Took the new X-Crafts Embraer E135 through its VR paces last night. A very, very nice plane in VR just owing to its simple systems (only a few buttons to get the APU and engines running). Small fonts on the MFDs are a little hard to read in VR, but the flight deck really looks nice.
Then I wanted to test my new cloud/atmosphere effects that I installed yesterday in VR to see if they are usable. They actually look pretty good. There is a bit of a cloud motion effect that I’m not crazy about, but the overall look is worth the drawbacks. The Laminar MD-92 that is included with X-Plane is really superb and wonderful in VR…
After landing, decided to bump the time to just after sunset. The rain looks great…but it does look better in motion (in flight) because it tends to move when you move your head. But the patter of rain on the roof of the cockpit and the overall feel is very warm and fuzzy.
This looks really nice. I think I should give FS Enhancer a go. Have you shared your settings, as interested to see where you got with fiddling with it?
I’ll give the settings to you when I get home. The package, when you go to download it (HERE) is split into six components so you can mix and match or just select the ones you want to try.
Installation Guide
ReShade Injector
TrueHaze
TrueLights
TrueShade
TrueWaves
I elected not to install ReShade, which may have been why I had to fiddle with TrueHaze LUA file to get things right (for me anyway). Something funky was going on with the lighting that made my cockpit very dark (like it was ultra HDR or something) but tweaking two values fixed it. You may not have to do that if you use ReShade.
My only complaint is the way the clouds initially slide across the field of view when you are entering and exiting scattered type layers. But I sort of grew used to it already and I like the overall look (and it works in VR). You might see a cloud flash here and there too. So it isn’t perfect, but until Active Sky X-Plane comes out with their own cloud artwork, it will have to do.
I’ll get back to you with my specific settings…but it will be late (my time), I’m headed out flying for a few hours.
OK - just waking up (blink) and the only change I made to the default TrueHaze.lua (all of the lua files go in your X-Plane 11\resources\plugins\FlyWithLua\Scripts folder) was with regards to line 83 and 84 under the Sky Colors Parameters - clean settings:
In the sim I’m using the HDR setting one click from the right in non-VR and in the middle for VR flying. Both HDR and non-HDR seem to play well enough with FS Enhancer (again, I’m not using ReShade though). Here are screen grabs of my sim settings.
Plus, I should say in case it helps others. My HDR ‘screen corruption’ issue was me running an old version of this: X-Plane 3jFPS Wizard for VR
Once I updated it then all was good. I might turn it off for trying this though, as the dynamic nature of that scripts sort of adjusts level of details and antialiasing as it goes, which might fight the scripts in FS Enhancer.
So P3D v4 has been quietly making inroads in their VR integration. It is actually working quite well now…looks great…and is performing very good on my new rig.
Half the fun of VR and a new computer is re-installing old stuff and realizing how fun it is. Here the Alabeo Piper Chieftain - which has fantastic sounds. Pulling an engine back into feather to keep things interesting…
Thought I’d attempt a “through the lens” video - but it really doesn’t come out very good for lots of reasons.
The view is from just the left lens, so you aren’t seeing the right lens picture, which taken together give a larger field of view and a proper seat position
The video is taken with an iPhone 6
The camera is just being sort of jammed into the lens at an angle that is not flush with the lens, nor is it at the proper distance from the lens
The camera field of view does not match what you see in game - I’d guess it maybe represents 60% of the field of view maybe? When you switch to video mode on the iPhone 6, the view zooms in and the FOV gets way smaller. You’d probably need a fish-eye type lens to get a proper video.
My O+ headphones are not aligned with the audio recording, so there is no real engine sounds/airflow
The vertical FOV is very much cropped due to the iPhone, I could see my left and right DDIs when I was flying
Color is a bit oversaturated looking in the recording
Finally, and not the least of the factors, is that I have prescription inserts in my O+ that probably further distort the view (WIdmoVR lenses)
Mostly it is just a video to show how fluid DCS is running on the i9 + 2080Ti combo at very high graphics settings.
Doing some messing around tonight. Compared to X-Plane, P3D’s VR integration isn’t great…but if you get settled into a cockpit it can be pretty striking…images slightly blurry because I’m making sure not to scratch my Reverb lenses, so I can’t get my phone all the way in there. In the sim, the images are sharp as can be…
That is the Aerosoft CRJ Professional by the way. Very, very nicely featured aircraft…and quite simple to operate. It would not be my “go to” aircraft in VR though. Not because it isn’t beautiful in VR, because it is, but the CRJ design places the instrument panel pretty deep, and the font size on the MFDs is very small (in real life too), so it isn’t exactly ideal for VR. It is clear in my Reverb, but any headset with a lower resolution would probably struggle with the displays.
Here’s a “through the lens” video of the JF-17 WMD-7 Targeting Pod watching some multiplayer carrier action on Hoggit…my favorite is the guy going off the end of the waist catapult…LOL…
