Hi all,
In case anyone missed it on the ED forums, this post describes how to install my TouchBuddy profiles for DCS: Black Shark. There are two versions, one for three monitor setups (displaying the ABRIS/TB on one screen, the main view on a second, and the Shkval image on a third):

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...and another for two monitor setups (with ABRIS/Shkval/TB all on one screen and the main view on a second screen):

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Thanks to TouchBuddy, all the buttons and switches are touchable (or clickable with a mouse if you don't have a touchscreen), and they all have the same effect as their VC counterparts. I've also uploaded a couple of videos of the profiles in action. You can watch the three monitor version here and the two monitor version here. If you'd like to try them yourself just follow the installation instructions below.

Finally, a big thank you to Zorlac for creating the excellent TouchBuddy and Wild Bill Kelso for his TouchBuddy Toolkit.
Cheers,
DD


Installation

1. Download and install TouchBuddy.

2. Backup the following files:

Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\BlackShark\data\scripts\options.lua
Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\FUI\Common\StartImage-2.bmp
Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\Config\Export\Export.lua
TouchBuddy\touchbuddy.cfg

3. Download either the three monitor version or the two monitor version to a temporary directory and unzip it. You should see four folders (BlackShark, Config, FUI and profiles) and a touchbuddy.cfg file. Copy and paste the BlackShark, Config and FUI folders to your Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50 folder, overwriting the existing files (which you've already backed up in the previous step). Then copy and paste the profiles folder and the touchbuddy.cfg to your TouchBuddy folder, again overwriting the existing files.

4. In your graphics card control panel, set your monitors to Dual View mode (Vista) or Horizontal Span mode (XP) and all their resolutions to 1024x768.

5. Check in Windows desktop properties that your monitors are arranged in a horizontal row. If you're using the three monitor version then the ABRIS monitor must be on the LEFT, main monitor in the center and Shkval monitor on the RIGHT. For the two monitor version, the main monitor must be on the RIGHT of your secondary monitor.

6. Open the file touchbuddy.cfg in your Touchbuddy folder with Notepad and scroll down until you see the following line:

lomac_data_file = C:\Sims\Eagle Dynamics\Ka-50\touchbuddy-export.dat

Edit the path to match the location of your Ka-50 folder and save your changes.

7. Launch TB and load whichever profile suits the mission's starting conditions (either pre-startup or in-flight). Then click the "Let's Go" button and the panel should appear on the appropriate monitor.

8. Launch the sim and select "Options" then "Controls" and change the key assigned to "Expedite Emergency ATGM Launch" to "J".


Use

Now load a mission and you should see a test card on your Shkval monitor during mission loading if everything is setup correctly. Once you unpause, the Shkval, ABRIS and payload strip should all be live and you'll be able to touch (or click) any of the buttons to trigger the appropriate key presses.

N.B. The monitor on which I display TB is actually 5:4 rather than 4:3. If your monitor has a different aspect ratio then the image will be slightly stretched. Also, I've only tested this setup in Vista and the English version of DCS so I can't promise it'll work in XP or the Russian version (though it should do).


Limitations

1. It doesn't seem to be possible to obtain the state of most switches and button lights via lua so TB can only deduce what state they should be in by knowing their initial position and keeping track of the number of times they've been pressed in TB. This means that if you click a button in the virtual cockpit then Touchbuddy won't know about it and will get out of synch. (If this happens you can either continue clicking in the VC until the positions match up again or press the "Reset button status" command on the *TB* tab).

2. The CMS display can only show the currently selected program as the number of flares remaining per side isn't obtainable via lua. (The total number of flares remaining is visible in the payload strip, however).

3. The PVI-800 display doesn't change, again due to a lack of data from lua. Hopefully the forthcoming Physical Cockpit Interface Package will give us the ability to export things like the nav display and keypad lights, along with the CMS display and EKRAN (ideally in the same way that the Shkval and ABRIS are currently).

4. The button to change the Nav/INU fixtaking method (labelled NAV TG SHKVL on my version of the Nav keypad) doesn't work. This seems to be due to a bug in the sim whereby no matter what keys you assign to this function, they have no effect. The only way to trigger it is by clicking the switch in the VC.

Very cool stuff. Thanks for the work and the time required for something like this. I followed the directions and it works as advertised with XP and the English d/l version, for me a least ;-) One question though, is it possible to up the resolution from 1024x768? And if it is how? Thanks again

Glad to hear it all worked for you m8 . As for running at other resolutions, I would strongly advise you to keep your secondary monitors at 1024x768 (the TB stuff is at that res anyway so you're not going to see more detail there if you raise it, and keeping the res low also helps fps).

Having said that, I realise that a lot of people may want to run their main monitor higher than 1024x768 so I described how to do so in this thread, with examples of how to run both two-monitor and three-monitor versions of the profiles with a higher resolution on the main screen (1680x1050 in the examples but the explanations there should also enable you to run at other resolutions too). If you have any problems setting it up, let me know and I'll try to help.
Cheers,
DD

Thanks, bumping up the main monitor was the way i wanted to go. Thanks for the links.

Thank you DickDastardly, it's working for me too, I love it,
I just have a little problem with the resolution of my left
monitor (I'm using two monitors)Shikval seems very narrow unable to see target.
My two monitors are 21", 1680 x 1050 max res.
Do I need to run it on window mode? That's the only way that is working for me. Any ideas?

Thank you DickDastardly for your effort, much appreciated.

Hi Frank,
Which OS are you using? In Vista DCS has to be run in windowed mode but in XP you could use horizontal span and fullscreen. Also, can you post a screenshot of the narrow Shkval, and any changes you've made to options.lua and the monitor config file?
Cheers,
DD

Thanks DD;

I'm using Vista64. Unfortunately I had to re-install BS because I did change too many things trying to fix it and it'll not work. I think the problem of the narrow shikval is due to
the difference we have in our monitors?. I also followed your instructions to get a higher resolution om my main screen and I think there is where I got lost. Just one silly question: can you play in Easy Mode with this setup?.

When you have some time, perhaps you may be able to guide me to correct this using my 2
21" monitors with 1680x1050 res.each. Excuse the ignorance. All your instruccions are very clear for me to follow except I think your set up may be different than mine, unless I have made a mistake somewhere.

Thanking you

Im getting some strange results. The main screen seems to jump from monitor to monitor during the end of a mission. this ends up with me being unable to even exit the programme as I cant press any buttons on my left monitor when the gui jumps there.

You're right, the TB profile isn't designed for a widescreen monitor so it would be significantly distorted on one. Having said that, you could edit the TB profile and add a black strip to the side of the background image it uses to avoid this distortion.


It should work in easy mode, but the radar may end up in a strange position on your secondary monitor, possibly behind the TB stuff.


That is very strange - I've not seen anyone else experience this problem and it's never happened to me either, so I'm afraid I may not be able to help much. Are you running at the recommended res? Have you changed any of the settings? Are you running any other programs like the multimon fix?
Cheers,
DD

I have 3 questions on this great profile.

first, from what I have read, DD's dual monitor profile that he changed so the main screen ran at 1650x1050 cannot run in XP fullscreen as the vertical for both monitors are different (768 and 1050). Am I correct?

Second, could someone do the numbers for a 1280x1040 main and 1024x768 left side TB monitor. I cannot seem to get them right.

third. Does the Phantom Screen fix work and does it work with TB?

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I am very jealous as I cannot get the 2 monitor version of DD's profile to work properly.

First, if I try to run it in full screen, I get a message that "Instruction at 0x0f842cc00" referenced memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be read."

Second, if I try to run it with the full screen box in the BS options unchecked, two things happen.
1. Both the shkval and the abris appear in the TB profile but they are short of the full available space by about 25% and some of the bottom buttons are duplicated to fill up the space. But they do appear.
2. In this windows mode, the performance hit on my computer is so bad that I cannot even control the mouse and as a result, it is unplayable.

Any thoughts?