Future Touch Buddy Development

[Drakoz]

Hello. I'm new to Touch Buddy, and I am impressed. I'm also disappointed to find out that development has basically stopped. Has there been any serious discussion (publicly or privately) with Zorlac about opening up development to other people? Life happens, so no blame to Zorlac for having to set this aside. I'm just hoping something can be done to allow continued development. TB is what the simming community needs, but with little to no continuing development, it's difficult to recommend it for the long term future. More importantly, there is so much potential with Touch Buddy, I hate to see it stagnate.



Like Zorlac's "how this all started", I am in a similar boat....

Not happy with what was available for controlling sims, I'm ready to custom build or program anything to enhance my simming experience. I can build just about anything, electrical, software, or physical I need to, but I haven't. Building highly custom panels and controllers is both expensive and time consuming, and then I find what I build isn't quite right for all the sims and aircraft I want to fly. I'm not interested in building different physical panels for each aircraft. Who has the time or the space!! Unfortunately, what works for a helicopter isn't even close for a Cessna or an A-10.

So, I put up with what I have. Using TrackIR and clickable 3D cockpits with as much configured on programmable devices like a Cougar HOTAS or my Saitek Yoke and throttle quadrants as I can. It works, but isn't great.

The problem is, I hate remembering all the keyboard commands, and I want controllers that have both realism, but are also self documenting (you know, like a real cockpit with labels and such). Products like the Cougar HOTAS or other programmable joysticks and yokes are realistic and highly programmable, but they are not self documentation for the more complex stuff. Who can remember how they programmed all their hats. It works if you fly the same aircraft all the time but most people don't.

What is needed is a highly programmable device that is quick and easy to program, easily re-configures for different aircraft, and is self documenting.

Hey, I just found something that does that....Touch Buddy!

OK, it still takes some effort to create custom panels for each sim or aircraft, but since it's all in software (with some help from Photoshop or PaintShop Pro), it's within the realm for any dedicated simmer to handle, or borrow from someone else. It's certainly easier to make custom panels in TB than it is to build the real thing, and most important - it's SELF DOCUMENTING!! I can even pull up PDF manuals and web pages in TB. Even better, there are hooks to allow real programmable interfaces through ActiveX clients. I can't wait to get going on the Flight Sim X SDK and start making some active panels. It's almost a dream come true. But....



I believe that TB is just at the crux where it can gain a lot of momentum in the simming community. It does so much now, but there's so much more it can do. The basis is there for a fantastic future, but it can't happen without active development. So, I make a plea to Zorlac to please find some help to continue development on Touch Buddy. I would be happy to take a lead roll in that development, and I assume there are plenty well qualified people out there as well.

Oh, and BTW, Wild.Bill.Kelso, you too deserve a huge amount of credit for your efforts too. The Touch Buddy Toolkit is great too!

Regards,

Mike

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Thanks Mike. I agree with most of what you said. Much of it has been said before, and that is because it is so true.

Zorlac, the developer of the TB app is long gone. He will not be making any changes or updates to the TB app. It is what it is for now... Too bad really, but that's the way it is.

He wrote TB using Perl. I am a VB 6 programmer, and too lazy to learn VB.Net or C#. Either of which would be ideal for TB. I could probably rewrite TB in VB6, but I think any serious future development should be in a newer technology. And I really hate having to do all the work it would take to write my own TB to get it up to where it is now.

What we have here now works pretty darn good. I can only thing of a few things I would ask Zorlac to change. And with ActiveX Plugins we can extend the functionality further...

WBK

[Axion]

Originally Posted by Wild.Bill.Kelso

Zorlac, the developer of the TB app is long gone. He will not be making any changes or updates to the TB app. It is what it is for now... Too bad really, but that's the way it is.

WBK

What happened, where did Zorlac go

[Dodger]

Hey Axion,

Z moved onto new projects - astronomy in fact :P

Touch-Buddy was about as baked as he had intended it to be. There are some features we could consider adding, but they would involve a massive amount of code re-writing.

Anyway, hope you enjoy as it is today.

Regards,
D

[Axion]

I enjoy it enough to have made a donation for this fantastic software

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Originally Posted by Axion

I enjoy it enough to have made a donation for this fantastic software

Thanks a lot Axion! Any support is greatly appreciated!

[zorlac]

Just logged in here for the first time in nearly 500 days (seriously!).

I got burned out on TB in a big way, and gaming in general. I havent played a single game in nearly 18 months, havent flown LOMAC, havent driving GTR, havent blown up tanks in Steel Beasts. The lack of interest in games, and the frantic multiple bugfix patches for the last TB release just left me drained.

TB was just a wild idea I had one day after a gaming session, and I had a baseline of things I wanted to be able to do with it, if only to prove to myself that they can be done and that I could actually do them. The last TB release had all those originally thought about features in them.

The obessive coding I used to do, plus playing newly purchased games to test TB with them, plus the hours of playing games for myself... well, lets just say it didnt help my home life very much.

The break after the last TB release made me sit back and think about a lot of things. My life, my wife, my day job.... and so it was at that point I moved on. One day i`m sure I`ll return to at least casual gaming, and will probably dig out my touch screen from wherever its hiding for use with TB, but I doubt very much i`ll ever end up doing more development work on TB, at least not in its current state, or as primary coder.

I`m proud that I managed to take an idea to fruition, but it eventually wore me out and I had to change.

So, i`m back for now, and have no firm plans right now...

[Wild.Bill.Kelso]

Hi Zorlac. Well, welcome back. It's nice to see you post after so long...

[zorlac]

Its nice to be back, and see how TB is doing. Cant believe how many reviews and stuff there is out there now.

Just trying to motivate myself enough before the english Black Shark gets released...

[ruggbutt]

Good to cya Zorlac. I showed my pit to an old friend and his kid last nite. Both of them loved it but really took interest in the touch screens and TB. For me, TB has made my gaming so much more immersive.