zorlac

oopps... think i found a bug with the "no longer need the sendto" option.... until I get a fix out, you will probably still need to set a sento or default_sento for each profile

In my great excitement of getting this posted, I forgot to mention a few people who have helped along the way: Ruggbutt - for a superb set of images for my existing profile, plus adding his own profile and new images. WBK - For working on TBTk without being asked (So glad you are doing it... otherwise I would have to! :) ) Dodger - For paying for the hosting of the web server and forums Tonik - for allowing me to bounce some ideas off him during the entire period of development

(Good god, my web server just exploded :) )

Here is the TouchBuddy change list for everything since the last public release: v1.0.0 ======== - ADD: 22nd June Background and foreground colors on the TeamSpeak module now use the window background and foreground colors (as specified in the [new-window] section) - CHANGE: 22nd June 2006 Ignores tspath if its not defined or if the file doesnt exist Allows users who do not have TeamSpeak installed to view the profile that have the TeamSPeak module. - ADD: 22nd June 2006 Added "bgcolor = r,g,b" on a per tab basis. If no tab bgcolor is specified, TouchBuddy will use the background color of the window for those tabs NOTE: You can mix bgimage and bgcolor on the same tab! - FIX: 22nd June 2006 Background color in window actually works now (oops!) - CHANGE: 22nd June 2006 Changed color references from RGB hex (0xffffff) to a much easier r,g,b format (255,255,255) - values between 0 and 255 are valid for each value - CHANGE: 22nd June 2006 Bumped up the version number to v1.0.0 to keep version numbers in sync with TouchBuddy Toolkit (by Wild Bill Kelso). #======================================= v0.0.6.3 (contains all additions and fixes from v0.0.6.2 ) ======== - REMOVE: 22nd June 2006 Remove the "close window" button from the *TB* tab Just toggle the window titlebar and click on the close icon in the titlebar instead. - ADD: 21st June 2006 Added debug option in touchbuddy.cfg. debug = [0|1] If enabled (1), will write out debug info into the file debug.txt in the directory that TouchBuddy was started in. Enabling debug may slow the program down a little. If it is left disabled (0), the file contains a very bare minimum amount of info, only containing the start time, environment variables, and any run-time errors (unable to start, unable to open a file or image). - ADD: 20th June 2006 Added "bgimage" option into [new-tab] definitions, to allow images to be displayed behind the buttons on a tab. Images are loaded and displayed in the top left hand corner of the client area of the window. Switching between tabs will display the relevant image, or will clear the background if no image is defined for that tab. NOTE: No image scaling or fit options yet, but it is planned! - CHANGE: 19th June 2006 Removed the requirement to specify a "sendto" for each button. If a button assignment has no "sendto" option, and "default_sendto" is not defined, TouchBuddy will not check to see if the window name exists, and will just send the macros anyway. This means no more trying to find the name of the window you need to send macros into. Now, the window only needs to be active for it to receive the macros. - HOLD: 17th June 2006 Setting Processor Affinity for TouchBuddy On hold until I can work out why its crashing TB. Maybe it doesnt like changing the processor affinity of its own process while its running. - ADD: 17th June 2006 Auto rename button name if it is used multiple times First button name is kept unchanged Each successive reuse of the button name will have a number appended e.g. "Button", "Button_1", "Button_2", etc - Change: 14th June 2005 Swapped original TeamSpeak button images for Ruggbutt's images - FIX: 14th June 2006 (Requested by Wild Bill Kelso) Extended the number of images allowed on a toggle button from 0-9 to 0-1000 - FIX: 14th June 2006 (Found by Zorlac at a particularly unfortunate time :) Fixed bug in *TB* tab -> Reset Button status, where it would get upset if you loaded a second (different) profile without restarting the program. - FIX: 12th June 2006 (Yes, Yes, no coding done for a whole week!!) Fixed another TeamSpeak problem, removed all the API calls, and reverted back to the old way of doing things. - FIX: 5th June 2006 Dumb Dumb Dumb logic bug with TeamSpeak routines (So dumb, I wont even tell you what it was :) - FIX: 5th June 2006 Better Error Handling in the TeamSpeak routines #======================================= v0.0.6.2 (beta release, not made public) ======== - ADD: 28th May 2006 Internally make tab names all lower case also make the tab that buttons and plugins attach to lower case This prevents upper/lower case typos in tab definitions to cause TouchBuddy to complain about missing tab definitions or missing tab names in the *.tbc files - ADD: 27th May 2006 allow the use of hex codes in rawkey macros (as well as rawkey names) e.g. macro = rawkey:0xA3, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY - CHANGE: 27th May 2006 remove "text" option from [new-tab] sections use the "name" option to create tab name (as well as putting that "name" as text on the tab) - CHANGE: 27th May 2006 move activex out of tabs, and into [new-plugin] sections will allow the plugins to be inserted into existing tabs (see the simple-layout.tbc file for an example) - ADD: default "sendto" window name for a single *.tbc file send all the keys to the default_sento window name *UNLESS* a "sendto" is specified for an individual button *.tbc -> [options] -> default_sendto = [window_name] - ADD: config option for "flat" button style creation *.tbc -> [options] -> flat_buttons = [0|1] - ADD: Button on *TB* tab to Maximize/Normalize the window - ADD: Button on *TB* tab to toggle the window titlebar - ADD: window definition entry to define whether the titlebar is shown on startup *.tbc -> [new-window] -> show_titlebar = 0 - ADD: Button on *TB* tab to close touch window (Needed if you have turned titlebar off) - ADD: Command line options to auto-run TouchBuddy -m [local|client|server] -c <*.tbc> "-m local" and "-m client" requires the -c option as well server mode only requires the "-m server" option (no config required) the -c option can be relative to where TouchBuddy is located e.g. -c profiles\simple-layout.tbc or a full file path e.g. -c c:\touchbuddy\profiles\simple-layout.tbc if the path contains any spaces, you must quote the path e.g. -c "c:\touchbuddy directory\profiles\simple-layout.tbc" If you have questions, feel free to ask, either here, or on the TouchBuddy Forums

Firstly, if you already know about TouchBuddy and what it does, you can pretty much skip down to the change list at the bottom... all the stuff at the top you will already be bored with :) Secondly, this software is free, so I am not trying to sell you anything... Right, here we go.... I am pleased to announce the release of TouchBuddy v1.0.0. .... I am announcing it here in a new thread because so many people didnt find the early releases and chat for a long time in the monsterously huge "My New Toy" thread, which is worth a read anyway). TouchBuddy is a programmable gamepad application that was designed to allow a small TFT touchscreen to (like the 7" or 8" units that you see in cars and kiosks) to work like a gamepad, allowing the user to press buttons on the screen, which will send keypresses and macros to the game or application. (This is not Lockon specific, it is being used in many other games in our testing, and existing users are creating their own profiles for new games). TB is able to display user defined buttons with user defined images on user defined tabs. The buttons are created by loading user defined images and placing them on the screen. The user can group buttons together on seperate tabs, and click between them. You can watch a movie of TouchBuddy being used to fly the SU-25T in Lomac HERE (~48Mb DivX AVI - requires DivX codec from http://www.divx.com ) TB can also display PDF files, web pages, movies, and play your MP3s using the ActiveX plugin: TB also supports TeamSpeak via an inbuilt TeamSpeak module: In the latest release, TB also supports "per-tab" background images: TB now also supports "per-tab" background colors (sorry no screenies of that... ) TouchBuddy works in local mode, where the touchscreen is attached to your main game PC as a secondary screen, and also work in client/server mode, where TB runs a server version of itself on your gaming machine, and the client part (and your touchscreen) are on another PC, and send the commands across the network (connection secured via password, as well as an IP based access list). The client/server mode allows the use of the mouse on the second PC without affecting the game, and also bypasses the problem that some games have where they will not let the cursor outside the game window (*cough* iL2 *cough*). While TB is "idle", it uses almost zero CPU time, and only using a few % CPU when pressing buttons (apart from the TeamSpeak module, which uses just a little bit more than that). The config files are all plain text, and so editable in your favourite text editor, but if you dont like pain and head scratching, I recommend using Wild Bill Kelso's TouchBuddy Toolkit application: Here are a few screenshots of users desks who are already using TouchBuddy on their touchscreens: There are now forums for TouchBuddy, which are located here: http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/index.php This time we have two downloads: The full version, includes the core application, docs, a few profiles, images, Oscar's HTML Maps: http://www.syn-ack.com/touchbuddy/releases/touchbuddy-1.0.0-20060623.zip and the minimal version, which contains just the core application, the docs, and one profile that contains all the features that TouchBuddy supports: http://www.syn-ack.com/touchbuddy/releases/touchbuddy-1.0.0-20060623-minimal.zip (As this forum doesnt allow me to post more than 10000 chars in one post, I`ll have to continue in another one)

I`m sorry, I dont know whether to laugh or cry.... If you are thinking that "Top Gun" (or any hollywood film) is a realistic and accurate portrayal of combat flights, then you are going to be very disappointed. Hollywood know that to get the customers in, they need up-close-and-personal (and totally unrealistic) flying and combat and HUD displays... nothing interesting (for film watchers) in shooting your missiles at a "blip" on the radar, or a dot on your HUD, which then stops "blipping" 20-40 seconds later, and you go home.

Hi all Just upgraded my PC to a dual core AMD, and it all started to go horribly wrong :( Installed LO v1.0 - no problems, ran fine Installed FC from CD (original, not LO Gold) - no problems, ran fine Installed FC v1.12a CD patch - SF hangs whilst reading CD. And I do mean really hangs... couldnt kill protect.exe or lockon.exe from task manager :( mmm... so, i uninstalled, deleted the dir, and tried again: Installed LO v1.0 - no problems, ran fine Installed FC from CD (original, not LO Gold) - no problems, ran fine Installed FC v1.11 CD patch - no problems, ran fine Installed FC v1.12a CD patch - SF hangs whilst reading CD. oh dear :( Here we go, SF coming to bite me in the a$$. Forced the mobo to run with a single core, and FC + v1.12a patch runs fine. Enable the second core and it hangs whilst SF reads the disk. I noticed that my friend (who has Lockon Gold plus the v1.12a patch for it) had a newer version of the StarForce protect.exe/protect.dll in his Lockon dir, so copied them over (making backups of original), but that didnt work. Removed it all and started again. I tried a standalone install of the Gold patch, and in dual core mode, the StarForce part of the startup worked great, but then it died a death when it tried to load Lockon (i expected this, as I didnt actually have the original LO:G installed at this time.. but SF did work!). Removed it all and started again. I installed my friend's Lockon Gold, plus the v1.12a patch (with the newer SF version) and it worked fine in dual core mode. The last thing I have tried is starting it in dual core mode without the CD in the drive. As the latest patch will only request the CD once a week (if its not present), it doesnt get upset, and FC v1.12a runs fine. I guess once a week (or sooner), i`ll drop to single-core, run FC v1.12a, let SF see/read the CD, then stop, remove the CD and go back to dual-core again.... not ideal I know, but it works.

As per the subject, do ATI/NVidia drivers farm off work to multiple core if they are available? If so, with Lomac set to run on only one core, would provide more CPU power to run Lomac on one core, and graphics drivers on the other? Is Black Shark multi-core aware? Doubtful, considering its based on Lockon, but I have to ask anyway :) How about Tank Killers or any future ED release?

If you are new to Lockon, and doing the training missions, make sure that when you take control of the flight that you have turned off the auto-pilot and the altitude hold (which can be left on when you take control of a training track)

(Oh, no pressure at all on me to ACTUALLY get it doing this then :) ) Thanks TekaTeka, another invaluable resource.... again...

oopps...

I am guessing that now isnt a good time to post that screenshot of the graceful death arc you performed over the weekend? :icon_supe

A quick question for the ED devs. How often is the keyboard state checked in LO:FC (and LO:BS)? In TouchBuddy, I need to implement a delay between rawkey events, because i have just discovered that I am sending rawkeys too quickly, and sometimes (err... a lot of the time) they are getting missed.... so I am trying to find out the delay between each successive keyboard state polls (so I can make my delays slightly longer than that). Many thanks.... Z

(There is no tail rotor on Ka50) As for autorotation, not sure... not a tester, so havent flown it....

Hey Polecat, still lovin your IVibe? How is progress for supporting Lomac?

Any news about this (Re: IVibe) ? I had an hour flying lesson in a helicopter on Friday, and now when I sit at my controls in Lomac or MSFS, it all seems just a bit "tame" now...

Can someone tell me if running LOTATC on the server requires: EnableExportScript = true to be enabled on the server (config.lua) ?

Now *THIS* I would pay money to see :icon_supe http://mosnews.com/news/2006/03/23/beatpirate.shtml

from: http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13212 So FutureMark didnt actually make any discovery, but the main stream tech press are reporting they did... fancy that, the media getting it wrong and reporting something that never actually happened, just because someone said they did. Anyway, enough of the cynical remarks about journos (cant trust them most of the time), and lets move onto StarForce itself. I was hesitant about buying FC due to the SF protection, and rather than get the downloadable version (well, I couldnt actually, due to the payment issues) I waited for the CD version. I have had zero problems with it so far, but I think I may have been lucky with that. I dont like DRM in general, it limits my fair use ability to make a personal backup of products that I have purchased, and are therefore my property from the moment I hand over my money. I have a large collection of original games (old and new) on CDs and DVDs sitting on my shelf. All of them (almost) without exception just sit safely in their cases, while I mount the CD/DVD image files I have on disk as virtual drives. If I paid for something, I am going to be damn well sure I look after my original. The only exception to this is LO:FC, due to its SF protection. LO:FC isnt big enough (sales numbers) to gain the attention of the hackers out there, who would break the SF in the EXE and release it as SF free. This is good for a sales point of view for ED... but ONLY as long as the protection system that they use does not over step the mark. *IF* these reports/stories about the new SF version being able to reboot machines if they spot anything unusual is correct, then that IMHO has overstepped the mark by quite some considerable margin. This would make the whole Sony DRM issue pale in comparison. Right now, it is unclear, but would SF protect only SF protected games/products? Or would it end up spotting any "unusual" activity relating to any game/product/media? If I fire up Alcohol 120, will SF reboot my machine? Unknown... If i try to burn a DVD/CD in another application, will SF spot that and make a decision? Unknown... almost certain it will see it, but how/what it decides to act upon is worrying... I keep my game machine as free from cr*p as possible.... no instant messengers, no M$ office, nothing I dont need to play my games and do my videos, and work with my own files/folder/data. If SF in any way prevents me from doing any of this, then I will be mighty p*ssed. If LO:BS is using the new and "improved" starforce, I will think twice about purchasing it... and then I`ll think again. Do I want some high level 3rd party application watching everything I do and then deciding what it needs to do in response? No, I dont think so.... I call that spyware, what about you? (Note: I am expecting my "warn" value to rise, despite the lack of any ranting and raving or abuse in this message).

(Did anyone else, at first glance, read the thread subject as "Irish ECM"?) Guinness anyone? :icon_jook :icon_jook :icon_jook

The Dreyou server had the first web based stats that I was made aware of. (Was there anyone earlier than that?) I think I downloaded the stats code a long while back (like a lot of people), but ran a mile when I saw SQL stuff in it :) It did get me thinking about how they did it, and that thought rumbled around my brain for 6 months or so. Just after I had the server status page implemented with some custom export.lua code piping the mp_log file across to another host, the idea of the stats crept up on me again. It seemed like such an easy project to do, but I oh so under-estimated the complexity of the whole project. The project started as a personal "I am sure I can do this, lets see how it goes..." kind of thing. It took a lot or work, and I had to learn a whole load of new stuff and processes along the way. I am glad I did it, if only for the experience of learning new things. I know Dredd has experienced the same things along the way, and he says he still has a lot more to do and learn before its anywhere near finished, but thats half the fun of a coding project. Its not about what you can do already, its about what you cant do right now, but know it can be done and have to find a way to make it work. I greatly respect Dredd and Fox (and Dodger btw) for them taking the time to "do it themselves", rather than just asking for the code and then whinging/moaning/bitching when I said "no" (not mentioning any names). I hope more people look at doing stats. As mentioned previously in this thread, it gives some kind of history to individual's performances over time, making pilots more careful about when and how they engage others. More thought and tactics, less "AirQuake".

Breadfan, I think you are out of order on this.... dont make yourself look even more of an ass than you have already...

nice find :) I also watched the Pumas in Chad vid http://www.patricksaviation.com/videos.php?action=view&id=406 What would you do if you were driving along, and saw a puma coming at you, 100+ knots, 20 feet AGL... :) (Oh, OK... other than shout "Yeeehhaaaa!! Woohooooo!! Yeah!!! cool! go faster!!! get lower!!!" out of the window...)

yes, dedmac works with v1.12

When was BSO started as a project? (v1.02? Earlier?) How many patches/updates for Lomac has there been since then?