bekopharm

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/43868102

This is Project Wingman mission 01 Black Flag played on a Linux PC with Proton Experimental, OpenTrack with the Neuralnet Tracker plugin and my DIY HOTAS / rudder system based on Arduino Pro Micros replacing the original electronics in my Thrustmaster FLCS/Cougar gear:

Pick your poison: https://makertube.net/w/8MyoVSzDfwMuQR6bCqtbie / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq0sihlgW_Y

I got Project Wingman on a sale months ago and I finally gave it a try. As an Ace Combat player I felt right at home. My initial experiment was with the XR glasses and woah that feels good in 3D and all but today I remembered that old Plasma TV in the basement. Got it second hand a year ago for dead cheap. Today I brought it upstairs to try it with the ViperPit and now I’m not sure what’s more awesome.

Well, that is if I feel like burning ~470W on top for that thing but hey this is for very specific gaming sessions only anyway 🤷

Guess I’ll spend more time in the ViperPit again 😀

This is aging like good wine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U8bLArlRXw

6 yrs now and I still love every single scene. So well done 👏 👏

Hard to imagine a time where we were struggling with Games on Linux at all nowadays :>

(Yes many of the snippets were contributed by me but @mdiluz@mastodon.gamedev.place did a stellar job glueing everything together)

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/32116629

This uses my X4-SimPit extension for X4: Foundations, that sends ship telemetry via a socket to my node-red plumbing pipeline, which in turn forwards data to Websockets, SocketIO and MQTT. Various subscriber listen on the new messages to run blinken lights and my HUD app. I’m using the well known message format also used by Elite Dangerous so it’s compatible with that game as well.

Pick your poison: https://makertube.net/w/nUoG2ZPeAW1QhT3A2BXRrM / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp1PkVhH9cc

Oh yeah… and on Linux PC 🤓

Let me know what you think!

X4-SimPit code (pending changes) is here: https://github.com/bekopharm/x4-simpit The cockpit panel has a dedicated project page here: https://simpit.dev/

Until now I used OpenTrack with my DIY IR tracker or the Neuralnet tracker. I knew that my XR glasses feature IMU data though and the xr_driver of the Breezy Desktop project allows to access the data via IPC on Linux PC. So I did what Linux user do: I wrote a script to access the IMU data and forwarded it via UDP to OpenTrack:

Pick your poison to watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njuumLUvqrM / https://makertube.net/w/2bNyxJhdyydTeFq17onikv

This reminded me that I also wrote a proof of concept to implement the FaceTrackNoIR (or OpenTrack) protocol into FreeSpace 2 Open on Linux PC ( https://makertube.net/w/7VtfAjW7EiAUS5aiPwG7if ) so I gave it a spin to test the data bridge. That was smooth sailing!

The mod is Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, still awesome today: http://diaspora.hard-light.net/ (Warning: This may fuel a desire to re-watch the BSG series again 😀).

The bridge code can be found at https://github.com/bekopharm/xr_to_opentrack (pending changes).

It works with the Breezy GNOME xr_driver: https://github.com/wheaney/breezy-desktop (but the Vulkan one works probably too but that’s untested). It should also be compatible with other glasses that have IMU for Breezy available.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/28819332

So… this is news to me, because I don’t have a VR headset, but I can set my Viture Pro XR glasses into SBS (side by side) mode by pressing the small button longer. Some games, like EliteDangerous, can do this as well without fiddling around with Reshade. I didn’t really expect it but it just works. This way I even get 3D on foot, which is not supported for VR in Elite Dangerous Odyssey at all! Side by side Crosseye mode (right eye left, left eye right) though? Add some head tracking to the mix, which is totally possible, and I get a very nice VR-like experience even on foot in Elite Dangerous – and on Linux PC!

This is the SBS version that does REQUIRE VR/XR glasses and mebbe something like xr-video-player: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEtRijojBx8

This is the MONO version that does NOT require VR/XR glasses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYPTk1vygM4

The FOV is somewhat cramped. No idea if this can be tweaked any further but I’ll fiddle with the settings on my next test. Mebbe this can be tweaked (or I use #Breezy Desktop to zoom in somewhat).

Update: I got the aspect ratio somewhat under control. It’s not perfect but much better and an odd combination of window mode and resolution and upscaling, that somehow affects the HUD only but make no sense to me at all. At this point I think it’s simply a bug of Elite. It’s like the HUD doesn’t get the memo to scale up after the intro played. I’m also not sure if this is a side effect of gamescope but I can totally live with this result.

New footage with better aspect ratio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qdvfdpTy_k

New footage with better aspect ratio framepacked, which MAY just work with VR (or fall back to anaglyph) – the YT FAQ is very thin on 3D content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWYYJTqnpz8

Update2: Haha it works! https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/2o5j30/using_google_cardboard_or_equivalent_kit_as_a_vr/ had a lead: It suggests to double the vertical resolution to get a proper aspect ratio with SBS and shrink the resulting window again.

That’s easy with gamescope:

gamescope -h 2160 -w 3840 -H 1080 -W 3840 –scaler stretch

e voila, perfect aspect ratio. Wonder if my GPU manages to keep this up though. May have to throw FSR into the mix.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/27452629

Got some help carrying the ViperPit from the basement into my man cave today and since I got the peripherals operational again already, and got Ace Combat 7 on a sale, which seemed to be a good fit, I decided to play that first: https://makertube.net/w/wiKFYNPaKhhCmrrz3aGLYb / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEPK0lHX_3s

Little did I know what a pain in the neck it would be to get this running. No, Linux wasn't the problem. That was just Press Play, as usual.

There is however no settings menu for HOTAS joysticks so any mapping has to be done by manually editing the Input.ini of the game in an text editor, which is a guessing game. Head tracking is also a no go. I pulled the old trick to map the head tracker to a virtual XBOX controller but the game comes with an annoying deadzone where the camera snaps to the center.

Ah well, got it all working okay-ish in the end and enjoyed some pew pew in the skies. There seem to be plenty of Macross mods too so trying that will be next 🤘

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/26968292

Interview: In depth walkthrough of my insane home cockpit panel with BekoPharm and Ozoned

https://makertube.net/w/bufv9BJv2vcXDb3KUaksB7 / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpP7KS1fbrY

@ozoned@video.thepolarbear.co.uk interviewed me on my #homeCockpit on a live stream via his #Owncast instance at https://stream.ozoned.net/. This is a more condensed version of the stream that is still just 1h shy. We're going over almost every feature of my Primary Buffer Panel and I explain how everything works. I also decided to add various photos, slideshows or video snippets during the talk only sections so things don't get too boring. Sometimes that even complements the talks 😄

Ever wondered how to start your own DIY cockpit / SimPit? It's easy. Just watch this stream 🤓

Dedicated project website: https://simpit.dev/

Check out the original recording if you want to see more or the full stream with more [dirty] details: https://video.thepolarbear.co.uk/w/9zNcweVw2fxxpSrmBnaQJa

🔥 Hell Yes! X4Foundations added OpenTrack UDP support for native head tracking under Linux and I can finally talk about it 🤓 Yes! Yes! 🚀

🎥 I was to happy about it that I even did a recording while I had a bad cold and was hoarse just to show it off: https://makertube.net/w/wo4zAJiTFLeg8t2o93MLpL or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgOkGwMShT0

✍ Took a while but it's now in the open beta for 7.50 https://steamcommunity.com/games/392160/announcements/detail/4485117301459255318

It's great to see another company embracing open standards and care for their niche gamers too ❤️

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/25192334

This is a heavily cut playtest of my revived Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick and Cougar throttle quadrant of my ViperPit. Both were refitted for USB-C with Arduino Pro Micros: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

The cockpit panel is part of my VF-1 inspired home cockpit which interfaces with X4 via a homebrew Lua socket I programmed. You can read more of this on the dedicated project page at https://simpit.dev/

The game is X4: Foundations with the Battlestar Galactica mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/1167

If you enjoy SimPit|s (or any home cockpit / simulated cockpit) and Battlestar Galactica make sure to also check the awesome Colonial Viper builds of https://www.youtube.com/@projectcolonialviper2094 and https://www.youtube.com/@BuildsByBaz 🤘

This one flew under my radar so far (haha, sorry):

Rescue the civilians, race the clock, and raze the enemy in MH-Zombie, the world’s only helicopter arcade simulator! Three flight physics modes, three difficulty modes, and a tutorial mode provide a stepped learning curve and wider accessibility to realistic helicopter flight.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1429350/MHZombie

The reason this came to my attention is because it’s one of the few games that [just] implemented head tracking via UDP e.g. available by OpenTrack (and various others). This is great because it doesn’t force people to jump the hoops of TrackIR, which is only supported for Windows and officially limited to their proprietary devices. See this in action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGFdO7VXiY

Apparently it’s written for mobile games but runs on PC as well – that seems to include Linux PC which even makes this a LinuxGaming title! 🤓

I don’t know about you but for 3 bucks I’ll totally get this for the occasional pew pew fun. Game seems to be a labour of love so sharing is highly appreciated.

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/24694356

This video is how I gutted my already modified old Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS joystick of my ViperPit and made it work again with the help of an Arduino Pro Micro. This flight stick (and also the other peripherals) do belong in a museum but where’s the fun in that? I modified it and now it’s a generic USB joystick that works on any recent system. I focus mostly on the 5x5 button matrix since this is the hardest part to understand. In the end are a few minutes of playing X4 Foundations with it to give it a good test run. Now it just needs some oil for the creaking 😅

https://makertube.net/w/qrqqZLr2QvJFjCwyNzzAmp / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYiPFDpHwmc

Random trivia; VR is so 90s 🤪 - this is a photo of an offer for a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VFX1_Headgear for ~500USD in 1997. Apparently it was compatible with games like Mech Warrior 2 and did already feature stuff like head tracking for compatible games.