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TouchPal - Touchscreen Cockpit


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I plan on creating a merged Export.lua for TouchPal and Virtual Panel this weekend. I've taken a look at the Virtual Panel Export.lua and it will be a trivial exercise.

 

As I said a few pages back I do have some really cool stuff in the works, it's just not at a stage where I can talk about it yet. As soon as I can I'll let you guys in on it.

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OK. I renamed the background file and when I loaded TP, I still get the pink squares where the shk and Abris should go. Interestingly, when I do everything the same but DO NOT LOAD TP, the Abris and SHK appear on my second screen exactly where they should be for TP. I am beginning to think it a limitation of my older graphics card rather than anything I am doing. So for now, I am just leaving everything as if I loaded TP and use two screens without the TP buttons, etc.

 

One question that I do have is when do you load TP? It seems that I cannot click the mission button or anything else on my left screen where TP is running so I have to close TP, start the mssion and then ALT TAB to TP, start TP, etc. Is that correct?

 

When I do lauch TP (with no ABRIS or shk showing up) all of the buttons and views work fine.

 

A real pisser.


Edited by sobe
set it to soon

Trackir4 using the latest Trackir 5 software, Win10 Pro [Creator Update] updated from Win7Pro Pro 64Bit, Intel® Core™ i5-2500 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA115 , GigaByte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 16GB Ram, GTX MSI Gaming 1060 [6 GB] Video Card, Main Monitor 1 on left 1920x1080 Touchscreen Monitor 2 on right 1920x1080 .

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Attached is an Export.lua which allows you to run BSVP v1.1 and Touchpal at the same time.

 

Also as a quick note to those who want network support in touchpal it is already 90% functional running remote. The only functions that won't work are those that require keyboard emulation. What really binds it to local is the lack of functioning texture export in Black Shark for the ABRIS and shkval.

 

Here is the list of buttons which use the keyboard emulation:

Weapon Select Outer/Inner/All/AA

All of the View Buttons in the lower left

ABRIS Cursor and Brightness

Hover Hold

Route Mode

Desc Mode

 

If you can do with out those TouchPal will work fine runnign on a remote machine. Just edit the Export.lua to point to the right IP address.

ExportTP+BSVP.zip

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OK. I renamed the background file and when I loaded TP, I still get the pink squares where the shk and Abris should go. Interestingly, when I do everything the same but DO NOT LOAD TP, the Abris and SHK appear on my second screen exactly where they should be for TP. I am beginning to think it a limitation of my older graphics card rather than anything I am doing. So for now, I am just leaving everything as if I loaded TP and use two screens without the TP buttons, etc.

 

One question that I do have is when do you load TP? It seems that I cannot click the mission button or anything else on my left screen where TP is running so I have to close TP, start the mssion and then ALT TAB to TP, start TP, etc. Is that correct?

 

When I do lauch TP (with no ABRIS or shk showing up) all of the buttons and views work fine.

 

A real pisser.

 

Yea. The issues your describing do sound like video driver issues. What kind of video card are you running and which version of the drivers?

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For those who haven't checked out BSVP yet, here's a composite image of my setup:

 

4ScreenCombo.jpg

 

The forward view is running on a projector with a 6ft screen, the Shkval is on a second monitor and the ABRIS, LWS, EKRAN, warning lights, Datalink, CMS, weapons panel, targetting panel, nav keypad, autopilot, lights, heat and view controls are all running on a third (touch) screen thanks to TouchPal.

 

Then I have BSVP running on a second PC (which has a metal panel with holes cut out for the gauges in front of the monitor) displaying the G-meter, VSI, EGT, radar altimeter, speedometer, ADI, engine RPM, rotor RPM, altimeter, HSI, fuel, rotor pitch, landing gear, master caution and RPM warning lights.

 

Thanks to the combined export.lua, I've just flown my first flight with every component fully functional and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a flight sim so much -if my grin gets any wider, there's a real risk the top of my head might fall off :).

 

I'd like to thank both Gadroc and Mnemonic for all their hard work on TouchPal and BSVP -it's been a pleasure working with you guys. I think it's really great that, thanks to the internet, people from Russia, the USA and the UK (who would probably have never had the opportunity to meet in real life) can work together to make something so cool :).

Cheers,

DD

 

P.S. Due to a slight difference between the English and Russian versions of Black Shark, the BSVP gauge lights in the previously posted combined export.lua only work properly with the Russian version of the sim. If you're using the English version, then use this export.lua instead.

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Very cool DD! Thanks for posting the composite image, etc.

 

Major kudos to all of you folks who managed to make this possible! :thumbup:

 

So, DD... for those of us who hope to eventually follow in your footsteps, can you fill us in on what hardware (computers and displays/resolutions) you are using, and what performance you are getting?

 

Yes, I know, we're never satisfied... :music_whistling: I ask because I still have major purchasing decisions to make, and the experiences of you folks on the bleeding edge are extremely valuable to folks who hope to do something similar.

 

Thanks!

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

There's no place like 127.0.0.1

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Can some one give me a hand. I'm so close to getting this to work.

 

1. I have a 1920x1200 main monitor and a 1024x768 secondary monitor on an nVidia 8800 GTS 512 (latest drivers). I am running Windows 7 x64 and BS 1.01. I've set up TouchPal according to the instructions (and am pretty confident that I have it configured exactly as it should be).

 

2. If I run BS in Full Screen mode, TP shows up correctly on the second monitor and functions properly. The ABRIS and Skval do not show up, but this is expected in full screen mode. The desktop just shows through the ABRIS hole. No problem yet, just an observation.

 

3. Now, if I proceed to setup multi-monitor mode using all the instructions in the preceeding thread, the following happens. When DCS loads, it presents a splash screen. This screen is stretched across both monitors. When BS starts, I see both the ABRIS and Skval displayed on the second monitor in their correct locations; however, I don't see TP. Instead, I just continue to see the DCS splash screen in the background. Alt-tabbing out permits me to bring TP back to the front where I can actually see the ABRIS and Shkval in their proper locations and even interact with the buttons. But as soon as BS gets the focus again, the splash screen again gets sandwiched in between TP and the ABRIS/Shkval and I can no longer see any of the buttons.

 

Has anyone seen this? Any ideas on how to fix it?

 

Edit: I just noticed that a very similar (perhaps the same) issue has been logged by someone else on the Google code site as issue 4 (http://code.google.com/p/touchpal/issues/detail?id=4).


Edited by ddahlstrom
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Great work guy`s!!!

 

My dream would be, to have the Abris + Skval on a client PC networked!

So we could turn of the Abris + Skval in the pit and reduce workload for the main CPU.

 

Maybe ED is working on that?

 

Daniel

|AMD 7800x3D | 64GB DDR5-3600| GTX 4090 | Virpil Stick, Collectiv, WW MIP, WW Throttle, MFG Crosswind V2 | Windows 11 64-bit | SSD Samsung | 4K LG Oled 48 | Oculus Q3 | Simlab based Cockpit

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Great work guy`s!!!

 

My dream would be, to have the Abris + Skval on a client PC networked!

So we could turn of the Abris + Skval in the pit and reduce workload for the main CPU.

 

Maybe ED is working on that?

 

Daniel

 

There is a partially working way to extract the image for ABRIS and shkval. I have successfully displayed the ABRIS and shkval on screen via TouchPal with Black Shark full screen on primary monitor. Unfortunately the shared memory texture was a bigger performance hit than using windowed mode and multi-monitor. In addition there are visual artifacts, but I think some of those can be fixed outside Black Shark code.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that even though you may display ABRIS and shkval on remote computers the rendering of the image is still done with your primary PC. The only way to remove that is a FSX like ability to have a second PC running the DCS engine rendering a different view. Even then the main PC will still render the ABRIS and shkval as those textures are used in the virtual cockpit. The biggest boost you could get is allowing each instance of Black Shark to run fullscreen mode.

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(copy of same post from BSVP thread)

 

looking really good DD, thankyou for the eng export.

SIMply a wonderful setup :)

 

 

here is another of my test configurations:

laptop @ 1280x800 with second screen @ 1024x1280 with touchpal + abris/shkval and BSVP below

all playing nicely, it's a beautiful thing.

 

attachment.php?attachmentid=33237&stc=1&d=1257778900

 

we know with crazy monitor setups win7/dcs crashes.

i took this screenshot by pressing print screen key (SysRq)

when win7/dcs bs crashes, just hit the windows key

start paint, paste, resize as required and save.

 

thanks again to all involved for making this possible.

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I have some trouble to make it work on a client PC, what do I have to set in the export.lua?

the Ip of the PC which is running touchpal?

 

 

 

-- Change to correct ip and port (127.0.0.1 = localhost, 9089 = default TouchPal port)

host = "127.0.0.1"

port = 9089

 

so like this: host=192.168.0.7 or host="192.168.0.7" ???

 

I am confused, any help is welcome :-)


Edited by McDaniel

|AMD 7800x3D | 64GB DDR5-3600| GTX 4090 | Virpil Stick, Collectiv, WW MIP, WW Throttle, MFG Crosswind V2 | Windows 11 64-bit | SSD Samsung | 4K LG Oled 48 | Oculus Q3 | Simlab based Cockpit

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I have some trouble to make it work on a client PC, what do I have to set in the export.lua?

the Ip of the PC which is running touchpal?

 

 

 

-- Change to correct ip and port (127.0.0.1 = localhost, 9089 = default TouchPal port)

host = "127.0.0.1"

port = 9089

 

so like this: host=192.168.0.7 or host="192.168.0.7" ???

 

I am confused, any help is welcome :-)

 

You need to have the host in quotes so "192.168.0.7" would be correct.

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wow that was fast, thanks will try... :-)

 

hmm still not working, amything else I have to set? I checked Firewall and router port....

 

function LuaExportStart()

-- Works once just before mission start.

 

-- Open log file for export

local file = io.open("./Temp/Export.log", "w")

 

if file then

io.output(file)

io.write("---Log: Start-----", "\n")

io.flush()

end

 

-- 2) Setup udp sockets to talk to touchpal

package.path = package.path..";.\\LuaSocket\\?.lua"

package.cpath = package.cpath..";.\\LuaSocket\\?.dll"

 

socket = require("socket")

 

-- Change to correct ip and port (127.0.0.1 = localhost, 9089 = default TouchPal port)

host = "192.168.0.7"

port = 9089

 

c = socket.udp()

c:setpeername(host, port)

c:settimeout(.01) -- set the timeout for reading the socket

 

SendConnectMessage()

end

|AMD 7800x3D | 64GB DDR5-3600| GTX 4090 | Virpil Stick, Collectiv, WW MIP, WW Throttle, MFG Crosswind V2 | Windows 11 64-bit | SSD Samsung | 4K LG Oled 48 | Oculus Q3 | Simlab based Cockpit

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wow that was fast, thanks will try... :-)

 

hmm still not working, amything else I have to set? I checked Firewall and router port....

 

function LuaExportStart()

-- Works once just before mission start.

 

-- Open log file for export

local file = io.open("./Temp/Export.log", "w")

 

if file then

io.output(file)

io.write("---Log: Start-----", "\n")

io.flush()

end

 

-- 2) Setup udp sockets to talk to touchpal

package.path = package.path..";.\\LuaSocket\\?.lua"

package.cpath = package.cpath..";.\\LuaSocket\\?.dll"

 

socket = require("socket")

 

-- Change to correct ip and port (127.0.0.1 = localhost, 9089 = default TouchPal port)

host = "192.168.0.7"

port = 9089

 

c = socket.udp()

c:setpeername(host, port)

c:settimeout(.01) -- set the timeout for reading the socket

 

SendConnectMessage()

end

 

I assume both machines are on the same lan behind a router to the internet. If this is not the case let me know and don't do the following.

 

1) For testing purposes make sure both the TouchPal machine and the Black Shark machine have firewalls turned off. If both machines are 192.168.0.* address do not configure anything on your router because no packets will go through the router at all.

2) Make sure you can ping between machines. On your Black Shark machine do Start -> Run -> cmd.exe. Then type "ping 192.168.0.7". Do you get errors?

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Did what you said, even with firewall on there are no errors, all packages received end send!

 

Is there any settings on the client side?

 

btw: yes both on the lan behind router...


Edited by McDaniel

|AMD 7800x3D | 64GB DDR5-3600| GTX 4090 | Virpil Stick, Collectiv, WW MIP, WW Throttle, MFG Crosswind V2 | Windows 11 64-bit | SSD Samsung | 4K LG Oled 48 | Oculus Q3 | Simlab based Cockpit

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Looking for suggestions. Here is my setup:

 

One 28" monitor center, two 22" monitors sides. GTX-275 driving 28" and left 22" while a 9800GT is driving the right 22". I am also running a notebook on the network that has a 17" touchscreen overlay on a secondary 17" flat panel connected to it.

 

I would like suggestions on setup in this config. I think I like the idea of 28" as cockpit and one 22" side as camera/abris. I want something really effective on the touch screen for controlling everything quickly.

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you might offer.

 

Out

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So, DD... for those of us who hope to eventually follow in your footsteps, can you fill us in on what hardware (computers and displays/resolutions) you are using, and what performance you are getting?

 

In terms of hardware, I stay away from bleeding edge components as they generally offer poor bang/buck. I assembled my main PC for less than £700 more than a year ago and I can still play just about all games maxed with satisfactory frame rates (although for Black Shark I turn down graphics settings due to the extra load of running 3 windowed screens and generally get 20-30 fps which is acceptable, if not exactly ideal).

 

My main PC has a Q6700, 4GB RAM and a 8800GT XXX Edition with 512MB displaying main view at 1024x768 on a projector (which I got off ebay for £100) with a 6ft diagonal image, and TouchPal/ABRIS on a 19" 1280x1024 TFT (running at 1024x768 ) which has a touchscreen overlay (another ebay purchase). On the same PC I also have an 8400GS displaying the Shkval on a small TFT monitor at 720x576.

 

My second PC has an Athlon XP3000+, 2GB RAM and a 7400GS with 512MB displaying BSVP on a 19" 1280x1024 (with a metal panel covering the monitor with holes cut out for the gauges). The metal cover I use was designed to work with a set of panels I made for FSX called PanelMania which includes layouts for all default FSX aircraft with fewer than two engines. Here, for example, you can see my Cessna 208B layout:

 

Metal_Panel_Photo.jpg

 

As you can see in the composite image I posted before, I've used BSVP's ability to reposition gauges so they match this layout. The three gaps in the 4x4 grid are for the standby ADI, clock and whisky compass, whilst the five small holes in the bottom right corner are for the wall panel gauges like the APU. I've already done the graphics for these and they'll be included in a future version of BSVP, hopefully along with some other bits and pieces like the radios and the pressure and temp sliders.

 

Unfortunately, after waiting more than a year to get BSVP and TouchPal running together, I only had five glorious hours in which to enjoy them before the [multiple expletives deleted] monitor on which I'm running BSVP decided to die on me. Well not exactly die, but it now comes on for less than a second, goes blank for 4 seconds or so and then repeats this cycle. I've replaced all the cables and tried connecting it to other PCs but the problem remains the same. So unless there are any monitor experts reading this who can tell me if this is fixable, it looks like I'll have to try and pick up another on ebay <sigh>.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that even though you may display ABRIS and shkval on remote computers the rendering of the image is still done with your primary PC. The only way to remove that is a FSX like ability to have a second PC running the DCS engine rendering a different view. Even then the main PC will still render the ABRIS and shkval as those textures are used in the virtual cockpit. The biggest boost you could get is allowing each instance of Black Shark to run fullscreen mode.

 

Yeah, it would be brilliant if ED added the ability to disable the Shkval and ABRIS in the VC and instead allowed the relevant positional and targetting data to be transmitted to a second PC running another copy of DCS:BS, which could then render them along with a TouchPal overlay (and BSVP on another screen). This could give us a huge boost to fps on the main PC as it could run fullscreen and focus entirely on drawing scenery etc. Presumably ED will need to develop capabilities along these lines to support pilot/gunner configurations in the Apache and I'm hoping they might add them to Black Shark before then to test the technology.

 

looking really good DD, thankyou for the eng export.

SIMply a wonderful setup :)

 

Gadroc deserves all the credit for the combined export.lua -I just took the version he wrote and added a couple of lines which Mnemonic gave me to fix the English lights bug in BSVP (which I noticed during initial BSVP testing). My lua skills are more or less non-existent :).

 

Looking for suggestions. Here is my setup:

 

One 28" monitor center, two 22" monitors sides. GTX-275 driving 28" and left 22" while a 9800GT is driving the right 22". I am also running a notebook on the network that has a 17" touchscreen overlay on a secondary 17" flat panel connected to it.

 

I would connect the 17" touchscreen to your main PC and one of the 22" screens to your notebook then you could use this setup:

 

28" = Main forward view

22" = Shkval

17" with touchscreen overlay = ABRIS with TouchPal

22" connected to notebook = BSVP

 

Cheers,

DD


Edited by DickDastardly
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Gadroc deserves all the credit for the combined export.lua -I just took the version he wrote and added a couple of lines which Mnemonic gave me to fix the English lights bug in BSVP (which I noticed during initial BSVP testing). My lua skills are more or less non-existent :).

DD

 

Gadroc seems to make it look easy, that's enough credit for him :D

 

i must say DD, what takes me a page of confusion to explain,

you have a knack of doing the same with much greater flare in two lines.

 

great to hear of more stuff to come :thumbup:

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Did what you said, even with firewall on there are no errors, all packages received end send!

 

Is there any settings on the client side?

 

btw: yes both on the lan behind router...

 

I'm interested in doing the same thing, but haven't tried it yet. I would think that the client would need to know the ip address of the server right. I took a quick look in the source, and with my limited cs knowledge I *think* the client is just binding with the loopback ip 127.0.0.1.

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DickDastardly

 

You wrote:

 

My main PC has a Q6700, 4GB RAM and a 8800GT XXX Edition with 512MB displaying main view at 1024x768 on a projector (which I got off ebay for £100) with a 6ft diagonal image, and TouchPal/ABRIS on a 19" 1280x1024 TFT (running at 1024x768 ) which has a touchscreen overlay (another ebay purchase). On the same PC I also have an 8400GS displaying the Shkval on a small TFT monitor at 720x576.

 

My second PC has an Athlon XP3000+, 2GB RAM and a 7400GS with 512MB displaying BSVP on a 19" 1280x1024 (with a metal panel covering the monitor with holes cut out for the gauges).

 

Your computer skills far exceed mine but that does not stop me from attempting to learn. I have two questions. On the projector, what type do you use and is there anything special to look for in buying a projector?

Next, I am running one computer with one video card with two monintors. When you run a computer with two video cards and two monitors what do you see in the Windows settings? Do you see two monitors that you can combine or keep them seperate. I assume that both cards see BS and it is just like having one big card.

Finally, how do you get one game to display on 2 computers and 4 monitors? I assume you have extensively edited the applicable config and export files but this is clearly beyond me at the present time.


Edited by sobe
Additional question

Trackir4 using the latest Trackir 5 software, Win10 Pro [Creator Update] updated from Win7Pro Pro 64Bit, Intel® Core™ i5-2500 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA115 , GigaByte GA-Z68XP-UD4 Intel Z68 Chipset DDR3 16GB Ram, GTX MSI Gaming 1060 [6 GB] Video Card, Main Monitor 1 on left 1920x1080 Touchscreen Monitor 2 on right 1920x1080 .

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I'm interested in doing the same thing, but haven't tried it yet. I would think that the client would need to know the ip address of the server right. I took a quick look in the source, and with my limited cs knowledge I *think* the client is just binding with the loopback ip 127.0.0.1.

 

You don't need to tell TouchPal or BSVP where the data is coming from - they both just listen out for any incoming data. You do, however, need to tell DCS:BS where to export the data to. If you're using the combined export.lua, this is done by editing the first few lines. On my setup, they look like this:

 

-- TouchPal Host and Port
gTPHost = "127.0.0.1"
gTPPort = 9089

-- Blackshark Virtual Panel Host and Port
gBSVPHost = "192.168.123.102"
gBSVPPort = 8080

...because I'm running TP on the same PC as BS (127.0.0.1) and I'm running BSVP on a second PC which has an IP address of 192.168.123.102.

 

Your computer skills far exceed mine but that does not stop me from attempting to learn. I have two questions. On the projector, what type do you use and is there anything special to look for in buying a projector?

 

I use an HP MP3222, purchased second-hand (but with an almost brand new bulb) from ebay for £100. This gives me XGA resolution (1024x768 ) on a six foot diagonal screen. In my opinion the huge screen size more than makes up for the relatively low res compared to a monitor. Because the projector is a DLP it also works with my nVidia 3D Vision glasses, effectively giving me a one-wall holodeck, for an amazingly immersive gaming experience. In terms of buying advice, I would look for a DLP projector, with at least XGA resolution, long bulb life and a decent contrast ratio. You should be able to find something which meets these criteria on ebay for less than £200, and if you're patient you'll probably get an even better deal, like I did.

 

Next, I am running one computer with one video card with two monintors. When you run a computer with two video cards and two monitors what do you see in the Windows settings? Do you see two monitors that you can combine or keep them seperate. I assume that both cards see BS and it is just like having one big card.

 

On my main PC, I have two monitors connected to one card and one monitor connected to a second card. Each monitor appears as a separate screen in Windows desktop properties where you can drag them around as you wish to change their positions relative to each other.

 

Finally, how do you get one game to display on 2 computers and 4 monitors? I assume you have extensively edited the applicable config and export files but this is clearly beyond me at the present time.

 

BS runs on the three monitors on my main PC using the sim's multi-monitor capabilities and TouchPal draws an overlay around the ABRIS. The combined export.lua (see above) tells the sim to send data to my main PC (for TouchPal) and to a second networked PC where I run BSVP.

 

Cheers,

DD


Edited by DickDastardly
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DickDastardly or Gadroc, how are you folks editing your layout in touchpal.xml? Do you use a tool or is everything hand edited right now?

 

My technique is to design a decent layout in Photoshop and then get a good coder to do all the hard bit of writing the corresponding xml ;). It's actually fairly straightforward to make changes, though - the xml is pretty self-explanatory (width and height are in pixels, and coordinates are measured in pixels from the top left corner).

Cheers,

DD

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DickDastardly or Gadroc, how are you folks editing your layout in touchpal.xml? Do you use a tool or is everything hand edited right now?

 

I just use a good text editor and edit by hand (bbedit and notepad++ are the two I used). It is easier when you have a good layout already drawn up.

 

Let me know if you have any questions about the syntax. I never did fully document it on the wiki.

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