The Vista 3 lighting and media control software is a touch aware Qt Client application, whereby touch control works fine on Windows, but not in macOS. This is because the Qt Touch Events, that are used for touch input within the application, are not natively satisfied within macOS.
Using Vista with the standard UPDD software will work with touch purely based on mouse emulation implemented by UPDD Commander, and will offer click and click and drag type capabilities.
However, to utilise the Vista 3 touch capabilities, we have created a Qt plugin that receives touches from the UPDD driver and delivers them in a manner to satisfy the Qt touch events. This allows full touch interaction with the application under macOS, including multi-touch where implemented, such as multiple simultaneous slider usage.
As of writing, Feb 2024, the current release of Qt development framework is version 6, but many applications are still using Qt5 and transitioning to Qt6.
The released version of Vista 3 at this time is using Qt5, and this document relates to this version. A different plugin will be made available when the official version of Vista 3 is released that uses Qt6.
UPDD software also uses Qt, and we have different versions that use Qt5 (UPDD version 6) and Qt6 (UPDD version 7).
Since UPDD Commander requires UPDD driver 7.1.121 or later to work correctly with Vista, it is important to make sure that the UPDD V7 driver is built with "UPDD v6 compatibility (Qt5)" so that the Qt Plugin will load.
| Component |
Description |
| UPDD 7.1.121 or later |
UPDD touch driver that must support the touch screen in use and include V6 compatibility (File libupddapi.1.0.0.dylib must reside in folder /Library/Application Support/UPDD)
|
| Vista 3 |
Modified version that loads the Qt5 Touch plugin |
| Qt5 Plugin |
The Qt Plugin used to interface between the UPDD driver and the Qt Client application Touch Events |
| UC Preset |
Used to disable UPDD Commander 'mouse emulation' interaction within Vista when native touch is being utilised |
Utilisation instructions
To utilise Vista touch, you need to download and install these components and configure as follows:
| Component |
Installation notes |
| UPDD V7 |
Trial software can be downloaded here or supplied from support@touch-base.com. You must be using UPDD driver version 7.1.121 or later with UPDD Commander 1.6.2 or above. |
| Vista 3 |
Click this link to download macOS touch version and install in the normal manner.
The build is a pre-release of R4.1. Check if an official release is available. At time of writing, the current publicly available version is R4. Please be aware that any show file created with this R4.1 version may not be compatible with R4.
|
| Qt5 Plugin |
Click link to download. Copy the plugin to ~/Documents/Vista 3/plugins/generic/libqupddtouchplugin.dylib.
It may be necessary to create this folder, as it is not automatically created by a Vista installation. |
| UC Preset |
The Vista 3 preset is used to configure Commander gesture processing for touches in Vista.
You can add the Preset from within Commander if it is available.
Alternatively, click this link to download and copy the preset to /library/application support/updd/commander presets.
The Vista 3 preset (Vista 3.ucapp) is imported into UPDD Commander.
Load the Commander settings dialog and then use the File menu, Import Application option:
Select the Vista 3 preset file in the Finder window dialog to import the application's Commander settings.
Once the Application is added it will show the settings required by the application:
Finally, you need to instruct Commander to inherit the UI Element gestures defined under Default Gestures as per these instructions.
|
With the above in place, native touch should work within the application.
Vista 3 mouse usage
Certain Vista 3 widgets are activated with a mouse or a touch screen emulating mouse clicks, via the Qt Mouse Event API.
To cater for the need for some of the Vista 3 widgets to be activated via mouse clicks, the Qt plugin also processes clicks and clicks and drags performed on these widgets such that they will satisfy the Qt Mouse Events.
Vista 3 touch usage
There are a few areas in Vista 3 that benefit from multi-touch. One of these is the console control widgets and also widgets (known as Quick Pickers) which allow the activation of various components. In the upcoming release, there is another type of window specifically designed with multi-touch interaction. These will all benefit from being able to register multiple touches simultaneously.
In addition, there are a couple of areas that use gestures: some use single finger gestures, and one uses multi-finger gestures. Other areas will also benefit from touch control as Vista 3 developers continue to work on making the application more touch friendly in general.
Utilising UPDD Commander support for the Vista 3 pretty much everything still works as expected in terms of touches being delivered to the app as mouse clicks. This includes the main window of the app such that placing it onto the touch display results in exactly the same behaviour expected with regard to touches/mouse handling.
Essentially, Vista 3 operates in a hybrid mode where touch and mouse work together fairly seamlessly.