Include Button Mode on more control bindings

[cpm]

Cargo Scoop has a Button Mode modifier to allow press and hold to use, rather than toggle on and off.
Others, for example Ship Spot Lights lack this Button Mode modifier.

Why is this needed in more places?

When using a HOTAS such as Warthog, many of the switches are On and Off toggles, On effectively being the equivalent of pressing and holding down the key on a keyboard i.e. not lifting up - this makes good sense to use with a Button Mode modifier set to Hold - for example ship spot lights can map to a toggle switch and On means the lights on and Off means the lights off, a 2nd binding on the keyboard can then be used to flash the flights with a key press.

Having grown up with the original BBC B 32K Tape version of Elite, and coming back to it with my son almost 40 years later - it was a little disappointing to find minor limitations like this. Elite Dangerous: Odyssey looks like a great adventure, if enhancements on controls like this could be put in place it would make it much easier to get stuck in without going through hoops trying to figure out what is possible to make it work (and no - Target and other software is not the full/correct solution, just an almost-works sticking plaster over something on the surface looks simple to implement/enhance in game).

Appreciate your time, and look forward to any reply - fingers crossed on this small addition being added.

I am sure many others have seen this issues given all the Target profile workarounds out there, and many inputs would be enhanced with Button Mode.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Element Priest]

Pretty sure you can do that with the thrustmaster programming software.

 

[cpm]

Thanks for the reply.

The "thrustmaster programming software" aka Target, and other similar software just allow you to emulate a key press when toggling the physical toggle switch.
For example if the "A" key on the keyboard was bound to 'toggle' the lights, then using the above software we can:
Flip toggle switch to "On" to send key press "A"
Flip toggle switch to "Off" to send key press "A"

This partially works but does not actually reflect the state of the toggle switch, for example if the physical toggle switch is "On" when starting the game and the game starts with the lights off, then it will be forever out of sync playing the game, i.e. the toggle switch actions are reversed "Off" now switches the lights on and "On" switches them off - not desirable.

What is needed is the game state and toggle switch state to reflect each other - a workaround to the above is to make sure all the switches are in the desired place before starting the game, I can see that being a very annoying and tiresome / error prone process.

Having the "Button Mode" modifier allows the synchronization of the toggle switch and the state in the game - and all without any additional software and mapping.

----------------

There is still one gotcha you may have picked up on - assuming we have Button Mode and it is set to Hold in the above example - we can still start the game with the physical toggle in the "On" position - the game will start with the lights off - again out of sync.

We already have a precedent in game for this type of "Button Mode" Hold - out of sync issue, e.g. the Cargo Scoop, if the toggle is "On" and game starts, the Cargo Scoop is not deployed - toggling "Off" will bring it in sync with the game, form that point it will always be in sync - not a big deal.
This is unavoidable as the game cannot physically change the state of the manual toggles to reflect it's state, this is very acceptable behavior.

So to re-iterate, adding a "Button Mode" to bindings is very desirable for physical toggles, giving abilities that Target et al. do not provide.

 

[Treya]

What is needed is the game state and toggle switch state to reflect each other

Game state is obtainable by reading the status.json file in the journal folder. I use it in an AHK script to read in the state of several switches and compare them to the current game state reported via the flags in that file. If anything is out of sync the script sends the corresponding key bindings to the game. Hasn't failed me in years and covers every ship/SRV function except Toggle Orbit Lines which isn't reported by the game.

Nonetheless your point still stands because configuring a game shouldn't require programming skills.

 

[cpm]

Thanks Treya, will take a look into the status.json.

Cleanest approach for me looks like having a secondary keyboard binding, then as you do, compare the json status and the JOY switch status via AHK, and then send the secondary binding key via AHK on out of sync.

I do though think it would be relativity trivial for the game to allow Button Mode on most bindings - if Button Mode has been implemented well with automated test coverage etc. it should be a low risk and low cost enhancement - though have found out this has been asked for many moons ago so not holding out a lot of hope of getting any time soon.

Thanks again.