VR support

[Akkuh]

Please, please, please, support VR. [snip]

Edited August 19, 2019 by James Kerman
Redacted by a moderator

[Heisenger]

Hello, I would like to know if the developers have said anything about VR support for KSP2? (Oculus, HTC Vive) And if so, have they said anything on if it will be possible to interact with the space craft in VR (Control it, press buttons, switches, thrust, etc)?

[Teek]

So I was rewatching the Dev Story Trailer (for the nth time,) and take this with a grain of salt, but there were a few interesting items on  the desk of one of the developers at the 0:25 second mark.

Could be nothing... or could be something?  Who knows?  I'm not sure how VR would work in KSP, but I'd be willing to give it a shot.

 

[Geschosskopf]

Just a question.....  What purpose would VR serve in KSP?  It's not a 1st Person game and you generally need to be able to see your real hands on the keyboard to hit the right hotkey or action group.

[TheOtherDave]

5 minutes ago, Geschosskopf said:

Just a question.....  What purpose would VR serve in KSP?  It's not a 1st Person game and you generally need to be able to see your real hands on the keyboard to hit the right hotkey or action group.

You can fly ships from a 1st-person perspective. With sufficiently impressive visuals, even 3rd-person could be a pretty immersive experience.

Edited August 20, 2019 by TheOtherDave

[Geschosskopf]

58 minutes ago, TheOtherDave said:

You can fly ships from a 1st-person perspective. With sufficiently impressive visuals, even 3rd-person could be a pretty immersive experience.

Well, having done a number of "IVA-only" challenges, I don't see the appeal.  Even with RPM/MdV giving you interactive MFDs, the instrument panel is pretty much all you can see.  That's why there are "IVA-only" challenges .  If more than the Mk1 and Mk2 inline cockpits provided a decent view, maybe I could see VR being a thing.  But even you had a reasonable view outside, you only actually control a ship for any length of time if you're stuck on the surface or in the atmosphere, or trying to do things manually that in real life are automated (launching, docking, landing).  Out in space, getting from Point A to Point B, actually controlling the ship is only like 0.1% (or less, depending on length of trip) of the MET and that's all just point-and-shoot.  You spend way more real time building ships than actually flying them as the bulk of MET is just coasting for days/months/years/decades until the next burn.  You warp to that point, aim in the right direction, let the engines run for seconds to minutes while twiddling your thumbs, stop the engines, and re-orient the ship as sunlight dictates.  .Repeat.  So just saying, KSP doesn't seem to have much for VR to grad onto.

[Dman979]

More overlapping threads have been merged.

[Gelix]

I would love this... I think it would be really fun!

[James Kerman]

Welcome to the forum @Lu K.

I've merged your topic into this existing thread on VR in KSP 2.

[Daystrom]

I don't really care about IVA VR... what I care about is roomscale VR in the VAB, so I can walk around and build rockets with my hands.

[VRKerbalSimulator2000!]

I agree. Building rockets would be incredibly fun. Also, They could create a more intuitive cockpit design, were you can press real buttons. I've always wanted to walk on the Mun, too. It would be hard to simulate the low gravity, though.

[Chilkoot]

Before Star Theory rebranded, they had released I believe 2 VR titles, so it's probably not off the table.  Kerbal has a *lot* of different play modes though - think of how varied it is vs, say a first person shooter.  There's a VAB, piloting operations, planet-side EVA stuff, docking maneuvers, KSC facility management interface, etc.

I'm a big fan of VR and I'd love to have support, but I'm skeptical that it can be done well universally in this title without major time investment and possibly interface compromises in the core (pancake version) game.  Obviously I'd be very happy to be proven wrong on this

Edited October 24, 2019 by Chilkoot

[mcwaffles2003]

On 8/20/2019 at 5:35 PM, Geschosskopf said:

Just a question.....  What purpose would VR serve in KSP?  It's not a 1st Person game and you generally need to be able to see your real hands on the keyboard to hit the right hotkey or action group.

Building

You could literally have the ship in front of you and walk around it and hand place individual part instead of the current hope this part attaches where i want it because the mouse has no clue how deep I intend to place this part in the ship

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Chilkoot said:

Before Star Theory rebranded, they had released I believe 2 VR titles, so it's probably not off the table.  Kerbal has a *lot* of different play modes though - think of how varied it is vs, say a first person shooter.  There's a VAB, piloting operations, planet-side EVA stuff, docking maneuvers, KSC facility management interface, etc.

I'm a big fan of VR and I'd love to have support, but I'm skeptical that it can be done well universally in this title without major time investment and possibly interface compromises in the core (pancake version) game.  Obviously I'd be very happy to be proven wrong on this

I have recently bought a Valve Index without controllers just to play ED and I'd love to have basic VR support in KSP.

Not the whole game, just the game being in 3D in my HMD while still reliyng on Mouse and Keyboard for control, the 3D view and the sense of scale is a reason that stands on its own.

 

That said being able to build rockets and planes by grabbing, placing, moving and, generally speaking, manipulating parts with motion controllers it's something that I don't even dare to dream.

[Chilkoot]

9 hours ago, Master39 said:

I have recently bought a Valve Index without controllers just to play ED and I'd love to have basic VR support in KSP.

Bro, I gotta say that if budget and playspace permit, grab a pair of controllers and setup as big a room as you can for "roomscale" VR (min 3m x 3m, bigger if you can manage).  You'll never look back!

I am a lifelong gaming enthusiast, and roomscale gaming in VR was one of those "quantum leaps" in gaming for me that only happen once every decade or two - maybe the biggest advancement since the 70's.  I'd go so far as to say roomscale qualifies as much as a "new medium" as this generation has seen, and a lot of directors struggling with storytelling in VR would agree

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Chilkoot said:

Bro, I gotta say that if budget and playspace permit, grab a pair of controllers and setup as big a room as you can for "roomscale" VR (min 3m x 3m, bigger if you can manage).  You'll never look back!

I am a lifelong gaming enthusiast, and roomscale gaming in VR was one of those "quantum leaps" in gaming for me that only happen once every decade or two - maybe the biggest advancement since the 70's.  I'd go so far as to say roomscale qualifies as much as a "new medium" as this generation has seen, and a lot of directors struggling with storytelling in VR would agree

Next month I'll buy the controllers and shortly after the second base station (if a single one can't manage standing play), for proper roomscale I have to wait next year with the new home as right now I have 1.4 x 2 m of space in my room.

[Guest]

Fast forward 3 months (sadly not), I bought said Index Controllers and I'm gonna restart this conversation by linking this gameplay of the station builder inside Valve's Moondust Knuckles controllers tech demo:

If for some reason the link isn't to the right point here's the timestamp: 13:34

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Guest

[shdwlrd]

I can see how the updated index software would make a huge difference within the editors. It would bring the VR experience to all aspects of KSP. It would be cool, really cool.

Now if we actually see it in the future, who knows.

[mcwaffles2003]

19 hours ago, Master39 said:

Fast forward 3 months (sadly not), I bought said Index Controllers and I'm gonna restart this conversation by linking this gameplay of the station builder inside Valve's Moondust Knuckles controllers tech demo:

If for some reason the link isn't to the right point here's the timestamp: 13:34

 

15:47

"with this I will be able to go to mars"

LOL hope that thing has hella reaction wheels with the engine that offset  

[Guest]

you could probably make vr work with some aspects of KSP now  

VR gives me motion sickness  

[Vector 6]

I love the idea of building a rocket in VR. As if your a kid sitting in front of an ultimate rocket kit picking parts that snap together. Holding the main part with one part and grabbing attachments and placeing with the other hand. Being able to instinctivly look at your model in you hand. Then placing it on the launch platform and slamming  a big red button that starts the ignition sequence.

Running system checks in the cockpit. All system nominal!

[K^2]

Flying in VR would certainly be a gimmick, but it's also so easy to set up VR in Unity... And if Intercept is already going to support mouse interactions in IVA, which sounds like they ought to even just for parity sake, adding ability to use hand sets to interact with controls is almost trivial. If there are any concerns, it might be worth marking it a beta feature, so as not be forced into supporting some weird edge-case problems, but it really is worth adding support even just for giggles at this point.

And VR VAB sounds like great fun. Being able to walk around the rocket you are building giant-style might actually be a good way to build it. It only takes a few minutes playing with something as basic as Tilt Brush in VR to realize that building things out in 3D space is uniquely satisfying.  The flip side, of course, is that this would actually require a special UI. And now it becomes a feature somebody would have to spend not insignificant amount of time against. So I'm honestly not sure it's worth it. Unless somebody takes this on as their onboarding or intern project, or even just goes overtime on, which does happen occasionally, I don't think it's happening.

[Incarnation of Chaos]

VR building sounds like a nightmare tbh, imagine the part you've spent the last few minutes carefully positioning suddenly snapping to a booster and clipping through the VAB along with your hand. 

I just don't want any development time spent on the feature currently because only 3 people will actually use it. And there's way, way more interesting and gameplay changing things they can do. 

Patching it in later or as DLC? That's fine. Even if I had an HMD, I'd stick with my M/K for KSP2 lel

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

VR building sounds like a nightmare tbh, imagine the part you've spent the last few minutes carefully positioning suddenly snapping to a booster and clipping through the VAB along with your hand. 

People who actually tried VR think otherwise, if anything building is the most promising part of the game to translate in VR.

44 minutes ago, Incarnation of Chaos said:

I just don't want any development time spent on the feature currently because only 3 people will actually use it.

Luckily Harvester didn't think this way and we got Kerbal Space Program and not Kerbal FPS Battle Royale.

[TLTay]

I've gone 100% back to flat screen gaming. My VIVE is now gathering dust for over a year. Might consider dusting it off to try some IVA Duna roving if VR is a thing, but no real big loss if not.