed unusual now set up). Surely something can be mapped to a controller somehow?
You can map the left click, and right click to your controllers. Point the ball, click the switch on your stick/controller.
4 Can the various information panels be closed somehow? I believe that they can be moved - how is that best achieved?
Most can be moved, some can be closed out. The "ladder" in the heads up can be closed out, the controller position thing can be closed out and a few others. Go to the UI section and you will find the area to close and or move different items.
5 A quick guide as to how to use a push to talk voice radio? We used to need to use Teamspeak for this in the distant past.
hitting the "/" key will open the radiobar. Each of the 5 channels has a dropdown box for you to adjust which keys tune to which channels. Each channel can also be tuned to a single player or a single channel2-199 are channel your teammates use to talk to each other, 200 and up are cross country channels. Left click,hold and drag across the channel box to hilight "country" or what ever is displayed in that channel and type in the channel number or the name of the player you want to tune and hit ok. When you have the radio bar open, looking at the upper box in the left corner it list those players on the two main channels, the one your on and the range. At the top it shows which keys to use to talk on those channels.
6 Maybe it’s different on other aircraft but I haven’t easily seen a fuel gauge or slip indicator in the instrument panel.
The cockpit are some what modeled after the real planes (we have ammo counters real planes dont) but for the most part the indicators and gauges are in the area of the real thing. So you may have to hunt around to find them, but if a plane had a slip indicator, it will be there some place.
7 I’m running the game from Steam because it wouldn’t run at all using the directly downloaded version. Presumably there is not much of a disadvantage in doing this?
I wonder why it wouldnt run from the strait download? If your machine is strong enough to run it on Steam it is strong enough to run it onf the direct servers. Aside from that, running from Steam is the same as running from the direct download, no difference
8 Anything else you think would be helpful? I wonder whether VR is an advantage or disadvantage in a dogfight?!
Yes I think VR is an advantage. It is much harder to lose site of a bogie in a fight with VR because you are not "switching" views so much, you just sliding from one to the next. Aiming, once you get use to it is much better due to the 3D feel. Also flying and maneuvering you can be more precise and so "lawndarting" doesnt happen as much unless your in full compression that is.
