Well, here's mine

[ruggbutt]

I had to use Photomerge to get the whole "office" in the shot. I decided to go with something more "desklike". I may at a later date add front vertical cockpit panel if I can get 3 touchscreens working separately from each other. My gear consists of an X Keys Pro, CH Fighterstick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals, Throttle Quadrant and DT225 (trackball); a Saitek Eclipse keyboard and a touchscreen using TouchBuddy™ software. The white Compac computer is currently running just the touchscreen (it's a 1.3 Athlon). I intend to build a mini ITX rig in a box about the size of the TQ's body, which will run all 3 touchscreens. Not shown in the pic is the Buttkicker Gamer. I also have another Surround setup (Logitech Z-5500) setup that I'll get working one of these days, although the speakers in my 27" monitor (plus the Buttkicker) work fine.

The other desk is my combined work and FPS desk, which I have an Ergodex hooked up to for controlling my player.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/both_desks.jpg

[liquid_rockface]

Great setup and great photo! Good merging! Rep on your six!

[Hell Sqn Protos]

S~!

Ruggbutt show them the touchbuddy & program your working on.

[ruggbutt]

S~!
Ruggbutt show them the touchbuddy & program your working on.
Rgr! Basically, the touchscreen along w/the TouchBuddy program allows you to send any command you like by touching the screen. Zorlac (the creator of TB) coded hotspots (think invisible buttons) so that you can use a static or semi-static background image. Since I fly the 15 in Lock On, I figured I shouldn't be punished by not having a clickable pit. Touchbuddy does this, although you're touching the 8" screen, not your main one. It goes a long way towards immersion. You can do as many "pages" in TB as you like, so I decide to do the front cockpit panel, and both side panels with corresponding hot spots and animated switches/buttons/lights. Say you wanna put your gear up, you select the center cockpit page and touch the gear lever on the touchscreen. The lever "moves" and the lights change from green (down and locked) to dark green, almost black. Also, if .lua allows in whatever sim we're flying, we can export that data and reproduce it on the touchscreen. For instance, the moving map display. Talk about a poor man's glass pit!!!

Anyhow, here's my WIP (work in progress) shot of the center panel. I'm doing the screens from a black and white drawing (actually blueprints). While I'm an artist IRL, I'm not a graphics artist. But it translates over. And the gear knob isn't final, I was just playing around with some ideas. IIRC it's suppsed to be red or reddish in color.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/f15.jpg

[Corsair 8X]

Holy crap, that is simply awesome. Most of the other "screens" of the TB I saw were not that impressive so I sort of dismissed the unit. But THAT, you could become the Ayes of TB. I can see it now, 3 TBs, one for each MFD. I would be one who would definitely pay for that kind of quality work if I got TB.

[ruggbutt]

But THAT, you could become the Ayes of TB.
I was thinking about reskinning Lock On's F15 cockpit. It's pretty good but I think I can improve upon it.

TB is so versatile that you can do anything with it. If your sim provides lua exporting of positional data (like the moving map) it can be reproduced in TB.

[Corsair 8X]

I was thinking about reskinning Lock On's F15 cockpit. It's pretty good but I think I can improve upon it.

TB is so versatile that you can do anything with it. If your sim provides lua exporting of positional data (like the moving map) it can be reproduced in TB.

It would be pretty cool if a sim can export just what's on the screen of each MFD at the time. Combine that with your artwork and you end up with a pretty amazing cockpit.

[Bogusheadbox]

If you don't already, you need to work for touch buddy. That makes me want to buy one.

Bloody brilliant mate.

[ruggbutt]

Thanks. When Zorlac created the program he had no artwork at all. I asked him to beta test it and I made 150 "buttons" for the program, kind of a starter kit so that the new people would have something other than flat one color graphics. TB is starting to become popular and there are others who have made some nice graphics. With the advances in programming we can do more, which has led me to doing what you see here. 1.02 will have some amazing features, head and shoulders above what we could do with the last version.

Even though I'm not coding anything I'm on the TB team and I do requests. ;) I intend to do all the "cockpits" for Lock On, including recreating the Ka50 pit, which will be a job in itself. Mainly putting the profile together for 600 or so commands for the choppper. One of the Falcon guys over there sent me the blueprints for an F16, so I imagine that's in the future as well.

[Corsair 8X]

Even though I'm not coding anything I'm on the TB team and I do requests. ;) I intend to do all the "cockpits" for Lock On, including recreating the Ka50 pit, which will be a job in itself. Mainly putting the profile together for 600 or so commands for the choppper. One of the Falcon guys over there sent me the blueprints for an F16, so I imagine that's in the future as well.

Okay, now I'm going to have to really start looking into this as an option. When you say "cockpits" for all those aircraft, do you mean panels, mfds, and stuff? How many TB monitors could we conceivably have?

[ruggbutt]

Okay, now I'm going to have to really start looking into this as an option. When you say "cockpits" for all those aircraft, do you mean panels, mfds, and stuff? How many TB monitors could we conceivably have?
Yep, cockpits/panels and anything else. Zorlac says that you can run more than one touchscreen, but as of yet no one has tried it. I'm going to see if one of my squaddies will come up from Tucson and we'll give it a shot. I can run 2 separate instances of TB on my desktop and they run independantly of each other. I ran Vegas' F4/AF profile and WBK's A10-LOMAC profile. No issues so far, so now we need to try more than one touchscreen. :D

[Cali]

I see you did a little more work on the TB Rugg, it's looking good.

[SpinKick]

I see you did a little more work on the TB Rugg, it's looking good.

Cali,

It seems your signature is prompting for a login to a secure website :bigeyes: ... http://202.173.131.219/sigs/sigpic169_1.jpg

That IP address is specifically included in the prompt. Thought you would want to know.

[ruggbutt]

Cali, I can host your sig if you like.

Here's a shot of how it looks on the touchscreen:

http://iplaster.net/rugg/tbcloseup.jpg

[Zorlac]

Holy crap, that is simply awesome. Most of the other "screens" of the TB I saw were not that impressive so I sort of dismissed the unit.

I wish I could draw... I really do... but I cant..... thankfully, there are people around like Rugg to help me out when my artistic skills fail badly :)

[ruggbutt]

I can't code like you so we're even. ;)

[Cali]

OOPS that sig is from when I was in the 169th, it's gone now!

[ruggbutt]

Ok, here's a progress report: The center panel is done, which is the hardest to do. For the side panels it will be faster because I only have to make a couple button types of each and a couple knob types. I'm also posting the legend for the keypresses, if you have any suggestions or better ideas I'm all ears. ;) All the hotspots are in green.

Another thing, when you declutter the TEWS the Mig25 graphic will disappear.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/f15_center_panel.jpg

http://iplaster.net/rugg/f15_legend.jpg

[Brickbat]

Dang, Ruggbutt, that is freakin' awesome! You have got what I, (and I'm sure others), only dream about having! I know that set up ain't cheap either. Most of our money goes into that BOAT we have, which stands for Break Out Another Thousand!...LOL... Excellent set-up, it'd be hard to pry me away from that! I'm trully impressed!:poundit:

[Hell Sqn Protos]

S~!

The above system can be had for around 200 dollars. Not expensive at all. All you need is a good 7-8 inch touchscreen lcd. The program is free (for now) and there are profiles for many planes.

I have been trying to get my hands on a particular lcd and will install this a.s.a.p - highly recommended.

[Brickbat]

You freakin'-A-Skipper I'm looking into having a set-up like that. WOW!

[ruggbutt]

A couple of my squaddies and I are going to do some bulk purchases on touchscreens. I need two more. ;)

[Adder]

I don't understand this entirely yet.

I understand that you're simply taking an image file and displaying it on the touchscreen for the MFD background and assigning hotspots for the button functions to the image.

But then how do you get it to display the in-game MFD pages correctly if I'm looking around the cockpit in the game with TrackIR?

[ruggbutt]

The only way to get any kind of in game info exported is if the developer adds it with .lua functions.

[Adder]

The only way to get any kind of in game info exported is if the developer adds it with .lua functions.

Does the Touchbuddy team plan on distributing/selling customized code for these kinds of requests? That would really be the make or break point for me as far as purchasing a touchscreen.

It just wouldn't be right not having the pages on the MFD.

[ruggbutt]

All of our profiles are distributed free, as is the software. What I'm doing is adding all of the commands available for the F15 in Lock On. If you want to cycle the taxi/landing lights you have to know to go to the left panel and know which switch to throw. Think of it as a clickable cockpit w/out having to use the mouse and a cursor to make your choice. If you're anything like I am, you aren't thrilled with having to send commands to your fave sim with your keyboard. CTRL C just isn't as fun as clicking on the open canopy graphic (and watching the lever move or the lights turn on/off).

My squadron is going to be making some bulk purchases soon, as I intend to run 3 touchscreens in my cockpit. If we get a sim that will export the in game MFD/MPCD info I can make skins that look like actual MPCD's and the pages will be sync'd with the sim. Rumor has it that we may be getting .lua export data for the moving map display when Black Shark is released. How great would that be to call up your moving map on one touchscreen while viewing different pages on the others. And the best part is that you can change profiles quickly, so if you're flying that A10 thepanels you see on the touchscreens looks like the real thing.

[BHawthorne]

How plausable would it be to implement T-6B with this type of setup?

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6707/bpanelfullhc8.jpg

[Hell Sqn Protos]

S~!

The program is not plane dependent. As long as the control is in the sim and can be 'assigned' then touchbuddy can replicate it.

[ruggbutt]

If you can output the data from the sim (such as the gauges in those three MPCD's) you can duplicate it on the TouchBuddy.

[ruggbutt]

Update, almost done with the left panel:

http://iplaster.net/rugg/left_panel.jpg

[PiF]

Nice !!:thumb:

[A.S]

How plausable would it be to implement T-6B with this type of setup?

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6707/bpanelfullhc8.jpg

:bigeyes: :bigeyes:
dont tell me that is a FO screenshot WOW.... i really was watching long to figure out if it is real OR sim-gfx.

[kydius]

Damn ruggbutt, if you made this all by yourself you've got some f***ing nice design talent!

Maybe someday you'll be making cockpits for FO :bigsmile:

[ruggbutt]

Maybe someday you'll be making cockpits for FO :bigsmile:
Anything can happen. ;)

[Luke1]

that cockpit looks neat...Man I wish i had talent like that.. Good job guy..

[Cali]

I neeeeed moneeeeeey, dont want to wait, the voices are talking to me again. no I can't....you can't make me....yes dear I wont.

[ruggbutt]

The right panel is done, now I gotta put the profile together, should be available this week for you TB™ users.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/right_panel_complete.jpg

[Jackal]

You really did a very good job, ruggbutt, congratulations!
Would this be possible with USAF too, to your opinion?
Jackal out.

[ruggbutt]

Yes. The touchscreen runs separate from the game, but will send keyboard commands to the game.

[Jackal]

Thanks, ruggbutt, I'll give it a try sooner or later.
Jackal out.

[BHawthorne]

:bigeyes: :bigeyes:
dont tell me that is a FO screenshot WOW.... i really was watching long to figure out if it is real OR sim-gfx.
Na, that's just a promo shot from Raytheon of the real T-6B cockpit. Looks pretty decent as a simpit project. To top it off noone else is doing one atm, so it would be more original that the average F-16 pit. Not that simpits are ever "average". :smile:

[Corsair 8X]

My squadron is going to be making some bulk purchases soon, as I intend to run 3 touchscreens in my cockpit.

Now I know that you are running a networked computer to control your Touch-Buddy stuff, so with that setup can you run multiple screens on the one extra computer, or would you need multiple slave computers? Also, could you run that multi-touchscreen setup off of just one main computer (no networking). I know I've asked a similar question before but your statement makes me wonder if there have been new developments in multiple screen ability.

[ruggbutt]

I'm running the networked computer with 2 touchscreens. Windows allows you to run dualview with 2 separate screens, so I start up one TB profile and drag it to the small screen. I start up the other one and let it go full screen on my big screen. The profiles operate independantly from each other.

I have no idea about running 3 touchscreens on the same rig though. I know you can add a PCI card (not PCI-E) to any computer but I'm not sure how you'd configure 3 screens thru windows.

[ruggbutt]

Here's a shot of my pit with 2 working touchscreens. I'm running two different profiles at once. It don't get better than this! On the middle touchscreen the buttons and switches are lifesize.

If you look closely at the 17" touchscreen, you can see how the monitor frame is silver while the overlay frame is black. The overlay is really well built and it's heavier than I thought it would be.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/they_work.jpg

[Rhino4]

*Droooooooool*
"Whoops, I've just spit on my mouse..."
*Wipes it up and then looks at the picture again*
*Droooooooool*
"Whoops I've just spilled saliva on my crotch..."
*Changes pants and then looks at the picture again*
*Droooooooool*

[Lawndart]

Very nice work with the TB's ruggbutt. Lots of nice jazz with that setup too (slurp!).

What kind of ViewSonic are you sporting?

[ruggbutt]

The big one is an N2750W, and the one under the touchscreen is a VA721.

[Cobra]

i feel the timing is right to finally release a picture of my "pit"

[Vampyre]

i feel the timing is right to finally release a picture of my "pit"

Wow! Looks exactly like my pit after a hard two hours of flight simming!:rofl

Tomcats Rule! Anytime Baby!

[GunnyMac]

Here's a link to mine I built a few years back.

http://www.geocities.com/gunnymac222/GunnyMac.html?1157324049031

[ruggbutt]

I think I need a comfy chair like yours Gunny.

[GunnyMac]

Picked it up at the local wreaking yard for $20 bucks welded up some brackets and mounted it to an old rowing machine I had, I can rock all day :bigsmile: the seat is fully functional as it was in the car, I can reach down and pull the lever and slide it forward and back. I have a quick release bracket mounted to the front of the chair for the joystick, I work at a sign shop and designed and built the desk myself.

[ruggbutt]

As usual, pit building is never done. I added another X-Keys and I retired my 8" touchscreen in favor of another 17" touchscreen. I also built the center panel to mount them on like I swore I was gonna do someday. Now I gotta figure if the base the main monitor sits on is big enough to hold a 42" monitor............

http://iplaster.net/rugg/dual17's.jpg

I've finished my F15 profile for TouchBuddy™, you can check it out here (http://www.touch-buddy.com/forums/lockon/647-lock-flaming-cliffs-f-15-profile-v1-3-a.html).

I've started on an A10 profile for TB™, here's a WIP shot:

http://iplaster.net/rugg/a10_wip04.jpg

[Hipshot]

Hey Ruggbutt, fancy meeting you here!
As always your stuff sets the standard for TB profiles.
Here is something I put together for the Falcon crowd.
Most of the art is directley from DR.Stops block 52,
The Doc kindley gave me permission to use his work in this fashion.
As there seems to be some intrest here, thought I'd post ...If for no other reason, to show how versitile TB is. ( if I can do it...anybody can!):smile:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Hipshot99/2STOPSICP.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Hipshot99/V3RMFD-2.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y59/Hipshot99/V3RMFD-1.jpg

[ruggbutt]

Hi Hipshot, nice to see a TB™ convert over here!

[Lance]

can u see the actual MFD screens on that TB thing?!

Flip

[Hipshot]

nope, no live data from the sim(bummer)
but it will send commands to the sim even in the 3D pit!

[Lance]

nope, no live data from the sim(bummer)
but it will send commands to the sim even in the 3D pit!

wow thats still cool though!


Flip

[ruggbutt]

If the game will export data via .lua it's possible to see that stuff in TouchBuddy. For instance, in my F-15 profile the TEWS, the MCP and a simple payload display are all active. They receive the data from LOMAC and are updated every second.

[Prophet]

Does F4 glass get exported data? never used it, but I though it did. Which means the possibility is there to incorporate into TB.

[Pegasus]

Prophet,
The data exported via F4Glass is limited. It can not export the MFD data if MFD is not in view (showed in the main monitor). It is so for now as far as I know due to code restrictions. There were some work arounds to some extend though.

[ruggbutt]

Just a quick bump to tell you guys who don't have a touchscreen but have an extra monitor, you can use TB™ with a mouse. All you need are two outs on your vid card.

[Nikolas_A]

Prophet,
The data exported via F4Glass is limited. It can not export the MFD data if MFD is not in view (showed in the main monitor)...

F4Glass can't export MFD data, period. Doesn't matter if they are in view or not.

[Pegasus]

Charos,

Thanks for correction. I guess they didn't try to include MFD data in F4 Glass due to the reason I mentioned how F4 is coded (not calculating mfd data if not in view). I tried to mention that but put the words not correctly ;)

[Nikolas_A]

F4Glass reads data in text form from a shared memory file. This file was used for debugging but later sim builders used it to drive their instruments and lights.

The MFD picture is created in an alltogether different way, is not included in the shared memory file and needs *.exe and *.dat edits or other hacks to be exported

Nikolas

[Pacman]

I moved last year and since then finally have my own office space.

Thought I'd share it :wink2:

I'll try and upload the first one with less counter light when I get the chance to take it later this evening.

[Maple]

any updates on anyones new setup?

[ruggbutt]

I'll update you as soon as my 46" LCD gets here. :)

[Maple]

yea just got a 46" to

[BHawthorne]

My 4x 24" gaming setup. 7680x1200 of video card torturing pixels:

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/664/picture006xt5.jpg

[Cali]

My 4x 24" gaming setup. 7680x1200 of video card torturing pixels:

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/664/picture006xt5.jpg

Nice setup but your playing the wrong game...

[Emohawk]

Lol.... I feel like an amateur having only one 24" screen xD

[Maple]

nice!

[ruggbutt]

My pit for '09. That's a 46" Samsung 1080p monitor. 5 CH Controllers, 2 X-Keys, 2 Touchscreens (with TouchBuddy™ software), 5.1 Logitech surround, TrackIR 4/Vector, Buttkicker Gamer. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fly. I've been swamped at work, I work in the construction industry and I'm fortunate to have any work at all in this terrible economy.

http://iplaster.net/rugg/pit09a.jpg

http://iplaster.net/rugg/pit09b.jpg

[Thisdale]

My pit for '09. That's a 46" Samsung 1080p monitor. 5 CH Controllers, 2 X-Keys, 2 Touchscreens (with TouchBuddy™ software), 5.1 Logitech surround, TrackIR 4/Vector, Buttkicker Gamer. Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to fly. I've been swamped at work, I work in the construction industry and I'm fortunate to have any work at all in this terrible economy.



Mate, that's a very cool setup. How much do those touchscreen go by? is it hard to setup?

[ruggbutt]

The overlays are about $200US each. They're super easy to setup.

[Maple]

Wow thats a sick ass setup, hopefully I get my 46 to set up like that to!:thumb: