To Pop Up, or not to Pop Up, that is the question.

Cliché · Oct 11, 2016

From day 1 in the premium beta, I had a Track IR. It didn't take long before I was sick of the panels popping up every time I looked around and I quickly disabled that feature. I didn't have the HOTAS keys to spare for the panels, so I got Voice Attack, primarily for opening and closing panels, though I use it for so much more now.

I haven't tried pop up panels in VR yet. I could easily test this myself (if I could get my throttle to stay connected

), but I'm curious if you've been using them and what is your experience? Do they still pop up all the time, or is it easier to avoid looking at that area when flying in VR? And how about in combat? Is the comms panel a problem?

I think I mostly look straight ahead, generally, and look up when following ships in combat. If I look to the sides, it's usually for sight seeing, looking at planets and around stations. So if the panels still pop up at inopportune times for you, then they'd probably to the same for me, and I won't have to waste time testing this.

(not that I expect to be able to play anytime soon - thanks Windows 10 AU)

Dread Lord · Oct 11, 2016

I have a few hundered hours in VR with the CV! and th epanels are the thing I LOV E the most!

Quick nod to one of the sides and th epanel pops up!

SOOOOO AWESOME!!! It became second nature real quick and if I just want to look lef tor right I look up a tidbit higher.. to get the panels its lef or right with a tidbit down... its sooo second nature its ridiculous!

And soo fast and intuitive! I mean if I could buy a real spaceship today and it didn had these holo panels to the sides I would be majorly disappointed! its SOOOO good!

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I often find myself to have a quick look left or right on the panel just because its so fricking damn awesome!

CylonSurfer · Oct 11, 2016

I have them bound to a rocker switch on my throttle. Couldn't stand them popping up all the time.

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Oct 11, 2016

I found it annoying when they popped up so bound them to buttons. However you can have the best of both worlds. If you a) set the panels to "Show panel" and b) bind the UI Focus to a key you can then hold that key while looking around and the panels will not open. Credit to Munial from this post: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...and-the-ugly?p=4600884&viewfull=1#post4600884

TorTorden_VR · Oct 11, 2016

First thing I turned off when I got a headtracker was to turn this fool feature off.

It looks cool and all, but after two minutes it's only getting in the way. And of course this means I can do stuff by simply glancing at the panels.

Heck its not like I need to look at all to ask for docking permissions.

Lupin · Oct 11, 2016

Pop up panels during combat BAD, once I found option to turn off the only one I have is SRV/Fighter bay now.

Cornelius lucius · Oct 11, 2016

Personally I like been able to look and get the panels popping up, but I can understand why people turn them off as they can get annoying sometimes. It would be good if we had a positioning option so we could define where they pop up. ie looking left and down a bit so they don't obscure your view in combat etc.

dogbite · Oct 12, 2016

As an explorer, mostly, I prefer to call them up with VA as I like a clean view otherwise. I find I usually only call up the tactical panel most of the time durng my travels. I also like to toggle off the hud and orbital lines for the best vistas.

Cliché · Oct 12, 2016

Really seems to be a love hate topic.

When I'm able to play again, I think I'll give the pop up panels another try.
I think they may be easier to control in VR than they were with Track IR.

[HJ]-RedRaven · Oct 12, 2016

For VR, I turned the auto-popup feature off, and mapped the left and right panels to L/R on a hat on my Warthog joystick.

I just turn them on and off at will using the hat. One press to open the panel, and press again to close. If I want to look away, I can, and the panel will still be there when I look back.
Quicker than Voice Attack.

Up on the hat cycles through the different panels, so I can get to the chat/mail, and role panels. Down cycles my weapon groups.

Thumb hat navigates L/R/up/down and fire button enter/select whatever you highlighted.
Pinky flipper switches between tabs.

Beavis Tingleball · Oct 12, 2016

I bound that little button on the x52 throttle next to the mouse stick, to "ui focus" and my sticks' lower hat position to the corresponding panel. binding a ui focus button acts as a modifier so that the hat remains open to other commands when the ui focus button is not pressed. you do not have to hold the ui button once the panel is open. pressing the ui button again will close the panel

Cliché · Oct 12, 2016

[HJ]-RedRaven said:
Quicker than Voice Attack.

Well, I can say "open the navigation panel", or I can just say "one", which isn't really that much longer than pressing a button.
I usually just say "one".

[HJ]-RedRaven said:
Up on the hat cycles through the different panels, so I can get to the chat/mail, and role panels. Down cycles my weapon groups.

My hat uses up/down to cycle forward & backward through the fire groups. I often have 3 or 4, so I don't want to be limited in only going in one direction. Same thing for left/right for sub-targets.

Dread Lord · Oct 12, 2016

Cornelius lucius said:
Personally I like been able to look and get the panels popping up, but I can understand why people turn them off as they can get annoying sometimes. It would be good if we had a positioning option so we could define where they pop up. ie looking left and down a bit so they don't obscure your view in combat etc.

it is like that already!

I look normal left or right - nothing pops up! otherwise combat would be an issue!

I look left and right but with a little of an angle downwards and the panels pop up! It becomes second nature real quick.. I don't even think about it.. when I need to look outside a window or want a panel pop up its all subconscious now!

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Oct 12, 2016

Dread Lord said:
it is like that already!

I look normal left or right - nothing pops up! otherwise combat would be an issue!

I look left and right but with a little of an angle downwards and the panels pop up! It becomes second nature real quick.. I don't even think about it.. when I need to look outside a window or want a panel pop up its all subconscious now!

It's less of an issue in the smaller ships and most of the combat ships, but in the Lakon's that have more "all-round" vision it can be annoying to have your view blocked. Perhaps a compromise would be the ability to set the transparency level of the panels.

[VR] Frank_G · Oct 12, 2016

I instantly "unpopped" the panels... While i like the comfort and the effect very much, i hate em to suddenly fill my view when enjoying the scenery or panels jumping right over the enemy, you have tracked, till that moment. I enjoy free head movement in VR most and i want to have unobscured view, especially when flying an Asp Explorer or a Type-7 Transport.

Tusken · Oct 12, 2016

I got The pop up turned on and use VR.
At some point I wanted to turn them off but the area in witch they activate got smaller.

I dono how long the OP or anyone els had them turned off, but FD has don some good tweaking in the ranges it activates.

I am more annoyed with the activation of the comms panel in the top left.
It's almost always half open (full open when selected) but I almost never want it to.
A minor inconvenience now.... I hardly even notice it anymore. (Although the habit of ignoring it makes me miss allot of comm's chatter)

I also have voice attack with all sorts of commands for the menus, but in most cases looking at the panel and navigating with my strafing controls is allot faster.

Cliché · Oct 12, 2016

Tusken said:
I dono how long the OP or anyone els had them turned off, but FD has don some good tweaking in the ranges it activates.

Yeah, it's been at least a year and a half. I'm itching to try it (for real & in combat) but Windows 10 wrecked my USB ports and I can't get my throttle to stay connected. [sour]

Tusken said:
I am more annoyed with the activation of the comms panel in the top left.
It's almost always half open (full open when selected) but I almost never want it to.
A minor inconvenience now.... I hardly even notice it anymore. (Although the habit of ignoring it makes me miss allot of comm's chatter)

I can't believe they still haven't fixed this (actually, I can). You need to navigate to the first tab if you want the comms panel to fully close. It's really annoying when you have to tab over a few to get mission messages, then tab back just to close the stupid panel.

PGleesonuk · Oct 13, 2016

Can someone help me with options I need to change to stop the pop up GUIs

I would like to pop up only on demand

Thanks

CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE · Oct 13, 2016

PGleesonuk said:
Can someone help me with options I need to change to stop the pop up GUIs

I would like to pop up only on demand

Thanks

In the 'Mode Switches' section of Controls change 'Looking at...' to Does Nothing. Then set the binds for each panel. You have two options. 1) to set a discrete bind for each panel or 2) bind UI Focus and then use it with UI L/R/U/D to open a panel. I have chosen the former as this allows me to use a modifier key (Joy 7 on my T.Flight) for other uses (whereas option 2 means I can only use that key for UI Focus). Actually you have a third option where UI Focus circles through each panel in turn but surely nobody is using that.

Craith · Oct 13, 2016

I use VR and have it turned on, BUT I have to turn it down in 2.2, because the position has changed and they obstruct the view way more often now (beta 6).

I tried Munials workaround with the UI Focus Button, and it is much better with it, but it would really be perfect the other way around - that it only pop ups while the key is pressed (or even better, toggled). I will try it out more, but it really is getting in the way.