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Just how complete is Fox2 Pro? All the standard functions you'd expect in a decent text editor are there, as well as menu items dedicated to Thrustmaster programming, including:
- Independent multi level undo/redo (some 30,000 levels!) for both joystick and macro files, with standard full editing functions (cut, copy, paste, select all etc. etc.)
- Standard search and replace functions, including go to line number.
- Fully customisable colour highlighting and colour printing of files. This includes fully formattable text again with customisable styles, from the new Format menu. The colour highlighting has been enhanced and its handling improved since Fox Two, so you'll notice that all components in Foxy insert their statements in the correct colours with the correct spacing.
- Easy recall of previously opened files - upto 60 are automatically retained, along with the ability to store upto 30 pairs of files (joystick file and its macro file) called Favourites which are added to the Favourites menu for quick recall. These can be set so that they load up everytime you run Foxy.
- Easy insertion via GUI components of titles, headings, slash modifiers etc. directly from the Editor.
- Blocks of text can now be remmed out (Rem) with a single command, or un-remmed just as easily. So no longer when you're testing your files do you need to go and type Rem at the beginning of a series of statements if you want to temporarily comment them out as you test your files. It's all one click away.
- Slash modifiers can all now be aligned with optional indenting if required from a single mouse click.
- Drag and drop insertion of macros from the macros list (either the Editor's or the Composer's) into your files, or they can be inserted quickly by just double clicking them.
- Superb wizards for beginners and advanced users alike, as well as a very fast macro wizard for creating the all important macro files that you'll be basing your joystick files on.
- Direct access to all of the Thrustmaster software, including Windows and DOS calibration routines, Bob Church's CTFJ, F22 PRO specific apps, and user customisable menus for apps of your choice. There's even a menu item to take you directly to the DLDELAY= line in your Tm.cfg file which will be loaded into the Template Editor for this to be easily adjusted. With the recent file uploaded by Bob Church on his site (Sticky's TM utilities) explaining the importance of this on downloading, many users who've had downloading problems and unaware of the importance of this statement will now no longer need to suffer blindly.
- One click downloading of files, and now, compiling of files without downloading them. This is one of the new features in the Editor that all users will use exhaustively. If an error is encountered in your files, Foxy will report the error, highlight the line containing the error, and then load up a quick help window explaining the cause of the error from which you can also explore the help file for more information.
New users will find this a God send. Bob Church's WinLoad is brilliantly implemented with its options being set directly from the Preferences window, including full implementation of the // symbology for Rem statements. A separate help file supporting WinLoad is transparently accessible for further explainations of its command line parameters.
- One click ability to download the appropriate files for a sim, set your volume levels for your system, start your sim and close Foxy down to maximise resources available to the sim. If an error is encountered with downloading the file if you're using WinLoad, then Foxy will prevent the game from loading, load up the files if they're not already loaded, and then take you to the line containing the error and highlight it, and then tell you what's wrong with it. Users who requested that this menu caption be changed from Games to something else will be pleased to see that you can do this now.
- AutoSave and backup saving of your files, so there's no danger now of you losing your files should your system crash.
- Extensive help is available both in terms of the excellently written and humoress help file, which has been expanded substantially, as well as quick online help for commonly asked questions. Tooltips throughout Foxy are there to help explain what various aspects of the Editor and other components do, as well as direct help on the status bar as you move your mouse over various components/toolbar buttons. Tooltips can now be turned off again at the request of users.
This list could be a damn sight longer, but you get the idea. It's professional, it's excellent, and it doesn't get any better!
Components of Fox Two Pro
Before I leap into the graphical layout editors, which I know is what many of you current Fox Two users will be reading this review to find out more about, let's take a look at the other components of Foxy that make up the Professional package. There's a lot more to Foxy than just the main editor. It's stuffed full of other components and features, that make this application stand out a cut above the rest.
Composer
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The Composer is a GUI component to help you generate the correct syntax for your controller statements. It consists of several tabs, with the main one being the most useful for beginners. Programming from here is very much a point and click affair. You just click on the hat/button on your controller images that you want to program. The correct syntax for that hat/button is then inserted into your file. If you want to add a macro to it, then just double click the macro list on the Composer, and you immediately have the correct statement in your file. It is that simple.
If you need to add slash modifiers, delay statements, comments etc., again, it can all be done from here, so you can produce very complex statements all by just clicking away with the mouse. All the more complex statements, like those for the TQS antenna and range knobs, or digital throttle and joystick axes, are again no longer a "reach for the manual" job - you just enter values in the text fields on the appropriate Composer's tab, press the insert button, and there it is - correctly inserted in colour in your file. James has improved this substantially in the Pro version - now as it inserts these statements, it checks to see that statements are inserted so that they appear in the correct positions within your files.
One of the most useful features of the Composer is its handling of templates.
Templates are coloured text files that can be inserted within a file. So what? Well, with the ones provided, with a single click you can get all your hats and button statements with multiple level slash modifiers inserted into your joystick file with a single mouse click. All you have to do then is to click beside each statement line, double click in the macros frame to insert the macro for that line, and keep going through the file until you've got your whole file finished. There's no doubt about it! Foxy provides you with the fastest environment to develop your files in.
All these templates can be edited in the Template Editor, a separate component of Foxy, and you can create your own. Templates can be created for whole files, individual hats and buttons - really whatever you want. Finally, the Composer can be used to create logical programming statements for the F22 Pro. For those who want to be able to get their sticks to do anything, you'll find this an invaluable tab from which to experiment and learn about this coding, and it's well supported with a new Logical Programming wizard.
"I'd imagine that the templates are rarely used by users, but I can't stress enough why they should be using them. Most flight sim files have very common statements. So it makes sense to convert a joystick file into a template using the Template Editor, and then basing all new files on it. This not only makes it so much faster to develop files with, it also ensures that all your files are similar, which in turn makes it so much easier to remember what they do. So for example, if a user always uses BTN T9 for airbrakes, have in your template the macro name airbrakes beside BTN T9. Then all you have to do in your macro file is change the definition of airbrakes for each sim. It's a big time saver.".
Korgy
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Korgy is a graphical representation of the keyboard, which is used for generating the correct Thrustmaster syntax for keyboard characters, as well as for developing Raw code statements. In this professional version, Korgy has been completely rewritten, and users will love it. It is now much smaller and neater, and bug free (in the freeware version some of the raw codes were incorrect.) Raw code statements created with it are now inserted properly in full colour, and its functionality has been increased substantially.
"Many of the changes to Korgy are as a direct result of suggestions from Mystic and Cowboy. These guys were majorly involved in improving many aspects of Foxy, especially Korgy. When I'd finished Fox Two Pro, I installed the freeware version and compared the two - I can't now believe that I'd thought the original Korgy to be brilliant - I actually find it embarrassing when compared to the current version."
For example, a common use for it is to generate /P and /R raw code statements for a keyboard character. Previously, this would have involved pressing the required character, and then pressing the /P button, inserting the raw make code, pressing the /R button, inserting the raw break code, followed by inserting a rem statement to remind you what the raw codes do. Now, you just press the required character, press F6, and insert the complete statement into your file. Excellent.
Go to Part III
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