VR in P3D v4.3 is getting good...

Flight Sims
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I’ve been a big fan of how Laminar Research has hopped on the VR train early with X-Plane - and their implementation (including their hand controller integration) is still a few steps ahead of P3D. Lockheed Martin is making inroads now though.

I hadn’t updated my P3D v4 install since way before my summer vacation, so I finally got around to it last night. Their native VR improvements have come a long way. The really nice thing is that you can toggle VR on and off without having to exit the sim - you just go up to the menu bar and deselect it and you are back in 2D play.

With regards to performance, things are much, much better. I’m using medium settings and am finding smooth performance in complex scenery. Most airplanes work fine, but I did find the TFDi 717 was a bit too resource heavy. Almost everything else seems to be fine though.

I don’t know if hand manipulators are working in any respect yet (I haven’t tried) and their “mouse dot” is not nearly as easy to use as X-Plane or DCS implementation…but they are getting there.

Once you are in VR, you get an additional VR settings menu with some minor adjustment things - but the “single pass rendering” seems to give me the best performance.

Sorry for the Rift split goggles view…

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One of my favorites in P3D - the Iris C-27J…

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She looks like my ex-girlfriend…

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External views look very good and cinematic in VR…

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Instrument readability is pretty good…

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The C-27J night HUD view is fantastic in VR…

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The RAZBAM Metro III is one of the best looking 3D pits in VR that I’ve ever seen. A shame I don’t know how to start it…haha…

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Fokker 27 is a nice plane too. Instruments seem a tad “shimmery” in VR though…

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The JustFlight Arrow III is probably the best piston GA aircraft I have for P3D. The textures are just phenomenal, and it has a fantastic feel…almost…very AccuSim-ish…

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So if you haven’t dipped your toe back into P3D VR, give it a whirl…I’d like to hear what other’s are experiencing. I’m just thrilled that I can keep my detail level high, am getting fluid frames in dense scenery areas (ORBX), and the sim is looking very pretty.

This makes me extremely interested to give the Aerosoft A318/319 Professional a whirl in VR…

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What do the MH-60S and MH-60R look like in VR?

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I’ll take a look… :slight_smile: I’ll post up a few pics in a bit…

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They look OK - I’d give them grade C though. They are old models acquired from Virtavia. They do give a good sense of the helicopter visually…but not much systems wise. The rough textures still look rough in VR.

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Panels are clear enough…but limited functionality of course…

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This flight did lead to a genuinely terrifying flight sim moment. Just after taking off out of Blue Canyon / Nyack airport, I went into a thick cloud…and while I was distracted looking around at the instrument panels, I allowed the helo to slow too much and it had a severe nose up pitch. I look forward and the radar altimeter is passing through a few hundred feet and in a matter of second the trees are screaming out of the mist. Dead. Very visceral feeling…yuck…

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Is this using FlyInsideXP, or is it VR native to P3D?

Edit: just reread that it is native.

Is FlyinsideXP even needed anymore?

I purchased P3D version 1 or 2 many moons ago, but applied for and received a refund. However this topic grabs by interest.

Thanks, John

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Not IMO, unless you have Leap Motion gear (compatible with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive). While it was a revolutionary tool prior to native support of VR in P3D, the last time that I used FlyInsde, it seemed like an unnecessary layer over an already resource-strapped environment. I’m not sure that it is being further developed.

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Those are definitely hold-over pits, and not really representative of a Sierra or Romeo, which are fully digital except for a couple of backup instruments. Not a huge deal, I was just curious!

How do the flight modelling and physics compare to say, DCS and and the Huey?

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I would not expect much. DCS and XP are much better for helicopters hands down.

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If you hold your laptop screen really close, kind of let you eyes defocus…and put a piece of cardboard you your nose, you can sort of get the 3D VR view from @BeachAV8R’s screen shots…either that our you can see a dolphin riding a unicorn…got a bit of a headache now. :dizzy_face:

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Holy… I thought this was a joke, but gave it a try anyway. Totally works! Just like those 3d books with all the noise. Unfocus your eyes and those shots are in 3d!!

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Yep. It is essentially the same technique we used on tactical recce film. The recce jet is taking pics in fast sequence (and is going fast) so you get a lot of overlap at a slightly angle each frame.

We use a simple two lense thing with legs to keep it at correct height.

This can be used to determine elevation of objects. This is important. If you have a target sitting atop a 50ft man-made hill, just getting its LatbLong is only half the job. A bomb coming in at an angle (as most do) will try to hit that Lat/Long at the given elevation of the area, and impact the side of the hill.

But with a little stereoscopic imagery interpretion, you can figure target elevation. And Shack! :sunglasses:

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Well damn, that makes perfect sense. If you know the speed of the camera, and the speed of the jet while taking the pictures you could get an accurate 3d map. Thanks for that!

Viewmasters been around forever. They must have been using this technique for quite some time. Any idea how far back it goes?

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It goes back a loooong time. At least early 1900s.

In the 1980’s 1990’s I saw a camera that I almost bought that had two lenses that made pics like that.

This is a photo of one of the Intelligence Specialists (IS) that worked for me on the STENNIS. His speciality is photo/imagery interpretation. One of my best IS’s

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This is a standard light table. The film is from the last F-14 TARPS mission ever flown. Yes, that is the original size of each frame. In this photo he he is doing an initial visual scan and marking frames of interest with for analysis. Just in from of him you can see a microscope-like set of eyepieces. They can be used to set up and examine stereo pairs.

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I get a bit of a chuckle when I see this photo. This is the film (the initial negative) coming out of the processor. The guy “checking it” is the TARPS intel officer in VF-31…who knows very little about imagery interpretation (their business is in planning a recce mission to get the “take” we need…not an easy task) , plus the film is rolling by too fast to really examine it. At best he is seeing if the negatives look OK and are usable…you usually just take a look at a few since you can tell right away if something went wrong.

Still, you got t love that very serious expression.

There is no more wet film in the Navy. It is all electronic like SHARP. That said, you can do the same thing by using the same method that Hollywood uses to make 3D movies…and yes, you have to wear the geeky 3D glasses.

EDIT: For @Navynuke99…look two photos from inside CVIC! So how about a couple of happy snaps from the main spaces. :wink:

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image

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