[simpits-tech] Falcon4 SP3 undiscovered keystrokes

[Mark Doran]

With a little reverse engineering, I found that there are a number of
keystroke functions that are in the SP3 game code but are not present in
the SP3 keystrokes.key file. A few of them turn out to be quite useful,
most especially if you happen to be building a cockpit with physical
switches. 

Don't get your hopes up too much, there's nothing earth shattering here
but I thought these might be of interest to some of you. Anyone keeping
an FAQ??  

These appear to be the working ones that do something to cockpit
switches: 

SimAltFlaps -- This is the ALT FLAPS switch on the FLT CONTROL panel.
This switch can be operated by the mouse but this is the keystroke for
it as well. As the legend suggests it seems to extend the trailing edge
flaps (provided the airspeed is low enough not to damage them) even when
the FLCS computer doesn't have flaps extended. 

SimDecCenterAuxComDigit -- This is the key binding for what would be a
right mouse click (decrements) on the center digit of the TACAN channel
selection on the AUX COMM panel. 

SimDecLeftAuxComDigit -- This is the key binding for what would be a
right mouse click (decrements) on the left digit of the TACAN channel
selection on the AUX COMM panel. Not terribly useful I suppose since the
digit only has two positions and the increment will therefore wrap the 0
to 1 and on to 0 again etc. But for completeness...it's there. 

SimDecRightAuxComDigit -- This is the key binding for what would be a
right mouse click (decrements) on the right digit of the TACAN channel
selection on the AUX COMM panel. 

SimRwrPower -- This one is for the System Power switch on the Threat
Warning Aux panel. It turns on and off the main power for the RWR gear.
This switch is clickable in SP3 but the default keymap contains no
binding for it. 

SimSymWheelDn -- This is for the Brightness control on the left side of
the ICP. This key function is equivalent to a right mouse click on the
thumb wheel and it reduces the brightness of the color used for the
various elements of HUD symbology. Note that unlike the mouse click,
this key binding will not turn off the HUD. It will however reduce
brightness to the point that elements of the HUD are not visible even
though the HUD is still powered on. 

SimSymWheelUp -- As per the one above but increases brightness.
Equivalent to a left mouse click on the thumb wheel. 

The following ones are equivalent to some key bindings that already
exist. They appear to perform the same exact function: 

SimHUDFPM -- This one is for the ATT/FPM switch on the HUD panel. In
practise though, it's coded exactly the same as the commands currently
listed as "FPM" and "Pitch Ladder" in the SP3 documentation (both of
which are actually bound to the same piece of code in the game,
OTWTogglePitchLadder; chalk this one up to the department of redundancy
department I guess :) 

SimHUDScales -- This is for the Scales switch on the HUD panel. In
practice this is equivalent to the command currently listed as "Heading
Scales" in the SP3 docs (bound in the keystrokes.key file to
OTWToggleScales).  Again a duplicate. 

SimDMSRight -- This is for the rightmost position of the hat switch
immediately below the trim hat on the F-16 stick (H3 for Thrusmaster
folks). It's equivalent to OTWStepMFD2 which is the function the SP3
keystrokes.key file currently uses. It's not clear (to me  ) why this
one function uses an "OTW" binding...the other DMS positions all have
SimDMS<something> bindings (there is both a binding for SimDMSLeft and
OTWStepMFD1 which do the equivalent for left MFD). 

That's all the ones that I've tested that seem to do useful things. 

There are more... 

SimABReset 
SimAutoAVTR 
SimDigitalBUP 
SimEPUGEN 
SimFLCSReset 
SimFLTBIT 
SimManualFlyup 
SimMaxPower 
SimOBOGSBit 
SimOverHeat 
SimProbeHeat 
SimTestSwitch 

These all look like they should be useful to startup checklist devotees
and the like as well as cockpit builders. Perhaps they were intended to
be implemented but time ran out or something. Anyway, entry points are
present in the game but nothing appears to happen if you add entries in
keystrokes.key for these unfortunately. I'd love to be proven wrong on
that point, BTW... 

That's all the ones I've tested that don't seem to do anything. 

There are more...  

OTW1200DView 
OTW1200View 
OTWSwapMFDS 
OTWTimeOfDayStep 
OTWViewDownLeft 
OTWViewDownRight 
OTWViewUpLeft 
OTWViewUpRight 
SimCycleDebugLabels 
SimDropProgrammed 
SimIFFIn 
SimIFFPower 
SimInteriorLight 
SimRegen 
SimSelectiveJettison 
SimSetBubbleSize 
SimSpeedyGonzalesDown 
SimSpeedyGonzalesUp 
SimSpotLight 
SimToggleChatMode 
SimToggleRadioVolume 
SimToggleRealisticAvionics 
SuperCruise 
ToggleVtune 

I haven't tried these so they may or may not do anything interesting.
And if you try them, it'd be "at your own risk," blah, blah :)  Some of
these have been there since day one version 1.0 (Speedy Gonzales for
example and may thus have been discussed before).  Some you can take a
pretty good guess at (I'd bet SimDropProgrammed does the same thing as
"c" and "f" do now and was intended to support the revised SP CMDS
panel). 

If you want to try any of the above yourself, there's an article 
on Frugal's World by Froglips
(http://www.frugalsworld.com/falcon4/keyboard.shtml) that explains how
to do that. 

And if you're still with me, a question for you in case you happen to
know. There are also some switches mechanized in the game that appear to
have no keybinding but that are clickable with the mouse and that do do
something. Is it possible to make a key binding for these mouse driven
functions?? If so, how do you do that?? 

For examples of ones I'd like to make keystrokes for: 

1) The "fuel transfer switch" on the "fuel qty sel" panel in the center
console. 

2) Also the "go left one notch" function for the HSI Mode/Nav Mode
rotary switch which you can actuate with a right mouse click...there's a
SimNextNavMode bound to a DirectX button and SimStepHSIMode ("i" key but
both appear to only deliver "go right one notch, yes it wraps but to
program "go left one" for a physical rotary switch you have to send 3 or
4 "go right one's" instead...kind of awkward).

Cheers, 

Mark.