bindED

This VoiceAttack plugin reads keybindings in Elite:Dangerous and stores them as VoiceAttack variables. It has originally been written by Gary (the developer of VoiceAttack) and published on the VoiceAttack forums.

You can find the original README here.

I have taken the original source code and added automatic detection of the correct bindings file and support for non-US keyboard layouts (see below for details).

Usage

Reading Bindings into VoiceAttack

You don’t have to do anything! When VoiceAttack loads, bindED will automatically detect your bindings. It will also keep a watchful eye on Elite’s bindings folder and reload them when there is a change!

If something goes awry, you can still manually call the loadbinds plugin context to force a refresh.

If you are not using a US QWERTY keyboard layout, see below.

Saving the List of Variables

Invoke the listbinds plugin context (make sure to tick “Wait for the plugin function to finish before continuing”!). That will set a variable ~bindED.bindsList containing all the variable names that you can e.g. write to a file.

By default the list is separated by \r\n, you can override that behaviour by setting bindED.separator before invoking the plugin.

Automatic Bindings Detection

Elite creates a file StartPreset.start in the Bindings directory that contains the name of the currently active profile. The plugin now reads that file and loads the correct profile automatically.

Should the file for some reason a) not exist, b) be empty or c) contain an invalid preset name the old default is used: the most recently changed .binds file.

You can still manually provide a bindings file to use instead by setting it as the plugin context, as before.

Support for non-US Keyboard Layouts

If you are using any non-US layout you might have noticed that some binds don’t work. Elite internally uses keycode values (a number assigned to each key on the keyboard) for its bindings but for some reason both displays and saves them as keysyms (the label on the key), according to the UK QWERTY keyboard layout. That means VoiceAttack can’t just send the keysym it reads from a binding, it has to translate it into the corresponding keycode.

The original plugin contained a EDMap.txt file that contains infomration on that conversion for the US keyboard layout. If you are using any other layout that information will be incorrect for any symbols that are on a different key than they are on the US layout.

I have added the option to use maps for other keyboard layouts. In order to do so you will have to set a text variable in VoiceAttack called bindED.layout# to the layout you want to use. BindED will be notified of the variable changing and reload your bindings with the appropriate key map. If the variable is not set it will defaut to “en-us”, leaving the original behaviour intact.

I have included a map file for Neo2 (EDMap-de-neo2.txt) which is the layout that I am using personally. If you are on a different layout, you will have to create a corresponding map file yourself or prod me to add it. E.g. for the french AZERTY it would be EDMap-fr-fr.text and set bindED.layout# to “fr-fr”. For US Dvorak, EDmap-en-us-dvorak and “en-us-dvorak”. You can see where this is going.

For more information on creating new supported keyboard layouts see the Wiki.