Recently, I upgraded from using an XBox One controller (since I started on console) to a full VR + Thrustmaster HOTAS + pedals setup. Seeing your avatar's hands move and appear to manipulate the controls as you roll, pitch, and adjust the throttle has always been a big immersion bonus for me, even with the controller, but with the HOTAS and in VR it's just... otherworldly awesome. I cleared my save just so I could experience the game this way from the very start (not that I was very far along on PC anyways; had just A-rated a DBX though).
Unfortunately, I quickly found that the default control preset didn't quite work for me. For example: I find using the "twisting" axis on the foot pedals to be a much more natural way to steer the SRV than using the joystick's x-axis (plus it frees up that axis for use in aiming the turret). I was a bit disappointed to find that my avatar continued to manipulate the stick left and right when I was doing no such thing IRL but rather moving my feet.
I noticed that similar mismatches occur when rebinding the ship's pitch, roll, and throttle axes or the SRV's pitch and throttle axes (in addition to its steering axis as noted above) and when binding multiple input axes/buttons to control the same in-game state. For example: if I bind buttons to "Forward Thrust" and "Reverse Thrust", activating them causes my avatar's left hand to move back and forth as if I were manipulating the throttle, but I'm not. This leads me to believe that those two bindings get merged with the "Throttle" binding to produce a single in-game "Longitudinal Velocity Control" axis to which the hand movements are bound. I also noticed that the left hand operates the throttle as if it were always full range even if you've configured it to be forward-only.
Now, obviously, Frontier can't possibly know how I'm moving my hands/feet physically (yet; I wouldn't be surprised if future VR systems incorporate something like that). All they know are the input axes and values as reported by DirectX or whatever middleware they go through. But instead of hard-coding the hand animations to specific in-game axes like roll or pitch, it'd be awesome if they could instead be bound to any arbitrary DirectX input axis like X, Y, ZRot, and so on. That way I could simply unbind the hypothetical "Avatar Right-Hand Left-to-Right Motion" axis in my SRV steering example. In the "Longitudinal Velocity Control" example: only the throttle would be bound to the hand axis, not the buttons, so only physically moving the throttle would result in the avatar's hand moving.
These avatar-to-IRL discrepancies by no means ruin the immersion. They just hold it back from reaching "I'm never going to see my friends and family again that's just how immersive this thing is" status, which is a shame. I've been tempted to work around them by just forcing myself to learn the default controls (and switching the throttle to full range), but in the end I find having the controls feel more natural to me (not my avatar) to be more important.
(While we're talking about avatar animations, might as well suggest adding some more: animating the stick-twist is the big thing for me. Showing the avatar's feet moving up/down or twisting would be great but might require modifications to the chair model. I'd love those, too, but TBH I rarely look at my avatar's feet whereas I'm always seeing my avatar's hands as I'm tracking targets in combat or navigating about the various HUD panels.)
Unfortunately, I quickly found that the default control preset didn't quite work for me. For example: I find using the "twisting" axis on the foot pedals to be a much more natural way to steer the SRV than using the joystick's x-axis (plus it frees up that axis for use in aiming the turret). I was a bit disappointed to find that my avatar continued to manipulate the stick left and right when I was doing no such thing IRL but rather moving my feet.
I noticed that similar mismatches occur when rebinding the ship's pitch, roll, and throttle axes or the SRV's pitch and throttle axes (in addition to its steering axis as noted above) and when binding multiple input axes/buttons to control the same in-game state. For example: if I bind buttons to "Forward Thrust" and "Reverse Thrust", activating them causes my avatar's left hand to move back and forth as if I were manipulating the throttle, but I'm not. This leads me to believe that those two bindings get merged with the "Throttle" binding to produce a single in-game "Longitudinal Velocity Control" axis to which the hand movements are bound. I also noticed that the left hand operates the throttle as if it were always full range even if you've configured it to be forward-only.
Now, obviously, Frontier can't possibly know how I'm moving my hands/feet physically (yet; I wouldn't be surprised if future VR systems incorporate something like that). All they know are the input axes and values as reported by DirectX or whatever middleware they go through. But instead of hard-coding the hand animations to specific in-game axes like roll or pitch, it'd be awesome if they could instead be bound to any arbitrary DirectX input axis like X, Y, ZRot, and so on. That way I could simply unbind the hypothetical "Avatar Right-Hand Left-to-Right Motion" axis in my SRV steering example. In the "Longitudinal Velocity Control" example: only the throttle would be bound to the hand axis, not the buttons, so only physically moving the throttle would result in the avatar's hand moving.
These avatar-to-IRL discrepancies by no means ruin the immersion. They just hold it back from reaching "I'm never going to see my friends and family again that's just how immersive this thing is" status, which is a shame. I've been tempted to work around them by just forcing myself to learn the default controls (and switching the throttle to full range), but in the end I find having the controls feel more natural to me (not my avatar) to be more important.
(While we're talking about avatar animations, might as well suggest adding some more: animating the stick-twist is the big thing for me. Showing the avatar's feet moving up/down or twisting would be great but might require modifications to the chair model. I'd love those, too, but TBH I rarely look at my avatar's feet whereas I'm always seeing my avatar's hands as I'm tracking targets in combat or navigating about the various HUD panels.)