I'm not sure if everyone here knows what TouchBuddy is. I've come up with an idea that will allow the player to have more immersion in the game using TouchBuddy. I'm doing profiles for each plane that will use the proper switch or button that operates that system IRL. Take the F15 for example, which uses the MPCD and it's pages for different settings. Since the LOMAC MPCD doesn't work like the real one does, there are compromises. But I intend to skin each "page" of Touchbuddy with panels that resemble the F15's panels. For instance the main front panel in cockpit has the MPCD and lower to the left gear and flap controls and lights. That's one page in Touchbuddy.

Fuel management and lighting in the '15 are on the left panel. You'll have to know that to perform those commands. Here's my MPCD that's still WIP (work in progress). To the right is my reference pic, but it's a bit bluer in color than the real thing. The left panel controls are the correct color.



On the MPCD I'm going to add Vert Scan, Bore, TWS, RWS, and A/G mode (for strafing) on the buttons surrounding the MPCD. Yeah, I know it's not full real, but we don't have the option to do that with the '15 model in game. On that same panel we'll have the flaps and gear lights and levers. I'll abbreviate these into the front panel so that there will be more of a feeling you're in the pit.

The same can be done with the Black Shark controls. Using a mouse while flying can be a pain, especially 50 feet off the deck in a chopper. I imagine using TouchBuddy to duplicate the panels and switches and they can be done with a finger press from your left hand.

Here's a shot of a '15 left panel, see how each set of controls is modular? I'm shooting for that sort of look when making the left and right panels for the '15.



This profile will likely take a while to do since it's all from scratch, but I have blueprints of all the panels for the plane so it'll be as close to the real deal as is possible while still being functional. The MPCD is the hardest part of this profile, and it's about done so things should go quicker.

If you have ideas or input I'd love to hear from you. I believe wholeheartedly in the flexibility of TouchBuddy and I'm trying to take it to a new level. None of this couldn't be done without Zorlac, Wild Bill Kelso or Dodger. You guys rawk!

Cool!

wow

Oh Man! Awesome!

Nice!!!!

I've asked Zorlac to look into being able to change the MPCD screen images related to what command you choose in TouchBuddy. For instance, when you go to BVR mode, the weapons stores page will come up. If you go to a dump fuel button, the MPCD will change and reflect that function. He said he'd see what he could do.

Think about it, clickable cockpits are something most people want. What contributes more to immersion: Moving a mouse pointer in game or touching that particular button/switch on a cockpit panel? w00t!!

I'm done with the MPCD and I'm moving on to the flaps indicator and gear panel. Here's the panel blueprint:



I've updated the MPCD pic in the first post in this thread, it's also on the correct color background for the front panel in the F15.

I'm a little confused. Why not just the use the in-cockpit iamges from LOMAC?

That might not be a bad idea, but you can achieve photorealism in a static 2D image.

You can if you like. The only thing is that since the F15 doesn't have all the buttons and stuff that works you'd have alot of wasted space. I'm taking the current commands and merging them with the correct panels to make a profile. Here's the one I pulled from the game:



I like mine better.

Absolutely, good job with the panels. Are you a professional graphics artist?

I know you aren't going to believe this, but 2 weeks ago I wasn't this competent to a multitude of 10. Before that I was maybe average in Photoshop. I studied a couple of tutorials and something clicked for me. Now, I'm an artist and have sold many of my paintings and I do faux finishes and plasters for a living so art is in my blood. Here's a photo of one of my watercolors, it's on a full sheet of watercolor paper (22"x30").



Alot of the techniques and theory that I've learned from using a brush transferred right over into Photoshop. I learned how to do watercolor from books. I guess I'm able to apply what I read fairly well. Thanks for the compliment by asking if I was a graphics artist. If you click the links in my sig you'll see the mod team that I'm part of. Check out the weapon skins, Prozac did them. Prozac is one of the finest skinners I've ever seen and he is why I finally put my nose to the grindstone and started doing something in Photoshop.

Yours is much better. It is displayed on-screen as being viewed from infinty, with no vanishing point and no oblique angle. That is the proper perspective for this application.

I wouldnt call myself one of the finest skinners.

I like doing it thoe.

Is this going to work in the 3D pit?

I know nothing of pit making or art or game programing.

But yours looks 2D is that normal?

So you make everything 2D then LOMAC converts it?

No, it works in conjuntion with a touchscreen. To me, touching a screen where a button or switch resides is more immersive than moving a mouse cursor around.

This works outside Lock On's on-screen display of the cockpit. It is simply a device that sends keystrokes to the computer. Ruggbutt is taking some effort to make his work visually match that of the cockpit displayed on-screen in Lock On.

The same functionality with a lot less immersion could be achieved by simply programming a set of buttons to send the same keystrokes the TouchBuddy is sending.

Good explanation Joe, you do much better than I do at times. When LOBS is released I'll be doing the same thing, recreating all the panels so that when you click something in the "pit", you'll actually have your finger on a screen, not the main one of course but at this stage it makes sense. You'll have to keep your hand on your joystick to stay in control of the chopper.

I'm gonna hook up w/a couple of my guys in Tucson, because I think we can run 3 touchscreens at once. Think "glass cockpit". And if LOBS exports the moving map data we may have a "functioning" abris. We already have several Active X plugins, and some HTML plugins. There is a Map plugin that gives you theatre maps and maps of each airfield, all at a touch.

Think of the touchscreen as a combination keyboard/mouse. It runs separately from the game. The touchscreen can run in local mode (on your gaming rig) or client/server mode (local network). All you need is an open USB port and an open VGA plug on your vid card (most cards have 2). I run in client server mode, and I'm using an ancient 1.3 Athlon with an Mx400 vid card to connect the touchscreen to.

The buttons (or hotspots) on the touch screen are basically keyboard commands. When you touch the screen, it's equivalent of moving your mouse cursor over the button and clicking it.

You can add different "pages" to the touchscreen, the profile I use now has 7 pages. One for general commands, one for system, one for Nav, one for A/A, A/G, VHF (wingman commands) and UHF (tower and AWACS commands). To access each page there's a tab bar running across the bottom of the screen. Zorlac is looking into making the tabs look like regular buttons and eliminating the tab bar.

I have a couple hundred commands in my 199th profile, everything from screenshot to asking the AWACS to declare. Since we'll soon have hotspots (or invisible buttons) I can make a background image, place an invisible button over the area that I choose. For instance, I can have the gear lever and lights in an off state (gear up) and then make another graphic with the gear lever in the other position with "three down and locked".

You could take a picture of a real cockpit and skin it with hotspots and assign the commands to those hotspots. Touchbuddy is infinitely configurable.

I still need to freaken buy a 8" TLCD screen My contact in the states is not getting back to me I feel so alone

Rogue, there's a contest to create a banner/logo for Touchbuddy. First place is an 8" touchscreen.