Improved physical interaction for UIX

[amplified1]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

There is currently a large disparity between the feature set of UIX and what a lot of people find the most intuitive with VR menus. Right now the ability to reach out and touch a UIX panel is supported, but ultimately an afterthought. Many people create menus from meshes and button components to make up for this, but those systems tend to be less efficient and modular when compared to UIX, in addition to taking more work to set up.

Describe the solution you'd like

UIX should have a shallow volume around it that can be used to track the depth of the touch tip relative to the panel, with a customizable minimum touch depth for interaction and appropriate feedback (haptic, visual, audio, etc) when pressing into the panel.

Describe alternatives you've considered

A better modular system for creating physical UI in Resonite, similar to many UI elements on the old platform, but more customizable and dynamic.

Additional Context

This is in part inspired by how Rec Room has implemented it's redesigned 2D menus in VR.

[Frooxius]

In my experience, the physical interactions don't tend to work super well. I've used them more in the past, but people found them a bit too janky. I'm not sure if this is something we want to push too much over the laser interaction.

[amplified1]

In my experience, the physical interactions don't tend to work super well. I've used them more in the past, but people found them a bit too janky. I'm not sure if this is something we want to push too much over the laser interaction.

I admit it takes more effort to get right, but when done right it is significantly more intuitive than lasers. Better touch interfacing would also future proof the game against the possible popularization of more finger tracking based VR software, for example, the entirety of the Meta Quest OS UI is able to be navigated with touch, both when using controllers and hand tracking, and that, in my opinion, makes it feel much nicer to use. I personally am ok with laser menus but I also know people who can't stand them and actively avoid using systems in the game that require them to use their lasers for interaction because of it, which is a bit extreme, but still an example of laser exclusive menus failing to fulfill the needs of some users.

[Frooxius]

That's why I explored it in some of my earlier work, because I used to use Leap Motion a lot. However with controllers and such, things got particularly awkward.

We might explore this some more again if we push for these interaction methods, but probably not while controllers are still the main method of interaction.

[gameboycjp]

I've found physical interaction to be about on par with laser when using controllers, assuming the UI is within reach. Especially keyboards. Perhaps there could be a setting to enable physical interaction on the default UI panels?