Mouse Control Masterclass: Barrel Roll

After the inside loop, today we take a look at another famous air manoeuvre – the barrel roll!

Note - the difference between ‘Vector’ and ‘Hybrid’ is as follows:

With the Vector system, every introduced motion continues in the chosen direction indefinitely without further repositioning of the mouse cursor.

With the ‘Hybrid’ system, the same is true for big motions. However, for smaller movements within a certain range, instead of continuing indefinitely, your plane will auto-centre on the position of your cursor instead of continuing to turn indefinitely.

While this difference is important to know about and helps you choose the right type of controls depending on your preferences, it is a negligible distinction for the purposes of this article. Therefore, when explaining the manoeuvres, we will combine the two ‘Vector’ and ‘Hybrid’ into one and compare it to the ‘Standard’ version, which is set by default.

Air Manoeuvre: Barrel Roll

This manoeuvre is a combination of a loop and a roll, during which the plane follows a helical path while performing a horizontal corkscrew.

On Standard 

The easiest way to perform a barrel roll (in its simplest form) is just to map the “Roll left” and “Roll right” commands to your keyboard and hold either one of them so that the plane rotates around its roll axis. If you now use your mouse to “look” up, slightly above the centre of the screen, while rolling left or right using the keyboard, you’ll increase your horizontal movement throughout the manoeuvre. This will  perform your barrel roll with a wider angle.

Should you choose to execute the barrel roll without the help of your keyboard, you’ll need to be sure not to make any overly sudden movements. Simply move your plane up and then start leading it through the roll by painting an imaginary outward spiral with your mouse, starting in the centre. Choose a fix point on the horizon and “paint” this imaginary spiral around it to avoid losing your initial direction. Make sure you paint the angle wide enough, so that the steering assistance picks up on your intentions and doesn’t “auto-correct” your flight path to level off the plane.

On Vector/Hybrid

This manoeuvre is performed by moving the cursor to the far left or right of your screen. This will immediately make your plane bank to your chosen side. In order to perform the necessary corkscrew-like movement, you’ll have to start turning the directional cursor downward in a clockwise or counter clock-wise fashion (depending on which side you’re rolling to). Try to hold the line from your directional indicator parallel to your plane’s wings at all times, essentially by always keeping the cursor at the same relative position at the far left or right side of the screen. When the manoeuvre is finished, pull your directional cursor back to the middle of the screen.

That’s it! In the third part we’ll tell you all about the Immelmann Turn, Pilots!