IPAD CDU (working) :)

[metalnwood]

There are two pieces of software. You currently need to map keypresses. The easiest way is to distribute it with a lua file that you can load in the CDU section of the keypresses. It only takes all of 30 seconds.

 

I am just working on getting rid of the small delay and should have it sorted shortly.

[Gadroc]

How are you getting that across?

[metalnwood]

Something that I reckon you could do in helios easy enough for those that have touchscreens - I dont so the ipad is a cheaper solution for me anyway.

 

I have a server piece of software that runs on the pc and gets the commands from the ipad. It just there do make virtual keypresses or talk to apps through proprietary methods, e.g. FSX or DCS with UDP etc.

 

I added a query where by it can take a snapshot of the screen in a specific position.

 

So, where I have my right MFCD exported I take a snapshot of it everytime a CDU button is pressed on the ipad and it is sent back to the ipad.

 

Given that this is not frequent - i.e. not sending 30 frames a second, maybe a couple frames a second when typing and that the size is small there doesnt seem to be any performace hit.

 

Not a solution for the moving map or video displays but it seems to work nicely for slowly updating screens.

[Gadroc]

OK. Your taking screen grabs and it's dependent on the MFCD being in CDU repeater mode.

 

I thought i was missing some juicy feature.

[metalnwood]

I wish there was some juicy feature myself :) It seems like a reasonable compromise , especially for me as I only have to press the CDU on my TH mfd and then it's all go.

 

Actually, having said that it would be easy enough for the software to automatically put the cdu on the second MFD anytime you try and use it so you dont have to worry about that step, that way you dont accidentally get shot of the TGP or something..

 

It does seem to work well though, I am only capturing a small section of the scrren. On mine ~400x400 so the game performance doesnt suffer.

Edited December 29, 2010 by metalnwood

[Ghost_unit13]

Nice...very nice :)

[metalnwood]

Thanks Ghost, I have just been sitting down going through the training mission on navigation. While I am familiar with some systems from years of simming I am not familiar with the CDU on the a10.

 

For the first time I have sat down and used it rather than running around from mac to pc trying development things out. After doing the nav training mission I am glad I have it. For the demos, including the one below I am just typing rubbish on the screen because I dont know how to operate it properly. It's great for the stuff I have just used it for though. Having the greenscreen operating on the ipad and the LSK keys operating is fairly nice I must say :)

 

I have found that at 3FPS there is no impact on the game. The server extracting the information is not registering 1% cpu load in the task manager.

 

At 3fps some other systems could be worth exporting, for example TADS is not to bad. The TGP, depending on what you are doing is OK. No issues at all when you are locked on as the framerate doesnt appear to move anyway.

 

So, here is another quick view showing more than just the cdu information. I cycle through tads, mav etc so you can see how that information could look at the lower refresh rate.

 

Sorry, my camera is crap so its hard to get good focus at times. (most times)

 

I also show the UFC going. As it cannot be fit all on the screen at the same time at a size that is large enough it scrolls by swiping. This works well and you can get to all the buttons quickly.

 

I just click through some of them and hopefully you can see on the HUD that things happen

 

 

[609 Avatar]

Boy, this is so great what you're doing here! When I bought my iPad I had no idea that I might be able to use this within some of my games... bloody fantastic that is! Keep up the excellent work and know that there's at least one more buyer to your app when it's ready. Now please hurry up and make it ready as my HOTAS Warthog will be here tomorrow and it's time I start getting back into this sim. ;) Thanks. :)

[Jorgensen]

hi metal

 

you can actually do beta tests of apps. you just have to add beta testers uniqe id somehow. I'm not sure how precise, but it is possible.

[DayGlow]

It would be perfect if you could setup a 'ghost' MFD in the game so that you could have the CDU information all the time without having to display in within the game. Can you create a 3rd MFD, but have it's physical position outside of the monitors, then have the ipad program pick it up?

[Thorvald]

Isn't the CDU only text information only? (not fully familiar with the device since it's "off to the side" lol).

 

If so, it would be easier to beg ED to simply export the text string to a file/port or something as it gets updated so we don't get the perf. hit of drawing it.

 

Then import the string into whatever app is required and re-do the formatting.

[metalnwood]

Thanks Guys!

 

 

@Jorgensewn yes, you can do beta testing, I have done it before with some people but I am not at that stage yet.

 

@Dayglow Yes, that would be good but it's not possible unfortunately. The game doesn't provide any other way.

 

@Thorvald Yes, we would have to ask for any other features like this. I trawled through the memory of DCS yesterday and the internal strings for the CDU are all over the place so I didn't continue with that idea. Not that I would want to, it would be last resort.

 

 

There is one caveat though and I will need to work around it. To make the prototype simple I did the windows server in c# as it was on one of the pc's. I don't do windows programming, it's not my strong suite at all but I can get through c# code as it's close enough to other languages.

 

The main issue so far is how I capture the information from the screen. It only works when the game is running in windowed mode... Windowed mode looks like full screen but my crossfire wont work grrr. It is possible to take that same information from the app in fullscreen but it looks like it is a pain in the ass to do it with C#.

 

So I either piss around with c# trying to make it work or I start writing it again in c/c++ where I have easier access to the directX libs and can make it work while running full screen.

 

That is my only real issue at the moment.

[609 Avatar]

Thanks for the update metalnwood. If/when you get to the point of beta testing I'd be happy to offer my services. Keep up the good work as many are following it and are excited. :thumbup:

[metalnwood]

Guys, feel free to pass idea on. As I am learning the a10 myself there are probably useful things I am unaware of.

 

I am thinking that if I get the cdu plus one or two more screens donethen it's probably something I can publish and then build on if it needs new features.

 

One thing I am not going to devote time to is gauges though, sorry. I am using helios for that and for me this is very complimentary to that so thats what I am focusing on :)

 

Thanks!

[metalnwood]

Hi guys, unfortunately there will not be any more updates to this program.

 

I run helios with my set up and succumbed to buying a 22" touchscreen as I wanted more real estate than the ipad would give me.

 

Given that I don't need it for myself it's too hard to justify the time spent writing an ipad application as it won't be for me and it won't generate money to make it worthwhile (As opposed to other money making jobs I could do in the same time).

 

I did learn something though. In a single ipad house with two kids and a wife I wouldn't have got to use it on the sim very often anyway. Four ipads would save a lot of arguments ;)

 

Hopefully someone else does the project for you in the future!

 

Thanks.

[609 Avatar]

Hi guys, unfortunately there will not be any more updates to this program.

 

I run helios with my set up and succumbed to buying a 22" touchscreen as I wanted more real estate than the ipad would give me.

 

Given that I don't need it for myself it's too hard to justify the time spent writing an ipad application as it won't be for me and it won't generate money to make it worthwhile (As opposed to other money making jobs I could do in the same time).

 

I did learn something though. In a single ipad house with two kids and a wife I wouldn't have got to use it on the sim very often anyway. Four ipads would save a lot of arguments ;)

 

Hopefully someone else does the project for you in the future!

 

Thanks.

 

In a word? That sucks. Thanks for the tease.

[Ghost_unit13]

In a word? That sucks. Thanks for the tease.

 

I think we have to respect metals decision. Building a tool for home use is one.. Making it Apple app ready it something else. It is good he is realistic and tells us this now and not in a few weeks.

 

He showed us that it is possible. Now it is for the next developer to go ahead and make it for the mass. I'm sure it's gonna sell good one's A-10 is officially released. Every A-1oc simmer with an Ipad will buy it.

Edited January 2, 2011 by Ghost_unit13

[DayGlow]

Nothing wrong with someone forging ahead with a proof of concept. I wouldn't expect someone to jump through the Apple hoops to get onto the app store. Hopefully others will move ahead with this idea. Who knows, maybe CH or TM or other established peripheral maker will come out with their own iPad control app

[metalnwood]

Thanks for understanding guys, it really is a very hours intensive thing to get an app ready for production and the ipad is only part of it.

 

When you have the server side software it only complicates it more. You would be surprised that I have it running on my pc - win 7 x64 and that same software will most likely not work on the 32bit version, or on xp etc. You need a few people and lots of time and iterations to smooth it out and get it working on many configurations. That software you buy at the store didn't just work on the developers pc and every one elses from the first build.

 

Anyway, thanks again for watching!

[AV8R]

MetalnWood,

 

This is amazing. Correction, you are amazing...

 

Is there a chance you can port this to the win-mobile for the PocketPC

platform? They are much cheaper and are small touch panels with WiFi or USB.

I use a HP PocketPC with the MFP software for FalconAF's ICP.

If interested, please contact me and ill be happy to work it with you.

[metalnwood]

Hi AV8R, I think you may have missed my last couple of posts, thanks for the compliment though ;)

[609 Avatar]

I think we have to respect metals decision. Building a tool for home use is one.. Making it Apple app ready it something else. It is good he is realistic and tells us this now and not in a few weeks.

 

He showed us that it is possible. Now it is for the next developer to go ahead and make it for the mass. I'm sure it's gonna sell good one's A-10 is officially released. Every A-1oc simmer with an Ipad will buy it.

 

Totally right. No disrespect meant, metalnwood, it was only showing my great disappointment after being quite excited by what you showed. I can totally understand metalnwood's reasons for not continuing with this. Guess I need to wait longer before hitting the send button and showing my emotional state. :D

[OutOnTheOP]

Could you share with us the technique you used to capture the screenshots? This could be extremely useful, as it would be possible, using Helios or similar, to macro a set of keystrokes that, when a CDU button is struck, automatically switch to the CDU repeater page on the MFCD, take a screenshot, then switch back to the page it was on.

[Gadroc]

Could you share with us the technique you used to capture the screenshots? This could be extremely useful, as it would be possible, using Helios or similar, to macro a set of keystrokes that, when a CDU button is struck, automatically switch to the CDU repeater page on the MFCD, take a screenshot, then switch back to the page it was on.

 

The feature is already built into the latest Helios beta.

[OutOnTheOP]

so it is! I should check the downloads more often!

 

...now the question is, is there any automation (script-wise) to be done in Helios so I don't have to manually do a 5-6 step script for every button press on the CDU? I can see where the "screen replicator" could but used in conjunction with a script tying CDU presses to an OSB... 9, I think(?)-whatever the CDU page OSB is on the MFCDs- to automatically pull a replication of the updated CDU image. However, is there a function in the "screen replicator" that will tell it to stop replication after an alloted TIME rather than after an action or button press?

 

What I imagine is a script along these lines: CDU button press> MFCD OSB9 (call up CDU)> initiate screen replication> take one screenshot > end screen replication> return MFCD to setting it was on before.

 

The issues I would have now are 1) I don't see where there's a means of automatically turning the screen replicator off without tying it to "CDU whatever released", which, depending how long the player held the button, could leave the CDU pulled up on the MFCD quite some time, and 2) how does one script the MFCD to return to the previously displayed page?

Edited January 6, 2011 by OutOnTheOP