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Hello fellow FE2 fliers,

Instead of posting under the stickied "ini tweaks" thread - that hasn't seen fresh posts in a couple of yrs., I thought I'd open a separate (small) post here for something I stumbled upon only yesterday while tinkering with my rudder setups in WOFF and IL2-BoM installs - and I realized that it might work well for FE2/SF2 too.

Those of you flying with "twist" joystick and/or rudder pedal setups might still find this helpful - but it is especially intended for those of you who are still flying with older/cheapish sticks (such as the Logitech Attack 3 in my case, with no twist capability) - you most likely have left/right rudder mapped to the top left/right buttons on the joystick. In WOFF, and other sims, it's usually a question of (manually) clicking several times left or right to get desired rudder input, and then clicking the center button on your stick to center the rudder.

For a few yrs., I've really only been frustrated by one thing in the TW sims., and that was the "snappish" response of the auto-rudder setup - until I dug further into some of the more obscure entries of the Default.ini file located under "C:\Users\Yourusername\Saved Games\ThirdWire\FirstEagles2\Controls" (same directory path for SF2, except substitute StrikeFighters2 for FirstEagles2).

The relevant entries to tamper with are the following three:

-----

[RangedControl001]
AxisControl=PITCH_CONTROL
MaxValue=1000.000000
MinValue=-1000.000000
DeadZone=0.000000
Saturation=115.000000
ReverseJoystick=TRUE
MouseScale=1.000000
UseMouseRate=FALSE
ReverseMouse=FALSE
LimitValue=TRUE
SelfCenterRate=1.000000 -----> I recommend setting this to 1.0 for FE2, to slow down the elevator self-centering rate for WWI 'crates with their wires and cables (leave at the default value of 2.0 for WW2 and Cold War installs in SF2 with "faster" hydraulic setups)
//2.000000
KeyControlRate=1.000000
AllowKeyControl=TRUE
IncreaseControl=PITCH_DOWN
DecreaseControl=PITCH_UP
CenterControl=
 
[RangedControl002]
AxisControl=YAW_CONTROL
MaxValue=1000.000000
MinValue=-1000.000000
DeadZone=0.000000
Saturation=115.000000
ReverseJoystick=FALSE
MouseScale=1.000000
UseMouseRate=FALSE
ReverseMouse=FALSE
LimitValue=TRUE
SelfCenterRate=0.100000 -----> recommended, for those using left/right joystick buttons to control rudder, is to reduce to a value of about 0.1 for WWI 'crates, again to simulate cable/wire control, but also in order to allow for lots of manual left/right rudder correction that, once you stop controlling rudder, allows it to return back to center position somewhat slowly (takes about 10 seconds to return to center); for WW2 and Cold War SF2 installs, a better value to use is something like 0.25 for the self-center rate, again to mimic the extra force of hydraulic controls
//2.000000
KeyControlRate=1.000000
AllowKeyControl=TRUE
IncreaseControl=YAW_RIGHT
DecreaseControl=YAW_LEFT
CenterControl= -----> have not bothered to use this since I like the 0.1 value for self-centering, for FE2, but, for those lacking twisty rudders or pedals, the most logical choice here is the top center button on the joystick, sandwiched between the left/right buttons for left/right rudder input
 
[RangedControl003]
AxisControl=ROLL_CONTROL
MaxValue=1000.000000
MinValue=-1000.000000
DeadZone=0.000000
Saturation=115.000000
ReverseJoystick=FALSE
MouseScale=1.000000
UseMouseRate=FALSE
ReverseMouse=FALSE
LimitValue=TRUE
SelfCenterRate=1.000000 -----> I recommend setting this to 1.0 for FE2, to slow down the aileron self-centering rate for WWI 'crates with their wires and cables and generally sloppy ailerons (leave at default value of 2.0 for WW2 and Cold War installs in SF2 with "faster" hydraulic setups, as with the elevator setup in the relevant entry in this post)
//2.000000
KeyControlRate=1.000000
AllowKeyControl=TRUE
IncreaseControl=ROLL_RIGHT
DecreaseControl=ROLL_LEFT
CenterControl=
 
-----
Von S 
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For SF2, Baffmeister told me this little trick:

[FlightControl]
StallSpeed=71.69
CruiseSpeed=186.59
ClimbSpeed=180.06//350kts
CornerSpeed=205.78//400kts
LandingSpeed=83.5
MaxG=7.33
MaxSpeedSL=365.25// 710Kts redline
MachLimit=1.40
MachLimitDry=0.95
PitchDamper=0.70
RollDamper=0.0//no roll damper
YawDamper=0.25
GunBoresightAngle=0.0
RocketBoresightAngle=0
FlapSettingForLanding=2
FlapSettingForTakeOff=2

AutoTrimLimit=0.0//................................................Probably works on a scale from 0.0 [no auto trim] to 1.0 [full auto trim]

I really like to leave it at 0, makes flying a lot more fun.

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Good point Stratos. That disables auto trim for SF2 aircraft. Here's another tip I just noticed, posted yrs. ago by Lexx_Luthor on one of the SF2 threads, for the Default.ini file if you want to enable manual, instead of auto trim - for WW2 and Cold War aircraft:

-----

[RangedControl001]

AxisControl=PITCH_CONTROL

MaxValue=1000.000000

MinValue=-1000.000000

DeadZone=24.000000

Saturation=165.000000

ReverseJoystick=TRUE

MouseScale=1.000000

UseMouseRate=FALSE

ReverseMouse=FALSE

LimitValue=TRUE

SelfCenterRate=0.000000

KeyControlRate=0.100000

AllowKeyControl=TRUE

IncreaseControl=PITCH_DOWN

DecreaseControl=PITCH_UP

CenterControl=

-----

Same rule would apply for roll control, with the "keycontrolrate" becoming manual trim if "selfcenterrate" is set to zero (left/right arrow keys on the keyboard then become manual trim for ailerons, while up/down arrow keys operate trim for the elevator).

Manual trim for yaw/rudder would then be controlled by left/right buttons designated on the joystick (or some other two keys on the keyboard since left/right arrows do not automatically map with rudder control), and a "centercontrol" key or button should then be mapped as well, to allow for centering of rudder without having to remember how many left/right button (or key) clicks to use for perfectly centered rudder.

Manual trim is obviously not recommended for aircraft in FE2 (with the possible exception of pitch trim for the Sopwith Tripe via that wheel they had in the cockpit - will tinker with that "AutoTrimLimit" rule for the data.inis one of these days to see if it works for the Tripehound, if set only for the elevator and/or left/right stab entries - maybe a limited value of something like 0.2 or 0.3 will be historically correct).

Von S

Edited by VonS
Added info.
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21 hours ago, Stratos said:

AutoTrimLimit=0.0//................................................Probably works on a scale from 0.0 [no auto trim] to 1.0 [full auto trim]

I really like to leave it at 0, makes flying a lot more fun.

Depends on plane. 0 is ofc ok for ww2 or early 'cold war' planes, but totally unrealistic for 'fly by wire' planes like F-16 or Tornado.

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For me some planes fly too much on rails, so that's what I like to change it.

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