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Terence Doerksen edited this page Dec 30, 2020 · 8 revisions

Gaming Interface Command Server (Windows/Linux)

Installation

Description

This is part of a two app system that allows the use of a remote device (Tablet or Phone) to provide input into a PC game or application. This software is the Windows Server and runs on your Windows PC. It talks to GIC for Android - https://github.com/Terence-D/GamingInterfaceClientAndroid/wiki and will accept commands from it and pass it off to whatever application or game you have set it for. For example if you play a space simulator, you can add custom buttons for Comms, Warp Drive, Power control, etc and have it accessible at your fingertips without remembering complex keystrokes.

Features

  • Open Source and Free!
  • Simple http based connection, making it easy for people to write their own clients
  • Supports multiple devices connecting to the server. Use one Tablet for your ship Systems, another for Comms!
  • Supports practically any game
  • Command Line lets you script starting this if required
  • More features to be worked on like cross platform (Mac, etc)!

Starting and running the Server

Windows

  1. Extract the files from above to a location of your choosing (I'll look at adding an installer)
  2. Run GIC.EXE. Say Yes when asked to run as administrator (this is required for sending the keystrokes, if I find a workaround to remove this, i'll add it in)
  3. Three fields to be entered:
  • Port: This is the port the server is running at. The GIC Client will need to use the same value, these numbers need to match, you should be able to use the default of 8091.
  • Password: This is the password to prevent just anyone from connecting to the server. The GIC Client needs to use the same password, and must be at least 6 characters long
  • Application: This is the "name" of the application window. You can select a pre entered one on the list on the left, or choose from the dropdown list to add a new application that is already running. You can also type in your own value.

Command Line

See Linux, but use GIC instead of GIC.Console

Linux

Linux support is, for now, limited to the command line. This will also work on Windows however - after following the steps above to extract, run the following command from that folder:

GIC.Console --app AppWindowName

running this will use the already set port and encrypted password from appsettings.json

GIC.Console --port 8091 --password 12345678 --app AppWindowName

replace 8091, 12345678, and AppWindowName as appropriate, this will also save the password and port to appsettings.json for the future

Click Start to begin! You can now use the GIC Client - located here: https://github.com/Terence-D/GamingInterfaceClientAndroid

Notes

IP Address

The Client will also need to know your computers IP Address - This app will let you see all possible IP Addresses that your computer uses. The app also has a test to try to make an educated guess which IP is the right one to use. Alternatively you can try this site: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/find-windows-10-device-ip-address/

Firewall

If you are running a firewall, and I hope that you are, you may need to open up the port (see above) to allow the client to see this server. If so, try the information in this link: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-open-firewall-ports-in-windows-10,36451.html

Any other issues please add to the Issue tracker, or contact me at support [ a]t coffeeshopstudio.ca