DickDastardly

Thanks very much for putting this together Loophole - it works great :thumbup:. Cheers, DD

Great start m8 -looking forward to seeing what else you come up with. Cheers, DD

Glad to hear you got BSVP running okay :). With regard to fps, could it be that fraps is reporting them incorrectly, perhaps as a result of being confused by the large number of monitors? Does the in-game fps counter (RCTRL+PAUSE) show any difference when you turn down graphical settings or use the "HUD-only" (ALT+F1) view on your TH2G? If you don't mind sacrificing some resolution, you could buy a second hand XGA projector instead and save money, double your screen size and improve your fps. Cheers, DD

I'm not sure tbh m8 - I know the system requirements are pretty low as Mnemonic has run BSVP fine on a netbook, but I suspect a 266 might struggle. It would also depend on what graphics card your old machine has. The best way to find out would be to just give it a go. Cheers, DD

No I never had this problem but I've added a post to your pit thread with a suggestion which might be worth trying. You could also try temporarily unplugging your internet cable and turning off all firewalls, anti-virus etc (check no anti-virus processes are running in your task manager as sometimes parts of an AV program continue to run even when you've supposedly turned it off). Also, check there are no other apps running on either PC which might be trying to use your network (like file sharing programs etc). Cheers, DD

It's really strange that you don't see fps improvements when lowering graphics settings -stuff like disabling mirrors, setting view distance to medium and water to 0 helps quite a bit on my rig. It might be worth trying BSVP on your second PC whilst only running a single screen on your main PC to see if you still get the freezes. If the problem remains then that would suggest you have some kind of network/firewall/anti-virus issue which is causing the freezes, if it runs okay with this setup then that would suggest the freezes are due to graphical overload and you could then try running the multi-monitor configuration with lower res etc. Cheers, DD EDIT: Cross-posted with Gadroc - try his suggestions first. Also, I noticed you're not running BSVP fullscreen. If you do so then you could get rid of the blue windows header and task bar at the top and bottom of your left screen (although you may have to tweak your gauge positioning slightly as a result).

Wonderful pit m8 -seeing people using the software like this really makes all the work that went into BSVP seem worthwhile :). I noticed you're not yet running the TouchPal EKRAN on your right monitor so I've created a cut-down version of the touchpal.xml file which only draws the EKRAN and uploaded it for you here. You'll need to use the combined TP/BSVP export.lua and also edit these values at the bottom of the touchpal.xml file to position the EKRAN so that it lines up with the hole in your panel: <Layout> <X>1024</X> <Y>0</Y>(To close TouchPal you'll have to use ALT+F4 as the cut-down version has no exit button). Once you've got everything running, is there any chance you could do another video? Cheers, DD P.S. I've already done the graphics for the clock and other remaining gauges so hopefully they'll be included in a BSVP update soon. EDIT: I've just noticed that you don't seem to have an LWS either so perhaps it would be better to have both the LWS and the EKRAN in that rectangular hole on your right screen, then you could use the "HUD-only" LALT+F1 view on your TripleHead2Go (which should give you a few more fps). I've uploaded another touchpal.xml here which will enable you to do this.

You put the export.lua I uploaded for you in the appropriate folder on your main PC (i.e. Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\Config\Export) and edit it with notepad++, replacing the IP address in this line: gBSVPHost = "192.168.123.102" ..with the IP address of your second PC (which you can determine by clicking start, run, typing "cmd" and then "ipconfig" on your second PC). Then you run BSVP on your second PC and start DCS:BS on your main PC. When you unpause a mission, BSVP should say "connected" and the gauges will work. Cheers, DD

I've uploaded my setup files for you here. I have my main monitor at 1024x768, TouchPal/ABRIS at 1024x768 and Shkval at 720x576, arranged in my Windows (Vista) desktop settings like this: i.e. when I move my cursor off the right edge of my main monitor, it appears on the left edge of my TouchPal/ABRIS monitor, when I move it off the right edge of the TouchPal/ABRIS monitor, it appears on the left edge of my Shkval monitor. N.B. It doesn't matter where your monitors are physically in relation to each other, just where Windows thinks they are. I run BSVP on a second PC at 1280x1024. If you use the same resolutions etc as me, then the only thing you'll need to change in my files is the IP address of your BSVP PC at the start of export.lua. Cheers, DD

I experimented a bit with arranging my monitors vertically instead of horizontally in the Windows desktop and much preferred the vertical setup as it allowed me to see the comms menu, mission success box and "no cockpit view" overhead lights on my main monitor (I wasn't worried about losing the controls popup as I never use it anyway). Unfortunately, however, I had to go back to using a horizontal setup as the vertical one had a major impact on frame rates. With three monitors horizontally I get 28fps at the start of the quick mission compared to just 17 when I use the vertical arrangement. I don't really understand why the drop is so dramatic as the vertical arrangement only has 1.7% more pixels (2162688 compared with 2125824 for the horizontal arrangement). One advantage of a three monitor setup over a two monitor one is that you don't entirely lose the comms menu anyway - it just appears on your Shkval screen instead of your main one. Cheers, DD

My technique is to design a decent layout in Photoshop and then get a good coder to do all the hard bit of writing the corresponding xml ;). It's actually fairly straightforward to make changes, though - the xml is pretty self-explanatory (width and height are in pixels, and coordinates are measured in pixels from the top left corner). Cheers, DD

Feel free to use any pics I've posted too - they're scattered over a few threads but here are some of them: TouchBuddy: TouchPal: Original BSVP layout plan: Illuminated version: Composite image of my current setup: Cheers, DD P.S. I posted a couple of videos of TouchBuddy too (although this has now been superseded by TouchPal -I really need to get round to doing a video for it): TouchBuddy for 3 monitor setup TouchBuddy for 2 monitor setup

You don't need to tell TouchPal or BSVP where the data is coming from - they both just listen out for any incoming data. You do, however, need to tell DCS:BS where to export the data to. If you're using the combined export.lua, this is done by editing the first few lines. On my setup, they look like this: -- TouchPal Host and Port gTPHost = "127.0.0.1" gTPPort = 9089 -- Blackshark Virtual Panel Host and Port gBSVPHost = "192.168.123.102" gBSVPPort = 8080...because I'm running TP on the same PC as BS (127.0.0.1) and I'm running BSVP on a second PC which has an IP address of 192.168.123.102. I use an HP MP3222, purchased second-hand (but with an almost brand new bulb) from ebay for £100. This gives me XGA resolution (1024x768 ) on a six foot diagonal screen. In my opinion the huge screen size more than makes up for the relatively low res compared to a monitor. Because the projector is a DLP it also works with my nVidia 3D Vision glasses, effectively giving me a one-wall holodeck, for an amazingly immersive gaming experience. In terms of buying advice, I would look for a DLP projector, with at least XGA resolution, long bulb life and a decent contrast ratio. You should be able to find something which meets these criteria on ebay for less than £200, and if you're patient you'll probably get an even better deal, like I did. On my main PC, I have two monitors connected to one card and one monitor connected to a second card. Each monitor appears as a separate screen in Windows desktop properties where you can drag them around as you wish to change their positions relative to each other. BS runs on the three monitors on my main PC using the sim's multi-monitor capabilities and TouchPal draws an overlay around the ABRIS. The combined export.lua (see above) tells the sim to send data to my main PC (for TouchPal) and to a second networked PC where I run BSVP. Cheers, DD

Contact the admins of your favourite servers and ask them to enable lua exports, including links to the BSVP and TouchPal threads to explain why you'd like them them to do so. The more people that contact them, the more likely they are to enable this feature. TouchPal replaces my original TouchBuddy profiles for Black Shark and offers a lot more functionality as everything is now synced with the sim via lua. You don't need a touch screen to benefit from TouchPal as it displays a lot of useful stuff like the LWS, CMS, EKRAN and Weapons readouts. Even with a mouse, it's a lot easier to click on a large stationary TouchPal button than one in the VC. As for whether the EKRAN will ever be added to BSVP, I don't know (although the graphics are ready). The fact that it's already available in TouchPal makes it a lower priority than adding some of the other stuff we don't yet have in either program. Cheers, DD

In terms of hardware, I stay away from bleeding edge components as they generally offer poor bang/buck. I assembled my main PC for less than £700 more than a year ago and I can still play just about all games maxed with satisfactory frame rates (although for Black Shark I turn down graphics settings due to the extra load of running 3 windowed screens and generally get 20-30 fps which is acceptable, if not exactly ideal). My main PC has a Q6700, 4GB RAM and a 8800GT XXX Edition with 512MB displaying main view at 1024x768 on a projector (which I got off ebay for £100) with a 6ft diagonal image, and TouchPal/ABRIS on a 19" 1280x1024 TFT (running at 1024x768 ) which has a touchscreen overlay (another ebay purchase). On the same PC I also have an 8400GS displaying the Shkval on a small TFT monitor at 720x576. My second PC has an Athlon XP3000+, 2GB RAM and a 7400GS with 512MB displaying BSVP on a 19" 1280x1024 (with a metal panel covering the monitor with holes cut out for the gauges). The metal cover I use was designed to work with a set of panels I made for FSX called PanelMania which includes layouts for all default FSX aircraft with fewer than two engines. Here, for example, you can see my Cessna 208B layout: As you can see in the composite image I posted before, I've used BSVP's ability to reposition gauges so they match this layout. The three gaps in the 4x4 grid are for the standby ADI, clock and whisky compass, whilst the five small holes in the bottom right corner are for the wall panel gauges like the APU. I've already done the graphics for these and they'll be included in a future version of BSVP, hopefully along with some other bits and pieces like the radios and the pressure and temp sliders. Unfortunately, after waiting more than a year to get BSVP and TouchPal running together, I only had five glorious hours in which to enjoy them before the [multiple expletives deleted] monitor on which I'm running BSVP decided to die on me. Well not exactly die, but it now comes on for less than a second, goes blank for 4 seconds or so and then repeats this cycle. I've replaced all the cables and tried connecting it to other PCs but the problem remains the same. So unless there are any monitor experts reading this who can tell me if this is fixable, it looks like I'll have to try and pick up another on ebay <sigh>. Yeah, it would be brilliant if ED added the ability to disable the Shkval and ABRIS in the VC and instead allowed the relevant positional and targetting data to be transmitted to a second PC running another copy of DCS:BS, which could then render them along with a TouchPal overlay (and BSVP on another screen). This could give us a huge boost to fps on the main PC as it could run fullscreen and focus entirely on drawing scenery etc. Presumably ED will need to develop capabilities along these lines to support pilot/gunner configurations in the Apache and I'm hoping they might add them to Black Shark before then to test the technology. Gadroc deserves all the credit for the combined export.lua -I just took the version he wrote and added a couple of lines which Mnemonic gave me to fix the English lights bug in BSVP (which I noticed during initial BSVP testing). My lua skills are more or less non-existent :). I would connect the 17" touchscreen to your main PC and one of the 22" screens to your notebook then you could use this setup: 28" = Main forward view 22" = Shkval 17" with touchscreen overlay = ABRIS with TouchPal 22" connected to notebook = BSVP Cheers, DD