XWA Upgrade

When playing the game in VR, you can almost feel like you can touch the cockpits (especially after the 6dof improvements), so I thought: Why not? I don't have real VR controllers; but I have self-illuminated ping-pong balls that can be tracked with PSMoveService. Here, I'm using one to make a fake VR pointer that allows me to point and click at stuff inside the cockpit:

It's much easier to appreciate what's going on in a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWnVw1T ... e=youtu.be

This is still a PoC; but I think this will definitely work. The fake VR pointer can be used even without VR; but I honestly don't think people will find this very useful without head tracking of some sort. It's also possible to point-and-click at stuff without a ping-pong ball by looking at things in the cockpit -- maybe TrackIR users may find that useful?

EIther way, not having to use the keyboard while playing in VR mode definitely helps; and maybe later someone might implement gesture recognition or other things.

Also, check out DTM's beautiful upgrade to the Y-Wing cockpit that includes support for the Dynamic Cockpit:

To enable AC, I just re-used the DC definitions and assigned keyboard keys to them. Easy!

Fantastic technology demo.

That‘s amazing! Could the no-VR variant compensate by using mouse look inflight?

Speaking of mouse look, afaik it‘s generally possible, however only in the hangar. Unless I missed it being implemented already, could that be a thing?

Great work blue_max! The next WIP cockpit with Active buttons is coming....very soon! If it works, all XWAUP cockpit wil be updated to be "VR ready"

The new Active Cockpits will be very intuitive, so that everyone can use the buttons without pressing blindly, trying to see what happens. A nice thing will be that each cockpit will have the controls positioned in a slightly different way, according to its own layout. It will be very different to pilot a Y-Wing than to pilot an A-Wing or to pilot a TIE-Fighter, because the layout of the controls will be a little different.

Of course, if you don't like changes you can always use the keyboard commands, but even knowing that one vehicle is different from another enriches the game! It will all be a little more realistic, like changing planes in a flight simulator.

Thanks for this new chance feature!

DTM wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:40 pm

all XWAUP cockpit wil be updated to be "VR ready"

Wow! Thanks for your help, DTM!

Thanks for your comments guys. G_T: yes, it's certainly possible to use this feature without VR by using the mouse and mouse look option -- that's actually the way I debugged and developed this feature. In that case, the cursor will just stay in the middle of the screen. Another option would be to use a tracker on one hand to point at stuff + mouse look. If you're wearing a tracker on one hand you can actually trace the contours of the cockpit in the air and it gives you a sense of dimension even without VR. However, I still doubt people will this feature without head tracking of some sort.

I'm not sure I understood your comment about the hangar. Head tracking hasn't been implemented in the hangar yet, if that's what you're asking. I even think the mouse look function is different in the hangar and it may require a new hook altogether.

blue_max wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:28 pm

I even think the mouse look function is different in the hangar and it may require a new hook altogether.

Of course it is. Lucasarts, you created a wonder of patch-worked code and functionaliy, but damned if it isn't a sea of wondrous potential.

DTM wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:40 pm

.... The next WIP cockpit with Active buttons is coming....very soon! If it works, all XWAUP cockpit wil be updated to be "VR ready"

Eh maybe hold up on the Toscan one. As I posted backstage, I had some more redesigning in mind for that one.

blue_max wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:28 pm

I'm not sure I understood your comment about the hangar. Head tracking hasn't been implemented in the hangar yet, if that's what you're asking. I even think the mouse look function is different in the hangar and it may require a new hook altogether.

Sorry, I was typing via my phone and half asleep, while doing so. What I meant was:
Right now - I'm talking from a non-VR-point of view, you can use the mouse to look around in the launch hangar(ship selection etc.) This, however no longer works once you're in space, here you can only look around by the Joystick's PoV head or by locking camera on current target. But, as you describe it, the pointer being controllable by the mouse, that would pretty much sum up what I meant. As for the question how many people would be using it I would assume it'll be a great feature during more calmer moments; in the heat of battle I would probably tend to use the quicker keybinds, even if AC is, of course, lightyears ahead when it comes to immersion . We're talking Star Wars Citizen here

I think you can press [Scroll Lock] to enable mouse look while flying. If not, then the Cockpit Look Hook definitely enables that.

Wow!

Regarding the usage, do you need to have a visual with the key/target, or could it work even it the ping pong ball would be outside of the field of view? Once you'd get used to a cockpit layout, you may start moving your finger even without having to look...

(I'd suppose this would need a kind of ping pong ball on finger "ring", right?)

Nice

Right now, things need to be on the screen to be able to click on them. But I guess it would also be possible to click on things that are outside the current view as long as your tracker/ping pong ball is visible in the tracking cameras. You'd need *very* good muscle memory to be able to click on invisible things without any feedback, though

Thanks Jeremy!

Welp, this looks good. I look forward to testing it with Track IR if/when it's available.

@blue_max
I saw the video you posted, using a cardboard: beautiful! I believe we are going in the right direction. It will be great to play XWA again!

DTM wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:14 am

I saw the video you posted, using a cardboard: beautiful! I believe we are going in the right direction. It will be great to play XWA again!

Thanks! So, you used a Google Cardboard? If so, you can probably play the game in VR using Trinus or other such system. I didn't bother with that because I had a PSVR; but I think it might be possible.