Yeah. And I guess there were some people who really got into that ecosystem, and that sucks for them. But I guess not enough of them, in the end.
The real scary thing is the whole Apple headset, coming along and disrupting the whole VR situation. I mainly just want to keep playing Hotdogs Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, and whatever VR games come to the game bundle scene, in peace.
But I’d also really appreciate it if devs remembered that left-handed people exist. Looking directly at the No Man’s Sky devs, while I’m saying this. They have updated that game so many goddamn times, but just no love for lefty VR users.
EDIT: later, I’ll have to go check the recent patch notes, in the year-and-a-half since I’ve played it, just to make sure it hasn’t been added.
Thing is, for gaming you can just use SteamVR and they would be responsible for the controller mapping. You can also install all kinds of OpenXR layers that no doubt deal with this.
I have messed around in the remapping menu system just a little bit, and I’m not sure how it’s gonna go. The thing I’m looking for is a way to actually tell the game that the right controller is the left controller, and vice versa.
I can remap buttons, but as far as I can tell, that’ll just remap the actual buttons, themselves. For example, there’s no reason for “No Man’s Sky” to attach the multitool to my left hand, just because I’ve swapped the BUTTON MAPPING to my left hand.
I haven’t tried it, but I assume the game will still have the tool bound to my right hand, even though I have to press the buttons on the left controller. Obviously, that isn’t what I want.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there ISN’T a way for the Steam remapping system to basically lie to the game and bind the multitool to my left hand. But that STILL won’t ever be a full solution. There’s no way that the Steam remapping system can tell the game to flip the models for tools and weapons across the Y axis, so they don’t look backwards. And so my thumb is on the right side, if the game has a hand model.
I hasten to add that I only really started having this problem when I switched from the HTC Vive to the Quest 2. The Vive’s wand controllers were symmetrical. If a game had no left-hand support, I could just swap hands. The virtual hand’s thumb would be on the wrong side, and sometimes the weapon/tool would look stupid, but whatever.
The Quest controllers are handed, though. So I can’t just do that anymore. So we’re still always gonna be left with at least some version of the original meme, where devs should add “flip everything around” support, at the level of their software.
Yup. I really do think it might be an intractable problem, in terms of fixing it on the user end. I haven’t had a chance to dig into the interface much more, so I still can’t rule out the possibility that Steam could lie to the game and identify the left controller as the right controller, and vice versa…but there really isn’t anything that could ever be done about flipped hand models, guns, etc.
Since devs will always have to fix that stuff, it truly would just be easier to have a single “left handed mode” checkbox, in the settings for all games. For that matter, many VR games ask you about your dominant hand, when you run them for the first time, and set the setting at that point. That should just be considered a standard practice.
Will do. I am slightly, like, daunted by the prospect, because I find Steam’s interface for remapping controllers to be powerful, yet more than a little obtuse. It SEEMS straightforward, all the way up until you actually start to remap stuff, but then things never seem to work the way you think you’ve set them up.
Yeah I’ve had some remapping shenanigans happen too, most lately on my now borked deck (don’t leave it plugged in when a cat is nearby lol), bit I haven’t tried remapping anything in vr.
Condolences on your deck. I had some luck remapping the Steam Controller, and I’ve done a little bit on my deck. The thing I’m curious about is how that interface will handle the “which hand is which” situation. Remapping buttons to act as other buttons is straightforward enough. Telling the interface that I just want the right hand to exist as the left hand, and vice versa? That seems like it’ll be weird.
Anyway, I’ll give it a try when I have time and report back.
Yeah. And I guess there were some people who really got into that ecosystem, and that sucks for them. But I guess not enough of them, in the end.
The real scary thing is the whole Apple headset, coming along and disrupting the whole VR situation. I mainly just want to keep playing Hotdogs Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, and whatever VR games come to the game bundle scene, in peace.
But I’d also really appreciate it if devs remembered that left-handed people exist. Looking directly at the No Man’s Sky devs, while I’m saying this. They have updated that game so many goddamn times, but just no love for lefty VR users.
EDIT: later, I’ll have to go check the recent patch notes, in the year-and-a-half since I’ve played it, just to make sure it hasn’t been added.
I have a Reverb G2 so I’m one of them.
Thing is, for gaming you can just use SteamVR and they would be responsible for the controller mapping. You can also install all kinds of OpenXR layers that no doubt deal with this.
Wait…I never realized that. The same Steam control re-mapping that works outside of VR will work with VR controllers?
I have to go and see about this, later. I feel like a moron.
Please report back, I tried like a year and a half ago and nothing worked.
I have messed around in the remapping menu system just a little bit, and I’m not sure how it’s gonna go. The thing I’m looking for is a way to actually tell the game that the right controller is the left controller, and vice versa.
I can remap buttons, but as far as I can tell, that’ll just remap the actual buttons, themselves. For example, there’s no reason for “No Man’s Sky” to attach the multitool to my left hand, just because I’ve swapped the BUTTON MAPPING to my left hand.
I haven’t tried it, but I assume the game will still have the tool bound to my right hand, even though I have to press the buttons on the left controller. Obviously, that isn’t what I want.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there ISN’T a way for the Steam remapping system to basically lie to the game and bind the multitool to my left hand. But that STILL won’t ever be a full solution. There’s no way that the Steam remapping system can tell the game to flip the models for tools and weapons across the Y axis, so they don’t look backwards. And so my thumb is on the right side, if the game has a hand model.
I hasten to add that I only really started having this problem when I switched from the HTC Vive to the Quest 2. The Vive’s wand controllers were symmetrical. If a game had no left-hand support, I could just swap hands. The virtual hand’s thumb would be on the wrong side, and sometimes the weapon/tool would look stupid, but whatever.
The Quest controllers are handed, though. So I can’t just do that anymore. So we’re still always gonna be left with at least some version of the original meme, where devs should add “flip everything around” support, at the level of their software.
Yeah, now that I’m thinking back to it that’s what I remember unfortunately. Dumb!
Yup. I really do think it might be an intractable problem, in terms of fixing it on the user end. I haven’t had a chance to dig into the interface much more, so I still can’t rule out the possibility that Steam could lie to the game and identify the left controller as the right controller, and vice versa…but there really isn’t anything that could ever be done about flipped hand models, guns, etc.
Since devs will always have to fix that stuff, it truly would just be easier to have a single “left handed mode” checkbox, in the settings for all games. For that matter, many VR games ask you about your dominant hand, when you run them for the first time, and set the setting at that point. That should just be considered a standard practice.
Will do. I am slightly, like, daunted by the prospect, because I find Steam’s interface for remapping controllers to be powerful, yet more than a little obtuse. It SEEMS straightforward, all the way up until you actually start to remap stuff, but then things never seem to work the way you think you’ve set them up.
Yeah I’ve had some remapping shenanigans happen too, most lately on my now borked deck (don’t leave it plugged in when a cat is nearby lol), bit I haven’t tried remapping anything in vr.
Condolences on your deck. I had some luck remapping the Steam Controller, and I’ve done a little bit on my deck. The thing I’m curious about is how that interface will handle the “which hand is which” situation. Remapping buttons to act as other buttons is straightforward enough. Telling the interface that I just want the right hand to exist as the left hand, and vice versa? That seems like it’ll be weird.
Anyway, I’ll give it a try when I have time and report back.