Driven mad by beta binds, please add your +1 to idea for bind text option "left hat UP" for "JOY 24"

[Archvillain]

Driven mad by beta binds, please add your +1 to idea for bind text option "left hat UP" for "JOY 24"

Have you ever tried to remember what the button is to do some function, so you go to the controls menu and it just tells you the key you bound is "JOY 24"?

I love VR but this is probably my biggest struggle with it because everything is done by HOTAS instead of keyboard, so all the binds are inscrutable codes instead of descriptive, and you also can't reference notes. If you haven't tried the beta already, the problem about to get worse with a bunch more bindings and UI modes. So I've placed a feature request in the suggestions forum for there to be a way for us to enter names for our keybinds, so that eg. when in the new FSS view, instead of seeing "EXIT FSS: JOY 24" I would see "EXIT FSS: left hatstick UP"

If you would also like to have this feature, drop into the suggestion thread linked here and leave a message to that effect (It has to be either a comment or a new thread, because whether a message gets rep or not is invisible to FDev)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-JOY-14-quot-I-see-quot-left-hatstick-UP-quot

 

[TorTorden_VR]

How is this a new problem?

It is also not an FD problem it's simply how windows and DirectX reports button identities to every game.

 

[CylonSurfer]

Have you ever tried to remember what the button is to do some function, so you go to the controls menu and it just tells you the key you bound is "JOY 24"?

I love VR but this is probably my biggest struggle with it because everything is done by HOTAS instead of keyboard, so all the binds are inscrutable codes instead of descriptive, and you also can't reference notes. If you haven't tried the beta already, the problem about to get worse with a bunch more bindings and UI modes. So I've placed a feature request in the suggestions forum for there to be a way for us to enter names for our keybinds, so that eg. when in the new FSS view, instead of seeing "EXIT FSS: JOY 24" I would see "EXIT FSS: left hatstick UP"

If you would also like to have this feature, drop into the suggestion thread linked here and leave a message to that effect (It has to be either a comment or a new thread, because whether a message gets rep or not is invisible to FDev)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-JOY-14-quot-I-see-quot-left-hatstick-UP-quot

To be honest if you configure your binds well you will know what button on your HOTAS does what. I map the most used binds to the easiest to reach buttons and switches for example. A good bind setup takes a long time to refine but once you have it dialed in it should be intuitive enough that you won't even need to pay attention to the onscreen prompts. After an hour of play with the new functions I have my new binds setup nicely and have no need to look at onscreen prompts, in the same way that I don't need to think about where my gear down or engage FSD buttons are.

"Exit FSS: Left Hat UP" - I look at my HOTAS and think which left hat up? I have 2 left hats on my stick and one that I could consider to be left of my throttle... It really wouldn't help anymore than seeing the "Exit FSS: Joy 24" prompt. You have to learn your binds, over time you'll know them by heart.

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

Your HOTAS doesn't have software that does this for you?

 

[TorTorden_VR]

To be honest if you configure your binds well you will know what button on your HOTAS does what. I map the most used binds to the easiest to reach buttons and switches for example. A good bind setup takes a long time to refine but once you have it dialed in it should be intuitive enough that you won't even need to pay attention to the onscreen prompts. After an hour of play with the new functions I have my new binds setup nicely and have no need to look at onscreen prompts, in the same way that I don't need to think about where my gear down or engage FSD buttons are.

"Exit FSS: Left Hat UP" - I look at my HOTAS and think which left hat up? I have 2 left hats on my stick and one that I could consider to be left of my throttle... It really wouldn't help anymore than seeing the "Exit FSS: Joy 24" prompt. You have to learn your binds, over time you'll know them by heart.

This.

I make all binds from scratch.
And for most keys I ask myself the question "What button do I want this on?"
And if I wonder where I put a certain function I ask myself the same question.
And eight out often times I guess it correctly without having to look up keybindings or anything.

Personal opinion of course but I would rather they get around the 32 button limit per device than build a button name database for all possible controllers out there.

I know luxury problem. But my throttle goes to button 80..

 

[Archvillain]

There is a lot of misunderstanding here of the idea, so I'll try to clarify.

"Exit FSS: Left Hat UP" - I look at my HOTAS and think which left hat up? ...It really wouldn't help anymore than seeing the "Exit FSS: Joy 24" prompt.

Then you would not have nicknamed it "left hat UP", you would have nicknamed it something that made perfect sense to you

than build a button name database for all possible controllers out there.

As above, there is no giant database, just text input fields (or even a list via .txt file) so we can write our own nicknames for our buttons. (A giant database is certainly another potential way to address the problem, but I don't like the disadvantages of that approach, and besides I would prefer to just name my own buttons )

How is this a new problem?

It has always been a problem and it is becoming a bigger problem, because the number of binds and each button's list of different functions in different contexts in Elite keeps growing. (eg there are new controls again for upcoming 3.3)

if you configure your binds well you will know what button on your HOTAS does what.

The game is losing that level of simplicity; I made my binds from scratch, honed them to perfection over years, but Elite is a long term game; once you've stopped playing it and have been playing other games for a few months, then return to Elite, for the rarely-used functions some of your muscle memory is gone (if not actively reshaped by the other games). Elite's control's complexity has also been expanding and expanding, so even if you don't play other games, there will eventually still come a point when some obscure functions get just too obscure. If it hasn't happened to you yet, that's great, but that doesn't mean it's not an issue, or that it won't affect you in the future.

Your HOTAS doesn't have software that does this for you?

Unfortunately it doesn't. Nor will yours; that's not how these game peripherals work.

It is also not an FD problem it's simply how windows and DirectX reports button identities to every game.

What you mean is that the problem wasn't caused by FD. It's still an FD problem because it affects the user experience of playing Elite. I'm a game dev; part of what we do in our games is try to smooth over these harsh edges for the player. What causes the issue matters less than whether we can help alleviate the issue for players. FDev can help alleviate this.


FDev apparently agrees that the controls complexity has reached a point where showing the buttons is desirable, because control bind hints have been added in the upcoming 3.3 UI. The problem is that if you use HOTAS/VR, those hints don't work - they just show you virtual-button codes. It would be great if we could replace those codes with our own informative nicknames!

 

[Archvillain]

Personal opinion of course but I would rather they get around the 32 button limit per device ...my throttle goes to button 80..

Off topic, but FWIW this has been far less of a problem for me. I use the warthog HOTAS with far more than 32 buttons, and it comes with software to assign those buttons to anything, you're not limited to the JOY buttons at all. (I assume yours is the same)

The problem for me when we have so many buttons is checking what they're bound too because we don't have nicknames for the codes

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Off topic, but FWIW this has been far less of a problem for me. I use the warthog HOTAS with far more than 32 buttons, and it comes with software to assign those buttons to anything, you're not limited to the JOY buttons at all. (I assume yours is the same)

The problem for me when we have so many buttons is checking what they're bound too because we don't have nicknames for the codes

Not really a problem..
Just got all these switches, buttons and rotaries I use in other titles that doesn't respond in elite because of their mapping.

Now I used to have more than enough buttons and such on the throttle handles themselves, more than on my old one even so it is completely a luxury issue.

 

[Archvillain]

Just got all these switches, buttons and rotaries I use in other titles that doesn't respond in elite because of their mapping.

Surely the hotas has software to remap them?! What throttle is it?

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Its the virpil.

And sure I could, but really isn't that big of a problem.
And remapping would mean giving up other buttons again.
At default it has 49 physical button outputs and 6 axes.
The axes can be bound no problem, but rotary axes aren't that much used in Elite.

And that's the first mode, it's got five more of them.
And I believe the last button it sends is in the low 80's.

And quite frankly elite is falling rather low on my gaming priorities these days and these new features doesn't look to change that much.

Now, one caveat with the virpil stuff is the software. It is in a word rather potent and just trying to do a minor thing I have managed to nearly brick my devices.
Fortunately it is not a problem to just upload a new firmware and profile.
And the documentation, what there is of it, is barely existing, mostly for a piece of the software two versions ago and in Russian.

Now they are working English manual but most sections that goes further than loading new firmware and calibrating is simply labelled "Coming soon."