About Controls / Real Vs Mech Controls

[harf4ng]

Hi,

I know this does not seem very important for many, but I like to mimic the sim control with my real controls. As at home I have two sticks and a throttle (a X55 hotas and a T16000 stick) I think I can manage that.

So now my question... when I look inside my mech while I am moving, I notice the mech uses a stick on right hand, and a throttle on left hand.

So, first, I find it strange that when I'm going forward, the pilot... pulls the stick... and when I'm going backward, the pilot pushes the stick... shouldn't it be the other way round? pushing to move forward, as in a plane or any throttle?

I notice also that the pilot moves the stick right to turn legs right, and moves the stick left to turn legs left, but...
- I can't figure out what it should do to push the stick or to pull it, as I can't see the pilot doing it.
- I can't figure out how the pilot moves the torso of the mech. Does it mean there is some kind of autolook, where the torso automatically follows the pilot's eyes? And that I could use something like trackIR to do that? (I have trackIR as well)

Or even better, oculus rift next year, is this game compatible with oculus rift? :)

So, if you can give me advices about that. Thanks

The game looks wonderful, this seems so cool to control suck a big machine ^^

[robotninjasrule]

Pretty sure legs are moved with the feet like a rudder pedal.

[van Uber]

I always imagined the joystick controling pitch and yaw of the torso/arms, while pedals rotate the legs (and throttle for forwards/backwards movement).

[trooper844]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από van Uber:

I always imagined the joystick controling pitch and yaw of the torso/arms, while pedals rotate the legs (and throttle for forwards/backwards movement).

this is how it was set up in those crazy virtual world centers from 20 years ago

[harf4ng]

Yeah make sense.
But when I turn the legs, I see the pilot in the cockpit moving the right stick left and right :)

[Kissamies]

Yeah, as said above I'm fairly sure the "canonical" way is throttle to control speed, foot pedals for turning and joystick for turning the torso and arms. PGI simply haven't paid that much attention to cockpit animations.

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από harf4ng:

- I can't figure out how the pilot moves the torso of the mech. Does it mean there is some kind of autolook, where the torso automatically follows the pilot's eyes? And that I could use something like trackIR to do that? (I have trackIR as well)

TrackIR and other head tracking indeed works, but it's for looking around only. I guess you could hack the input and use it for virtual mouse or stick to aim that way, but I wouldn't recommend it. I tried aiming with head tracking in Star Citizen and it's too hard. Aiming arms with your head and torso with the mouse would be cool, though. Hard to learn but cool.

Incidentally, those who have hacked Oculus Rift to work with this game have used their head movement to move torso, though I'm fairly sure it would be possible to use theTrackIR support and Opentrack to make it use as freelook instead. I imagine aiming with VR glasses could be more precise than aiming with head tracking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prOySJ8e4rg

[harf4ng]

Do you think this game is playable with a joystick? Or not precise enough?

[R A V 3 N]

It is playable with a joystick but because of the dead zone it is difficult to be very accurate.

[harf4ng]

I'm not supposed to have any dead zone, I use two hall sensor sticks...

[Instinkt]

MWO with oculus rift.. free looking around in the mech... thats what I dream about at night. lol

[harf4ng]

I'll take the rift as soon as it is available... not only for MWO, but also for DCS World, x-plane 10, Star citizen, and other FPS and flight sims ;)

[Gill]

If you want to simulate mech movement in what might be a realistic setting, Steel Battalion did it best in my opinion, here is a basic run down:

Left stick - Controlled leg orientation, only moved left and right. (Though with a modern stick you could adjust this so that up\down controlled throttle too.) Had a small hat stick on top that controlled external camera, this is how you looked around, in MWO I imagine this would move your head since the plot looks out through cockpit glass, not through a monitor screen.

Right stick - Torso and weapon reticules. Every weapon had it's own crosshair - All controlled by right stick. STICK DID NOT HAVE A CENTRE SPRING. This is important, you do NOT want to be fighting the stick to keep it on a delicate shot, if you want to do this REMOVE the spring from the stick (X55 Rhino works good for this, spring can be removed easily) Right stick was also triggers.

Pedals - Three pedals controlled Acceleration, Breaking and "Slide" stepping which was a dodge feature unique to that game. Not sure what you could do with that third pedal in this, or if pedals would be needed at all. In 'Mechs of the setting, pedals controlled torso twist if I recall.

Everything else was accessed via buttons on the controller that required you to take your hads OFF your stick. Very silly, lots of modded controllers around and that time.

Add in some VR\TrackIR and I think it'd be pretty cool. There are drivers out there that make the Steel Battalion controller work with PCs too.

[harf4ng]

Thanks, I'll try this out. I have not removed the spring in the X55, but I have put the softer one. This way I do not have to fight with the stick. I'll try this.