A Mirror for Sling Loads?

Hello,

I have been thinking about doing sling loads in VR and despite the fact that the FOV isn't quite there yet. ( sadly Oculus' and HTC's 110 degrees doesn't give enough peripheral information to maintain attitude while you're head's overboard ( until the Pimax 8K is released with it's 200 degree FOV )).

Quite besides the FOV issue the doors aren't removable and the wide floor pan of the huey seems to prohibit an adequate view of the load from your seat without slewing your eye point overboard without this sort of thing.

So I figured a "reasonable" alternative would be a large mirror orientated towards the cargo as in this machine seen

I mean there is a pair of mirrors on the Mi8, why not enlarge them and share one with the huey?

Obviously you guys are up to your eyeballs without even thinking about this sort of thing - but it would be appreciated by us CIV folks in a perfect world :)

Thanks for an awesome pair of helis at any rate -

Peace out~!

Try opening the door and looking out and down! Because of VR, you can fly it knowing where you are in 3D space.

sit in the left seat and use the chin bubble.

I love the left seat in VR.

I don't like mirrors in VR :)

Hey guys,

Yeah I usually open the doors and slew my viewpoint off board a bit so I can lean out without hitting the view limits. I plan to build a seat with an arm rest that's included with some UH1 vertical reference kits for the left seat.

Do you guys find it very hard/ impossible to fly with precision while looking out and down in VR? I'm hoping its due to lack of visual reference with the limited FOV and a big fat door blocking your view.

Hey guys!

I recently bought an oculus and vertical reference was one of the first Ive tried!! To be honest it is awesome and so close to reality! Like Ben said I open my door and slide myself with the slew view command. I longline in real life and to be honest the only thing that is not accurate is your butt dont feel anything aha!! This is actually really bad for me because it makes me sick very fast!

But the trick to be good at longlining is to not stare at your load. Instead look sideways or in front of you and glance youre sight once in a while at your load. It takes a lot of practice! But its doable!!

I agree with the FOV being not enough but its still doable.

Does it also make you sick guys? I really hope it goes away from me because its been pretty bad lol

Billy

Hey Billy,

That's encouraging that its doable! The pimax 8K 200 degrees FOV VR set is gonna make life a lot easier - I'm lucky enough not to get motion sickness at all :)

Can you look out and down with trackir, because if yes that would be great

Can you look out and down with trackir, because if yes that would be great

Edit:

THIS IS WRONG!

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But be aware, you must open the door first. If not your head will go outside as intended, but when you return inside (same key combination) you will be offset toward the lateral center of the helicopter.

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No mater the door, your head position will be moved and you lose lateral movement!

You sort of can. There is a key combination to stick your head out and down (for the Mi-8 too). I'm not at my computer right now and I can't remember what it is, but I'm sure you will find it in the controller settings. It's possible to assign to a hotas button, and it's a toggle.

But be avare, you must open the door first. If not your head will go outside as intended, but when you return inside (same key combination) you will be offset toward the lateral center of the helicopter.

I cannot remember the key combo either, but it is called "cargo view". It might be RALT-C?

Either way, it works in the sense that it lets you look out and down ... but it is gut-wrenching in VR! And very disorienting! I need a whole lot more practice using this view because the few times I've tried it, I always end up crashing the helo :( :( So difficult to keep track of helicopter attitude and hold hover (or gentle descent) while looking out of the window like this.

... So difficult to keep track of helicopter attitude and hold hover (or gentle descent) while looking out of the window like this.

I hear you!

I have tried it myself (trackIR) a few times, but can't for my life get a steady hover!

It's quite gut-wrenching for us trackIR pilots too...

I always end up using that "cargo indicator" or whatever it's called (you can't use that in VR if I'm not mistaking?)

(you can't use that in VR if I'm not mistaking?)

Thats right you cant! But again!! The trick, dont look your load for a long time. Scan the side and front and just give a quick look at your load every 4-5 second when your on final.

I have recently noticed that the cargo and controls indicator does now show up in VR but they have about a third cut off from whichever side is closest to the edge of the screen. Still usable provided you approach your cargo head on or from the right.

You sort of can. There is a key combination to stick your head out and down (for the Mi-8 too). I'm not at my computer right now and I can't remember what it is, but I'm sure you will find it in the controller settings. It's possible to assign to a hotas button, and it's a toggle.

But be avare, you must open the door first. If not your head will go outside as intended, but when you return inside (same key combination) you will be offset toward the lateral center of the helicopter.

It's cargo view. For whatever reason I can't map it on the Huey for my Pro Flight Puma controller though (works fine for Mi-8). If I double click the cell, the popup window simply doesn't appear. There's no problem to map the keyboard or any other command for the controller. Anybody else having a problem to map cargo view to the controller?

I wanted to simply copy/paste the line from the Mi-8 lua file:

["d3001pnilunilcd59vd1vpnilvunil"] = {

["added"] = {

[1] = {

["key"] = "JOY_BTN5",

},

},

["name"] = "Ladungssicht",

},

However, since the cargo view has a different key binding in the Huey (LCtrl-Shift-Q instead of LShift-LAlt-C), this won't work...it will bind BTN5 to the intercom.

Can anyobdy give me the correct LUA entry for the cargo view?

Strange, I have the PFT Lynx and can assign it without any problem. Have you tried the "ADD" button instead of double click?

(I didn't even know you could double click for assignments...)

This doesn't work because I can't mark the cell. It's like this cell is "locked".

So any chance you have a look at your %username%\saved games\DCS\Config\Input\UH-1H\joystick\controllername{guid}.diff.lua and you search for your assigned button/the cargo view entry to post it here?

Maybe I should report it in the bug section....

Edit: Added it to the bug section

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3310924#post3310924

Will do, but not at my computer and will not be for several hours, can't guarantee I can do it today.

Thank you, there's no hurry. I flew it without that few so long now (didn't know it also exists in the Huey) - I like it a lot in the Mi-8 though.

rge75,

first I need to apologize. It turned out I had NOT assigned a hotas button for Cargo View. I played with the Cargo View when I first discovered it a while back and I believed I made an assignment, but no.

It also turned out that the hotas assignment for Cargo View is indeed broken, all of my controllers had the field grayed out.

But there is a solution!

In the default.lua located in

[DCS World root]\Mods\aircraft\Uh-1H\Input\UH-1H\joystick

there are these two lines at the end of the file:

--Cargo view

{down = device_commands.Button_1, cockpit_device_id = devices.EXTERNAL_CARGO_VIEW, value_down = 1, name = _('Cargo View'), category = _('View')},

Cut them out and place them inside the keyCommands = {...} section. I put them on line 662 and 663 with the }, on 664

This way you can assign it to a hotas button:)

Be aware 1!

This will go away after every update, unless Belsimtek correct it on their end. I suggest you use a mod manager like OvGME to make it easier to handle.

Be aware 2!

My statement a few posts up about the door is wrong! No mater if you open the door before sticking your head out or keep it closed, the head location will be moved towards the lateral center (about at the edge of the pedestal) and you lose lateral movement of your head when you return inside again. This condition is irreversible until restart the mission (maybe at change to new helicopter in same mission, haven't tried), and for each pilot you do it with (pilot and copilot).

Thanks for your help :-)

You'r welcome

You can't look out the window with TrackIR because you're brain can't compute it. So you don't have spatial awareness like you do in VR.

Also, try some ginger (even ginger ale helps) to combat motion sickness. It works just as good as Dramamine.

And remember, 45FPS (ATW, ASW) or 90FPS is what you need to minimize getting sick in VR.

And even then, you just have to build up a tolerance. In short time, you won't get motion sickness.

Finally, there is JetSeat which gives you the tactile feel in your butt. It's actually kinda of cool! And well worth it from Andre's shop.

https://andres.shop/12-jetseat The Andre's Mod one. He is extremely responsive in the INPUT/OUTPUT thread. Highly recommended.

In as much as it's worth, in real life I've never seen a military sling load with the pilot looking over the side. All the cargo centering, hookup, etc is handled and communicated to the pilots by the crew chief in the back. That is for all US helicopters. Get used to trusting the guy in the back and that lets you concentrate on being smooth and flying the bird. Plus it is a ton more fun, at least for me. I do used external view to admire the whole thing on occasion. I haven't used cargo view but I will take a look at it.

In as much as it's worth, in real life I've never seen a military sling load with the pilot looking over the side. All the cargo centering, hookup, etc is handled and communicated to the pilots by the crew chief in the back. That is for all US helicopters. Get used to trusting the guy in the back and that lets you concentrate on being smooth and flying the bird. Plus it is a ton more fun, at least for me. I do used external view to admire the whole thing on occasion. I haven't used cargo view but I will take a look at it.

Unfortunately though, to be able to map a button for Cargo View on your hotas you ned to do a small lua edit due to a small Belsimtek mistake.

See post #18 here:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3311348

The "Be aware 2" is no longer valid.

Regarding the crew chief, it's nice to feel civilian from time to time, i.e. only you and the guy on ground without radio communication.

"Regarding the crew chief, it's nice to feel civilian from time to time, i.e. only you and the guy on ground without radio communication."

Very true! I thought of it after posting but it is also very 'in real life' for civilians to have to look out to see the ground/load. No disrespect to anyone intended! lol

I was referring to the camera in the previous post as far as doing externals without a camera.

I wish they would fix the weight not being delete from aircraft total weight after unhooking/unloading.

Interesting.

I have been using Holton181's cargo view mod which I think is awesome, but I think the solution is probably getting a VR headset that has a wide FOV, like the Pimax8K, so you get more visual information for vertical reference flying. Currently it's like looking through toilet paper rolls.