Black Shark Nirvana with TouchBuddy

[SinandGrin]

Ah yes i have noticed that some do not support Vista with their drivers yet, but it seems as though there are several others that do still, and i just wanted to know if people thought the quality varied much from item to item much. To be honest they all look the same and all have roughly the same basic construction.

One thought with my Dell 19" LCD is that i would really hate to have an issue where the front bezel did not fit back into place correctly after the touchscreen's installation, so i wasn't sure if people with experience doing the mods had any issues. I am fairly technically adapt so i would mind making modifications to the monitor if i had to though.

[Etsija]

SG, can you please try to explain to not-so-technically-adapt person, what would be the consequence of the "front bezel" not fitting after the touchscreen mod?

 

OK, to start with: what IS front bezel? Ehem.

[CyBerkut]

SG, can you please try to explain to not-so-technically-adapt person, what would be the consequence of the "front bezel" not fitting after the touchscreen mod?

 

OK, to start with: what IS front bezel? Ehem.

 

When you are looking at your display, the outer non-imaging case portion is the bezel. It may actually be holding the LCD panel in place, or it may simply be decorative and/or holding the controls and keeping your fingers out of places that they shouldn't go. ;)

[Raz_Specter]

Hi All,

 

Well after reading this post I am very tempted to pull out my second 19" monitor.

 

I have a question though:

 

I dont really want to buy a touch screen monitor kit (would prefer a real touch screen without a kit) so could this setup be used for people who just use the mouse?

 

What I want to do is have my game running on my main monitor at 1920 x 1200 and then have the rest of the stuff on the other 19" screen at 1600 x 1200.

 

Thanks Mithandra

[Etsija]

Yes it can be used with mouse as well - but remember that the profile discussed in this thread is optimised for a 1024x768. TouchBuddy does include scaling functionality, but the results might not be optimal. So you might have some challenges getting everything to work smoothly and prettily on 1600x1200 resolution.

[SinandGrin]

Hi All,

 

Well after reading this post I am very tempted to pull out my second 19" monitor.

 

I have a question though:

 

I dont really want to buy a touch screen monitor kit (would prefer a real touch screen without a kit) so could this setup be used for people who just use the mouse?

 

What I want to do is have my game running on my main monitor at 1920 x 1200 and then have the rest of the stuff on the other 19" screen at 1600 x 1200.

 

Thanks Mithandra

 

You can certainly use the mouse to control this instead of buying a touch screen, and i have used the scaling feature in touchbuddy, and it seems to scale everything just fine. It has the option to maintain the original aspect ratio, so the only tough part really is then re-aligning the ABRIS overlay to fit the gap in the Touchbuddy skin correctly. The downside to using a higher resolution than 1024X768 is that it may dramatically lower your game's frame rate, which is why DickDastardly uses 1024X768 for both his side monitors.

 

SG, can you please try to explain to not-so-technically-adapt person, what would be the consequence of the "front bezel" not fitting after the touchscreen mod?

 

OK, to start with: what IS front bezel? Ehem.

 

Yes the Bezel is just your monitor's front edge which may be a decorative or function piece as CyBerkut said. it usually has holes for the power, contract, menu, ect. buttons and may be physically holding part of the LCD panel in place inside the monitor. When considering buying a touch screen kit to retro fit your LCD monitor some company's / ebay auction's make mention that after installation there may be a slight fitment issues since the touch screen has to fit between the monitor's Bezel and the actual LCD screen. On my Dell 19" ultra sharp monitor there seems to be very little room for any additional thickness so i was just asking around if anyone had experience do the mod to see how obtrusive the new touch screen might be.

[blaster454]

An alternative to the above touch screen overlay is one from Keytec (Magic Touch) that fits over your monitor screen with two "clamp arms" that fit on the top edge. It is a self-contained frame that houses the screen grid and a glass (or plastic) protective panel. It's fairly robust and I've had mine for about a year and a half--works well with either finger pressure or with the "pen" they provide. They make it in sizes to fit most common LCD monitors and I have a 15-inch overlay mounted on an older Sony monitor. You sometimes have to fiddle with the way it's mounted with spacers to make sure the overlay aligns well with the screen and it pays to secure it in place--I use velcro sticky pads to hold mine. It's a quality piece of kit but not very inexpensive. You can sometimes find them on e-bay but they seem to command a premium.

[GregP]

I've got a 17" LCD arriving today and a touchscreen kit coming sometime soon, so I'll be sure to report my experience putting it together.

[SinandGrin]

I've got a 17" LCD arriving today and a touchscreen kit coming sometime soon, so I'll be sure to report my experience putting it together.

 

I anxiously await your report! :blink:

[GregP]

I anxiously await your report! :blink:

 

Well, Friday night I got the touchscreen working and I have to admit I was surprised at how easy it was to do. The hardest part was just figuring out how to get the front bezel off the LCD. Eventually by sliding a flathead screwdriver under it I was able to pop it off. After that, I simply slid the touchscreen on the LCD screen, put the bezel back on, hooked up the USB cables, ran the calibration program included on the enclosed CD, and it just WORKED! :)

 

I've now got it working nicely with DD's profile here and I'm loving it ... well, other than the awful framerate hit I take by having to render a 3968x1080 resolution (1024 on the left touchscreen, 1920 on center, 1024 on right 'phantom' monitor).

[connos]

Well, Friday night I got the touchscreen working and I have to admit I was surprised at how easy it was to do. The hardest part was just figuring out how to get the front bezel off the LCD. Eventually by sliding a flathead screwdriver under it I was able to pop it off. After that, I simply slid the touchscreen on the LCD screen, put the bezel back on, hooked up the USB cables, ran the calibration program included on the enclosed CD, and it just WORKED! :)

 

I've now got it working nicely with DD's profile here and I'm loving it ... well, other than the awful framerate hit I take by having to render a 3968x1080 resolution (1024 on the left touchscreen, 1920 on center, 1024 on right 'phantom' monitor).

 

Try the phantom monitor fix.

[GregP]

Try the phantom monitor fix.

 

Yup, I have, but that's caused other problems (both of my screens are offset to the right) that I posted about in his thread. :)

[SinandGrin]

Well, Friday night I got the touchscreen working and I have to admit I was surprised at how easy it was to do. The hardest part was just figuring out how to get the front bezel off the LCD. Eventually by sliding a flathead screwdriver under it I was able to pop it off. After that, I simply slid the touchscreen on the LCD screen, put the bezel back on, hooked up the USB cables, ran the calibration program included on the enclosed CD, and it just WORKED! :)

 

I've now got it working nicely with DD's profile here and I'm loving it ... well, other than the awful framerate hit I take by having to render a 3968x1080 resolution (1024 on the left touchscreen, 1920 on center, 1024 on right 'phantom' monitor).

 

That's great that it all went together so easily. What LCD monitor did you do the mod to? I am ready to do this with mine, but i have been having some problems getting touchbuddy to communicate with Black Shark. I suppose i'll end up doing this if i can get touchbuddy to work, especially since the frame rate hit for me really is not that bad.

[GregP]

That's great that it all went together so easily. What LCD monitor did you do the mod to? I am ready to do this with mine, but i have been having some problems getting touchbuddy to communicate with Black Shark. I suppose i'll end up doing this if i can get touchbuddy to work, especially since the frame rate hit for me really is not that bad.

 

It's an HP L1710; got it for $80 ($110 with $30 rebate) from Tigerdirect. With the $90 touchscreen kit, it was cheaper than the 7" Mimo touchscreen (http://www.thegadgeteers.com/product_mimo.html) that I was originally considering!

[Frakin Toasters]

Friggin' awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hassata]

DD-have you lost significant fops using this, and could you please help me set upmain monitor 1024 758 center, abris 1024 to the right, sckval is a little 8 inch touch screen below center screen aligned with its left edge @ 800x600. Thanks

Edited April 4, 2009 by hassata

[Made.In.China.00]

Can I run this in server/client mode?

Will I lose the shval and abris if I do so?

EDIT: Never mind, I just found out that it's impossible.:(

Edited April 10, 2009 by Made.In.China.00

[pappavis]

I am using the DickDastardly 2-screen TB profile. However there are no output to the Shval or Abris.

 

I run Tb networked.

My DCS-computer is server, my other comp is client with Touchscreen attached. The networked profile works great, keypresses are sent etc. Its just that ABRIS & Skval not being output.

Running your profile local has the same effect -- no Abris/Skval output.

 

Whats going wrong where?

[DickDastardly]

I am using the DickDastardly 2-screen TB profile. However there are no output to the Shval or Abris.

 

I run Tb networked.

My DCS-computer is server, my other comp is client with Touchscreen attached. The networked profile works great, keypresses are sent etc. Its just that ABRIS & Skval not being output.

Running your profile local has the same effect -- no Abris/Skval output.

 

Whats going wrong where?

 

Hi Pappavis,

Currently it's only possible to display the ABRIS and SHKVAL on the same PC as Black Shark itself so you need to run TB in local mode with my profiles. The position at which the ABRIS and Shkval are displayed is defined by a file in your Ka-50/Config/MonitorSetup folder. The filename which is used is stored in your Ka-50\BlackShark\data\scripts\options.lua file in the line beginning "["multiMonitorSetup"] =".

 

If you've fully followed the profile setup instructions in this thread then everything should work okay but if you're still not getting any ABRIS/Shkval output then just post your options.lua and multiMonitorSetup files here and I'll be happy to check them for you.

Cheers,

DD

Edited April 16, 2009 by DickDastardly

[Slick Twitchy]

Would your profile work with TripleHead2Go? I was trying to figure out a work around to using two graphics cards and three monitors (per my other posts I get a sizeable frame rate drop with the two cards engaged).

Edited April 29, 2009 by Slick Twitchy

[Celo63]

I really like the look of the profiles you've made DD and I'm wanting to help my friend get them up and running on a normal monitor using mouse instead of touch screen.

 

I presume we'll need the touch-buddy software to get it working for mouse so tried to download it from their site. Unfortunately their entire site seems to be dead today. Don't know if its a temporary thing or not but I can't get hold of the software and struggling to find it elsewhere.

 

Any help or suggestions?

[Celo63]

Never mind, got hold of a copy from a friend who downloaded it a month ago. Phew.

 

Followed your instructions to the letter DD and its up and running like a dream. Used same res and monitor positioning as you did. Fantastic setup - respect :thumbup:

 

Big thanks for sharing your superb work with us. I'm looking forward to any new profiles you might share in the future.

 

PS. Touchbuddy site still dead today. Any ideas whats goin on with them? I hope its just weekend maintenance. Would be a real shame if they disappeared.

[Snacko]

Nope. We didn't disappear. Something is wrong with the server. We'll have it back up asap.

[Celo63]

Thanks for the info there Snacko, I thought something like that was probably going on. Glad to hear you'll be back up soon. :)

 

Got a couple questions - wonder if you can clear this up for me?

 

Does DD's BS profile work with the new 1.0.1.a patch or does it need tweaked? We've had a bit of trouble getting it to work with the patch but not sure if we missed something. Didn't have long to play about with it tonite over at my friend's house. Would help to know if its us or the patch.

 

Also, I saw a post in one of the other multi monitor threads saying BS version 1.0.1.a no longer renders a phantom monitor. I couldn't see anything covering that in the patch readme though. If no phantom monitor is rendered then options.lua will need tweaked for reduced width.

 

I can go trial and error to find out but it would be useful to know for sure.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Snacko]

Does DD's BS profile work with the new 1.0.1.a patch or does it need tweaked?

 

TouchBuddy does not know or care what game you have running. So, it does not matter if the game is ever patched or not. All touchbuddy does is display a window on a second monitor. Just like Notepad, Paint, Word or any other program. So, if you are having problems getting things to display correctly, it is probably something with the game settings, or you need to just position the Touchbuddy window, just like you would Notepad or any other program to be in the correct location on the screen.

 

I had a friend ask me about BS displaying TB wrong the other day, and told him to open Notepad and put in the the same place where the TB window was. The game screwed up the Notepad window as well as it was rendering the screen resolutions.

 

Also, I saw a post in one of the other multi monitor threads saying BS version 1.0.1.a no longer renders a phantom monitor.

 

I have no clue. That is a BS issue. :smilewink:

 

Snack