Oculus - Is there a way to look and show the side panels, but only when a button is held down?

Hey folks,

Sorry - I should have put this question in my first post but it seems I cannot edit posts here!

Is there a way to have it so the side panels show if you look AND have a button held down?


I love the convenience of the auto look, but I found they got in the way of just the pleasure of looking around the cockpit. I changed their function to 'look at: does nothing' in the 'mode switches' section but as far as I can tell now my only option is to cycle their activation on a button press.

Ideally I'd still like to trigger them by looking, but only when I've got a 'activate panel' button held down. Does such a solution exist?


Thanks,
Tem
 
The only way I came close to that using VR was to map headlook to a button, so that when I held that down and looked in a direction, it would pull up the panel. I ended up not turning it off because I found I got on easier with just mapping one of the 4-way switches on my stick to the panels.
 
You can turn off look to activate and then just use the UI activate to open the panels. The panels will open off screen, and you then turn your head to see them. I have it set this way for both VR and 2d with trackIR.
 
No, but there is a way to do the opposite i.e. inhibit the panels opening when a button is held down. 1) make sure you have the UI Focus key bound 2) set the 'Looking at' options to 'Focuses panel'. Now, holding down the UI Focus key will prevent them from showing.
 
You can turn off look to activate and then just use the UI activate to open the panels. The panels will open off screen, and you then turn your head to see them. I have it set this way for both VR and 2d with trackIR.

why did i never think of this. sounds great.
 
You can change the performance of each panel when you look at it. Check your options.

On my system, I have it set to do nothing for nav, system and crew panels, and just pop up (not focus) when I look at the comms panel. With my HOTAS, I have to use the pinkie button and a hat direction to focus one of the panels, which pops them up in their appropriate locations. Then I hit the pinkie button alone to close the panel.

I think the behavior on look performance is in graphical settings. The pinkie button (Or whatever buttons you choose) should be in the controls settings.
 
Yeah, that's what I've got them doing now and will probably stick with it. Involves a few more button presses than I would like (that's what I liked about the look at to activate idea) but it's nicer flying around space and looking around the cockpit now without screens popping up which I don't need. :)

Thanks!
 
Every now and again the developers ask if there are any "quality of life" improvements they can make to the game. This sounds like an ideal candidate.

Welcome to the forum Temmy. That's quite an entrance you've made there.
 
Ah well, I'm a games designer by trade you see. I actually work on the same science park as Frontier in Cambridge. ;-)

And thank you! I'm looking forward to exploring and learning more about ED in VR.
 
If you are going to knock on their door I'm sure there's a few people that could pass you a list of things they'd like to see in the game <grin>
 
If you are going to knock on their door I'm sure there's a few people that could pass you a list of things they'd like to see in the game <grin>

Haha, it's tempting but I'm sure they've got their hands full trying to get 2.4 out the door!
 
I dont know what type of controller you are using, but with the Thrustmaster T.A.R.G.E.T tool, you could set up such control behavior quite easy. It only works with certain Thrustmaster controllers though (Warthog HOTAS, t.flight series, Cougar and T16000-M if i recall it right).
 
I dont know what type of controller you are using, but with the Thrustmaster T.A.R.G.E.T tool, you could set up such control behavior quite easy. It only works with certain Thrustmaster controllers though (Warthog HOTAS, t.flight series, Cougar and T16000-M if i recall it right).

Saitek X52 here. I've yet to dabble or understand the programming software / customisation tools of it.
 
Saitek X52 here. I've yet to dabble or understand the programming software / customisation tools of it.

You need to find the option to define what is done on press, hold and release of the button, if that is supported.
Send the command to open the menue on press, do nothing on hold and send the close command on release.
That should do the trick.
 
That would definitely be nice. The disable auto panel popup is the best workaround but I kind of like that feature because it feels so futuristic. It's an immersive experience and certainly makes you want to believe that you're living in the future.

But fact of the matter is, we're only annoyed of it because it blocks our (side) view. If it doesn't block our view, most of us won't think of it that much.

In that sense, I would suggest FDev to move the popup panels to the top left and top right, like you have to look up to access the menus (if you disable auto popup config then they'd be to the immediate left and right just as it is now).

EDITED:

And similarly for the SRV, if the panels popup lower so that you have to look left and down to see it, it would solve this issue for me.
 
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You need to find the option to define what is done on press, hold and release of the button, if that is supported.
Send the command to open the menue on press, do nothing on hold and send the close command on release.
That should do the trick.

I'm unsure how that helps with the 'look to open' functionality which I'm after?
 
But fact of the matter is, we're only annoyed of it because it blocks our (side) view. If it doesn't block our view, most of us won't think of it that much.

It also steals focus, with regards to your controls, if any of them are dual-purposed for UI and other functions. Disabling the "look at" popups was one of the first things I did when I hooked up VR. It got incredibly annoying that it would interfere with my flying, as well as block my view. With manual activation, I'm very pleased.
 
My trick is to disable auto popup for the the "helm" panel at your knees only. Only one panel at a time can be open. So whenever I want to temporarily prevent the side panels from popping up I just keep the helm panel open (opens and closes at press of a button). The helm panel doesn't obstruct any views.

That way I can have auto-popup for the side panels but have a very easy way to temporarily disable it when I want to have unobstructed views out of the side windows.
 
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