mhe

This is indeed great news! I've been using SoftTH for some time now and it is definitively a really nice thing to have, never fly without it these days. But when EDGE comes, we might face some problems (DX10/11). Features I would dream of (really dreaming, don't know if the things I list below are entirely possible): 1.) DX10 and DX11 support 2.) Taking full advantage of PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth (afaik nVidia drivers only do 2.0 at the moment) 3.) Being able to use a SLI/Crossfire phalanx of graphics cards as the rendering device and being able to connect the screens in a more or less random fashion. E.g. running a 3-SLI rig where all the screens are connected to the first card (which is against nVidias own setup guides, I know). 4.) Synchronous Vsync across all screens 5.) No (or little) performance drop when rendering on discrete card(s) but outputting via onboard VGA 6.) Perhaps even mixing GPUs even against vendor guidelines (like this Lucidlogix thingie that can use AMD and nVidia GPUs in Crossfire/SLI with each other if I remember correctly) 7.) Perhaps hook in via the graphics driver itself instead of patching game DirectX DLLs 8.) Profile Manager/GUI with pre-set profiles for titles, perhaps the community can help with that by giving them the opportunity to upload profiles via the GUI to Immersaview If the guys at Immersaview ask themselves what people would pay, I'd be perfectly content with paying up to 100 USD for a tool that delivers all of the above (if technically possible of course). After all, this seems to be no small task and Kegetys should continue to receive donations for all the groundwork he's done. But we need to make Immersaview aware of the possible economic viability of this. A SoftTH that can do the things stated above would also be tremendously nice for professional simulator building, so the big bucks could be made in this field. Thales, CAE and all the other bigwigs in professional simulation would pay big bucks for that I suppose as framerate tests under a whole load of scenarios are actually required by law to get simulators certified for training. Not an easy feat given the need to drive a lot of displays at once, although they are lucky enough to have networked visuals. But removing the need for multiple rendering machines and being able to put it all in one rig would make the architecture much more simple and cost-effective.

Nice to see a fellow Austrian Obutto user! :thumbup:

It's not possible to remove it without seriously taking the screen apart. I've taken off the rear panel because I was wondering about the same thing, but the rear support leg is actually screwed from the front, so you would have to remove the panel from its housing in order to get to the screws holding the leg in place. I therefore decided to leave it as it is.

This with a Leap Motion controller will be a nerdgasm for sure...

You could perhaps bypass that problem by using a mouse? Almost everything can be done with the mouse apart from views etc.

Hope they will come out with a FullHD version after the initial release. This combined with a Leap motion controller could very well be the simulation nirvana I was dreaming of for the last 15 years.

Hi! I'm also considering an upgrade to the R3volution, it is superior in almost any aspect. It is possible to play every other game apart from simulations without any problems. It feels much better than a regular desk. It took about 4 weeks until it arrived, but this depends very much on how the shipments from Asia arrive at the European distributor's store. The guy is named Tiago and he is very nice, contact him and ask him if you like. :)

That will help a lot of people out there, rep inbound! :)

I for one could see such things as a payable addon. With DCS world, modularity is the name of the game. Also, the decision to offer paid modules has been made. So if the developers from ED are too busy to do something like this, why not make a TS-independent module as a paid third-party thing? The ED guys already provide us with an unbelievable amount of complexity and content given the prices of their products, I for myself would have a hard time demanding even more of them for free. Perhaps some of the BMS guys would be interested to port their working IVC to the DCS engine. Might even get paid good money for doing it. :) I really admire what Headspace has done with TARS, but relying on external programs is always a bit of a hassle. Version conflicts, configuration etc. Simple drop-in package in DCS would be much more comfortable. Combine that with a modular audio architecture (which could only from ED themselves I suppose) where I can configure which sound gets played by which output device and we're right up there with the capabilities of multi-million simulators. I have great hopes for the future of DCS with the modules - it just needs to be a bit more usable than tweaking a lot of LUA files.

Very nice craftsmanship right there! I especially like the "sorry/np" switch! :D

You can place the viewports any way you want, given you get to grip with the LUA magic needed. Just to be clear, Helios only provides the touch interface, which is overlaid onto exports of DCS itself. The MFCDs are very nice to have as touch controls. You could also get yourself some Thrustmaster MFCD frames, put them over the 17inch non-touch and use Helios on the touchscreen for everything else. :)

Not in its current state. The vertical pipe where the center stick would normally be inserted is long enough to be about level with the seating surface on its upper end. But it shouldn't be a problem to build yourself a small mounting platform for the stick base and fix it to the point where you normally mount the original stick pipe. The original stick mount simply is held by the screws that also hold the front and aft lower frames of the build together. Problem that could arise is an awkwardly forward stick position. The seating surface hasn't got a cutout in the stick are, so the longer stick might interfere with that. I considered such a mod for a short while, but once I had the original mount cut to exactly fit the Warthog, I didn't bother anymore because it's very comfortable as it is and it also allows very precise stick inputs. Workaround could be to use a curved stick extension so that it clears the seat and can also be positioned where you want it. Or use another seat - as far as I know the space between the seating rails should be a normed measurement, meaning you could replace the seat with another model, perhaps one with the cutout for the stick.

I have never used a playseat setup, but I can assure you that the Obuttos are built like tanks. 2,8mm thick carbon steel for everything. The only thing are some tolerances in the parts, for example it took me some time to get the screen arms properly aligned, but once everything is set up, stability-wise it leaves nothing to be desired.

Thanks, I already considered getting the 7970, but I though I'd wait for the GK110 GPUs which should be out in Autumn. Problem is that I really really want to use all the screens for exports and Helios together. If I wouldn't want some exports on all the screens, I'd simply slap in a second card and be done with it. But from what I've read so far in the SLI/Crossfire threads, performance in Crossfire drops dramatically if the screens are not all connected to the same card. Not sure how things are with SLI though. My next card should be an nVidia again since they offer the same features as Eyefinitiy now with the new 30x drivers.

Thanks, Taipan! :) Gadroc, thanks a lot! Without you and Loz this pit wouldn't be what it is today... :worthy: I knew about the almost-zero performance hit if running from a separate graphics card, the problem is I would really love to have the side screens as real as it gets - CDU screen, UHF channel display, simply everything. As far as I know, performance drops severely as soon as DCS has to render across multiple card outputs (see the SLI/crossfire problems elsewhere). What wouldn't I do for DCS to make networked display rendering possible... :music_whistling:

No problem, I'm rather thankful for all the input! ;) I really dig Helios because of all the intuitive functions like gestures to use all the switches and dials. Swiping etc is far superior to emulating left and right clicks all the time for me. But the 3D pit sure is where it's at in terms of looks, I'll give you that... :D But the 3D Pit on touchscreen gives me ideas for some problems I've had so far with other sims getting to work properly with the touch interface, thanks! :thumbup:

PeterP: Thanks for all the infos, I'll look into it. The stretched elements in the menu GUI are a bit uncomfortable. But really bothersome is only the extremely stretched Kneepad overlay when starting a mission. I can barely recognize the close buttons on that one. Does this fix of yours interfere with the Clickable Radio Mod? I'm kinda curious because in your config file, the UI Main View is also changed (if I remember correctly, I have that one on "main"). I kinda like the complete panel in the top screen. I use TrackIR, so I tend to look at the indications in the 3D screen unless I have to push a button, then I look down to the touchscreen. I even modified the render_purpose variables so the info is displayed on both the top and the bottom screen. But perhaps I'll like the new few better once I tried it, I'll sure give it a shot. :) Pikey: Thank you! :smilewink: The stick mount already faced the wrath of coffee spill prior to being cut to shape, hence the stains... :lol:

Thanks! :D I'm already considering adding 2 more touchscreens on the sides, but so far finding a decent 6-port Single-GPU card has proven problematic. The few available are simply too weak in terms of processing power and memory, so I think I'll have to wait for GK110 and hope somebody will make a 6-screen version with 4GB+ on it. Also, I'm wondering how i should mount the screens on the sides. To use the same arms seems like the obvious thing to do, but I haven't figured out how to mount them to the frame yet. The wall mount plate is a bit higher than the space between the bottom seat surface and the floor, so this option doesn't seem like one. Any ideas? :ermm:

The arm is about 9 months old, so far no problems. I tightened every screw I could find on it when installing and it has held up fine. I have read a lot of reviews on screen mounting arms prior to purchase. From what I read, I'm pretty confident that the thing will hold up for a very long time...

Was it that obvious? :music_whistling: Already downloaded and will get into it ASAP. Sorry for the somewhat redundant question. ;)

I have used it on several occasions for MS flight sim to make the CDU more comfortable to use. The mixed reviews seem to come from some performance issues. When used with MSFS, the frame rate drops dramatically once you move an undocked panel completely to it. The trick is to let 1 row of pixels remain on the main, 3D accelerated screen. Once the content doesn't use any screen space on the fast main screens, it is offloaded to the puny software VGA that the AirDisplay service creates, resulting in massive framerate drops. Can't comment on any DCS uses for now since I've gotten myself a dedicated touchscreen for that some while ago.

That must be one of the dirtiest but yet impressive hardware hacks I have ever seen! :thumbup::thumbup:

I used a rather unconventional way to create my pit, it should lend itself to many purposes from work to playing FPS games up to a really nice sim solution. After a lot of research I came up with the idea that an Obutto pit will suit my needs if I mod it a bit. Of course it's nowhere near as impressive as some of the projects that can be seen here, but I'm still a bit proud of it, given I have very little space to work with and don't have access to workshops or many of the tools I'd like to have access to... Here are a few pics of the pit's evolution into what it is today. The box arrives! Unpacking... All unwrapped First somewhat basic build... Then came the triple screens :D Simple DIY speaker mounts: Front with speakers Ready to mod the stick platform... Warthog mounted, rock solid Some time later, I added a touchscreen, it simply stood on the small table :doh: After some time I got fed up with the touchscreen on the table, a more practical solution had to be found, also the viewing angle with the TN panel was really bad, so I created a mounting solution... Now everything was where I want it, touchscreen adjustable around all axes with an Ergotron LX arm mounted to the wooden plate fixed to the vertical bars. When not in use, the touchscreen can be hidden behind the mounting plate. It only takes a minute to transform the pit into a pretty decent working and "normal" gaming table. Looks like this when not simming: And in the end, to tidy things up, I mounted some power splitters on the rear side of the wooden plate. And to spare myself from having to crawl back behind my rather big computer case everytime I want to connect a yoke for example (doing civilian simming as well from time to time), I put a USB hub directly behind the front speaker. Hope you like it, folks! :thumbup: Greetings from Austria :smilewink:

I haven't installed World. Yet. But I plan to do so next week, this week I don't have time to play around with new simming toys because of my work schedule. :( But thanks for the link, I think I understand it better now. :thumbup:

Thanks! Some good news. So what about having to update World itself? Might there be the scenario of having to wipe it completely and doing a reinstall of all the modules including messing around with all the config files? My setup is fairly complex and having to reinstall a module or even World itself is something I'd like to avoid if given any chance to do so. Of course texture mods, skins, scenery etc are global for all modules. I'm only concerned about having to tweak everything to suit my hardware.