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Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 1:50 am
by rtimms
I would like different keys to be available for the head pause and un-pause function, but this appears impossible since only one hotkey can be assigned to the pause function as a whole.

During flight combat I find that having to toggle a single key causes frequent confusion when switching between locked view forward (center and paused) and free view.

The currently selected setting is not always obvious when my head is still and in the 'heat of combat' instant action is required, which is impossible if I have to shake my head a little bit to determine of the view is locked. If separate keys were possible then guaranteed selection would be possible regardless of the current setting.

I hope this makes sense. It's a big issue for me and I am desperate for a fix.

I use trackir 3 with driver version 4.1 build 37.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 12:29 pm
by VincentG
Dear Ross,

It is an interesting idea, and something that we can run by the development team.

One indicator on whether the camera is paused or unpaused is to look at the camera itself. When unpaused and tracking, the led on top of the camera is green. When the led is paused it should be red.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2011 11:54 pm
by rtimms
Hi Vincent, thanks for your reply.

I get what you say about the led colour and I have tried using this technique, however I feel there are three noticeable problems. Firstly, I have to take my eyes of the screen and I find that this interferes with game immersion. Secondly, removing eyes from the game even for a moment can easily muck up my sense of orientation, especially during complicated flight manoeuvres like evading the opponent who is hosing my six. By far the biggest issue for me though, is the delay needed to check the pause mode and then apply the desired setting, which can easily take 1-2 seconds and is far too long. Switching from free-view to snap forward with lock (pause) needs to be almost instantaneous. A single button solution seems to require almost no thought once the keys are learnt and hence is extremely fast.

I fly IL2 Sturmovik (latest release - 1946) which I have played almost exclusively since it's release, so I am quite experienced with this sim and have developed a good feel for how Trackir interfaces to it. I feel that Trackir is a fantastic product and in the years I have been using it I have no significant gripes to report, save one, the pause function (separate hot keys). If this one feature could be added I believe it would make a significant difference to my effectiveness in the game.

Cheers,
Ross.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:36 pm
by VincentG
In general why do fly with the software paused?

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 5:59 pm
by rtimms
Hi Vincent. I use centered and paused view for two reasons. Firstly because it locks the reticle when firing on an opponent because my head movement (even small movements) is enough to make shooting too confusing.

The second reason is that when evading an opponent I switch from looking behind in freeview to locked view forward because I need to both watch my opponent and check where I am going (centered and paused view helps correct/reset my sense of orientation). I switch between the two modes frequently when being chased hence the need to do this quickly without thinking about key presses or which mode I am currently in.

If your developers are keen to modify the software to support separate pauase keys then I would be happy to take part in beta testing.

Cheers,
Ross.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:05 am
by Hippo123
I would also like to request that this feature is implemented (please).

It would be very useful in the following situation. I have two views, one in which I want TrackIR active and one in which I don't (e.g. an instrument panel view). If I assign the following to my joystick:

Joystick button for view 1 (track ir used) - send key for view then send key for TrackIR PAUSED

Joystick button for view 1 (track ir not used) - send key for view then send key for TrackIR UNPAUSED

In the past I've managed to use workarounds for this (e.g. in FSX EzDok allows for this), but I'm surprised this feature has never been implemented, and I've been using TrackIR since v1.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:58 am
by NaturalPoint-Dustin
Hi Hippo,

I will add this as a feature request. Thank you for the feedback.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 7:54 am
by Hippo123
Polite Bump.

This requirement keeps coming up for me (latest is Elite Dangerous and trying to sort out a method to get their side views to work with TrackIR).

Just wondering if there is any hope of this feature being implemented.

Thanks.

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2014 2:07 pm
by MikeWitham
Hello Hippo123,

From my understanding, you want to have active tracking in one screen, but not in another. Is that correct?

Re: Separate hotkeys for pause and un-pause

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 5:37 am
by Hippo123
MikeWitham wrote:Hello Hippo123,

From my understanding, you want to have active tracking in one screen, but not in another. Is that correct?
Sorry, but I'm not quite sure what you mean. Let me try and explain what I'm after.

At the moment with your software you can assign a hotkey to TOGGLE (you call it pause) head tracking on or off. What I was requesting was the ability to also assign a(nother) key to specifically TURN ON head tracking and another to TURN OFF headtracking.

This can be useful where you have a game with multiple views where you wish to have headtracking on in a certain view but off others; and wish to implement this by combining commands into macros (e.g. assign a joystick button to send <keystroke for view 1> then <trackir OFF>).

Hope this makes it clearer.