Navigation in VR

Navigation (also called “locomotion”) is the the way in which you move in VR without physically moving your body.
Note that this does not alter the Maya scene in any way. It merely changes your point of view and the scale at which the scene is displayed in VR.

MARUI offers three different types of navigation, with two additional feature options.
You can choose your preferred type of navigation from the MARUI settings menu.
Each of them works by pressing and holding the “navigation button” (the “grip” or “shoulder” button on the controllers, or making a grabbing hand motion with the LeapMotion device).

Grabbing-the-air

In this mode of navigation, you can pull yourself through VR like an astronaut pulling himself through a zero-gravity environment.
This mode is also very intuitive when working with a single object. It will feel as if you are grabbing the virtual object and moving it around instead of moving yourself around the object.

When pressing the navigation button on both controllers simultaneously, you can change the scale of the scene, allowing you to focus in on details or zoom out to get an overview.

If you find yourself too far away from an object to reach it comfortably, try “zooming out” by moving the controllers closer together, pulling the object towards you until it is between your hands, and then zooming in again.

Joystick-style

In this mode of navigation the controller works similar to a joystick: push it forward to move forward, pull it back to move back, and so on.
You can even twist it from side to side to rotate or “turn around”.

Usually, this mode of navigation will not change your height or “eye-level” in the scene. However, by holding the “Shift” button on the controller, you can move upwards and downwards as well.

Similar to “Grabbing-the-Air” navigation, using both controllers simultaneously allows you to change the scale at which the scene is presented to you.

Mouse-style

In Maya, you usually use the mouse to rotate the camera around a selected object. If you prefer this type of interaction, then select the “Maya-mouse-style” navigation in the settings.
With this mode activated, holding the navigation button will allow you to rotate your point of view around the selected object.

If you hold down the “Shift” key on your controller, then you can change your viewpoint laterally, just like the middle mouse button and Alt-Key in Maya does.

By pressing the navigation button on both controllers simultaneously, you can scale the scene display.
When you hold down the shift button while pressing on both controllers, you can move towards or away from the selected object instead of scaling.

Navigation options

From the MARUI settings menu, you can chose to select additional options regarding the navigation, each of which works with all three modes of navigation.

Lock up-axis

With this option enabled, “upwards” in VR (where the virtual ceiling is) will always stay aligned with the real world “upwards” (where the real ceiling is).

Lock rotation

With this option enabled, the rotation (or: orientation) of the scene in VR will not be changed.