Touchscreens & Torque

#1 This is only a guess, but as far as the operating system (and thus torque) is concerned doesn't the touchscreen basically look like a mouse?

#2 Hi Magnus,

You're probably right, but I wanted to cover my bases before I get started with this. I'm hoping there is a 'torque touching professional' who can provide some guidance. :) If not, I'll jump into it and see how things go.

Right now I'm considering a 17" industrial LCD Touchscreen (for mounting inside a cabinet). I'll probably build a stripped PC inside the cabinet.

#3 We used touch screens with virtual canada, but I was just an artist and never talked to the programmers about that.

Photos of the setup.
www.garagegames.com/blogs/5446/7430

I believe you pressed on the screen, it did a raycast and then walked there if it could.

#4 Neil,

Very nice. This is the kind of confirmation I was hoping for. Plus now I've got a cool tip on movement. ;)

Thank you

#5 I know our touchscreens on our POS (Point Of Sale) systems at work function exactly like mice, they even plug the 'extra' cable into the ps/2 mouse port. Now to convince the boss to get a geForce card for each one =)

#6 You should ask the BadGuy how TGE is with a touch screen system, he works with them daily and would have access to some hardware to give you a pretty good idea of what it can do.

#7 Logan,

Cool. Thanks for the lead. I'll see what I can find out.

#8 Touch screen will work with no problem.

they generally use a mouse driver to perform the tasks therefore work just like a mouse.
programatically speaking there should be no difference.

however design is always an issue :)
only so much you can do in a 3d world with a touchscreen if you know what I mean :)

Edit:
Doh, I forgot to answer the meaning of life.

it's 42.

#9 Badguy,

Thanks for posting. I've been asked to do an information/navigation kiosk for an office building. I suppose I could use Flash or C++ along with video-captured roll-throughs or pre-rendered fly-through clips, but I would much rather create everything in 3D and turn it into a fully explorable Torque 'mission'. In addition to visitor free-form exploration, office staff could easily create separate 'demo' files to any office in the building from each of the kiosk locations.

As to the hardware, having never done this before, I'm considering this touchscreen . . .

www.superwarehouse.com/3M_ChassisTouch_FPD_17_Touch_Monitor/11-4942-505-00/p/371...

It looks pretty good from the specs. But I can't help but wonder, do you have any recommendations on hardware (displays or innards)?

Thanks again

42.

:)

#10 Sounds pretty groovy. I like it.

you can do like virtual Canada and travel to or use designed in "hotspots"
indeed many ways to implement the usage.

overall you will discover you get one mouse move (depends on os) and one mouse click per interaction so do what you like.

as for hardware choice.

I personally would buy the cheapest one I could find.
and implement and go from there. the one you have selected seem's a litle pricey :)

once I was happy and ready I would want to present it on many screen's before I spent much.

you should be able to perhaps plug these screens in and run a test. depends on how you purchase it of course.
how many screens you talking about buying?


I dont actually have the model information now that I am at home.
but I will post tomorrow what we use and it is a nice one looks good drivers are harmless.

fun stuff.

hope this helps :)

#11 Badguy,

Yes, this information will be a big help to me. I've been happily self-funding a non-game project of my own for quite a while, but this unexpected project request could be a very worthwhile diversion.

It's going to be just one kiosk for now. However, if I play my cards right, it might lead to more work. This is a strangely high-profile facility the middle of an economically-depressed rural community. As a small business incubation center, it recieves a lot of state government attention and media exposure, so this could become a big part of my future. (Crosses fingers)

There are more experienced developers in this community, but I'm the only one doing 3D work, so that's why I was approached. That and the fact that I'm a small business owner and tenant of the building doesn't hurt. :)

After Midhir mentioned the POS terminals, I started thinking of some contacts who might let me do a test-run on one of their screens.

Yes, model information and performance anecdotes could come in handy. I'm open to anything.

Thanks again for helping with this