I ran across this video on using passthrough in VR and before trying it I wanted to get any feedback on Open Kneeboard. Below is the link to the YouTube video. I found it to be very well done from a start to finish tutorial.
VR Passthrough using Open KneeBoard Setup
2 Likes
It definitely works in 2020. Not sure about 2024.
OpenKneeBoard is brilliant. Made by a very good dev, who communicates well and helps with problems should you experience them.
Certainly worth experimenting with to see if it meets your needs. It’s not an everything-to-everyone piece of software and has it’s main aims, but it’s good at what it does.
OpenKneboard is great, I use it with Pimax Crystal to read checklist and to make notes on Wacom tablet. I never used it for passthrough, as Crystal does not have color passthrough cameras.
i use color panel with virtual desktop. its simple and fast. Color Panel for VR Passthrough for Microsoft Flight Simulator | MSFS
puts a button on your toolbar. doesnt work in career. but no plugins do right now. needs to be repostioned every time, but all plugins do right now. turn on “environment” in VD passthrough and set the red and blue sliders to max for hot pink. then do the same in CP.
Virtual desktops VDXR runtime is the smoothest for me ive found. meta is hot garbage. i run my laptop 4070ti at high/175mbps/80fps and feel lucky to get 35fps in game. fingers crossed for optimizations, but thats a different thread.
EDIT: using a quest 3 with color passthrough. i have reached out to Turtle beach to get them to add high vis/bigger touch panel buttons to the flightdeck so we can read them easier in passthrough. they liked the idea but we will see. They also have a companion ios app that has bigger buttons that work well on the passthrough camera but i frankyl dont have that many buttons left to map that arent on hand switches.
- adjust the color sliders. sometimes the numbers in the window app and virtual desktop dont seem to have the exact values.
- select the checkbox for “Environment” in passthrough section on virtual desktop streaming tab and setup the colors VD will trigger for there as well (small button marked “Configure” near the checkboxes in passthrough section). they suggest 180 red and 180 blue but i went 255 for both. YMMV
- set similarity to 4%, smoothness to 10% and opacity to 100% in virtual desktop configuration
The box does not have persistent location memory, so every time you open it you will need to drag it and place it. but it WILL remeber the chosen color. so once its working, it should be good. you will know. as you adjust the sliders it will be pink pink pink WHOA THERE IS A HOLE IN THE WORLD pink pink GO BACK!
1 Like
Thanks for the response I’ll take a look tonight or tomorrow. !
I tried to configure everything as from the video but i only see the colored shape and not the passthrough 
anyone who succeeded?
- adjust the color sliders. sometimes the numbers in the window app and virtual desktop dont seem to have the exact values.
- select the checkbox for “Environment” in passthrough section on virtual desktop streaming tab and setup the colors VD will trigger for there as well (small button marked “Configure” near the checkboxes in passthrough section). they suggest 180 red and 180 blue but i went 255 for both. YMMV
- set similarity to 4%, smoothness to 10% and opacity to 100% in virtual desktop configuration
The box does not have persistent location memory, so every time you open it you will need to drag it and place it. but it WILL remeber the chosen color. so once its working, it should be good. you will know. as you adjust the sliders it will be pink pink pink WHOA THERE IS A HOLE IN THE WORLD pink pink GO BACK!
I’m in need of some help here someone please…
I’ve owned my VR Quest 3 for about two weeks now and I had never ever worn one previously.
I’ve finally got things working reasonably well in 2020. 2024 for me is a total lost cause.
I have quite an investment in hardware mostly WinWing including MCDU FCU etc.
I thought muscle memory would allow me to continue using it in VR. Not so the desk and everything on it seems to be in constant flux. I am therefore of course in desperate need of a window into the real world.
I’ve tried and tried to get color panel working but have failed miserably despite following instructions to the letter. I thought I would try SimXR I don’t mind the small purchase cost and there is a free trial version. I downloaded the trial and went to install and my bitdefender AV went absolutely berserk and immediately deleted it..
This makes me quite suspicious as to whether I would have the same problem if I were to purchase the full version and indeed whether it would even work.
Has anyone got any suggestion of what I could try next? I tried the desktop passthrough in virtual desktop but that isn’t what really want. I do need to be able to see my controls as I only ever fly airliners.
With color panel I can’t help but think I’m doing something basically stupid and it does sound like a good solution if only I could get it working.
Any help would be appreciated.
I do think VR is great and I can’t see me going back to a monitor but MS and Meta do seem to make things challenging.
Thanks
Have you tried the basic cutout option in Virtual Desktop? It’s hidden on the input menu I think, and only shows up if you’re not using the pass through VD environment/background.
Yes I tried that I didn’t like it very much as it seemed a rather inflexible but thanks for your suggestion. I was possibly looking for something like a re-sizeable spy hole to reality that could be dragged around. Maybe I’m just expecting too much for what’s presently available.
I’ve seen something on YouTube that does what you want. It has a toolbar option within MSFS to move around the cutout windows, then the passthrough was activated with the keystone colours in Virtual Desktop. It was payware…and looked quite good, but in typical MSFS fashion the window locations were not remembered between sessions.
Then other thing not remembered was what it was called, but I’ll have a fresh search…
Well that didn’t take long. 99% sure it was this: SimXR - MSFS Mixed Reality Addon – rkApps
Although now I see you’ve already tried it. Hmm.
Yes I tried to install the free trial of SimXR and that was what set my AV screaming at me. I think for 10 bucks I may well buy the full version and give it a try. If I do have issues I can start screaming at the vendor. I’d be interested to know if anyone else has purchased it and got it working. Thanks
Just saw your edit but I think the full version may be worth a go…
I made a comment earlier that SimXR was causing a virus alert. I would like to clarify that there is to the best of my knowledge no virus. in the program.
I have downloaded and installed the full version and it works ok.
The problem seems to have been with bitdefender which is behaving too enthusiastically toward it. It is a known issue on Discord. I do not wish to cause the developer any lost sales due to my earlier comment.
Let us know what you think? I’m intrigued by it, but if you have to reposition the windows for every flight that just sounds annoying (albeit not the fault of the developers). I don’t have enough controls to justify it, so a simple cutout still works ok for now, but maybe once I can afford my dream Virpil cockpit…
I’m possibly not the best person to review anything in VR being as I’ve only owned a headset for a couple of weeks.
My initial impressions after just a few hours are fairly positive. It does seem to do the things I was hoping to achieve and it’s not all that difficult to set up. It is however a bit “clunky” not sure if that’s the word I’m looking for but it seems a bit unpolished. The basic functionality is there but…
I think it needs some work.
There is a free trial for one week and you should maybe take advantage of that.
The repositioning of windows between sessions is a pain but to be fair it only takes a minute or two to get it where you want it.
Yup it’s worth a go especially as it costs nothing to trial it.
1 Like