Support for SteamVR hand tracking/VR gloves

[Auriga_Nexus]

SteamVR recently released a skeletal hand tracking API for use with future VR glove-style controllers, and already there are a few companies with products in the works such as UDexreal's UDCAP, etc.

I was wondering if BD had any plans on incorporating support for these into VTOLVR. It wouldn't be too hard I think, might require some re-tooling on how the game recognizes when you're trying to interact with a button or switch.

The biggest benefit of adding support for these would likely be getting all the people ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ about HOTAS support to shut up. If you could play VTOLVR with VR gloves you could just set up a dummy HOTAS in reality that matches position of the aircraft controls in VR and just use those. If you can get the gloves to make the "grip" gesture on the virtual stick while grabbing a physical stick IRL its no different than flying with a HOTAS.

[醉仙望月]

The game already supports skeletal hand tracking for the Valve Index controller.
The hard part is indeed interacting with the buttons and switches without motion controllers.
Unlike with motion controllers where you press the trigger to interact, one issue with hand tracking is that any switches and buttons your hand happens to collide with will instantly be actuated. Obviously that's far from ideal because it leads to numbers of accidental presses on your way to activating the control you wanted, especially those around the HOTAS.
As for the physical HOTAS, there is another issue. The table used to place the HOTAS may prevent you from reaching out to interact with some controls in the virtual cockpit. That's why flight sims like DCS that focus on physical HOTAS often use a laser pointer for interaction.

[ElektroNudel]

Originally posted by 醉仙望月:

Unlike with motion controllers where you press the trigger to interact, one issue with hand tracking is that any switches and buttons your hand happens to collide with will instantly be actuated.

Is that really a problem though? I think you can easily modify the controls, so that buttons would only be activated when you pinch your index and thumb for example.