VR Motion Controller to operate Cockpit

[Celestiale]

One thing i was talking with some flight Sim buddies the other day.

Our dream come true for such a "study sim" like DCS would be, if you could operate your cockpit with VR motion controllers.

 

Just talking about WW2 planes now, because there we have good comparisons without clickable cockpits. Currently the added value of the clickable cockpits over Sims who do those things automatically (IL2) is very tiny. After clicking a few buttons, you take off, and really have no added value. Even the manual start up gets repetitive after a while, and i think most people use those automatic startups when flying online. On the other side you have a lot of additional work, you have to put into those aircraft compared to their IL2 brothers and sisters. I don't know how much additional work this is, but i believe it's not really worth it, when you observe it from a price/performance point of view. Same for the customer. I own all WW2 moduls, because i am a fan of all those planes, but when i have to compare it to the main competitor, "BoS/M/..", i get more value for the price i pay over there. I rather have two well modeled aircraft without clickable pits, then one with clickpits for the same price.

 

This could change in the future however.

 

Already trying out the Oculus Rift motion controllers, i was absolutely stunned how precise they are in the virtual reality. It's really like having your own hands in there. It goes that far, that you could easily type on a virtual keyboard (while just moving your hands through thin air in real life). In theory, it would be absolutely no problem what so ever, to operate all those cockpit knobs, buttons, rotaries and switches with motion controllers. Of course it would be necessary to add your own hands in the game, but this can't be too hard i gather.

 

Only shortcoming in the current situation is, that you would have to change from your HOTAS to your motion controllers (and back), when wanting to operate things. This could hurt the immersion a bit, when you first have to "pick up" your controllers IRL, before your hands start moving in game.

Remedy could be, to fix motion controllers to you arm, being able to pick them up immediately when putting your hand off the HOTAS. The perfect solution would of course be to use motion gloves, which i am sure are not too far away.

 

The value you'd get would be truly incredible. For the first time, you'd really feel inside the cockpit. When you didn't experience it, you just can't believe it, how much of a difference it makes to have your own hands in the VR, instead of just using the VR device (with normal controller, HOTAS, Wheels, pedals etc). I think this would be as close as it can get in any way, to really fly in a combat situation.

 

In contrary to all other flight/space sims, DCS has already built in the spine for such a feature. Seeing DCS constantly adjusting to new technology, and how early they supported Oculus Rift, i am hopeful they consider this feature, once the appropriate motion controllers or motion gloves are available.

This would be the absolute last step to a "StarTrek-like Holodeck experience", way earlier then in the 23th century.

The added value over non-managable cockpits would be there definitely. Double and tripple. Would spend 100 bucks easily for a single module, once this would be possible.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Celestiale

[WHOGX5]

About your first point, if you prefer IL-2, then play IL-2. DCS is pretty much the only clickable combat sim out there, while there are many alternatives for non-clickable sims if you prefer that. I would rather have one clickable than 5 non-clickable. I would rather have full-fidelity modules than FC3 style modules.

 

About your second point, you should check this out. This is leap motion. No gloves. No nothing. Just a sensor.

 

 

As you said, motion controllers are too much of a hassle. I really think leap motion or some kind of motion gloves that work with the htc lighthouse setup for instance, is the future of vr and the way to go. Just let go of your hotas and reach out to whatever you want to interact with. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[Celestiale]

Nice, had no idea about this leap motion. Awesome to see it working already..because this means this, or something similar is probably/hopefully not too far away.

 

About your first point - yes, i am playing IL2. Just like DCS

[MikeMikeJuliet]

There are also a multitude of VR-controllers in developement. I don't remember which it was, but there are haptic exo-skeleton VR-gloves in developement. Basically the idea is, that when you try to squeeze a virtual object, the exo-skeleton resists you, so your fingers don't get closer to eachother than the virtual object allows...

 

Something along those lines would be great for virtual cockpits...

 

The one strange thing about your OP is, that why do you want your hands tracked in the cockpit, if you don't want to have a clickable cockpit?! I don't understand this. If you have your hands in there, they are there for a reason = to use the switches.

 

And before you say that it's an immersion thing, and that I might not understand it yet... I own the Vive and use that to fly.

 

 

Regards,

MikeMikeJuliet