Simpit Software from SDA

Elphaba, I wound'nt have typically followed up on this, but with all due respect, I do in fact understand your frustration. But I think your taking a position with the developer that he owes you or the community something. I would 100% agree with you if you paid for it, no question. But none of us did. I really dont care what other people provide for free. The simple fact is,, someone had put alot of time and effort into something that you can TRY, that MAY improve your gameplay experience. You dont have to use it. I put alot of time in myself, but I cant get it to keep the display on the monitor I need it on. Was I frustrated, SURE I was, but I cant blame the developer because it doesn't work for me,, Im not out any $$$. Good luck finding something that works for you.

Well.. my experience with Ikarus is very positive.

It is working very nicely in my Su27 cockpit (main screen and a screen in my cockpit panel underneath it with Ikarus instruments).

I really want to thank these guys from making the afterburner and engine start buttons to lit

in my setup.

It's for free, just give them time to develop their software.

Regards,

Wasserfall

---

With Helios, there are several videos in English to show you what to do and how to get it to work.

 

Have this dev team even bothered to do that? No.

 

Helios is free; it hasn’t stopped others pointing out errors, bugs and problems.

 

I’ve simply pointed out the lousy and unconsidered user interface (created by a programmer who doesn’t get or give a crap about UX) and the appalling state of the app that if you update a profile with your new stupid window positions, it crashes 100% of the time.

 

Free doesn’t mean unusable.

 

Free doesn’t mean unintelligible.

 

Free doesn’t mean we have to say “thank you sir!” Just because. Free or paid, we’re their customers. And as a customer it’s my right to say they’ve screwed up (crashes) and don’t care (poor UX & no documentation).

 

Sure, it’s my right to say stuff it and move back to Helios, which I’ve done, but it’s my right to tell them my opinion. Not to be silenced or guilted into just being ever so grateful they bothered in the first place.

I do not let myself be provoked ... who are you?

Don't listen to the entitled among us. Many of us have figured out and enjoyed Ikarus without trouble. It's an essential part of my flying experience :thumbup:

If you had a donation page I'd send a few bucks your way.

Yeah, dont let anyone get to you, its not worth it! Go have some fun,,, and thats coming from someone who hasn't figured it out,, but I do appreciate your efforts, and those like yourself who GIVE to all of us here,,, many thanks.

Maybe you do not understand the technical cohesion. Go with Helios ....

I concur with Deezle. Although I am not well versed in computer code, after trial and error, I have found your FREE program very helpful. Nobody wants to silence Elphaba, but his comments are not very helpful. He reminds me of the old joke about the guy that wins the lottery and then complains about the amount of taxes he has to pay. There are numerous free programs that I have tried and many of them are discarded after a few minutes. Yours has remained on my computer since the beginning. Take it or leave it, but to complain in a somewhat nasty manner is just not necessary.

PS: That was very fast in correcting the problem with the compiler. Good support on the FREE program.

How did I miss this thing until now? Downloaded and started to play around with it on a laptop, still on a work trip and it will be a few days until I can put this to use on my touchscreen at home but sooo looking forward to it.

I was one of the early adopters of Helios (back when it was still payware) and was looking for something similar to it with ongoing support and now this! Couldn't be happier, will start working on Mirage and Harrier once I get home, can't wait!

Vielen vielen Dank für eure Bemühungen, Touchscreen Support für DCS macht einen gewaltigen Unterschied für den harten Kern hier!

mhe

I believe that there is No touchscreen capabilities for most modules.

I can imagine trades people at your house love working there if this is how you treat a free product.

 

Here is a tip, if you want it so bad, why dont you learn German?

a) English is spoken in more places than German

b) We won the war. Twice

c) They produce something they want the community to use and yet half-arse everything else?

d) in a private message HJP sent me basically blaming me for not figuring it out without an English manual, videos or tutorial and said why had no body else mentioned it.

Well a) most of you are men and don't like announcing publicly you don't know something and b) it seems some of them did struggle (like I did) and did eventually work it out (like I did) but I chose to speak up and say "Hey if you're going to make something for random strangers to use, at least have the decency, integrity and care to make it user friendly or failing even that, make some tutorials."

And not in a non-common language.

It's just arrogance and ignorance. I know a few of you here think that it's "unfair" to ask for care, attention and a decent UI in free software. Mcaffe is free. 7Zip is free. MANY MANY other things are free. They don't have a problem with English tutorials / manuals or videos or even decent UI's.

What is this arrogant german guy exempt from being thorough and decent?

Well.. my experience with Ikarus is very positive.

It is working very nicely in my Su27 cockpit (main screen and a screen in my cockpit panel underneath it with Ikarus instruments).

I really want to thank these guys from making the afterburner and engine start buttons to lit

in my setup.

It's for free, just give them time to develop their software.

 

Regards,

 

Wasserfall

Time?

It's been out ages. They have a manual in German. Not even bothered to go a google translate on it (PS I did and it's still unhelpful)

The UI is appalling. Sure it's functional, but there is nowhere telling you to change every panel's X and Y to allow for your screen setup.

It's worse when you have to start guessing because your bottom display isn't the same size as your top one.

These "programmers" couldn't even consider that just having two text fields for monitor x and monitor y and then after entering in your desired monitor's position they auto populate all of the panels in the profile? Really? That's too hard or inconceivable?

Or even some text that says ===> CHANGE THESE FOR YOUR SCREEN COORDINATE POSITION and an example or two... that's too much to ask?

Ensuring that the application doesn't crash 100% of the time when you have worked out what to change all the panels values to and try to save it for later use? That's too much to ask? Just because it's free?

Wow. You guys really have a low bar on functionality and care.

I concur with Deezle. Although I am not well versed in computer code, after trial and error, I have found your FREE program very helpful. Nobody wants to silence Elphaba, but his comments are not very helpful. He reminds me of the old joke about the guy that wins the lottery and then complains about the amount of taxes he has to pay. There are numerous free programs that I have tried and many of them are discarded after a few minutes. Yours has remained on my computer since the beginning. Take it or leave it, but to complain in a somewhat nasty manner is just not necessary.

PS: That was very fast in correcting the problem with the compiler. Good support on the FREE program.

Subtle

Free does not mean broken and does not mean poorly made. It just means no money up front.

mhe

I believe that there is No touchscreen capabilities for most modules.

If I can click on switches, I can use it on a touchscreen. I haven't been able to find out though whether it is possible to bind keyboard commands to buttons etc.

I've been using Helios for a long time and it will take me some time until I figured out the subtle differences between the two but as far as I was able to try it out so far I was very happy with Ikarus.

"Wow. You guys really have a low bar on functionality and care."

Well,, thats because Im an idiot! I have a low bar for free stuff, and a high bar for stuff I need to pay for. Mama dropped me on my head a few times! I think its because she had a vision,,, musta been from the Scotch she was drinking?

mhe

I don't believe that these profiles are clickable unless you combine them with Helios, something that is not easy to do. Something I was never able to do. If you can do that, I am sure many of us, including Elphaba would appreciate a video on how to do that (in English).

mhe

I believe that there is No touchscreen capabilities for most modules.

I’m confused by what you mean.

After working out how to move all the panels to my second monitor, they worked fine with the standard touch recognition provided by the touchscreen and windows.

Do you mean something else?

mhe

I don't believe that these profiles are clickable unless you combine them with Helios, something that is not easy to do. Something I was never able to do. If you can do that, I am sure many of us, including Elphaba would appreciate a video on how to do that (in English).

It depends which module you mean. The FC3 aircraft don't have the capability to receive data via the API so you would have to use keypresses. I have yet to see how Ikarus can emulate keypresses and I am on a work day and can only play around with Ikarus on a Notebook that doesn't have DCS on it.

But yes, FC3-style aircraft might be instruments only with no interaction capabilities. You can however use Helios as an overlay to the Ikarus instrument panels to emulate the keypresses, that would actually be pretty straight forward to do with the editor and would not even require Helios connecting via the Export.lua as it simply emulates a keyboard that DCS supports out of the box.

But I'd gather that solution might be a bit heavy on the FPS. There are a few features I'd love to see in Ikarus to have it replace Helios completely, namely:

1. Keyboard and stick emulation (for example sliders that control stuff like speedbrakes etc)
   
2. Support for gestures like swiping and rotations instead of just clicking
   
3. Extend support for night lighting from only panels to all elements so buttons and panels etc can light up when using the panel light switches in the AC and Ikarus reflecting that change
   
4. Support for multi-layer transparency like Helios (for Example the CapLoz profile for the A10C demonstrates this feature for the CMSCP of the right panel - the exported display is usually hidden and underneath the front panel, if you bring up the right side panel overlay, it "cuts" through the main panel and exposes the exported CMSCP display)
   
5. Ability to have more than one overlay be above the main panel at a time, the visibility of panels being toggleable in a stateful manner per panel instead. maybe that can be done already, just haven't figured out how.
   

These would be the big ones, the other ones would be convenience features like:

• Custom clickspot placement per switch or control item
  
• Custom labels editable in the Editor as to not having to place the button name on the background image
  
• Ability to customize tooltips of controls (especially useful once you can emulate keypresses)
  
• A little bit more order like a subfolder per aircraft in the image folders even if it leads to a bit of redundancy. Have the same gripe with Helios, everybody just throws stuff all in one folder and it's messy
  

I'd happily pay for the software if it could do these things.

Time?

 

It's been out ages. They have a manual in German. Not even bothered to go a google translate on it (PS I did and it's still unhelpful)

 

The UI is appalling. Sure it's functional, but there is nowhere telling you to change every panel's X and Y to allow for your screen setup.

 

It's worse when you have to start guessing because your bottom display isn't the same size as your top one.

 

These "programmers" couldn't even consider that just having two text fields for monitor x and monitor y and then after entering in your desired monitor's position they auto populate all of the panels in the profile? Really? That's too hard or inconceivable?

 

Or even some text that says ===> CHANGE THESE FOR YOUR SCREEN COORDINATE POSITION and an example or two... that's too much to ask?

 

Ensuring that the application doesn't crash 100% of the time when you have worked out what to change all the panels values to and try to save it for later use? That's too much to ask? Just because it's free?

 

Wow. You guys really have a low bar on functionality and care.

Why should i have a low bar on functionality if it's just working in my situation?

If you behave with a little more respect towards these guys, maybe they are willing to help you!

btw, the Russians won the 2 world war in Europe actually:)

Regards,

Wasserfall

i just struggle to understand some people, they moan about DCS, they moan about Aircraft pricing, moan about module pricing, moan about community add ons...

I don't think discussion should be stifled but we should be able to give Oxygen Theif tags serial complainers.

I don't think discussion should be stifled but we should be able to give Oxygen Theif tags serial complainers.

Made my day! :lol:

With Helios, there are several videos in English to show you what to do and how to get it to work.

 

Have this dev team even bothered to do that? No.

 

Helios is free; it hasn’t stopped others pointing out errors, bugs and problems.

 

I’ve simply pointed out the lousy and unconsidered user interface (created by a programmer who doesn’t get or give a crap about UX) and the appalling state of the app that if you update a profile with your new stupid window positions, it crashes 100% of the time.

 

Free doesn’t mean unusable.

 

Free doesn’t mean unintelligible.

 

Free doesn’t mean we have to say “thank you sir!” Just because. Free or paid, we’re their customers. And as a customer it’s my right to say they’ve screwed up (crashes) and don’t care (poor UX & no documentation).

 

Sure, it’s my right to say stuff it and move back to Helios, which I’ve done, but it’s my right to tell them my opinion. Not to be silenced or guilted into just being ever so grateful they bothered in the first place.

Nobody forces you to use Ikarus. it is useable and it's very easy to use, but with more background with DCS. That is true.

I have not yet seen a question where I could help. Actually, I do not feel like helping you anymore ...

Actually, I do not feel like helping you anymore ...

ditto from me.

Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

OK. I will now compile all new future versions with VS 2015. Thanks Deezle, that was a good cooperation.

 

Unbelievable, how can something like that be ... Microsoft ...

I'm in the same boat. The newest version that can save without crashing I found is Ikarus-1c10159b8f7ddf9f31c3dffa6d3184b0d856abd6 from September.

Strangely enough it says version 1.2.1.4h, the same version as Ikarus-e878a4570d9e9944cd40e7f14e5ccd50faa45eaf from October, but that version doesn't work.

Regarding instructions and usability and such:

The only instructions that did not come in english was really simple to follow for a noob like me after using Google Translate. If you feel lazy, here it is. I could not possibly realize it being an automated translation if I was not aware of the fact.

The instructions are good enough for me as a noob with little programing skills to actually find a small error in the Ka-50 profile (ID fct for ADP_4_min_achieved_acc being 1 instead of 3) while reading the instructions for the first time, and correct it (needed to do it with Notepad++ due to the save bug, but easy enough).

And no need to enter exact positions for gauges and buttons, just to use the mouse an move it where you like it, even resize with the wheel. Moving the panel to another display and everything connected to it will follow.

The only request I can agree on promoted by "some guy" earlier is the relative resizing of all gouges and buttons when resizing the panel they belong to, to keep aspect ratios and relative locations. And possibly the ability to resize panels with the mouse. But no big deal if it won't be implemented for whatever reason.

It's true, it's not really transparent yet. But this Save Rountine is a pure MS API. I also do this daily without any problems.