Experiment with a Google Earth inspired map controller

[dantman]

It's still likely impossible for the enhanced galaxy map controls (grab and pan gestures; #71) to work. However an alternative idea to the current controller and the enhanced controls might be to try a Google Earth inspired controller.

Some thoughts:

• We could have a fly button/axis which would fly in the direction the controller is pointing. So a single button/axis takes care of moving in any direction. Making it an axis would allow for easy backwards movement. (Vive trackpad up/down, Index stick up/down?)
• There are different ideas on how rotation could be handled:
  • Rotation buttons near the zoom buttons
  • The left controller could control rotation instead
  • left/right on the fly axis could be used for something similar to snap rotate (full -/+1 on the yaw axis for a fixed period of time). Though I'm not sure how well I can control the exact number of degrees. Or alternatively I could just map the stick to the yaw like that.
• Zoom could be handled by placing a zoom in/out buttons such that they look like they are in the lower left corner of the plane created by the floating left panel. Then you could interact with those buttons using a laser pointer.
• If we can find a way to figure out where the left panel is in 3d space, we could use that to context switch buttons to UI navigation.
  • However this won't work for the floating panel next to stars because its 3d position is dynamic.
  • If we can figure out the 3d space position of the UI tabs, then perhaps we could drop the UITab bindings and instead make everything just use UINavigate. Then tab navigation can be done using the laser pointer. However context may be difficult, so alternatively we could just put "previous tab/next tab" buttons near the left panel.
• Could we setup the laser in a way that it controls the mouse cursor reliably enough to use it to control the world-space mouse pointer?
  • If the trigger has a capacitive sensor (Oculus/Index/WMR(?)) we could optionally hide the cursor when the trigger is not being touched.
• We'll still want the keyboard to type in the search field. However perhaps we could also have a Google Earth style search panel that pops up. So if you type out 3 letters of a name we can use the EDDB API to list out system names so you can just click on one and have the whole name typed into the search field.
  • We could even go further and embed the equivalent of a trimmed down version of the EDDB Systems search page into the panel. So you can search for systems near you based on their economy/allegiance/etc. We would need to start using the log file to keep track of current system.

[dafaithz]

Im now ~100 hours in with the vr cockpit and one of the things that vorher me the most is the system/galaxy map. The google earth navigation idea sounds good, but the most important thing (especially for the galaxy map) is analog control/input. If everything fails... drop 2 virtual joysticks in there, it will work much better then the current map controls. Because of the digital input, uve to adjust 20 times if u are zoomed out only a little bit. Im played around with the freecam the last 2 days and even there u have a better control-feeling cause uve got the virtual stick for analog movements.

The controls are too big, because of that uve to position the controller little bit away from you, otherwise its directly in ur face. After that uve to reach out for the y navigation and uve to look at it the whole time, cause u must perfectly hit it. Navigating the map should be fun (rotate around slowly, adjust the x y and zoom in at the same time), atm its a real nightmare :/ Another thing whats important in there is maybe a virtual Keyboard... Its okay with oculus dash, but it would be much nicer to search for a system without calling the dash overlay. I think with steam only its alot worse and the search function is very important.

If i can help you, test anything etc. i would love too, im playing elite like crazy atm and love to play it with vr cockpit.

[dantman]

The Google earth style controller may not actually work out well.

I just did a bit of playing today and I realized that the X/Y/Z axis movement is based on the galaxy plane and not the coordinate plane the player is currently viewing from. So unless we know what plane the player is viewing from (not possible) then we don't know what direction corresponds to what. i.e. If you pitch up so you are looking at the galaxy map from above and point forwards and try to "fly", then the galaxy map will actually move up instead of forwards. And at the normal 45˚-ish pitch I have a feeling this directional disconnect could be disorienting.