Open Kneeboard for VR and 2d

[edmuss]

Huion 640p here, cost ten quid on ebay.  3D printed a saddle and buckles with an elastic strap so it straps to your thigh like a proper kneeboard, also added a pen holder onto it

[zaelu]

Would it be possible to have the Gazelle tablet in other planes/helicopters?

[westr]

does anybody have a link to a tutorial to show exactly how you set up and link a drawing tablet to this and dcs to use in VR? I watched a vid and the guy said he is using a drawing pad with a stylus pen.

[Ready]

7 hours ago, westr said:

does anybody have a link to a tutorial to show exactly how you set up and link a drawing tablet to this and dcs to use in VR? I watched a vid and the guy said he is using a drawing pad with a stylus pen.

https://openkneeboard.com/how-to/wacom.html

[westr]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:19 AM, Ready said:

https://openkneeboard.com/how-to/wacom.html

Thanks so much. 

[Delta-canard]

First of all, I love Openkneeboard, using the stock kneeboard in VR is really clunky ant this utility is a huge help.

I can live with OKB (never realized the abbreviation was that cool!) crashing easily, I'm not sure if this is an issue of the program or of my installation.

But here's someting strange: when I was doing the training missions in the Harrier, all of the boards were visible in OKB, bow that I started a campaign, I only see the campaign-specific pages (Mission, Briefing etc), but the standard Worksheet doesn't show up and neither do the procedure pages. Also, some pages look slightly different in Openkneeboard and in the stock popup kneeboard. I was able to add some files to Openkneeboard but I don't get why it retrieves anly a part of what should be there automatically.

[actually_fred]

1 hour ago, Delta-canard said:

I can live with OKB (never realized the abbreviation was that cool!) crashing easily, I'm not sure if this is an issue of the program or of my installation.

There are currently no known crashes except when running as administrator which can only be fixed by Microsoft and is generally a bad idea anyway; if you’re not running as administrator sorry it’s complex, but if you follow the steps at https://openkneeboard.com/troubleshooting/crashes-and-freezes.html I might be able to fix whatever you’re encountering, or point you in the right direction.

[Delta-canard]

Thanks! I did try at some point to use a Huion tablet with OpenKneeboard but never managed to actually make the tablet work, with Openkneeboard or otherwise. Might be due to leftovers from that. Anyway, I was more concerned by the pages that wouldn't show up.

[Lt_Jaeger]

If these pages are Lua controlled, they don't show up. Don't know the technical reasons for it but it seems to be impossible to implement in a reasonable manner. 

[actually_fred]

While it would be relatively straightforward for OpenKneeboard to run Lua (and it will probably support some level of Lua scripting in the future), that wouldn't help here: the problem is getting access to the internal DCS/module features that these lua kneeboard pages depend on to work. It would probably require per-module DCS patching, and likely have problems with IC and need frequent per-module updates to keep up with changes in DCS.

[winghunter]

You can use DCS Web Viewer inside of OpenKneeboard. Now we need to hook up a moving map

[VirusAM]

10 hours ago, winghunter said:

You can use DCS Web Viewer inside of OpenKneeboard. Now we need to hook up a moving map

How did you put a browser in openkneeboard?

[winghunter]

32 minutes ago, VirusAM said:

How did you put a browser in openkneeboard?

Just add a new tab.

[Gunslinger22]

Great to see something come in and replace VRK, but does anyone else get warping around their kneeboard in VR? 

 

[skins45]

I'm having an issue where I think I'm missing folders in DCS.  I just did a fresh install and when I get into a mission OR freeflight, it shows these errors.  I looked for each folder and I don't have the \kneeboard folder anywhere in DCS files.  Why would these be missing?

 

[HoneyBadger]

I only started using Open Kneeboard recently. Does it need to be updated to support the Kiowa or can I use it in conjunction with that aircraft now? I made a "OH-58D" folder in Saved Games\DCS.openbeta\Kneeboard and put PNG's into it but they aren't showing up in Open Kneeboard.

I noticed Open Kneeboard did have an update recently; was that for the OH-58?

Edited June 7, 2024 by HoneyBadger

[darkman222]

As far as I know Open Kneeboard is not module specific. You can even use it in MSFS.

[HoneyBadger]

20 hours ago, darkman222 said:

As far as I know Open Kneeboard is not module specific. You can even use it in MSFS.

I got it to work. The folder was meant to be "OH58D" without the dash.

[Sprool]

Im really interested in trying to make this work in VR as a mixed reality magenta pass-through area, similar to the guy on the A-10 warthog project. Unfortunately I think I need a step-by-step walkthrough to make sure I have the correct opacity settings (in both VirtualDesktop and OpenKneeboard) as well as nudging the correct overlay area into the VR cockpit position - every time I switch out of DCS VR it tends to crash on me.

Is there a step-through guide I could access? Ive scoured the youtube channels and the openkneeboard website but not found what im after.

[Sprool]

3 hours ago, Sprool said:

Im really interested in trying to make this work in VR as a mixed reality magenta pass-through area, similar to the guy on the A-10 warthog project. Unfortunately I think I need a step-by-step walkthrough to make sure I have the correct opacity settings (in both VirtualDesktop and OpenKneeboard) as well as nudging the correct overlay area into the VR cockpit position - every time I switch out of DCS VR it tends to crash on me.

Is there a step-through guide I could access? Ive scoured the youtube channels and the openkneeboard website but not found what im after.

Never mind - Ive had more time to play and got it working

[Habu_69]

2 hours ago, Sprool said:

Never mind - Ive had more time to play and got it working

Your procedure might benefit others.

[Sprool]

Good point First I must say Im not using it as a kneeboard at all but as a passthrough mask so I can see my real keyboard thru the mask when flying in VR, saves me trying to peer under the headset to see if my findgers are on the right keys.

I'm assuming you already have the game and file pathways correct when installing OpenKneeboard. Im using a Quest 3 running Virtualdesktop as the streamer between headset and PC. Do not use SteamVR, do not use Meta Quest Airlink.

For the Spitfire I drew a letterbox mask with colour R255, G0, B255 and a transparent background,  saved as a phg file instide saved games/kneeboard/SputfireLFMkIX.

It works same (I think) for any of the aircraft as long as you create a folder for them with full correct name inside the Kneeboards folder. I am sing the same mask in every plane. I called it something catchy like OK_Passthru.png, but the name is irrelevant.

In OpenKneeboard Settings, Virtual Rality, I set size to 0.60m, height to 1.05m, then set a keybinding to recentre - same keypress as I use to recentre the VR view. Also set a keypress or control button press to toggle the kneeboard on/off.

I set vertical distance from eye level as 0.55m, Left-to-Right position at 0.00 (so its centred) and forward position to 0.60m. You have to play around with this a bit to get the 'passthrough letterbox' to coincide with where the physical PC keyboard is sitting on your desktop.

Pitch, Roll, Yaw I leave alone.

In-Game UI Header, footer, bookmrks cropped - I set to off. Gaze Zoom  set to Off.

Opacity when looking at the kneeboard = maximum on the slider, when not looking at the kneeboard = also maximum.

Click the Aircraft icon before starting DCS. (not sure if thats essential...) but you need it on Aircraft icon to show the passthrough mask in virtual cockpit.

Now in VirtualDesktop app, go to Streaming option, VR passthrough, tick Environment, settings. Set passthrough configuration to Red: 255 Green : 0 Blue: 255

I set similarity to 10%, smoothness to 5% but I have no idea if these are optimal or not at this stage.

Set Passthrough Opacity to 100%, show boundary = No.

Now when you go into DCS in VR and select the Spitfire, you shoudl get a transparent letterbox with a magenta border inside your VR cockpit, and you shoudl be able to see your real desktop through the passthrough. Then its a case of manipulating the position within OpenKneeboard to get the desired position.

If anyone knows how to get rid of the magenta border, please let me know.

If anyone has better understanding of the smoothness and similarity do share!

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2024 by Sprool

[sleighzy]

On 12/22/2024 at 11:18 AM, Sprool said:

If anyone knows how to get rid of the magenta border, please let me know.

There is apparently a fix in the latest v1.9.12 beta release for this you can download. Additional comment here re: config setting that can also be updated that may help: https://github.com/OpenKneeboard/OpenKneeboard/issues/658#issuecomment-2395163358

[Sprool]

7 hours ago, sleighzy said:

There is apparently a fix in the latest v1.9.12 beta release for this you can download. Additional comment here re: config setting that can also be updated that may help: https://github.com/OpenKneeboard/OpenKneeboard/issues/658#issuecomment-2395163358

Thanks for posting but not working for me, I have latest v1.9.12 beta installed, Im not getting headers and footers but just the magenta box outline, no matter what settings I have in the advanced options as well as the VR-per view setitngs

Edited December 23, 2024 by Sprool

[Indyplumber]

Any idea how to get the normandy map to show on open kneeboard?