[new feature] So you love flying by keyboard number ? (demo wav)

[DanSteph]

Litle preliminary story:

I just made a flight test with a freeware CRJ700, the radio panel was broken, impossible to enter
new NAV frequency... this remember me one feature of a nice adventure addon somes years ago:
you was able to enter com, nav frequency and heading by pressing on keyboard...
As I'm a "keyboard lover" I love flying while pressing on my keyboard I decided to implement
this feature... I just made somes test, it work nicelly...

How it work
So... in FsP you will be able to type on your keyboard for example "C11450", the copilot
will announce "COM one one four five zero" and you radio com1 will switch automatically
on 114.50 same for NAV frequency and I think the heading of autopilot...

List of available default key (you can redefine them)
C=COM1
CC=COM2
N=NAV1
NN=NAV2
H=HEADING

I must say that this will at least enhance MY flying experience...
I love entering COM/NAV by keyboard much more then with mouse...

I think this will be finished in two three hour, I'll let you know how it goes...
(My first test show that the copilot say the number as fast as you type them... it's nice)

Dan



Post Edited ( 05-16-05 03:17 )

[Zatnikitelman]

The whole thing, or the current addition will be finished!?

[DanSteph]

Of course only the new feature... otherwise my announce would look much different...
Anyway I'm excited by this new feature...

Dan

[DanSteph]

neat neat... I love flying while typing keyboard number only...

Here a small wav (260ko) where you can hear some of my keyboard input and how reply the copilot of FsP:

http://www.fspassengers.com/images/fsp_keyboard.wav

When you press "C" FsP reply "COM" if you press "C" again it reply "2" (mean you will tune COM2 now)
after that you enter your number simply and FsP say them... If the frequency is valid and entered in
the Fs2004 radio FsP reply: "check", if you enter an invalid frequency FsP reply "invalid"

Notice the copilot say the number as I type them... fast or slow.. you have 3 second to type each number
before it time out... (very long delay.. you are not stressed)

In this demo WAV I typed this exactly on my keyboard:

C11820 (COM1 is now tuned on 118.20)
NN11920 (NAV2 is now tuned on 119.20)
C13700 (Invalid because 137.00 doesn't exist)

(EDIT: and before you tell me yes.. 119.20 is an invalid NAV frequency, I just modified the code)

I plan to add at least autopilot heading, decision height for the GPWS and perhaps some others.

Of course you can redefine key for those inputs:




Dan



Post Edited ( 05-16-05 03:39 )

[JaWood]

That's a wierd sounding "invalid" on the wave file. It shuold be pronounced "in ' VAL ' id", not "IN ' va ' lid" Other than that, I think this new
feature is really cool!

[DanSteph]

Sure, voice will be fixed later but for my test I can't wait that the voice wav come back by mail...
so I use a shyntetique voice creator (but the "radio style" filter is mine)

I think also to replace "check" by: "set and check"...

com, nav, heading and altitude done... I'll now make a litle flight
with this feature to relax before sleep....
(naah it's mainly to test in the long run if there is no surprise in special case)

Dan



Post Edited ( 05-16-05 04:55 )

[JayKae]

At the moment my CTRL+SHIFT+T controls my Ultimate traffic TCAS gauge, will FSP interfere with that or not ? if yes, is the workaround
just choosing new allocations for commands?

[pagir]

All keys are fully customizables...

So you will be able to choose any combinaison for every functions of FSP

pagir

[clut]

This sounds like a fantastic feature, KUTGW.

[fruitfly]

I 'm sure you all know all keys can be activated using voice commands - the only reason I bring this up is because Dan mentioned tuning the radio frequencies; that's where ALL voice reckognition programs fail.

Well.... almost all. There's ONLY one that can do exactly that , freeware, Speechbuddy2 (not the payware voicebuddy!) and can be
downloaded from flightsim and avsim.
Yes, it is a little bit buggy (there's also a patch to download), but I think it's worth it.

So... I hope someone will find it useful to know that there is that other way to use FsP commands in the future?



Post Edited ( 05-17-05 01:20 )

[Eclipz]

It sounds really great.

Will you do the same for other 'functions' as sqawk, speed of the auto-pilot (for planes with auto-trottle/thrusts), vertical speed etc etc etc ?

Vincent

[bdparris]

Good thinking and a good idea Dan. Puts a little less workload on the pilot and adds more of a realistic enviroment on the copilot. Helps
to keep you thinking that there is a flightcrew and passengers there even though you can't see them.

[DanSteph]

I just added key for:

V=Speed
J=course
D=decision height (for the GPWS "minimum")

I hesitate for vertical speed... one wrong entry and you start to dive or climb like a mad
also entering "minus 1 8 0 0" isn't much friendly... I'm a keyboard lover but I would still use the mouse for this one...
(for altitude you enter "a240" only for 24000 feet)

Anyway I think I'll add squawk also ... anything else ?

Dan

[DanSteph]

neat neat....

squawk done... also if you set somes special code the copilot give different reply than the usual "set and check":

7700 "Squawk set on Emergency"
7600 "Squawk set on Lost communications"
7500 "Squawk set on hijack"
1200 "Squawk set on Visual flight rules"

Also if you have an emergency aboard you must set squawk on 7700 otherwise
you will get a penality...and if you set it on 7500 you will get a penalty (there is no hijaking on FsP,
we discussed this but we decided it would be a bad taste)

I'll put squawk penalty in option also by defaut it will be on "Squawk code don't give penality"

Dan



Post Edited ( 05-18-05 08:03 )

[Magician]

Dan You're nuts!

Or should that be the dogs nuts!! (Apologies - In England that'd be a compliment.)(In Switzerland - u probly gonna batter me to death
witha ski boot.)(Actually a waste of ski boots - probly a fondue fork instead)

Will you stop playing and get this thing released!

Really good! Cool feature. Might be worth buying just for this. In fact I think you should wind up the flightsim community by releasing
FSKeyboard instead. It'll have some neat little addin modules like passenger loading and damage modelling and all that stuff

Good on yer mate! Keep up the good work, just don't forget to release!

Best Wishes
Tom