VR mouse cursor jumps away from the knob I'm using if I turn my head

Bug Reporting Hub User Interface & Activities
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1

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Yes

Brief description of the issue:

This is a UI usability issue. When in VR and hovering over or using a knob or other cockpit control with the mouse, looking out the window or away from where my mouse is, the mouse jumps into where I’m looking. This has caused many plane crashes. I would expect the mouse to stay where I put it and not follow where I’m looking. This drastically reduces the enjoyment of the experience. I can’t see any logic on why the mouse would not stay in the same 3D space while in VR. I can see a utility in having a way to make it move to where you are looking, but to do it automatically seems like a terrible UI design. Please fix this, or get feedback from other users to see if there is a consensus regarding this. I posted about this quite some time ago and never heard anything about it. It is hard enough using the mouse in VR without the sim deciding to move it suddenly into another 3D location for no apparent reason.

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2

Hard to say who is at fault here, the sim or the HMD, but I agree. It’s a bad design. The mouse pointer shouldn’t move unless the mouse itself moves. Trying to adjust altitude in the Kodiak is a tedious affair in VR because you can’t see the knob to hold mouse focus while watching the numbers change on the PFD 18” away.

Plus sometimes the mouse just jumps off the control as you’re using it.

It’s designed this way so you don’t lose the mouse as you turn your head, but that could easily be fixed with a reset key to recenter it instantly if you need to.

3

I agree, it affects immersion.
When a knob being turned MUST stay within your (VR) field of view, it is not realistic.
It seems like I can sometimes get away with a quick look elsewhere if I am holding the curser button down to rotate a knob, but not if I am using the scroll wheel to do the same. Most of the time though, if you lose sight of a knob, button, etc., you lose control of it. :unamused:

I always fly in VR. I voted. Thanks for bringing the issue up.

4

Always and forever VR. I’m so glad I discovered it before spending $$$ on a hardware cockpit and multiple pancake monitors. No comparison. I often start in pancake mode and still get goosebumps when switching to VR.

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7

Thank you for the report - this one is currently by design.

When using a standalone VR headset (like the Quest 2, without external tracking station), there are 2 mouse options. The first is the standard one, and the other is a virtual mouse which follow the head tracking permanently. So, like the VR controllers, you can’t catch an object outside the VR FOV with a mouse. If you turn your head, then move the mouse, it iss “transferred” on the “actual screen” which is necessarily in the actual FOV.

The only way to manipulate a knob, or a lever in VR with the mouse (impossible with a button, as you inevitably give an input with the mouse from the movement) is to select it before turning the head. For example, you can look straight, hover and click on the throttle lever, turn your head to the left, then apply power to the throttle, it will work as intended. If you have just hover the throttle, once you’re head is turned, you can’t click the throttle and apply power.