Oculus touch and Elite dangerous...

SlackR · Oct 9, 2016

hand controls in Elite dangerous? What could they be useful for? I was thinking that a haptic glove for ED would be a cool way of interacting with your ship and menus but likely wouldn't work so well with the touch controllers. Have Frontier mentioned implementation at all?

[HJ]-RedRaven · Oct 10, 2016

A haptic glove would be cool, but it'd need to NOT interfere with existing HOTAS controllers etc.

Wolfox · Oct 10, 2016

I see only the galaxy map suitable for the Touch

[VR] Frank_G · Oct 10, 2016

They could be used for moving through zero g environment as a person, for crawling around the ships hull, doing repairs and such things and for shooter controls. They wont make any sense when sitting in a cockpit, other then navigating maps or waving at your crew mate after 2.3 hits.

Search for Lone Echo on youtube for an excellent example of how to use Oculus Touch in a zero g environment.

SlackR · Oct 10, 2016

A good while back I kickstarted the controlVR cowboys and really did have high hopes for Elite dangerous implementation. Such a shame the project went belly up because affordable haptic gloves have to be the next stage in controlling inside VR.

popuptoaster · Oct 10, 2016

One of the new games "Lone Echo" for OR has you drifting around in zero G, looks a perfect match for the Touch controllers and ED when you can get out of your seat, until then you're not going to beat HOTAS for this game.

Wolfox · Oct 11, 2016

Let's stick to reality, we still can't walk so The "Zero G crawling" is impossible for now.
If we have a crew they can control or manage stuff with some minigames.

CMDR Reaper · Oct 11, 2016

Don't know about the touch controllers until we get space legs, but the extra sensor is nice.

[VR] Frank_G · Oct 11, 2016

I ordered yesterday. This Lone Echo game alone seems worth it. The times keep being exciting

I am looking forward to test the system with 2 sensors to find out how tracking is improved. And i really hope, we see implementation of Touch controllers into Elite, now that both leading HMDs feature similar devices.

Dread Lord · Oct 11, 2016

HOTAS plus VR headset is the best way to play Elite.. you have your hands in real life just where they are in the simulation... doesn't get better than that in terms of immersion!

Touch controllers make no sense to me for a game like this!

CMDR von Weber · Mar 14, 2017

I would like to be able to use the touch controllers to flip the bird whilst ignoring the docking queue, tweak my bobbleheads and can you believe I paid real money for this s#!t...

TorTorden_VR · Mar 14, 2017

Frank_G said:
They could be used for moving through zero g environment as a person, for crawling around the ships hull, doing repairs and such things and for shooter controls. They wont make any sense when sitting in a cockpit, other then navigating maps or waving at your crew mate after 2.3 hits.

Search for Lone Echo on youtube for an excellent example of how to use Oculus Touch in a zero g environment.

So far 2.3 has completely missed the opportunity to take any cue from the hmd and pass to passengers.

Wouldnt expect they would do the work for touch anything.

- - - Updated - - -

Dread Lord said:
HOTAS plus VR headset is the best way to play Elite.. you have your hands in real life just where they are in the simulation... doesn't get better than that in terms of immersion!

Touch controllers make no sense to me for a game like this!

Yeah they would be utter superflous.

In fact i would be more interested in a few ED inspired levels in robo recall than the opposite.

CylonSurfer · Mar 15, 2017

Dread Lord said:
HOTAS plus VR headset is the best way to play Elite.. you have your hands in real life just where they are in the simulation... doesn't get better than that in terms of immersion!

Touch controllers make no sense to me for a game like this!

Agreed. Lots of crashing into things while you fumble from your HOTAS to having touch controllers in your hands and back again. Seems rather pointless. Leap motion to interact with the ship menus would be a better fit imo, would still be more frustrating than the current method though.

dogbite · Mar 16, 2017

Once we get space legs, we could stand up (or not) pick up our Touch controllers off the ships dashboard or some such and then possibly do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5tsdRb3PFw

[HJ]-RedRaven · Mar 16, 2017

dogbite said:
Once we get space legs, we could stand up (or not) pick up our Touch controllers off the ships dashboard or some such and then possibly do something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5tsdRb3PFw

Lone Echo looks fantastic, and will definitely be on my list. It may be the killer app everyone is waiting for (ahem, apart from ED of course!)

But hands in ED would just get in the way of current gameplay goals.

The Mission:ISS experience that was released last week also does a pretty good job - the ISS is rendered in great detail, looks great, and you can pull yourself about using your hands too.

Khaldur · Mar 16, 2017

The one thing I definitely don't want to do is swapping controllers while in VR. As Touch controllers are not compatible with a HOTAS I don't see much gain for this game in supporting them.
VR gloves that still allow you to operate the HOTAS would be a different story. But those aren't available for now.

Using Touch controllers to operate a virtual HOTAS Ultrawings style would work in theory, but would be too uncomfortable for longer playtimes. Also it would be too imprecise and could lead to expensive (in game) accidents.

dogbite · Mar 16, 2017

Khaldur said:
The one thing I definitely don't want to do is swapping controllers while in VR. As Touch controllers are not compatible with a HOTAS I don't see much gain for this game in supporting them.
VR gloves that still allow you to operate the HOTAS would be a different story. But those aren't available for now.

Using Touch controllers to operate a virtual HOTAS Ultrawings style would work in theory, but would be too uncomfortable for longer playtimes. Also it would be too imprecise and could lead to expensive (in game) accidents.

I agree that there is no need for Touch in the cockpit seat as a hotas is the ideal immersion device. Also, as there are no clickable controls in the pit, it would be silly. However, if at some time in the future we get up out of our chairs and walk about, do EVAs and such then we aren't going to be wanting to use our hotas controls. There would be nothing wrong with standing up and reaching for our Touch controllers to accomplish non-pilot tasks. I certainly wouldn't suggest trying to grab the hotas while wearing Touch. All this would depend, of course, on the direction of future development. This method would be a great addition for Star Citizen, if they ever get their VR crap together.

han · Mar 17, 2017

Would be nice with leap motion support to operate the cockpit menus. Could be a cool addition to using hotas

dogbite · Mar 17, 2017

han said:
Would be nice with leap motion support to operate the cockpit menus. Could be a cool addition to using hotas

I am sorry that I bought Leap. It isn't that the idea isn't fun, even though not very accurate, but I don't see it as likely being adopted or necessary for the vast majority of prime time games in development for Rift or Vive. The controllers for these two hmds are quite good and as evidenced by Steam, quite interchangeable. That being said, they may find a place in the mobile market where controllers would be lest practical as indicated by this implementation: http://www.roadtovr.com/qualcomm-vrdk-vr835-leap-motion-hand-tracking/

I wouldn't mind if I am shown to be wrong, but as the QUALCOMM hmd is already a 2nd gen Leap camera system, my Leap is still an over-priced waste of money.

Derek Speare [VR] · Mar 17, 2017

I have the leap and don't use it. It's good for what it does, and I only paid 30 bucks from HK.

I just got the Touch today and have been playing Robo Recall...what a riot! I don't see the need for them in ED, however. If you have HOTAS - like many of us *and button boxes* - then they're more redundant at this point. If anyone is on the fence about Touch, get them. Now they're a hundred bucks and well worth it.