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Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:26 am
by arquebus
So I use Touch Portal:

https://www.touch-portal.com/

It's a "macro deck remote control" like Stream Deck, but it uses your phone or tablet (iOS or Android) to serve up the buttons. It can be very highly customized, and there are additional graphics packs you can buy as very reasonably priced IAP (around $5 if I recall) through the app to expand your options. (You can also not do that, and create or supply your own button graphics, or not use graphics at all and just use text. VERY highly customizable.)

Here is the page file I use for Oolite: https://app.box.com/s/ivz2d5tc2blc04knz3yq6hdlfe7y8cxp

It uses the ARBI Flight Sim Pack for the graphics, so if you don't have that installed you may not see the buttons - but as noted, you can supply your own graphics instead, if you prefer. The buttons will still work because the text on the buttons is still there. EDIT: I believe this graphic pack is free, not part of one of the upgrade IAPs. You just have to download it inside the Touch Portal program on your desktop.

Since I use Touch Portal for multiple games, I have a primary "main page" that has buttons to all the layouts I use, so you'll see on the Oolite page that there's a "main" button - this returns you to the main page layout. Ignore/delete that button if you don't set yours up the same way.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:31 am
by arquebus
Here's what my Oolite panel page looks like!

Image

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:33 am
by arquebus
I don't regularly use some of the buttons on the panel, since I have them duplicated on my joystick, but occasionally I forget which button on my joystick goes to the hotkey I need, so... I have the panel button as a redundancy.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:35 am
by Cholmondely
So for my Elgato I stole icons from the Coluber HUD, filleting the .oxp and grabbing what I wanted. I'd been playing with it for some time (pre-Vimana era) and these icons were second nature to me by that stage.

Image

References: Coluber HUD

List of Icons:

Above EQ1 (top to bottom):
FI: Fuel Injectors
ECM: Electronic Counter Measures (vs Missiles)
ESC: Escape Capsule

Above EQ2 (top to bottom):
Jalapeño Pepper: Scoops (if red at bottom then cargo bay is full and only fuel can be scooped, not cargo)
GH: Galactic HyperDrive
DC:Docking Computer
_____________________________________________________________

I must say that the Touch Portal profile for StarTouch looks most impressive...

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:36 am
by arquebus
Oh! Also, Touch Portal is free to use, limited to two pages and a 4x2 grid.

https://www.touch-portal.com/faq.php?fa ... ree-to-use

But if you buy it (computer program is free, mobile app is what you pay for) then you get Unlimited Power. And you can pick up the fancy bits if you want, or roll your own.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:37 am
by arquebus
Cholmondely wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:35 am
So for my Elgato I stole icons from the Coluber HUD
Oh that's a great idea!

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 1:26 am
by phkb
This is a really cool idea! :D Thanks for pointing it out!

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:16 pm
by hiran
This definitely allows to have the important buttons with appropriate labels just sitting together. This is great!
On the other hand the tablet/phone is a plain glass pane. There is absolutely no haptical feedback on the key you are about to press.

I think I'd prefer the buttons on the HOTAS system.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:47 pm
by arquebus
hiran wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:16 pm
This definitely allows to have the important buttons with appropriate labels just sitting together. This is great!
On the other hand the tablet/phone is a plain glass pane. There is absolutely no haptical feedback on the key you are about to press.

I think I'd prefer the buttons on the HOTAS system.
I agree, and if I could get the throttle to work, I'd switch to that in a heartbeat.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:03 pm
by Cholmondely
arquebus wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:47 pm
hiran wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:16 pm
This definitely allows to have the important buttons with appropriate labels just sitting together. This is great!
On the other hand the tablet/phone is a plain glass pane. There is absolutely no haptical feedback on the key you are about to press.

I think I'd prefer the buttons on the HOTAS system.
I agree, and if I could get the throttle to work, I'd switch to that in a heartbeat.
Kanthoney was the chap who designed our joystick interface. Maybe contact him?

To be frank, I think that this is an important best-selling HOTAS which needs to be easily linked to Oolite. Rather disturbing that you can't.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:42 pm
by hiran
Cholmondely wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:03 pm
arquebus wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:47 pm
hiran wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:16 pm
This definitely allows to have the important buttons with appropriate labels just sitting together. This is great!
On the other hand the tablet/phone is a plain glass pane. There is absolutely no haptical feedback on the key you are about to press.

I think I'd prefer the buttons on the HOTAS system.
I agree, and if I could get the throttle to work, I'd switch to that in a heartbeat.
Kanthoney was the chap who designed our joystick interface. Maybe contact him?

To be frank, I think that this is an important best-selling HOTAS which needs to be easily linked to Oolite. Rather disturbing that you can't.
Was not phkb working on some improved keyboard and joystick handling on the development branch?

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:47 pm
by Cholmondely
hiran wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:42 pm
Cholmondely wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:03 pm
arquebus wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 10:47 pm


I agree, and if I could get the throttle to work, I'd switch to that in a heartbeat.
Kanthoney was the chap who designed our joystick interface. Maybe contact him?

To be frank, I think that this is an important best-selling HOTAS which needs to be easily linked to Oolite. Rather disturbing that you can't.
Was not phkb working on some improved keyboard and joystick handling on the development branch?
He was working (1) to allow easy remapping of the keyboard (jolly important for non-Loyalist Linux Keyboards, I'm given to understand...) and (2) to reorganise the listing of the joystick options to make the order more logical

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:45 am
by arquebus
Oolite *recognizes* the throttle, it just doesn't want to do anything with it. I can't assign buttons or axes.

There's a similar issue with Xbox One controllers and the trigger buttons - they're interpreted by Oolite as axes rather than buttons (because that's what they are) and therefore you can't assign them to anything.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:29 pm
by Cholmondely
Just stumbled over this: https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?p=89483#p89483

I think Wyvern meant X52 DCS.

TouchPortal is now properly included on the Buttonboxes on the wiki.

Re: Touch Portal

Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 3:48 pm
by arquebus
Cholmondely wrote: Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:29 pm
I think Wyvern meant X52 DCS.
I think "FCS" here is "flight control system."