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#2202885 - 05/03/07 11:26 PM How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. *****  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Hi all,
Some of you may have read about this before in the EECHCommServer thread, but I thought it was worth starting a new one so people don't have to wade through pages of tech talk before finding the links. I'll keep this first post updated with the latest downloads.

For those of you who didn't read the other thread, a few pictures should be more informative than a lengthy explanation. All the following images are taken from a second PC which is networked to the one on which EECH is running. Almost everything you see in these shots is responding to live data from the sim.

Commanche:


Hokum:


Havoc:


I've uploaded a full setup guide here which includes links to all the downloads, and the latest UDPSpeed sets for each helicopter are also listed below:

UDPSpeed_Commanche_Beta_02.zip (03/05/07 added more data to the top left screen and changed the colour of the digital readouts)

UDPSpeed_Hokum_Beta_08.zip (03/05/07 removed some redundant files and renumbered the subfolders)

UDPSpeed_Havoc_Beta_05.zip (03/05/07 added weapons payload panel and changed text colour of the digital fuel display).


Getting all this stuff working has been a real international collaboration, with contributions from Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Germany and Britain. I wouldn't have had a chance in hell of doing it myself without a lot of hard work behind the scenes from the following coders:

-Hruks and Alezz, the authors of UDPSpeed, particularly Hruks who's been extraordinarily patient with my repeated requests for new features. Thanks to him a bit of software which was designed to display a few simple gauges for a WWII sim is now capable of handling the complexity of a modern helicopter gunship.

-Retro who created the shared memory feature for EECH and wrote the EECHCommServer, without which none of my UDPSpeed sets for this sim would have been possible.

-_mue who coded the exporting of the MFDs -a wonderful feature which has really added to the utility and fun of displaying a cockpit on a second screen.

Thanks very much guys! \:\)
Cheers,
DD

#2203024 - 05/04/07 05:59 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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Colonel_Kurtz Offline
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Just a quick question -

Currently i run two PC's and one Laptop on LAN. I use the p4 1.6ghz as my EECH server, which I connect to via a second p4 3ghz running EECH as a client. I found this the most stable way to run a EECH server as my input on the client PC doesnt effect other players.

So with the mod you guys have created I could unfold my P3 1.2ghz laptop in front of my client PC's LCD and use it for my cockpit controls? without inpacting at all with the server PC?

Exciting stuff \:\)

#2203028 - 05/04/07 06:01 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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Kassie Offline
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Originally Posted By: [S
DickDastardly]... so people don't have to wade through pages of tech talk before finding the links. I'll keep this first post updated with the latest downloads.

That's exactly suited for my situation! Thank you! \:\)

#2203265 - 05/04/07 01:56 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: Colonel_Kurtz]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Originally Posted By: Colonel_Kurtz
So with the mod you guys have created I could unfold my P3 1.2ghz laptop in front of my client PC's LCD and use it for my cockpit controls? without impacting at all with the server PC?

Yep, that's right. As for the minimum required specs for the PC displaying UDPSpeed, I'm not too sure what they are. I currently use a 2GHz PC with on-board graphics, though in the past I used a P2 450MHz laptop (but that was with my less complicated Spitfire and BF-109 sets which obviously have no MFDs).
Cheers,
DD

#2206008 - 05/08/07 03:14 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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DarKcyde Offline
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You guys suck. <sarcasm> Now i have to figure out how to add a FOURTH monitor into my setup!

hehe.


Cheers guys, this is awesome. The phenomenon that is EECH never ceases to amaze.

#2293295 - 08/24/07 04:34 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: DarKcyde]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Woohoo! Just received new versions of both the MFD exporter from _mue and EECHCommServer from Retro. The result? Working gauges, lights and MFDs all displayed on a second PC (which now include all arneh's groovy new colour pages from 1.90). I've also begun to adapt the Havoc UDPSpeed set to incorporate its newly functional MFD:


Haven't quite finished yet, but expect new versions of all three sets in the next few days.
Cheers,
DD

#2293303 - 08/24/07 05:18 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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GrizzlyT Offline
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Excellent news.
I have been anxiously awaiting mue and Retro's new .exe's, too. Can you post links to them (or update the links in your set-up guide) before you complete the UDPSpeed sets?

re: mue's .exe - Has the 32 bit limitation been fixed?
re: Retro's .exe - Are Altitude Hold and Over-Torque functional, in the Comanche set now?


Grizzly's Comanche Simulator
"Fear is the mind killer. - Frank Herbert"
#2293340 - 08/24/07 08:38 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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GlynD Offline
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Great news chap, waiting with baited breath! This also allows just the MFDs to be exported to a second screen on the main PC (if you have a dual head graphics card) doesn't it?

Cheers

#2293342 - 08/24/07 08:48 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: GlynD]  
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Fufunka Offline
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I just can't get my mind around the fact this has not been made a sticky thread from the start.
This is apparently the most important mod to the game in several years apart from the great evolutionary .exe progress to 1.9.x I'm glad you have jumped on the EECH bandwagon when I asked you at the IL2 forums. Thanks again DickD and the entire "export cockpit" team!

--


http://img150.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ka52cockpitwcshighlightedlv5.jpg

Btw. any plans on future revisions to include the WCS (Weapons control system) panel into your Hokum's panel export? We can see the rounds remaining for the guns, rocket pods, vikhrs etc. jettison system, laser and master arm are part of the panel too. The weapon pod lights seem to be already modelled in the Havoc, so you probably have the code..

Commented pictures and overall description midpage here:
http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=321002&page=0&fpart=26

Confirmation of the button functions, it could be also derived from the lats build video of BlackShark..
http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post321002

Last edited by Fufunka; 08/24/07 09:28 AM.
#2293373 - 08/24/07 10:41 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: GrizzlyT]  
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_mue Offline
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Mfd export is now in the cvs, so 1.9.1 will have this feature.

Originally Posted By: GlynD
Great news chap, waiting with baited breath! This also allows just the MFDs to be exported to a second screen on the main PC (if you have a dual head graphics card) doesn't it?
Cheers

Yes. Actually the mfd export feature only displays the mfd on a second screen on the main PC.
DickDastardly uses MaxiVista to send the mfds to a second PC. BTW nice idea!

Originally Posted By: GrizzlyT

re: mue's .exe - Has the 32 bit limitation been fixed?

No, not yet. But coming soon.

#2293491 - 08/24/07 02:39 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: _mue]  
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Fufunka Offline
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-mue> thanks. I think it's certainly great to have these two distinct options for MFD exports..
The MaxiVista might be usefull also one day when hopefully triplehead is enabled at EECH, so you can have free all these d-sub/dvi ports just for your 3x monitor setup..

--

Also in terms of the MaxiVista approach there seems to be a powerfull addon driver for the TightVNC software which enables fast VNC services across the network, basically a high speed transfer of desktop views between PCs over the LAN.. Perfomancewise not sure which is better, but one day MaxVista might alter the demo or go under etc..

Details TightVNC driver/addon mirroring video driver:
http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html#addons

It uses the following free DFMirage mirror display driver for Windows OS family:
http://www.demoforge.com/dfmirage.htm

"..Mirroring is a technically superior method when compared to primitive screen grabbing, because it allows the capture of only the minimally updated regions and retrieves the data directly, bypassing the intermediate copy. Using the DFMirage video hook driver solves the problem of reliably and efficiently detecting modified areas on the screen.."

The mirror drivers should support "arbitrary clip region in the virtual desktop" too!
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms797878.aspx

Last edited by Fufunka; 08/24/07 03:01 PM.
#2293561 - 08/24/07 04:50 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: Fufunka]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Originally Posted By: GrizzlyT
Are Altitude Hold and Over-Torque functional, in the Comanche set now?

On the Comanche set, everything which works in the VC also now works in UDPSpeed, including the ALT HLD light. Unfortunately the overtorque light doesn't work in any of the UDPSpeed sets (or in EECH itself), although you do at least get an audible warning.

Originally Posted By: Fufunka
Btw. any plans on future revisions to include the WCS (Weapons control system) panel into your Hokum's panel export? We can see the rounds remaining for the guns, rocket pods, vikhrs etc. jettison system, laser and master arm are part of the panel too. The weapon pod lights seem to be already modelled in the Havoc, so you probably have the code.

I'd like to replace the dummy panel in the top right corner of the Hokum set with something functional and the WCS is a good candidate, especially as arneh has apparently added some export capability for the required variables. At the moment, though, I don't think EECH is actually assigning the values to any Devicelink keys (which is what I need to happen in order for UDPSpeed to access them). Hopefully Retro or arneh can sort that out soon and then I'll be able to add more weapons stuff to that set.

The next Hokum release, however, will probably be similar to the last one, but with the addition of the new colour MFD screens, some general optimizations and the addition of MFD focus lights. (The Havoc situation is a bit different in that it has some DL keys which tell me if each is hardpoint is damaged, selected, or out of ammo, although I don't currently have access to the amount of ammo or counter-measures remaining, or the type of weapon installed in each location).
Cheers,
DD

P.S. I'll try and upload _mue's new executable tonight, so those who are just using the MFDs without the gauges and lights can start enjoying the new colour pages on another screen.

#2293897 - 08/25/07 02:25 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Okay guys, I've uploaded the latest executable from _mue here. I'll update the first post and the install guide when the UDPSpeed sets are ready, but if you're using the MFDs by themselves, all you really need to know is that there's now an extra line at the end of eech.ini which specifies the position of the Havoc's MFD:

MEMEXPORT=1 # enables export of cockpit information to a shared memory area
export_mfd=1 # enables mfd export on multimon systems (0 = off (default), 1 = on
export_mfd_adapter=0 # graphicadapter for mfd export screen(0=first, 1=second, ...)
export_mfd_screen_width=1280 # resolution of export screen (width)
export_mfd_screen_height=720 # resolution of export screen (height)
export_mfd_left_pos=80,240,560,720 # left mfd position
export_mfd_right_pos=720,240,1200,720 # right mfd position
export_mfd_single_pos=587,96,843,352 # single mfd position (havoc/hind/ka50)
[end of file]

For those who are waiting for the UDPSpeed sets, here're a few camera-phone shots of them in action to tide you over:









(The bottom 40% or so of each photo is my physical cockpit with a TFT displaying UDPSpeed and _mue's MFDs, whilst the external view is a 6ft image projected onto a screen a few feet further back). I'm using the Comanche set with the Apache in the last pic, as only the basic flight data is currently exported for that heli (though its MFDs work fine).
Cheers,
DD

#2324485 - 08/26/07 06:12 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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Retro Offline
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Very cool pictures.


Mr. Zorg: If ya want something done...do it yourself!!
#2349105 - 10/02/07 01:37 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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ColinC Offline
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DickDastardly, is there any chance of getting this on a second monitor on the same PC?

Just wondering :-)

#2349291 - 10/02/07 05:28 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: ColinC]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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The MFDs work fine displayed on a 2nd monitor on the same PC. UDPSpeed, however, tends to be a bit of a frame rate killer when run on the same PC as the sim (although it has no impact when running on a different PC). If you want to try it anyway you just have to reposition the gauges on the second screen. You can do so by just dragging them over, though for best results you should edit the ini files and add the appropriate amount to the lines beginning "x=" and "y=".
Cheers,
DD

#2349589 - 10/03/07 12:06 AM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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GlynD Offline
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Can I ask, do you have plans to do an Apache set please chap?

Cheers

#2353849 - 10/08/07 11:45 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: GlynD]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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I'd love to, but most of the Apache data isn't currently exported by eechcommserver. If Retro can add the needed vars then I'll definitely make an Apache set but there's not much I can do without him. I haven't heard from him for a while - I think he's been travelling with work a lot recently so hopefully when he's back he'll have some time to finish off the few remaining bugs with the Comanche, Havoc and Hokum and then tackle the Apache.
Cheers,
DD

#2364497 - 10/27/07 12:44 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: {S}DickDastardly]  
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Retro Offline
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I added two pages on our wiki about this feature but it is still very incomplete or even wrong. It would be great if people could give it a look over and add some stuff (maybe add another page about mue's stuff).

I'll try to get up to date on what's happening with the commserver but as i'm without email access could you, {S}DickDastardly please pm me your latest in which we talked about some wrong/missing ids in my last release (hope you read this..).


Mr. Zorg: If ya want something done...do it yourself!!
#2366046 - 10/29/07 08:12 PM Re: How to display working cockpit gauges, lights & MFDs on a second PC or monitor. [Re: Retro]  
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{S}DickDastardly Offline
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Hi Retro,
Great to hear from you again m8 :). I've been working on some bits and pieces for FSX recently (and am just on my way out the door to a pub quiz tonight) but I'll dig out all the EECH stuff and get it to you ASAP (in the next coupla days). Am really looking forward to getting the sets properly finished off :).
Cheers,
DD


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