Joystick and View Modes / Gimbal vs. Fixed Guns

[MerlinCH65]

Hey All

I am using a HOTAS Setup and after some frustrating trials with "Gimbals unlocked" (e.g. not hitting the side of a barn from inside) I realized that Joystick and Gimbals can never work.

So that means if I stay with HOTAS I will never use Gimbals - one choice left to consider. You guys agree right?

Now, concerning this "look ahead mode" and whatnot exists - can you advise me on what mode I should use?

And because my son is most likely to use Mouse/Key-Board - can you maybe give an advise for this Kind of setup too in Terms of view modes please?

It's not that I was too lazy to look around - but there is just too many contradictory information about this out there - so I choose to ask here as I am sure you can give some short answer to this!

Thank you all for taking the time to reply!

Cheers
Merlin

 

[Crichten]

My general understanding is that Gimbal is for mouse and keyboard and fixed is for Joystick, if you can maneuver your ship well enough to get the front end pointing at the right bit then carry on my son and light them up with the big guns.

Downside of the extra maneuverability of the Gimbals is that you drop a size of gun. If you were to run a left handed joystick for flight maneuvering you could gimble your guns to your mouse and ninja it somehow (I say Ninja because I could sure as hell never do this).

Ultimately it really falls down to how you like to play, the one that I've heard best reviews of is dual stick T16000M's. This allows the most control of your ship does require a bit of getting used to but is ultimately the most effective and accurate way to do it.
You will still probably want that keyboard (or gampad (Razer Orbweaver)) and mouse for the walking around pew pew

 

[MerlinCH65]

Thx Crichten - I agree on the Gimbal vs. Fixed Weapons - that's no Problem.

My main question is about this "Look ahead mode" - I don't know what that is and if I should use or not etc....

 

[Maxgerber5250]

Stick with locked gimbal till you get close. Now you will need a head tracking device and voice attack but, you can create a command in voice attack that will slave gimbal to your head tracking. Trying to track a target with your head is hard at range, but close it's not that bad

 

[DarthMunkee]

From what I've read look ahead mode makes it so your joystick follows a cursor similar to keyboard and mouse. The benefit is less input lag when compared to having it off. So the way I see it if you are flying with HOTAS you should have look ahead mode on and turn it off when you go keyboard and mouse.

 

[MerlinCH65]

Stick with locked gimbal till you get close. Now you will need a head tracking device and voice attack but, you can create a command in voice attack that will slave gimbal to your head tracking. Trying to track a target with your head is hard at range, but close it's not that bad

Thx - I have voice attack but not Track IR. It has by default the "lock gimbals" - so as I mentionned - I will anyway go for fixed guns only. But thanks!

 

[MerlinCH65]

From what I've read look ahead mode makes it so your joystick follows a cursor similar to keyboard and mouse. The benefit is less input lag when compared to having it off. So the way I see it if you are flying with HOTAS you should have look ahead mode on and turn it off when you go keyboard and mouse.

Got it - thanks! That's what I was looking for. It seems that this is the default mode anyway - so I may not have to change anything yet.

Thx!

 

[Blind Owl]

@TheNOOBIFIER1337 has some great video's to help you learn to fly.
Pilot School: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZcv1kmz26uu4srTgLv7ndfQydw-rGv4c

For me, I take all the gimbals off all my ships, as I fly dual joystick. I still haven't quite figured out look ahead and target focus. Seems I have to read up on these again every time I come back to playing after a break.

Edit: I don't know if look ahead is defaulted on or off, but I always 'right-alt+M' at the beginning of every match.

 

[Miasmic]

You will know when you turn look ahead off. With a joystick having look ahead mode off is infuriating. I can't imagine why it was ever not the default mode, even with a m+kb.

Dual sticks with fixed. I gave up on gimbals after a few minutes.

 

[Blind Owl]

You will know when you turn look ahead off. With a joystick having look ahead mode off is infuriating. I can't imagine why it was ever not the default mode, even with a m+kb.

Dual sticks with fixed. I gave up on gimbals after a few minutes.

Concur. Having that's damn reticle move all over the screen instead of my ship moving is frustrating as fuck.

 

[DarthMunkee]

So how does dual stick work? Is one forward and back and the other pitch, roll and yaw?

 

[StdDev]

So how does dual stick work? Is one forward and back and the other pitch, roll and yaw?

I use two Thrustmaster T 16000 M sticks set up as follows
Left stick is strafe forward/back and strafe left/right and twist set up as roll
Right stick is pitch up/down and yaw left/right and twist strafe up/down

 

[Blind Owl]

So how does dual stick work? Is one forward and back and the other pitch, roll and yaw?

I use two Thrustmaster T 16000 M sticks set up as follows
Left stick is strafe forward/back and strafe left/right and twist set up as roll
Right stick is pitch up/down and yaw left/right and twist strafe up/down

And I use right stick pitch up/down, yaw left/right, roll left/right on twist. Left stick is strafe up/down, strafe left/right, and strafe forward/backward on twist.

 

[DarthMunkee]

And I use right stick pitch up/down, yaw left/right, roll left/right on twist. Left stick is strafe up/down, strafe left/right, and strafe forward/backward on twist.

So you use strafe instead of throttle up or down? That makes more sense than what I was thinking.

 

[StdDev]

So you use strafe instead of throttle up or down? That makes more sense than what I was thinking.

Strafe forward/back is almost the same as throttle up/down.. one big difference is the ability to easily go backwards.
I also have my left stick throttle set to "throttle".. works kind of like a cruise control.. long distance traveling just set it and forget it.

 

[Miasmic]

For a third variation, I have: Yaw/Pitch on the right w/ Roll on twist. All strafing on the left stick with up/down on the twist.

I do have throttle control with the hat on the left stick (and VA), but I prefer strafing when dogfighting/racing

***you are more predictable while using throttle.

 

[Miasmic]

One thing though with using strafe controls, you will lose a lot of your engine noise (good or bad is up to you). I miss it, but the thruster sound on the Bucc thoroughly make up for it.

 

[DarthMunkee]

One thing though with using strafe controls, you will lose a lot of your engine noise (good or bad is up to you). I miss it, but the thruster sound on the Bucc thoroughly make up for it.

Well I already have a throttle so I could still use that for non-combat flying. The Bucc just sounds so good, both engines and thrusters.

 

[Miasmic]

The Bucc just sounds so good, both engines and thrusters.

Yes, yes it does. They did a fantastic job making that thing sound awesome.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

No one is using a gaming controller? Seems to me this adds enough buttons that you can fly the gimbal, and IIUC, is what USAF uses for their drones. Can't be all bad. If you put strafe up, down, left and right on the four buttons under your index fingers, left stick to fly and right stick to shoot, should be fine. Press left thumb stick for gun one, right for gun two. Has no one done this?