Best VR hand controls……Leap motion disappointing…..

[markturner1960]

Hi, I just got a leap motion unit but am pretty disappointed at how it works etc in DCS…….perhaps, there are some tips and set up details I need to find out. 
I was a bit put off by having to strap things to my hands like point control and leap motion seemed an ideal solution……

So what’s the best set up if you want to use your hands or fingers as you might in reality , within VR?

 

thanks……

[dburne]

Best today probably is Point Control from what I have read. Still waiting on my turn to order to come up, have been waiting quite a while now.

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by dburne

[edmuss]

Have a look through the pinned leap motion thread, lots of info in there

What's it's not doing that you think it should be?

[hannibal]

i just tried it today..

it was horrible.

the FOV of leap motion is so narrow that you have to be far from your hands in order for it to track.

but when your doing cockpit thingys, you tend to bring your hand up against the HMD & leap motion and the tracking gets wonky.

its cool to see your hands move but thats about it

[edmuss]

That's odd, I have a +3" ape index (long arms) and my MFDs are at arms length. At no point have my hands needed to be near the hmd to press any cockpit button?

[Baldrick33]

Having tried a number of solutions including PointCtrl my preference is to use muscle memory and reach out and press a physical switch or button. I have several button boxes and mfds around me all of which are surprisingly easy to find by reaching out. I did recently add some 3D printed knobs to replace say one rotary in a group of four to ease identification.

I also have the mouse controls mapped on my joystick (I use the CMS hat on my Warthog) so can look at a control and click it and have a rotary mapped on a button box for wheel.

This allows me to press switches and buttons for startup and things like weapon controls but be able to look at controls and click the hotas mouse buttons for non mapped controls or if I need to quickly operate the MFD. 

For me this option works best and I have spent quite some time finding what works best for me. PointCtrl is an elegant solution but I still found it like pointing at a switch rather than pressing one (I guess a clue is in the name!).

My pit isn’t particularly pretty, lots of different types of button boxes, quads and mfds but once the headset is on it doesn’t really matter. I fly lots of different aircraft so that involves a fair bit of setting controls but worth it in my mind. For flying a single aircraft I think a 1:1 cockpit would work surprisingly well in VR with maybe just a few cues added to aid locating switches in groups of similar switch types.

[TED]

1 hour ago, Baldrick33 said:

Having tried a number of solutions including PointCtrl my preference is to use muscle memory and reach out and press a physical switch or button. I have several button boxes and mfds around me all of which are surprisingly easy to find by reaching out. I did recently add some 3D printed knobs to replace say one rotary in a group of four to ease identification.

I also have the mouse controls mapped on my joystick (I use the CMS hat on my Warthog) so can look at a control and click it and have a rotary mapped on a button box for wheel.

This allows me to press switches and buttons for startup and things like weapon controls but be able to look at controls and click the hotas mouse buttons for non mapped controls or if I need to quickly operate the MFD. 

For me this option works best and I have spent quite some time finding what works best for me. PointCtrl is an elegant solution but I still found it like pointing at a switch rather than pressing one (I guess a clue is in the name!).

My pit isn’t particularly pretty, lots of different types of button boxes, quads and mfds but once the headset is on it doesn’t really matter. I fly lots of different aircraft so that involves a fair bit of setting controls but worth it in my mind. For flying a single aircraft I think a 1:1 cockpit would work surprisingly well in VR with maybe just a few cues added to aid locating switches in groups of similar switch types.

This
I totally agree. I’ve tried leapmotion, mouse, vr hand controllers. Nothing is better than some physical controls and switches. As baldrick says, pretty quickly your muscle memory learns where they are and it’s very easy.

I’ve taken to making my own switch boxes. Very easy with a cheap Cnc machine and some cheap switches. Then just mount them where ever. 

[markturner1960]

16 hours ago, edmuss said:

Have a look through the pinned leap motion thread, lots of info in there

What's it's not doing that you think it should be?

Well, where do I start.....hands appear and dissappear randomly....some switches work when you point at them, others, the glove fingers just dissappear into....the cables too short....

 

Are you saying you have it up and running and its great? And which pinned thread? I dont see one? 

Edited February 3, 2022 by markturner1960

[edmuss]

18 minutes ago, markturner1960 said:

Well, where do I start.....hands appear and dissappear randomly....some switches work when you point at them, others, the glove fingers just dissappear into....the cables too short....

 

Are you saying you have it up and running and its great? And which pinned thread? I dont see one? 

 

It's pinned at the top of the input/output parent forum

https://forums.eagle.ru/topic/274211-leap-support/page/6/#comment-4886476

I have it running and barring one or two controls that are hidden behind the hotas throttle it works great, that is more an issue of the physical constraints of my rig setup though.

The gloves dissapear when you have hotas input applied, takes a bit of getting used to; you can disable the hiding functionality by enabling the hands to control throttle and stick in options but for me that breaks it a bit as then when my hand is resting on the stick it's not quite in the right position in view, almost but not quite.  Additionally having hands controlling throttle and stick is intended to be instead of having a physical hotas I think and can result is some very odd behaviour when you have a virtual AND physical stick trying to give control input!

I think that there is a fairly small area just before the glove touches the button at which point the activation becomes possible and you can then poke the button, it takes a bit of practise to build the muscle memory; it's no where near as fast and tactile as a phyisical button though.  I have suggested that there could be a slight visual clue that the fingertip is in the activation zone, similar to how the OSBs have a purple highlight on them when they've been pressed.

I just bought a 4m usb extension cable from amazon and routed it along the headset cable, don't notice it at all.

Have a trawl through the thread, the functionality recently (as in the last 4-5 months) got much better in DCS with the release of the new ultraleap gemini drivers so the earlier pages might be full of more frustration than results!

[markturner1960]

Ok, thanks, I will read up and persevere….

[edmuss]

It's like vr in dcs, far from plug and play but when you get that magic setting right it works.

Good luck, with some perseverance you should be able to get it to work. Whether the end result is good enough for you is another matter. It can always be shelved until such point that ED get it really good

Edited February 3, 2022 by edmuss

[imacken]

On 2/3/2022 at 9:29 PM, markturner1960 said:

Ok, thanks, I will read up and persevere….

I persevered and still gave up. Sent back for a refund. I agree totally with your original comments below. Nice idea, but…

On 2/3/2022 at 3:20 PM, markturner1960 said:

Well, where do I start.....hands appear and dissappear randomly....some switches work when you point at them, others, the glove fingers just dissappear into....the cables too short....

 

Are you saying you have it up and running and its great? And which pinned thread? I dont see one? 

 

 

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

Also you have to placed to sensor over your headset at a certain position of the edge of the cover, to maximize the sensor Trackin working angle

[REDFIELD]

I know there are still problems, but it works much better than before. you have to get used to certain commands. 
I made a video on the start of the f16, ka50, spitfire and p47 and it works not too badly

[TED]

30 minutes ago, REDFIELD said:

I know there are still problems, but it works much better than before. you have to get used to certain commands. 
I made a video on the start of the f16, ka50, spitfire and p47 and it works not too badly

You make that look very easy. I don’t know how you do that. I find the hands disappear too often and lose tracking. I will have to play with the settings again and see if I can improve it in the a10. 

[edmuss]

A10c works wonderfully for me, getting much quicker around the MFDs with more practise. The ergonomic switches are the ones that you're using most and it's perfect for them

@TEDtry setting a larger stick dead zone and see if that helps. I also run with vr mouse enabled which has in the past affected the hand visibility, can't say for certain if that's in a good or bad way though

 

[EAF51_Jimmi]

still messing with leap motion...

mixed feelings...

hate to have to activate it every time...

then i have to enable and disable the pointing gesture every time and often loose the right hand (have to activate vr mouse)

i have ordered a longer usb cable and changed mi setup to free space for leap motion gestures, but miss my keyboard ( i'll have to buy some sort of removable stand...)

[Sielu]

I will continue to proselytize the Fingers app for mimicking PointCTRL's scheme with a Leap Motion (now that you have one).  I highly suggest installing and trying it out, just map right/left click to your HOTAS for now and see how it feels... then you get start going down the rabbit hold of building your own finger buttons!

This has literally been a game changer for me, as a VR pilot on multiple modules this is the most immersion I've felt without having to built physical controls for each cockpit.

[A2597]

huge fan of PointCTRL here. That gets my vote.

[dburne]

28 minutes ago, A2597 said:

huge fan of PointCTRL here. That gets my vote.

Hoping my turn to order comes up soon. Been waiting since Feb of last year.