vorpX impressions

BeachAV8R · February 4, 2020, 11:15pm

Copy/paste from the SF2 thread…but it’s pertinent to this thread too:

So this was some fun single-mission action while I was doing some testing. The thing I really like about SF2 (at least my modded version) is that I can see the enemy bullets coming at me and can react to them. Ultra realistic? Maybe not…but it is FUN! Particularly toward the end of this mission, I can see the anti-aircraft artillery chasing my wingman across the sky ahead, and can see the tracers and puffs of smoke from the enemy that is shooting at him, so I’m able to roll in on it has its attention on him.

For VR, I’m probably going to need to pull those wingman menus and other onscreen text closer to the middle edges of the screen since I can only barely see them in VR. Though I could just map a different button to the “edge peek” function of vorpX - right now it defaults to the middle mouse button. Edge peek just lets you hit the button and the whole screen zooms out to allow you to see the entire screen in a theater type mode…it is quick, efficient, does not affect the game, and works.

You have to love the anti-aircraft artillery effects in SF2 as well. The thump and pop of the shells blowing up near you, the smoke puffs, and the occasional hits on your fuselage…all are fantastic.

My loadout on this mission were CBUs, 500 pound bombs, and rockets. I also like to modify the aircraft INI file to allow for larger bomb intervals. Many of them are like 20,50,100 choices and I prefer 50, 200, 300 to give me a nice spread of bombs that usually result in better results.

And yes, I’m using a modified cockpit other than the one that usually is installed with the A-1 (Dells created the original) - this cockpit borrows the F-8 Crusader cockpit, and I just like it…purists can string me up…

Regarding wingman commands - I could see where this game might benefit from voice activated wingman commands via Voice Attack or something. I’ll have to investigate that.

And finally - this sim/game in its modded state would be absolutely KILLER in multi-player. You know you want to do it TK - so do it!

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 3:04pm

IL-2: 1946 with the HP Reverb and vorpX…

1946 “hooks” to vorpX just fine. Use DirectX mode within IL-2. I’m using some UltraPack that looks great. I know zero about 1946, so I’m not much help…but I can see how it would appeal to people due to the immense amount of action going on. It looks great in DirectX mode, the 3D mode looks great in vorpX. I don’t know how IL-2 handles cockpit view parameters, but they are a bit constrained to the left and right - like I couldn’t crane my neck around 180 degrees behind me, so you hit a limit which would be nice to get rid of. Field of view settings in IL-2 have 3 levels I believe, and the widest view is OK for VR…but could probably stand to be a shade wider still. I don’t know how to access those settings.

wheelsup_cavu · February 5, 2020, 5:11pm

I still remember you writing an article for PC pilot about 1946 when the Daidalos Team first took over the Official updates with v409. The Mudspike link I have for the draft of the article is long broken but I can almost guarantee I have it on a hard drive somewhere.

I tried finding it at PC pilot but the articles don’t seem to go all the way back to 2009.

https://tinyurl.com/u8ubk56

Wheels

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 5:27pm

Wow…I’ve wasted an entire morning having fun with this. I still don’t think you should buy vorpX, but good grief it plays pretty good with 1946…flying formation with some of these aircraft is just awesome. And there is soooo much going on… @smokinhole owes me a beer for pushing me in this direction…Now, nobody say “EECH”…

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 5:39pm

Yeah…that one and the article I wrote way back in 2008 on the Mossie were two of the hardest articles to write for the magazine since I’m admittedly not the most ardent WW2 fan. I struggled with those articles. I think I did a Wings of Power one too on WW2 stuff, and I think those might have been the only three I’ve written about that era in the 12 years I’ve been writing for the magazine.

Aginor · February 5, 2020, 5:40pm

The amount of flashbacks those screenshots caused for me is stunning.

wheelsup_cavu · February 5, 2020, 5:45pm

Whoa, flashbacks to Baa Baa Black sheep TV series.
https://youtu.be/3pvzA6-tSqE?t=1m2s

Wheels

smokinhole · February 5, 2020, 5:50pm

I owe you lots of beers for lots of things, @BeachAV8R. But I can clearly see the rabbit hole and have no desire to step anywhere close to it. 1946 was the sim where I learned how much fun online air combat can be. That was the best of times. But I can never go back.

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 8:44pm

You don’t owe me anything. You’ve been buying me a few beers each month if I recall…

Ah…I might have been sort of lucky in that regard. I probably have only accumulated about 5 hours of 1946 gameplay. I think I was stuck on EECH and Longbow 2 during those years mostly…so I have a nice treat to explore if I can find the time.

chipwich · February 5, 2020, 9:24pm

IL-2 '46 might be the first sim that looks better in VR than 2D. Nice screens Beach

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 10:09pm

Speaking of rabbit holes…!

fearlessfrog · February 5, 2020, 10:21pm

You madman!

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 10:41pm

It’s like another, another, another level of fun. You know how it is. Get a widescreen monitor…oh…go check out all your old games and see how they look. Get TrackIR…oh…go check out all your old games and see how they look. Get a VR headset…oh…go and check out all your old games to see IF they work. Got vorpX…go check out all your old games that you never saw in VR…

I’m definitely not getting anything done this week.

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 10:44pm

EECH is interesting in that I can’t head tracking to work in the cockpit unless I use Open Track. If I don’t use Open Track, I can get the external view to pan around just fine using the VR headset because it is using Mouse Look - but I can’t get Mouse Look working in the cockpit to do the same thing. Open Track works fine though…but you do have an order of operations:

WMR
vorpX
Open Track
EECH

All works fine in that order. Again, I might need to adjust the EECH.ini or whatever controls the FOV because the widest field of view could still stand to be another 10 or 15 degrees greater I think.

BeachAV8R · February 5, 2020, 11:36pm

Very rough video of EECH. Hard to hold the phone in the eyepiece while holding the VR headset and sort of trying not to crash. Obviously, it is much, much clearer in the headset…I’m trying my best not to let my phone camera hit the lens of the Reverb lest I scratch it.

BeachAV8R · February 6, 2020, 3:36am

Arma 3 is absolutely awesome with vorpX. Works out of the box, but you’ll probably want to tinker with both in game and vorpX settings to find a best quality solution. This game I actually prefer to run in “Immersive Screen” mode which mostly fills the screen, is still 3D, but allows you to see the edges of the screen by moving your head so you can see the A3 menus…

Helicopters are great. Tank interiors are really cool. It’s all very impressive…