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.
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:
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 😀).
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.
Update: hodasemi wrote a Rust connector based on the idea that works without Breezy: https://github.com/hodasemi/xr_to_opentrack_rs – comes with a systemd service file so it can run in the background. Once installed the only step left to do is fire up OpenTrack 🤘
I know most of you won’t care or see why this is of interest but I got another game, this time No Man’s Sky, working in #SBS (side-by-side) mode using #ReShade [on Linux PC] 🤓
As usual: Viture or XReal users can probably just press fullscreen after switching into SBS mode to watch this. Others may need an external player to sort it out – I sure love delivering to the absolute niche of the niche [of yet another niche] 🤷
I know most of you won’t care or see why this is of interest but I got another game, that I like a lot, working in #SBS (side-by-side) mode yesterday using #ReShade [on Linux PC] 🤓
I’m considering to start an extra channel for the SBS stuff since this probably just annoys most people. In fact downvotes started to pile up but is it my fault that YT (or PeerTube for that matter) doesn’t support this in any sane way? I know about frame packed versions now but that only results in badly automated out of focus Anaglyph 3D videos nobody can enjoy.
So bear with me if I mix something up, this is all news to me and I’m still flabbergasted. I got myself some XR glasses mostly for watching movies and perhaps some gaming on the Steam Deck a while ago.
Now I learned about “SBS” (Side-By-Side) mode like ~3 days ago, that the glasses support. I tried this with the game Elite Dangerous first, since this has an SBS mode built in too, and was mind blown. My current favourite time stink is Ace Combat though so I started digging.
Turns out there is this Reshade tool that would forcefully enable such a mode for basically any game with the right shader. Several exist but the first I found, “SuperDepth3D.fx”, seems to do the trick. Enabling it split the 1920×1024 in half with two slightly different view ports, one for each eye. There are many options to fine tune this and I’m still fiddling with this to find the perfect settings but results look great already.
My glasses do Full SBS though and have a resolution of 3840×1024. I read somewhere that wide-screen is possible with more DLL shenanigans with Ace Combat 7 too but I run the game on a Linux PC anyway, where we utilise a tool named “gamescope”. This allows basically to configure a virtual display for each game and override the game resolution in various ways. It also has a stretch option, which is exactly what I needed to get the “compressed” SBS view from 1920 to 3840, where the aspect ratio would fit again. BTW: This also has FSR built in so any upscaling looks good enough too. I’m not entirely sure but I think there’s a similar tool on Windows called “Virtual Deskop”?
Anyway, I already managed to get my head tracker working by mapping the output to a virtual gamepad on the look-around axes before. I also found a mod that enables a wider FOV. Imagine my stupid grinning when everything fell into place: Full SBS with head tracking, a more sane FOV and yes, I jumped all the hoops to get my HOTAS and rudder pedal of my old ViperPit working (which is a different story because my devices are so old that I had to upgrade em to USB before, which involved some Arduinos, programming and soldering). I guess that makes me a member of multiple niches at once 🤓
And since I’m aware that nobody can “see” what I’m talking about, without having XR glasses or a VR headset (or a DIY VR Box for smart phones) on their own, have also an Anaglyph 3D render. This requires just some old school two coloured (red and cyan) glasses often made of paper, that many people still have around somewhere, to get an idea.
The colour of the sky? It’s perfect. A deep dark blue.
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!
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 (though it does start to stutter somewhat on foot but recording this at the same time somewhat overwhelms my rig anyway). These are my gamescope settings with Steam:
Max-scale is probably not needed but it was started with this so I won’t omit it now.
The ingame settings are 1280×960 and windowed with _NO BORDER_. Every other mode broke the aspect ratio even more! That is also true for 1920×1024, which would have made _some_ sense to me at least, but this did also NOT work FOR ME.
This results in a pixelated HUD which is worked around with upscaler INTERNAL or AMD CAS cranked to x2 – AMD FSR did NOT WORK.
If someone could enlighten me on this: Bring it!
YMMV.
e voila, perfect aspect ratio.
Wonder if my GPU manages to keep this up though. May have to throw FSR into the mix.
We installed #Nobara#Linux on the PC of a friend yesterday and it took so god damn long because… dude managed to _repeat_ a typo for the password on the user creation step so we could not log in after 5 minutes of installing + reboot 🤣
It has been a while that I tried #StarCitizen. With the new #Neuralnet Tracker plugin (AI haha) for #OpenTrack we get head tracking without annoying IR LEDs or reflecting stripes just by reading the webcam video feed. This is apparently fast enough to try #headTracking without a dedicated #headTracker nowadays. And all that on a #Linux PC. Took some fiddling but the concept still works. What a time to be alive.
So, #x4foundations Timelines released today. Bagged it, of course. Don’t even really know what’s coming but the X series are something I enjoy since X: Beyond The Frontier in 1999. Kinda rad that a company that old managed to stay in business and true to their very own franchise.
Oh and also native for #Linux PC, my daily (and only) system for #gaming.
