Kodiak: mouse wheel non-consistent behaviour

[J van E]

I like to use the mouse wheel for dialing the radio's and so on. However, on the Kodiak things are not working as one would expect... Let me take you through all knobs.

PFD NAV
- sign, top left: up = number before dot up, down = number behind dot down
- sign, bottom left: up = does nothing, down = number before dot down
+ sign, top right: up = number behind dot goes up, down = does nothing
+ sign, bottom right: up = number before dot goes up, down = number behind dot goes down

PFD NAV onscreen:
before dot: up = number before dot goes up, down = number behind dot goes down
behind dot: up = number behind dot goes up, down = lowers the COM freq before the dot (!!!)

MFD NAV
- sign, top left: up bit to the left (yes, the - and = signs are divided here!) = does nothing, up bit to the right = number before dot goes up, down bit to the left = number before dot goes down, down bit to the right = number behind dot goes down
- sign, bottom left: up bit to the left = does nothing, up bit to the right = number before dot goes up, down bit to the left = does nothing, down bit to the right = number behind dot goes up...

...ah, well, never mind, the thing is: each and every knob seems to behave differently. And sometimes, as in the MFD NAV knob the - or + does different things depending on the exact location of the mouse... Other weird things: the CRS knob on the PFD: sometimes the - sign turns up the HDG...! Some knobs allow up and down movements, other only in one direction (like the FMS knob on the MFD: the - sign allows you to go left to right and right to left (MAP WPT and NRST and back again) while the - sign only allows you to go left... The COM on the PFD screen: left up changes the number before the dot and down behind the dot, right up is the other way around...

In short: the mouse wheel really needs some tweaking and editing because as it is, it's a mess. I had some tweaked xml files which made it all behave perfectly (simply hold the mouse above a button and roll the mouse wheel up and down), but it seems those edited files let the Kodiak crash, so... that's why I am here to ask for some refinements. :salute:

EDIT (while I was posting):
It seems the Kodiak still crashes every now and then, also with the original files... Bummer. For the moment being I am back to the default Cessna.

 

[cheezyflier]

the fatal errors are prolly something on your end. since the model was released i don't remember anyone else ever having the problem you're having.

as for the mouse wheel stuff, i never noticed because i'm a click sorta guy.

 

[J van E]

Yes, I am also getting the idea it's something on my end, as I seem to be the only one having problems. It seems that on my dedicated Windows 7 / FSX drive, the Kodiak loads fine now, so...
And thanks for the click-tip: that works like a charm indeed. But I hate clicking...

 

[Lionheart]

Hey J van E,

Yep, the Kodiak is a clicker. Sorry about that man. You did find a couple that have mouse wheel controls, but there are only several. The rest was designed as only mouse clicks.

Sorry to hear that your system is crashing. This sounds like a memory issue. I know on my rig, if I am testing and bounce from one plane to another, and back again to get a fresh reload, if I have a few programs running, the plane will load up black, which means the textures are closing down due to not enough system memory.

I realise you probably have the OS 64 version of Win7 so you can use more they 3 Gigs of Ram, but still, FSX will really drain the memory from systems, especially with really nice weather and scenery on and maxed out.


I have had a couple of people with very wide monitors that have had crashes in 2D panel mode. I think its the PFD screen and some computers refuse to allow it to render in a squashed mode sending them into a CTD.


Bill

 

[J van E]

Yep, the Kodiak is a clicker. Sorry about that man. You did find a couple that have mouse wheel controls, but there are only several. The rest was designed as only mouse clicks.

Okay, that clears things up then. Thanks for the reply. I'll discuss the crashing problems in that other topic of mine, otherwise things can get confusing.

 

[DB93]

I have had a couple of people with very wide monitors that have had crashes in 2D panel mode. I think its the PFD screen and some computers refuse to allow it to render in a squashed mode sending them into a CTD.


Bill

This is also the case when using a triple-wide screen monitor configuration, where the sim tries to stretch the 2d panel too far. I know the edited panel files I uploaded here for the Kodiak and the Tailwind (as well as default aircraft) were adjusted to prevent this from happening on triple-monitor setups (3x16:9, but also works with other aspect ratios, but the panels do appear a bit stretched), but if there are other widescreen users experiencing this on single very wide screen setups, they can easily fix it by changing the 'window_size=' value (the first number that refers to width) for each panel that exhibits the behavior. So on a triple monitor setup, I'll start by seeing what the panel window's width is set to by default, then I'll divide it by 3 to get the 1/3 width 'value' that I need for the window_size= entry. If the panel's default width is something like 0.875, then I'd divide that by 3, which would give me 0.292 (rounded) for the width.

So for a single monitor user that is experiencing this, they would divide by the number of screens their monitor's resolution represents. So one of those super-wide single screens that are actually the width of two normal widescreens, would divide by 2. So using the 0.875 example from above, and dividing by 2, gives us 0.438 (rounded) for the width, so the entry (assuming height was set to 1.000 scale) would be 'window_size=0.438, 1.000'.

Just something you could suggest to users who have the 2d panel stretching issues on widescreen displays, and hope this information is helpful. This doesn't just apply to the Kodiak, but to all aircraft that use 2d panels that encouter the 'wait cursor' and eventual crash when trying to pull up a 2d panel (that never displays) on very wide aspect ratios. I hope this all makes sense, and please feel free to ask any questions as I'm not too sure my explaination came across onscreen as clearly as I think it sounds in my head lol.

-George

 

[Lionheart]

This is also the case when using a triple-wide screen monitor configuration, where the sim tries to stretch the 2d panel too far. I know the edited panel files I uploaded here for the Kodiak and the Tailwind (as well as default aircraft) were adjusted to prevent this from happening on triple-monitor setups (3x16:9, but also works with other aspect ratios, but the panels do appear a bit stretched), but if there are other widescreen users experiencing this on single very wide screen setups, they can easily fix it by changing the 'window_size=' value (the first number that refers to width) for each panel that exhibits the behavior. So on a triple monitor setup, I'll start by seeing what the panel window's width is set to by default, then I'll divide it by 3 to get the 1/3 width 'value' that I need for the window_size= entry. If the panel's default width is something like 0.875, then I'd divide that by 3, which would give me 0.292 (rounded) for the width.

So for a single monitor user that is experiencing this, they would divide by the number of screens their monitor's resolution represents. So one of those super-wide single screens that are actually the width of two normal widescreens, would divide by 2. So using the 0.875 example from above, and dividing by 2, gives us 0.438 (rounded) for the width, so the entry (assuming height was set to 1.000 scale) would be 'window_size=0.438, 1.000'.

Just something you could suggest to users who have the 2d panel stretching issues on widescreen displays, and hope this information is helpful. This doesn't just apply to the Kodiak, but to all aircraft that use 2d panels that encouter the 'wait cursor' and eventual crash when trying to pull up a 2d panel (that never displays) on very wide aspect ratios. I hope this all makes sense, and please feel free to ask any questions as I'm not too sure my explaination came across onscreen as clearly as I think it sounds in my head lol.

-George

Thanks George for that input. Very good to know.


Just for the sake of knowing, I use a wide screen monitor (Apple iMac 24") and never have crash issues. I run WinXP on Bootcamp and it seems to run them pretty good. I have to design the 2D panels a bit squashed so they conform to the gauges and a standard screen.

So many people, so many different types of monitor dimensions. And OS platforms...

eeks!


Bill

 

[DB93]

Hi Bill,

Yeah, I never had issues on a single monitor, but when I hooked up my triplehead2go, 2d main panel windows became a huge issue as they wouldn't open and instead just showed the spinning wait cursor, the frame rate would tank, and if I didn't save, exit and restart, I would inevitably crash out with a not responing error. Some panel windows would open, but would be really stretched, but at least if they would open, then they could be resized. The ones that wouldn't open (typically main panel windows, but any window whose default window_size value is 1.000, 1.000 will usually result in the problem as well), would be the ones that would result in the eventual crash.

While I fly in the vc all the time, I still regularly fall back to 2d panels for reference, so getting the panel windows to open without problems was a huge deal to me, so I had to figure out a way to fix them. I originally only did them for myself, but when I found others had the same issues and that the fixes worked consistantly for them, I released the updated panels in the hopes of fixing this issue with the default aircraft and at least a few third-party ones. I'm now in the habit of 'fixing' the 2d panels of any new aircraft I buy/download as soon as I install them.

In any case, the root of the problem seems to be from FSX trying to stretch the panel windows way beyond their 'configured' aspect ratio (determined by the size_mm values). All the window_size change does is 'force' the panel to squash back to roughly the correct aspect ratio as designed by the panel designer. This allows FSX to display it properly (though it won't fill all three screens) since it's no longer being stretched way beyond its original aspect ratio.

Anyhow, with multi-monitor configurations becoming more and more common thanks to ATI taking the steps towards making it more mainstream, I figured that if nothing else, this could help in troubleshooting any issues multi-monitor users may encounter.

Hope that helps.
-George

 

[Wozza]

Hi Bill
Dont know if you have found this out (it drove me nuts....ok ok made me nuttier ) but if you dont have the mouse wheel mapped in the mouseflag it still works but only in 1 direction DOH!
Wozza

 

[Lionheart]

Hi Bill
Dont know if you have found this out (it drove me nuts....ok ok made me nuttier ) but if you dont have the mouse wheel mapped in the mouseflag it still works but only in 1 direction DOH!
Wozza

Hey Wozza,

Thanks for the heads up. I didnt know that.



Bill

 

[DB93]

J van E,

Something else just came to mind. Are you running SP2 or Accel? I know some folks have problems with click spots on some planes with SP2 that aren't supposed to be an issue under Accel. Just another idea that popped in my head and figured I'd ask which version you're running.

-George

 

[J van E]

I am running SP2. But er... I don't think I will buy Accel just for this problem. And btw I am not having issues with clickspots: they work fine, but I am having issues with mouse wheel spots. I am reading more and more that SP2 IS different from Accel, even though MS/Aces said it wasn't...!

 

[DB93]

I am running SP2. But er... I don't think I will buy Accel just for this problem. And btw I am not having issues with clickspots: they work fine, but I am having issues with mouse wheel spots. I am reading more and more that SP2 IS different from Accel, even though MS/Aces said it wasn't...!

I know what you mean. I didn't think there were any differences myself until I was reading through the Flight Replicas Super Cub thread and saw that there may be some issues with click-spots if using SP2 instead of Acceleration, so I thought this could also be something worth looking at. Just remember that anything I throw out there that doesn't apply, just ignore lol. I'm just trying to toss ideas in your direction whenever they hit me in the hopes we'll stumble on something to get this working for you.

-George

 

[Lionheart]

I couldnt run Accelleration on my computers for the first couple of years. For some reason, it brought my frame rates way down in FSX. One has to totally delete FSX to uninstall Accelleration as it's roots seemed to 'stay' or remain in FSX when you reinstalled it, keeping the frame rates down.

Now, this isnt the case for everyone. The updates were to speed up FSX and for many (most) it did, enhancing the sim. But for me and a very few others, it didnt, and I literally had to delete it each time with each new computer I got.



Bill

 

[J van E]

I'm just trying to toss ideas in your direction whenever they hit me in the hopes we'll stumble on something to get this working for you.

And it's much appreciated!!! :ernae:

Yesterday I didn't get the change to try anything (sometimes life gets in the way...), but as soon as I've tested the reinstalled Kodiak, I'll let you all know.

 

[DB93]

Hi J van E,

Yeah, life has a habit of doing that to us all, especially when we're trying to do something lol. But I'm definitely interested to hear your results after you reinstall the Kodiak, and will continue to hope that will fix things for you. Certainly, if I can think of anything else to try, I'll be posting them back here for you.

-George

 

[J van E]

No, it's no good... I just installed the Kodiak after uninstalling the previous install and making sure everything was really gone and also after rebooting the computer. Started FSX, switched to the Kodiak, setup a flight, clicked on Fly now, ended up in the Kodiak VC and bang, blue circle and fatal error.

I am afraid this is it for now... Maybe there is something wrong with my system, but after spending hours and hours installing everything and tweaking it and all, I don't feel like doing a complete reinstall of Windows 7 just for the Kodiak. At least, not right now. So, thanks for all the help etc. and who knows... maybe someday... I'll be flying this great plane again...

 

[DB93]

I'm really sorry to hear that, as I was hoping the reinstall would fix whatever was happening for you. Just out of curiousity, what resolution are you running in? (I'm still wondering if it's some kind of panel issue, as that's what has caused the blue circle on my end with some aircraft at certain aspect ratios.) It's probably not the panels, as I don't recall you mentioning that you were running any odd resolutions, but just another thing I thought to take a look at.

-George

 

[J van E]

Running only the VC here on 1680x1050 which is also my desktop resolution. Everything works with it, apart from the Kodiak. Just bad luck, I guess. But you know what, since I've got a dual boot system and I can access my original old system anytime I want to, completely reinstalling the OS and FSX (once more) isn't such an incredible big deal... So maybe I'll do it anyway in a few days or so! FSX isn't fun anyway without the Kodiak, so...

 

[DB93]

Hmm, that's not a resolution that typically has any issues with 2d panels (the 2d panel issue can arise even when you don't call them up when in the vc). Well if I can think of anything else to try/take a look at, I'll post back here, as I've pretty much run out of ideas at the moment. I really hope that if you do have to do the os reinstall routine that it will fix it once and for all for you. Did the Kodiak ever work correctly for you, or has it been doing this to you since you first installed it?

Best of luck getting things working, the Kodiak is one plane I just couldn't bear to part with from my hangar.

-George