Kneeboard Question

[dburne]

Hey gang,

I am putting this here as it relates to my using a Kneeboard in VR. One thing I like to do is put procedures in there, for instance cold start procedure, for refering whilst in my headset. Or how to program a specific bomb.

I have been using Kneeboard Builder in the past with good success. I also had started using OpenKneeboard as well with success. Now all of a sudden everthing is garbled - by everythign I mean all the text in the kneeboard that I put in is gargled and recognizable. And it appears the same in both Kneeboard Builder and OpenKneeboard.

Anyone else run across anything like this and have any idea what might have occurred to cause it? Any tips appreciated as I really need it to function during my learning process and being able to reference to it in VR.

Edited April 15, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

On second thought I am wondering if it has anything to do with my running in Open XR now along with DFR/eye tracking with my Aero.

I will have to check it out later, test it in Steam VR and see if the kneeboard is legible then.

Edited April 15, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

Well tried it with Open VR Steam VR and the kneeboard pages are still just a garbled mess. They have literally became useless for me - both those created in Open Kneeboard and Kneeboard Builder.

No one else having an issue with custom kneeboard pages displaying properly? Going to be hard for me to fly DCS when I can not reference my custom kneeboard pages.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

For some reason Open Kneeboard is working fine today, all text legible/ Kneeboard Builder is not, so not sure what is going on there or why Open Kneeboard started displaying properly today <scratching head>.

Very puzzling.

[actually_fred]

>  I mean all the text in the kneeboard
 

• Are images fine?
• What about mission briefings in OpenKneeboard?
• Could you try a chuck's guide or DCS manual PDF - do you have the same problem?
• Could you share a screenshot e.g. of the steamvr mirror window (not the DCS mirror window)?

This sounds like a windows encoding/locale change, and the questions above are to try and confirm that - OpenKneeboard in particular requires files are UTF-8; another option would be missing or corrupted fonts.  OpenKneeboard requires:

• Segoe UI
• Segoe MDL2 Assets
• Consolas

These should all be included with windows

[dburne]

Well it was working but now is back to garbled text. Only texts within the custom pdf I insert , like for instance start up routine for the Mossie. Images are fine, briefings are fine.

Going to try blowing out the install and try a fresh install of Open Kneeboard. But again the same happens with the kneeboard created with Kneeboard Builder. Very strange.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dburne

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

MT side effect??

[dburne]

4 minutes ago, Ala12Rv-Tundra said:

MT side effect??

That crossed my mind but no I also checked with ST running in Steam VR, still all garbled text in the pdf's.

I have just done a new install of Open Kneeboard, just got to figure out how I got aircraft kneeboards in there and then will see if makes any difference. Guess I have gone stupid as I am struggling to get it set up again. Instructions are not very clear to me. Looking like this will be how I will be spending my day today ugh.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

Ok so I started fresh with Open VR, and created a Tab for the Mossie and added my pdf file ( for startup) to the tab. That worked fine and shows properly in the headset.

Now what I can't figure out is how to create and add kneeboard files per aircraft? For instance if I change to the Spit and go to fly a mission it is still only showing the Mossie startup?

I really would prefer Kneeboard Builder however it still just shows garbled text. This Open Kneeboard is rather convoluted and instructions do not have a lot of clarity to them. I would think they would have to be assigned to an aircraft but do not see any way of doing so. There is an aircraft tab in there but I do not see any way of adding kneeboard files to that tab. Very confusing to me.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dburne

[Rudel_chw]

7 minutes ago, dburne said:

I really would prefer Kneeboard Builder however it still just shows garbled text.

 

Strange, on my PC it works perfectly, converting from PDF (generated by MS Word) to PNG:

 

 

[dburne]

well it ain't working here (Kneeboard Builder ) tried creating a fresh kneeboard again and again the custom pdf just shows garbled text.

Maybe best for me to just try and figure out how to actually use this Open Kneeboard. I mean what is the purpose of the Aircraft tab in it if one cant put kneeboard files for a particular aircraft in it. Very confused. So I have one file for the Mossie for start up , and it shows up fine there, but shows for all aircraft lol. Still reading the directions but not getting much sense made out of it.

Edited April 17, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

I give up. No matter what I do fonts always end up a garbled mess. Heck even in Kneeboard Builder this happens. Tried loading default fonts but that did not help any. At this point I am just stuck with not having access to any kneeboard information - that I create.

Guess I could try a repair of DCS and see what happens.

OK trying a long (slow) repair of DCS, will see if that does anything. Hopefully it does not mess up my using DFR with eye tracking in the Aero for DCS.

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

I just do not for the life of me quite understant how to put files into this Open Kneeboard. I mean what is the purpose of these default tabs if one can not insert files into them for the kneeboard? I guess this is a simple thing apparently for a lot of folks but I am confused as all get out. Then when finally I somehow manage to get the images in there they all have the garbled up text.

Kneeboard Builder is much easier to use, however with even it it has the garbled text issue so must be something on my end causing all this.

Full repalr opf DCS is almost done will see if that changes anything.

[Rudel_chw]

8 minutes ago, dburne said:

Full repalr opf DCS is almost done will see if that changes anything.

 

Seems unlikely, as the problem seems to be with the PDF file that you are using .. what software are you using to create your PDFs?

[Hartsblade]

Hey Don, have you tried to import a pre-existing pdf (meaning not one you created) into kneeboard builder, just to see if it works?

Also if kneeboard builder converts the pdf's to png's, have you tried converting the pdf to png yourself and then placing them in kneeboard builder? Is that even an option?

[dburne]

Ok so full slow repair of all DCS files appears to have resolved the garbled text in both standard kneeboard and Open Kneeboard for me. I successfully created a multi page PDF for Open Kneeboard, covering cold starts - one for the Spit and one for the Mossie. Both are displaying properly in Open Kneeboard now.

Now to just figure out how to get the other kneeboard files working in Open VR, like maps, mission briefs, etc... But at least now it appears I can read the dang things! May just go back to using Kneeboard Builder with the standard Kneeboard as it seems so much simpler. Will play around with both a little before deciding.

Thanks for the suggestions gang!

[dburne]

Well that was short lived - right back to where I was - both programs now showing just garbled up text.

I am beginning to wonder if maybe Open Kneeboard is conflicting with my Kneeboard Builder and somehow causing this - I have no idea really. I guess next thing I will try is uninstalling Open Kneeboard ( can't seem to wrap my arms around it anyway) and just try using the standard kneeboard with kneeboard builder like I used to.

If I can not get a functional kneeboard, I would have no reason to fly. 

[dburne]

Nope text is now all garbled up once again. I have no idea what is going on. Here is an image of it:

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne

[Hartsblade]

Don you typed up that kneeboard correct? What font are you using?

[dburne]

2 minutes ago, Hartsblade said:

Don you typed up that kneeboard correct? What font are you using?

I seriously have no idea. I looked at fonts earlier for my Windows and selected to restore default but did not see a particular font name I was set on. Far as I know yeah I typed up the name properly.

What is nuts is it might appear correctly one time, then next flight it is all garbled up again. Very wierd.

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne

[Hartsblade]

1 minute ago, dburne said:

I seriously have no idea. I looked at fonts earlier for my Windows and selected to restore default but did not see a particular font name I was set on.

Is that slide from Chuck's Spitfire Guide?

If it is, might I suggest an experiment? Type up a text only document using a standard font link Currier or Ariel in Word and export it as a pdf. Then try importing that pdf into kneeboard maker.

[dburne]

14 minutes ago, Hartsblade said:

Is that slide from Chuck's Spitfire Guide?

If it is, might I suggest an experiment? Type up a text only document using a standard font link Currier or Ariel in Word and export it as a pdf. Then try importing that pdf into kneeboard maker.

 

Yes from Chuck's Guides.

Ok will try the experiment but may be later on. Thanks,

Seems when Kneeboard Builder converts the PDF to the PNG files they come out corrupt. But even so when I was just using Open Kneeboard to get the files and just dropped the whole PDF in without converting to PNG files, it was still corrupted as well. But NOT every time, very wierd.

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne

[dburne]

30 minutes ago, Hartsblade said:

Is that slide from Chuck's Spitfire Guide?

If it is, might I suggest an experiment? Type up a text only document using a standard font link Currier or Ariel in Word and export it as a pdf. Then try importing that pdf into kneeboard maker.

 

It worked beautifully: Below is the png file generated for Kneeboard Builder, and looks great in the headset. So maybe it is something peculiar to Chuck's Guide PDF's? And if so is there a way to work around that?

 

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne

[Hartsblade]

15 minutes ago, dburne said:

 

It worked beautifully: Below is the png file generated for Kneeboard Builder, and looks great in the headset. So maybe it is something peculiar to Chuck's Guide PDF's? And if so is there a way to work around that?

 

 

Chuck's may have some sort of copy protection.

I'm not at home, but I'm curious as to what might happen if you tried opening it in Word and tried to convert it to a Word document and re-exporting it to pdf.

If I get a chance tonight I might download kneeboard builder and take a look.

[dburne]

10 minutes ago, Hartsblade said:

Chuck's may have some sort of copy protection.

I'm not at home, but I'm curious as to what might happen if you tried opening it in Word and tried to convert it to a Word document and re-exporting it to pdf.

If I get a chance tonight I might download kneeboard builder and take a look.

 

I am a step ahead and had just gave that a try. It came through legible but formatting was a little off and text was kind of dim in VR. Perhaps some tweaks I can do to help.

Seems the root of the issue is in my using Chuck's Guide to convert segments to put into kneeboard,  for whatever reason it does not like converting to PNG files.  Never was much of an issue previously. I will also play around with it some more tomorrow and see what I can do. At least now I feel I have some hope so thank you very much!  May give Open Kneeboard another try but really at this time kind of liking the simplicity of Kneeboard Builder. I still have not quite got my arms around Open Kneeboard. Just not very clear on what to do, when and where. 

At least now I feel I have some hope - after two days of this - so thanks again!

Edited April 18, 2023 by dburne