mouse cursor rotation compensation

[PhoenixBvo]

This concept has matured over a long period of flying various sims including DCS.

 

Although TrackIR makes a flight simulation very immersive, it's combination with the clickable cockpit is not that natural, yet...

 

Let me explain: in these simulations the user has the task of operating some switch or knob in the 3D-cockpit. To accomplish this, the viewport in the cockpit frame of reference being controlled by the head position has to be coordinated with the mouse pointer location on the screen.

Although training together with a good TrackIR profile and IR-noise free environment will allow quite efficient operation, it remains fairly unnatural.

In practice, any viewport (head) movement will cause the mouse cursor to drift off the desired cockpit location and has to be actively compensated by the mouse.

 

Consider the human body: the mouse cursor simulates the human hand. The hand is attached to the arm which, in most humans, is not directly attached to the head. The neck primarily provides us with three rotational degrees of freedom with respect to the torso. This means any head rotations do not influence the hand position. This as opposed to translations which are effected by moving the upper torso which also moves the arms/hands.

 

Considering the above anatomical facts, it would be more natural if the simulation had a mode which would compensate any cursor movement (with respect to the cockpit) due to rotation of the viewport. Movement due to translations would be unaffected. This should make it much easier and more natural to operate cockpit switches, increasing immersion.

 

To this idea, NaturalPoint replied:

"Hi Phoenix. Thanks for the well thought-out suggestion. You've honed in on a key trade-off with scaled VR. If you want to see 180+ degrees in-game, while still looking at the monitor, you have to scale the motion. But, if you scale the motion, it makes it more difficult to rest on a viewpoint outside of the deadzone.

 

Integrating situational mouse control with TrackIR view control is unfortunately something that's outside of our scope. Game developers will often scale the 6 DOF after they receive it from the TrackIR API. This fact alone makes it impossible for us to offset mouse movement from head rotations, because we never really know what 6 DOF data will end up driving your view."

(original thread here)

 

Basically putting it in your hands ED. You have the right position to implement this: It only takes some simple geometric equations including the rotations of the viewport and the mouse cursor position. Of course this feature would be optional and linked to an on/off toggle function to be assigned in the keyboard control menu.

 

I appreciate the hard work going into DCS and it would be wonderful if this idea could contribute to the success of the product.

 

Thanks,

Mark

Edited February 8, 2011 by PhoenixBvo
extra clarification

[effte]

Now, that is a very good idea! Rep inbound!

 

I think the cursor could remain stationary in the virtual view, as long as it remained on screen. If you move your head far enough for the cursor to go off screen, it simply starts moving with your view again on the edge of the screen.

 

BTW, Braunschweig is a lovely place. Visited last winter, just in time for the Weihnachtsmarkt.

 

Cheers,

/Fred

[sobek]

This idea has already surfaced before, but in a slightly different form, although i don't remember if ED consider implementing it or not.

[PhoenixBvo]

You mean here?

Yes, you are right. Respect for remembering!:thumbup: I thought about it since then (especially the technical side) and the currently proposed form (only rotations corrected) is much easier to implement. No 3D rendering of the cursor since there are only angles involved.