New Settings System (Settings UI, Settings UX, Settings Subsystem)

[Frooxius]

We are planning to rework the subsystem for handling Settings and build a brand new Settings UI. You can find more information about motivation and planned approach in this issue:
#584

This discussion is to gather thoughts, feedback, wishlists and other information that we'll use to inform the design decisions for the new system.

Before you comment: Please read the initial issue above first! This provides some context and already planned features.

[Frooxius]

Existing issues

Are there any existing issues on this GitHub relating to settings? Please link them here, so we can collect them in one place!

[Frooxius]

Please keep the discussion to the specific issues in the issue itself, to keep this concise and easy to navigate.

[akiRAM3]

#26 Earmuff mode(Voice Falloff Distance Adjust)

[Stellanora64]

#157 while not directly related to settings, could be good to make a generalized system for scroll bars now, for the settings UI, so it can be more easily implement in other parts of the UI.

[Frooxius]

The scrollbars do not relate to settings specifically, it's a more general thing. It's independent of this, once those are implemented, settings will get them too.

[PointerOffset]

It seems like the settings re-work will end up touching the UserAudioStream creation modal. Would it be possible to consider my enhancement request for easier bitrate selection when creating a UserAudioStream?
#833

[Frooxius]

What new settings would you like to see?

What categories/groups of settings or what individual settings would you like to see?

• E.g. common ones are "Graphics Settings", which would include things like post processing filters (motion blur, AO and so on)
• It can be helpful to think of settings as groups first - what are related groups of settings that should be put together?

[Frooxius]

Mouse sensitivity and similar settings are actually already implemented in the prerelease branch.

[Nytra]

Not sure if it has been mentioned, but a setting for Fly locomotion speed would be nice.

[Frooxius]

The speed of Fly locomotion is controlled by the world, rather than global setting. We'd have to add a new system to mark if it should use user's values or world values, so that would need to be made into separate issue later.

[art0007i]

I think settings for changing the behavior of the number key tool shortcuts would be nice, specifically I would like to change what each number does from these options:

• Default: The key will use the default behavior.
• None: The key will do nothing. Can be useful if you want to create a multitool for desktop mode or want to put gestures on numbers.
• Dequip: Dequips and stashes the currently held tool. aka the default action of the 1 key.
• URL: Spawns and equips a tool from a record / asset URL.
• ClassName: Spawns an empty slot with a tool component from a class name. This is useful because a lot of the tools will generate a basic visual when attached.

(I have created a mod that does this, but I think it would be a good addition)

[shiftyscales]

That issue already exists in the form of #772, @art0007i.

[Frooxius]

I'm closing this section down since it's mostly off topic. I will reopen a new one in a sec.

[Frooxius]

Meta-features

Are there any "meta" features you'd like to see with settings that aren't listed in the issue linked above?

• E.g. one planned feature is ability to pick out individual settings and place them as facets anywhere in your UI for quick and easy access
• Another planned meta feature is searching - so you can just type description of the setting and it'll filter the list for you
• Yet another is ability to override settings based on current profile or mode (e.g. you can have socialization vs building profiles or you have different settings overriden whether you're in VR or screen mode)
• Are there any other ones like this that you'd like to see in the system?

[shininghero]

Having the option to move forward/backward locomotion all onto one joystick instead of needing both would be nice, and also ease transitions to and from other vr platforms.

It could also free up that axis for use in scrolling menus, if needed.

[WayaShinzui]

As long as it's optional that would be nice. Personally I prefer being able to use both to move forward and backward. CVR locks forward/backward movement to one controller and it drives me up the damn wall.

[Abysmal2134]

The option to put the sound control settings either in the context menu or attach it to a facet anchor locked to your head FOV or hands. Same for a FPS view toggle.

It'd be handy to have some kind of quick access menu for some of these facet 'shortcuts' that's actually in your character space that doesn't need you to open the full UI to see, because it blocks too much of your view if you just want to keep track of options that you'd prefer to have a quick toggle for. Or jsut having them dispalyed a quick reference for mic noise values or FPS counter.

[Frooxius]

@Abysmal2134 Something like that is already planned as indicated in the initial post.

[5H4D0W-X]

Many mobile OSes have "Looking for something else?" sections that display a few links to related settings for each page. Right now there aren't enough settings to warrant that but I think it's easy enough to implement that it should be considered in the future.

[Frooxius]

Setting overrides

For the ability to override settings depending on profile/mode, what kind of "discriminators" would you like to override settings on?

This essentially means, that when the "discriminator" changes (for example you switch from VR to screen mode and vice versa, or you change your setting profile), your settings automatically change.

Currently planned are:

• VR / screen mode
• Profile (socialization, building etc., these are fully custom and you can have as many as you want)
• Machine (you override particular setting to be only active on particular machine/PC you're on)
• Device class - PC, mobile (phone/Quest), console (if we get there in the future)
• VR headset type (e.g. if you're running on Vive Pro Eye, Oculus Rift S, Meta Quest Pro, Pico Neo and so on)

[Frooxius]

@shiftyscales Potentially, but that one is a bit more complicated for this and might be over-engineering the problem a bit. I feel it might be easier to just have defined "Work" and "Causual" profiles and just switch between them when needed.

[5H4D0W-X]

This is a bit meta but I'd like the ability to override the options in other overrides, basically like driving the TrueValue or FalseValue of a BooleanValueDriver with another BooleanValueDriver. This would allow for things like stacking a VR/Desktop distinction on top of a machine specific override

[Frooxius]

The system is already designed that way! You'll be able to combine multiple overrides!

[troyBORG]

Will this make it so quest pro even though it has 2 sticks when you grab a tool you can't use the right stick and left stick turns into tank controls.
I'd like the quest pro controllers to act like how the index controllers do.

[Stellanora64]

@troyBORG that most likely won't be able to be fixed with the settings update, unless this becomes implement #125 or their stance on just having a toggle has changed (also discussed in #125 ).

[Frooxius]

Questions & Answers

Do you have questions relating to the Settings UI? We might have answers. Sometimes the answers can be "We don't know yet". But regardless, this is the place to ask them!

[epicEaston197]

Q: Are the settings released in the recent Google doc actually implemented and just waiting for feedback for categorization?

[Frooxius]

No. It's focus is to figure good organization pattern.

[jae1911]

Will there be a heads up before the release of the new settings UI happens, so people that do localisation can have some time to translate everything to have a fully translated UI on release?

[Frooxius]

In a way yes. We'll have public testing on the prerelease branch before we push it out to main, so keep an eye on that channel for when we announce public testing.

You can also watch this PR/branch on the locale: Yellow-Dog-Man/Locale#195

[jae1911]

Perfect! I was just asking because I saw the settings-overhaul branch pop up on my mirror of the repo.

[ohzee00]

@epicEaston197 No, sessions settings are a separate piece of UI that's not included as part of this rework.

@ohzee00 What do you mean by hovertips?

As in hovering over a UI element and gaining more information on it next to your hovered cursor. Like say as a random example, Prefer Steam Networking Sockets would show a more detailed description on what that does exactly in a piece of hovering text if your cursor stays over it long enough. Though I imagine Icon elements can more benefit from that too.

[Frooxius]

Oh. In that case not those specifically. The idea is to have a brief description and a button to "expand" the item, which will provide more detailed explanation of what it does.

It's not a hovertip, but it serves the same purpose.

[ohzee00]

Ooh I see! A hovertip system of some sort is probably a separate request then, thank ya for answering.

[ohzee00]

Oh wow okay I totally butchered where I put that comment, my bad on that.

[gentlecolts]

There is a ticket for this already yes: #94

[Frooxius]

Categorization

Hello everyone! I've collected a bunch of different settings we might want to have, both existing and some new ones, to help figure out the root categories for them and how they should be grouped.

I've put it into this document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1L9phRBabYLiihff_FYfzB8UoGaQRPFwfkG4S6HoqAYc/edit?usp=sharing

Please feel free to comment! Also if you feel that are some specific settings that are missing from the list, that would belong to a distinct category that's not already there, feel free to list them here.

Even though we might not implement them right away, we want to consider as many types of settings as possible to figure out some good categorization for them.

[Madamblu]

If the ability to alter controls more is added, maybe a way to change PC keybinds? Or the ability to disable the "Tank Controls" if you're using a tool, with those on by default you cannot move if multitasking with two tools at once.

[epicEaston197]

Mouse sensitivity this would likely go under controls or user interface

[Abysmal2134]

I think what's missing is a setting for minimum and maximum avatar scaling, maybe in the Controls category.

I kind of need that with Rift S, so that I don't have to worry passing the minimum threshold where the avatar starts glitching out.

Also having quick access to swap between multiple custom scale settings that you can define.

(Also being able to see your current scale in the context menu and or different choices in metric.)

[JackTheFoxOtter]

I think what's missing is a setting for minimum and maximum avatar scaling, maybe in the Controls category.

I kind of need that with Rift S, so that I don't have to worry passing the minimum threshold where the avatar starts glitching out.

Also having quick access to swap between multiple custom scale settings that you can define.

Min / Max scaling is a setting on world level, that's kind of something the world creator needs to consider, not something you can set in your personal settings. I'd think adding that as a personal setting as well would require additional functionality. When you talk about scale settings, are you talking about min / max as well? I personally put some context menu buttons into my avatar for scales I frequently use to quickly switch between them, maybe that could be an option for you as well.

[Abysmal2134]

Just having an option to set different quick access options for your avatar scale, can be a solution.

But I'd prefer if anyone could do that by default ,rather than having to add something like that for each avatar. Not everyone has to know how to or is aware you can do that.