VR with a keyboard?

shamen

S
Sorry if this is a daft question, but I am seriously thinking of splashing out on a VR headset and wondering if i can still use my keyboard?
I have always preferred keyboard and mouse over joysticks and wondered if i would be seriously disappointed with VR if i dont splurge on a high end flightstick?
I figure i can hook most of the needed keys to mouse buttons and my fingers know their way around the left side of the keyboard by themselves. Doable?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.
 

Bryan K

Bryan K
shamen said:
Sorry if this is a daft question, but I am seriously thinking of splashing out on a VR headset and wondering if i can still use my keyboard?
I have always preferred keyboard and mouse over joysticks and wondered if i would be seriously disappointed with VR if i dont splurge on a high end flightstick?
I figure i can hook most of the needed keys to mouse buttons and my fingers know their way around the left side of the keyboard by themselves. Doable?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.
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Not sure about full play with KB+M, since I always use my T.16000M with my Rift, but as far as basic typing goes, I know my way around my keyboard just by feel. Muscle memory is a beautiful thing.

If you've played with KB+M long enough, you probably don't really look at the keyboard too much anyway.

The thing with VR though is that it's all about the immersion. Might be hard to really feel like you're there if you see your virtual hands on a joystick and throttle but the real ones are on a keyboard and mouse. I say go all the way. You can get a T-flight HOTAS for like $50 on Amazon.
 
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dogbite

dogbite
You could actually do most things including flight (although more slowly) with Voice Attack alone, with one of the more sophisticated profiles. Check YouTube.
 
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Dan Dare

Dan Dare
I use 2 keys on my keyboard; escape key to exit the game and f12 to reset my view in the HMD. I have marked these with blu tac so I can find them by touch. It would be good if we had a virtual keyboard for text entry in comms and the Galmap but for these I take the HMD off. As previously mentioned VA and a HOTAS make the keyboard unnecessary for controlling the ship.
 

TorTorden_VR

T
For those who aren't comfortable with HOTAS.

The true key is to mount it at a correct height, and I keep harping on about this, placing a HOTAS on your desktop\table whatever is a horrible position, most Joysticks bases should not be higher up than the top of your knee.
 

ziddan

Z
I play using hotas as well but can 2nd the blue tac on keys method. Ive got a laptop sized keyboard so its a great help.

Also use only escape and recenter but do my text entry (mostly copy/paste) hmd on no problem.

Managed to get to colonia in 7 hours last sunday using the neutron highway, only used my screen to turn on steamvr, the rest was done using the hmd, 260 or so jumps and almost as many looks in my web browser to copy the next system name.
 

Frank

Frank
VIVE may be further ahead in this area than CV1 at the moment, but CV1 will soon allow you to add virtual windows to your games. This means you will be able to access the Character Map Windows Accessory.

Meanwhile, think of VR as a way of improving your toudh typing. I have snd I;ve neber looked badk
 

Mot

M
Cant speak for the Vive, but with a Rift you can look down your nose and see the outside world, it's not as distracting as you might think while playing and allows you to see the keyboard and other things if you need (galmap, text chat ect.). I type pretty much at the same speed with my Rift on as I would without it. While I'm no touch typing lightning bolt, I have noticed that compared to others that I've seen I'm not slow either.
 

TorTorden_VR

T
Again.
I have elite and pcars outside of oculus, start them via desktop shortcuts.

Thus allowing me to use voice attack to start/close and alt+tab between bigscreen and my main games.
 

ZeroAi

ZeroAi
I honestly use the Xbox controller with my Rift (came with it back then) but you can always use the mouse and keyboard as well.

The XBOX & PS4 controllers work well with the maps.

Mot said:
Cant speak for the Vive, but with a Rift you can look down your nose and see the outside world, it's not as distracting as you might think while playing and allows you to see the keyboard and other things if you need (galmap, text chat ect.).
Click to expand...

At first I thought this was annoying but now I really like it.
 

zarrazee

zarrazee
OP.
Totally doable. I played VR with M&K for a while; you can use blu-tac and/or the ridges on the F and J key to navigate.

However, with the immersion you get from VR, I was missing out, so bought a left hand analogue stick. It makes the flight model feel even better, though I had to re-map and re-learn all the controls
NuJeHkOm.jpg


I use Numpad ENTER, + and - as shift keys to access additional 24 controls on the stick. I also use the ` key (next to "1") to reset my HMD. Space is super-cruise and arrow keys are pips.

o7
 

shamen

S
Thanks a lot for all your comments and suggestions - appreciated.
It really does sound like i need to bite the bullet and try a flight stick if i am going to get the most out of this. I guess it makes sense to shell out for the flight stick first (Thrustmaster T16000M was recommended) and see if i can live without my mouse and keyboard. If that goes well, buy my VR headgear. Here's hoping.
 

ziddan

Z
If you are wanting to try some controller hardware i would highly recommend you go for a HOTAS setup since the throttle really does a lot for the feel.

Even the basic T-Flight Hotas X (which is cheaper than just the T16000M stick) gives a very good feel, i played 500ish hours on mine before i upgraded to the x52 pro hotas.

If you are dead set on the T16000M you could consider the T16000M FCS HOTAS which looks very functional IMO, havnt tried it myself but my choice when upgrading was between it and the x52.
The tipping reason for me was the pinky button (a perfect shift button IMO) on the x52 joystick and the fact that the models for hotas you see in elite is based on the x52

If you do get a hotas i will recommend that you look around at the different ways of binding buttons, i prefer to have one buttons to use as a "shift", the shift button cant have anything bound to it but doubles (or triples if you use two shifts) the amount of actions you can bind to the rest of your buttons.
 

shamen

S
Thanks. Sorry i wasnt very precise - yes i was thinking of getting the Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Hotas PC - not an outrageous price, but hopefully featured enough to be able to give up my keyboard/mouse addiction for Elite Dangerous at least.
I was presuming there were presets for Elite Dangerous, but its sounds like there is some configuration fun to come.
 

dogbite

dogbite
shamen said:
Thanks. Sorry i wasnt very precise - yes i was thinking of getting the Thrustmaster T16000M FCS Hotas PC - not an outrageous price, but hopefully featured enough to be able to give up my keyboard/mouse addiction for Elite Dangerous at least.
I was presuming there were presets for Elite Dangerous, but its sounds like there is some configuration fun to come.
Click to expand...

You will still need the keyboard for typing into the galaxy map until we get a keyboard in game. Personally, with Voice attack that's all I use the keyboard for, I still use the mouse for most of the same things I did in before VR (threads every week on galaxy map control).
 
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ziddan

Z
From what i can tell there is a preset ingame but IMO it looks less than perfect, there are actions, which you need quickly while in combat, bound to the buttons on the base of the joystick, meaning you will need to take one hand off to use those, while leaving the three HAT switches on the throttle fully unused.

Here is a post about that hotas along with a pic showing the default bindings for it:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...icial-thread?p=4757394&viewfull=1#post4757394

As a suggestion one each of those hats could be target management, countermeasures and whatever assorted other action you need on short notice, one of two front buttons on the throttle would make a perfect shift if you need even more functionality.

Since you already play the game you will quite easily figure out what you need quick and not.

Im sure it will be a great addition to the feel of your game :)
 
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Mot

M
As an owner of the t16000m FCS Flight Pack (HOTAS + Pedals) I can definitely recommend this as a good purchase HOTAS wise. I did however spend 2 days figuring out how to use TARGET (TM Software). And the throttle is sticky, for some it's OK but mine needs grease after only a few weeks of use. Which isn't a big deal really considering how much I like it.
 
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