Jump to content

New Loupedeck Plugin

wombat778
 Share

Recommended Posts

wombat778

wombat778

Posted
Posted (edited)

EDIT:  Version 0.5 released here: 

 

-------

Hey all,

I picked up a Loupedeck Live about a week ago, and have managed to write a plugin to make it useful as a controller in DCS.  I plan on releasing it shortly, but would appreciate first if there is anyone out there who might have a Loupedeck and be interested in testing it first and giving feedback.

A couple of notes:

  1. The plugin is currently one-way, as it simply allows the Loupedeck to act as a joystick and send DX button presses. It is not capable of taking information from DCS.  A small advantage of this approach is that no DCS plugins or modifications are needed -- simply set it up like any other controller in DCS
  2. The plugin is capable of sending 128 DX buttons, 8 DX axes, and 16 POV hat input directions.
  3. Multiple different types of toggles are supported (On-Off, On-On, On-Off-On, On-On-On), with both button hold and pulsed modes
  4. Axes can be controlled either smoothly by the dials or in discrete steps using button presses
  5. Custom labels on buttons and toggles are possible, though the process is a little cumbersome
  6. The plugin integrates with the rest of the Loupedeck software, so built-in Loupedeck commands such as keyboard shortcuts, widgets and macros can be used at the same time. Multiple different pages of commands are available

Here is an image of the Loupedeck with the plugin in action.

If anyone is interested in testing, please shoot me a message and I'll get you set up.

 

Picture1.jpg


Edited by wombat778
Version 0.5 released
  • Like 6
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
wombat778

wombat778

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi all,

I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA on this! First I had PC trouble that put my development machine out of action, then had surgery. I’m going to boot things back up again and try to get a development build out here in the next few days. 
 

Again my apologies!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wombat778

wombat778

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Alright folks, here is a VERY preliminary test version of the plugin.  It does not have a lot of quality of life stuff like error checking etc.  Now that I'm back up and running I plan to flesh it out.  PLEASE do NOT use this except for testing purposes and please report feedback here:

Instructions:

  1. First, install vJoy from here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vjoystick/ .  If you already use vJoy on your system there is no need to reinstall it.  However, this plugin is currently hardcoded to use the first vJoy device so it may create conflicts with other devices that use vJoy.  Allowing changing of the vJoy device is next up on my list
  2. Set up the first vJoy device per the attached screenshot
  3. Unpack the attached zip file into \AppData\Local\Loupedeck in your home folder
  4. Start up the latest version of the Loupedeck app and click the little settings slider on the right-hand pane.  Hopefully you will see the GameControl plugin.  You might have to tick the little eye icon to make it show.
  5. From there you should be able to use the commands from the GameControl plugin like any other commands and mix and match with built in functions. Hopefully the names of the commands are fairly self-explanatory but happy to explain if not.  Note that the numbers in the various command names refer to the DX button(s) that will be sent when the command is activated
  6. I have also built an optional (and clunky) functionality to add custom labels to commands. To do this:
    1. first navigate to \AppData\Local\Loupedeck\PluginData
    2. Open CommandList.txt and identify the internal names of the commands that you want to assign labels to.  I suggest copying them into notepad so you are sure you get the spelling exactly right
    3. Next, open LabelList.txt and add a new line for each label in the following format: "<Command Name>|<Label Test>|<Label Color>". 
    4. For example, if you wanted to make the toggle the command "Toggles (On-Off):Toggle 1-Off" be named "Landing Gear" in Green, you would add the following line to LabelList.txt "Toggles (On-Off):Toggle 1-Off | Landing Gear | Green".  I have included on example command for reference, which you can feel free to delete
    5. You likely need to restart the LoupeDeck service to make the labels activate.

Please report any problems/questions!

 

Screenshot 2022-11-20 185148.png

Wombat LoupeDeck Gamecontrol Plugin v 0.1.zip


Edited by wombat778
  • Like 3
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
FlyTrapster

FlyTrapster

Posted
Posted

Tried as described above but the plugin would not load in LoupeDeck Software version 5.3.1.14222.

 

The logfile complained that there was no .yaml file

Any chance this can be compiled as an lp4 or lp5 plugin so that it can be imported directly into Loupedeck? I've not looked at the github files yet

 

Thanks 🙂

Just now, FlyTrapster said:

Tried as described above but the plugin would not load in LoupeDeck Software version 5.3.1.14222.

 

The logfile complained that there was no .yaml file

Any chance this can be compiled as an lp4 or lp5 plugin so that it can be imported directly into Loupedeck? I've not looked at the github files yet

 

Thanks 🙂

correction - just noticed the source files you mentioned were for vJoy and not for this plugin!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FlyTrapster

FlyTrapster

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, wombat778 said:

I’m not sure I fully understand what the error is. Can you please post the excerpt of the log file?

Here are the relevant lines from the debug log:

2022-11-22T17-47-45-3119 |   1 | TRACE | Loading secondary plugins
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3169 |   1 | TRACE | Loading secondary plugin from 'C:\Users\Andy\AppData\Local\Loupedeck\Plugins\GameControl'
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3169 |   1 | WARN  | Text file does not exist: 'C:\Users\Andy\AppData\Local\Loupedeck\Plugins\GameControl\LoupedeckPackage.yaml'
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3218 |   1 | TRACE | Loading plugin 'C:\Users\Andy\AppData\Local\Loupedeck\Plugins\GameControl\GameControlPlugin.dll'
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3238 |   1 | WARN  | Plugin 'GameControlPlugin.dll' version '5.2.1.13078' had crashed before
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3238 |   1 | ERROR | Plugin 'GameControlPlugin.dll' is disabled as it had crashed before
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3278 |   1 | ERROR | Disabled plugin 'GameControl'
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3278 |   1 | ERROR | Plugin 'GameControl' added to disabled plugins list
2022-11-22T17-47-45-3278 |   1 | ERROR | Secondary plugin not loaded

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
JEFX

JEFX

Posted
Posted

Hi Wombat

I just bought the Loupedeck Live a few weeks ago and for now I use it for MSFS (it is great to be able to operate all the autopilot functions with rotaries instead of the stupid mouse!!!), there is a nice plugin for MSFS.  I would be very interested if you give the go to try your profile in DCS... my goal though is not really a controller.. I do have all the nice HOTAS necessary, but rather I would dream to use it for dialing in the course or the altimeter, or even dimming the lights, things like that (in VR, anything that one doesnt have to reach with the mouse is great, and the Loupedeck rotaries are easy to use without having to look).  DO you think it is feasible (I have no idea how to program the thing... )???

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

In DCS I fly jets with thousands of pounds of thrust...

In real life I fly a humble Cessna Hawx XP II with 210 HP :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
Thx1137

Thx1137

Posted
Posted

Hey Wombat, Any chance you can put the code for this on Github?

I'm getting my Loupedeck today and I may, or may not, want to do some code for it myself for DCS and other sims. It would be great if we could reuse each others work 🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thx1137

Thx1137

Posted
Posted

The plugin works great but I have one request. We can have 7 pages of buttons/encoders so a fantastic change would be allow setting the VJoy number in the Option field. This way we can have up to 47 encoders not to mention more buttons than we'd ever need! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
wombat778

wombat778

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi thx, thanks for the feedback!  Including the vJoy number in the option field may be tricky because of the way vJoy opens devices, but I am happy to look. 

So, I'm going to confess that I have never actually set up a Github repository before and haven't got the foggiest idea what's involved (I'm an old school -- and just old -- programmer).  That said, I'm more than happy to share the source code and/or let you put it up on github if helpful!  Just let me know

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Thx1137

Thx1137

Posted
Posted

Thanks Wombat! I'm a recently retired programmer myself. I've been doing it since ~1989 🙂 

I can create an account for you and upload it if you like. 

Adding to Github should be easy. But then isn't everything when you already know how... Based on my last workplace's local git repo it should be something like:

1. Create an account.
2. Create the project.
3. Create a local Git repo for your project and add all the solutions files (make sure there is no "bin" or "obj" folders being added to the repo).
4. Set the local projects remote Git address to the repo created in step 2.
5. Commit the files (this adds the changes to the Git repo) and push (which uploads the files to the remote repo).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
Thx1137

Thx1137

Posted
Posted

Hey @tanr, @wombat778

Yesterday I added support for being able to override the vJoy id in a Loupedeck profile button so now the number of buttons and axis is pretty much unlimited. It is a little cumbersome but there isn't much we can do about that.

I've just created a GitHub repo. Wombat, let me know if you have any problems with it. If you want admin access I probably need your email address so you can DM me that if you like.

I've never created a GitHub repo or published a Loupedeck plugin before so hopefully I got it right 🙂  If either or both of you can try installing it and let me know if any issues that would be great (maybe a DM). The repo is at https://github.com/Thx1010saascas/GameControlPlugin

I will put my DCS icons in another repo soon with a few step by step instructions. That should provide a mini tutorial though I've only used the most basic functions myself so it is pretty simple.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
nick_thain

nick_thain

Posted
Posted (edited)

Gudday @wombat778, @Thx1137,

I am loving this plugin, finally I can use my Loupedeck and its rotary dials with DCS. The axes and buttons are working well, but I'm having the same issue as @Ehrenfelder, the syntax that @Thx1137 wrote for the 'Encoder' and 'Encoder via Button Press' is throwing back an 'Unknown Option' from Loupedeck. I've copy/pasted it straight from the Github page.

Any ideas on this, has the sytax maybe changed as @Ehrenfelder asked above?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Cheers, Nick

EDIT: I downloaded and haver been using the 0.5 version from this forum thread that @wombat778 posted Feb 27, I've just now downloaded the file from @Thx1137's Github site, I'll try that and post back results here..


Edited by nick_thain
Added missing information
Link to comment
Share on other sites
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...