There is discussion in other threads in other main forum categories but I don’t see a Wishlist item relative to the clunky File Explorer interface that one has to deal with in VR. I don’t have my VR controllers handy and most of the time while wearing my VR headset and being blind to the real world, I have a terrible time loading and saving flights (.FLT) and flight plans (.PLN) in VR. This is probably not something for Asobo to solve all by itself but Microsoft should rethink it’s Mixed Reality approach in Windows overall and create a really good interface in Mixed Reality (VR in MSFS) for working with the file system that offers access to all the bells and whistles available on a 2D screen. (or why have Mixed Reality be the poor man’s stepchild of Windows?!).
As it is, I have to continually don and doff my headset to deal with the rough edges of file handling in MSFS while in VR mode. I’d even like to see MS add an AR mode that’s smart enough to let you see your keyboard and mouse and where you’ve put your VR controllers when you look below “screen level” in VR. I forget whether something like a Reverb G2 headset actually puts out any IR light but, for instance, if you had special VR keyboards, mice, and controllers that either were photoexcitable and fluoresced at a wavelength the headset cameras could pick up or were excited by IR from the headset, you could “see in the dark” and know where to put your fingers to type a file name in the VR interface, etc.
I hope Microsoft will use its collective imagination and intelligence to improve the VR File/Windows Explorer interface in VR because right now it’s terribly lame and makes me dread dealing with it. Sorry if there is already an easy way in VR to switch away from VR in MSFS and in VR, use Windows Explorer as in 2D to load and save flights and flight plans…
In my case using my Vive Pro 2, if i try to save or load a flight plan from within VR the game just hangs on the loading. I have to do it in 2d on monitor prior to switching VR on in the game.
I’ve found that I can do better with the following routine - but it’s still fumbling in the dark and learning to use my keyboard like braille, feeling in the blind VR dark and hoping to God that I’ve located the right key by touch.
At some point I hit the Windows key in Cliff House view and from the pop-up window of choices click on Desktop - so that Cliff House window is available and running my 2D Windows desktop monitor view.
When flying in VR and wanting to switch to another saved flight, I feel my way to the top left of my keyboard and hit “ESC.” That takes me to a paused view of the sim interface. Then, IIRC, hit my bound VR/2D switch key, F12, or I click on the VR switch button at the bottom left center of the floating VR paused sim window. In switching out of VR, I’m taken to the Cliff House floating Desktop window where, although in VR (!), I see a 2D representation of MSFS in the Cliff House desktop window. My mouse cursor shows a “sleeping” symbol and I have to click in the Desktop window to activate mouse clicks on my 2D view of my Windows desktop monitor view. All the MSFS 2D menu options (as far as I’ve tried) are now available to me in the Cliff House VR view. If I click on the World Map, More Options, I can load any of my saved flights, when the File/Windows Explore file list pops up, its neatly contained in the 2D Desktop view that I see in the Cliff House VR. After loading my flight, I have the starting flight view and the Ready to Fly button. Now I can switch back to VR via my bound VR key switch (F12 for me) or, IIRC, the VR switch button offered on the bottom of the sim view window. But even though I was just in VR, for each new flight, I have to grab a hold of my yoke to orient the blind-in-VR me to where the monitor screen is (my desired front view) and blindly feel my way to the right shift key and press it to correct and center my cockpit view as I want to see it from my VR pilot’s seat. After doing this, I use the mouse to click Ready to Fly (or whatever it says). And then I’m off on a new flight without every having to use Alt+Tab or anything like that and best of all, without ever having to doff and don my VR headset between flight changes.
Also, to back track a bit, when I am in the Windows Explorer view of my LocalState folder in the VR Cliff House 2D Desktop view (where my flights can be saved or loaded), I’m offered a little on-screen keyboard below the floating 2D Desktop window. I presume if I wanted, I could peck away with the mouse and name any .FLT files that I wanted to save here. I’d much rather have, as I originally suggested, some sort of augmented reality view and be able to use a real keyboard in some way. I hate pecking on on-screen keyboards.
And I’d still like to be able to load and save flights total in VR from within MSFS. Just bring the Desktop window from the Cliff House into MSFS and make a VR/2D switch button always a bottom bar MSFS option on any MSFS screen outside the actual flying screens.