PC Accessories for Arma 3

Hello,

I would like to buy some pc accessories to enjoy a more immersive flying/driving experience in Arma3.

Being relatively new to the franchise, I am kind of lost.

I am keeping an eye on these products:

- saitek x52pro http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/x52pro.html

- saitek rudder pedals http://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/pedals.html

- logitech G driving force GT http://gaming.logitech.com/it-it/product/driving-force-gt-gaming-wheel

This is my rig (not sure if necessary, but anyway):

GPU: Geforce GTX670

CPU: Intel® Core i5-3570 CPU @ 3.40GHz

Memory: 16gb RAM

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

These are my questions:

- any compatibility issues i should be aware of?

- can I use the saitek pedals for flying AND driving or I'll be forced to switch to the logitech pedals when it comes to driving? and also..

- Is it worth to buy saitek pedals? Or I will be just fine using the logitech driving pedals for both driving and flying?

- Do i need some kind of IR device to be able to use the free-look feature while using the stick or the steering wheel? if yes, what do you recommend?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

thanks for listening!

A decent hotas and freetrack setup makes flying in arma a whole lot better imho, I'm not so taken on the requirement for a wheel and pedals though. For me the mouse and keyboard are fine for driving but I just don't get on with them for flying.

There shouldn't be any compatibility issues apart from physically having the space to mount all the hardware, arma3 allows you to bind multiple controllers to the same command without any issue.

See my comment about the requirement for a wheel/pedals, you can bind the rudder pedals to other functions such as incremental lean whilst on foot or steering whilst driving. The rudder pedals are a bit of a luxury but when added to a hotas makes it feel just that little bit more real.

If you're reasonably handy then you can setup a freetrack IR headtracker for the cost of a couple of beers. I use freetrack with a ps3 eye camera and an IR led array made from biros and an old usb mouse lead for power. If you don't fancy the time investment in making and setting up freetrack then you could buy a trackir5 but for me as an engineer I would rather make it :)

I've got a thrustmaster warthog hotas with rcs pedals and it's a wonderful bit of kit, makes flying helos a joy when coupled with freetrack. I made a plug in socket for the stick so it can be fitted to the front of the chair between your legs where it should be and stowed out the way whilst not flying (because engineer!). I bind map and 3rd person view to the PoV hat on the stick, the inventory and default select to the mouse pointer on the throttle and can bind any of the rest of the buttons as I need to for proper hotas control.

If you're up for overclocking your cpu you could get significant fps gains by pushing past 4ghz, I've just gained best part of 50% increase simply buy increasing my overclock from 4.2ghz to 4.5ghz (i3 530@2.93ghz default clock). My gpu is old now though a probably a limiting factor - looking to upgrade pretty soon.

Thank you very much for the heads up,

your answer was helpful and reassuring.

About making a freetrack by myself, i wish i was that handy (i am a boxer and i am good at breaking stuff, not the other way around), but i will definitely buy trackir 5.

For simplicity the trackir is the way to go, I believe it performs better than freetrack as well but that's what you pay for!

I would pick up the hotas and rudder pedals to start with, you can bind the toe brakes to different things as well - have a look at Dslyecxi's video on rudder pedals in arma3 for inspiration :)

I own the following:

TrackIR5 with Pro Clip - Take note if you don't want a cable plugged in (doesn't bother me), you can attach a little usb charger on top of your headphones so the pro clip is wireless. See here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?167513-TrackIR-s-Track-Clip-Pro-and-the-Duracell-USB-Charger-(3hr-version)

X52 Pro

CH Products Pedals

First off, having the pedals is great. As was mentioned, the ability to increment lean is a great feature and I use it all the time. You can also use it for gas and brake in vehicles. Makes flying pretty damn fun. I can just fire up the editor, get in a chopper and fly around by myself and I'm having a blast. Also if I'm on foot, if I press the brake on my left pedal it makes my gun run, saves me from holding shift.

I'm really looking forward to messing around with the new rotorlib system with the x52 pro. I did do a mod on my x52, youtube "Saitek x52 Stick magnet mod". There is also a spring mod, but I think that's more for non pro versions of the X52. The X52 pro comes with a better spring I believe?

For TrackIR5, I'm using the profile that Dslyecxi posted on his website, works fantastic. I am running an eyefinity setup and with TrackIR it is quite awesome.

If anyone else is using any other accessories that we may not know about or keybindings with peripherals that make life easy, it'd be great to hear.

TrackIR5 - Absolutely.

Can't play without it!