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