A new Keyboard/Mouse Visualizer (Create your own Layouts)

Aphox

LotBlind

Edit history:

LotBlind: 2018-05-26 12:25:09 pm

Aphox: 2013-06-08 11:33:22 am

2013-05-14 05:21:31 pm

Also know as L0rdy

Hello everyone,

a few weeks ago I decided to write my own Keyboard Visualizing program. The motivation behind this was, that all the streams I watched that used such a program, always had a big block of a keyboard and maybe used 20% of the keys for the actual game. It was such a waste of space and looked really bad in my opinion.
I wanted a program where you can easily change everything to your own needs and I hope with this first version of my program I was able to realize that to some degree.

The current status of the program is Beta, so dont expect a perfect program yet. But I hope with your feedback I can improve it where its bad and/or has bugs. So feel free to pm me or give feedback in this thread, that would be really appreciated.

For the future I want to try to add a few unique features tot he program. Such as:
- Button animations (already partially in the program)
- Record and save your input, so you can send someone else a file and the program will show him how to execute a trick.
- Draw the Layout directly into the game (not sure if I will ever add this)

That are just a few of the features I came up with but it depends on how much time and energy I have to actually implement all of them.
For now I want to concentrate on the feedback and try to make it as stable and easy to use as possible.

Content so far:
- The program including the Editor (Open the program, rightclick it and choose "Editor" to open the editor)
- A few basic Layouts (A few with images a few with just Colors)
- Two experimental Layouts which show an example of how Button animations might work. (Load them via Editor, exit editor and use "wasd" Keys)

Here a preview of the Editor:

Important:
You need Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 for this program to run (should be already installed on most pc's anyway).
Also when you want to stream with this program (specially with xsplit) you will have to use the OBS-Compatibility-Mode.
Mainly because Broadcasting Programs dont like Windows Transparency. So if you want to use opacity or Transparency you will have to set it up in Xsplit/OBS itself. Let me know if you have trouble with that, I'll gladly help you out.

At last, let me know if you like my ideas/program and thanks for your help.

EDIT:
- Fixed the issue from honorableJay (new download avaible)

Download:
ApVkp 0.43 (old)http://ge.tt/4dEyjoi/v/0
ApVkp 0.44 http://ge.tt/3dKpkoi/v/0

EDIT: Also set the program (whichever visualizer you're using) to run as administrator under the compatibility settings, or it can't read your inputs.

Thread title:

Hello everyone,

a few weeks ago I decided to write my own Keyboard Visualizing program. The motivation behind this was, that all the streams I watched that used such a program, always had a big block of a keyboard and maybe used 20% of the keys for the actual game. It was such a waste of space and looked really bad in my opinion.
I wanted a program where you can easily change everything to your own needs and I hope with this first version of my program I was able to realize that to some degree.

The current status of the program is Beta, so dont expect a perfect program yet. But I hope with your feedback I can improve it where its bad and/or has bugs. So feel free to pm me or give feedback in this thread, that would be really appreciated.

For the future I want to try to add a few unique features tot he program. Such as:  
 - Button animations (already partially in the program)
 - Record and save your input, so you can send someone else a file and the program will show him how to execute a trick.
 - Draw the Layout directly into the game (not sure if I will ever add this)

That are just a few of the features I came up with but it depends on how much time and energy I have to actually implement all of them.
For now I want to concentrate on the feedback and try to make it as stable and easy to use as possible.

Content so far:
 - The program including the Editor (Open the program, rightclick it and choose "Editor" to open the editor)
 - A few basic Layouts (A few with images a few with just Colors)
 - Two experimental Layouts which show an example of how Button animations might work. (Load them via Editor, exit editor and use "wasd" Keys)

Here a preview of the Editor:
[img]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2863437/Editor.png[/img]

Important:
You need Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 for this program to run (should be already installed on most pc's anyway).
Also when you want to stream with this program (specially with xsplit) you will have to use the OBS-Compatibility-Mode.
Mainly because Broadcasting Programs dont like Windows Transparency. So if you want to use opacity or Transparency you will have to set it up in Xsplit/OBS itself. Let me know if you have trouble with that, I'll gladly help you out.

At last, let me know if you like my ideas/program and thanks for your help.

EDIT:
- Fixed the issue from honorableJay (new download avaible)

Download:
ApVkp 0.43 (old)[url]http://ge.tt/4dEyjoi/v/0[/url]
ApVkp 0.44 [url]http://ge.tt/3dKpkoi/v/0[/url]

EDIT: Also set the program (whichever visualizer you're using) to run as administrator under the compatibility settings, or it can't read your inputs.

Judgy

Edit history:

Judgy: 2013-05-19 06:30:33 am

2013-05-19 06:30:02 am

Borderlands 2 Glitch Hunter/ router.

I like this L0rdy, I like this a lot 1 question I do have is how can I change the ...uh... "Active button" highlight from Grey to a different color? I've been looking for a while and can't seem to find anything which fits, however, if it cannot be done no worries (^_^) I'd still use this over GGGG anyhow Tongue

Thinkshooter

Edit history:

Thinkshooter: 2013-05-20 08:29:31 am

2013-05-20 08:28:15 am

Runs: FCP, FC3, XWA, HD1-2, KotOR1-2

I like this. With this program you can verify if a keyboard can sense each key of a complicated key combo.

Can you make it display the scancode and the vkcode along with "Caption" and "Key"?

The intended use is to show people what keys were pressed during a trick or difficult sequence, right? I can see two ways to record this.
1 - Play the game in a window and record the full screen so the keyboard is captured along with it.
2 - For games that won't run in a window, I tried "Always on top -> Force" but the game still hid the keyboard. Is there a solution for that scenario?

Thanks.

Aphox

2013-05-20 11:38:01 am

Also know as L0rdy

Hi Guys, thanks for your replies.

@Judgy I dont really know what you mean with this T_T. Do you mean just the normal highlight when the button is pressed? Cause you should be able to change the color no problem, however when you use the default Layout for example that Layout uses Images and the image is infront of the back color so you wouldnt be able to change colors while using images.

@Thinkshooter, for Fullscreen it wont work because the game overwrites everything. The only way to actually make something draw ontop while a game is in Fullscreen is to draw into the game itself as far as I know.
But what you should do is: Add a game source/window source capture to your sceen to capture your game(not sure what broadcasting software you use but should work for all), and then add a window/program capture for my program additionally. Then put the program capture ontop of the game capture. Make sure you use the compatibility mode for this tho, it will disable all transparency that my program uses, most broadcasting softwares have trouble with windows transparency. If you want a transparent background just use the transparency in OBS or other software. I will make a small tutorial for and add it later, hope that will help!

Hi Guys, thanks for your replies.

@Judgy I dont really know what you mean with this T_T. Do you mean just the normal highlight when the button is pressed? Cause you should be able to change the color no problem, however when you use the default Layout for example that Layout uses Images and the image is infront of the back color so you wouldnt be able to change colors while using images.

@Thinkshooter, for Fullscreen it wont work because the game overwrites everything. The only way to actually make something draw ontop while a game is in Fullscreen is to draw into the game itself as far as I know.
But what you should do is: Add a game source/window source capture to your sceen to capture your game(not sure what broadcasting software you use but should work for all), and then add a window/program capture for my program additionally. Then put the program capture ontop of the game capture. Make sure you use the compatibility mode for this tho, it will disable all transparency that my program uses, most broadcasting softwares have trouble with windows transparency. If you want a transparent background just use the transparency in OBS or other software. I will make a small tutorial for and add it later, hope that will help!

Judgy

Edit history:

Judgy: 2013-05-20 11:48:06 am

2013-05-20 11:47:51 am

Borderlands 2 Glitch Hunter/ router.

What you explained cleared up my question (^_^) thanks, and keep up the good work, I think the record feature you mentioned would be awesome Smiley

Aphox

2013-05-20 12:13:32 pm

Also know as L0rdy

Thanks Judgy, I wont have time for atleast a week since I have to do some work for school etc. But I hope I can continue to work on it soon.
Until then I really appreciate if anybody has suggestions etc.

For ThinkShooter here is a small basic Tutorial I hope that helps. Its for OBS but should work the same in any other Broadcasting Program.

I want to make a Tutorial on how to create your own Layouts etc in my program at some point too, however I dont know where the big issues are right now, so it would help if you guys could let me know what you want me to explain in that kind of tutorial. Would help me a great deal ^^. Thanks everybody.

Tranquilite

Edit history:

Tranquilite: 2013-05-22 03:45:58 pm

Tranquilite: 2013-05-22 03:44:51 pm

2013-05-22 03:44:22 pm

I made a couple super small layouts I've dubbed Micro. Micro60 contains just the main alpha-numeric section, and MicroTKL contains the editing block/arrows as well. I suppose if there is enough interest, I could make similar layouts with function row and numpad as well.

Attachments:

micro60.png

Micro.zip

honorableJay

2013-06-01 11:43:26 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

I seem to be having a problem with the kb/mouse template. I edited it to show the keys on my KB that I use, and I also added in side buttons to the mouse itself. After I had the colors tweaked to how I wanted them, I saved the template and everything was ok. However, after closing the program and reloading, now the mousewheel scrolls don't show up. I know the buttons are there since it worked before, but apparently something is stopping them from showing up. To see if it was something I did wrong, I loaded up the original template and sure enough it has the same issue of the mousewheel not showing like it's supposed to.

I also found an interesting bug with the OBS compatibility mode. If I load up the app before my game (in this case it's Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines) and the OBS compatibility mode is enabled, my mouse sensitivity in-game is jacked up extremely high to the point where if I move a few millimeters my viewpoint spins around at least 5 times. Disabling then re-enabling the compatibility mode seems to correct this issue. For reference, I'm using a Razer Imperator, DPI 1800, polling 1000hz.

I seem to be having a problem with the kb/mouse template. I edited it to show the keys on my KB that I use, and I also added in side buttons to the mouse itself. After I had the colors tweaked to how I wanted them, I saved the template and everything was ok. However, after closing the program and reloading, now the mousewheel scrolls don't show up. I know the buttons are there since it worked before, but apparently something is stopping them from showing up. To see if it was something I did wrong, I loaded up the original template and sure enough it has the same issue of the mousewheel not showing like it's supposed to.

I also found an interesting bug with the OBS compatibility mode. If I load up the app before my game (in this case it's Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines) and the OBS compatibility mode is enabled, my mouse sensitivity in-game is jacked up extremely high to the point where if I move a few millimeters my viewpoint spins around at least 5 times. Disabling then re-enabling the compatibility mode seems to correct this issue. For reference, I'm using a Razer Imperator, DPI 1800, polling 1000hz.

Attachment:

inprog.zip

Aphox

Edit history:

Aphox: 2013-06-03 03:59:50 am

2013-06-03 03:57:58 am

Also know as L0rdy

Thats funny, all obs-compatibility mode does is disable transparency for my window because it seems to not work with the common broadcasting programs. Not sure why that would make your mouse go fasters : x.

I gonna take a look at your template if I can find the reason why the mouse scrollwheel doesnt show.

Also thanks @Transquiliete for sharing your design!

I still have some stuff with school thats why I couldnt catch up with the thread for some days now sorry about that. Gonna start working on this gem again in a bit.

EDIT:
Tested your Layout @honorableJay and the scroll wheel shows up for me just normal : /.

honorableJay

2013-06-03 08:24:56 am

The Dork Knight himself.

That's what I don't get, it showed up when I first installed the program, even after I started the template. Maybe a setting within the program somehow got messed up? Where are the settings stored?

Aphox

Edit history:

Aphox: 2013-06-04 04:29:16 am

2013-06-04 04:25:24 am

Also know as L0rdy

I dont really store a lot of settings, but you can find them at %userprofile%\appdata\local\ApVkp .
I really dont know what could cause you to not see them. Do you not see them in the original layout either?
EDIT: You could try delete the settings there, should give you the default Settings of the program.

honorableJay

2013-06-04 07:24:43 am

The Dork Knight himself.

Well this is really weird. If I switch the compatibility mode between running as admin and not running as admin it will randomly work when it loads. However, the next time I reload it won't work again even if I don't change the compatibility mode. Also, if I load a new layout the scroll is gone again. Maybe it has to do with Win7 permissions?

Aphox

2013-06-04 08:47:56 am

Also know as L0rdy

Really weired. I dont have any problem like that and I dont have to run it as admin either. I had a few other people test it before I posted it here and none had this problem either. Would be cool if I could get your skype and we'd figgure this out together. I can make some adjustments to my program and you'll be able to test it on the fly.

honorableJay

Edit history:

honorableJay: 2013-06-04 10:21:21 pm

honorableJay: 2013-06-04 09:38:29 pm

honorableJay: 2013-06-04 09:33:16 pm

2013-06-04 09:30:24 pm

The Dork Knight himself.

Ok, I've finally figured out the problem: it stems from me moving the mouse while the program is loading. I'm not sure what causes it, BUT if I open the program and don't touch the mouse, the mousewheel input shows up fine. The second the mouse moves even 1 pixel during the load it stops the program from properly initializing the mouse data and the scrollwheel isn't readable.

But wait, there's more!!!

So, if the program initiates properly (i.e. I don't move the mouse upon load) my in-game mouse sensitivity gets jacked through the roof. Closing the program immediately fixes my in-game sensitivity. BUT if I move my mouse during load my in-game sensitivity isn't touched at all. Mind you this does not affect my cursor in Windows at all, just my games. I'm gonna load up a few other games to see if it's just VTMB or if others are affected too.

**Edit**
Ok, just confirmed that it does affect all of my games, but differently depending on how the game initializes the mouse. For games that try to use DirectInput to grab the mouse data, they seem to fail and fallback to the older Win32 method of grabbing mouse input which results in the severely jacked mouse sensitivity. However, for newer games that go for raw input from the mouse itself (like Team Fortress 2) the sensitivity is lowered to about 1/3 to 1/5 of what it should be. Luckily TF2 lets me test both methods of input (directinput and raw) so in that game I could got both severely jacked and severely nerfed sensitivities. As soon as the program was closed the problem went away. It also wasn't present if I moved the mouse during program initialization.

Once I install Skype an setup an account I'll pm you the details so we can hash this out.

Ok, I've finally figured out the problem: it stems from me moving the mouse while the program is loading. I'm not sure what causes it, BUT if I open the program and don't touch the mouse, the mousewheel input shows up fine. The second the mouse moves even 1 pixel during the load it stops the program from properly initializing the mouse data and the scrollwheel isn't readable.

But wait, there's more!!!

So, if the program initiates properly (i.e. I don't move the mouse upon load) my in-game mouse sensitivity gets jacked through the roof. Closing the program immediately fixes my in-game sensitivity. BUT if I move my mouse during load my in-game sensitivity isn't touched at all. Mind you this does not affect my cursor in Windows at all, just my games. I'm gonna load up a few other games to see if it's just VTMB or if others are affected too.

**Edit**
Ok, just confirmed that it does affect all of my games, but differently depending on how the game initializes the mouse. For games that try to use DirectInput to grab the mouse data, they seem to fail and fallback to the older Win32 method of grabbing mouse input which results in the severely jacked mouse sensitivity. However, for newer games that go for raw input from the mouse itself (like Team Fortress 2) the sensitivity is lowered to about 1/3 to 1/5 of what it should be. Luckily TF2 lets me test both methods of input (directinput and raw) so in that game I could got both severely jacked and severely nerfed sensitivities. As soon as the program was closed the problem went away. It also wasn't present if I moved the mouse during program initialization.

Once I install Skype an setup an account I'll pm you the details so we can hash this out.

Aphox

2013-06-05 02:24:09 am

Also know as L0rdy

Really cool info from you honorableJay. I am still not really sure why this has no affect on myself when I play games tho, but that might have something to do with differen mouse drivers and how they handle stuff. The only idea I have is that the mouse-hook is the issue, but yeah it would really help to have your skype or anything else so I could get feedback directly after doing changes.

Aphox

Edit history:

Aphox: 2013-06-08 11:35:51 am

2013-06-08 11:35:45 am

Also know as L0rdy

Thanks @honorableJay for helping me out to fix this bug. The download-link is in the first post (0.44).
That should fix the problem if anybody else hat a similar one.

offroadguy56

2015-03-28 03:40:13 am

I made an account just so I could post this.

This thread is nearing 2 years old. But what this thread contains is a really amazing program. It's simple, its easy to use, it's awesome. I had been previously using NohBoard which is also a really great keyboard program. But has no where near the customization as this one. What made me switch is OBS doesn't like capturing 2 windows of the same program. It gets confused on which window to capture. I was trying to capture the keyboard and mouse functions of NohBoard. I needed another keyboard, or mouse, program to compliment NohBoard. A google search later and here I am.

I didn't like the default keyboard layout and editing it would have been more trouble than it was worth, so I made my own layout.
Attached is a zip of 2 super simple basic keyboard layouts I made.
It's basically a 104 key keyboard minus the function keys. One has the arrow keys and mouse buttons on the left, the other has them on the other side of the keyboard.

If the attachments don't work here's a mediafire link http://www.mediafire.com/download/g4fzp39g34a5gbw/Layouts.zip

I made an account just so I could post this.

This thread is nearing 2 years old. But what this thread contains is a really amazing program. It's simple, its easy to use, it's awesome. I had been previously using NohBoard which is also a really great keyboard program. But has no where near the customization as this one. What made me switch is OBS doesn't like capturing 2 windows of the same program. It gets confused on which window to capture. I was trying to capture the keyboard and mouse functions of NohBoard. I needed another keyboard, or mouse, program to compliment NohBoard. A google search later and here I am.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/E4deY9o.png?2[/img]
I didn't like the default keyboard layout and editing it would have been more trouble than it was worth, so I made my own layout.
Attached is a zip of 2 super simple basic keyboard layouts I made. 
It's basically a 104 key keyboard minus the function keys. One has the arrow keys and mouse buttons on the left, the other has them on the other side of the keyboard.

If the attachments don't work here's a mediafire link [url]http://www.mediafire.com/download/g4fzp39g34a5gbw/Layouts.zip[/url]

Attachment:

Layouts.zip

CptBrian

Edit history:

CptBrian: 2016-03-01 08:34:14 am

CptBrian: 2016-03-01 08:27:02 am

2016-03-01 08:26:46 am

Relax

All links for this were dead, so here's mirrors:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2863437/ApVkp-0.4.4.rar

https://www.mediafire.com/?jw2ozt0ni1kxb51

https://mega.nz/#!wdYDTByL!hDcn_r-dOmK5pnSbAb-bO4Qrh5Jmmtmb18s_uEP5lV4

Thanks, Aphox!

frankiekam

Edit history:

frankiekam: 2016-10-16 12:41:52 am

2016-10-16 12:36:31 am

Awesome dude

Hi Aphox and CptBrian

I am trying to find a way to make a toggle key in ApVkp. AFAIK, this is not possible. Am I correct? For example, on a real keyboard, if you hit the "Caps lock" key, it will remain lit (there is usually a small light at the right-corner of the Caps Lock key) until you hit it again. So in ApVkp, I cannot seem to simulate a Caps Lock key. I suppose it was not programmed to handle toggle keys(?).

In my game Tornado, if I hit the F1 key, it shows the Track View and will remain in Track View until another key is hit. So what I want is for the F1 key to remain lit once I have hit it, and to revert to normal if I hit another toggle key, let's say F5 which is the Drone View key. Currently I am using ApVkp 4.4 which is great, but I only know how to make the key highlight as long as my finger hits or holds down on the physical keyboard's equivalent key. There is no way that I know whereby a key can be toggled and made to remain in that state, using ApVkp. Please correct me if there is a way to make a key toggle in ApVkp.

Regards
Frankie Kam

Hi Aphox and CptBrian

I am trying to find a way to make a toggle key in ApVkp. AFAIK, this is not possible. Am I correct? For example, on a real keyboard, if you hit the "Caps lock" key, it will remain lit (there is usually a small light at the right-corner of the Caps Lock key) until you hit it again. So in ApVkp, I cannot seem to simulate a Caps Lock key. I suppose it was not programmed to handle toggle keys(?).

In my game Tornado, if I hit the F1 key, it shows the Track View and will remain in Track View until another key is hit. So what I want is for the F1 key to remain lit once I have hit it, and to revert to normal if I hit another toggle key, let's say F5 which is the Drone View key. Currently I am using ApVkp 4.4 which is great, but I only know how to make the key highlight as long as my finger hits or holds down on the physical keyboard's equivalent key. There is no way that I know whereby a key can be toggled and made to remain in that state, using ApVkp. Please correct me if there is a way to make a key toggle in ApVkp.

Regards
Frankie Kam

frankiekam

2016-10-16 08:24:04 am

Awesome dude

I tend to spend a lot of time adjusting the position of a key, relative to other keys. It is not easy to align a key vertically and horizontally to other keys. As a result, my keyboard looks jagged and not crisp. A "Snap Key to grid" feature would really save me a lot of time.

Joemode

Edit history:

Joemode: 2023-12-01 08:34:36 am

Joemode: 2021-04-02 03:36:15 am

Joemode: 2021-04-02 03:35:18 am

Joemode: 2020-02-08 02:52:57 am

Joemode: 2017-07-23 01:50:10 am

2017-02-14 12:00:49 am

I 100% agree. Everytime I want to make a change I have to spend ages realigning the keys.

kafuji

Edit history:

kafuji: 2017-04-09 09:34:37 am

kafuji: 2017-04-09 09:34:13 am

2017-04-09 09:33:27 am

Aphox, thank you for great application. I found it last week and definitely love it!
I've just made an preset for For Honor and want to share with everyone.

Guys please feel free to use or custimize!

And also I want to have visualization of Mouse movement directions.
Really hoping Aphox would continue to update the app...

Attachment:

ForHonorPreset_for_ApVkp-0.4.4.zip

LotBlind

2017-04-09 01:10:43 pm

OSKD has that feature but may not otherwise allow as much customizability. I think it just shows the whole keyboard.

kafuji

2017-04-10 11:01:48 pm

Really hope Aphox will make it opensource, so that I can add functions by my own...

MCCrafterTV

2017-06-03 10:00:45 am

I just want to first thank you for the awesome software. Going to use it on my steam (https://www.twitch.tv/mccraftertv)

second, I want to say that I made a preset for Overwatch. attaching the files.

Attachment:

Overwatch_ApVkp.zip