Hello!
I have been using Helios and a touch screen to control all the buttons, switches, and knobs in the cockpit. After a while, I noticed that when using Helios, some of the switches/buttons/knobs would produce a sound as feedback after the switch has been thrown/button pressed/knob turned, but not all of the switches/buttons/knobs would give this feedback. Clicking any or all switches/buttons/knobs in the 3D pit produced an audible feedback, but obviously this wasn't the case when dealing with Helios. After some research and with the help of Kolbe, DeeJay, and Morphine, I was able to identify and mod this part of the sim.
What this is is basically modifying the .key file so that when you throw a switch via Helios or via any other way (iFlyBMS?) aside from clicking the switch in the pit using the mouse, the act of throwing that switch (and using the callback) will also give an audible feedback. I've tried to match the sounds on the callback to be exact with what you hear if you had clicked on the 3D button/switch/knob in the cockpit. If I've missed anything, feel free to point it out.
To use this, an appropriate 4-digit number has to be placed after the callback name and this number will determine the sounds to be played as feedback. The file that stores this info is the 16_ckpit.dat and the sounds are in \Falcon BMS 4.32\Data\Sounds\cockpit. So essentially, two things have to be changed --- the .key file has to have the appropriate 4-digit numbers and the BMS install has to have the custom 16_ckpit.dat in the \ckptart and \ckptartn folders.
As a cool by-product of this project, I have created an Excel file that allows easy conversion of any .key file into
Kolbe's new keystroke file formats, which I think would find much more use than my sound mod project
I have used Kolbe's Full.key version --- why use an incomplete set of callbacks if the full list (or somewhat full, as Kolbe has removed some old callbacks) is available? The callbacks currently used are transferred as-is, and any callbacks not needed are un-mapped but are present should the need for them arise. After (obviously) limited testing, I hope this will allow users to convert their .key files into Kolbe's format in less than 5 minutes.
To use the Excel file:
1. Open your .key file in Notepad++
2. Copy your entire .key file in the Custom Input sheet. Your callbacks should be delimited into the proper columns automatically. If not, follow these steps:
- "Clean up" you .key file of any descriptive lines (lines starting with #)
- Select Column A, click on the Data tab -> Text to Columns
- Make sure the "Delimited" option is ticked, click Next
- Untick the Tab option, tick the Space option, and make sure the Text qualifier is set to " (first option), click Next
- On step 3, just confirm that the General option is ticked, and click Finish
- The callbacks should now be properly formatted
3. Copy the Custom Output lines into Notepad++, save as .key file, and use in BMS!
** Please note that this project has been through limited testing. If you have found any errors or problems, please inform me. Thanks! **
To include my Sound Mod project:
1. Enter "Y" on the gray box in the Excel sheet.
2. Copy the Custom Output lines into Notepad++, save as .key file.
3. Replace the 16_ckpit.dat files in the \Falcon BMS 4.32\Data\Art\ckptart and \Falcon BMS 4.32\Data\Art\ckptartn folders with the edited ones.
Links to files:
Excel spreadsheet v3 -- Excel file version 3, 19 Nov 2012
ckptart\16_ckpit.dat --
Backup your original files!!ckptartn\16_ckpit.dat-- rename from
n16_ckpit.dat to
16_ckpit.datEDIT: 19 Nov -- Version 3 of Excel file linked
