My first 3 hours with the Oculus Rift

Has anyone tried (and is it compatible with) VR with X-Plane?

I’m pretty sure that XPlane 10 doesn’t support VR Chris. Maybe XP 11 when it comes out ?

Last time I checked: nope. There was talk of rift support, but the last update was like two years ago.

I haven’t been able to find any evidence there of, but the FlyInside support for P3D and FSX is pretty slick. VR is such a compelling paradigm shift for flight simulations, that anyone not supporting it will one day find themselves left behind IMO.

Chris if you can get a 2 hour layover at PDK, I’ll come get you and let you try the Rift in DCS and P3D. My house is < 5 miles from the Downwind.

I’ll take you up on it if I get the opportunity!

It does seem odd that Austin was so dismissive of the technology in this video. I mean, not all aviation is done with regards to instruments, and there are certain areas of aviation where VR would really be perfect. If you can believe the comments below the YouTube video, someone says this:

“_Flyinside is working on it according to Dan , the developer._ï»żâ€

BeachAV8R

I think that if Austin had been in a cockpit like the Gazelle, which is very VR friendly (I have no trouble reading the gauges) and use a newer version of FlightInside, which has a very intuitive interface IMO, he might have been more accepting.

I consider myself as being pretty resistant to motion sickness. (Any F-15E drivers out there please prove otherwise :slight_smile: )

However, last night while ripping along over tree and roof top in a Las Vegas neighborhood in the Gazelle, got a real stomach in my throat feeling and accompanying head rush after banking hard to turn down a street. That surprised me. It was momentary, but quite a bit different from anything that I had experienced in a simulation.

It’s very Matrix like in that it must be experienced to be understood, but I can’t emphasize how much easier tasks are like formation and low level flying. It all kind of clicks. I always thought that those things were mostly affected by seat-of-the-pants awareness. But now I understand how important accurate depth of field is to those and similar activities.

Tinkering with the B350i. (I shouldn’t post these because they don’t do the experience justice)

Looks like they fixed the overhead panel gauges.

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It’s funny how quickly WSOs can go from “fly it like a fighter” to “dude you’re gonna make me sick.”

:innocent:

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Although the resolution isnt at the point it should be yet, I cant really imagine myself going back to non-vr now. The sense of cockpit size and presence (watching all those switches sticking out) is just awesome. I find that using the “zoom in hmd” (or the similarly named control in the vr bindings) works great for reading gauges. I also find that using head pointing and hotas mouse clicks works great for me, as long as I just place the mouse cursor smack dab in the middle of my view. For me its not a problem to use the mouse either, as I have modded my hotas bracket to support a base for the mouse mat:

Regarding installation it really WAS plug and play in my case. No problems whatsoever.

Btw, also happy that il-2 bos probably will get rift support, now that they are going to move to dx11 (using dx9 was the reason they dropped support initially).

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@ChrisIhao Sorry to bother but I’m out of the loop in IL-2 BOS news
 What’s happening over there?!

Wow your computer area is way tidier than mine. I try so hard but wires are still everywhere!

Very nice setup! Where did you get the HOTAS mounting brackets? I’m just using the keyboard tray on my desk, but your brackets look like they are 100x better.

I think particularly the first post from Jason Williams covers most of the future additions and revisions:Future Additions to IL2 - Page 5 - General Discussion - IL-2 Sturmovik Forum. I like how 1C actually interacts quite a bit with the community. I also was happy that they gave Steam keys for us original backers, as I prefer having my sims there for simplicity (just log in and enter non-Steam key).

I havent really flown bos all that much, but I really like the dynamics of attacking ground targets in this game. Quite realistic plane management to boot.

Oh, and dont be sorry for asking. Thats why we are here, isn’t it? :slight_smile:

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Thank you sir. Yes, I try to keep a tidy space by keeping the cables somewhat bundlet togeter in the back. At first I disliked how the table is a bit small, but now I’m happy I had this restriction, as the spacing between the sticks are very good.

Thank you very much! The brackets are Joylocs: JoyLoc ClampMaster Gaming Brackets | SimHQ

Unfortunately the company has since been dissolved. A shame really, as they work really good, for all intents and purposes. Perhaps you can find them secondhand, but I wouldnt count on it. You could perhaps use the pictures as a template for making something similar yourself, or ask someone else to weld some lightweight ones for you. Thats a big advantage, the weight that is, so the table wont topple with all the extra weight. Hehe.

A nifty little detail here. I finally figured out how to fasten the keyboard. I modded my CH combatstick by removing the leftmost wheel axis, and then used velcro to fasten the keyboard firmly between the stick and the leftmost bracket. Not a lot of ways to do this properly and practically.

Oh, and I also modded the pinky button to make it much more practical, since the big, long red button protrudes far too much for comfortable usage, in case someone has a CH stick. Look at the bottom post here: http://www.ch-hangar.com/forum/index.php/topic/8377-ch-fighterstick-yaw-mod/#entry52939

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I think so too. Just looking at the video that he was experience
it really didn’t look all that compelling - they should have set him up with something far more immersive.

That is pretty much exactly what @wagmatt said about VR - I think he said that pretty much any time he is flying for entertainment (and maybe even testing) he is using VR because it is that good. I really can’t wait to try it


Yeah
I dream about having one of those guys that does origami computer setups coming to my house and tidying up my rats nest of cables.

Nice observations by everyone in this thread. You guys are making resistance somewhat futile


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I sometimes dream about spending a day in the shop building a new set of wiring to fit on my desk, aircraft spec(like, new from the factory, not the tangled mess you see when you open the nose up) and just all labelled and numbered. everything obviously fastened with MS connectors


Aah, one of these days.

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Thanks for the info Chrislhao! It’s a pity that the company didn’t survive. It’s a niche market though, and that makes it kind of tough.

Yup. Its the same with my CH controllers. The now huge company no longer have an interest in developing joysticks, so even if I want to stay with them I neccessarily have to change gear at some point to get more precise sensors.

So, last night I spent a couple of hours in the F-5E in the Rift, initially around Nellis and then over the Caucasus. The goal was to work on my Warthog profile, which I pilfered from another Belsimtek fighter, the Eagle (turns out only slightly similar in function), and ultimately give the Tiger II a thumbs up or down as a good Rift module. The F-15C most certainly is a wonderful aircraft to be experienced in VR, as is the Gezelle, IMO.

In the HUDless F-5E, I find it a bit of a mixed bag. Case in point are the RWR management buttons, which I have to get my face right up to the panel to read, and even then the tiny letters are not that clear. In fact most of the text on the Tiger deux panel requires getting your nogen moved down and forward, which in some pits like the Gazelle English conversion are very easy to read without this maneuver.

The primaries are not bad, the ASI, VSI, DG, AI, etc being NATO standards and thus relatively easy to interpret. The weapons sight is fine, as with rest of the F-5E flying and ACM experience, if you don’t mind object at a distance being a bit fuzzy. One can imagine that it would be a fair fight, between aircraft of this era, if opposing air crew both had VR gear. Otherwise, lose sight, have your hunkus handed to you, as the saying goes.

And yes, upon RTB in the Vegas area noticed that the GTX 980 was to a point of giving up in the task of rendering neighborhoods around Nellis, producing much jittering and screen door effect. To which point brought me to a place where after all aircraft having safely returned to home field, I withdrew my debit card and ordered up a EVGA GTX 1080 FTW. More McDonald’s $1 menu lunches ahead. Damn!

Nice impressions. I was wondering how the “lower tech” platforms like the MiG-15 and F-86 would feel given that they require less heads down. The F-5E is probably mid-range between those and the more advanced aircraft like the Ka-50 and A-10C where getting down in the cockpit is integral.

That F-5 is sweet though


And man
you are gonna love that 1080 (best money I ever spent on a computer accessory)
and that’s a good price. Mine was $720 I think
so they are already starting to drop a wee bit