Generic VR Button Box Solution compared with PointCTRL

[Baldrick33]

I appreciate this post is a bit long but I have spent quite some time the last year or so trying to find the most immersive solution for interacting with DCS cockpits in VR. I went down a few rabbit holes on the journey and spent time and money that with the benefit of hindsight I wouldn’t advise doing so I hope to share some of the benefits and pitfalls for anyone else considering options.

 

I have been a VR convert prior to starting with DCS, my initial interaction was with the mouse and a trackball but quickly found it didn’t feel very immersive so I bought a button box which quickly turned into several button boxes to equate with the approximate locations of the cockpit switches.

What I found was that having button boxes each side by the chair and mounted in front of me left and right sides I had switches close enough to VR cockpit to feel about right. They didn’t need to be mm perfect just in the vicinity.

 

My next purchase was a pair of MFDs followed by a pair of Logitech Flight Quadrants which I used for things like landing gear, flaps, prop rpm, nozzles, hook, cockpit opening. With a bit of muscle memory I could operate these levers without needing to look at them.

 

The MFDs took some getting used to. I put velcro strips on some buttons so I could feel my way around them but finding the correct button took a bit of time and felt a bit of a faff. So I opted for making each button a left mouse click in the UI layer, looking at the button I wanted and pressing the first MFD button my hands found. By now I have become pretty adept at looking at the button or switch I want with the VR mouse cursor and holding my head still and pressing the relevant left or mouse button or rotary on the button box.

 

The big rabbit hole I went down was trying to assign lots of buttons and switches to specific ones in aircraft. My aim was to customise the controls for each and every aircraft, so for example all the individual switches to cold start each one. As I added or moved button boxes around I would remap all the controls each time for many aircraft. It was a bit of a route to insanity and finally I dumped the idea for a generic setup where I simply use the button boxes for mouse controls, have generic buttons for show pilot, time acc, kneeboard etc. and only use specific controls where a single mouse click isn’t possible (FCS BIT in the F18, booster and starter in the Spitfire and so on.)

 

Using Joy2Key I have assigned rotaries for moving the mouse cursor vertically to get at those tricky buttons (Oxygen in the F18 for example), plus a push button (on the rotary) to recentre the mouse cursor (e.g. after using the menus). I have also used it to emulate the keyboard strokes for show pilot, eject etc. to make them generic to each aircraft without having to map each one individually.

 

The essential controls on each button box are clickable rotaries for left and right mouse clicks, mouse wheel, recentre mouse cursor, move mouse cursor vertically. On specific button boxes I also use the clickable rotaries for centering VR, Show/hide pilot, time acc/normal, volume up/down. Most of what I use the button boxes for is with these few rotaries.

 

In hindsight I bought button boxes with far too many switches than needed with my initial aim of mapping switches to specific controls. If I was to do it again I would want four clickable rotaries (12 functions) and four buttons for any specific controls. More to look neater than anything else.

The quadrants are useful, especially where they can be mapped to analogue axis. The MFDs look nice but to be honest having a button box in the vicinity to click on would work just as well.

 

My other consideration when starting this was PointCTRL and I put myself down on the very long list over a year ago. When my number came up I was too intrigued not to order it and it came this week.

 

I got it up and running reasonably quickly and it really is an elegant solution. I still needed to keep my head pretty still when moving my hands to “reach” for a switch but I am used to that so no issue. What was an issue is that I had got used to interacting with switches I would feel for that the little buttons on my fingers didn’t feel like I was locating and interacting with a switch.

 

As a replacement for using a mouse or trackball I think PointCTRL is excellent and negates the need for having anything much more than a HOTAS. However, I still like to have my physical levers and switches I can feel for in VR with a little muscle memory so ultimately prefer my hotchpotch of controllers even if it looks a bit OTT!

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Baldrick33

[KWard]

That looks like quite a setup!

[nzteddy]

You have some interesting concepts here. I too have been down a few different paths with button boxes and how to use them.

I'm not sure I understand correctly what you have/propose here. Correct me where I misunderstand please.

You have button boxes placed left/right/front, but rather than having them assigned specific controls, they are mouse buttons.

You use your head pointer to liven the control, and then use the nearest button box to that cockpit location to activate it, either left/right or wheel.

If the above understanding is correct, what I can't quite follow is, why would you need multiple buttons at all then? And what do you use vertical mouse movement for, since you are using your head anyway?

 

I'm really interested to understand your concept properly, as I was about to embark on a new scheme that is kind of a cross between generic/specific.

I have a virpil throttle which has the 5-way rotary which I use joystick gremlin to change the behaviour of buttons/switches.

I planned to create 3 more diy boxes similar to the virpil, 2 for the front, and one on the other side.

I was going to use the mode button to 'select' a operational panel in the region, eg the weapons panel on the front dash of the C101 would be use the front button box , and the buttons/switches/rotaries would operate that panel using proper assignments. So no mouse stuff. But at I would remember how to use the button box for that panel.

I always use keystroke assignment, rather than dx button. I find it much easier to get re-usability between modules.

 

So keen to understand your plan before I go down any more rabbit holes too  

[Baldrick33]

3 hours ago, nzteddy said:

You have some interesting concepts here. I too have been down a few different paths with button boxes and how to use them.

I'm not sure I understand correctly what you have/propose here. Correct me where I misunderstand please.

You have button boxes placed left/right/front, but rather than having them assigned specific controls, they are mouse buttons.

You use your head pointer to liven the control, and then use the nearest button box to that cockpit location to activate it, either left/right or wheel.

If the above understanding is correct, what I can't quite follow is, why would you need multiple buttons at all then? And what do you use vertical mouse movement for, since you are using your head anyway?

The multiple buttons are far more than necessary, that is just using what I had. The aim was to have a button I could press or rotary to turn roughly in the vicinity of the perceived location in the cockpit. On further trialling I have found I only really need buttons on the left and right side. The MFDs I used because I had them, to be honest I was only using them because they were there, using a button box on left or right and looking at the virtual MFD works just as well immersion wise for me.

 

So I am considering dropping the front panel completely and using the boxes left and right. From a muscle memory perspective this probably is a better design.

 

The extra buttons are handy for things like F1-F12 for comms although I use VAICOM where possible plus stuff that is hard to access like the canopy in the Spit and so on.

 

The vertical mouse movement allows for some adjustment to get to things towards the back of the cockpit, e.g. the OBOGS switch in the F18. I find it a bit hard to easily get the cursor everywhere otherwise. It is only used for those extreme cases.

 

Using generic keystrokes assigned to buttons works very well as you suggest, for example I have right shift P assigned to a button so in every module I can show/hide the pilot body.