With iOS client (finally) released, focus shifts a bit towards MATRIC server. I've been doing major internal refactoring which greatly simplifies further development. Although this won't be visible to users it was a major undertaking to pave the road for future development.
Regarding client facing features there are two major ones:
Focus on OBS Studio integration
- OBS Websocket 5.x compatibility which means you won't have to download compatibility plugins as OBS websocket comes out of the box with OBS Studio.
- Simplified UI for configuring OBS actions, some things were really not needed or used while others were missing (like manipulating Virtual Camera)
- More robust and reliable
In principle it is working but needs a lot of testing (there are a lot of commands supported)
MATRIC Server Variables
Variables are a new power feature. In a nutshell, MATRIC modules like Windows Audio Mixer and OBS plugin create and update a bunch of variables that is symbols which hold some value. For example variable that holds your current Windows volume or variable with name of the current OBS scene, recording status etc. Users can now bind things like button text, button state, slider value etc to those variables. Before, users had no control over such things (except Integration API).
Some highlights of variables in MATRIC:
You can define your own variables which can be dynamicaly calculated from any other variables. Very easy to do by writing a snippet of Javascript directly in MATRIC!
When binding control text or state to variable - you can also use Javascript to transform the value (example from the picture sets button text to numeric value but also creates a description of volume level)
In not so distant future variables will be supported by Integration API so apps can read and provide variables to MATRIC
All in all exciting things ahead, but always with No.1 priority of keeping it simple (even when adding advanced features)
I believe it is time to reveal plans for the future of MATRIC.
Major focus is to create a unified multi-platform client covering Android, IOS, Windows and MacOS. The effort is well under way and pretty soon betas will be available for public testing. This is where the community help will be extremely valuable by providing feedback.
The sequence of milestones is as follows:
1) New Windows server - it is necessary to support the new client as well as support "legacy" Android client. So old clients will still be able to work with new server, new clients will require server version minimum version of 2.6.
2) New Android client - first we will roll out multi platform client on Android platform as we already have well established store integration and user base. First the beta followed by release when we're confident it is as reliable as the current Android client.
3) IOS client - probably the most frequent question regarding MATRIC was "Can I get it on my iPad?". With new client - it will be supported! The prototype is already running, most of the work left is integration with the Apple store. After integration and internal testing is completed, there will be a TestFlight release. I will post the announcement on Discord looking for volunteers :). Finally when we receive feedback from testers we will release the IOS client. MacOS client might be released concurrently with IOS version.
4) New Windows client - This will replace the current "experimental" Windows client, I was genuinely surprised so many people use it. New client is fully functional - in fact it is my main development/testing platform for the new client, however, platform integration with Microsoft Store will take some effort.
MATRIC has gained a lot of new capabilities since my first quick&dirty Ka-50 shwcase, so let's see if I can do it even better this time using 2.x features.
4) To have a nice LCD font on UV-26 display, download "DS-Digital" font from https://www.dafont.com/ds-digital.font and unzip it to your Documents/MATRIC/fonts folder
5) Open MATRIC settings, tab API INTEGRATION and make sure that "Enable 3rd party integration" is CHECKED and "Require integration PIN" is NOT CHECKED
6) Load the deck in MATRIC on your mobile device and enjoy
Quite a while ago I did a Ka-50 proof of concept to demonstrate how to use DCS export to integrate MATRIC with DCS. I decided to revisit DCS inspired by some very creative members of the community and do another DCS-MATRIC showcase.
I'll show you how you can use MATRIC as UFCP and it is much easier to set up with MATRIC 2.0
1.64 has been released, these are the new features:
Windows client support
Windows client makes it possible to use Windows devices as MATRIC clients.
While in general it does not make sense to use Windows client on the same PC which is running MATRIC Server (hotkeys and macros wouldn't work as the client would be just sending keystrokes to itself) in some cases it might be useful, for example if using secondary touch screen as OBS Studio deck
Touchpad zone button "action" makes the button a touchpad surface
While MATRIC did support touchpad emulation before, it would show in a different screen. Now you can embed the touchpad surface as you would any button in the deck, just add button and choose "Touchpad zone" as action.
Embed web page "action" enables embedding web pages and HTML fragments in MATRIC deck, however due to various limitations your mileage may vary (some web sites won't allow embedding), e.g. Google maps works, YouTube doesn't.
It does open interesting possibilities like embedding other apps inside MATRIC.
Improved macro editor - now you won't have to record macro all over again if you make a mistake, it is possible to edit keystrokes
Embed Web page - enables you to embed a web page directly into MATRIC decks e.g. Google maps
Touchpad zone - similar to touchpad but instead of opening a special dedicated touchpad screen, touchpad surface is inline with buttons on the deck page
Our most popular deck is "Aviation button templates", we decided to release the source files under Creative Commons license. The zip file contains graphics with layers in 3 formats: original Affinity Designer format, EPS and Photoshop PSD. Attribution is optional.
You will have to uninstall any version lower then 1.62 before installing.
Changes
We switched to WiX installer system. This gives us signifficant new possibilities like automatically configuring firewall during setup, better control over prerequisites installation (Visual C++ runtime and .Net framework). Only downside so far is that you will have to uninstall any version prior to 1.62 before installing 1.62 or higher.
While switching to WiX wasn't easy (to put it mildly), I strongly believe it is a right step towards better user experience and less setup related issues. Please report any issues to our Discord.
User-configurable network ports - to get rid of those pesky Hyper-V conflicts. Do not change Server discovery port until new Android client (with configurable server discovery port is available on Google Play)
Bugfixes
Fix app crash if Run App action target does not exist
Fix app crash if Hotkey action is malformed
Fix properly mark update message as read when clicked
Support for Bluetooth connectivity via Windows Mobile Hotspot
You can now use MATRIC over Bluetooth by utilizing Windows 10 Mobile Hotspot. You need to update MATRIC Android client to latest version to take advantage of this feature.
HTTP request button action
Enables you to send tailor-made HTTP requests from MATRIC at a push of a button. Handy if you want MATRIC to trigger actions on smart devices, social media or any other platform that supports HTTP.
Minor changes and bugfixes
Separate update installation version (will be available on click in MATRIC on Windows) - won't mess up your decks or reinstall defaults or check prerequisites (VC++ and .Net) resulting in more robust and leaner upgrade process
New config file location Documents\MATRIC\config
More popular decks included in default installation
Bugfix: Log file not shown in UI
Bugfix: Button properties panel for VJoy action not opening vjoy download window
Bugfix: Button animation in library panel not shown if button has autorepeat flag set
