ReflexArc Junior Member

Join Date: Apr 2018 Posts: 36

I was asked to clarify some after posting this to reddit, I'm copying my explanation here:



By default, two-state switches like the Master ARM switch are only sent as one direct X button (Master Arm/up=Button 1; Master Safe/down=nothing/off) and three-state switches are two direct X buttons (Flaps UP/up=button 1; Flaps MVR/middle = nothing/off; Flaps DN/down = button 2). This requires custom HOTAS options which rely on button states and combinations of button states (button 1 On / button 1 Off = Flaps Auto / Flaps Half + button 2 On / Button 2 Off = Flaps Full / Flaps Half) but those state-dependent bindings aren't available for every plane in the game or for planes/spaceships in other games. My script makes two-state switches into two buttons (up = button 1 and down = button 2) and three-state switches into three buttons (up = button 1 middle = button 2 down = button 3). Virtually all planes have available bindings for discrete functions (Flaps Auto, Flaps Full, Flaps Half) which you can then bind to your now three button switch that you couldn't bind before (because it was only two buttons).



I wrote all of the following before my better TL;DR above but I'm keeping it because it includes some additional info.



If you're flying just the A-10C you're probably not missing anything. DCS includes bindings like "Master Arm On/Off HOTAS" which work correctly. But by default the master arm switch only sends a signal to the game every time you switch it to ARM ("On"). When you switch it to SAFE ("Off") it turns off that On signal but doesn't actually send any other info.



My script is useful for other planes which typically have options for three states: Master Arm On/Off (Toggle), Master Arm On (ARM), and Master Arm Off (SAFE). With planes like that, a typical assignment would be to assign your master switch to the Toggle version. When you do that, the switch will only toggle between On and Off each time you flip the physical switch to Arm. (So switch up to turn on but switch down then up again to turn off.)



If you use my Target Script, switching to ARM sends a signal and switching to SAFE also sends a separate signal. So then you can bind switch up and switch down to ARM and SAFE.



You might also notice this when using the flaps switch, which has two On modes (up and down) and one Off mode (middle). Some planes will have Flaps Auto/Half (On/Off) and Flaps Full/Half (On/Off), which should work without using my script. Other planes will only have Flaps Auto, Flaps Half, and Flaps Full. By default, you can not bind all three options because only Switch Up and Switch Down send a Direct X button input to the game. With my script, Switch Up, Switch Middle, AND Switch Down all send button input to the game. So now you can bind all three flaps states to the switch. This is a similar issue with the pinky switch and lighting states.



The reason I mentioned LUA scripting is that you can make "HOTAS" style bindings like in the A-10C yourself, but it requires a decent amount of easy but time-consuming LUA programming and you would have to remake all of those "HOTAS" style options for each plane that you fly. If you use my script, you don't need to make workarounds, because "Off" states actually send their own Direct X button, so you don't need custom LUA "Off/On" bindings (since only "On" states send button input by default but my script sends On and Off states as a button).