Offsets vs Events vs Control sent when button pressed

[pilotjohn]

Hi,

Is there a definitive mapping between offsets, SimConnect events and the drop-down list of "controls" in the button configuration?

The terminology between these 3 are inconsistent, and the drown-down is not searchable (so it's hard to tell where I fill find something).

Alternatively, is there at least a searchable file of the "controls" in the drop-down list?

Thanks,

John

[John Dowson]

8 hours ago, pilotjohn said:

Is there a definitive mapping between offsets, SimConnect events and the drop-down list of "controls" in the button configuration?

No. The read offsets are generally populated from sim variables, not events. The write offsets can use either sim variables or events. i agree that it would be useful to have the events listed against the offset(s) where its being used. I may get around to this at some point but it would take some time which I just don't have at the moment.
The drop-down list contains all (or most) of the known sim events, plus additional ones added by FSUIPC and some older ones not mentioned in the MSFS documentation. Note also that the list was built from the MSFS list of the sim events under SimConnect and not under 'Variable Lists', which seems to contain more not avaiable via SimConnect.

8 hours ago, pilotjohn said:

Alternatively, is there at least a searchable file of the "controls" in the drop-down list?

There is currently no such list - I will provide one later, when the product is released. For the time being you can use the 2016 list which should be 95% applicable - I've attached it below.

John

The 2016 List of FSX and P3D Controls.pdf

[pilotjohn]

Thanks. Spot checking, it seems like the official event name from this doc to the dropdown list is to TitleCase it, is that correct?

[pilotjohn]

In general, should we use "custom control" and the offsets, or the named event from the dropdown, for button presses? Or, does it not matter?

 

[John Dowson]

18 minutes ago, pilotjohn said:

Spot checking, it seems like the official event name from this doc to the dropdown list is to TitleCase it, is that correct?

Yes

6 minutes ago, pilotjohn said:

In general, should we use "custom control" and the offsets, or the named event from the dropdown, for button presses? Or, does it not matter?

Sorry, but this doesn't make sense. Custom controls are distinct, and are additional controls added by add-on aircraft.

You should use the event/control name in the dropdown. You can use the offsets, but then you would use the various (depending upon offset size) offset set/toggle controls.
If you have a choice between the two, use the control. Writing to an offset to trigger a control just adds another (unneeded) step. Only use the offset controls if no standard control is provided (e.g. for controlling pushback at offset  0x31F4), or for updating offsets for other uses.