VRK - a virtual reality enabled kneeboard with touch and ink support

[AMVI_Rider]

Hey, no worries. When users push to get things working it is always because they found the tool valuable.

 

Frankly I still don't get why you need to push so hard while I can keep my settings so relaxed.

 

I'm not sure if you are following on Discord, but I have published there a test version that should fix the pen problem for Wacom. I'm not sure if it will fix the sensitivity too. Can you try it and give me feedback?

[Snoopy]

When one kneeboard is in focus and paging up or down via buttons on the tablet it moves pages in both kneeboard a for me. Is this expected behavior!

[FoxDelta]

no its not.

check your button assignments

and your switching method

 

 

if u are using 2 tablets:

make sure that u don t have autoswitching active.

set ACTIVE KNEEBOARD SELECTING MODE" to manual

 

thats what i ve learned yesterday having a conversation with Rider on discord, using 2 tablets exclusivly for each kneeboard isalready implemented, and if set up correct, working flawlessly.

Edited March 31, 2020 by FoxDelta

[AMVI_Rider]

When one kneeboard is in focus and paging up or down via buttons on the tablet it moves pages in both kneeboard a for me. Is this expected behavior!

 

No, but it has already been fixed in the test version (1.3.3.16). That's why Fox Delta (which is testing) doesn't see the problem anymore.

 

If you want to join the testing, go to VRK Discord and look in the test-version channel.

[Bog9y]

Hi, I LOVE this program! Thank you so much for making it. I used Kneeboard Builder but it's not the most user friendly program to use. Switching to VRK has been fantastic!

 

Quick question, perhaps I am doing something wrong but I can't figure out how to switch from bookmark 1 to bookmark 2,3,4 etc. I created key bindings on my hotas for next/prev page but I can't figure out how to go to the next bookmark. It's called PREV/NEXT tab, isn't it?

[AMVI_Rider]

Thank you! Well, to be hones I forgot to add a function to cycle bookmarks. The PREV/NEXT Tab is used to cycle trough "documents". I will add it in the current dev version ( 1.3.3.18 ).

 

I take the opportunity to give a little insight about the 1.3.3.18. It is mostly around performance optimization and tuning: I notice that the current version is not rendering at a very good framerate. The latency pen to VR is higher than I expected.

 

Going deeper I found that rendering into offscreen surfaces (that's required to support supersampling) is done in software mode causing the CPU to struggle in keeping up when you draw a stroke. Done some optimization of the code result in some improvement, so, I decided to implement some HW acceleration and that's the result:

 

1.3.3.16

2020-03-29 23:51:39,020 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 49

 

1.3.3.18 (optimized)

2020-03-31 20:18:58,397 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 38

 

1.3.3.18 (HW accelerated)

2020-04-01 19:42:18,834 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 12

 

A little patience and I will come back with some interesting improvements.

Edited April 2, 2020 by AMVI_Rider

[Bog9y]

Thank you! Well, to be hones I forgot to add a function to cycle bookmarks. The PREV/NEXT Tab is used to cycle trough "documents". I will add it in the current dev version ( 1.3.3.18 ).

 

I take the opportunity to give a little insight about the 1.3.3.18. It is mostly around performance optimization and tuning: I notice that the current version is not rendering at a very good framerate. The latency pen to VR is higher than I expected.

 

Going deeper I found that rendering into offscreen surfaces (that's required to support supersampling) is done in software mode causing the CPU to struggle in keeping up when you draw a stroke. Done some optimization of the code result in some improvement, so, I decided to implement some HW acceleration and that's the result:

 

1.3.3.16

2020-03-29 23:51:39,020 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 49

 

1.3.3.18 (optimized)

2020-03-31 20:18:58,397 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 38

 

1.3.3.18 (HW accelerated)

2020-04-01 19:42:18,834 [1] INFO VRKneeboardLib.VRRefresher - Average Rendering time: 12

 

A little patience and I will come back with some interesting improvements.

 

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I think the ability to have bookmarks would make the program so much better, especially if you have loaded 40 or 50 pages of various documents.

 

So looking at this video:

 

At 0:30 you can see on the left kneeboard he has tabs on the left side that are named

 

JTACchart / CA / PG / CHKLST / NATO OPS

 

and then at the top it says ALL / EMG

 

The version I have, I don't shows these sorts of tabs, or I have not been able to create it. Is this a newer version of the program?

[Bog9y]

PS: I tried your mission planner software (DCSMP), again another wonderful bit of software. Have you got any plans to add the F16 data to this? Or would it be possible for me to edit the fuel flow figures and drag factors for the F18 to reflect F16 performance?

[AMVI_Rider]

Thanks for the quick reply. I think the ability to have bookmarks would make the program so much better, especially if you have loaded 40 or 50 pages of various documents.

 

So looking at this video:

 

At 0:30 you can see on the left kneeboard he has tabs on the left side that are named

 

JTACchart / CA / PG / CHKLST / NATO OPS

 

and then at the top it says ALL / EMG

 

The version I have, I don't shows these sorts of tabs, or I have not been able to create it. Is this a newer version of the program?

 

That's Fox Delta video, anyway, the tab on the left are documents which are create for any document you "add" to the kneeboard (notes, pdf, directory...).

On top there are Bookmarks. You can rename them by just right clicking with the mouse.

 

To change the location (left, right, top, bottom) there are drop down lists in the VR tab of configuration.

 

As per DCSMP I already started F-16, but VRK is taking most of my free time and it's slowly progressing.

[Bog9y]

That's Fox Delta video, anyway, the tab on the left are documents which are create for any document you "add" to the kneeboard (notes, pdf, directory...).

On top there are Bookmarks. You can rename them by just right clicking with the mouse.

 

To change the location (left, right, top, bottom) there are drop down lists in the VR tab of configuration.

 

As per DCSMP I already started F-16, but VRK is taking most of my free time and it's slowly progressing.

 

 

Hi Rider, I had another play with this great program and creating different tabs is exactly what I was looking for! So no need for bookmarks in my opinion.

 

One thing that confused me was that when I clicked NEXT page , both kneeboard switched to the next page. I couldn't figure out how to get it to just switch the page on the left kneeboard, it still went to the next page on both kneeboards when I selected NR 1 to be the active one. Am I doing something wrong?

 

I am not using any tablets btw.

[AMVI_Rider]

I've just released a version that fixes your problem (was a known bug)

[AMVI_Rider]

Version 1.3.3.16 is available for download

This version is mostly dedicated to bug fixing.

 

Changelog:

 

[1.3.3.16]

[FIX] Wintab doesn't register strokes starting with light pressure on tip

[FIX] Tablet events routing causing multiple actions and wrong target kneeboard

[FIX] Image aspect ratio

[FIX] VR Toggle not properly restoring

[CHG] VR Toggle global effect

[NEW] Oculus: option to disable sim launch on profile load

[NEW] Support for high res images (do not scale down to VRK resolution)

[NEW] Maximum zoom increased to 16x

 

Official download location: https://www.amvi.it/download429-vr-kneeboard.html

 

Donation link: https://tinyurl.com/vrk-donate

 

Discord: https://discord.gg/mxqSSa4

 

I would like to thank all VRK supporters for their donations and suggestions!

[Bog9y]

I've just released a version that fixes your problem (was a known bug)

 

:thumbup: LEGEND!

[Elidji]

Hello,

 

When I play a campaign or a training mission the kneeboard doesn't auto load.

It seems to work great in MP but not in SP, is there something I'm missing ?

[shagrat]

Is there any chance to modify this to work with normal Head-Tracker (TrackIR etc.) and normal 2D screens?

I love the scribble option for the kneeboards... but due to heavy issues with lag induced motion sickness, shifted back to screen and TrackIR.

[gianlu320]

@ AMVI_Rider

 

I would like to try VRK

I have a surface go pad and I know the current version of your software doesn't support client/server mode anymore.

Any chance to have a previous version that supports this mode?

I can't find it anywere

 

Thanks a lot

[Muellerman]

@AMVI_Rider

 

Thank you very much for this outstanding piece of software :)

Just got my Wacom Intuos S and it works like a charm!

Only the DCS automatic Kneeboard extraction does not work. The pages are always white/empty.

Anything I am missing to get this work? The "Autoload Mission Kneeboard" Option is enabled. So is the User Directory and the Hook is installed too. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks again for your work. Donation incoming ;)

Muellerman

[Spit40]

I know there's a problem that JPGs can be distorted when loaded but I thought PDFs were fine. I've hit a problem with this one though. Originally it was downloaded rotated so because I couldn't see a way in VRK to rotate the view (would be nice) I rotated it in an external app. When I load it into VRK it distorts,

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xf6f48pwbraiw8l/148115-rotated.pdf?dl=0

 

2 other feature requests please

1) Option to step through pages at the top. I have to really strain my neck to see the arrows at the bottom - i don't have a tablet with buttons yet

2) Option that when the tablet is zoom/focussed it can move a bit. Again the bottom of the page is a real neck crick for me.

 

Thanks. Come up with a great app and people just want more !

[vJaBoG32_Siddharta]

Hi AMVI Rider! I installed VRK with Intuos S on Steam VR (Index). Everything works fine, but i noted a cpu load of 15% CPU load (Ryzon 5 3600K) caused by VRK while drawing on a blank sheet. Is this normal? Doas VRk use Multicores?

[AMVI_Rider]

Hello guys,

I try to answer all your questions in a single post...

 

The kneeboard not loading has been reported. I will investigate as soon as I finish the performance improvement campaign. Sadly OpenVR didn't liked the HW acceleration technique which is giving so good results. In theory it shouldn't matter and I'm investigating why.

 

The image distortion is fixed and will be released with next version. For the moment stay with 1:1 aspect ratio or be patient.

 

I have the old installer for the client / server and I will add the link as by tomorrow for anybody interested. In any case consider to buy the pen tablet because the surface is getting hot and uncomfortable to be used (as reported by users in this forum).

 

VRK is distributed among threads but WPF (the MS graphical framework I'm using) is not. There are many areas in which I'm improving performances but some workarounds I was obliged to use are CPU intensive. The good part is that nothing of this is influencing DCS so you are only using the extra cores left by DCS.

Mind that the HW accelerated (and optimized) tendering is 4 to 8 times faster than what you see now. The CPU usage will be at part but latency will be much better.

 

Sorry for not being present here (more active on Discord those days) but the SteamVR tests are very demanding.

[yohji]

Hey, great work. Do you Intent to make an iPad version? I have an iPad mini 4 for vfr flight, and it cool be really huge to be able to use it like that, it's missing a real kneeboard in vr you are right!

[Dachs]

Hi, just got it setup, and everything seems to work great (I have no physical tablet though)

Only thing, I cant figure out how to import the airfield maps found in "DCS World\Mods\terrains\Caucasus\Kneeboard" for some reason.

I use the new directories tab in VRK, and it seems to import just fine, except the images dosen't get resized. As a result I end up with just a small bit, of the top left corner of each map showing on each VRK page? What am I doing wrong here?

[Snake122]

I'm looking at get a Huion to full take advantage of VRK and trying to size them out for what I need. Leaning towards the H640P, but Can you use them in portrait mode? I want to position be it like a true kneeboard on my leg and would like to use the short side towards my knee, which is 90 degrees from normal. Will the make the writing rotated as well on the kneeboard?

[=Panther=]

The VRK app has a rotation option, so you just set the offset in the application to match your configuration.

[Snake122]

The VRK app has a rotation option, so you just set the offset in the application to match your configuration.

 

Ahh, thanks! I see that now in BASE tab. I was searching the quick start guide for "rotation" and it doesn't come up because it's in the graphic, not the text.