6 replies to this topic

[Qark]

I am considering building my own custom control console for MWO. I am able to convert button presses and switches to keyboard commands easily enough but my ultimate dream is to use analog dials for things like speed, heat, and jump jet fuel. I can handle the electronics fine but I have no idea if there is actually any way of getting the information I need during gameplay. Is there any way to get the values from the game while it is running? My googling has found references to a MWO API but I am struggling to find any proper information about that at all.

Any guidance or suggestions would be appreciated!

[LordNothing]

i think the api is just for stats gathering. i dont think there is any officially supported method for simpit builders to collect hud data, so you would either have to get creative or just have a controls only simulator. you might be able to sniff it out of your network traffic, being server authoritative all the stuff on your hud should be in there. but id be wary about that method because that's how cheat software works, nobody wants a false ban.

Edited by LordNothing, 10 June 2020 - 02:43 PM.

[LordNothing]

another idea, maybe use an opencv camera somewhere to read those parts of the hud off the screen. that might take some work though. probably do it on a raspberry pi or your computer if you have idle cores.

Edited by LordNothing, 10 June 2020 - 02:57 PM.

[Qark]

LordNothing, on 10 June 2020 - 02:40 PM, said:

i think the api is just for stats gathering. i dont think there is any officially supported method for simpit builders to collect hud data, so you would either have to get creative or just have a controls only simulator. you might be able to sniff it out of your network traffic, being server authoritative all the stuff on your hud should be in there. but id be wary about that method because that's how cheat software works, nobody wants a false ban.

Thanks for the input. Im hesitant to try grabbing game data without any official support for the reasons you stated. My first thought for a work around was to try OCR to read the values from screenshots taken about once a second. Unfortunately the OCR I have tried so far can't tell the displayed number from a squiggle in the dirt just behind the HUD.

[Horseman]

... or you could come up with some way to stream your gameplay footage to another device and use that device to scrape fragments of your display into individual values to feed to whatever controls the analog indicators.. Speed, JJ fuel and heat are in the end just 0-100% bars in the UI, hardly rocket science.

[LordNothing]

Horseman, on 10 June 2020 - 02:56 PM, said:

... or you could come up with some way to stream your gameplay footage to another device and use that device to scrape fragments of your display into individual values to feed to whatever controls the analog indicators.. Speed, JJ fuel and heat are in the end just 0-100% bars in the UI, hardly rocket science.

that sounds less janky than using a camera.

[Qark]

Horseman, on 10 June 2020 - 02:56 PM, said:

... or you could come up with some way to stream your gameplay footage to another device and use that device to scrape fragments of your display into individual values to feed to whatever controls the analog indicators.. Speed, JJ fuel and heat are in the end just 0-100% bars in the UI, hardly rocket science.

Actually if I just grab pixel colour values I should be able to read how full the meter is. I don't even need another device. Great idea! Much less janky than a camera.