Text chat in VR.. how?

dejavoodoo

D
I play with a HTC Vive pro in VR ( and love it) but I have never found a good solution for text chatting in VR. I have some half- solutions using speech to text in Voiceattack but nothing is really satisfactory. This limits player interactions, as it's voice chat or nothing, many people prefer text chat anyway, plus a sleeping toddler next door.

Has anyone found a solution that works?
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Only to know touch-typing, as far as I can tell. I know touch-typing, but sometimes stumble when I forget I'm not using a Danish keyboard or stuff has shifted (relative to me) while playing. I tend to squirm a lot when sitting down, so chances are high the keyboard is 3 keys left and 2 keys above where I think it is when I start typing blindly...

:D S
 

Soron Silin

Soron Silin
What you want is a Microwriter. Unfortunately even the few that work with the IBM PC would need an extra driver to work as a keyboard. But if you know someone who's good with Arduinos, it's easily possible to hack one together.

I never used one but I had a boss who loved his. (Platonicly)
 

dejavoodoo

D
The touch-typing thing I find hard because I literally have to look up to open the text input field, and if I instinctively look down or away for a microsecond, I lose everything I've been typing. So if the text input field didn't do that, I could probably learn to touch-type.
The other suggestions are.. interesting.. but throat mike's don't solve the problem that not everyone wants to voice chat.
 

jnTracks

jnTracks
I touch type blind.
but the problem of menu focus is solved with a settings change: you need to set the coms panel so looking at it shows it, but doesn’t focus; then bind a key to focus.
so you can see your messages at a glance, but click in to interact with the panel. Then you can type and move you’re head around without leaving the menu.
frankly, the coms panel is always doing weird things if you let looking at it take focus. It’s too close to the front of the ship. Kept taking focus in the middle of combat and stealing trigger and other button inputs.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
Aside from touch-typing, which isn't hard if you simply learn to type, and learn how to use Regional Settings to change your keyboard to Danish, or whatever language you happen to use, there is another simple solution - voice to text. It's even build right in to Windows 10. Just press the Windows Key + H to activate it in any text field. Say what you want to say, then say "Stop Dictating". Poof, there's your text. Works 100% in Elite.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
jnTracks said:
I touch type blind.
but the problem of menu focus is solved with a settings change: you need to set the coms panel so looking at it shows it, but doesn’t focus; then bind a key to focus.
so you can see your messages at a glance, but click in to interact with the panel. Then you can type and move you’re head around without leaving the menu.
frankly, the coms panel is always doing weird things if you let looking at it take focus. It’s too close to the front of the ship. Kept taking focus in the middle of combat and stealing trigger and other button inputs.
Click to expand...
This.
 

harakan

H
dejavoodoo said:
The touch-typing thing I find hard because I literally have to look up to open the text input field, and if I instinctively look down or away for a microsecond, I lose everything I've been typing. So if the text input field didn't do that, I could probably learn to touch-type.
The other suggestions are.. interesting.. but throat mike's don't solve the problem that not everyone wants to voice chat.
Click to expand...

With VR, I'd highly recommend turning off the auto-panel opening on headlook. Whilst it's a cool effect to begin with, it is far better to activate them on command - not just to solve this issue, but many others as well.

You get almost negative latency by pre-loading the panels before glancing at them, rather than looking in the right direction and having to wait for them to appear, then selecting something, then looking away and waiting for them to disappear. For example, I usually request docking permission entirely by muscle memory without even seeing the panel.

It also gives a better and less distracting view generally - particularly in the SRV where the panels activate too easily and block you.
 

dejavoodoo

D
harakan said:
With VR, I'd highly recommend turning off the auto-panel opening on headlook. Whilst it's a cool effect to begin with, it is far better to activate them on command - not just to solve this issue, but many others as well.

You get almost negative latency by pre-loading the panels before glancing at them, rather than looking in the right direction and having to wait for them to appear, then selecting something, then looking away and waiting for them to disappear. For example, I usually request docking permission entirely by muscle memory without even seeing the panel.

It also gives a better and less distracting view generally - particularly in the SRV where the panels activate too easily and block you.
Click to expand...
Will try this. Thanks
 

Saool

Saool
The first thing I changed was auto pop up pannels on head look when I moved to VR. And I could already touch type. So whilst I prefer not to have to type in VR, I can get by easily enough.
 

dejavoodoo

D
harakan said:
With VR, I'd highly recommend turning off the auto-panel opening on headlook. Whilst it's a cool effect to begin with, it is far better to activate them on command - not just to solve this issue, but many others as well.

You get almost negative latency by pre-loading the panels before glancing at them, rather than looking in the right direction and having to wait for them to appear, then selecting something, then looking away and waiting for them to disappear. For example, I usually request docking permission entirely by muscle memory without even seeing the panel.

It also gives a better and less distracting view generally - particularly in the SRV where the panels activate too easily and block you.
Click to expand...

This plus some voiceattack commands seems to be a good solution... just tried it, works OK.
I've also setup voiceattack speech-to-text but it dussent undastund muy kuiwui uccent so it usually gives me nonsense.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
147176
 

The Lawful

The Lawful
For typing, I peek through the nosehole, works ok after some training. The auto-pop function of the panels is quite useful IMHO except for the comms panel, that one I switched off and open it via a HOTAS button.It stays there until I close it manually again, no losing of focus or the revered text input (in VR, you value each word typed correctly at a whole new level) here. Tried VA back in the days, but that led to suboptimal results with chat, I can type things like o7 fast enough nowadays.

O7,
🙃
 
Last edited:

GeneralIdea1964

G
TheLawful said:
For typing, I peek through the nosehole, works ok after some training. The auto-pop function of the panels is quite useful IMHO except for the comms panel, that one I switched off and open it via a HOTAS button.

O7,
🙃
Click to expand...
I've just been on a visual impairment awareness course, these are the sort of tricks those with poor eyesight have to put up with.
... Don't take this as a downer, it's a good solution.
👍
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
An In game teamspeak/discord should be default. Or something like it. And as u enter a system u can see chat bubbles in the pop up comms panel. Simply scroll to one using hotas and click one to join or not cos it's blocked etc. Or something like this. Having to do it externally causes lag. So a simple solution Is to bypass the ancient keyboard and use a phone like structure to talk. Most natural.
 
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