[0.21] GHud - Adds displays to built-in screen on Logitech G19/G510 keyboards (v1.2)

[BGog42]

Just got a G13 today for KSP. Got GHud working but the screen is a little off (it clips off the bottom where the time till apoapsis and periapsis is). I'm sure this is a simple issue and would like to know how I might fix it or if you can look into it. Thanks BGog42 for an awesome plugin!

http://i.imgur.com/y0e4MZE.jpg?1

Very odd thebeardo. It appears that it is rendering the font larger than it is supposed to. I will look into this.

[BGog42]

Currently kerbal doesnt support dual monitor setup - and many people proposed this, so player woudl be able to watch flight on first screen and orbtal map on second.

You managed to render simple 2d map on mini-screen of keyboard. So, theoretically it shoudl be possible to re-render orbital map and display it on second monitor instead small lcd screen..

Some external program woudl be probably needed, as i need keyboard fimware/emulator (i dont own keyboard with screen, so i tested your mod on emulator) to handle viewing map.

Or instead sending pre rendered image of map to external device/app, send only orbit data (like telemachus probably does), and let app handle rendering map... After all KSP has limited resources usage, until 64 bit version comes out.

Such rendered map maybe coudl bein real 3d, with ability do rotate it, zoom in and out. Although controlling it while manevouring your ship coudl be tricky.

Kiwiak. When I have time I am exploring creating a separate mod for use with dual monitors. It will likely require drawing of custom screens as I do with the keyboard. Unity does not support rendering 3d to a second monitor. I have been successful in rendering from cameras onto the G19 but to do this I had to do a capture of the rendered 3d which is slow and resource intensive (think taking a screenshot). Due to the heavy cpu usage any 3d view on the second monitor would have to be limited to only a couple of frames per second or KSP would grind to a halt.

I'll continue to explore and post an update here when I reach some conclusions. If I end up doing a custom screen, I'll likely not provide all of the features in the mod but rather provide hooks that other mods can use to display their data on the secondary monitor.

[Demon_82]

Logitech G15 here reporting that it works perfectly on 0.23 and Windows 7 x64. Great job, I don't find everyday a game plugin that remembers the forgotten screen of my keyboard... in fact it's pretty rare xD

Just got a G13 today for KSP. Got GHud working but the screen is a little off (it clips off the bottom where the time till apoapsis and periapsis is). I'm sure this is a simple issue and would like to know how I might fix it or if you can look into it. Thanks BGog42 for an awesome plugin!

http://i.imgur.com/y0e4MZE.jpg?1

Are you using the default font settings on Logitech Gaming Software? It happened to me some time ago with other plugins for the screen of my keyboard (pretty much the same screen but in orange) because of messing with that setting and selecting a weird font xD

[greenfun2]

I'm having the same problem on my G13 as thebeardo. I decided to update my Logitech Gaming Software to see if that would help, but the new version just crashes when it tries to load

EDIT: After downloading ten different different legacy software editions, I have my G13 functioning again. However, the problem with the mod is still there.

Edited January 26, 2014 by greenfun2

[BGog42]

greenfun2 and thebeardo

I've updated the logitech software and am not having any problems. When you say it is crashing, do you mean the logitech software or KSP? If its KSP can you send me the KSP.txt file from your ksp dir after a crash?

Unfortunately I don't have a G13. I have a G19 and a G510 but the G510 and the G13 have the same screen so it should work fine as others have reported.

I use the "Arial" font. If that font is unavailable, then it falls back to some aweful default which may be what you are seeing. Did anything remove or replace the default Arial font from your system?

[greenfun2]

It is my Logitech Gaming Software that crashes, KSP is unaffected. Any Logitech version newer than 8.35 I believe would crash trying to start.

I have not knowingly removed or changed any fonts. Demon_82 mentioned fonts also, how do you change fonts or text sizes for the G13 or other G-series displays?

[Necroscope]

It is my Logitech Gaming Software that crashes, KSP is unaffected. Any Logitech version newer than 8.35 I believe would crash trying to start.

I have not knowingly removed or changed any fonts. Demon_82 mentioned fonts also, how do you change fonts or text sizes for the G13 or other G-series displays?

Seems I have similar issue on my G13.

Only idea I have that this is related to size of system font - currently I have font set to Medium - 125%

Edited February 7, 2014 by Necroscope

[MajorThomas]

So far this works great on my new G13. This is just the right bit of info I need to keep from having to switch to map mode to know the critical orbital elements. What a great app, thank you!

[Aedda]

Small issue I have noticed is that if KSP crashes for some reason e.g. out of memory an instance of GHud remains loaded in the App list and is displayed as "Waiting for flight..." on the LCD. Further multiple crashes lead to multiple copies of GHud in the list. I have been unable to find a way to clear these other than power-cycling the keyboard. Using a G19 and KSP 0.23.

Otherwise great mod and am glad to finally get some more use out of my G19

[ironfist221]

This works great on my G15

Thank you very much kind sir!

[skipped1]

Works without any issues on G15 v2, no crashes so far (using for a week, Win7 64, LGS version 8.46.27)

Thank you very much!

[Mattzz]

Yeah pretty sure the problem is that when KSP crashes the plugin doesn't get told and so doesn't uninitialize itself leaving the dll loaded or at least LGS thinking its still alive

[Demon_82]

I've checked, latest Logitech software versions removed the setting I knew before to change LCD fonts, so it must be tied to a Windows setting or be stuck in a now non accesible option.

And yeah, as far as I've seen through the years any LCD plugin whose parent software crashes, usually stays there unaware that he's not receiving more data,, and copies of it will be acumulated if the situation repeats, it is reverses restarting either the Logitech Gaming Software, the Windows user sesión or the whole PC.

[Mattzz]

I've checked, latest Logitech software versions removed the setting I knew before to change LCD fonts, so it must be tied to a Windows setting or be stuck in a now non accesible option.

if you are talking about fonts for what the app prints out then it shouldn't make a difference as it is part of the plugins code if I am reading it correctly.

Also I am currently trying to work out a way to detect crashes because this kinda annoys me to when it occasional happens

Edit:

If anyone knows how to make it crash while still keeping the thing open on their screen... please tell me how you did it.

thank you

Edited April 9, 2014 by Mattzz

[Alexli14]

I downloaded this mod to work with my new g13 however the display cuts off the bottom of the display any solutions?

[Mattzz]

The plugin is currently only designed to support the displays of the Logitech keyboards.

Support for the G13 is a possibility though as it is just a restructuring of the (as of now hardcoded) layout.

Edit:

Seems some people did originally have it working correctly on the G13.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Mattzz
Wrong info

[Tyrope]

I've recently got a G510s and am wondering if it's possible to customize the monitors. I found LcdStudio and kinda fell in love with it, I'd love to tweak displays to my own likings, any chance of integration with that program?

Willing to be a test subject.

[BGog42]

Tyrope, I've never used LcdStudio, I'll take a look at it and see.

[BGog42]

Thanks to the efforts of MattZZ, I've release version 1.2.1 of GHud!

I can't upload to "Curse" as it just says "Page not found" when I click the upload link. So you can get it via the link on the first post of this thread.

Not sure I care for this 'Curse' business but we'll see how it goes.

[Creat]

While I can report that this plugin still technically works with 0.24, I would strongly advise against using it: It absolutely cripples the framerate.

It took me quite a while to isolate this as the cause. Or more precisely, it seems that loading DmcLgLCD.dll (by putting it into the main folder) is the problem. Though to be fair the plugin itself probably doesn't do anything if that library isn't loaded...

On to my actual problem: I've set the graphics to settings that my card can easily handle, and with VSync off I get about 180 FPS in the main menu (as that's the highest fps limit that can be set in the options) and over 60 fps for the KSC scenery, in the VAB and so on. The moment I activate the plugin (copying in the mentioned DLL) I don't get more than 30 fps anywhere, ever. Everything also feels sluggish, even just mouse movements.

If there's any way this could be fixed, I would highly appreciate it as the additional display on my LCD is just so much better than anything in a window on screen.

[BGog42]

I'm working on fixes for 0.24

[BGog42]

I've updated the mod for 0.24.

Unfortunately the dll used to access the keyboard screens is 32-bit only. So for now the mod will only work for 32bit KSP. This is sad and I will work on an alternative solution which will also work for 64bit.

This update also fixes the framerate issue reported by Creat. There was a bug introduced in 1.2.1 that caused the mod to drop the framerate of ksp in all screens except flight. This has been fixed and GHud should have little to no impact on KSP performance now.

Note, I've also submitted GHud to Curse and it is awaiting moderator approval.

[Creat]

Wow that was fast, thank you! I saw your post that you'd have a look when I went to bed and just came here to say that I'm very much looking forward to that, but I already find the updated AND fixed version. Kudos!

As for the 64 bit issue, I remember reading somewhere that you had to jump through a few hoops to even get access to the external calls, so I don't know how much help this will be, but have a look at the open source LCD Miscellany. It's actually quite similar to LCDSirReal (but open source) and Lcd Studio (but not so god damn huge, Studio can take multiple hundreds of MB). It's released as both a 32 and 64bit build, and I know he accesses the LCD somehow directly, as it's the only program I know that will work perfectly fine even if the Logitech software is NOT running (drivers do have to be installed though, obviously). It will still use the Logitech Gaming Software if it is running though and can be managed there. Additionally it's extremely light on memory (8 MB or something).

If you don't know it, might be worth checking it out just for your own use, even if it's not as helpful as I hope. It takes a bit to setup (all done with text-based config files) but it's incredibly flexible and powerful! I use it for basic system stats on my LCD when I'm not in a game, as well as a simple process manager (allows me to kill a process from the LCD directly) and weather forecast/display.

[Creat]

I've played around with it for a bit, and the non-flight scenes are still quite jittery. The framerate is mostly fine, but it still stutters for me multiple times per second. This is very noticeable in the main menu as it scrolls horizontally on clicking 'Start Game' / 'Back'. This is clearly not an issue here as nobody stays there for extended times, but it is almost as noticeable when panning in the KSC scene or even in the VAB/SPH.

Out of curiosity I took a look at the code, and you really aren't doing much when there is no flight active, but you do clear the screen every time and write the waiting for flight message. Maybe doing that only once until there is a flight in progress again would be enough to stop the stuttering? If it doesn't you'd probably have to really check what's taking so long to cause

I also kinda got a bit curious now if it's possible (and easy) to detach the LCD updates from the full frame rate (as that's certainly overkill). So since I wanted to check out the basics of KSP plugin development anyway I'm just gonna play around a bit. Mainly out of curiosity though, but something might still come of it...

[42undead2]

I'm assuming not much changed from the G19 to the G19s, which means that when I get my new computer...

Yes...