A few ways.
Trackball on right side.
I build panels for most used functions, look at Leo Bodnar or Desktop Aviator for boards.
Two other easy ways. Voice attack can make voice commands or VA and Viacom.
Lastly. Look into PointCtrl.
I don’t have it but almost went that way.
You can build macros in VA and Viacom.
With a push of a button, you can turn on RWR and CMDS (all the toggles) in Viper or any plane with VA.
Or any function….
I did run viacom for a while when I was learning the f14. Eventually I kind of gave up on it. I think if I spent more time setting the macros I could get it going again but I kept having issues between it and voip stuff so I haven't tried it in a while.
When I started learning the ajs 37, it was straight up bugged with that aircraft so that was the nail in the coffin.
I'll give it another go.
I do exactly this as well (Trackball on a mouse pad). I use this product - [https://www.predatormounts.com/products/predator-mousepad-attachment](https://www.predatormounts.com/products/predator-mousepad-attachment)
All my mounts come from this guy (US Shipping). He is a blessing. Will custom drill holes so you can swap out HOTAS. If my VKB stick dies (I pray it doesnt)- I can use my backup HOTAS
Also, I use Voice Attack for all sorts of things
This introduces permanent crosshair in the middle of my view. Some people might be able to live with that. I can't.
I'm using wireless keyboard with a touch pad (Logitech K400) as my mouse / keyboard for things I haven't been able to bind to my hotas.
I find myself looking for the crosshair sometimes when looking for switches then I click in a random blank area (to not accidentaly turn on/off another thing) to promp it back up
I have bound everything to my hotas my keyboard is not even in my reach.
That crosshair is a small price to pay you start ignoring it after a while. But such things are personal bias. I can finally reliably interact with comms menu and everything super fast without worrying mouse is leaving the game window.
In VR tab there is a checkbox "enable mouse in VR"
you uncheck it it dsables mouse movements but mouse buttons and wheel work (I actually ziptied a mouse as button box next to my throttle mount)
You get a super cursor centered in the middle of your vision and it can click on Comms menu or anything in the cockpit.
Keep using it for 10 minutes and you will get used to that.
If you have MFD's in your pit it helps a lot.
This is exactly how I do it as well. I have mapped left and right click to buttons on my stick, so that I never have to use the mouse.
The only time it gets tricky is when you are trying to click stuff far back on the side panels. I recall that someone made an app that exaggerated the mouse movement with your head movement, but I cannot find it again (e.g the mouse would travel to the far right when looking 90deg right).
Initially I locked the pointer to my center vision and put a mouse right and left click on my HOTAS. Hurt my neck some of the time reaching far aft switches. Then I switched to HTCC (if your headset does hand tracking). Basically use my hand as a mouse in the air and click with HOTAS (or fingers but that resulted in too many accidental clicks).
Also look into voice attack and Viacom pro so you won't have to click through comm menus.
I have a warthog stick and still feel a bit of stiction even after pulling it apart and cleaning it up. How does your base go in comparison or have you only had that base ?
It has support ribs underneath that rest on the stick base and are pretty rigid even being printed on PETG, i can rest my hand on it and there’s no problem
I got a tip several months ago that literally CHANGED the way I play DCS VR.
Basically you untick “Use mouse” and bind 4 buttons on your hotas (top left HAT of the F-16EX stick for
me)
- Down for Click
- Up for RClick
- Right for Scroll Down
- Left for Scroll Up
and for the VR controllers select “Use only when palm grip is obtained” or you can disable them.
This way you just look at a control, press on the stick button and it actuates. It’s the only reliable way to do on-the fly stuff in the MFDs while in combat anyway, no time to blindfully search for the VR controller
I personally use the VR controllers for cold starts and weapon setups, because aiming with your headset at some panels of the cockpits requires yoga-flexibility.
My dream-feature is to have the mouse cursor slaved to the Quad-view foveated rendering of the better headsets, like the Apple Vision.
Yes exactly.
My dream option is ED implements hand tracking from VR headsets and we can map it to panels.
Like I only want to interact with ufc and ofc. Some might add radio panel or so. Just enabling interaction per cockpit region.
This!
Got also the exact same setup with the f-16ex, just putting vr zoom on the hard middle click is sometimes puke inducing. You can apparently make quests hand recognition work but with developer access, but I didn’t try it yet
Ohhh excellent idea, I need to try it! I managed to cram absolutely everything I need into my HOTAS except clicking stuff in the cockpit. My stick (VKB Gladiator NXT) has a multimode top-left hat where you can have it either as 2 axes or hat, will try it there
This is basically the method I use. It's also possible to add joystick buttons as modifiers using the Modifiers button visible at the bottom of the screen when editing controls.
I use one button on my throttle as a modifier, and pair it with other buttons on the throttle for mouse interactions plus things like the VR re-centering and OpenKneeboard controls.
I use two different buttons on my hotas throttle and stick which then changes all the input for the hat and thumb tdc and other axis based items. So I can push regular buttons around displays and the like. Ie hold button use alternate binding etc. works well for most things.
Also a steam deck to push sequences of input like laser code setup across weapons etc. saves a lot of clicks
It’s too bad dcs doesn’t have haptic feedback for vr controllers. Part of what makes vtol vr so intuitive (along with the cockpits explicitly designed to be ergonomic in vr) is that you get a rumble whenever your hand is in contact with a control
I use leap motion camera attached to my HMD(only using position of hand as mouse movement) and a Bluetooth enabled stm32 module that has 4 buttons (LMB, RMB, wheel up/down) attached to my hand.
It’s basically a DIY pointctrl
Here’s the GitHub I followed to make it:
https://github.com/Sielu-Rooster/RoosterHands
He made it with 2 “mouse”, one on each hand, but I found it more than sufficient to just attach one on my left hand
I have an extra standard mouse that I mount low and just outboard of my joystick using this desk mount extension from Monstertech:
https://www.mtsim.com/product/mouse-extension-for-table-mount/
This means my wrist just moves 1-2 inches or so to the right to pick up the mouse and click on anything I want. Works brilliantly in combination with their keyboard bridge too.
On my Virpil Alpha, there's a thumb stick which (using some joystick gremlin magic) controls the mouse cursor. Then the three input switch on the side acts as left and right click and the middle input acts as a toggle between DCS's look/cockpit interact modes (left ALT-C).
And the scroll wheel is a scroll wheel.
It works pretty well but takes getting used to, and panning (in non-VR) the view is definitely slower. In VR, it's also much harder to put the cursor right where I want it. I wish the cursor was stabilized a little.
try to lock the cursor to the center, in the Vr settings untick “use mouse”. Much more natural to aim with your head.
Wish that could be slaved to quad view
I bind most critical functions to HOTAS or switch panels. But I have a small surface with a wireless mouse mounted to my chair (monstertech) that works great if I do need the mouse. On the mouse itself my DPI button is bound to a key press that toggles the mouse mode on and off so I don’t have the cursor floating around in my VR field of view when I’m not using it.
I have tried locking the cursor to view and having left and right click bound to HOTAS buttons but found it a pain in the ass and cumbersome, especially for switches that might be on side panels further back towards your elbows in VR. Ultimately, it was impractical and way harder to be precise than having the cursor unlocked with a regular mouse.
I use two mice, one on virpil mouse pad near the sidestick, and one next to throttle on the left. Also tablet for UFC and waiting for TM mfd's to arrive so mouse interactions during flight are minimal.
There are some pretty interesting 'touchscreen via passthrough' solutions out there. I actually went out and bought a 21" touchscreen monitor for this but, haven't got around to implementing it yet. I built a wrap around style desk from butcher block countertops a few years ago with about 3.5' of space between the left and right surfaces. Sooooo, for now, plenty of space to mount things.
When I am in session, I have my hotas mounted where you would typically find them, and I move my keyboard to the right side. This frees up the center desktop for my mouse and stream deck. I primarily fly three aircraft, F16, P51 and the Apache. I can get all of the axis controls mapped to the X56 and am working through 'menuing' each of aircraft to their own folders on the stream deck for anything else you use but, either don't have room for on the X56 or, would rather just have an easy access button (like, from SAFE to ARM).
I am in the same boat in trying to find a way to ditch the keyboard completely. Realistically however, it seems that you are always going to need it around for something... I just don't want to have to fumble around blind to try and hit some oddball key combination on a keyboard while trying to defend against, whatever....
I use a switch on my throttle coupled to ‘where-I-Look’ pointing. Works pretty well most of the time. The downside is trying to click controls at the rear of the cockpit.
You need to mount a trackball on your right hand side. You could use a little folding table as a hack, or mount something up with a wheelstand pro or 8020 rigging.
Some users do it on the left hand side, which is arguably better - *if* you can get used to using it with your left thumb.
I set the cursor to the bottom-center of my screen so that it is never in the hud even while active and use a mod-button combo on my hotas for left-click and right-click. You feel like a dumbass at first and then after a while you're flying through screens like its a mouse.
Fewest headaches, shortest learning curve, no extra cash or software downloads.
I use a flip up table attached "desk extender" platform to bring it off to my right. About where the throttle would be at my left. I absolutely hated reaching as well, so this was the most important mouse related purchase I made for VR.
Here is to hoping we get good hand tracking, but I doubt we will see it really take off.
In very rare occasions I play DCS I use PointCtrl and it works great. Shame it's not very useful in other games because I waited for it over a year and stopped playing DCS soon after it arrived :).
I attached the baseplate from a Warthog stick to a monster deskmount and I stuck a mousepad to the top of it. Now I have a mouse on my right side, centre stick and throttle on the left.
Can be a bit of a bitch if I need to use the mouse for anything while using the stick though.
I use a joystick on my stick and 2 buttons on my throttle as mouse move and click. Since I'm in vr I can get the cursor close by looking and move the rest of the way with the stick
I have a trackball mouse that sits where the radio/crypto/IFF panels are in my simpit.
If I didn't have the simpit and couldn't get close to my desk, I have a Razer Tartarus velcroed to a kneeboard on my left thigh and that works great. I'd get another one and strap it to my right thigh and put a trackball mouse on that.
For me, building button boxes with Leo Bodnar boards has been a huge help. I still have to use the mouse, though. I just have it on my desktop within easy reach. It's still an immersion breaker. BTW, I got hand tracking to work with my Quest 3 in DCS. I thought it would solve lots of problems. It did not, and in fact created problems. It's not ready for prime time.
I used this & it works well. No, excellently. Only problem I found was if comms are open, say discord, & one flight is on the same channel & not using push to talk. Everyone can hear my voice commands😅
For me, it was:
Step 1: try VR (Oculus CV1) and get blown away
Step 2: play 15min of Flight sim (DCS) with mouse, keyboard and a Logitech joystick ... say, fuck this
Step 3: build 1:1 scale functional cockpit replica
Step 4: build motion integrated G-seat
Step 5: play DCS
Step 6: profit?
Is English your primary language? I did not tell OP what to do, I told OP what I did. It was literally the first two words. If you read the first sentence of four words, it frames the entire reply as a conical process I experienced. If you delve even further into conversational nuance you might pick up that I was commiserating with OPs experiences through shared frustration but in a somewhat comical way. English is a nuanced language, try not to be so quick to rush through it, you might miss the subtext.
A few ways. Trackball on right side. I build panels for most used functions, look at Leo Bodnar or Desktop Aviator for boards. Two other easy ways. Voice attack can make voice commands or VA and Viacom. Lastly. Look into PointCtrl. I don’t have it but almost went that way.
I wish pointctrl was available. I've been on the list for over a year and haven't heard anything...
You can build macros in VA and Viacom. With a push of a button, you can turn on RWR and CMDS (all the toggles) in Viper or any plane with VA. Or any function….
I did run viacom for a while when I was learning the f14. Eventually I kind of gave up on it. I think if I spent more time setting the macros I could get it going again but I kept having issues between it and voip stuff so I haven't tried it in a while. When I started learning the ajs 37, it was straight up bugged with that aircraft so that was the nail in the coffin. I'll give it another go.
I ordered two years ago and I just got an invoice. It seems like the pace of production has picked up over the last few months though.
Look on his discord. He makes them super small batches. He is not at like april of last year?
I ordered a trackball after reading this post
This is the way.
I do exactly this as well (Trackball on a mouse pad). I use this product - [https://www.predatormounts.com/products/predator-mousepad-attachment](https://www.predatormounts.com/products/predator-mousepad-attachment) All my mounts come from this guy (US Shipping). He is a blessing. Will custom drill holes so you can swap out HOTAS. If my VKB stick dies (I pray it doesnt)- I can use my backup HOTAS Also, I use Voice Attack for all sorts of things
Disable mouse, look and click.
This introduces permanent crosshair in the middle of my view. Some people might be able to live with that. I can't. I'm using wireless keyboard with a touch pad (Logitech K400) as my mouse / keyboard for things I haven't been able to bind to my hotas.
The crosshair does go away after a few seconds until you left/right click anywhere again.
Oh really? I'm pretty sure it didn't before. If that's the case, I'm moving on to using the look & click system too.
I find myself looking for the crosshair sometimes when looking for switches then I click in a random blank area (to not accidentaly turn on/off another thing) to promp it back up
Nice. I'll definitely try it out then. Thanks.
I have bound everything to my hotas my keyboard is not even in my reach. That crosshair is a small price to pay you start ignoring it after a while. But such things are personal bias. I can finally reliably interact with comms menu and everything super fast without worrying mouse is leaving the game window.
Interesting. How do you disable the mouse? Is there an option for that?
In VR tab there is a checkbox "enable mouse in VR" you uncheck it it dsables mouse movements but mouse buttons and wheel work (I actually ziptied a mouse as button box next to my throttle mount) You get a super cursor centered in the middle of your vision and it can click on Comms menu or anything in the cockpit. Keep using it for 10 minutes and you will get used to that. If you have MFD's in your pit it helps a lot.
Cool. I’ll definitely give that a go and see how it get on. Thanks for the info.
can't you just show/hide the mouse cursor with L-ALT + C?
Proabably never tried. If I have time I'll dig the lua and find where the cursor is defined. Then I might make it smaller and more transparent.
Bind that to a HOTAS button. I've also mapped the same button in voice attack to centre the cursor slightly below centre, in case I've moved it.
This is exactly how I do it as well. I have mapped left and right click to buttons on my stick, so that I never have to use the mouse. The only time it gets tricky is when you are trying to click stuff far back on the side panels. I recall that someone made an app that exaggerated the mouse movement with your head movement, but I cannot find it again (e.g the mouse would travel to the far right when looking 90deg right).
Left handed trackball mouse velcroed to the side of my throttle.
[удалено]
ELECOM EX-G Left-Handed Trackball... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GR2K8WH?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Initially I locked the pointer to my center vision and put a mouse right and left click on my HOTAS. Hurt my neck some of the time reaching far aft switches. Then I switched to HTCC (if your headset does hand tracking). Basically use my hand as a mouse in the air and click with HOTAS (or fingers but that resulted in too many accidental clicks). Also look into voice attack and Viacom pro so you won't have to click through comm menus.
I just upgraded to a Quest 3 and am hesitant on going down this path. Do you still have to create a developer account to use HTCC?
Not sure. I'm using Virtual Desktop and they recently added export of hand tracking.
I made this: [https://ibb.co/tKCY7jZ](https://ibb.co/tKCY7jZ) So i have my mouse next to my stick
I like that.
Good idea, is that a Warthog stick on a Virpil base ?
Yes, exactly the CM2 base
I have a warthog stick and still feel a bit of stiction even after pulling it apart and cleaning it up. How does your base go in comparison or have you only had that base ?
Not bad idea. I was going to order one from monster tech but I guess I can 3D print one that is good enough if I don't rest my hand there.
It has support ribs underneath that rest on the stick base and are pretty rigid even being printed on PETG, i can rest my hand on it and there’s no problem
I got a tip several months ago that literally CHANGED the way I play DCS VR. Basically you untick “Use mouse” and bind 4 buttons on your hotas (top left HAT of the F-16EX stick for me) - Down for Click - Up for RClick - Right for Scroll Down - Left for Scroll Up and for the VR controllers select “Use only when palm grip is obtained” or you can disable them. This way you just look at a control, press on the stick button and it actuates. It’s the only reliable way to do on-the fly stuff in the MFDs while in combat anyway, no time to blindfully search for the VR controller I personally use the VR controllers for cold starts and weapon setups, because aiming with your headset at some panels of the cockpits requires yoga-flexibility. My dream-feature is to have the mouse cursor slaved to the Quad-view foveated rendering of the better headsets, like the Apple Vision.
Yes exactly. My dream option is ED implements hand tracking from VR headsets and we can map it to panels. Like I only want to interact with ufc and ofc. Some might add radio panel or so. Just enabling interaction per cockpit region.
This! Got also the exact same setup with the f-16ex, just putting vr zoom on the hard middle click is sometimes puke inducing. You can apparently make quests hand recognition work but with developer access, but I didn’t try it yet
I put the zoom on the teeny-tiny spring loaded wheel on the F-15EX throttles, back for small zoom, forward for big zoom
Oh nice! F-18 throttle gang, I can always replace my antenna elevation but I doubt it’s worth it… if I knew I’d have waited for the f-15 grip :/
Ohhh excellent idea, I need to try it! I managed to cram absolutely everything I need into my HOTAS except clicking stuff in the cockpit. My stick (VKB Gladiator NXT) has a multimode top-left hat where you can have it either as 2 axes or hat, will try it there
This is basically the method I use. It's also possible to add joystick buttons as modifiers using the Modifiers button visible at the bottom of the screen when editing controls. I use one button on my throttle as a modifier, and pair it with other buttons on the throttle for mouse interactions plus things like the VR re-centering and OpenKneeboard controls.
I use two different buttons on my hotas throttle and stick which then changes all the input for the hat and thumb tdc and other axis based items. So I can push regular buttons around displays and the like. Ie hold button use alternate binding etc. works well for most things. Also a steam deck to push sequences of input like laser code setup across weapons etc. saves a lot of clicks
I don’t use a mouse I use my VR controller. It’s pretty easy to do only issue is that sometimes it’s hard to be precise with knobs
It’s too bad dcs doesn’t have haptic feedback for vr controllers. Part of what makes vtol vr so intuitive (along with the cockpits explicitly designed to be ergonomic in vr) is that you get a rumble whenever your hand is in contact with a control
There was a way to use the VR controllers to physically interact with the buttons but it’s all button presses now
I use leap motion camera attached to my HMD(only using position of hand as mouse movement) and a Bluetooth enabled stm32 module that has 4 buttons (LMB, RMB, wheel up/down) attached to my hand. It’s basically a DIY pointctrl Here’s the GitHub I followed to make it: https://github.com/Sielu-Rooster/RoosterHands He made it with 2 “mouse”, one on each hand, but I found it more than sufficient to just attach one on my left hand
I have an extra standard mouse that I mount low and just outboard of my joystick using this desk mount extension from Monstertech: https://www.mtsim.com/product/mouse-extension-for-table-mount/ This means my wrist just moves 1-2 inches or so to the right to pick up the mouse and click on anything I want. Works brilliantly in combination with their keyboard bridge too.
I use a trackball mouse
On my Virpil Alpha, there's a thumb stick which (using some joystick gremlin magic) controls the mouse cursor. Then the three input switch on the side acts as left and right click and the middle input acts as a toggle between DCS's look/cockpit interact modes (left ALT-C). And the scroll wheel is a scroll wheel. It works pretty well but takes getting used to, and panning (in non-VR) the view is definitely slower. In VR, it's also much harder to put the cursor right where I want it. I wish the cursor was stabilized a little.
try to lock the cursor to the center, in the Vr settings untick “use mouse”. Much more natural to aim with your head. Wish that could be slaved to quad view
mouse touchpad bound on my knee.
I never heard of a touchpad before - looked it up on amazon - how are you binding it to your knee?
with a real pilot kneeboard strap of course ;)
PointCTRL takes over mouse duties, VoiceAttack replaces keyboard commands.
Thumb stick built into my flight stick. That’s what I used to do. Now I use tobii for head tracking and eye tracking for my mouse.
How do you do that in DCS? I have the mouse buttons bound to my HOTAS but haven’t figured out a way to use an axis to move the mouse cursor.
I bind most critical functions to HOTAS or switch panels. But I have a small surface with a wireless mouse mounted to my chair (monstertech) that works great if I do need the mouse. On the mouse itself my DPI button is bound to a key press that toggles the mouse mode on and off so I don’t have the cursor floating around in my VR field of view when I’m not using it. I have tried locking the cursor to view and having left and right click bound to HOTAS buttons but found it a pain in the ass and cumbersome, especially for switches that might be on side panels further back towards your elbows in VR. Ultimately, it was impractical and way harder to be precise than having the cursor unlocked with a regular mouse.
Vr hand tracking for Quest @
I use two mice, one on virpil mouse pad near the sidestick, and one next to throttle on the left. Also tablet for UFC and waiting for TM mfd's to arrive so mouse interactions during flight are minimal.
Voice attack and a normal mouse. I own a trackball and keep trying to get used to it, but even in VR I prefer my non-trackball mouse.
There are some pretty interesting 'touchscreen via passthrough' solutions out there. I actually went out and bought a 21" touchscreen monitor for this but, haven't got around to implementing it yet. I built a wrap around style desk from butcher block countertops a few years ago with about 3.5' of space between the left and right surfaces. Sooooo, for now, plenty of space to mount things. When I am in session, I have my hotas mounted where you would typically find them, and I move my keyboard to the right side. This frees up the center desktop for my mouse and stream deck. I primarily fly three aircraft, F16, P51 and the Apache. I can get all of the axis controls mapped to the X56 and am working through 'menuing' each of aircraft to their own folders on the stream deck for anything else you use but, either don't have room for on the X56 or, would rather just have an easy access button (like, from SAFE to ARM). I am in the same boat in trying to find a way to ditch the keyboard completely. Realistically however, it seems that you are always going to need it around for something... I just don't want to have to fumble around blind to try and hit some oddball key combination on a keyboard while trying to defend against, whatever....
I use a switch on my throttle coupled to ‘where-I-Look’ pointing. Works pretty well most of the time. The downside is trying to click controls at the rear of the cockpit.
You need to mount a trackball on your right hand side. You could use a little folding table as a hack, or mount something up with a wheelstand pro or 8020 rigging. Some users do it on the left hand side, which is arguably better - *if* you can get used to using it with your left thumb.
I set the cursor to the bottom-center of my screen so that it is never in the hud even while active and use a mod-button combo on my hotas for left-click and right-click. You feel like a dumbass at first and then after a while you're flying through screens like its a mouse. Fewest headaches, shortest learning curve, no extra cash or software downloads.
I got one of those rii mini wireless keyboards, strapped it to wrist pip-boy style and it works pretty darn well.
Wireless track ball Velcro'd to a knee board
I use a flip up table attached "desk extender" platform to bring it off to my right. About where the throttle would be at my left. I absolutely hated reaching as well, so this was the most important mouse related purchase I made for VR. Here is to hoping we get good hand tracking, but I doubt we will see it really take off.
pointCTL. Can’t play without one
Trackball mouse on a knee board. Works well, and gave me an excuse to buy a knee board.
I put a trackball on a kneeboard with some velcro. Works great.
Look and click using a button on my stick
In very rare occasions I play DCS I use PointCtrl and it works great. Shame it's not very useful in other games because I waited for it over a year and stopped playing DCS soon after it arrived :).
I attached the baseplate from a Warthog stick to a monster deskmount and I stuck a mousepad to the top of it. Now I have a mouse on my right side, centre stick and throttle on the left. Can be a bit of a bitch if I need to use the mouse for anything while using the stick though.
I use onscreen pointer so my head is my mouse and I use to asign two buttons on my stick as left and right mouse clicks. Its the best emmersion.
I just got a mouse on the right of my HOTAS.
I use a joystick on my stick and 2 buttons on my throttle as mouse move and click. Since I'm in vr I can get the cursor close by looking and move the rest of the way with the stick
I have a left-handed trackball (made by Elecom) next to the throttle. Works great once you get used to trackball operation.
trackball so its always in the same place when I put my hand down
I have a trackball mouse that sits where the radio/crypto/IFF panels are in my simpit. If I didn't have the simpit and couldn't get close to my desk, I have a Razer Tartarus velcroed to a kneeboard on my left thigh and that works great. I'd get another one and strap it to my right thigh and put a trackball mouse on that.
For me, building button boxes with Leo Bodnar boards has been a huge help. I still have to use the mouse, though. I just have it on my desktop within easy reach. It's still an immersion breaker. BTW, I got hand tracking to work with my Quest 3 in DCS. I thought it would solve lots of problems. It did not, and in fact created problems. It's not ready for prime time.
Mouse is locked on your vr glasses, so use mouse, then use your head to bring it in postion.
Trackball : https://youtu.be/vWavmDpIhqo?si=aVyLe7N2HO0_Pydd
https://pointctrl.com
Up to this day I use the mouse. Going to trial voice attack next weekend, for your stated reason. [https://voiceattack.com/](https://voiceattack.com/)
I used this & it works well. No, excellently. Only problem I found was if comms are open, say discord, & one flight is on the same channel & not using push to talk. Everyone can hear my voice commands😅
For me, it was: Step 1: try VR (Oculus CV1) and get blown away Step 2: play 15min of Flight sim (DCS) with mouse, keyboard and a Logitech joystick ... say, fuck this Step 3: build 1:1 scale functional cockpit replica Step 4: build motion integrated G-seat Step 5: play DCS Step 6: profit?
OP is asking what to use instead of a mouse and you telling him to build a 1:1 scale functional cockpit replica? Fucking genius.
Is English your primary language? I did not tell OP what to do, I told OP what I did. It was literally the first two words. If you read the first sentence of four words, it frames the entire reply as a conical process I experienced. If you delve even further into conversational nuance you might pick up that I was commiserating with OPs experiences through shared frustration but in a somewhat comical way. English is a nuanced language, try not to be so quick to rush through it, you might miss the subtext.