Oculus Laser Pointer Click Hotas Binding

[atsmith6]

I've been using the rift quite a bit with DCS lately. Something that I realised would work perfectly with the Laser Pointer system would be to be able bind the "click" or select to a button on my stick. This would make it easy to look at a switch and click it in VR without taking my hands off the HOTAS. It would also somewhat mitigate the mouse click issue where clicking on switches too far to the left or right of forward causes DCS to lose focus in windows.

[wolfstriked]

I have wondered about this very thing.Is the rift stable enough to allow you to choose small switches easily or rather easier than with trackir?

[Vivoune]

I find it not as precise and fast personally, as you're aiming with your whole head basically.

 

It's better than nothing but I'm looking forward to Eagle Dynamics's ingenuity to see what they'll come up with in the future to solve that question. I found I simply couldn't really use double rotating knobs for exemple.

 

It could be interesting to add a little magnet effect to the buttons so that the bar snaps into the right button once you're close enough. Something that might be worse experimenting.

 

That said I hope we steer away from the whole head-aiming system. That's something that won't be easy to tackle, interaction within the virtual world is something everyone is experimenting on right now.

[DerekSpeare]

It's my understanding that they will likely allow mouse control as well. The human head is not the best at being used where fine motor coordination is required like in the case of mouse inputs.

[RoyMi6]

Joy2Key is likely to allow this.

 

This is how I originally bound my joystick to the left mouse button back when I had this working on the DK2.

 

I've not got DCS2 so can't test it works at the moment but worth a shot.

[Milopapa]

I'll test this with my CH throttle. I already bound NUM5 for one of the buttons (in-game binding to joystick button doesn't work... *sigh* what was I expecting, really...).

[RoyMi6]

I'll test this with my CH throttle. I already bound NUM5 for one of the buttons (in-game binding to joystick button doesn't work... *sigh* what was I expecting, really...).

 

Yeah, it's a strange one as from my (limited) testing it wasn't even letting me bind it to another keyboard button!

 

It used to work just fine on any key/joystick button you wanted but ED have REALLY fragmented the VR development between the various versions of DCS (1.5, Beta, 2.0)

[atsmith6]

One of the problems with binding a native mouse click to the HOTAS is that when using the rift, moving the rift also moves the mouse pointer in Windows. Now if you turn your head too much (e.g. to click buttons on a side panel), then the system mouse is now out of the little desktop DCS viewport. So while the laser pointer is pointing at a switch, pressing the mouse button actually "clicks" on the desktop. This causes DCS to no longer be the foreground application and notably, the switch is never activated.

 

So using a direct-x button binding instead to mean "activate/toggle" button under laser pointer would remove this problem.

[Dojo]

One of the problems with binding a native mouse click to the HOTAS is that when using the rift, moving the rift also moves the mouse pointer in Windows. Now if you turn your head too much (e.g. to click buttons on a side panel), then the system mouse is now out of the little desktop DCS viewport. So while the laser pointer is pointing at a switch, pressing the mouse button actually "clicks" on the desktop. This causes DCS to no longer be the foreground application and notably, the switch is never activated.

 

So using a direct-x button binding instead to mean "activate/toggle" button under laser pointer would remove this problem.

 

Indeed. Just tried an A-10c startup, and was frustrated beyond belief with this issue. Before I start forum surfing, any known workarounds other than literally binding every switch at the moment?

[DerekSpeare]

Hopefully they will re-enable the mouse soon! I'm not sure of any workarounds other than suffering through it :/

[atsmith6]

I suspect that these are just "phase one" laser pointer issues and it's probably out in it's current state to gauge whether the laser pointer idea is feasible and give it some road testing. I for one absolutely love it. I find it easy to look at and manipulate controls in front of me. because the Rift head movement is natural I find non of the difficulty holding a steady position that I find with TrackIR. The need for the ability to offset the pointer with the mouse - or by some other means - is however immediately evident as I simply can't contort my head enough without serious physical injury to reach things at the rear ends of the side panels. I don't even want to think about things like rear panels. Perhaps they will reintroduce the ability for a mouse offset, or add a slew exaggeration to the pointer when your head turns more than X degrees? Who knows, but I do love the core idea and for the switches I could look directly at and click without clicking the desktop it worked really well given that I have no hands in the virtual world.

[Milopapa]

I personally dowgraded to January version of 2.0.

That gives me better performance, doesn't have the stupid bug of after missions screen stuck to your face or the always visible pointer. Oh and it lets me use the mouse for clicking in the cockpit.

[whitav8]

I didn't realize there was an intermediate version of DCS 2.0 that had the end of mission stuck viewpoint fix but still let the mouse do the clicking - could you tell us which version number that is so we can use the updater to return to it.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[DerekSpeare]

You can maximize the DCS mirror so your mouse doesn't deactivate it as the main task in windows preventing the dead stick scenario. It's either ALT+Enter or CTRL+Enter. SkateZilla posted this in a few threads.

[Wags]

We plan of to offer both mouse control and a head pointer tied with keyboard/HOTAS select options.

 

Thanks

[atsmith6]

We plan of to offer both mouse control and a head pointer tied with keyboard/HOTAS select options.

 

Thanks

 

Christmas has just come early. Thank you Wags, you have officially made my day, month, and year! You have no idea how much I'm loving the work you guys are doing with the Rift. Please convey my thanks to all the developers :)

[atsmith6]

You can maximize the DCS mirror so your mouse doesn't deactivate it as the main task in windows preventing the dead stick scenario. It's either ALT+Enter or CTRL+Enter. SkateZilla posted this in a few threads.

 

Thank you DerekSpeare. I will try this. I thought I had but am obviously mistaken. Answer is much appreciated :thumbup:

 

EDIT: I just tried it out and it works perfectly. Open DCS in Rift mode, go to full screen with the keyboard shortcut (think it was Alt-Enter) and now clicking all over the cockpit works perfectly. Ramp starting the Mi-8 at Creech, doing a few performance maneouvres near the ground, then flying VFR to nellis along the road to come in for a gentle controlled touchdown, what can I say. It's so close to real that it was literally one of the best flying experiences I've had. Full stop. The Oculus just takes DCS to the next level...

Edited May 24, 2016 by atsmith6

[DerekSpeare]

We plan of to offer both mouse control and a head pointer tied with keyboard/HOTAS select options.

 

Thanks

 

WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

:beer: :cheer3nc: :prop: :clap_2: :clap_2: :clap_2:

Thank you DerekSpeare. I will try this. I thought I had but am obviously mistaken. Answer is much appreciated

 

EDIT: I just tried it out and it works perfectly. Open DCS in Rift mode, go to full screen with the keyboard shortcut (think it was Alt-Enter) and now clicking all over the cockpit works perfectly. Ramp starting the Mi-8 at Creech, doing a few performance maneouvres near the ground, then flying VFR to nellis along the road to come in for a gentle controlled touchdown, what can I say. It's so close to real that it was literally one of the best flying experiences I've had. Full stop. The Oculus just takes DCS to the next level...

 

[hannibal]

We plan of to offer both mouse control and a head pointer tied with keyboard/HOTAS select options.

 

Thanks

 

any upcoming functionality using the oculus home remote?

[Milopapa]

I didn't realize there was an intermediate version of DCS 2.0 that had the end of mission stuck viewpoint fix but still let the mouse do the clicking - could you tell us which version number that is so we can use the updater to return to it.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

 

The version I use is 'openalpha' 2.0.0.49135.73 - it's from Jab 15 so you'll be missing updates since then if you use this.

 

Here is how you can downgrade:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=2548018

 

Btw, I tested binding mouse click to my CH Pro Throttle in the CH manager software (similarly I have Numpad-5 on another button for recentering view) and it works flawlessly. I can click the button, the pointer comes up, I move my head on a switch, click the button again, the switch is now flipped.

[Dojo]

We plan of to offer both mouse control and a head pointer tied with keyboard/HOTAS select options.

 

Thanks

 

Thank you!