31 replies to this topic

[Punished Venom Prawn]

So I've seen videos of people using freelook, thought it would be useful, tried it myself. When I press the free look key it locks my torso in place and I can only move my arms. The key is bound, I do not have any tracking software installed. I play with arm lock turned off completely, but turning it back on didn't fix free look. Anyone have any ideas what the problem is?

[Koniving]

Lazy Prawn, on 23 February 2018 - 03:20 PM, said:

So I've seen videos of people using freelook, thought it would be useful, tried it myself. When I press the free look key it locks my torso in place and I can only move my arms. The key is bound, I do not have any tracking software installed. I play with arm lock turned off completely, but turning it back on didn't fix free look. Anyone have any ideas what the problem is?

That would be free look.

If you want the arms to NOT track your head, hold Shift while free looking.

You cannot free look and twist the mech at the same time without using Track IR or a virtual reality headset.

Free look toggles (actually its a hold key) between being able to twist/look around with your MECH... and Moving Your Pilot's Head without moving the rest (aka "Free looking") Much like tank/flight simulators you hit free look to look around inside the cockpit without screwing with the vehicle's controls.

ARMA, as an example simulator, and by consequence DayZ, the use of free look lets you use the mouse to move your head without turning your vehicle. That's what free look does in computer games.

Arms track your pilot's gaze. Locking arms disables that.

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2018 - 03:28 PM.

[Koniving]

(Re-reading... are you saying that you cannot move your head?)

[Punished Venom Prawn]

Koniving, on 23 February 2018 - 03:26 PM, said:

That would be free look.

If you want the arms to NOT track your head, hold Shift while free looking.

You cannot free look and twist the mech at the same time without using Track IR or a virtual reality headset.

Free look toggles (actually its a hold key) between being able to twist/look around with your MECH... and Moving Your Pilot's Head without moving the rest (aka "Free looking") Much like tank/flight simulators you hit free look to look around inside the cockpit without screwing with the vehicle's controls.

Arms track your pilot's gaze. Locking arms disables that.

So there's no easy way for me to move just my head and look around the cockpit without holding multiple buttons?

Edit: Yes I can't move my head. Pushing free look locks torso and lets me wiggle my arms up and down (No lower actuators, not sure if I could go side to side)

I just wanna peep out my side windows, make look at all these blinky screens.

Edit2: I tested it with lower arm actuators, my head doesn't move, my torso doesn't move, just my arms wiggle. I mean it's nice to have an arm wiggle key but I still want a free look. With arm lock on the button does nothing.

Edited by Lazy Prawn, 23 February 2018 - 03:37 PM.

[Koniving]

Lazy Prawn, on 23 February 2018 - 03:31 PM, said:

So there's no easy way for me to move just my head and look around the cockpit without holding multiple buttons?

Edit: Yes I can't move my head. Pushing free look locks torso and lets me wiggle my arms up and down (No lower actuators, not sure if I could go side to side)

I just wanna peep out my side windows, make look at all these blinky screens.

Lower actuators would let you aim side to side with the arms. (BUT Arms wouldn't prevent your ability to look around)

You should be able to look out the side windows -- I do this....literally all the time.

Huh... No tracking stuff, right? Joystick or mouse? If joystick, try mouse.

Try it again with a mech that has lower arm actuators (though as shown in this video that shouldn't be a factor) as I do it literally as soon as the video starts.


(Also... I'd take a careful look at your key configuration; in fact I'm gonna see if there's a way to aim without moving the head.. in case if maybe you accidentally are using that...)

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2018 - 03:38 PM.

[Koniving]

Alright I'm looking through options and stuff. This is an interesting technical issue; sorry no one's ever had this issue before.

Check back in about 5 minutes and I'll share what I can come up with.

[Punished Venom Prawn]

Koniving, on 23 February 2018 - 03:37 PM, said:

Huh... No tracking stuff, right? Joystick or mouse? If joystick, try mouse.

Not that I know of. I have software installed so I can use a graphics tablet, and I have basic windows controller drivers for an xbox 1 controller. I'll check to make sure I don't have any VR stuff still floating around, I uninstalled it all as far as I know.

[Koniving]

Share any additional information you can, like special key setups you might have done, joystick, etc.

Right now, if I'm correct, what you're telling me is you're getting this... but in MWO rather than DayZ. Arms move, head does not. Basically "Goldeneye aiming"..

You have no idea how jealous I am right now...

(Still hunting. But so far nothing yet in options. Do you own anything like Track IR?)

Is the tablet connected?

[Punished Venom Prawn]

Tablet is not connected. I don't own track IR, closest I've ever had is some stuff I uninstalled that streamed VR video to my phone.

I'll record a short video of goldeneye aim.

[Koniving]

I can pretty much figure it.

Could not find anything under keyboard or controller settings.

Though if I free look and aim with the mouse while the controller analog for twisting for my HOTAS (and thus looking) is pressed... my head locks into place for some reason.

Its the only thing I could find. Try removing the controller and see if it helps?

(Btw you have no idea how complex that is to recreate; thankfully I've got a toddler that won't leave my stuff alone.)

(Also curious, uninstalled or not, try doing your phone and see if that works... if it does... Huh... Heh. But I would imagine an option would be in MWO for that..)

[Punished Venom Prawn]

I wish, that VR to my phone thing didn't really work, which is why I got rid of it. I'd have to redownload the program and the ap and pair them. I've just double checked and I can't find any old ghosting drivers from it or anything. The controller isn't plugged in.

This game would rock in VR though.



It's essentially functioning as a torso lock. If I push arm lock at the same time my mouse stops functioning entirely.

From what you're saying, the game must be interpreting something as head tracking input instead of the mouse. I'm just gonna start shutting things down and see what shakes out.

Edited by Lazy Prawn, 23 February 2018 - 04:26 PM.

[Koniving]

I am so damn jealous; be sure to share what the problem is when you figure it out.

In the meantime, share what you have so far with TechSupport. under technical. They may have a better chance of figuring it out.

Also try... Hardware and accessories; there's people here whom often get issues with various stuff they use and they are very quick to conjure workarounds. Some good gurus in there.

Would also look for hidden options, particularly under Video and general, that may make mention of TrackIR or track-anything. I think your installation of a streaming VR thing for your phone from your computer may have triggered something here...

Btw what was the name of that stream software thingy?

If I could get the head to lock...and find a way to switch between head locking and head free while "free looking"...I'd be in heaven.

Edited by Koniving, 23 February 2018 - 04:26 PM.

[Punished Venom Prawn]

I think it was intugame VR. I combined that with steam's VR package and ... I think there was a third program in the mix I can't remember the name of now. Some VR media player. Used google cardboard to hold the phone to my head. The head tracking had a constant drift because phone accelerometers aren't meant to be used like that, which meant I could only use it if I sat in an office chair and slowly spun in a circle. It sort of worked until the headphone cord wrapped around my neck.

[Koniving]

I don't plan on using the phone, just recreating the issue and then finding a toggle-able workaround so I can exploit it whenever I want. (Prefer Goldeneye style aiming but do enjoy my head looking). And yeah phones are terrible VR devices.

Oh wait.

You said Steam's VR package?

Are you running MWO through Steam?

Disable/remove that package....

Steam's VR package would let you use headtracking in MWO...as in tracking your head instead of normal freelook. You cheeky devil. I never even thought to try that.

[Punished Venom Prawn]

I uninstalled that too, though. I launch MWO with the exe in the steam folder and not through steam, as well. I did download it via steam though.

Edit: I tried launching through steam to make sure that wasn't the problem. I might try downloading the standalone mwo client next and see if that changes anything.

Edited by Lazy Prawn, 23 February 2018 - 04:55 PM.

[Koniving]

(If the standalone solves it, then the issue's something to do with the VR drivers or some remnant of it.)
(If not, well hopefully you already sent a email to tech support, they'll most likely get back to you on Monday.)

[Punished Venom Prawn]

Third option, I find the mech with the greatest degree of arm movement and shuffle into battle at 45 degrees blasting away, I guess. Make my dead side their dead side.

Thanks for the help Koniving, I'll update this thread when I learn more.

Edited by Lazy Prawn, 23 February 2018 - 05:07 PM.

[Koniving]

Did that once in a Kintaro, got really weak on one side torso so to protect it I twisted 45+ degrees and looking out the opposite viewport, hooked the arms to aim toward the strong side that I had forward. Didn't get to shoot anyone during it, but the combination of lock on missiles and arm weaponry meant I could continue to use my full payload against enemies despite the awkward angle.

I'm glad to see more people trying to make use of free look. Sorry it's pulling the Goldeneye on you, but yes do share when you get it figured out.

[Throe]

[removed by user]

Edited by Throe, 05 October 2023 - 01:41 PM.

[Koniving]

(A closed beta trick with Centurions was to swing the shield arm forward, hook the AC/Laser arm under the shield arm since the shield arm doesn't move with free look, and advance like that. Looked great. But now we can basically destroy that arm in a single hit with enough laser vomit so the trick's pretty useless now. But back in the day it wasn't unusual to see 2 to 4 Centurions making a shield wall and advancing on assault mechs at 64.8 kph.)