Control Issues/Axis Missing? Read Here First

[Tom]

If you open the "Rebind Inputs" menu, you can then verify if every axis moves as expected [i.imgur.com]
If an axis doesn't move as expected, either giving no input, or not giving the full range, press the BIND button to rebind it, even if it's to the same axis.

If you continue to have control binding issues, please leave a comment below, or alternatively, create a support ticket in our Discord. [discord.gg]

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Unfortunately at this current time, **SteamVR Bindings** controller customization isn't possible with the current version of OpenXR.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Milhouse:

The game seems to ignore steam binding menu completely. I couldn't find a way to lock targets on Vive wands and the left trackpad press also toggles thrust power modes. I tried fixing it myself with steam rebinding but even if I remove all trackpad controls they still function the same in-game. Controller mirror mode also seems to turn on automatically. It's annoying to tinker with because every time I try changing anything the motion controls stop working completely in-game and I need to restart.

Hi, we're sorry that you've encountered this issue.
Unfortunately, as this is an OpenXR game, the SteamVR bindings don't have an affect.
We tried to fix this or find a workaround before launch but were unable to.
Additionally there doesn't seem to be a way to remove the ability for the user to try rebinding controls in SteamVR bindings, unfortunately.

In the short term we'll make sure to update the relevant places with that information.
After that we'll chuck a task on the backlog to make this sort of customization for Vive controls is possible.

Out of interest what control setup are you wanting from it?
for example:
- Target Lock: ------ Right Menu Button
- Recenter: --------- Hold Left Menu Button
- Toggle Hi/Lo: ----- Right Trackpad Click

[Tom]

That's a good idea. The part that makes it a big difficult to use trackpad controls however, is that the players can rebind their inputs to map whatever ship axis to it.

In order to support that setup in a general sense, we'd have to extend the Rebind Inputs menu to include all the button controls too, which is a fairly hefty amount of work.

That said, we can look into adding a "Milhouse mode" toggle that "special cases" the controls - with that in mind is there a particular setup you'd like? (without having to worry about intro graphics and so on)

[Tom]

Originally posted by Milhouse:

If it isn't too much work then your suggested setup would be great too, thank you. But perhaps "Vive wands alternate mode" or something would be more universal?

Ok sounds good, so we'll make it like this:
- Target Lock: ------ Right Menu Button
- Recenter: --------- Hold Left Menu Button
- Toggle Hi/Lo: ----- Right Trackpad Click

Initially we'll make it toggleable via a debug key (hold V for 2 seconds etc) - that should help you in the short term.

Then we'll add a task to the backlog to make it an in-cockpit button + updated controller guide images for later in the week, so anyone can more easily customize those options.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Milhouse:

If it isn't too much work then your suggested setup would be great too, thank you. But perhaps "Vive wands alternate mode" or something would be more universal?
Also when I was suggesting right trackpad left/right I was meaning to say quadrant clicks and didn't make that clear. That probably confused things more.

Just a heads-up that this has now been added
So in your case, to get the controls described above, you'd want to press "7" and "0" once in game - from then on, that setting will be saved, so it doesn't have to be applied each start-up.
Let me know if you have any issues.

[Skyliner121]

can we use thumbsticks on oculus touch as axis? I want it to use for lateral movements, because i dont have pedal ruders.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Skyliner121:

can we use thumbsticks on oculus touch as axis? I want it to use for lateral movements, because i dont have pedal ruders.

Yes - in fact, the left thumbstick already handles the lateral and vertical movements.
So if I understand your request correctly, the game should already function this way?
If you had something else in mind, here are the instructions on how to rebind something:

You can rebind it by doing the following:
- Go into the "Rebind Virtual Axes" menu
- Push the "Bind" button on the thruster direction you want to rebind (e.g. Strafe Lateral)
- The UI will flash, and ask you to bind an axis.
- Grab the joystick you want to be in control of the thrust axis, and then either tilt the joystick or tilt the thumbstick in the direction you want.
- You can now test that the input does what you intended by moving that joystick or thumbstick, and verifying that the ship hologram, and the input bars move as you expect.

Hope this helps :)

[Skyliner121]

Originally posted by Tom:

Originally posted by Skyliner121:

can we use thumbsticks on oculus touch as axis? I want it to use for lateral movements, because i dont have pedal ruders.

Yes - in fact, the left thumbstick already handles the lateral and vertical movements.
So if I understand your request correctly, the game should already function this way?
If you had something else in mind, here are the instructions on how to rebind something:

You can rebind it by doing the following:
- Go into the "Rebind Virtual Axes" menu
- Push the "Bind" button on the thruster direction you want to rebind (e.g. Strafe Lateral)
- The UI will flash, and ask you to bind an axis.
- Grab the joystick you want to be in control of the thrust axis, and then either tilt the joystick or tilt the thumbstick in the direction you want.
- You can now text that in the input does what you intended by moving that joystick or thumbstick, and verifying that the ship hologram, and the input bars move as you expect.

Hope this helps :)

Thank you, very kind. It is standard binding. I just thought, it was not binded to any axis. My fault, i'm sorry.

[Tom]

Originally posted by Skyliner121:

Thank you, very kind. It is standard binding. I just thought, it was not binded to any axis. My fault, i'm sorry.

No worries :) we need to do a better job of tutorializing that earlier on.
Hope you enjoy the game!

[Unheil]

For me, throttle-back and pitch-up behave erratic. Independently of the Hi/Lo control state, pulling back a stick often results in only minor movement (including minor pulling of the virtual hand+stick). Releasing grip and retrying often gives me full control again. This not only leads to unpredictable docking performance, but also during the first three hours of playing I started to twist my hands backwards so heavily to avoid collisions, that my wrists started aching. Currently, for me the game is not playable. Setup: Oculus Rift CV1, Windows 10

[Tom]

Originally posted by Unheil:

For me, throttle-back and pitch-up behave erratic. Independently of the Hi/Lo control state, pulling back a stick often results in only minor movement

Hi, Dev here :)

My apologies that you encountered this issue.
So like VTOL, this game cancels out your grab rotation when you grab the stick.
That means, at the start of holding the stick, that will be your "neutral" pose.
The alternative is to use the raw hand rotation, but in early testing we found this to be a lot less desirable. Other games, like VTOL, don't do that for a reason.

The side effect of this is the issue you describe, where you've unknowingly grabbed it with a slight backwards rotation, and therefore will find it difficult to rotate your wrists back further.

Now that you're aware of this element, you may find it easier to deliberately grab the stick in a more "relaxed initial position".

There are two more steps which don't completely fix the issue, but may help.
Firstly, you could also try switching to the handbrake to slow down.
Secondly, you could increase the virtual-joystick sensitivity a tad (say, to 1.4/1.6) and then switch to the B curve - some users find this better for playing from their sofa, for instance.
This will require less physical motion to max out the axes, but the curve should keep the central zone nice and precise :)

I should add, this is an issue that is unique to HOSAS controls, and is related to why you don't see this being an issue in VTOL VR.
Essentially, players can live with "non-maxed-out rotation speeds", but it really becomes a problem when you aren't able to max out your braking ability, as you discovered.

This isn't an issue for non-HOSAS games, as your important braking axis isn't on a rotation based device.

In future, we'd like to add a throttle device as an option instead of HOSAS, which wouldn't suffer from the same quirk.

Hope this explanation helps clarify the issue :) I would certainly consider upping the sensitivity and seeing if that helps :)

[Unheil]

Tom, thanks for your reply. When I find some gaming time, I will double check if my initial hand position when grabbing actually is the issue and if I can configure myself around this problem. Btw, the problem is on both hands, and in VTOL I never had this issue with the pitch axis. However, VTOL often does not require such massive maneuvering as Space Docker, at least when you're new to it.

I will also try hardware HOTAS support with my X52pro to see if it's more fun. I will report.

However, you should find a way around this problem in any case, as I guess I am not the only person who finds this very frustating (other people not complaining does not mean they don't have issues...). Did you consider a slow transition from relative to raw hand rotation? Is the control curve logarithmic or linear?

[Tom]

To be fair, it's also possible that in VTOL VR, the default joystick position is more conducive to a more relaxed grab position. So it may be that you can tweak the joystick position in SDVR to help that too.

Originally posted by Unheil:

I will also try hardware HOTAS support with my X52pro to see if it's more fun. I will report.

Sure :) unfortunately we don't have navigable menus with HOTAS yet, so hand controllers are still required for that. Aside from that, HOTAS can be pretty interesting - HOSAS even more so.

I would recommend a particular setup trick that someone else in the community suggested.
Due to the need to have fine control over your forward/backward movement during docking, it could be worth double binding that axis.
For example, bind up the throttle axis as normal (checking the zero point is correct in the 'configure' part of the HOTAS binding menu etc), but consider increasing it's deadzone so it's easier to leave have it rest at 0 for docking.
Then use a pair of buttons/spare thumbstick axis for the forward/backward bind, so that you can "pulse" small inputs to help with docking. As it turns out, a friction-y throttle isn't an ideal instrument for these fine grain forward/backward motions.

Originally posted by Unheil:

However, you should find a way around this problem in any case, as I guess I am not the only person who finds this very frustrating

We think it's a tricky problem - We will consider changing the defaults so that the stick requires less physical motion, but have the default curve be such that you get a bigger region of fine control.

Originally posted by Unheil:

Is the control curve logarithmic or linear?

They're custom curves at the moment, though we're planning on adding a dial for log curves in a future update.

[Unheil]

Originally posted by Tom:

Secondly, you could increase the virtual-joystick sensitivity a tad (say, to 1.4/1.6) and then switch to the B curve - some users find this better for playing from their sofa, for instance.
This will require less physical motion to max out the axes, but the curve should keep the central zone nice and precise :)

Tom, that did the trick, thanks.