B-17 The Mighty 8th - Getting Started Tutorial Video Series - Now Available!!!

[Buddahaid]

OK, it's fixed. I purged all other joystick software first and the problem persisted so I then uninstalled the game, purged again, and reinstalled. It works fine now.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

So I bit and purchased a modern FCS from Saitek, the X-56 Rhino, and it looks like it will work well using the profile software it comes with. In any case, using vJoy stops the Saitek driver from loading again even when vJoy is disabled. vJoy also will not recognize any of the three hat controls.

Well I guess vJoy has its limitations. I suppose that if your joystick already comes with profile software that allows you to adjust sensitivity then there is no need for vJoy and Joystick Curves.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

OK, it's fixed. I purged all other joystick software first and the problem persisted so I then uninstalled the game, purged again, and reinstalled. It works fine now.

That's fantastic news and really great to know. I've toyed with the idea of buying a Saitek X-56 Rhino myself but can't justify the cost just now. Maybe I'll upgrade from my HOTAS X next year.

What are you impressions of the joystick so far?

[ikrananka]

The eleventh video in this series is now live on YouTube. In this video I focus on Quickstart Mission #2: Attack of the Axis. In this mission we use the gun stations of our B-17 to defend against a vicious attack by enemy fighters including Bf 109s, FW 190s and the jet propelled Me 262s.

Sorry for the delay in getting this video published. My recording software took a flaky and I was left with a video that had lots of dropped frames and audio out of sync. Took me a while to edit it into something presentable.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by ikrananka

That's fantastic news and really great to know. I've toyed with the idea of buying a Saitek X-56 Rhino myself but can't justify the cost just now. Maybe I'll upgrade from my HOTAS X next year.

What are you impressions of the joystick so far?

It's been quite a few years since I've had a HOTAS system so I love that aspect of the Rhino. In particular, being able to split the throttle into port and starboard controls for supported multi-engine sims is nice. Good in B-17 for when an engine is feathered.

The overall quality is good so far and I've no complaints there. There is, however, no detailed instructions for programming profiles. The link to that manual is dead, or not set up yet, but it's the same as the X-55 so you can use that manual. That said, the level of programming options is very generous and I've been able to get everything working in all my sims but Red Baron 3D which just won't calibrate, or perhaps find the X,Y axis. I can get to the calibrations and work them, but there is just no flight control in sim. It did allow me to get the other old Sierra titles to run with full flight controls and an old DOS favorite called Strike Commander also.

So overall I love it but there are programming concepts that could use tutorials to better understand.

In B-17 today I ran my first historical mission, Bremen, and let the AI do it all but the bomb run. First screw up was not understanding how to start the mission so I just started the engines, took off and watched the AI insist the landing gear be lowered and the plane fly into the ground. After that I went to the radio operator and chose start mission which worked great up until the taxi job after landing. The AI just drove me way out into a cow pasture and left me wondering how to complete the mission. Sorted that by heading over to a hard point and manually shutting down the engines. The split throttle made that possible with engine four feathered, otherwise I couldn't stop the plane from going in circles.

Still a ways to go before I'm comfortable with everything but at least it's making a lot more sense now. Thanks for the tutorials.

[Buddahaid]

Now that I'm getting a lot more comfortable with this sim, I'm finding that the quick start mission number three "Where are the Little Friends" a good mission for practicing both gunnery and bomb aiming. You can start as a gunner for the few minutes it takes to turn onto the bomb run, then assume the bombardier's position for the bomb run, and return to gunnery for several more minutes with ME-262's finishing off the defensive attacks.

I'm also finding the tail gunner is the easiest gun position to get up to speed with because it allows you more time to track targets that are attacking from the rear. Nice to watch one explode when you nail it.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Now that I'm getting a lot more comfortable with this sim, I'm finding that the quick start mission number three "Where are the Little Friends" a good mission for practicing both gunnery and bomb aiming. You can start as a gunner for the few minutes it takes to turn onto the bomb run, then assume the bombardier's position for the bomb run, and return to gunnery for several more minutes with ME-262's finishing off the defensive attacks.

I'm also finding the tail gunner is the easiest gun position to get up to speed with because it allows you more time to track targets that are attacking from the rear. Nice to watch one explode when you nail it.

Yes indeed. I'm working on a video for that Quickstart mission right now and will hopefully have it up on YouTube in a day or two.

What I like about this mission is that it let's you practice against three different Axis fighters, i.e. Bf109, FW190 and the jet propelled Me262.

[ikrananka]

The twelfth video in this series is now live on YouTube. In this video I focus on Quickstart Mission #3: Where are the Little Friends? In this mission we use the gun stations of our B-17 to defend against a vicious attack by enemy fighters including Bf 109s, FW 190s and the jet propelled Me 262s. However, this time there are no "little friends" to help us out.

There are some very impressive fighter explosions in this video.

Again, sorry for the delay in getting this video published. I have been having further issues with dropped frames and audio out of sync in my recordings. I have concluded that it is time to do some upgrades to my 6 year old PC. I'll be doing this in stages starting with a new GTX 1070 video card. I'm switching from AMD to Nvidia in the hope that I'll be able to get reliable recordings at 1440p60 with the Nvidia GPU hardware encoding.

[Buddahaid]

Again, thanks for the tutorials. I'm noticing that you are able to get camera views at the 45 degree zones that I can't seem to make happen. What is different in you're install?

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Again, thanks for the tutorials. I'm noticing that you are able to get camera views at the 45 degree zones that I can't seem to make happen. What is different in you're install?

I use the hat stick on my HOTAS X joystick. Pressing it to a 45° position brings up the 45° views. It's a digital hat stick so I can clearly feel the clicks of the underlying switches so I can feel when both the up AND left switches, for example, have been activated.

Does your hat switch not allow you to access these views?

[Buddahaid]

Oh it has an eight position control. Are you saying that it stops at the 45 when panning left for you? The game doesn't have keyboard commands for those views that I can see, and I should be able to program mine to mimic any function. Right now it is mapped to the keyboard controls.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

Oh it has an eight position control. Are you saying that it stops at the 45 when panning left for you? The game doesn't have keyboard commands for those views that I can see, and I should be able to program mine to mimic any function. Right now it is mapped to the keyboard controls.

I have not manually setup anything for the hat stick and, as you say, it is not listed in the control options for the game. So, I can only assume that the game is hardcoded to detect a hat switch, and yes, in my case anyway, it allows my 4-way hat switch to access the 8 possible view positions by reading up+left, for example, as a diagonal up and left 45° view.

[Buddahaid]

I see I need to experiment. The X-56 has a multitude of hats so I suppose the game is unable to detect the hat. Thanks.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

I see I need to experiment. The X-56 has a multitude of hats so I suppose the game is unable to detect the hat. Thanks.

Let me know how you get on.

[Buddahaid]

I don't know what else to try but I can't get 45 degree views. Using the keyboard controls only pans in external view. Granted, this is not a deal breaker, but I would like the capability.