Leap Motion and IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad

[MACADEMIC]

Hi all,

 

Leap Motion

Leap Motion was released yesterday and I feel this device could become a gamechanger for us in flight simulations. Even without a purely 'clickable' cockpit, certain functions will be accessible and will have to be executed by pilots regardless, such as raising/lowering the gear; setting flaps; open/closing of radiators; opening/closing of the canopy, etc.

 

So, instead of assigning functions to a key on a keyboard, a button or axis on a joystick, on could 'teach' leap to recognize your hand's position (perhaps represented by a cursor, or even an animated hand, for example) on the screen together with the respective gesture, such as flicking, pulling, lifting, rotating, etc. to do just the same. This would, however, lead to a much more natural behaviour in the cockpit.

 

No more mouse, no more fumbling on the keyboard for aircraft functions, you'd just do as you would in your cockpit, with the exception of primary flight controls and throttle/prop control, which I believe should remain bound to physical devices.

The big question is what level of support/integration by a software developer will be required, so that it will be possible to 'teach' Leap Motion the gestures you wish to use and make them function as desired in the simulation.

I'm excited! Please discuss!

 

MAC

 

 

[Uufflakke]

Can you imagine:

 

Playing BoS with a joystick, pedals, baseball cap with headtracking device, headphones and with Leap Motion.

 

What will your girlfriend think when she sees you in front of your computer screen moving your head in all directions like Stevie Wonder and waving your hands like Joe Cocker. 

 

That will be a one way ticket to a mental institute I guess.

 

 

But seriously, looks interesting.

Combined with something like Oculus Rift it might have potential.

[MACADEMIC]

 

That will be a one way ticket to a mental institute I guess. 

 

 

Well, for most of us it wouldn't need a leap to go over that edge! 

 

 

MAC

[Uufflakke]

Well, for most of us it wouldn't need a leap to go over that edge! 

 

 

MAC

 

Ah! Now I understand why this device is called 'Leap Motion'.

[Zak]

This is incredible! Thanks for sharing, MAC.

[Uufflakke]

A test with Oculus Rift + Leap Motion.

 

[AA_Engadin]

A test with Oculus Rift + Leap Motion.

 

 

That's an outstanding example of the sort of things the combi OR+LM would provide all of us in a near future with a clickable cockpit: turn the white box in the video into a button or lever and we are done. Many of the annoyances based on the impossibility of looking down on our keyboard while wearing the OR's 'face-hugger'   would be sorted out, I guess.

 

I know, I know, ... there is not such a thing like a clickable cockpit. But I never loose hope on it, given it was available in CoD.

 

Leap Motion has become a reality already. OR is on its way. Why not the clicky cockpit too! 

 

AA_Engadin.

[Bearcat]

Where the future lies is this with ...never mind Uufflakke beat me to it as I was typing.. LOL

 

.. Although I would still prefer TIR any my current setup with a 32" monitor..

[gavagai]

Can you imagine:

 

Playing BoS with a joystick, pedals, baseball cap with headtracking device, headphones and with Leap Motion.

 

What will your girlfriend think when she sees you in front of your computer screen moving your head in all directions like Stevie Wonder and waving your hands like Joe Cocker. 

 

That will be a one way ticket to a mental institute I guess.

 

 

But seriously, looks interesting.

Combined with something like Oculus Rift it might have potential.

 

Would you still need trackir?  Leap motion looks 10x more attractive to me than oculus rift.  I like its small profile.

[Zak]

Would you still need trackir?  Leap motion looks 10x more attractive to me than oculus rift.  I like its small profile.

Not sure if it's tracking head movement as well...

[MACADEMIC]

This is incredible! Thanks for sharing, MAC.

 

 

My pleasure. I hope Loft will have one of these in his luggage on his return to Moscow, and 1CGS will create a great implementation for the new device. Mine is already ordered.

 

 

MAC

 

P.S.: I agree, I don't think it's supposed to replace headtracking...

[71st_AH_Hooves]

Theoretically u wouldn't need a clickable pit. Freepie and leap you could create your own motions mapped to keys.

[Ala13_Kike]

the best solution would go with your hands at the natural position of the buttons or controls in cockpit, but on your desktop seat. I don't know if this is possible with this system

If yes, this Leap Motion + Oculus would the best in sims

[JG27_Chivas]

I'm not seeing all the advantages yet.  How many different decipherable hand motions can you make for the all toggles/switches in a cockpit.   That said it could work well with a clickable cockpit, where you put your hand over the applicable switch and move your hand/fingers in the appropriate direction for that toggle/rotary.  I would still prefer the tactile feedback of a Hotas system, although I think they are making gloves now that could provide the tactile feedback required. 

Edited July 24, 2013 by Chivas

[ilikepie]

Theoretically u wouldn't need a clickable pit. Freepie and leap you could create your own motions mapped to keys.

who's got the free pies?

[71st_AH_Hooves]

LOL here is what Im talking about. GLovepie is its origin. An open source key mapping program.

 

http://download.chip.eu/en/GlovePie-0.30_174835.html

Edited July 24, 2013 by Hooves

[I/JG27_Zimmi]

Defenitely in interesting and promising technique, however yet not sophisticated for our purpose. We were discussing a similar topic in work today and I mentioned this nice little invention here. The position was generally the same: It is the future for entertainment and special application, might replace nowadays interaction with the PC. But that's gonna take some years so sure. The whole thing kinda reminds me on Tad Williams or Sergej Lukjanenko tho

[MACADEMIC]

Theoretically u wouldn't need a clickable pit. Freepie and leap you could create your own motions mapped to keys.

 

From what I have followed on this forum BoS will not have a clickable pit, but there will be things like complex engine management (prop pitch/mixture/radiator/supercharger/...), and there will be of course gear up/down and flaps, where applicable, canopy opening mechanisms, etc. I presume at least some of these will be animated in the cockpit.

 

So I think that from there it would only take a relatively small step for the developers to enable a pointer device to go to the animated cockpit control positions and making those actionable. The result would be a small scale 'clickable' cockpit.

 

Now, with a location pointer device in the cockpit available, it shouldn't be too hard to 'teach' Leap Motion the applicable movement for that kind of switch or lever. Those movements can be the same for the same kind of switch all over the cockpit, since the movement in combination with a location will activate the correct function only.

 

Going one step further in integration I'd like to see real time animated hands in cockpit, just like at the end of the video in the beginning of thread, but in staying true to the time period fitted with gloves. Pretty sure all this could be done using the LM SDK, provided the developers can see the benefit and make resources available.

 

 

MAC