WWII SkyFighters will seem very familiar to you if you have flown any of my other simulators. The controls are mostly the same.
There are two 'modes' in SkyFighters. The 'Pause' mode and the 'Fly' mode. After you start SkyFighters and enter your name, you will be in the Pause mode. You can tell you're in the pause mode because you'll have an arrow cursor and the menu line will be visible. You must be in the pause mode to make menu selections or to quit the program. You cannot fly while in the pause mode.
The other mode is the Fly mode. This is where the action takes place. You can tell you're in the fly mode because the menu line will disappear and the cursor will either change to a little black dot, or disappear. While you're in the fly mode you have control of your aircraft and can fly.
To enter the fly mode, simply click the mouse button while pointed inside the image area. To return to the pause mode press command-p. (Hold the command key down and press the 'P' key.) Veterans of my sims will notice the addition of the command key when pressing 'P' to pause. This is to ensure that one doesn't pause by accident, which is bad during a multi-player game.
Controlling the aircraft 'stick' is accomplished with the mouse, or alternately, with a joystick. There is no keyboard control of the stick. The mouse behaves in the usual way, forward for down elevator, back for up elevator, left for left aileron, and right for right aileron. You can confirm things are working by entering the fly mode and looking left at your aileron, then moving the mouse left and right. You should see the aileron moving.
If you have a joystick you will need to go to the 'Preferences' menu item under 'Settings', and switch the 'Control Method:' to either 'Generic Joystick', or one of the other selections. The generic joystick option assumes the middle of the monitor to be 'centered' and uses the entire screen for the movement area. Your joystick movement should be set in it's 'Absolute' mode. If you select one of the ThrustMaster items, the joystick will be read directly and the main trigger will be used to fire the guns. SkyFighters reads all ThrustMaster gear directly, except the buttons, so when you set up your custom 'strokes', you'll want to set the rudder pedals and throttle slide and joystick to 'direct', and then program the buttons with key strokes, except for the main trigger, which is read directly and fires the guns.
If you have 'Mouse' selected as the control method the arrow cursor will not entirely disappear when you're in the fly mode. Instead, the cursor will switch to a little black dot. You can use this as feedback to the current position of the 'stick'. When the dot is centered on the monitor, consider the stick centered.
One last thing on control method, you will probably want the 'Auto Trim' item turned on with the mouse and off with a joystick. Auto trim, when on, attempts to trim the aircraft for you so if you center the stick, the nose will stay where it is pointed (in most situations). Some joysticks have trim tabs on them, or you can directly trim the aircraft from the keyboard.
Another item in the 'Preferences' section is 'Map From Inside'. This turns on/off the texture mapping you see on an aircraft, from inside the cockpit. As your head turns, you will not see any texture mapping on your wings, but when your head stops, the texture mapping will be put on the wing. The default is on, if you unselect this item, you will not see texture mapping on the aircraft from inside the cockpit at any time. Texture mapping on other aircraft is not effected. It is best to unselect this if you have a slower Mac.
You begin the program sitting on your home base, just off to the side of the runway. Click into the fly mode to begin flying. Throttle goes from off (0%) to War Emergency Power (108%). The '-' and '=' keys will throttle up or down in approximately 12.5 unit increments between 3 and 100%. To turn the engine off press shift -, to use WEP press shift =. (Or use the TM throttle slide if available.)
Gear and flap use is self explainatory except for this warning: Both the gear and flaps will be damaged if you lower them at too high a speed. The landing gear will tear off if lowered above 210 mph. The flaps will tear off as follows:
10 degrees - over 400 mph
20 degrees - over 275 mph
30 degrees - over 225 mph
40 degrees - over 180 mph
If you crash, wait about 10 seconds and you'll get a new aircraft. The 'camera' will zoom up to the aircraft and stop behind it. You'll need to press command - 1 to reposition the camera back inside the cockpit.
Be aware that it is possible to stall the aircraft simply by pulling too far back on the stick. There is an audable tone as the aircraft nears/begins to stall and when it stalls, you will see the light on the cockpit come on. The performance of the aircraft will become very sluggish as it stalls.
The Cockpit:
In WWII SkyFighters the cockpit is the same for all aircraft. You'll see the usual gauges, altimeter, airspeed, artificial horizon, turn and bank, heading, etc, plus a few other items:
In the very middle top of the cockpit you'll see a little number '1'. This is the number of the aircraft the camera is in. With one player it will always be '1'. When you are flying with other players, this can be 1, 2, 3, or 4 corresponding to the other players aircraft, as you move the camera. It can be difficult to fly your aircraft when the camera is inside someone else's plane, so be sure it reads '1' when you're flying!
Just below the aircraft number you'll see a white horizontal line. This is feedback about the position of the rudder. You'll see a red line grow to the left or right as you move the rudder. With keyboard control, the rudder moves in 'steps', with a few smallish steps close in, and then bigger steps away from center. If you are using the TM rudder pedals, the rudder moves in proportion to the input. (The little red line will still move in steps.)
There is a 'cross hair' above the cockpit. This is used to help you aim, but the only sure way to get good at shooting is practice.
Do not exceed 8 positive or 4 negative G's. You can hear the aircraft creak when it is under extreme stress. If you hear this sound, immediately ease pressure off the stick. If you are quick enough (and a bit lucky perhaps), you can catch it before it breaks. Otherwise...
On the lower left of the cockpit is a box titled, 'Flight Data'. This shows you your remaining ammunition supply, damage to the aircraft, and multi-player dogfight details. When playing alone, the 'Ammo:' will count down to zero, and then roll over back to 100%. This will help you gauge how much ammo you will have in a fight situation.
The damage number gives you a rough idea about how much damage you've received. It's better when this number is above 0%.
The empty area just below the damage number will show specific damage areas on your aircraft with two letter codes. They are: Gu=Guns out, Fl=Flaps, Ge=Gear, Th=Throttle, El=Elevator, Ai=Ailerons, Ru=Rudder, Ca=Canopy stuck, En=Engine, Fu=Fuel leak, Oi=Oil leak, Pi=Pilot hit, Ga=Gauges out.
Just below the specific damage area is the multi-player session details. This will display the type of fight you're engaged in, as selected by the host. It will be one line of data, for example, "2 - 3, U, I - Base, Ca". The first part is the type of fight, 2 - 3 means 2 out of 3 kills. The next item is the ammo supply, U=Unlimited, L=Limited or realistic. The next two items deal with how the aircraft will restart after you've been downed, I=Immediate, W=Wait. Following ammo type is either Base, or Air. Base/Air describes where the aircraft will begin. The last piece of information is the camera rule. Ca=Camera anywhere, Co=Camera on own aircraft, and Cp=Camera inside pilot head only.
Keyboard Summary
Command - P or Command - delete = Pause from Fly Mode
= = Up Throttle
- = Down Throttle
_ = Engine Off
+ = WEP
G = Gear up/down toggle
F = Down Flaps
V = Up Flaps
Q = Left Incremental Rudder
E = Right Incremental Rudder
R = Center Rudder
A = Turn Head Incrementally Left
S = Turn Head Incrementally Right
[ = Turn Head Incrementally Up
] = Turn Head Incrementally Down
W = Look Forward
X = Look 45/90 degrees up toggle
J = Trim elevator up
U = Trim elevator down
B = Brakes on/off toggle
L = Absolute Look Left
; = Absolute Look Right
. = Absolute Look Rear
` = Bail Out
H = Three Position Sound Toggle
M = Send Text Message
T = Texture Map On/Off
(space bar) = Center Stick
(up arrow) = Exterior Camera Zoom In
(down arrow) = Exterior Camera Zoom Out
Predefined Messages
There are 8 auto text messages you can send when connected. Use the 1-8 keys to send predefined messages. You can change the text by selecting 'Preferences' in the 'Settings' menu.
Camera Views
Command-1 or F1 = inside aicraft
Command-2 or F2 = from south
Command-3 or F3 = from west
Command-4 or F4 = from north
Command-5 or F5 = from east
Command-6 or F6 = from above
Command-7 or F7 = from left wing
Command-8 or F8 = from nose
Command-9 or F9 = from right wing
Command-0 or F10 = from tail
Command-A or F11 = from tower
Command-W or F12 = from chase plane
Command-E or F13 = fly by view
Don't forget to check out the exterior views. The aircraft look great landing and taking off from the outside.
Change which aircraft the camera looks at with 'Control' - 1 to 4 where 1 is always your own aircraft.
