Buccaneer

Wimpinator asked in this thread (http://www.tacticalgamer.com/armed-a...otas-tir.html). “Buccaneer, I looked up the touch buddy stuff and it looks really interesting. did you build it yourself? If so what hardware did you use?”

I sincerely hope that I can do “Touchbuddy” (from here on in known as TB), and especially its creator “Zorlac” (know on TG as Zorlac gd) justice. Wild Bill Kelso, is the creator of the TB Toolkit (a GUI interface that makes creating your own profiles a doddle).

The other “contributors” (Ruggbutt, Sytrep, Magnum, WBK, Blaster, to name just a few) have all put a lot of time and effort in to creating profiles for various games. Most of them are for the Flight Sim Community, to which TB was originally geared. However, you can program TB to simulate any key press for any application or game. (For example I use it to control short cuts in Premiere Pro).

TB was actually brought to the mainstream in a thread over at LockOn.ru. However, Zorlac explains it so much better here: http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51

The biggest expense with TB is the Touchscreen itself. I myself use the LinITX (this was the model Zorlac was using during TB’s first outing). I use the Client/Server mode. (This is using another old PC to run TB in Client mode. My games PC listens out in Server mode). Lots of Touchscreen models are discussed here in this thread: http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=8

The following are pictures (they speak a thousand words, especially with TB) of the various contributors profiles. With regards to Ruggs F15 profile for Lock On. Zorlac has all the LUA data from the TEWS & Weapons load outs appear in real time on the display.

All the switches that are highlighted are fully functioning, animated switches. You turn something on – the switch goes to on. You can carry out a RAMP start for the F4AF F16, from the TB screens – that’s how good they are!

Magnums F4AF Profile has hotspots, that take you to the specific panel. For example, clicking on any of the hotspots in the Centre panel, takes you to that (zoomed in) panel. You would have to see it in action to see what I am trying to explain!

Credits to the original posters (Ruggbutt, Sytrep, Zorlac, WBK, Vegas, Magnum and others).

Finally there are a few screenshots of my own humble efforts with ArmA. Squad/Armoured units that are selected will revert back to their default state once the action you have ordered has been carried out. You can order them as individuals, or as a whole unit. You can call it a WIP – I know I will be adding to it all the time.

I also took a screen shot of the Teamspeak “Module” – You can see how many people are in Channel. Zorlac is working towards this Module to actually display user names.
On my Comms Panel, I can quite easily switch between Community Channel, or all four ArmA channels.

I hope I have been able to explain what Touchbuddy can do for your gaming experience in some small way. Thanks for reading.

1. Sytrep F4AF Profile
2. Magnum F4AF Profile
3. Ruggbutt F15 Profile (Lock On)
4. My ArmA profile






Finally - How the Touchscreen becomes part of your gaming setup

Zorlac_gd

Nicely done You missed the part about being able to display PDFs/word docs/web-sites/movies in ActiveX modules on tabs, but as you said, there is just so much to TB now that its hard to explain it.

I would post some more pics, but "You are only allowed to post URLs to other sites after you have made 15 posts or more.".

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BHack

thats wild

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Zorlac_gd

Do you still use that Ergodex that is propped up against the wall in your desktop picture?

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Wimpinator

Good writeup and thanks for the links. I remember seeing this project a long time ago and thinking "I really need one of these". I may have to build one to go with my teamspeak radio.

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|TG-6th|Wimpinator

Buccaneer

Yes I do Z. Only as the Left/Right MFD's in F4AF (even though all the F4AF profiles already have these already). And thats all its used for!

John CANavar

Very impressive... Looks like flight sim community kept it as a secret This is the first Touchbuddy thread I've seen on TacticalGamer...

Thanks for letting us know Buccaneer...

And Zorlac, you are the man ! This is a great (functional and practical) gaming accessory/controller. How come game controller companies couldnt see or do what you did?

I am checking the links to get answers to some questions like:
- how much it costs
- what components are needed
- is it easy to program interfaces for a game
...

John CANavar

All right, the more I read about this the more I wanna TOUCH !

So far, it looks like only a few simulations have touchbuddy profiles. Which brings back the question how easy it is to program an interface.

Lets say I want to see my map (Armed Assault or BF2) on LCD screen. Nothing fancy. How easy it is to do that?

Buccaneer

To make a basic profile is quite easy. On the TB Forum there are lots of how to's. Bill Kelso has also made a video tutorial on how to make a few basic buttons using MS Paint.

The TB Toolkit is quite intuitive once you get the hang of it. But like everything in life, there is a bit of a learning curve first.

Static Maps are displayed as Jpegs etc. However, moving maps are a different kettle of fish. I've already asked Zorlac for a moving map for ArmA - Especially for pilots! (He has the game, and it is difficult, if not impossible to impliment) - You need to fire this question at the man himself John.

You can do that here : http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=23

Zorlac_gd

Are you talking about an "active" map thats pulled from live game data, or a static PDF (or JPEG, GIF, etc) of the map displayed on the touchscreen? The former is hard, the latter is easy (if you already have the map in a format that can be used).

If you are after a simple to use "just buttons and some different tabs" profile, lets just say that once you get to know the TouchBuddy Toolkit GUI application, that creating the images to go on the buttons will take longer than creating the profile... honestly! The learning curve seems steep, but its not really, its just a new application that has so much flexibility to provide the profiles for TouchBuddy itself. I would say that the "hardest" part is learning how the macro system works, how the system "sees" keyboard events, and working out what you want to do. Its not rocket science, almost everyone "gets it" really quickly.

There are a couple of demo videos, showing the Toolkit at work. Both are available Under the Downloads/Uploads -> Stable section on the touch-buddy.com/forums section (I dont have enough posts on these forums to post a direct URL .. bah!)

"Toolkit Demo Video - Create a Simple Profile" shows WBK creating a very simple profile, all the way from making the images, to showing it working in game.

The "Toolkit/TouchBuddy Lomac Active Modules" video shows how to use the Tookit to add one of the hard coded "active modules" into a pre-existing profile. Both vids are about making profiles for Lockon/Lomac, but thats where both WBK and myself came from, and where the biggest userbase is right now.

The active modules are new for v1.3, and require myself to code these into the application, so more modules will get added as I go along for various games (as my budget permits me to buy these games that I use only for development then never play again )

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icky

That's cool! I'm glad this wasn't what I first expected when I read the word "Touchbuddy".

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Peace through fear... since 1947!

Zorlac_gd

Oh, there is also a VERY old movie available that actually shows the touchscreen being used with Lomac (its from back in April 2006), but as I cant post URLs, PM me if you want the link to that video (i`ll come back and change this post once I get over 15 posts and can post URLs).

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Zorlac_gd

Everyone laughs... but everyone remembers the name ;-)

(Just how many other clean words could I use that have "touch" in them? Err...actually, lets not go there...)

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Buccaneer

Wild Bill Kelso : Download the video: http://touch-buddy.com/forums/local_links.php?catid=1

Wild Bill Kelso: Google Link

Creating a simple profile: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...11642866&hl=en

Using the simple profile: http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...63086815169049

Shiner

Very impressive!

Hopefully the cost of these units will continue to fall. I could see myself doing this for $50-$75. Given electronic's deflation that may be in the next 2 years.

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