When can I use my VR Touch controllers?

Delilaha

Delilaha
I'm curious if anyone knows where I can find out what the ED plans are for enabling VR touch controllers?

Just got ED for my Rift, as coworkers have said how OMG good it is in VR, and sure while sitting in my ship space looks cool.
I really struggled through the first tutorial about flying, because I kept trying to grab the HOTAS controls in game and fly my ship (BTW if you did not know, you can't do this).

I have since googled some and found that the Touch controller support in game seems to be highly lacking.
Does anyone know when/if I'll be able to use the ingame HOTAS, reach out and flip switches, and push buttons with my VR hands in game, or anything even close to this?
 

BinakAlgo

BinakAlgo
Keep with your HOTAS, just fly a little to get used to using it without looking at it, same with typing, you have to learn to do it by touch. I don't think it is that hard.

I tried to use the touch controllers but it is almost impossible. About interactivity like the DCS games, I don't think it is going to happen anytime soon.
 

CylonSurfer

CylonSurfer
Delilaha said:
Does anyone know when/if I'll be able to use the ingame HOTAS, reach out and flip switches, and push buttons with my VR hands in game, or anything even close to this?
Click to expand...

You can't no. As far as anyone is aware there are currently no plans to add this kind of support to the game at this time. The game is very much orientated around HOTAS, Gamepad or Keyboard & Mouse control methods. If you have a HOTAS I'd highly recommend using it - it's very immersive once configured and positioned to roughly match the in game ship controls. If you do not have one then I'd recommend picking up a cheap HOTAS such as the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X which can often be found for as little as ~£40.

Voice Attack is also pretty cool, with it you can control many of your ship functions via voice commands, coupled with a ship voice pack which matches your in game ship it can offer some very immersive game play.
 
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CMDR CMDR Clarkson

CMDR CMDR Clarkson
Welcome to the ED VR club!

As others have mentioned, I too, haven't seen or heard any indication of plans to incorporate touch controllers into ED. I've used my VR controllers (Vive) to fly in Xplane 11 before, and to be honest, I didn't really care for it anyway. It was great for things like adjusting the altimeter or changing the frequency on the radio stack but for actual flight controls I much prefer a physical controller fixed to a base. The reason being, the movement of the digital yoke/stick (and thereby the resulting turn) cannot match the movement of the VR controller, which of course, is not tied to a fixed point. This made fine tuning difficult, and normal turning felt odd. Of course, YMMV.

For Elite, I purchased a HOTAS and a couple of cheap foldable/adjustable tables to set on each side of my chair, then placed my HOTAS as close as possible to its digital counterparts. The first time I tried it, it was an amazing experience. I sat down, put on my headset, looked down at the (digital) flight stick and reached out to grab it. As I did, I actually gripped the real HOTAS I bought. As the digital HOTAS moved, both it and the digital arm almost perfectly matched the movement of my real arm and HOTAS. Logically, I knew I was just sitting in front of my computer, but my senses were tricked into telling me that my commander's arm was my arm, that I was actually sitting inside the cockpit of a spaceship. It's difficult to describe, but it was a very strange sensation. Even though that sensation faded over time, I still find the HOTAS to be my favorite controller by far to use in ED.

If it's an option you're willing to consider (assuming you don't own one already), I'd highly recommend purchasing a HOTAS for Elite.
 

Arioch

Arioch
Hempstead said:
If it did, I wonder how long you can keep your hands/arms in the air and have any precision/accuracy. This kind of precision, http://www.hempstick.org/download/articles/OnResolution.pdf.
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Have you seen or tried VTOL VR? Having the Touch controllers just resting on my thighs whenever I go HOTAS gives a surprising amount of fidelity.

As for implementation in Elite, someone was working on a mod to put virtual switches in the game (and I think virtual sticks) but I haven’t seen anything on it for a while.
 

Delilaha

Delilaha
Arioch said:
As for implementation in Elite, someone was working on a mod to put virtual switches in the game (and I think virtual sticks) but I haven’t seen anything on it for a while.
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Being a software engineer maybe I'll look into this. Others in the office have talked about writing some code for VR; maybe this is the "push", and project, we need.

@CMDR CMDR Clarkson I was hoping the Rift Touch controllers would provide close to the experience you describe.

@Hempstead I think resting my arms on the armrest's of my chair would prevent excessive "fatigue" from being an issue. Just my thinking.
 

Slowfiddler

Slowfiddler
HOTAS definitely for ED. I would continue with HOTAS even if Frontier enabled hand controller use. X-Plane however, different story.
 

BinakAlgo

BinakAlgo
Arioch said:
As for implementation in Elite, someone was working on a mod to put virtual switches in the game (and I think virtual sticks) but I haven’t seen anything on it for a while.
Click to expand...

I thought that modding Elite was very restricted. Is it possible?
 

Arioch

Arioch
BinakAlgo said:
I thought that modding Elite was very restricted. Is it possible?
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While I said “mod”, it wasn’t actually something that modded the game files - it was a Steam overlay thing, so it was more a program running in the background as opposed to code that altered the game itself.
 

ebbrell

ebbrell
I would love to be able to touch the virtual keyboards to type on gal map.

Can you imagine pointing at switches
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
The X-56 is made for VR, lots of knobs to play with. I have less issues finding the controller than I have sitting cross-legged but watching my straightened legs in VR. Voice-attack is probably a good addition as well, and I find that knowing how to touch-type also helps quite a bit.

:D S
 

Delilaha

Delilaha
Sysmon said:
The X-56 is made for VR, lots of knobs to play with. I have less issues finding the controller than I have sitting cross-legged but watching my straightened legs in VR. Voice-attack is probably a good addition as well, and I find that knowing how to touch-type also helps quite a bit.

:D S
Click to expand...

That last part... I REALLY need to teach myself how to touch type again.
 

Metkis

Metkis
Delilaha said:
During some downtime at work found the following YouTube video:
YouTube Video

Which ultimately leads to (Elite VR Cockpit):
Getting Started
Release Info

I'm suspecting this is what Arioch may have been talking about / referring to.
Click to expand...

I've just reinstalled the game and also dusted off the Rift after a time away from gaming - Keen to get flying again :)

I've also been looking at the VR cockpit - Looks really cool, but also seems focused around Steam VR and the Vive. It seems there have been good (historic ) reasons not to use Steam VR (which this extension seems to rely on) - Does anyone know if there are still issues with Steam VR and the Rift? Advice on setup if not?

I have also so far failed to find posts by anyone that's tried this VR Cockpit overlay with a Rift and the Rift controllers. Did you (or anyone else) already get this working and give it a go?

Cheers,
Metkis
 
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