Tablet Deck

[!NOTE] Fan project. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Cloud Imperium Games. Star Citizen and the manufacturer names belong to their owners; the emblems here are original designs, not the companies' logos.

Contents: Features · Get started · Troubleshooting · Using Tablet Deck · Settings · How it works · Safety and privacy · Developers

Features

🛸 A HUD for your tablet

Landing, power management, quantum, operator modes, shields, targeting, salvage, mining, doors, emotes and more, on a two-half HUD that pages through panels. Phones get their own layout. In English, Español, Français or Deutsch.

🎨 12 manufacturer themes

RSI, Drake, Aegis, Anvil, Origin, MISC, Crusader, Banu, Aopoa, Argo, Consolidated Outland and Esperia, plus night mode. Press animations for landing-gear struts, the quantum charge ring, decoy sparks, sliding doors and more.

🎙️ Hold-to-talk voice commands

"Landing gear", "engage quantum", "shields up": hold the mic button and speak. Windows' built-in speech recognition, offline. The ? next to the mic lists everything you can say.

⌨️ Follows your keybinds

Reads your Star Citizen keybinds, so if you rebind something in-game, the button follows. An optional keybind profile covers actions that have no default key.

✏️ Layout editor and starter layouts

Drag buttons around and change their keys, labels, icons and animations, and share layouts as files. Or pick a starter layout for Combat, Mining & Salvage or Hauling & Exploration, or one for the Prospector or Vulture, separately on each tablet.

🖥️ A proper Windows app

One installer. A window with the QR code and pairing code, a tray icon, settings, start with Windows, and updates with one click.

Get started

You need Windows 10 or 11 on the gaming PC and a tablet or phone on the same Wi-Fi. Nothing else.

1. Download TabletDeck-Setup-<version>.exe from the latest release and run it. (Windows may warn about an unknown publisher; see Troubleshooting.)
2. Install. Setup adds Tablet Deck to the Start menu and lets it through Windows Firewall on private networks. Tick Install the Star Citizen keybind profile if Setup finds your game.
3. Open Tablet Deck from the Start menu. Its window shows a QR code, an address like http://192.168.1.20:8765 and a pairing code.
4. Pair your tablet: scan the QR code with its camera, or open the address and type the code. Use "Add to Home Screen" for a full-screen app.
5. Fly. Click into Star Citizen. Buttons only press keys while the game is the window in front; otherwise the tablet shows "Star Citizen not focused".

In Star Citizen, load the Tablet Deck Keyboard profile once (see Keybinds) so the buttons for actions without a default key work.

Troubleshooting

The installer isn't code-signed yet. Click More info, then Run anyway. Your browser may also say the file isn't commonly downloaded; choose Keep. Each release lists the installer's SHA-256 checksum if you want to check your download, and all the source code is here.

• Make sure the tablet is on the same Wi-Fi or network as the PC.
• Check that Windows treats your network as Private (Settings → Network & Internet → your network). The firewall rule only covers private networks. Tablet Deck checks this itself: when the network is Public, the window says so under the address, with a Set it to Private link to Windows' network settings.
• Type the address exactly as the Tablet Deck window shows it, including the port (:8765).
• The QR code opens nothing: with a VPN, WSL or a virtual machine, your PC has more than one address, and the QR code may use one the tablet can't reach. Tablet Deck skips VPN and virtual adapters it recognises, and running from source lists each address with its adapter's name. To choose it yourself, open the Settings folder, set "host" in config.json to the address of your Wi-Fi or Ethernet (e.g. "host": "192.168.1.20") and restart Tablet Deck. ipconfig in a Command Prompt shows which address belongs to which adapter.
• "Too many wrong codes": after 5 wrong pairing codes in a minute, Tablet Deck ignores that device for a minute. Wait, then type the code again.

• Click into Star Citizen first: keys are only sent while it's the window in front.
• If Star Citizen runs as administrator, run Tablet Deck as administrator too. Windows blocks keypresses from a normal program into an elevated one.
• For actions with no default key, load the Tablet Deck Keyboard profile in the game (see Keybinds).

Commands are in English and need the English speech recognizer in Windows. If the window says "no en-US speech recognizer installed", add it under Settings → Time & Language → Speech, then restart Tablet Deck. If commands are often missed or misheard, try a headset mic, or move the Voice strictness slider in the window.

Another program (or another copy of Tablet Deck) uses that port. Open Settings in the Tablet Deck window and pick another port.

The details are saved in crash.log in the Settings folder (%APPDATA%\TabletDeck). Please open an issue and attach that file. Meanwhile, the previous version's installer on the releases page gets you going again; your settings are kept.

Using Tablet Deck

The app window

The window shows the QR code, address and pairing code, and live telemetry: how many tablets are connected, where keys go, and the presses of the last minute, with how many were held back because Star Citizen wasn't in front. Below that are the voice status and a log. Stars drift behind the panels while the window is in front (they stand still if Windows' "Show animations" is off); click an empty spot to send a pulse through them.

• Minimize it to keep Tablet Deck running in the tray; double-click the tray icon to bring it back. Closing the window quits.
• Settings: pairing code, port, the "only while Star Citizen is in front" check, tap length, voice on/off and language, the window's language, and Install keybind profile.
• Edit layout opens the layout editor.
• Start with Windows starts it in the tray when you log in. Settings folder opens the folder with config.json and your own layouts.
• Updates: Tablet Deck checks for a new version when it starts and once a day, and shows What's new and Update now. Nothing installs until you click; your settings are kept. CHANGELOG.md lists every version's changes.

Keybinds

The deck uses Star Citizen's default keys where they exist. Actions with no default keyboard key (operator modes, shield facings, doors, emotes, targeting and so on) get keys from the Tablet Deck Keyboard profile. To install it:

1. Tick it in Setup, or use Settings → Install keybind profile... in the window. It finds your LIVE, PTU and other copies of the game, or lets you pick the folder.
2. In-game, open Options → Keybindings → Control Profiles and load Tablet Deck Keyboard. This replaces your current custom binds, so note any you want to keep and set them again afterwards.

Tablet Deck also reads your own actionmaps.xml, and your binds win: rebind an action in-game and its button follows.

A few buttons use defaults the profile doesn't set: power management, system power toggles, SCM/NAV, eject, chat and the docking camera. Check those on your keybinding screen.

The mining buttons' action names couldn't be confirmed against the game's files. After loading the profile, check that Options → Keybindings → Vehicles → Mining shows Fire Laser on RCtrl+F, Fracture/Extract on RCtrl+T, laser power on RCtrl+W / RCtrl+S and the modules on LAlt+1-3. If one is missing, rebind it there to the same key.

Layouts

Tap the sliders button (top right) on the tablet to open Deck settings, and choose under Layout. Each tablet and phone remembers its own choice:

Layout	Opens on
Tablet Deck HUD (default)	Power/Landing, Flight Assist, Shields, Targeting, Salvage and Mining on the left; QT/Systems, Operator Modes, Combat, Crew/Doors, On Foot and Emotes on the right
Combat	Power/Landing, Shields, Targeting and Flight Assist first; Combat, QT/Systems, Operator Modes and Crew first
Mining & Salvage	Mining and Salvage first; Operator Modes, QT/Systems, Crew and On Foot first
Hauling & Exploration	Power/Landing, Flight Assist and Targeting first; QT/Systems, Cargo notes, Crew, On Foot and Emotes first
Prospector	A Prospector panel first (laser, modules, flight ready, gear, lights, quantum), then Mining; Operator Modes first
Vulture	A Vulture panel first (salvage, flight ready, gear, VTOL, quantum, doors), then Salvage; Operator Modes first
Star Citizen	A simpler tabbed grid of buttons

The starter and ship layouts have every panel too; they just put the ones for that kind of flying first, so Emotes and the rest are always a few arrow taps away. The ship panels reuse the deck's own buttons, so their keys and voice commands are the same as everywhere else (phones split a ship panel over two pages). Phones get versions sized for an iPhone 15 Pro in landscape that scale to fit other phones. Hold the phone sideways. Layouts you make in the editor show up in the list too.

Two-finger swipe (a switch under Display in Deck settings): swipe sideways with two fingers over a half to flip it to its next or previous panel, like its arrows. So a swipe never presses anything, a press then waits a moment (60 ms) in case a second finger follows; with it off, presses are instant.

Cargo notes

The Hauling & Exploration layout has a Cargo notes panel after QT/Systems: a notepad for which cargo goes where, or where each pile sits in the grid. Draw with a finger or an Apple Pencil, pick one of four colours or the eraser, undo, and flip between three pages.

• Typing: tap Aa, then type with the tablet's on-screen keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard paired with the tablet. The text sits on the ruled lines; pick a colour again to draw over it (arrows, circles, a sketch of your cargo grid). Your PC's keyboard keeps going to Star Citizen, so typing here never reaches the game.
• Clear (the bin) asks for a second tap first and clears the page's drawing and text; Undo brings them back, and also undoes typing.
• Notes are kept on that tablet or phone only; nothing is sent to the PC. Once you've drawn with a pen, fingers resting on the page don't leave marks.

Lit buttons

Buttons that switch something on stay lit until you switch it off: Open Doors stays lit until you press Close Doors, Landing Gear shows DEPLOYED, and the power toggles, lights, VTOL, flight ready, speed limiter, ESP, G-safety and door locks light up while they're on. Every tablet shows the same, voice commands count too, and a press the focus check skips changes nothing.

Tablet Deck can't see the game, so the lights only follow what Tablet Deck pressed. If you use the keyboard, the game changes something by itself, or you respawn, they can be wrong: Reset button lights under Display in Deck settings turns them all off. They also start off whenever Tablet Deck starts.

Open websites on the PC

Deck settings on the tablet has an Open on PC section: tap UEX (trading), Erkul (loadouts), SPViewer or SCMDB (missions, crafting and mining) to open it in the PC's browser. Change the list in Settings → Links, one per line as Name | https://address. The tablet only gets the names and can't make the PC open anything else. The browser comes to the front, so this suits a second monitor best.

Layout editor

Click Edit layout in the window. It opens in your PC's browser and shows the deck exactly as the tablet does, but clicking a button selects it:

• Drag a button to move it, drag its yellow corner to resize it, or nudge it with the arrow keys.
• On the right, change its label, keys, how it presses, colour, icon, press animation and voice phrases. Keys are picked from a list, so they're always valid, and it warns when another button uses the same keys or phrases.
• Buttons tied to a Star Citizen keybind follow your in-game binds; untick Follow game keybind to set your own key.
• Add, Duplicate, Delete, Undo and Redo are in the toolbar.

Save stores your own copy (e.g. my-hud); the built-in layouts never change. With Use on tablets ticked, connected tablets switch to it and reload by themselves. The editor only works on the PC running Tablet Deck.

Share your layout: Export saves the open layout as a .json file to send to friends. Import… opens such a file in the editor, not saved yet, so you can check its buttons and keys first; Save then adds it to your layouts with the same checks as your own edits. A layout presses whatever keys its buttons say, so only import files from people you trust. Made one others might like? Share it with a layout idea.

Voice commands

Hold the mic button at the top of the deck, say a command, and let go. The PC listens through your default microphone and presses that button's keys. The tablet shows what it heard, or "Didn't catch that".

Push-to-talk on the PC: in Settings, pick a key or mouse button (a mouse side button works well) and hold it to talk instead, or press once to start and again to stop. A soft sound plays when it starts and stops listening, and the tablet's mic lights up. Pick a key Star Citizen doesn't use, since the key still reaches the game. Tablet Deck only checks that one key; it doesn't record what you type.

• Every button answers to its name ("landing gear", "fire laser", "max shields"; + and − are said as "up" and "down", so "shields up").
• Common commands have extra phrases: "engines on", "gear up", "flight ready", "engage quantum", "lights on", "flares", "guns mode", "full power to shields", "previous hostile", "turret one", "open star map" and more.
• Emotes start with "emote": "emote wave", "emote dance". That way a stray "wait" or "point" doesn't set one off. To also use the single words, tick Emotes also answer to one word in Settings.
• Most Star Citizen controls are toggles, so "engines on" and "engines off" press the same key.
• Eject, self-destruct and look behind don't respond to voice.

The ? next to the mic on the tablet, and Voice commands... in the window, list every phrase with a search box. The window's Voice strictness slider sets how sure the recognizer must be, and shows the last thing it heard and how sure it was, so you can tune it.

Themes

Tap the sliders button (top right) and pick a manufacturer theme under Theme in Deck settings. Each tablet remembers its own. Under Display:

• Night mode dims the whole deck for a dark room.
• Large text makes labels bigger and bolder, easier to read at a glance.
• High contrast turns any theme black and white with strong colours, plain fonts and no glows.
• Button lights can be turned off. The deck can't read the game, so lit buttons only follow your taps; if you also use your keyboard or HOTAS, they can drift out of sync. Reset button lights clears them while they're on.

Languages

The deck and the app window come in English, Español, Français and Deutsch.

• On the tablet: pick it under Layout → Language in Deck settings. Each tablet and phone starts in its own language (if it's one of these) and remembers its choice.
• In the window: it follows Windows' display language; choose another under Language in Settings.

Button labels, panel titles, status words and the deck's messages are translated. Some things stay as they are: Star Citizen's own terms (Quantum, SCM, NAV, VTOL, mobiGlas), voice commands (Windows' speech recognition listens for English), the labels of layouts you made yourself, and the log in the window. The translations were made with AI; if something reads wrong in your language, please say so on GitHub.

Settings

Most settings are in the window's Settings dialog. They're stored in %APPDATA%\TabletDeck\config.json (the Settings folder button opens it). Uninstalling keeps them unless you choose to delete them.

setting	what it does	default
port	the server's port	8765
token	the pairing code; delete it to get a new random one	random
layout	the layout tablets show unless they pick their own	layouts/hud.json
phoneLayout	the same for phones	layouts/hud-phone.json
actionmaps	keybind files to read, in order (later files win)	the Tablet Deck profile, then your actionmaps.xml
tapMs	how long a tap holds the key, in milliseconds	60
onlyWhenGameFocused	only press keys while Star Citizen is in front; false sends them to whatever window is in front	true
voice	voice commands on or off	true
voiceLanguage	the Windows speech recognizer to use	en-US
shortEmotes	emotes also answer to one word ("wave"), not only "emote wave"	false
voiceConfidence	how sure the recognizer must be, from 0 to 1 (the Voice strictness slider)	0.6
autoUpdate	check GitHub for new versions	true
pttKey, pttKeyName, pttMode, pttSound	push-to-talk key on the PC (Windows key code, 0 = none), its name, hold or toggle, and the sound	none, hold, true
links	websites the tablet can open on the PC: [{ "name": "UEX", "url": "https://..." }], https only, up to 12	UEX, Erkul, SPViewer, SCMDB
host	the address tablets should use (the QR code), when the automatic choice picks a VPN or virtual adapter; empty for automatic

File paths can be absolute, or relative: layouts/my.json is looked up in the settings folder first, then among the built-in files.

How it works

flowchart LR
    tablet["📱 Tablet or phone<br/>any browser"]
    mic["🎙️ PC microphone"]
    subgraph pc["Gaming PC"]
        server["Tablet Deck"]
        voice["Voice listener<br/>Windows speech recognition"]
        keys["Key sender"]
    end
    game["🚀 Star Citizen"]

    tablet -- "button press<br/>over Wi-Fi" --> server
    tablet -. "hold mic button" .-> server
    mic -.-> voice
    server <-. "listen / heard phrase" .-> voice
    server -- "keys, only while<br/>the game is in front" --> keys
    keys -- "keyboard<br/>scancodes" --> game

    classDef box fill:#0b1726,stroke:#4fb3ff,stroke-width:2px,color:#e8eef5
    classDef ends fill:#12253b,stroke:#4fb3ff,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
    class server,voice,keys,mic box
    class tablet,game ends
    style pc fill:transparent,stroke:#4fb3ff,stroke-dasharray:6 4,color:#4fb3ff

The tablet only shows the buttons; everything else happens on the PC. A press travels over your home network to Tablet Deck, which checks that Star Citizen is the window in front and has the key sender type the button's keys, like a second keyboard. One press per tap: no macros or automation, and nothing touches the game's files or memory.

Safety and privacy

• Only devices with the pairing code can press keys. After 5 wrong codes in a minute, a device is ignored for a minute, so nothing on the network can keep guessing. Keep Tablet Deck on your home network; don't expose its port to the internet.
• The tablet talks to the PC over plain http, so the connection isn't encrypted. On your own home Wi-Fi that's fine, but on shared networks (LAN parties, dorms, hotels) others on the same Wi-Fi could see your pairing code and taps. The firewall rule only allows private networks, so Tablet Deck is blocked on networks Windows marks as public.
• Held keys are released if the tablet disconnects or goes quiet for 5 seconds, and releasing a held button always goes through, so no key stays stuck.
• No accounts, ads or tracking. The only internet traffic is the update check (GitHub; you can turn it off) and the theme fonts the tablet loads from Google Fonts. See CODE_SIGNING.md.
• Ideas, problems or a layout to share? Feedback & ideas in the window's System panel, at the bottom of Deck settings on the tablet, or the issue forms.
• Found a security problem? Please report it privately; see SECURITY.md.
• Code signing policy: who builds and signs releases, and how.

Developers

Running from source, the test sandbox, editing layouts by hand, building the installer, releasing and code signing are in docs/DEVELOPMENT.md. Changes per version are in CHANGELOG.md.

Tablet Deck is MIT licensed; the third-party software it ships is listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. Contributions and layout ideas are welcome; please open an issue first for bigger changes.