Leap Motion and DCS - Success!

[DZ82]

Hi All,

I posted recently asking for help because I was struggling quite a bit with Leap Motion in DCS and getting it to work, but after countless hours of fiddling, I have come up with a solution that works for me, perhaps someone else can benefit as well. It works really really well. I have attached some pictures of my rather crude setup. I was regretting the buy, not considering PointCntrl first, but not anymore!

1) So I use the Oculus Quest 2 and I run DCS from Steam VR

2) I have the latest version of the Gemini software 5.3.1. Under "Special" settings in DCS, I make sure that neither hand shows the pointer. The pointer does mess things up a bit. I make sure this is deselected every time I load DCS (by choosing anything else, then back to no pointers, to make sure it doesn't come up in game)

3) Make sure your DCS sim runs smoothly in VR before fiddling with this, it just makes the entire experience better

4) I experimented a lot with angles and placement of the leap motion controller on my headset - and what worked best? Mounting it on top of the headset! (It looks ridiculous, but I don't care, it works)

5) I mounted it with sticky velcro tape to the top of the headset, using 2 small plastic square brackets to stabilize it

6) You will see in the pictures that the motion controller is tilted back a bit, what this does in practise in DCS, is to render your hands at a lower position when you look at your cockpit (Tilting it forward will bring your hands up higher). You can play around with this a bit, but tilting it back really helped me to reach buttons like those on the NMSP

7) The next issue is bumping into stuff when you try to press a button, right? So yes, you need to make your environment as lean as you can, but what really helped me a lot was to use the "Recenter VR view function" (Can't exactly remember the correct name) in the control settings (under UI layer). What I do is to start by sitting comfortably, but moving my chair back - a bit further back than where I want to sit playing (maybe 3-6 inches) . I then recenter my VR cockpit view, and move my chair forward a bit after that. So this makes you move further forward in the cockpit, closer to the front panels. This brought the MFCDs and NMSP easily within reach, without hitting my surroundings

8)I can very easily reach and manipulate any button in the cockpit, without trying to flip a switch 15times before it works. First time, every time

9) You can also easily flip switches up, by turning your hand, palm facing up. (Like cycling the IFFCC switch to and from test)

10) I can rotate the course/heading knobs by basically touching the left side of the knob with my left index finger (keeping it there, so palm facing the switch), which rotates it counter clockwise, and by touching it on the right side with my right index finger (which rotates it clockwise, again palm facing the switch, so your index finger will be on top, and your little finger/pinky at the bottom)

11) I do struggle with rotary switches like on the AAP, still need to work on this, hopefully this will improve in DCS. Have the mouse handy as a backup

12) If your chair can swivel, use it. I sometimes swivel may chair slightly in different directions to avoid hitting things in my sourrounding and reaching buttons on the side panels.  

13) Reach over or lean over a little if you need to. For example, reaching the APU switch next to the throttle can be difficult, as my chair armrest gets in the way. I just lean over it a little, and voila, easy

14) I use "double tap passthrough" on my Quest within the game. (https://support.oculus.com/articles/in-vr-experiences/oculus-features/what-is-passthrough/). By activating this and double tapping your headset, you can see your surroundings, like when you set your guardian boundaries. I use this to quickly look at my Hotas if I want to physically flip a switch, and double tap back into the game, no issues.

15) Make sure the cable running from your motion controller to your PC doesn't pass on front of the controller in any way. I had some issues with tracking my right hand, before realizing that the cable caused it.

16) Lastly, I use a mouse like the Redragon M908. I programme the side buttons for the kneeboard, pausing, F10 map etc, so no more keyboard near me when I play.

 

Hope this is of help to someone, it's really enhanced the experience in DCS for me.

20220123_211111.zip

Edited January 23, 2022 by DZ82
Correction

[BIGNEWY]

Thanks for sharing, 

I like what you have done with the brackets and velcro, mine is just velcroed to the front, yours looks more stable. 

 

[DZ82]

Thanks, I had mine on the front as well, using the leap controller mount, but didn't have great success. Struggled flipping switches successfully on the first try.

Moving it to the top greatly improved accuracy for me.

 

Happy flying 

[edmuss]

That's all pretty much as per my setup, I have to do the lean back, re-centre and sit forwards trick as well otherwise I end up trying to push my fingers through my steering wheel base or gear shifter!

I'm currently mounted on the front, although I have tried it on the top before. The tracking in DCS has gotten a lot better since I had it on the top though so might be worth a revisit.

I struggle with some of the mouse wheel rotaries like the course heading knob but have no issues with the mouse click rotaries on the AAP in the a10c. I've found doing a little flick helps with the rotary switches, use the finger nail side and the finger print side and you can manipulate it quite well.

I also seen to struggle with the UFC sometimes, I think it's to do with the depth perception because there's little else on the same plane (unlike the MFDs etc on the front dash of the a10c).

I have the CMS hat bound to mouse functions using the warthog paddle switch as a modifier so I can get the fiddly switches without hunting for the mouse or releasing the controls.

[DZ82]

Can you tell me a bit more about what exactly you did with the modified CMS switch? I'd like to try, that sounds awesome.

I'll try the switches again, thanks for the advice!

[edmuss]

In the adjust controls tab go to the modifiers button and it will list the current modifiers that are set up (ctrl alt shift etc.).

Here you can add a new one and bind it to any button (obviously an unbound one) and name it accordingly. I use the warthog stick paddle and the throttle mic switch click as two modifiers so I can effectively triple a lot of button functions by using a combination of one or two modifiers.

I bind paddle+CMS left to left click, paddle + CMS right to right click with CMS forward and back to mouse wheel. Once the mission starts, set the mouse cursor to the middle of your view and with vr mouse enabled it will auto hide, just right click to unhide and use the headset to move it around.

Occasionally DCS doesn't recognise the modifier switch if you keep it held when putting multiple mouse inputs in so I've gotten into the habit of applying the modifier each time.

Edited January 24, 2022 by edmuss

[DZ82]

10 minutes ago, edmuss said:

In the adjust controls tab go to the modifiers button and it will list the current modifiers that are set up (ctrl alt shift etc.).

Here you can add a new one and bind it to any button (obviously an unbound one) and name it accordingly. I use the warthog stick paddle and the throttle mic switch click as two modifiers so I can effectively triple a lot of button functions by using a combination of one or two modifiers.

I bind paddle+CMS left to left click, paddle + CMS right to right click with CMS forward and back to mouse wheel. Once the mission starts, set the mouse cursor to the middle of your view and with vr mouse enabled it will auto hide, just right click to unhide and use the headset to move it around.

Occasionally DCS doesn't recognise the modifier switch if you keep it held when putting multiple mouse inputs in so I've gotten into the habit of applying the modifier each time.

 

Excellent idea. I'm definitely incorporating that into my setup, thanks!

[DZ82]

11 hours ago, edmuss said:

That's all pretty much as per my setup, I have to do the lean back, re-centre and sit forwards trick as well otherwise I end up trying to push my fingers through my steering wheel base or gear shifter!

I'm currently mounted on the front, although I have tried it on the top before. The tracking in DCS has gotten a lot better since I had it on the top though so might be worth a revisit.

I struggle with some of the mouse wheel rotaries like the course heading knob but have no issues with the mouse click rotaries on the AAP in the a10c. I've found doing a little flick helps with the rotary switches, use the finger nail side and the finger print side and you can manipulate it quite well.

I also seen to struggle with the UFC sometimes, I think it's to do with the depth perception because there's little else on the same plane (unlike the MFDs etc on the front dash of the a10c).

I have the CMS hat bound to mouse functions using the warthog paddle switch as a modifier so I can get the fiddly switches without hunting for the mouse or releasing the controls.

One more question for you - can you reach the fuel panel on the left, without bumping into your Hotas throttle?

[edmuss]

Pretty sure I can get the fuel panel ok, I do struggle to get the seat height switch and the SAS trim panel to the left of the throttle but I think that's more because of my very constrained space around the throttle; tend to hit the wall which is pretty hard to get out of the way

[DZ82]

13 minutes ago, edmuss said:

Pretty sure I can get the fuel panel ok, I do struggle to get the seat height switch and the SAS trim panel to the left of the throttle but I think that's more because of my very constrained space around the throttle; tend to hit the wall which is pretty hard to get out of the way

Thanks again. Looking forward to trying some of your suggestions

 

[A.F.]

Do you also have the problem that when you move your head a little to the left and right and hold your hands in front of you at the same time, the virtual hands move shortly in the same direction - but then swing back to the middle position?

[edmuss]

13 minutes ago, A.F. said:

Do you also have the problem that when you move your head a little to the left and right and hold your hands in front of you at the same time, the virtual hands move shortly in the same direction - but then swing back to the middle position?

I've noticed that one, haven't checked the visualiser vs DCS to see where the problem is arising from but it's not a massive issue for me, generally if I'm pressing buttons then I'm not normally moving my head about too much

[DZ82]

1 hour ago, edmuss said:

I've noticed that one, haven't checked the visualiser vs DCS to see where the problem is arising from but it's not a massive issue for me, generally if I'm pressing buttons then I'm not normally moving my head about too much

Yes, I've had it happen too. If I clench my fists and open my hands again, tracking seems to be fine again.

Edited January 25, 2022 by DZ82
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