Displax Tangible Objects

Just curious if anyone has created a project using these. I’d like to get some tips and best practices to help speed my project along.

So far I’ve extended the TUIO Sample experience onto a two-screen setup with an NEC 48" table-oriented touchscreen and a 75" non-touch Samsung that’s wall-mounted near the touch table.

I’ve got this set up outside of my office so that I can build at my workstation and test it as I go. The PC attached to the 2 screens is also running a Composer license so that I can adjust things on the fly and use TUIOSimulator on the target device.

I haven’t been able to get any of the graphics to show up that correspond to the tangible objects, so I’ve hit a wall there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi @cullenb,

We’ve had several customers using Displax HW for tangible objects and once everything is setup correctly, both on Displax side (their software to send object info over TUIO) and on Intuiface side (should be default TUIO port, so nothing to really setup, except maybe some firewall issues), you should be good to go.

If it works with TUIO Simulator but not on Displax table, I’d check on Displax software side. Make sure it’s sending the information over TUIO on the right port.
If you have conditions on object Tag number, make sure you are using the same than the ones you have in the simulator.

These are the 2 most common issues I’ve seen.

If you want us to check what’s inside your XP, you might want to open a ticket with our support team.

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If you need help, give me a message just a tip make sure you have either Tag or Tag + enabled in DC and make sure you have the correct objects, only specific patterns work on that skin.

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Thanks, Seb. I’ll check to make sure everything is consistent in the morning between TUIOSimulator and Displax Connect and then check those Tags against the ones used in the IA properties in the experience. I’ll start a ticket if I’m still having issues.

Thanks, Louie. I appreciate it. I’ve got 6 objects, and I do have Tag enabled. So far I’ve only been testing with one of them, but I’ll try the others. Currently, if I move an object in TUIOSimulator it will have changed location when I return to Composer and the Tag ID matches between them, but it’s not showing up when I play the experience. I’ll repost here if I manage to determine the disconnect.

Hi Cullen,

You probably have a port open in displax connect make sure that the port is not already in use.

Let me know how you get on.

Hi Louie,

I’ve got 5 objects working in the Experience now. Turns out the one I was using didn’t show up as a circle with an angle indicator like the other 5 do, so I was using an “extra” object right off the bat. :blush:

I’ve found that TUIOSimulator isn’t doing anything for me, but Displax Connect definitely is, as long as I put the objects on the screen before I play the experience. So now my question is, how do I make it remember them so they work with the Player file without having to be “initiated” by Displax Connect first?

I may be putting the cart inside the horse on this one, so if there is some technical literature I should be referencing, please let me know. I’ve read everything I’ve come across so far.

The other thing I’m noticing is as soon as objects touch the screen in Displax Connect, I lose touch capabilities, i.e. the ole finger now longer does anything on the screen, but the mouse is fine of course. My touches are registering in Displax Connect as single points, but no applications are accepting them. Quite the head scratcher.

Hi Cullen,

Give me a PM I’ll be able to help you further.

Kind Regards

Louie

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Alright, I’ve messaged you directly. Thanks!

Hi @Seb,

Louie has been able to give me some great pointers that have moved me along. The only thing I’m curious about now is that the objects work when I use them by running the experience in Play Mode from Composer, but when I try to use them by deploying the published experience through Player, they do not. I get 3 touch points showing up as ghosted circles under the object, but the interface graphics that I see in Play Mode aren’t there. I feel like I’m missing a part of the equation here.

HI @cullenb,

Are you running Composer & Player in the same machine, or a different one?
If yes, do you have the same firewall rules for Composer & Player? Sometimes Windows messes up between private & public network…
If you run our default sample TUIO XP, does it work? (with the right Tag IDs)

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Are you publishing the XP to the same device you have been testing on with the Displax skin? it’s just when you publish the XP via composer and download it to the Player via the MC it’s not working? But if you run composer on that machine and run the project it works?

Yes, it is the same machine. I will check the firewall rules and let you know sometime tomorrow. We just had a preview and I’ve got to make changes to content on 5 players (phew), but I am lucky it wasn’t more. : )

Yes, I am publishing to the same device. When I play the experience from Composer it works and the interface graphics show up with the objects, but if I run it through Player by publishing to the same device, the interface graphics do not show up with the objects. I’m going to check the firewall settings per Seb tomorrow after I make these other changes. Thanks for the reply. I will keep you posted.

Can you double check in your task manager that you closed Composer and you have a single instance of Player running?
Simple way to do that: reboot the PC and only launch a Player :slight_smile:
As @Promultis mentioned, this could look like a port already used.

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Will do. That definitely sounds like the most logical explanation. Thanks!

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Okay! Back to it. Yes, that was the rub. Thanks so much for helping me understand what was happening there.

Now I just want to make sure I’m clear on a couple of things: I need to have the Displax Connect config saved and a shortcut for Displax Connect needs to be in Startup Items with a shortcut for Player, so that on bootup it starts both and can recognize the objects in Player. If Displax Connect isn’t open, then Player can’t communicate with the objects.

This isn’t spelled out anywhere, so I want to make sure I’m grasping the order of operations here. Thanks!

P.S. If this is spelled out somewhere, please point me to the resource. :grinning:

I’ll be honest @cullenb, I’ve never used Displax Connect (DC) myself so I’m not sure, but I’ll say yes, you probably need to have “something” from Displax running in the background that will send the info to Intuiface.
Is it DC itself, or another command line tool or service, or DC with a specific argument to be hidden in the background, that I’m not sure. But I’m sure @Promultis will know :wink:

Regarding Intuiface, with the Enterprise edition you can remotely set the Player to automatically start with Windows. See this article.
For DC, you could either set it with Windows start-up mechanism (if DC doesn’t have a built-in auto-start feature), or you could have your experience launch it using the Launch application action.

Again, @Promultis may have more insights on his best practices here :wink:

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I just used shell:startup to put shortcuts of DC and Player as startup items, and I had created a .config file to set Player for multiple displays, so on reboot it opens both, but because Player takes a little longer to launch it takes over both screens fairly quickly. Now I’ve just got to set up the 2nd PC and I can start exporting my assets to build the Experience. I’m psyched!

Thanks to you and Louie for your guidance. It’s been very helpful and greatly appreciated.

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Just for your FYI if you open DC and set everything up you do not need to have it open or start it again, it should just work without adding it to the start up folder.

Kind Regards

Louie

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