Mostly because of the bad viewing angle. I’m not a huge fan of touch but sometimes it is really useful and if I already spend money why not go the extra mile 🤓
I gave in and changed my event forwarding method in node-red for the Elite Dangerous Journal. This file is updated on various in-game events but in a way that makes it difficult to get new events only since last update. Another problem is that it’s not really a valid JSON file because it has one JSONper line but it’s not a valid JSON array. This is why it has to be parsed line by line and mashed together by event type (name) again to get the latest data for each event type per dump. Each event has it’s own timestamp by set by the game. The latest timestamp is now saved on the special flow const so node-red keeps the value in the “global” memory of the current flow:
msg.payload.event="Journal";let newJournalTimestamp = flow.lastJournalTimestamp;Object.keys(msg.payload).forEach((key)=>{if(msg.payload[key].timestamp){const keyTimestamp =newDate(msg.payload[key].timestamp).getTime();if(!flow.lastJournalTimestamp || flow.lastJournalTimestamp < keyTimestamp){// this entry is new - keep it. MULTIPLE events may have the// same timestamp so wait with reassigning so we don't skip// em or get the latest a 2nd time if nothing else changes.// update the next latest timestamp if this is newerif(!newJournalTimestamp || newJournalTimestamp < keyTimestamp){
newJournalTimestamp = keyTimestamp;}}else{// lastJournalTimestamp is newer, skip this
msg.payload[key]=null;}}});// make sure this is a valid date for the next time
flow.lastJournalTimestamp = newJournalTimestamp ||newDate().getTime();// remove all nulled events from the payload
msg.payload =Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(msg.payload).filter(([_, p])=> p !==null));
msg.payload.timestamp =newDate(flow.lastJournalTimestamp);return{ payload: msg.payload };
So I do now keep track of the last read timestamp and reject every event that is older than the last read keeping the Journal dump smaller. This way I don’t have to try to keep track of the “latest” event to drag data from. Refuelling e.g. can happen from whopping 4 (or more) different events and it’s painful to compare all and check which one is the latest to keep track of the real current fuel levels for each tank.
Downside is I won’t get a full set of data for the current session any more if I have to reload my HUD app. This could be mitigated by using MQTT though where I could simply persist each event topic. That is already implemented and I can choose between SocketIO or MQTT in my app anyway.
Gna gna. Found out why my Ace Combat started to crash. The culprit is dwmapi.dll, which is needed for the UE4SS mod (Cheat Engine), so I can adjust the FOV – because the devs kinda “forgot” to add a gorram FOV slider to the game that I NEED and absolutely REQUIRE.
Turns out something in there results in an Access Violation on Start with Proton Experimental (and 9). It works fine with Proton 8. I do not remember switching that but that was the solution in the end 😩
This is after I carefully tried lots of stuff like resetting savegame, disable and remove other mods, fiddle with ini files, read miles of debug logs and whatnot.
So I was asked if my head tracking approach of reading the IMU data from my Viture Pro to OpenTrack and SBS (side-by-side) mode with ReShade would also work with StarCitizen.
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.
There is an unlisted SBS version of this video linked in the description. You will need XR glasses that do FULL SBS though to watch it!
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 🤣
My #ViperPit got an awesome upgrade today. It’s a pressure activated heating mat for the seat usually used in cars (12V are 12V 🤷). For the record: I have to heat full power to get my cave to 18C during the wintertime wasting a lot of energy. This doesn’t make much sense so I’m really happy with my solution that I also have in use for my office chair for years now 👌
Little did I know what a pain in the neck it would be to get this running. No, Linux wasn’t the problem. That was just Press Play, as usual.
There is however no settings menu for #HOTAS joysticks so any mapping has to be done by manually editing the `Input.ini` of the game in an text editor, which is a guessing game. Head tracking is also a no go. I pulled the old trick to map the head tracker to a virtual XBOX controller but the game comes with an annoying deadzone where the camera snaps to the center.
Ah well, got it all working okay-ish in the end and enjoyed some pew pew in the skies. There seem to be plenty of #Macross mods too so trying that will be next 🤘