Newbie needing trainer wheels for HP Reverb

Hi there. I recently got FS2020 direct from Microsoft for my 17" HP Omen Laptop. I haven’t used FS since the 2004 version.
I had trouble even getting VR going in FS due to the Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) program opening and staying on in the headset after going to VR in FS. Finally got it going possibly by closing the WMR window before lifting up the headset, which turns on via motion sensor. Not sure if that is the right way to avoid WMR getting in the way but it has worked ONCE IN A ROW.
I will just be flying small planes over scenic byways to explore the world that way a bit. I do some flying with friends so have about 40 takeoffs and landings in a 172.
What is confusing me most to start with is accessing controls. I’m using a new Thrustmaster joystick and find that not being able to see it puts me at a disadvantage. I sort of need to see both it and a diagram of the key assignments I made for it since I haven’t memorized everything. Also I’m a senior type human so I don’t have the same tactile feel to brain bandwidth I had in my younger days.
If the trim wheel, gear switch, flaps, radio controls, instrument panel switches, map visibility, checklist visibility, kneeboard visibility etc., etc., could be controlled using the mouse that would be great. It would however, create another small challenge: I can’t even find my mouse pointer. It may show up once but after turning my head it seems to hide itself and I could crash the plane looking under the seat for it. I’m hoping there’s a definitive guide or video someone could point me to that would help me. I know many of you are likely very good at this and hopefully someone has documented some helpful information on it. Or am I the only one experiencing these issues?
Thanks in advance!

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Welcome to the wonderful world of VR flight simming. Others might give you more substantial answers to your questions but let me be the first to take a tentative stab at it.

As far as boot-up order, it seems to be very flexible, but here’s my current procedure:

  1. Make sure the headset is plugged in and WMR says “ready”.
  2. Start the sim and set up your flight.
  3. Press “Fly” to spawn in at your preferred location.
  4. Press CTRL-TAB to launch VR.
  5. Put on the headset and get situated in the cockpit.
  6. Fly

As far as controllers are concerned, until Microsoft introduces the use of VR controllers, you are forced to use a combination of joystick/yoke, throttle quadrant, rudder pedals, and mouse. You will just have to configure these in a way that makes sense to you and that is easiest to remember. I configure the controls on the joystick for the primary controls (yoke, throttle, mixture, brakes, trim, gear, flaps, etc), the mouse for cockpit interactions (lights, AP, switches, knobs and dials,) and the keyboard for everything not flight-related (VR menu, pause, external view toggle, etc.) It takes a lot of practice but it’s up to you to find what works best for you.

I’m a retired senior as well. You can do this. I wish you the best.

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G’day from another senior pilot who uses VR in MSFS. You don’t need a lot of controls in VR but you do need to set up easy basic controls that you can easily feel for.

Primary Controls: This is easy as it basically involves Elevator and Ailerons, I.e., the main axes of your joystick.
Secondary Controls: This involves something to add/remove flaps or to trim the aircraft. Again you can assign this to a button on your joystick to add and one to remove flaps. If you have a rocker switch on the joystick, you can use it to manage trim, or if not use two other buttons. Most joystick have a number of buttons/switches to assign functions.

Everything else can pretty much be accessed via the mouse. Using the mouse to manipulate buttons and switches in the cockpit is easy but you need to ensure you can easily feel for the mouse while in VR.

Like everything, practice makes perfect so stay with it and before too long you will find controlling the aircraft easy, while in VR.

What I do is after the thing has loaded up,is press left cntrl then tab keys.This will launch msfs into vr mode.
you do not have to launch vr then,you can cntrl tab anytime your ready.
Once your happy pop your head set on.I quiet often fire vr up either when the flight is loading or even after it has loaded.
Dont worry if you can not see your mouse cursor all the time.When your ready to interact with a controll like say flaps,grab the mouse and the cursor will show up.Just like in 2d mode you can start moving those flaps.
I had trouble finding stuff to when I first got going.Just peek under the hood or just liftup the visor and find what your looking for,drop it back down.You will get the hang of it before you know it.

I’m guessing you have watched You Tube clips from people like VR Flightsim Guy. There is a wealth of stuff to watch that will assist you with setting up and flying in VR with the Reverb G2, in MSFS.

Thanks to all you folks. Truly and pleasantly surprised at how quick you got back to me too. I will take your suggestions and try them!

One other question …the forum gave me name “LeanerPandora14” …at least I think that’s how I ended up with that. Is that the way it works …the Forum software assigns the usernames?

Oh …and I’ve decided what I’ll do it just plan a flight and sit on the runway trying all your suggestions before I get into the air. “Tarmac School”.

Thanks Stretch,
Partially working. Got into VR with Ctrl+Tab the first time but after that, that combo won’t toggle.
Using my Thrustmaster button 14 to pause so I can look at things.
In VR I cannot find my mouse. It showed up a bit yesterday but today it is AWOL and so I have no pointer control at all. Very clumsy because I have to Pause, Look at my printout of my Thrustmaster assignments, then get my finger on the right button and toggle the pause off so I’m back in the headset. Man I wish I could find that mouse!!!

May I add one more thing… Once you are in VR mode inside the cockpit and discover that your mouse is not available, press the Windows key + Y in your keyboard. These alternates the use of the mouse between the VR view and your desktop.
Another retired senior here… 8)

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Thanks …that key combination isn’t doing anything at all. I’m also getting a repeated message that my heading indicator needs to be reset using the “D” key. That doesn’t work either.
In case my system has something t do with it, this is what I’m running on:
HP Omen 17" Laptop
Intel Core i7 10750H
64g Ram
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
40718 Total Memory
8031 Display Memory (VRAM)
With the game running I’m only using 28% of my CPU, 29% Memory and 14% GPU
Thrustmaster T.16000M Joystick with assignments as they were.
I must be doing something wrong.
Doing a nice 172 flight from CYAV to CYQK but having to come out of VR frequently to retry the “D” key to no avail and to try and get the mouse to show up in VR …which it won’t. Rebooted before starting too. The small and seemingly uncorrectable error on the heading indicator I can live with, but feeling really handcuffed without the mouse, since that really blows the cockpit experience.

I suspect you have some other bindings using the same keys.
Go through EVERY SINGLE controller binding in your settings and check they are uniquely assigned.
Good luck

I think it’s the XBox app that assigns the name. You can change it, but it seems everything you might want is disallowed or already taken. I’ve gotten pretty used to - even proud of - ClayishCoast. I have not yet met ClayishCoast1 thru 8 though…

Good luck with the VR. I’m a Reverb G2 addict … couldn’t go back now. So much so that when my original headset got dropped on the floor and broke (and not by me…) I had to go out and buy a replacement despite the cost.

Flying VR I have an old Logitech stick, a set of old Saitek pedals and a couple of Saitek throttle quadrants. Other than the appropriate primary controls, the only other thing I have assigned to buttons is the elevator trim … everything else I control in the VC with the mouse. And I never touch the keyboard other than switching in and out of VR. I find this arrangement works just fine, and is about as much as my poor old brain can cope with.

All of this is a compromise … it’s just about finding what works best for you and your type of flying.

Thanks, The mouse started appearing when about 10nm out from CYQK . Incredibly sensitive on the elevator trim …one touch nose up and I’m heading skyward. Reverting to using the appropriate keys on the Thrustmaster …much more delicate. Always taught to fly with just a feather of nose up.
That D thingy came up again once so hit it again and it didn’t reappear so not sure if the system just finally accepted the game or what.
Did a nice landing (my first in this sim) at CYQK and am at the gas pump since I’ll need to take on fuel b4 heading home and exploring Lake of The Woods enroute. Have a place there that the EX and kids use so will fly over that. I’ll google how to work the pumps since I don’t want to be a pest here.
Thanks for all the help …to all of you!

My 2c: I use VoiceAttack with a plugin from Github and a custom profile based on MSFS profile - links were posted in this forum somewhere. I have extended it to read me checklists and even do some interactions with me, for example, waiting for my voice confirmations before continuing the checklist, or doing things like turning landing lights and fuel pump when I ask to proceed with before landing cheklist. Basically you can map anything that’s mappable for keyboard, and let it work with your voice. It’s amazing how it helps immersion and frees you up from the extremely slunky mouse interface. Together with my DIY VR Control box it almost completely eliminates any mouse interaction in VR while flying.

Here is the link to the post about my VR Control Box project, if you are interested: [WIP] cheap DIY VR Control Box - 6 dual encoder / 8 button / 1 3-pos switch project

Regardless, VoiceAttack is not expensive, plugin and profile are free, and it really helps with VR. I used VoiceMacro software with X-Plane, and it’s free, and can also be used with MSFS if you like. It uses the same MS technology. However because of a dedicated plugin VoiceAttack is much more robust in terms of interaction, can read your speed for example, or do action depending on the speed or many other parameters read directly from MSFS.

Thanks Roman. You gave me some purpose for tomorrow!

Thanks FS,
I followed your advice and checked all the assignments and all are correct, Ctrl +Tab should take me back to desktop view but does not work at all. It gets me into VR mode initially but does not take me out of it. I can lift the headset and I’m looking at the two eye views of what’s in it instead of the desktop view.
I guess I’ll contact HP and see if they have a resolution for it. I paid for the premium service level for it so hopefully they’ll have solutions. My HP Omen has 6 extra function buttons for gaming on the left side of the keyboard so perhaps I can learn how to assign some of those to do what the key combos won’t. Going to contact them now

This may be a long shot but is your WMR portal app up to date as well as Openxr?

Thanks FS
WMR was just installed the other day and I believe it updates automatically.
I found this via Google:
What days does Wmr Update 2020?
What day does the WMR update? The WMR can update any day of the week. However, mass updates on daily account are usually Wednesday; and mass updates on weekly accounts are usually Saturday.

No idea what they mean by daily and weekly accounts unless that relates to something altogether different than the WMR we’re talking about here.

When I search for OpenXR on my system I only get web results so it appears I don’t have it.

I finally figured out what my problem was. I had mentally missed the significance of the word “Input”.

In order to hit a key on the keyboard one must first hit Win-Y to change input to the keyboard.
Similarly if one is in the VR Headset and wants to see the desktop one must first hit Win- to change input to the keyboard and THEN hit Ctrl-Tab to switch to the desktop.
Then, hitting Ctrl-Tab again will return the view to the Headset and of course to see and use the mouse or any other input in the VR Headset, Win-Y has to also be hit yet again to get those inputs back into VR.
I had been getting the horse before the cart and kept messing with it until the wheels fell off the cart and the horse limped away dragging it!

To me this is a needlessly complicated workflow to follow when one has enough to do in VR already, and I suspect I may not be the only one who has wasted a number of hours on this already. I hadn’t seen anything that indicated all those steps and sequence were necessary. I guess one can lift the headset to see the keyboard then hit Win-Y, then hit the key the message wants one to hit to correct the altimeter or the heading indicator, then hit Win-Y again to get the mouse back into VR but OMG …seems more complicated than flying.

I think the popup message saying the Heading Indicator or altimeter needs to be reset, there should be a way to do that within the VR cockpit without having to go through hoops to hit a keyboard key to do it. Having a “Click here” in the popup message would sure be nice.

At least now I know the drill but hope the developers are working on a less cumbersome way of doing those things. I just have a few feathers so far and may never get wings. :slight_smile: :

I hope you are enjoying the new VR experience. I understand the feeling of not being able to see the real world to find the controls, but I think you will find a way that works for you. Here is what I do:

I have the joystick right in front of me so it’s easy to reach straight ahead and find it. The mouse is between the joystick and case on the right, so it cannot wander off. I also use a game controller to easily control the external views. It’s optional but really handy. I keep that sitting on my lap so I can always find it.

About the button mapping, the most critical buttons for me are those which need to be activated at specific points in flight - flaps, gear, autopilot, spoilers. Also there is a china hat button that is invaluable for setting the trim. You will need to memorize the critical buttons, but in a 172 you won’t need as many (no gear or spoilers, and you probably won’t be on autopilot in the pattern.)

Just maybe take it a step at a time and find what is comfortable for you. If you don’t like any of the default button mappings, they are easy to change. I am still making changes. Most recently I mapped buttons on my game controller to toggle between all three views - cockpit, external, and drone.

Happy VR Flying!

My enter/exit VR is mapped to cntl-` and I don’t think I picked that combo.
The win-y keystroke is also mandatory. It displays a reminder at the top of the screen.
Anyway, regarding mouse disappearing… try right mouse button or press down on the mouse wheel. That may activate the pointer.
Regarding joystick (when I am not using my yoke). I use the top hat for trim as you don’t need it for looking around. Your description of wild trim moves seem like you might have assigned pitch rather than pitch trim.
I use the trigger for brakes. No guns in MSFS yet.
Key requirements are as others said. Trim, flaps, gear (not necessary in a C172). I also have a button for external view toggle and also reset VR position assigned. Other than that, you don’t really need much to have fun flying around.
Check out the 200% resolution thread as well.
I’m senior’ish, but not retired yet. :frowning: