Building An 8-Touchscreen Monitor Cockpit

[Waxer]

Back in late October, I purchased 8 touchscreen monitors in an attempt to create a fully-functional "glass" cockpit for F4AF.

There is a bunch of incredible, free software out there which makes this possible: Touch Buddy allows the creation of animated switches and knobs which send keyboard commands to Falcon; Lightning's MFD Extractor Utility which now has support for gauges and lights (Lightning has added functionality that surpasses the old F4Glass and FalconGauges programs); and F4Glass (which supports many gauges and is driven by the CPU as opposed to the GPU).

I've created my own custom Touchbuddy touchscreen profiles, with the help of the work HatTrick did back in August of last year.

I now have a fully-functioning touchscreen cockpit, which is laid out with one touchscreen per F-16 cockpit panel.

The four panels to either side of the pilot's seat (Panels A & B on the left, and Panels G & H on the right) are flat 7" touchscreens.

The main instrument panel is a 19" touchscreen system of its own which sits upright on my desk. Above it is a 32" Vizio HDTV acting as the HUD or 3D cockpit view. Below it is a vertical 7" touchscreen acting as the center console display.

To either side, vertically oriented and tilted at an angle, are two 7" touchscreens temporarily functioning as the left and right auxiliary panels. These will be replaced with 10" touchscreens soon, and the two 7" screens will go behind a pair of Thrustmaster MFD bezels.

When it's all fired up, I can reach out and touch every switch and knob in the 'pit; and all the gauges and the RWR, PFL, Caution Panel, and some of the lights animate. I can look up at the "out the window" view, or down at any of the panels and their gauges and I no longer need to mouse-click anywhere in the 'pit.

I've gotten both MFDs extracted to the front instrument panel touchscreen, but the fps varies considerably, so I'm going to transition those to directly-connect them to the Falcon rig, as opposed to sending all those animations over the network.

Here are a few screenies:

This is two photos stiched together in sort of a vertical overview of the whole 'pit.



The left side



The right side



Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpT-7qdzkgg Part 1 and Part 2 for a quick and dirty video of the 'pit in flight.

I'll post a ramp start video soon.

[Deathblow]

WOW... just WOW!

[WUB]

Hi Waxer!

Well I'm blown away, by your achievements! I'm not sure which bit
impresses me most. The interfacing and setup? The visual appeal?
The skill at selling the idea to your wife......

Regards - David

[LoyalNine]

Originally Posted by WUB

Hi Waxer!

The skill at selling the idea to your wife......

Regards - David

Isn't that the truth... My wife is an absolutely wonderful lady. But for someone who could show as little interest in my pc gaming hobby she is very quick to notice to newest of any small addition. There is now way this would pass under the RADAR. The sanctions I would receive are more than I care to risk at this time. ...but if you get that framerate issue sorted please let me know it may be worth it.

That is just wicked cool. I have considered the touchbuddy and have messed around with it on my second ( non touchscreen) monitor.
The only thIng that has kept me from doing it is the fact the MFDs don't have live displays. I just saw some small USB ts monitors somewhere and my mind is starting to spool.

You did an excellent job - very impressive.

[Kid]

Wow, awesome job. 3 Questions though..

a) How can you afford all that, are you super rich?
b) Why did your wife let you spend a fortune
c) Kinda dependant on b, but what is she gonna do when she finds out you've done all that (assuming you haven't told her)


Oh sorry, and D) when can i come and have a go?

[shawn]

Awesome Waxer. Touch buddy and touch monitors are really good. How do you you use 8 monitors? Do you use 2 or 3 computers to run falcon?

[Pinger]

I am so damn jealous. Congratulations Waxer. That is AWESOME!

[Toad]

yes. Very cool. Very very cool.

[spot]

Very cool Waxer!

[Toke]

Damn dude, that's very impressive.

[Waxer]

Thanks, it's been a "project" - that's for sure. I'll try to answer the questions before I upload some detailed screenies.

Originally Posted by Kid

Wow, awesome job. 3 Questions though..

a) How can you afford all that, are you super rich?

The cost of the monitors wasn't ginormous. I bought 7 MIMO Touchscreen USB monitors.

The only "luxury" purchase was I bought an MSI Windtop system to do most of the work. That's the one with the 19" touchscreen. I needed the USB and CPU/GPU horsepower to handle most of the gauges and lights (and eventually the MFDs). It's a dedicated system. Hey, I hadn't bought myself *any* toys all year!

I was going to use my old laptop to handle a few misc. screens, but it up and died, so I had to buy a new replacement anyway, so that cost was a "sunk cost" by any calculation. The 3rd system is an Eee netbook. It handles 2 of the MIMOs.

The whole setup cost no more than one completely new desktop gaming system, he rationalized.

Originally Posted by Kid

b) Why did your wife let you spend a fortune
c) Kinda dependant on b, but what is she gonna do when she finds out you've done all that (assuming you haven't told her)

I actually never even had to say "But honey!" Well, Mrs. Waxer is cool:



For some reason, she thinks having an F-16 cockpit in the basement is exciting. (Have any males here figured out women, anyway? If so, I'll stand in line.)

Originally Posted by Kid

Oh sorry, and D) when can i come and have a go?

Ping me when you're in town

Originally Posted by shawn

Awesome Waxer. Touch buddy and touch monitors are really good. How do you you use 8 monitors? Do you use 2 or 3 computers to run falcon?

It's three LAN-connected systems: The Falcon system plus two others.

The rig I run Falcon on has the HDMI Vizio 32" as its main monitor. It handles Falcon, the Touchbuddy server, and MFD Extractor server instances, and handles 2 of the MIMO touchscreens in local mode.

These 2 touchscreens have no gauges on them, so they don't consume many resources.

This rig is pretty old, actually. It's a 2.2Ghz@3.0Ghz, 2GB, XP3 system, with an old 9800 Pro AGP video card (!). Falcon got 40-50 fps before all this additional workload; now it gets around 30fps with all the increase. But I just bought a replacement 1GB, faster video card which should kick its graphics performance up...that's my next "to do". AGP lives!

The workhorse is the MSI Windtop, which sits on the LAN. It's a 1.6Ghz, dual core, 2GB system whose 19" main monitor touchscreen runs the front instrument panel (and where I'm working to get the MFDs extracted to), and also handles 3 MIMO touchscreens.

These touchscreens have lots of gauge and light animation on them from MFD Extractor and F4Glass.

(F4Glass is very viable. Some of the F4Glass guages look kinda crappy imho, but the ones that look good, get driven by the CPU, while the MFDE gauges get driven by the GPU.)

I'm running this system at stock clock rates, but I believe I can push it by 20%. It's running Vista, but it's really stable and for some reason only known to God and Gates, the crappy touchpad drivers run flawlessly on this system. Go figure. But, thankfully, this system which runs Panels C, D, E, plus G (a non-gauge panel) runs sweet!

The last two touchscreens run on my new laptop: an Asus Eee 1.6Ghz@2Ghz, 2GB Window 7 Home Premium system. After my good experience with Vista, I thought I'd be home free on this system, but the touchpad drivers give me fits on this system too. But it's fast enough to drive the busy Panel F and the non-gauge Panel G.

I had some initial problems with the touchscreen calibration, but the touchscreens now work flawlessly on all OS variants. It takes about 15 minutes to boot everything up and calibrate etc. But the immersion factor in flight is completely worth it!

[LoyalNine]

Awesome. I am contemplating a touch screen to run touchbuddy on. Are those the USB touchscreens I have read about? If so would you reccomend somethnig different? I am realistically only in need/want of one touchscreen.

[Waxer]

Here's some detailed screenies of the Touch-buddy profiles I made:


Main Instrument Panel "Preflight"

All switches operate including the ICP and the MFD OSBs. The black "holes" show up as transparencies, and the RWR, DED, Fuel Flow, MFDs, and engine gauges get put into position pre-flight. I have the center console "greyed out" because a 7" touchscreen sits on the desk in front of this part of the screen anyway.


Main Instrument Panel Inflight Here's what it looks like fully populated. That's the top of the 7" center console peeking up from between my knees.


Looking Over the Main Panel at the HUD

And here's looking over the glare shield at the HUD. The HUD monitor is 32". Because it's about 2 feet back from the front panel, this picture makes it look the same width as the 19" but it's really not. From the seat it looks huge.


Panel A

Panels A & B were fun to make. In the sim, they "overlap" slightly: the Fuel Master sub-panel appears in both panel A and panel B 2D cockpit views. It was tricky to split those views up and make what are essentially two new views. The Backup TACAN Selector windows and trim guages I borrowed from HatTrick's excellent profile.


Panel B


Panel C

Two displays from MFDE are on this panel: the speedbrake indicator and the "3 greens". All the other switches animate via Touch-buddy. It's cool to raise and lower the gear by "operating" the gear lever.


Panel E "Pre-flight"

This is the 7" with the most graphics workload, and was also the first panel I attempted. Silly Waxer. So, F4Glass drives the Airspeed Indicator, Altimeter, and Attitude Direction Indicator. MFDE drives the AOA, VVI, and HSI. That just leaves Touch-buddy to drive the Mode Knob and Fuel Qty Selector panel.


Center Console (Panel E) Fully Populated (In-flight)


Panel F - The Right Auxilliary Panel - Pre-Flight

Another high-workload panel. These "black holes" get the Backup Compass (heh! A vital instrument!), Fuel Guage, a working PFL and Caution Light display, and the EPU Fuel Guage. No animated clock yet, apparently but that's jus a "nice to have".

This was a hard profile to size, visually. I wanted to max out the instruments, so some of the Panel G switches stick into the field of view. I opted not to animate any of those visible switches, so all Touch-buddy has to do on this panel is the goofy Falcon "push on the PFL" button which I kept operative for no good reason.


Panel F In-flight


Panel G

G & H I made by cutting up HatTrick's excellent "Right Side" profile.

[shawn]

Originally Posted by Waxer

I'll try and create a ramp start video tonight, see if that shows it a little more clearly than the previous UTube effort.

I am looking forward to watch your ramp start.

[Kid]

Waxer = Falcon God.

[Jarhead]

WOW Im at a loss for words.......

[TopB]

Wow is all I can say, great job!

[Toad]

So, on switches that have more than one position, like the mode control swicth, or the fuel QTY Selector, how do you program those? Have you done a step toggle?

And I sat in a real Viper pit, and it's tight. I had to crane my neck around to be able to see the side panels. I imagine you've got the side panels a bit farther apart than in the real thing, no?

[Zaltys]

OH MY GOD! UNBELIEVABLE!

[Caper]

That's cool. Can I come over?

BTW, my AF came with the cockpitbuilder.key and i've copy and paste many lines into my current key file.

[Waxer]

Originally Posted by Caper

That's cool. Can I come over?

Roger that!

Originally Posted by Caper

BTW, my AF came with the cockpitbuilder.key and i've copy and paste many lines into my current key file.

DOH! That's probably why this took so long...looking for things that are right in front of me...

[TopB]

Waxer can you give the source for the USB Touchscreens, thanks!

[Waxer]

The main site is http://www.mimomonitors.com/. They've released a couple of new models since I bought mine.

The model I have is the 740. Couldn't find it on their site ATM; perhap it's out of stock again.

[Kartug]

Speechless. I had seen pictures of home-made flight simulator hardware before but nothing quite like this (although i distinctly remember a picture of a fully constructed replica F-16 cockpit in someone's backyard in the 'pit' thread).
Just unbelievable mate.

Quick question...I noticed your RWR doesnt look like stock (or even ayes's pit RWR), and I just wondered what you're using and what it actually changes. While something like the setup you have created will be something to aspire to, I may as well start with small changes haha (like that 'modernized RWR' you mention in the video). Hats off mate. Incredible work!

[Waxer]

Originally Posted by Kartug

Quick question...I noticed your RWR doesnt look like stock (or even ayes's pit RWR), and I just wondered what you're using and what it actually changes.

That's a benefit provided by MFD Extractor. Version 4.0.6 allows you to choose from the standard RWR CRT display; the new TFT display, which adds quite a bit of functionality; and a choice of standard US bezel, or the bezel from the Greek HAF RWR.

[Hag]

WOW! As said before, just WOW.

Hag

[Monty]

I think a rig like that should go on tour so that we may all bask in its glory!

[Dastardly]

Waxer, that is quite possibly the best homemade pit in the world.
Here I thought my up and coming MiMo touchscreen was cool...
I aquiesse to your acumen

Nice job!!

[Waxer]

I know I owe everybody a ramp start video . I've stickied his thread because I'm about to embark on a new phase. I've decided to build a physical pit to finish this project off. I've downloaded the plans, got clearance from Mrs. Tower, and am in the process of deciding whether or not to build an ACESII to go along with it.

Construction will start this Spring and probably go thru the Summer, he said with laughable optimism.

I'll post milestone update pictures periodically. (And that pesky ramp start video) .

[Beagle]

Oh my goodness. I think I just drooled on my keyboard!