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Clickable Cockpits

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Hey everybody, I'm new here (and am happy I found this site) and am trying to get more involved. One thing I've been curious about for a while is do they make games with clickable cockpits anymore? The only ones that I've really seen (that I own, anyway) are Falcon 4.0 and CFS 2, and I'm wondering if there are any new sims that incorporate that feature, or if it kind of just died out. Thanks, guys, will appreciate any feedback I get.

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Guest Stiglr
Hey everybody, I'm new here (and am happy I found this site) and am trying to get more involved. One thing I've been curious about for a while is do they make games with clickable cockpits anymore? The only ones that I've really seen (that I own, anyway) are Falcon 4.0 and CFS 2, and I'm wondering if there are any new sims that incorporate that feature, or if it kind of just died out. Thanks, guys, will appreciate any feedback I get.

 

I don't think they do, and good riddance. It's really a stupid idea. When you consider most people are right handed, and that hand is going to be on their joystick when they fly, they have to hamfist using the mouse to click some knob or switch in the virtual pit, (plus alter the view with a hatswitch or with TIR or some such just to see what they're looking to manipulate) and the whole thing takes 2x to 3x longer to accomplish than if you were a checked out pilot sitting in the real thing. Being familiar with a few keyboard commands, and/or having the most used functions programmed into your flight gear is the way to go.

 

Clickable cockpits were case of overthinking the design, poor ergonomics and features-for-features-sake.

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the M$ FS series has it in their cockpits..and I think someone said Lomac has it,I for one find it fun when I have time.Again it's the old real life thing,Clickable cockpits are not as much fun on a sim as you gotta mouse over or spend half a day setting up your HOTAS.

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Like Dagger says the M$ FS stuff still has it, but that's about all recently. I actually kind of like it, mainly 'cos I've started setting up my mouse wheel as a throttle so I can get HOTAS for free, and not have to use the keyboard to do any switches.

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The clickable cockpits seemed to me to add a little more to the experience. Instead of pressing CTRL+whatever to do something, you actually found the switch and activated it. It's an unecessary feature, sure, but I always liked it. For modern sims, though, I agree that the time lapse for using the mouse is a problem, but I think that Falcon 4.0 did a good job by adding that freeze mode, so you could find the right switch and use it without using precious time.

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The clickable cockpits seemed to me to add a little more to the experience. Instead of pressing CTRL+whatever to do something, you actually found the switch and activated it. It's an unecessary feature, sure, but I always liked it. For modern sims, though, I agree that the time lapse for using the mouse is a problem, but I think that Falcon 4.0 did a good job by adding that freeze mode, so you could find the right switch and use it without using precious time.

 

I agree, the clickable cockpit was a novelty and had lended a certain realism to the game. But it wasn't practical; I can negotiate the keyboard without looking and without taking my right hand off the stick. A much better system in my opinion.

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Falcon 4 has it, and so does its latest incarnation, F4:AF.

LOMAC right now does not have it, but the next add on is Black Shark, featuring the Ka-50 Hokum, and it will have a clickable cockpit.

For cockpits with MFDs it's helpful as that's what the real pilot does, push the buttons around the edge of the screen.

I think it's silly for things like flaps, lights, gear, etc though.

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Hey everybody, I'm new here (and am happy I found this site) and am trying to get more involved. One thing I've been curious about for a while is do they make games with clickable cockpits anymore? The only ones that I've really seen (that I own, anyway) are Falcon 4.0 and CFS 2, and I'm wondering if there are any new sims that incorporate that feature, or if it kind of just died out. Thanks, guys, will appreciate any feedback I get.

 

 

"wings of power" Shockwave and Battle of Britan 2 also by Shockwave... :cool:

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I think that clickable cockpits have been phased out since a number of companies (like GoFlight) have been building actual desktop boxes that through either serial or USB cables will do things such as raise/lower your gear advance your throttles, change radios/radar displays, etc. Also through a number of people in the MSFS community have posted at various places on the internet how for less then 100 dollars US you can build your own radio stack or build your own exterior throttle quadrant. I have also seen various people have written software for either thier blackberry or Palmpilot to emulate radar or GPS displays complete with its own touch screen.

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Like Dagger says the M$ FS stuff still has it, but that's about all recently. I actually kind of like it, mainly 'cos I've started setting up my mouse wheel as a throttle so I can get HOTAS for free, and not have to use the keyboard to do any switches.

actually, I'm pretty sure CFS3 did not have clickable cockpits - that's why i stuck with cfs2

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With TrackIR, clickable cockpits just don't work right. I've tried to do it in FS9/X and between having to move the mouse to a specific tiny spot on screen, and trackir moving the screen with my head, it's easier to simply press a button on te keyboard.

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I don't think they do, and good riddance. It's really a stupid idea. When you consider most people are right handed...

 

Screw you righties!! Us lefties will rule you all one day soon...

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They are great in Falcon F4 - you dont have to learn hundreds of key combos for a start. Im sure that the Track IR thing will be resolved when 3D clickable cockpits become more available - in the next generation of flight sims. I would expect the next incarnation of Falcon (or whatever) to have a clickable cockpit.

 

To use a mouse with your opposite hand is not difficult btw.

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If they could merge a clickpit with an touchscreen LCD....I "might" be happy. Even a real pilot has to take his hands off the stick or throttle to select a function...

 

unless your flying the Firefox.

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C'mon guys Firefox the Movie is one of my favs! I'd like to have clickable pits, just for pure fun during long flight. Swith off left MFD, switch off right MFD, switch of radar, switch of comms, cut the engine, descent 100 ft, bank 180 deg, pull the seat lever :doh:

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If they could merge a clickpit with an touchscreen LCD....I "might" be happy. Even a real pilot has to take his hands off the stick or throttle to select a function...

 

This is the primary way I would like a clickable cockpit. It's fast and intuitive. Combine it with a HOTAS and TrackIR and your immersion would go up dramatically.

 

Without the touchscreen LCD, I would only like it for MFD buttons.

 

FastCargo

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Hey everybody, I'm new here (and am happy I found this site) and am trying to get more involved. One thing I've been curious about for a while is do they make games with clickable cockpits anymore? The only ones that I've really seen (that I own, anyway) are Falcon 4.0 and CFS 2, and I'm wondering if there are any new sims that incorporate that feature, or if it kind of just died out. Thanks, guys, will appreciate any feedback I get.

 

 

Battle of Britain "wings of victory" a totally excellent game has them and still is being produced... :clapping:

 

http://www.simhq.com/_air4/air_145a.html

Edited by stalkervision

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When you consider most people are right handed and that hand is going to be on their joystick when they fly, they have to hamfist using the mouse to click some knob or switch in the virtual pit,

 

Yeah where as real pilots have their hands on the.. oh no hold on real pilots would mostly be using their left hands to move switches. Jeez and I thought you were all about the realism Stiggy!

Edited by SkippyBing

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Screw you righties!! Us lefties will rule you all one day soon...

 

Yep, I am one of those left handers and yep it worked fine for me.

 

Remember some of the worlds greats were left handed

 

Oliver Cromwell

 

Julius Caesar

 

Horiatio Nelson (Actually he had no choice his right arm got shot off but why let that spoil a good story!)

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If they could merge a clickpit with an touchscreen LCD....I "might" be happy. Even a real pilot has to take his hands off the stick or throttle to select a function...

 

unless your flying the Firefox.

 

or a Eurofighter Typhoon ...

the voice commands thingo works for non-flight critical things only though...

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If they could merge a clickpit with an touchscreen LCD....I "might" be happy. Even a real pilot has to take his hands off the stick or throttle to select a function...

 

unless your flying the Firefox.

 

 

There is already a application that has something like it:

http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/faq/18-master-faq.html

 

The lomac profile is nice. The clickable inteface looks like cockpit parts:

http://www.touch-buddy.com/ppost/data/2/TBpit_mark2_003b.JPG

 

Grab a nice 8 inch wide touchscreen with vga port and off you go:

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=10877

Edited by ghodan

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Being the proud owner of 3 Saitek P-8000 pads, I have no use for clickable cockpits in any sims I play... Not much use for a keyboard either :lol:

 

I like the look of that touch-buddy though...:smile:

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