Contexts
X Rebirth VR Edition is a very complex game with multiple simultaneously active systems, all acting in concert. Because of this, most controls are always only applied to one of three contexts. Which context it applies to changes dynamically depending on what you are doing at any given moment.
Flight
If you are in the cockpit of the Skunk, with no other menus open, controls apply to the ship itself, controlling the attitude and movement of your ship.
These controls are remappable and are available in the General Controls submenu of the Controls menu.
Platform Movement
If you are walking around on a station or a ship, controls apply to the movement of your character.
These controls are remappable and are available in the Platform Movement submenu of the Controls menu.
Menu Navigation
If, while in one of the above two contexts, you access a menu, controls apply to the manipulation of that menu.
These controls are remappable and are available in the Menu Navigation submenu of the Controls menu.
Please note that, by default, if using the Vive Controller, it is only possible to manipulate menus using the pointer. As with most controls, however, it is possible to map these to buttons on the Vive Controller. This is discussed in more detail in the Major Differences Between Various Controllers section below.
General
Some system controls such as accessing the Options Menu (ESC on the keyboard) or activating QuickSave will always do those actions regardless of which context is active.
These controls are remappable and are available in the General Controls submenu of the Controls menu.
A Note on Remapping Controls:
If a key is already set to a function in a given context, setting that key to some other function in the same context will replace the existing function. However, the same key can be set to different functions in different contexts.
For example:
By default, the keyboard key 'W' is set to strafe your ship up when flying the ship.
If this were remapped to turn the ship upwards, pressing the key will no longer strafe the ship upwards.
However, if this were remapped to pick things up while walking on platforms, the strafe function would not be overwritten since you cannot walk on platforms and strafe your ship up at the same time.
Major Differences Between Various Controllers
If you have the Oculus Touch Controller and/or the Vive Controller installed on a system along with their requisite Virtual Reality headsets, there will be separate General Controls, Platform Movement, and Menu Navigation submenus for the different controllers.
The VR Pointer (Vive Controller, Oculus Touch, or Mouse)
If using the Vive Controller or the Oculus Touch Controller, there is a pointer which acts like a mouse cursor which can be used to select objects or menu items.
With the Oculus Touch Controller, the pointer is activated by pointing with your index finger. You can use either index finger to activate the pointer.
With the Vive Controller, the pointer is always active. Which controller (right or left) controls the pointer can be changed in the Controls menu. By default, when using the Vive Controller, menus can only be manipulated using the pointer.
It is also possible to control the VR Pointer with the mouse. This functionality is active by default. To deactivate the Mouse VR Pointer, toggle the setting "Mouse VR Pointer" found under the Header "Mouse" in the Controls submenu of the Options menu.
Gestures (Oculus Touch or Vive Controller)
If using either the Oculus Touch Controller or the Vive Controller, it is possible to physically move a controller to change the attitude (change the Yaw, Pitch, and Roll) of your ship.
With the Oculus Touch Controller, this functionality is activated by resting your thumb on the Right Thumb Rest.
With the Vive Controller, activate gesture steering by clicking the APPMENU button on the right controller. With the feature active, you can then steer the ship by moving the hand that you do not use for pointing.
Default Controls - Activate Gesture Steering:
Oculus Touch: Hold Right Thumb Rest
Vive Controller: Click Right Controller Appmenu
Mouse Steering
With the Mouse VR Pointer active, it is also possible to change the attitude of your ship by using the mouse. In this mode, the ship changes yaw and/or pitch to orient on the VR Pointer while the mouse is active. The amount of thrust applied to change the ship's attitude while in this mode depends on the distance of the VR Pointer from the targeting reticle. Activate by:
Default Controls - Activate Mouse Steering:
keyboard: Spacebar
Note that it is possible to change the amount of lateral thrust applied depending on mouse movement by changing VR Mouse Sensitivity. These settings can be found in the Mouse: Sensitivity submenu accessible via Options->Controls.
Note on the Vive Controller:
Clicking the trackpad of the controller where the pointer comes from always activates whatever the pointer is pointing at. This is referred to in this manual as “Pointer Click”.
Note that the cardinal directions and the center of the trackpads of the Vive Controllers have two controls:
- touching the trackpad in a direction activates one control,
- while pressing down activates another control.
The trackpad of the controller that is NOT controlling the pointer always has five regions: up, down, left, right, and center. Clicking one of these regions activates a control. They are referred to in this manual as “Trackpad Up Click”, “Trackpad Down Click”, “Trackpad Left Click”, “Trackpad Right Click”, and “Trackpad Center Click”.
Also particular to the Vive Controller is the fact that the two triggers each have two functions. Depressing the triggers without pushing them all the way down, referred to in this manual as “Hair Trigger”, controls throttle (Left Hair Trigger) and the firing of your guns (Right Hair Trigger). Pushing the triggers all the way down, referred to in this manual as “Trigger Button”, is a different control. By default, the Left Trigger Button activates Boost.
Note on Joysticks:
In addition to the default input profile for joysticks, XRVR now also has default profiles for the Saitek X52 stick and the Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick and throttle. When loading these default profiles for joysticks, make sure that your devices are enabled:
- From the starting menu, select "Settings", then "Controls".
- Select and activate "Manage Controllers/Joysticks".
This will open a menu listing the devices that are active. If your joystick is a single device, make sure that it is the first entry in the list. If it is two devices, such as a stick and a throttle, make sure that the first entry is the stick, and that the second entry is the throttle.
To load a default joystick profile, or reset your profile to default, scroll to the bottom of the Controls menu, select and activate Load Profile, and load the default profile of your choice.
Switching between controllers and in or out of VR on the fly
It is possible to switch between different controllers on the fly or use them in most combinations.
If switching from either the Oculus Touch Controller or the Vive Controller to a different input device, it is possible to automatically hide the controllers from your view until you use them again. This is set by toggling "VR Controller Auto-Hide" in the Game Settings submenu accessible through the Options Menu.
It is also possible to switch in and out of VR on the fly by simply putting the headset on, or taking it off.