So yesterday I was learnign how to fly with my HOTAS...
At first, I was a bit sceptical, because I thought the PRO version was the right choice and I thought the non PRO version will be some cheap wobbly d!ldo without enough precision to control the ship... But I was wrong... Even the non pro version is very good! My first impressions:
The stick:
the joystick provides very little resistance, but not too little to allow for an unintended movements... It is just about correct amount of resistance...Precision is VERY good!
The throttle:
the throttle is very nice in terms of smoothness and resistance, providing very nice and fluid control of thrusters, with noticable click when exceeding 90% (I guess) and going below 10% (I guess, I did not check the values)
The buttons:
the buttons are somewhat average at best... Not bad, but not great...
The software:
first issue was downloading the correct drivers. Logitech does not bother with proper description of their drivers and their "Automatic OS detection" provides less than accurate results... It did detect Windows 10, but did not detect whether it is 32 or 64 bits, resulting in me constantly downloading wrong drivers. So I decided to manually select the correct ones, but the problem is, LOGITECH does not provide this information in their description. As a result, i had to download multiple versions of drivers and find the correct ones using trial and error method...
Second issue was the software itself. It is very counterintuitive. Yes you find your way around eventually, but I've seen much better. Obviously, their UI designer was from different tribe than I... But you do not probably need the software to configure the controls in ED that much. You just need the drivers and then the game has its own set of bindings...
The bindings:
I have run into several difficulties, as a lot of things is not bound and there are also some issues when working with the standard bindings for X52 and with Voice Attack software... I spent couple of hours just fixing stuff to make sure it works properly... Still long way to go though, as some stuff will be only possible to fix with some experience gained after longer play time...
So how does it fly?
Great! It was like I was born for joystick and the joystick fits me like a glove... Flying the ship is just amazing in VR with this stick... Driving the SRV with this stick is also much much better! Everything just improved dramatically... Not in terms of precision (although in case of the buggy there is a huge improvement in the throttle control), but in terms of how natural it feels...
I started with some training missions, to make sure I do not crash my own ship... For the first 30 minutes, I was just overwhelmed with the amount of buttons... I was just pressing them randomly, trying to figure out what each one does... Maybe there is a way to export the bindings from the game, i dunno... But eventually, i did figure out enough to give me confidence to get back to my ship...
Leaving the planet I parked on last night was a massive pleasure... It is just so great to control the ship in a proper way!
BTW... That training mission I took, I played in non VR and I swear, I cannot go back to non-VR...
At first, I was a bit sceptical, because I thought the PRO version was the right choice and I thought the non PRO version will be some cheap wobbly d!ldo without enough precision to control the ship... But I was wrong... Even the non pro version is very good! My first impressions:
The stick:
the joystick provides very little resistance, but not too little to allow for an unintended movements... It is just about correct amount of resistance...Precision is VERY good!
The throttle:
the throttle is very nice in terms of smoothness and resistance, providing very nice and fluid control of thrusters, with noticable click when exceeding 90% (I guess) and going below 10% (I guess, I did not check the values)
The buttons:
the buttons are somewhat average at best... Not bad, but not great...
The software:
first issue was downloading the correct drivers. Logitech does not bother with proper description of their drivers and their "Automatic OS detection" provides less than accurate results... It did detect Windows 10, but did not detect whether it is 32 or 64 bits, resulting in me constantly downloading wrong drivers. So I decided to manually select the correct ones, but the problem is, LOGITECH does not provide this information in their description. As a result, i had to download multiple versions of drivers and find the correct ones using trial and error method...
Second issue was the software itself. It is very counterintuitive. Yes you find your way around eventually, but I've seen much better. Obviously, their UI designer was from different tribe than I... But you do not probably need the software to configure the controls in ED that much. You just need the drivers and then the game has its own set of bindings...
The bindings:
I have run into several difficulties, as a lot of things is not bound and there are also some issues when working with the standard bindings for X52 and with Voice Attack software... I spent couple of hours just fixing stuff to make sure it works properly... Still long way to go though, as some stuff will be only possible to fix with some experience gained after longer play time...
So how does it fly?
Great! It was like I was born for joystick and the joystick fits me like a glove... Flying the ship is just amazing in VR with this stick... Driving the SRV with this stick is also much much better! Everything just improved dramatically... Not in terms of precision (although in case of the buggy there is a huge improvement in the throttle control), but in terms of how natural it feels...
I started with some training missions, to make sure I do not crash my own ship... For the first 30 minutes, I was just overwhelmed with the amount of buttons... I was just pressing them randomly, trying to figure out what each one does... Maybe there is a way to export the bindings from the game, i dunno... But eventually, i did figure out enough to give me confidence to get back to my ship...
Leaving the planet I parked on last night was a massive pleasure... It is just so great to control the ship in a proper way!
BTW... That training mission I took, I played in non VR and I swear, I cannot go back to non-VR...