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Stick around

My old Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar gave up a few weeks ago, which means that I have not been able to finalize the FDE as I could not afford a new controller. The Cougar has seen some repair work and modding over the years and has generally been a good companion, but now it was spitting pieces of aluminum and the pots were all worn out. Today I finally bit the bullet and ordered a Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog. Not that I can afford it (I can’t), but I’m not going back to cheap plastic sticks.

Maybe as a result of being temporarily stick-less, I decided to add the control stick to the VC. Not the easiest thing to model, but I believe I got pretty close (see screenshots). At the moment the stick contains way too many polys (in the thousands), but I will try to simplify it before release. The trigger cover is animated, the buttons and switches are not. The stick can be hidden if you (like me) think that it is distracting and obscures the instrument panel. But you asked for the stick, and you got it. ;)

stick_work

Once the Warthog is on my desk I will tie things up and release 4.1.