Credit should go to @PaulRix for the fan solution. IMO, it’s the best solution for us “hotheads”. When I get into a physically and/or competitively intense situation in VR, my gigantic head tends to get a little hotter and boom, lens fog. The fan cools it right down. It can be a problem with comms though … I’ve had guys ask me, “Hey Elby, you in a noisy warehouse or something?” lol. The fan @PaulRix suggested is probably a lot less noisy.
I love those smart plugs though … I even have my G2 on one. The newer revision power supply with the little button actually has an analog on/off switch so I just always leave it on and when I want to go into VR I say, “Hey Google, turn on G2”. Works like a charm.
VR gets a smile on your face once you break through the clouds and the sun hits you through a smudgy window right next to you. In the thunderbird that you dreamed of flying when being a child.
It is worth having to get your hands dirty for. Always has been, since the dirty ol’ DOS days. Always tweaking settings, improving it. VR is the cutting edge, and no, it isn’t plug&play. Not when it comes to our sims.
Well…flying is in essence a thing of beauty. There is a lot more to the experience than physics. When I lost my job in 2009 due to the recession, my initial reaction was “you mean I can’t fly anymore?”… that came before the reality that my mortage payment was also tied to flying the King Air parked on the ramp. VR gets you closest to that aspect of flying in a sim even if it is a handicap in other ways.
VR all the way! I use TrackIR/2D for ARMA, FalconBMS and to learn new equipment in DCS. After that, it’s all VR all the time. The Oculus Quest2 with their PC Link is cheap and performs really well with no tweaking needed. It is not quite plug-n-play but certainly no worse than learning to set up the TrackIR. My PC is 5yo with a vanilla 1080 GPU. I do hit a wall when I fly the English Channel map, especially with a heavy scripted campaign. Otherwise things run mostly fine, if not perfectly smoothly.
You just contradicted yourself. You like both and don’t be afraid to say it amongst all the VR evangelists around here. IMO, VR is not the be-all and end-all medium, YET. It’s just another tool in our simulation toolchests.
Thanks everybody (so far)…I’ve been blown away by all the info you guys have forwarded to me.
I guess my only drawback is the fact that I have to wear glasses which could be a pain in the a$$.
The HP Reverb G2 is pretty damn expensive here in Oz so I’ll have to maybe think about it!
I know technology is changing at a fairly fast rate so who knows what’s around the corner!
BTW I use a Gigabyte 34" curved monitor and run the sims at 3440 x 1440.
Thanks again for all your input.
Paul
Because he’s @Elby. Anything under 55” just won’t do…
I had a 34” 21:9 curved Samsung screen, before I got into VR, and it absolutely rocked! Now I have a 15” screen in my simpit, just for windows settings stuff. I think VR is the best thing ever to happen to the flightsim hobby. As many here has pointed out, it’s not perfect and it requires some effort from the user.
Still, my dream simulator is something like this:
A 270° wrap around screen with projectors and a full on physical cockpit. The obvious issue with this is being locked to one type of aircraft and needing a dedicated simulator room. But it sure would be fun…
The best way to solve the glasses issue is to throw some cash at it. Places like vroptician.com sell prescription lenses that you click into the headset. Now your vr vision is sharp as a tack! Very much worth it.
Exactly, WidmoVR is the other one. I use lens inserts on my VR headsets too, always have.
And if you’re hesitant about price, the Quest 2 is a great headset too, especially when just getting started because the out-of-the-box experience is a lot better. A friend of mine flies DCS UH-1with it and is very happy.
The HP Reverb G2 is almost AU$1000.00 here. I’m not paying that for a VR headset that does not even accommodate me wearing glasses. I’ll hang out until maybe G3 sorts that out…who knows!
Well, you can wear glasses with the headset but it isn’t ideal. That goes for all VR headsets to be honest. Prescription inserts are the best, and most comfortable solution but of course, that comes at a price.
You can certainly pick up a decent head tracking solution for a lot less, but head tracking is only a part of what VR brings to the sim experience.
I rock a similar setup with an almost identical PC. It looks great at 1440p and TIR will make you really happy.
You can get an oculus quest anytime and have fun with VR games and even try DCS. I went straight to the Reverb G2 and regretted it for the already mentioned reasons. to me, visual quality and performance are not up to my taste yet (it’s definitely the future though).
About the depth perception… this is an interesting conversation. I really feel that VR makes it a lot easier to grasp simple flying concepts, such as lead/lag pursuit, turn circles, even flying straight and level with no hud. Sometimes we forget we came from some years of flying 2D and our brain has already learned to interpolate that 2D simulation in 3D space. So to me, I wasn’t any better in AAR or formation with VR than I was with a flat screen, but it felt definitely more instinctive. BFM is really weird, because in some ways it’s harder (more physical) but in others is so much easier, like you really know how not to overshoot a bandit or how to maneuver in 3D space.
Again, for people who have been flying for some time it may not be much, but for someone inexperienced it can mean something (I can’t say, since it wasn’t my experience).
But I’d say get a track IR or something similar (I heard good things about the tobii and no wearables, so I’d look into that as well). You’ll fall in love with DCS.
Interesting. I rummaged through the garage and found a 15 yo monitor (20" diagonal I think) for the same reason; was just new enough to have an HDMI connector.
I follow the Warthog Project guy too. Never going to be a factor for my sim closet but it’s neat to watch.
Great points all. This ^ one sums it up well in my case: I just have a better sense of where I am - my orientation.
Except the occasional, very brief, sniff of spatial disorientation (inside a cloud and/or at night, the usual players here). In 2D if I recall it would be, “hmmm, am I upside down here?”, but it was, as best as I can describe, an analytical exercise. In 3D it’s more of an ‘experience’, a “Oh crap!” sense of urgency. If I was under real G forces I’m sure it would much worse.
How? It’s not a line in the sand. “All the way!” is an expression of a preference when conditions allow. There are those times (in DCS) or titles (where VR is not supported) when 2D is best.
When I get into a physically and/or competitively intense situation in VR, my gigantic head tends to get a little hotter and boom, lens fog. The fan cools it right down. It can be a problem with comms though … I’ve had guys ask me, “Hey Elby, you in a noisy warehouse or something?” lol. The fan @PaulRix suggested is probably a lot less noisy.
IMO, VR is not the be-all and end-all medium, YET. It’s just another tool in our simulation toolchests.
