Controls & UI

How the DanceXR interface is laid out, how you interact with the scene, and the default input mappings for keyboard, mouse, gamepad, and VR controllers.

For VR-specific operations (hand controllers, pointer calibration, comfort, Pointer Handle, Mouse-in-VR), see the VR operations page.

UI layout

When DanceXR opens you should see the main UI panel at the bottom of the screen. If it is missing, click empty space to cycle UI states until it appears (see Toggle states below).

In desktop mode the UI panel is anchored to the bottom of the screen. In VR it floats in front of you and can be moved by holding the grip button and dragging it with your hand.

UI panel

Five icons on the left open the main menus:

Icon	Menu	What it covers
Gear	System	General settings, content library tools, support links
Picture	Environment	Stage, skybox, lighting, camera
Stage	Scene	Stages, props, save/load scene
Music note	Audio / motion	Load and assign motions and audio
Person	Actor	Load and manage character models

On the right are playback and chat controls: volume, playlist, previous / next, AI chat button.

Progress bar

The strip at the bottom shows the current motion or audio name and progress. Click to play or pause; drag to scrub through the timeline.

Long press to enter the fine scrubbing mode, which slows down the timeline for more precise control. In the fine scrubbing mode, move the cursor to the left or right half to control the direction, and the distance from the center controls the speed.

Toggle states

Click on empty space (anywhere not occupied by an interactable element) to cycle between three modes:

UI mode — UI panel and controls are visible; selection discs are shown.
Control mode — UI panel is hidden but the actor selection discs remain visible, so you can still drag and pose actors.
Immersive mode — UI panel and discs are hidden for a clean view. Useful for screenshots, recording, or just watching.

You can also map a button to Toggle UI to switch state without clicking; see the input tables below.

Interacting with actors and stage objects

Loaded actors and stage objects have a yellow selection disc under their feet. The disc is visible in UI and Control modes.

The selection disc has a red arrow indicating the orientation of the actor. When your pointer lands inside the circle, you can click and drag to move the actor around the stage. When your pointer is outside the circle in the area of the arrow, you can drag to rotate the actor. This logic is the same in VR.

While dragging, you can also use the mouse wheel or thumbstick on the hand controller to rotate the actor.

Click the disc to open the actor menu.
Drag the disc to move the actor across the stage.
Mouse wheel while dragging rotates the actor.
Horizontal scroll wheel (if your mouse has one) moves the actor up and down.
VR thumbstick left/right while dragging rotates; thumbstick up/down moves vertically.

Gizmo cubes

Some motions and tools support gizmo cubes — virtual cubes that appear on body parts so you can move and pose them. Depending on where the pointer lands, drag to move or rotate the gizmo.

Features that show gizmo cubes include:

Wind field in sky settings: change wind field position and direction.
Various procedural motions: change offset and rotation of body parts like torso, hands and feet.
Motion Override: adjust the position and rotation of body parts for the overridden motion.

Input scheme

DanceXR’s input mapping is built around a common abstract control set, so the same actions work across keyboard, gamepad, and VR controllers:

Two thumbsticks
A dpad (gamepad / keyboard only)
Left and right trigger buttons
Left and right shoulder buttons (gamepad) or grip buttons (VR)
A, B, X, Y face buttons (gamepad) or button 1, 2 per hand (VR)
Select / menu buttons

Every action can also be mapped to keyboard keys, so you can run DanceXR on a desktop with no controller. On PC and Android, mouse or touch panning and dragging is also available. In VR, laser pointers handle menu interaction and drag & drop.

VR mouse control (v2025.10)

You can use a mouse to drive the pointer in VR mode. Combined with keyboard input this is well suited to a seated desk experience.

Pointer Handle (v2025.10)

A long flexible rod driven by physics that you can hold in your hand to interact with actors in VR. NSFW; not available in the Pure version. Supports loading any external model with a chain of bones as the handle.

Second action

By default, the grip button on VR controllers and the shoulder buttons on gamepads are assigned to Second Action. Holding Second Action while pressing another control triggers that control’s secondary action instead of its primary one.

You can re-bind Second Action to a different button in input settings if you prefer.

Default mappings

Button controls

Gamepad	VR	Key	Primary action	Second action
Btn X	Left Btn 1	Number 1	Center actor	Reset physics
Btn Y	Left Btn 2	Number 2	Next model	Shuffle model
Btn A	Right Btn 1	Number 3	Next motion	Previous motion
Btn B	Right Btn 2	Number 4	Play / pause	Slow motion
LB	Left Grip	Left Shift	Second action	None
RB	Right Grip	Right Shift	Second action	None
Left Thumb Click	Left Thumb Click	None	None
Right Thumb Click	Right Thumb Click	None	None
Select	Left Menu	Esc	Toggle UI	UI back
Start	Right Menu	Enter	Toggle microphone	Toggle microphone

Axis controls

Gamepad	VR	Key	Primary action	Second action
Left Thumb X	Left Thumb X	A / D	Move X	Rotate
Left Thumb Y	Left Thumb Y	W / S	Move Y	Up / Down
Right Thumb X	Right Thumb X	Left / Right	Rotate	Move X
Right Thumb Y	Right Thumb Y	Up / Down	Up / Down	Move Y
Left Trigger	Left Trigger	Tab	Custom 1	UI toggle
Right Trigger	Right Trigger	Space	Custom 2	UI toggle
DPad X	N/A	L / J	UI X	UI X
DPad Y	N/A	I / K	UI Y	Scroll

Customizing controls

You can re-map any of the default actions in input settings. Open the system menu (gear icon), then go to the input settings section. Each abstract action lists its current mapping; select an action and press the new button or key to bind it.

The microphone toggle for AI chat (default: right hand controller menu button) is configured here as well — see AI Voice Chat.