Page 1 of 17 MATRIC User's Guide

MATRIC User's Guide

For MATRIC version 1.36

Copyright EX MACHINA, 2020

Page 2 of 17 MATRIC User's Guide

Contents What is MATRIC? ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

GAMING .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

STREAMING..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

PRODUCTIVITY ................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

MEDIA REMOTE CONTROL ............................................................................................................................................................. 3

INTEGRATION API ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Getting started .................................................................................................................................................................................... 5

Basic concepts..................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Button ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Page ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Deck ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Library ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

Mobile device ................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

MATRIC Client ................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

MATRIC for Windows ...................................................................................................................................................................... 6

MATRIC for Windows .......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Editor UI .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Toolbar ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Library panel ............................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Layout editor panel ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Properties panel .......................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Auto deck switcher dialog......................................................................................................................................................... 10

Button actions ............................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Hotkey ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Macro ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 11

OBS Studio ................................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Touchpad toggle ....................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Text ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Photo ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Barcode ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 13

Go to page................................................................................................................................................................................. 13

Virtual Joystick .......................................................................................................................................................................... 13

MATRIC client ................................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Main screen .................................................................................................................................................................................. 15

Application menu .......................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Settings screen .............................................................................................................................................................................. 16

Server list screen ........................................................................................................................................................................... 16

Support ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 17

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WHAT IS MATRIC?

MATRIC (Matrix Advanced Touch Remote Interface Controller) is an application that enables You to use your tablet or

smartphone as an input/output device for Windows PC. You can use or make your own layouts for mobile devices which can

perform various actions on connected Windows PC, like simulating keyboard button presses, keyboard macros even simulating

gamepad/joystick axes and buttons (via vjoy virtual joystick driver).

GAMING

A good example is using MATRIC to control complex flight simulator or space simulators. While most

common controls in such games are usually mapped to HOTAS joystick/throttle combo in some cases there

are tons of controls mapped to keyboard keys which can be awkward, difficult to remember and reaching

for Left Shift + G kind of ruins that feeling of immersion of flying a spaceship or jet fighter.

STREAMING

MATRIC natively supports OBS Studio integration (via obs-websocket plugin) which allows you to switch

scenes, toggle sources, control volume and more. Use simple drag & drop to create your very own OBS

studio control console, from simple toggles to something resembling a professional studio console costing

thousands of dollars.

PRODUCTIVITY

MATRIC can use more than just the touch screen to interact with your PC, for example, it can scan barcodes

or take photos and place them automatically in your Windows PC clipboard. Cool party trick: combine take

photo action with Ctrl+V and with a single tap of MATRIC button you can take a photo using the phone and

it will automatically appear in Photoshop.

MEDIA REMOTE CONTROL

With MATRIC, your smartphone becomes an all in one remote control for media player, Netflix, YouTube,

PowerPoint etc. It can even simulate dedicated keyboard multimedia keys!

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INTEGRATION API

MATRIC allows 3rd party developers to integrate their app or game with MATRIC. Most common example would be to reflect the

in-game state to MATRIC controls state. For example, 3rd party app could output ammo count and health to MATRIC buttons or

change the appearance of MATRIC buttons to reflect landing gear state etc. Documentation and sample project can be found on

GitHub (https://github.com/tgudelj/MATRICIntegrationDemo)

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GETTING STARTED

1) Install MATRIC for Windows (https://matricapp.com/#download) and MATRIC for Android mobile device

(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tbm.matric.client)

2) Start MATRIC on Windows PC. When prompted, choose Allow access to allow MATRIC the access to your network (in

most cases Private networks option is sufficient).

3) Connect your smartphone or tablet to your home Wi-Fi

4) Start MATRIC on smartphone/tablet and tap Connect

5) MATRIC on Windows will display a popup prompting you to allow the smartphone/tablet to connect to Windows PC.

Click Yes. You only need to do this once per device.

6) Your PC will be shown in the list of MATRIC servers in the app. Tap on the server in the list and you will be shown a list

of available decks, tap one of them and MATRIC on smartphone/tablet will display the deck you selected.

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BASIC CONCEPTS

Button

Button is displayed on your mobile device, touching it will trigger the configured action on Windows PC. Button is perhaps not

the most accurate name, some actions will use sliders or even 2 axis joystick surface yet we still refer to them as “buttons”. This

is because initially MATRIC was only supposed to simulate keyboard buttons, later, new features were added but the name

stuck.

You do not have to choose whether something will be displayed as a button, slider or something else. MATRIC will display the

appropriate control based on the action assigned to your “button”.

Page

A page is a collection of MATRIC buttons arranged to fit the screen of your smartphone or tablet

Deck

MATRIC deck is a collection of pages (might as well call it screens) which in turn contain various controls like buttons or sliders.

For example, you would want to organize your layouts related to some app or game in a deck.

Library

Library is a collection of all the decks you have at your disposal. You can download additional decks from community gallery

(https://community.matricapp.com) or make your own.

Mobile device

MATRIC client is installed on smartphone or tablet; we will refer to your smartphone or table as just mobile device for the sake

of brevity.

MATRIC Client

MATRIC client is an app that displays MATRIC decks and connects to MATRIC server on Windows. It can be obtained for free

from Google play store at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tbm.matric.client.

MATRIC for Windows

MATRIC for Windows serves two purposes:

Server - listens to commands from mobile device and executes actions on Windows, for example, when you tap a matric button

it simulates a keyboard combo.

Editor - used to design button layouts and assign actions to perform when you interact with them on mobile device.

Multiple clients can be simultaneously connected to MATRIC server on PC, there is no set limit. Clients are completely

independent of each other.

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MATRIC FOR WINDOWS

Editor UI

As mentioned before, MATRIC Editor is a tool for designing layouts and assign functions to buttons. Editor UI consists of four

main parts: toolbar, library, layout editor and properties panel.

Toolbar

Toolbar contains the following commands and indicators

• NEW – creates a new deck

• SAVE – saves the current deck

• SAVE AS – saves the deck under a different name

• UNDO, REDO – pretty obvious what those do

• EXPORT – exports the current deck into a file for sharing (.deck file)

• SHARE – shares the current deck on community gallery (note that it takes some time for deck to be accessible from

gallery as all submissions are checked for malicious or inappropriate content)

• Auto deck switcher icon – opens Auto deck switcher configuration

• Phone icon – lights up when a device is connected, shows the number of connected devices. Clicking it opens a list of

connected devices. Clicking the X on the list removes connect permissions for that device.

• Puzzle icon – clicking it shows authorized 3rd party integration plugins. Clicking X in the list removes authorization for

the plugin.

• SUPPORT – takes you to our Discord support

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Library panel

Library panel contains all the decks available on your PC (and consequently mobile device as well). You can drag buttons from

library onto the layout editor panel to add them to the page you are editing. Clicking the deck name expands the deck. To the

right of the deck title is the delete icon – deletes the deck and load deck icon – loads the deck in layout editor. Clicking the “GET

MORE ONLINE” takes you to community gallery where you can find ready-made decks for many games and apps. To import a

downloaded deck just double click the .deck file. You can use the search text box to find a button in the library by button text.

“Default templates” is a special deck, which is included in MATRIC installation and cannot be deleted or modified using the

editor.

You might have also noticed that there are no cut/copy/paste commands in MATRIC editor. They are in fact not needed, to

duplicate a button just look it up in the library and drag it on layout editor panel.

Layout editor panel

Layout editor enables you to arrange MATRIC buttons the way you want them to be displayed on mobile device screen.

Use the slider on top to zoom in and out. To add a button to page, just drag any button from library. To delete a button drag it

up outside of the layout editor or use DEL key. To resize button grab the edge of the button and drag to resize.

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Properties panel Properties panel is split into deck/page and button properties panel. As the names suggest in deck/page tab you can edit deck

and page properties, while button tab is used for customizing the appearance and function of currently selected control.

Deck/Page properties tab is used to set deck or page properties including title, description and page appearance and

dimensions.

Most items on this tab are self-explanatory so we will not cover them individually.

Button properties tab is used to customize the button appearance and function. By default, only the title and action properties

are visible. To access detailed appearance customization, click the “Customize” button. It is hard to miss ☺

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Auto deck switcher dialog Auto deck switcher dialog is used to configure automatic deck switching. You can configure MATRIC to automatically load a

specified deck on specified device as you switch from one application to another, MATRIC can automatically load a deck specific

to application that is currently active.

Configuration is simple, in Window Title enter the text which is present on title bar of application window. You can use

wildcards * to substitute one or more characters and ? to substitute a single character. For example, "*Word*" would match

the example below

Word window title "manual.docx – Word"

Note that Window title is case sensitive.

Deck is the deck you wish to be loaded when application is detected in foreground and Target device is the device you want to

load it on.

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Button actions

In order for our buttons to do something useful, we need to assign actions to them. Action is assigned to button in button

properties tab in Properties panel. MATRIC offers various types of button actions that we shall explain in detail:

Hotkey

Hotkey action will simulate a single keystroke or a combination of keystrokes. To define a new hotkey action, choose Type

Hotkey and click inside the field marked with “Click here and press the key combo”, press the keys you want simulated and you

are done.

Auto repeat option keeps repeating the keystroke until the button on the smartphone/tablet is released. It is useful especially

in games where you need to press and hold a key to perform some action.

Macro

Macro action will perform a sequence of keystrokes with exact timing of key presses and releases. To record a macro click the

record button.

Once you are done, press the record button again to stop recording and a list of key press/release events with the time offset in

milliseconds between them will appear. You can modify the timing for each event by entering a different value in the boy next

to the event or you can set all the delay to a single value by clicking the clock icon next to the record button and enter the delay

value in milliseconds.

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OBS Studio

MATRIC supports command to control popular OBS Studio streaming software utilizing obs-websocket plugin. To use this feature

you need to install the obs-websocket plugin for OBS Studio from https://github.com/Palakis/obs-websocket/releases and

connect to MATRIC to OBS Studio by clicking the dedicated OBS connect button on the toolbar. Once you are connected, you

can configure various OBS commands like switching scenes, toggling sources etc.

Touchpad toggle

Touchpad toggle will display a touchpad. Touchpad will act as a physical touchpad on a laptop would.

You can use dedicated left, middle and right areas for left, middle and right

mouse buttons or gestures:

single tap for left click,

two fingers tap for right click,

two fingers drag for scroll.

Text

Text is a simple action – when button is touched it will simulate typing the text you entered.

Photo

Photo will trigger mobile device camera and will transfer the photo to Windows clipboard.

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Barcode

Barcode will perform barcode scan using your device camera and will transfer the scan result as text to Windows clipboard.

Go to page

Go to page will switch the active page displayed on the mobile device to the page you set.

MATRIC does not have a fixed, dedicated controls to switch pages like swiping or tabs, you need to set the navigation between

pages by using buttons with Go to page action.

Virtual Joystick

MATRIC supports interfacing with Vjoy virtual joystick driver.

To use this feature you need to install vjoy driver and have at least one device configured. vJoy driver can be obtained here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/vjoystick/files/Beta%202.x/2.1.9.1-160719/ . Once you have vjoy installed and configured you

can set MATRIC buttons to emulate virtual joystick buttons, POVs axes or even two axis joystick. For all Virtual joystick actions

vjoy device must be selected from dropdown. We will cover “Joystick X-Y” action in more detail.

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Joystick X-Y

Joystick X-Y action will turn a MATRIC button into a two-axis joystick surface, sliding your finger up-down-left-right will cause the

virtual joystick device in Windows to change axis values. To set up X-Y action you need to select which virtual joystick axes will

be bound to horizontal and vertical movement across MATRIC button by choosing available axis from dropdown. Invert axis will

invert the axis. Return to center will cause the virtual joystick to auto center (both axes set to 50%) when you release the button.

Sticker joystick is a special option if you intend to use the stick-on mobile joysticks like the ones on the picture above. In order

for MATRIC to work with these accessories, MATRIC needs to calibrate the button response to exact position and range of motion

(very small with stick-on joysticks). It takes only a few seconds, but we will take time to explain what we need to do and why to

get the best results (which can be surprisingly good).

Here are the tips to get the best results:

- Make sure that button you dedicate as X-Y joystick surface is approximately the size of the stick-on joystick, bigger is

better than smaller

- Place the stick-on close to the center of the MATRIC button to ensure that the entire range of motion of the stick-on

falls within the surface of the MATRIC button.

Once you have placed the button, you will need to allow MATRIC to calibrate the response:

- Reload the MATRIC deck by either saving deck on MATRIC for Windows or choosing “Reload current deck” from

MATRIC client on the mobile device. We need to do this because you were touching the button while you were placing

the stick-on joystick.

- Once the deck reloads go through the stick-on joystick’s full range of motion (one or two circular motions is enough).

Now MATRIC knows where the stick-on is placed and its range of motion and calibrates the axis response accordingly.

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MATRIC CLIENT

MATRIC client is a mobile app (at this moment Android only) which displays MATRIC decks and connects to Windows.

Main screen

The layout of the main screen is very simple;

MENU button opens the application menu

SERVER button displays the current server, tapping it will open the

server list

DECK displays current deck, tapping it will open the desk list from

the current server

MENU, SERVER and DECK buttons are hidden in Immersive mode

(enabled in settings) until you swipe from the edge of display.

Application menu

Menu contains the following commands:

Reload current deck – reloads the current deck from server, this is used mainly when

calibrating the stick-on joystick

Premium features – opens the premium features screen with descriptions and video

presentation of premium features. You can also purchase premium features from this

screen.

Settings – displays the settings screen

Help & support – opens MATRIC support Discord chat

About – shows client version information

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Settings screen

Settings screen is used to manage various client options:

Auto connect – automatically connects to last known server when the app is started

Immersive mode - hides MENU, SERVER and DECK buttons on main screen until you

swipe from the edge of display

Vibrate – turns haptic feedback (vibration on or off)

Sound – turns button sounds on or off. Note that you need to assign a sound to

button in Windows app in order for sound to be played when you tap a MATRIC

button

Auto repeat settings – applies only to buttons with hotkey action and autorepeat

option set;

Repeat delay – the number of milliseconds to wait after the button is pressed before

starting autorepeat loop

Repeat interval – the number of milliseconds to wait between each repeat

Touchpad – applies to MATRIC touchpad emulation

Sensitivity – sets the touchpad sensitivity when moving the cursor by using single

finger drag

Scroll sensitivity – sets the scroll sensitivity when using two finger drag for scrolling

Server list screen

Server list displays the list of servers we have access to, tapping the server name will

open the list of decks available on server.

You can refresh the list by using pull to refresh gesture or tapping the reload button

on the action bar.

Direct connection to IP is possible using the plug icon.

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SUPPORT

Frequently asked questions are available on our website at: https://matricapp.com/#support

You can also contact us directly on MATRIC Discord: https://discord.gg/HjEZnfe

Tutorials can be found on MATRIC YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR3FB0ZRPw0qj0_jBnszauQ