HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Discussion about VR

Moderators: Uros, Tom, OXO

Post Reply
User avatar
JBlyth
Posts: 183
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:10 pm

HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by JBlyth » Sat Mar 05, 2022 11:30 am

I have been playing with the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset I got yesterday. After a few headaches, I finally have it running nicely with Condor via AirLink.

One of the things that always worried me about VR was the difficulty in having an "external device" to run LK8000. I have read of importing from other devices and issues with controlling such navigations programs from within VR with some trepidation.

Now I have LK8000 running on the same laptop as Condor, without the need to have external devices and complex methods of getting it all into Condor VR. Via VoiceAttack - but used without voice.

I had played with VoiceAttack a few times previously, but I found it was not terribly reliable - probably my Kiwi accent. This time, I tried turning off all voice commands, and binding the VoiceAttack KEYSTROKES to my HOTAS. This is been remarkably successful and reliable. It also gets around the annoying bug in the PC version of LK8000 with touch screens needing double touches at times.

These commands are the ones I use mostly with LK8000, and I have set them up in the attached VoiceAttack profile:- (Oops - sorry, you will have to contact me as I can't post the binary file here.....
a. Move through bottom menus.
b. Zoom in and out.
c. Show Airspace page.
d. Page through Airspace and Info pages. (Long press on the bottom menu).
e. MacReady Up and Down.
f. Free Flight start (Sometimes I have found this is always triggered in Condor).

I have also discovered that "pinning" CoTASA ands LK8000 to the VR desktop was unreliable, as the pinnings were frequently lost when a flight was started in Condor. My solution to that, thanks to some suggestions from Ryan Wood, was to have a momentary flight in Condor in VR, escape from the flight back to the Condor Menu (to establish a link between VR and Condor), then and only then pluck and pin CoTTASA and LK8000 to the VR environment. So far it has worked perfectly.

I had stayed away from VR as I needed to wear strong glasses, but after my two cataract operations recently, I have the eyesight of an eighteen year old (almost), so that side of VR is no longer a problem. I have explained to my wife that this latest purchase is in truth my birthday present for the year 2058. I'm not too sure if that went down too well, but I am still alive ;-).....

Cheers
John in Sunny Carnarvon - Western Australia

User avatar
JBlyth
Posts: 183
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:10 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by JBlyth » Sat Mar 19, 2022 7:24 am

I have made a few enhancements and adjusted my processes a little as I refine Condor2, VoiceAttack, and my Warthog HOTAS setup.

I have added a command to VoiceAttack to "speak" the Task Rules such as Start and Finish heights and any other pertinent details whenever required. I found I was often needing reminding of these, and in VR, it is not so easy to glance at a piece of paper. The syntax in VoiceAttck is:-

Set text [SpeakText] to [C:\Users\xxxxxxx\OneDrive\Desktop\Condor\StartFInishHeights.txt]
Say, '{TXT:SpeakText}'

Bre901, the wonderful developer of CoTaCo, is thinking of incorporating the generation of the "speaking" file in the upcoming GUI version of CoTaCo. CoTaCO of course is a marvellous utility that converts Condor Tasks to LK8000, XCSoar, and SeeYou format tasks.....

I have modified the pinning of LK8000 and the two CoTASA indicators within VR slightly. My original approach of starting the task, exiting out, then pinning the programs was too time consuming, and I kept missing re-loading with water. Now I start the task, go onto autopilot at a sensible speed and area, then go back to the computer desktop in VR, and pin the three required items.

I have found this quicker and less prone to issues.

Within VoiceAttack control of LK8000, I have added the following:-
  • I now set the Autopilot then use VoiceAttack HOTAS keys to transfer complete control to LK8000 WITHIN VR. I then control LK8000 with a mouse as per normal. It is amazingly useful at times - provided I get back to Condor before hitting a mountain.
  • I now have an additional HOTAS key to Generate a "Restart Task" sequence, which is useful if I blow the start. I've added it to the existing "Flight Commenced" sequence
Here is a list of my current VoiceAtack commands - all controlled from my HOTAS rather than by Voice.
VoiceAttack Commands.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

alessandro
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:12 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by alessandro » Mon Apr 04, 2022 11:05 am

JBlyth wrote:
Sat Mar 05, 2022 11:30 am
a. Move through bottom menus.
b. Zoom in and out.
c. Show Airspace page.
d. Page through Airspace and Info pages. (Long press on the bottom menu).
e. MacReady Up and Down.
f. Free Flight start (Sometimes I have found this is always triggered in Condor).
How do you map keypresses to these LK8000 commands?
Is there a LK8000 config file to edit? I couldn't find any reference in the documentation.

thank you
Alessandro

User avatar
JBlyth
Posts: 183
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:10 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by JBlyth » Tue Apr 05, 2022 4:47 am

Hello Alessandro,

They are not LK8000 commands. They are sent from your Joystick/HOTAS devices to VoiceAttack.

Depending on your Joystick/HOTAS brand, there are a number of ways of accomplishing this. I have the Thrustmaster Warthog devices, so I use the Thrustmaster TARGET software to setup my joystick and HOTAS. The TARGET software is strangely avoided by some people, but it is extremely good once you get used to it! Joy2Key and Joystick Gremlin are alternative choices, but I have found TARGET the best.

I am now looking at moving away from VoiceAttack and using AutoHotKeys instead, as I have had a few reliability issues with VoiceAttack interfering with Discord audio while flying in VR.

I shall add more information for using AutoHotKey it it proves to be beneficial.

Cheers
John

alessandro
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:12 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by alessandro » Tue Apr 05, 2022 11:21 pm

Hello, I probably didn't express myself well, I try again :)

What I meant is: what kind of input do you send to LK8000 to make it do the required action, for example "Zoom in" ?

I understand that you map a joystick button in VoiceAttack to do something; what I don't understand is how that "something" is interpreted by LK8000 as "zoom in", etc.

I am currently using AutoHotKeys to send "mouse clicks" to LK8000, for example a joystick button sends a click on the upper part of the LK8000 window to achieve the "zoom in" action.
This is unfortunately cumbersome to configure (because you have to figure out click coordinates and they change if you change windows size or orientation), so I was wondering if there is a smarter way to control LK8000, e.g. by sending keyboard presses rather than mouse clicks.

User avatar
JBlyth
Posts: 183
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:10 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by JBlyth » Wed Apr 06, 2022 3:10 am

Ah ha.... I'm afraid Mouse Clicks seem to be the only way operate LK8000 using this method.

It is much easier to find mouse click positions if you take a screenshot of of LK8000 on the SINGLE Monitor you are using LK8000 on by pressing Alt + Print Screen on your keyboard.

Paste the screenshot into Paint, and mouse coordinates will be shown as you move across the image in the bottom left corner of Paint. You can then use these coordinates in AutoHotKey.

I am looking at the benefits of defining screen locations which adapts to the LK8000 window size in a single orientation at least with something like this:-

#IfWinExist ahk_exe LK8000
WinActivate, LK8000
sleep, 500
WinGetPos, X, Y, W, H, LK8000
L1 := W*.1
L2 := W*.2
C1 := W/2
R1 := W*.8
R2 := W*.91
Y1 := H*.1
Y2 := H*.2
Y3 := H*.3
Y4 := H*.4
Y5 := H*.5
Y6 := H*.6
Y7 := H*.7
Y8 := H*.8
Y9 := H*.9
Y10 :=H*.94
n:=1
Loop 10
{
if (n = 10)
{
n:= 9.4
}
MouseMove W*.91,H*n*.1
sleep 1000
n:=n+1
}

You can also have full mouse control of LK8000 by putting Condor into Auto Pilot/Pause mode, then transferring screen control to LK8000 with, which also pre-positions the mouse in the centre of the LK8000 screen to you can easily see it:-

;Make LK8000 ACTIVE
F11::
#IfWinExist ahk_exe LK8000
WinActivate, LK8000
sleep 500
MouseClick, right, 470, 720 ;Centre Screen
Return

And returning to Condor control with:-

;Make CONDOR ACTIVE
F10::
#IfWinExist ahk_exe CONDOR.EXE
WinActivate, % ppt := "ahk_exe CONDOR.EXE"
Return

alessandro
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:12 pm

Re: HOW TO:- Condor 2 with Quest 2 VR and Fully Controllable LK8000

Post by alessandro » Wed Apr 06, 2022 12:04 pm

JBlyth wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 3:10 am
Ah ha.... I'm afraid Mouse Clicks seem to be the only way operate LK8000 using this method.
What a disappointment :(
I asked in LK8000 forum if this could be done: https://www.postfrontal.com/forum/topic ... IC_ID=9304

Thanks John anyway for your useful suggestions.

Post Reply