bekopharm

cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/18462516

I implemented a proof of concept to add the FaceTrackNoIR (or OpenTrack) protocol into FreeSpace 2 Open on Linux PC. Apparently only TrackIR and FreeTrack (both Windows only) are supported so far. Still needs some fine tuning but I'm really happy with that single day coding frenzy considering that I didn't touch C++ in years.

I never did create a merge request so far. I'm still going to but it's really low priority for me rn :-/

This is a demo of the implementation with Diaspora: Shattered Armistice, a BSG mod for FreeSpace 2 Open. It's also on YT should you fancy that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRB8lRV1m54

I had the chance to play Flight Of Nova (https://flight-of-nova.com/) for the first time today. This was on my wishlist for quite some time now. Dived in blind and had no idea what to expect. 3 tutorial missions later: Oh boy… this is hard. I can see myself sinking many hours in this.

Anyway, as usual, my focus is on interfacing with my home cockpit (or simpit) and while there is no ship telemetry [yet?] I was able to get it running just fine via Proton and with my DIY headtracker using OpenTrack. Hats off, seldom that I see a game that detects my joystick just fine, has great ingame calibration, offers me a windowed mode and a bunch of ultra width resolutions without having to resort to hacking config files or use gamescope to resize it ❤️

Head tracking is, as usual, TrackIR only so far (I guess the native Linux PC version does not have UDP in place here but I couldn’t check due Steam refusing to download another version today). Anyway, you can see me fooling around with the buttons and do an A+ crash landing in the end – sunny side up 😆 Not too shabby considering that this was my 3rd landing at all.

Note, not mine. Similar to mine. In fact totally down my alley :D

⚠️ grandpa gaming inbound

In 2020 I checked some old backup disks of mine and found to my utmost joy a copy of my former UT2003 installation. This is a Linux native 32bit build that is now over 20 years old. Well, LinuxGaming is hard because who can support 500 distributions, right? This worked just fine in 2020 on Fedora 31. Today I gave it another spin in 2024 on Fedora 38 on Wayland with PipeWire 😀

Hell yeah, the muscle memory is still there 🤘🤓🤘

(tbf the SDL1.2 compat lib rocks most of this but it's really all still there)

As an avid[1] X4 Foundations player I'm more than happy that I stumbled over @egosoft@mastodon.social today.

I couldn't find a cross referencing link from their website [yet] but I did check back on their Discord and got the confirmation by belgoray that this account is indeed official

[1] I'm really batshit crazy about this game - heck I even hacked it to sideload an UDP server to interface with my home cockpit 🤓

YT suggested this one to me and I absolutely love it. A whole cockpit on a budget made from cardboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09GdiFmaHq0

It's for civil aviation, unlike my own, and features some very neat ideas - like the fans in the ceiling, or [non functional] "fuses", for more immersion. It always impresses me how far dedication and skill go.

Wingman - An X-Wing Story | Star Wars Fan Film was released today. It's a Star Wars fan movie with 50 minutes length and plenty of pew pew.

What you see is a glorified DIY joystick controller with a LCD ('MFD') and plenty of RGB inspired by a VF-1 (Block 6) Valkyrie of the Macross franchise.

I use it mainly to play Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, X4: Foundations and plenty of other Space Pew Pew.

It's mobile and can be stashed easily because my battlestation is, unlike most gaming rigs, also my workstation and has to move a lot. It's also frequently occupied by my kids who also love clicky buttons and compete with me for stick time :D

It's completely DIY and made on a budget (no really). It's also Work In Progress, like probably any home cockpit out there.

For the PC it's just a joystick and an additional display. The magic starts to happen when I manage to interface with the games to display live game data and adjust the blinken lights depending on the current ship telemetry.

Am I crazy? Yes, probably. It's a hobby and when Corona happened indoor hobbies became kinda a thing again 🤓

Edith says: Should have added this from the beginning: I do foster a project website that has additional details, pictures and videos: 🌐 https://SimPit.dev (yes it's slow - hold the line :P)

Videos are usually mirrored to 📹 https://tube.tchncs.de/a/bekopharm or 📹 https://www.youtube.com/@BekoPharm (pick your poison).

Additional content may be found on 🌐 https://beko.famkos.net/category/simpit/ or on ☠️ https://hackaday.io/bekopharm

A glorified DIY joystick controller with an LCD ('MFD') and plenty of RGB.

• DIY headtracker with Opentrack
• DIY button box with LCD ("MFD") display
• DIY status indicators using a Neopixel
• Lots of plumbing with Node-RED
• Arduino Mega with a custom Rust daemon for driving the joystick and LEDs
• A custom “App” written in React to drive the MFD
• …and a Linux PC to power all the crazy 🤪

I did set https://simpit.dev/ live yesterday where I'm writing up all my collected SimPit clutter of the last 3 years in a more cohesive way. Feedback appreciated 🙃 More to come. (Oh yeah and ads and tracking free cuz I can't stand this ***).

I'm kinda blind on the topic by now after hacking away on this page for days so I'd appreciate feedback. Especially if something is broken.

Site may be slow af. I'm hosting this in my backyard. Videos are mirrored usually on PeerTube and YouTube though so pick your poison.

Did some test assembly today. Running out of buttons. I have to salvage my version 1 now which kinda sucks because I won't be able to actually play with it any more 😆 Still very happy with the result 👌

#Macross

Hej, I noticed an odd problem with my Gnome search recently. That thing that starts searching when the "super-key" is pressed (or the smart corner is triggered). When I start typing some text Gnome starts searching in all kinds of corners of the PC.

That is until my NAS system is not responding. It's automounted to ~/NAS/ and when that remote box is busy I get a complete freeze of my desktop. As in no HID device has any effect. Just seeing occasional disk activity (blinky LED) but that's it.

This takes about 5 minutes before it recovers. Only to start again on the next key stroke!

I guess some search provider checks the $HOME folder and waits for a timeout on the unresponsive cifs share. I want to know which one that is and if I can persuade it to search on local fs only.

Any pointers?

Colonial Viper Build has a new video up showing more progress pictures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfucWaZxjus