Community Event / Creation Microsoft Strategic Commander

CMDR Miko

C
Working Axis on MS Strategic Commander

Hello everyone,

I have managed to bring the Strategic Commander back alive with axis support by vJoy. I made a small application which works together with the Strategic Engine drivers and Vjoy.

At the moment you can not bind any own keyboard keys. The application is just sending commands to the vJoy driver. In this case I defined 12 buttons as Joystick buttons. (but that works)

In Elite even combinations works (Button1+Button12), but if you want own combinations you should use additional software like AutoHotkey or VoiceAttack. Those supports Joystick input and can do actions after Joystick keys or combinations are pressed.


Visit my webpage to get the download and the instructions.


www.extemporisation.de

View attachment 6856
 
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Rafe Zetter

Banned
Rafe Zetter
Vendraen said:
HA! I used to have one of these, as well as a Microsoft Game Voice (I believe that was the name) - that was a very early attempt at voice comms. I actually got that one for free because I ran a fairly major fan site at the time (neriak.com).
Click to expand...

Just noticed this thread - I too have the Strat Commander. It's been so long since I used it though I didn't even know it wouldn't be recognized by windows anymore, so I'll be looking into this thanks for you guys efforts :)! Maybe as a dedicated controller for gal map or summat... as it looks a little like the control pod on the inside part of the seat in the sidey cockpit.

The game voice I still use 13 years later - it's excellent for switching audio outputs - headphones for night / quiet play and speakers for full on day loudness.
 
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McDosy

M
That's brilliant Miko! It tranforms the Strategic Commander as a throttle control from passable to awesome!

I kind of miss having so many buttons that I can map things like my stereo, but at the same time being able to use the shift buttons as regular buttons opens up a much less complicated layout. If you develop it further, it would be could to keep that option open.

It's a great little app though and it's increased my enjoyment of the game enormously. Thanks!
 

max666

M
I got problem with strategic commander app.
First i installed strategic engine drivers, MS strategic commander is working in elite. Second I installed vjoy (it's visible in control panel) and set to 3 axis and 12 buttons. Then I try to launch your app "strategiccommander" and it crush. Pls help !

i.imgur.com/OYXamhP.jpg
 

Captain Breton

Captain Breton
Roobarb said:
Hi everyone!

I thought I'd pull out my very old and obsolete MS Strategic Commander ahead of the upcoming PB, and see if I could make some use of it.

If you're not sure what the devil I'm talking about, it's this.


Enjoy, and thanks for looking!
Click to expand...


:p That's the strangest creation I've ever seen
 

Silh

Silh
Thanks CMDR Miko for that program.

Earlier today I was digging through old boxes of junk in the basement, and I happened upon my unused Strategic Commander (got it free with some game, I don't even remember which one, might have been Warcraft 3), which I thought I had thrown away long ago. But apparently not, since there it was... dug it out, dusted it off, oiled the parts...

Interesting flying with it. I've been so used to keyboard left/joystick right for the last couple months. I'm finding it much more natural than using a HOTAS (I have a Warthog throttle which I'm not using for E: D >_<) for 3 dimensional control, but muscle memory has had a long time already to learn left hand keyboard controls, namely since I'm using my regular FPS setup which hasn't really changed in the last 17 years...

One note though. I couldn't get Miko's program to work with the latest vJoy 2.0.5, had to use vJoy 2.0.4 to get it to work.
 
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Silh

Silh
Anyone ever taken one of these things apart before?

Two things that bother me a bit about it:

1. Centering force is too low; maybe I could put heavier springs in?

2. Too much deadzone and not terribly precise.

Otherwise, really liking the way it works. Definitely feels a lot more natural using this for thrust control and flying circles around other ships.
 

Silh

Silh
Alright, decided to take this thing apart:

WXT07Vn.jpg


Looks like it uses a cam mechanism for centering; going to think about replacing the spring, or maybe putting some spacer material in to compress the spring some more:

Ul8Cq5S.jpg


Not sure if there's much I can do about the play in the plastic parts though, there's small gaps between them which won't be terribly easy to just fill in:

DAxtS3y.jpg


The pot at the bottom of the picture is the one that reading lateral movement, and that's the movement that current annoys me the most.

Going to try wrapping a thickness of electrical tape for now, and see if I like that behavior or not. Might consider taking out the lever piece, making a mold, and casting a modified one with less space between the tines if I'm feel up to it...

Edit:

1. I wish this thing had some room inside for me to throw a good amount of extra weight in...

2. One design change that could have helped improve the precision (though perhaps not so good for ergonomics and repetitive strain injury?) is rather than resting the wrist on the mobile part and having the whole arm move, use only the more precise fingers for movement and not the whole arm. With respect to that, a left-hand joystick may indeed be a more practical solution.
 
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Cor_Morkai

C
crash fix

I also had the Problem with the Strategic Commander exe crashing.

The Solution is:
Install everything as described
start only the Strategic Commander exe not the Strategic Engine and everything works fine.
 

Silh

Silh
Well, results on trying to mod the thing:

Putting in extra material to decrease the space for the spring does increase the return force. However, the spring buckles too much at that point, so it scrapes along the side creating a nice grating sound (and feeling), so I scrapped that idea. A stiffer spring may still be a consideration, if I can find one the right size.

Putting one layer of electrical tape did help the deadzone for lateral movement slightly. Still quite stiff though, no amount of grease seemed to fix that, and the precision along that axis isn't great just because of the design I think.

Verdict:

Still love this thing in a dogfight.

Trying to land with it is super annoying.
 
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Tannerson

T
This is super cool! Lucky for me I still have my SC, but I need a hand getting going again.

I downloaded SCAS 0.8a (by Miko) and set it up with vJoy (by Shaul) and Strategic Engine (by P.Merwarth) and BLAM! it was working!!! or so I thought.
While the window is active all the buttons, lights, and axis(s) show up, but if i click off of SCAS, nuthin'. also I cant get any other program to recognize the inputs not even the "Game Controller" Control panel.
On thing i noticed is that, unlike the example picture shown earlier in this thread, my Strategic Commander Axis Support lacks the "File" menu option and the "Settings" and "Help" menus are greyed-out. also, the scrolling dialog seems to be stuck on "beginning driver Inizialization".

Any help would be VERY appreciated!
 

Blaen

B
With the Strategic Engine app by Merwarth for the Strat, make sure you tick 'Run this program as an administrator' in the compatibility tab. This will fix most of the problems I've been reading about. Some games cannot 'see' the controller without this ticked for some reason, e.g. SWTOR to use but one of many examples.
 

Tryphase

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My dear friend,

I absolutely love the work you put in this. Unfortunately, after trying just about everything i can think of, i always get the same error when starting your program:

scas_error.png


I tried every version of vjoy (2.0.4 - 2.0.5 - 2.1.6). Ran with administrator permission and compatibility mode. Nothing works. Always this error.

When i run the vjoy monitor and feeder, it shows device #1 with 12 buttons and XYZ axis support. I can also interact with the vjoy device through the feeder, so that works:

vjoy_feed.png


From what i deciphered in the code, a program 'claims' the device, so, I do not run the scas and the feeder/monitor at the same time.
What am i missing or doing wrong? Advise would be greatly appreciated!

Btw, I'll be hitting that donate button when i get this to work.
 

CMDR Miko

C

Hello Tryphase and SC-friends,

I have changed the code of "scas" to work with the current version of vJoy (2.1.6 , 2015-10-24). Since I don't have win 8, I can't test it.

Install vJoy 2.1.6 and try the "experimental" version: http://www.extemporisation.de/strategic_commander08_1115.rar

Even you see the movement in scas test it with "vJoy Monitor", cause I removed the programm-exit for this initialization error.

 
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Tryphase

T
Initial testing seems very promising!! App launches and i get axis feedback in vjoy monitor, but no button feedback. I did launch ED, and am able to bind the buttons, so it seems to work. Further testing tomorrow, have to go to sleep (5hrs sleep left before work... :/)

Great job! And.. wow.. fast response man!!, loving it!

I'll report my testings tomorrow!
 

Tryphase

T
Thank you Sir Miko!

Your program works! I can even bind a button for Teamspeak (didn't work with Strategic Engine).

I have shown my gratitude in $$'s :)
 
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