Bunny's Apache Helios Touchscreen Profile

[Bunny Clark]

Now that Helios has native support for the Apache module, I figured I'd make a thread for this by itself. 

This new version of my Helios profile does not require a custom Interface. Simply copy the Profile and Images into your folder and it'll work. 

Requires Helios version 1.6.5305.0.

Download here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3322990/

Includes a Pilot and CPG pit with MFDs, EUFD, KU, Master Armament Panel, Master Caution Panel, Lighting Panel, Video Panel, Tailwheel Panel, and a toggleable Comms Panel. I've also included bonus panels for the Engine Control Panel, Windshield Wiper Panel, Fire Warning Panel, and CMWS which are hidden and unused by default but fully mapped and functional if you'd like to unhide them and place them.

[sobe]

Bunny Clark

Thanks for this great profile.  Of course I could not leave well enough alone, so I extended/modified your profile as follows:

As I have a 3rd monitor, I put the Pilot MFDs, EUFD and CMWS all on the 3rd monitor.  I kept the CPG stuff and some of the remaining Pilot panels on my 2nd monitor.  This enables me to switch between seats while in game and be able to see both sets of MFDs.  As I mainly fly as the CPG, the double sets of MFDs are not a big deal.

I added your bonus panels and inserted show/hide buttons on the lower right of my 1st monitor.

I have some issues with the KU when switching between seats so I added a clear button command when I switch seats.

Finally, I have one remaining issue.  When I push your Plt/Cpg button in the lower right corner, I would also like the pit in my 1st monitor to change from the Pilot to CPG and when I push it again, it would change from cpg to pilot.  I tried just adding a combination of send keys added to your button, but it didn't work the way I wanted it to.  Any thoughts?  Solved the problem by making the button two separate buttons and then adding the appropriate numbers 1 or 2.

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by sobe
problem solved

[Bunny Clark]

On 7/4/2022 at 2:21 PM, sobe said:

When I push your Plt/Cpg button in the lower right corner, I would also like the pit in my 1st monitor to change from the Pilot to CPG and when I push it again, it would change from cpg to pilot.  I tried just adding a combination of send keys added to your button, but it didn't work the way I wanted it to.  Any thoughts? 

Yah, I messed around with doing exactly that myself a while ago and couldn't get it to work reliably either. In Helios everything is a toggle, while in DCS it's an explicit command, and getting those to sync up just causes problems, then if they get out of sync it's all screwed. I also settled on using two different buttons.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Bunny Clark

[choco8]

Sorry for the dumb question but can I confirm that for this new profile to have the exported screens we still need to follow the instructions in your forum posts here?

The difference being that we won't need to swap between monitor config files in DCS World setup options between Apache and the other modules?

It is late here and I've just confused myself. For me I have the latest Helios, the DCS Apache profile is installed as per the read me, the sim reacts but the viewports are not exported for the Apache but work for everything else. 

Thank you and all the others for plugging away at this and I hope ED fix this in coming updates. Great work.

[Bunny Clark]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:47 PM, choco8 said:

Sorry for the dumb question but can I confirm that for this new profile to have the exported screens we still need to follow the instructions in your forum posts here?

Correct. The profile uses Helios to create the touch screen control interface. The actual MFD displays are done within DCS. Unfortunately, nothing in Helios allows us to bypass the broken AH-64 displays, and all the limitations I mention in the display export guide are still a thing.

[choco8]

You're a wonderful person, it works a treat. Thank you.

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by choco8

[PierPaolo]

Hello
Thank you for your work.
I am having a problem with the new version of Helios Release 1.6.5305.2.
I install as you indicate in the Readme.txt file, but in the pilot station the viewports of the CPG MFDs are seen, and in the Helios.lua file of the Configmonitor the 2 MFDs (Pilot and CPG) do not appear to be able to comment on the one of the CPG (As we did in previous versions of your profile for Apache).
I am very frustrated. I hadn't taken Apache for 2 months and now I need the helios profile that I can't get it to work.

[Bunny Clark]

New version, with a redesign inspired by our new switching MFD export capability.

The Pilot EUFD moved to be in the same place as the CPG EUFD, since they will both always render. This is designed to have only one of the EUFDs exported into the window, so you'll only see the EUFD for one seat, regardless of which on you're in. Since the EUFDs don't toggle like the MFDs do right now, this is the only sensible solution I could come up with. 

Download link is the same as above: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3322990/

 

[sobe]

Bunny

Setting up your new profile and I have some questions.

First, do I just use the pilot Keyboard viewport for both cockpits?

Second, is there a viewport export for the CMWS?  This panel appears over the right mfcd.  I was able to do a viewport for the CMWS and the flare and chaff count does appear over the MFCD.  I guess you either have to live with the flare and chaff overlay on the MFCD or delete the CMWS viewport.

Edited August 7, 2022 by sobe

[Bunny Clark]

On 8/7/2022 at 2:45 PM, sobe said:

First, do I just use the pilot Keyboard viewport for both cockpits?

Yes, DCS only has a single export display for the KU scratchpad. 

Quote

Second, is there a viewport export for the CMWS?  This panel appears over the right mfcd.  I was able to do a viewport for the CMWS and the flare and chaff count does appear over the MFCD.  I guess you either have to live with the flare and chaff overlay on the MFCD or delete the CMWS viewport.

Yup, unfortunately at the moment only the TEDAC display will turn off when not in the correct seat, everything else will stay on all the time. 

I don't use the CMWS panel in my layout, so there isn't a good place for it by default. If you want to use it in yours you'll probably want to do some rearranging or hide other panels that you don't want. 

[Derbroomaster]

Hello there. If anyone has a .lua for the viewport exports to a 1920 x 1080 screen they could share, I'd greatly appreciate it. I have had no luck figuring out the export myself. Otherwise, this screen is very cool!

[Bunny Clark]

7 hours ago, Derbroomaster said:

 I have had no luck figuring out the export myself.

Have you read through this guide? 

 

 

To build a export .lua for you, I'd need to know the resolution of your other monitors and their arrangement.

[Derbroomaster]

Repeatedly, yes. Something must not be registering for me. 

[Bunny Clark]

9 hours ago, Derbroomaster said:

Repeatedly, yes. Something must not be registering for me. 

What's your monitor arrangement look like?

[Derbroomaster]

On 8/20/2022 at 1:14 AM, Bunny Clark said:

What's your monitor arrangement look like?

3x 1920 x 1080 monitors stitched into 1 using nVidia control panel, then another 1920 x 1080 touchscreen below (Monitor 2).

[Bunny Clark]

1 hour ago, Derbroomaster said:

3x 1920 x 1080 monitors stitched into 1 using nVidia control panel, then another 1920 x 1080 touchscreen below (Monitor 2).

Got it. I'm betting the horizontal position is incorrect in your monitor config then. How do you have the touchscreen aligned in Windows? Do you know how many pixels are in between the leftmost edge of your primary display and the leftmost edge of the touchscreen?

[Derbroomaster]

On 8/22/2022 at 5:58 PM, Bunny Clark said:

Got it. I'm betting the horizontal position is incorrect in your monitor config then. How do you have the touchscreen aligned in Windows? Do you know how many pixels are in between the leftmost edge of your primary display and the leftmost edge of the touchscreen?

Here's what the setup looks like to Windows. 2 is primary. There is no perceptible gap between 2 and 1.

[Bunny Clark]

5 hours ago, Derbroomaster said:

Here's what the setup looks like to Windows.

Yup, that's exactly what I figured. 

Based on the monitor config you posted in the other thread, you're placing your MFD screens 45 and 800 pixels from the left edge of the rendered space - which means from the left edge of Monitor 2. Change the x values in your monitor config to 1965 and 2720 and you should see them.

[hreich]

Do i have to manually disable copilot or pilot export manually editing lua file,  or does this profile work so i can switch from pilot/gunner station without editing lua file?

Are there a problem with ghosting on tedac screen like in previous versions? 

[Bunny Clark]

On the current Open Beta and Stable builds LEFT_MFCD and RIGHT_MFCD will switch to show either the Pilot's or CPG's screens depending on which seat you are in. 

The TEDAC ghosting problem has not been fixed yet.

[Floyd1212]

Question:  Can we now have a pair (left and right) of MFD bezels in our Helios profile that directs the button presses to the correct MFD based on which seat we are occupying, or was that fix in a recent patch only to have the correct display export track the correct seat?

In other words, do I still need to have a pair of bezels defined for the PLT, and a different pair defined for the CPG, and one is hidden while the other is displayed?

[Bunny Clark]

On 9/4/2022 at 3:45 PM, Floyd1212 said:

In other words, do I still need to have a pair of bezels defined for the PLT, and a different pair defined for the CPG, and one is hidden while the other is displayed?

Monitor exports from DCS will switch depending on what seat you're occupying, but button presses in Helios are still bound to specific buttons in the cockpit. So you'll still need 4 MFDs, and switch back and forth hiding two of them.

[anzac]

Hi Bunny. May I ask a stupid question?

I am trying to get your profile to work. I have the latest Helios, and followed your instructions to place Images and Profile in the Documents\Helios\etc folders. I then open Helios Profile Editor as directed, open your profile and do a Monitor Reset (here, I have to manually tell it to place the content from Screen 3 to m Monitor two (HP Touchscreen) otherwise it automatically places it on my main screen Monitor 1: not sure why? I thought it would automatically select the correct touchscreen?). That all seems ok.

I save, open in Helios Control Centre, and then go into DCS and I launch the game. Nothing: no viewports are being exported, so just black screen backgrounds your profile on my touch screen. The buttons all work and change the right buttons in the main screen cockpit. Just no exporting of the viewports.

I am using the Helios monitor config file in the Settings and that works fine for F-18, A 10c and other Helios profiles. But it does not seem to work for your profile? I re-checked your installation instructions that came with the profile and there is no mention of having to put in a special Monitor Config file to use with your Helios profile. I assume it just works with the latest Helios and your profile given no special instructions to that effect.    

But have I done something wrong? Can you help me get your profile to export the necessary viewports? 

Thank you.

Apoll   

[Bunny Clark]

3 hours ago, anzac said:

But have I done something wrong? Can you help me get your profile to export the necessary viewports? 

Nope, I just didn't make further steps clear. When I built this profile DCS display exports for the Apache were a hot mess and Helios didn't natively support display patching for the Apache either, so I just did everything manually. 

Now DCS display exports for the Apache are less dumb, and Helios has native display export support for the Apache, so I could revisit this to add display export support to the Helios profile, but in its current state it does not exist. 

You can learn all you need to about setting up your display config manually, including the quirks of the Apache that persist, here: 

 

Or you can delve into adding display export patching to the Helios profile yourself, which isn't too hard, but will still require some knowledge about how the Apache display exports specifically work. 

 

[anzac]

Thanks Bunny. Um...not sure where to go from here. I'll read the above but if we're back to the bad old days of manually writing monitor config files and measuring out screen coordinates, I might wait and hope someone updates their profile and use that. I certainly don' expect anyone to do that but I'll just leave it and see.

But thank you very much for replying, very much appreciated.

Apoll