I know we’ve crossed and re-crossed this road before discussing this, but I’d like to reiterate my enthusiasm for VR in our flight sims. Why bring it up again? Well, I was away on vacation for nearly a month, came back to simming and see I missed two X-Plane updates. I don’t know what they addressed or what is in the change log, but I do know that I fired up X-Plane in native VR the last few nights and even at my default 2D settings, the VR experience is fantastic.
Granted, it is highly dependent on both clouds and scenery density, but just flying patterns at the fantastic Twenty-Nine Palms airport (Aerosoft) is butter smooth and such an awesome experience. Even more so when you make it dark and you are just flying with the lights and stars…it just has such great presence and feel. It really is as close to real flying as I’ve experienced.
So it is no wonder that I’m really, really, really excited for the next generation of VR headsets. This time, I won’t have to wait for @PaulRix to sell me on it, it will be a first day purchase when a Rift-like quality next gen headset comes out. I early adopted the 1080 card and have been thrilled with it, and I’ll early adopt the next Oculus product (or similar).
For all the problems and limitations, it really is the most revolutionary experience I’ve had on PC flight sims. I cannot wait for what is next…
I know I pushed the whole VR thing down your throats back in 2016, but here we are 2 years later and I am still just as enthusiastic about even the current gen of VR. I would quite honestly give up my Warthog and Crosswinds before my Rift if I had to choose. Fortunately that isn’t a choice I have to make .
Agreed, brother. VR is a game changer, I couldn’t go back to flight simming without it now that I’ve experienced it. I’d rather give up flight sims cold turkey than fly on a monitor again.
I missed the initial VR “ground floor” as it were. Just as I missed out on the TrackIR ground floor, preferring to wait until the technology matured.
That said, you all have made me a VR disciple. (Well you all and the continuing cantankerousness of my TrackIR. )
Still I plan on holding off on VR until I hear you raving about the next generation.
My children are grown so I don’t have a college savings to raid…but I’ll think of something. Perhaps standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says, “Will work for money (to purchase VR)”
It’s probably not a good idea but I have pre-ordered a 2080 which should help VR wise. AL am really looking forward to the next gen VR headset. I am also really interested in giving VR a try in X-Plane (FOV is a huge deal in air combat in DCS but I feel it would be less so in X-Plane).
I am torn between VR and my cockpit devices however. It is really nice to be able to reach out and adjust the comms via buttons scattered around my pit, better than reaching for a mouse.
I was reading a post in the ED forums, folks with VR complaining that they could not see missiletrafck coming towards them…and subsequently getting shot down a lot.
The issue was the fidelity of the VR image…i.e. not enough ppi.
Thoughts? Will the next generation solve this?
For myself, I don’t wait until I see a missile. I smack my countermeasures, break hard into the general direction of the threat (from my EWS) to put it on my beam and get a low doppler aspect, and dive for a convenient valley, or get as close to the ground/water as I can…then, and only then, I might look for the missile…just say’n
Yup, Besides, in VR its perfectly feasible to spot the smoke trail of the rocket while its still rocketing. In the coast phase they are nigh on invisible, as you’d expect them to be IRL too, right?
I’m so awful at knowing what hardware matches up with what. I don’t know if sticking a 2080 in my current box would be worthwhile or not. I’ll have to post up my specs and let someone smarter than me point to my bottleneck and tell me whether it is worth it or not…
For me, when the next gen Rift hits the streets, it will probably mean purchasing a new PC too. At that point my current rig will be over 3years old, which is the point where I start thinking about a new system anyway.
Precisely. I usually go by the three year rule of thumb. My current rig is holding up quite well right now though, so I will stick with it until the next Rift comes out.
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