Mouse pointer and head movement in VR

[mrsylvestre]

Still no news? This topic comes regularly in the virtual reality subforum. The other, civilian flightsim, nicely dissociates head and mouse cursor movement and it feels so much more natural and is so much precise to have the mouse move the cursor relative to the cockpit alone, not to where one may be looking. With the current DCS implementation, it is as if on the Windows desktop, the mouse pointer would be controlled by your hand and where you look, at the same time. Very unpractical. Please ED, consider adding an MSFS-like mouse behaviour as an option.

[SharpeXB]

The idea is so logical, it makes me wonder if there’s some deep game engine level reason why it’s difficult to do. Otherwise this makes so much sense. For 2D and VR. Does having the mouse mapped to the cockpit require it to be a 3D object as opposed to just an emulation of the windows mouse pointer? 

[despinoza]

I give a bump cause it would be a massive upgrade in vr be able to click things and not fail in the attempt

[Hicksy]

I agree with everything said here. The whole concept of the cursor position being related to head movement and to mouse movement at the same time, seems totally illogical. It's a definite spoiler for me.

As for how easy it would be to do implement the option of decoupling head movement to mouse movement, it's hard to say... but it sounds easy enough! I guess it would also require some means to recenter the cursor to where your looking in VR, or you could find yourself searching for where you last left the mouse cursor! Again, it doesn't sound like rocket science.

[II.JG1_Vonrd]

Bump... the new, more visible cursor in update 2.9.3.51704 is great but please de-link it from head movement (or make that an option).

[average_pilot]

The mouse cursor isn't really coupled to head movement. What happens is that it lives in screen coordinates so as we move our heads the 3D scene pans below the uninterested cursor that stays at the same spot of the screen. So it's not as easy as de-link it from head movement because it is not.

The two solutions are:

• Moving the cursor around the screen just the right amount to compensate for head movements creating the illusion that is decoupled. I made myself a partial solution that worked pretty well with what I was using for headtracking a few years ago before the VR era. Quite a few years ago indeed: 
• Making it a 3D object that lives inside the 3D scene. This has the extra benefit that it would allow to manipulate switches that are not in view. Once you put the 3D cursor on a switch you can look elsewhere but the mouse input still goes to that switch. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Edit: Just realized that this is not entirely true. With click&drag controls like some levers and knobs the cursor stays over the control during the time the mouse button is held down. You can even lean to the sides and see how the image of the cursor is projected onto the surfaces of the 3D objects. So, I don't know, maybe the current solution is some sort hybrid 2D/3D cursor already? Perhaps that means that it is indeed easy for ED to decouple mouse cursor from head movement. They are just one step away from providing that functionality from how the mouse cursor is already implemented.

Edited March 14, 2024 by average_pilot

[II.JG1_Vonrd]

8 hours ago, average_pilot said:

Quite a few years ago indeed

Interesting...

Does it still work? In VR? If so, can you give a bit more detail as to where to put the script, how to connect it to DCS and the peripheral (mouse or PointCtrl)? Can it possibly break the game or mouse / PointCtrl?

[average_pilot]

6 minutes ago, II.JG1_Vonrd said:

Does it still work? In VR?

No, sorry.

It's a script for Glovepie, an ancient program to do all kind of shenanigans with keyboards, mouse, joysticks and some exotic etc., but it's been abandoned for ages and doesn't support current VR hardware.

And I don't think that even the concept would work in DCS for reasons I confusedly commented in the edit of my post.

Let's hope someone in ED finally decide that is time to finally try that very long requested feature and test for themselves how much better and natural the interaction with the cockpit becomes.

[II.JG1_Vonrd]

Rgr, thanks for the reply!

[Hariskut]

Just discovered that people have been calling for this improvement since 2018. It's now 4202, and there's still no news?

[draconus]

49 minutes ago, Hariskut said:

Just discovered that people have been calling for this improvement since 2018. It's now 4202, and there's still no news?

Wish list instruction:

1. write a wish

2. wait for implementation - can be days, months, years or even never happen

[Shadok]

1 hour ago, draconus said:

Wish list instruction:

1. write a wish

2. wait for implementation - can be days, months, years or even never happen

Not since few months:

DCS Core Wish List

 

---

WIshlist Guidelines

Welcome to the Wish List section for the core game, this is for all those things you would love to see added to DCS World. This is a safe zone for free expression of ideas, there are no bad ideas that doesn't mean every idea will be added or can be added.

In an effort to acknowledge your wishes more we have decided to start tagging threads and even joining in on the discussion if needed. This is not a high priority though so there may be some time that new wishes might go a little while before being acknowledged, but we promise to try and do better at letting you know we are watching.

In the past we would just scroll through and look at them when we are looking at new features and additions to see what people are talking about, but no one knew we cared or watched, we do!

The Tags:

• noted: This means that we have looked at your thread, we might add to the discussion and we will keep an eye on it. 
• submitted: This means that it's an intriguing idea and will be highlighted to management and the team, this doesn't mean it will happen tomorrow or even ever but it will be highlighted for possible addition to our internal plan.
• already requested: This has already been requested by someone on the team or in the past by another user, it's already in the system but again, no guarantee it will be done soon or not. 
• reported: This is just straight up a bug or issue that needs to be put into our internal reporting system and we have skipped right to that to do so. 
• available: If a thread is marked solved then a solution is already available in the sim.  

Discussions:

Wish List threads can be very personal, and as I said above there are no bad ideas. This doesn't mean everyone will like the idea. If you do not like the idea use the star rating on the thread
image.png

We do not have time to read through a 30 post thread of two people arguing why something is bad, in fact most times we will just read the first post for the idea and move on from there, if there are 30 posts and a good star rating we will just assume everyone loves the idea. Yes that means that those of you that love arguing about ideas you don't like will actually help the idea get views. So if you don't like it, don't respond, give it 1 star. And be nice to each other. 

[draconus]

1 minute ago, Shadok said:

Not since few months

What part contradicts what I said?

[Shadok]

1. write a wish

2. ED tag the post

3. wait for implementation - can be days, months, years or even never happen

[draconus]

30 minutes ago, Shadok said:

2. ED tag the post

As you can see, it's not a given

[Shadok]

that right, but this tread ticks the required criteria for this :p