Multitouch Defcon

[struktstudio]

Hello!
We are a design agency in Vienna, Austria and have developed a 70-inch multitouch table: http://strukt.com/2009/struktable/
Normally we use it for commercial stuff but a friend of mine insisted to run defcon on it. As a long-time defcon fan I was immediately hooked on the idea but knowing the problems that will arise when trying to put a mouse-centric interface on a multitouch screen I wanted to ask the defcon community if this could be accomplished with a mod.

I'm thinking about the classic james-bond casino setup with split-screen for two players with a wall in the middle.
Or a two-table setup that would allow to have the normal defcon app run in fullscreen... But the mouseover, leftklick, rightclick problem would still remain.

I would appreciate your thoughts on the subject and/or if you are interested in a collaboration.

[jamo]

This is really unique - great idea. Playing Defcon on a multi touch table!
I never saw this coming. It sounds like a digital board game - cool.
I have digital projector and I can use it under a glass table, so in a strange way it could become similar to a multi touch table?
Of course it wont act like a multi touch table, but will look like one.

[bert_the_turtle]

No, you can't alter the input processing of Defcon with a mod, sorry. You will have to translate the multitouch input data to fake mouse input and feed that to the application, and you're not going to know whether a click you sent was a valid unit selection or not, which makes things difficult. You could use the AI Bot interface, that way, you have full control over what commands you send to the game, but add the need to sync what is displayed by the game to what you think it displays, which isn't going to be exactly easy, either.

You should talk to IV directly and not over the forums, they have cooperated with IMHO bizarre IO projects in the past (AmbX, that space mouse thing, the LED keyboard), maybe something can be arranged.

[jamo]

Sounds really difficult - almost impossible. But it's a nice idea. If you still want to play defcon on a multi touch table you could use the table as a monitor and play defcon with a mouse and keyboard - what I mean is connect the table with your computer and use it like a monitor if that is possible. If cannot be done well... I don't know what else to suggest - I'm not quite familiar with multi touch tables.

[struktstudio]

The fun about multitouch is that you don't need keyboard and mouse. If you have to connect a mouse its just a big screen that is mounted in an awkward way.

What it comes down to is a rewrite of defcon's user interaction functions and parts of the interface.
That said I have to add that I didn't like the interaction design and the usability of defcon from the beginning. It always seemed to be a little difficult to handle units...

I wrote a mail to IV, maybe they are interested in a collaboration

[jamo]

I really hope so. Good luck!

[struktstudio]

Just to give you an idea how it looks:

[jamo]

DAAAMMMNN!!! Yo that's buggin' - this is the illest thing i've ever seen. Nice work though!