VR News

We are? I thought we were just covering stuff that interested us. I don’t think we are pushing anything. I’d guess that the people that have tried it and like it are pretty vocal about it though (off the top of my head me, Frog, Troll, and Paul…) It is pretty wild technology and we like it - no conspiracy to get anyone to buy anything. I promise.

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I get it - and no worries. My only endorsement for it is that the first time I put on my Rift and tried DCS World and FSX - it was the closest I’ve ever felt to being in an airplane outside of being in my airplane. So it is pretty compelling stuff for me. But it has it’s downsides as you mention. Resolution and our controllers are the obvious ones.

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My experience also, don’t fly anymore, so VR enables me to scratch all my itches.

I don’t think anyone is pushing VR, they are simply enthusiastic based on their experience…in a thread titled “VR news”

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At the end of the day it is each to their own. I remember when Track-IR came out and I was pretty skeptical. I had played for years using a hat switch for view control (which worked just fine), so why would I want or need an expensive gadget to do that? … And then I tried it. There was no going back even if I had to wear a baseball hat with a silly looking reflective clip and the lighting in the room had to be just right, and I had to learn to look out of the corner of my eye to see the monitor at times when I was not looking forward. VR is the same deal (but Multiplied by a factor of 10).

I AM pretty vocal when it comes to VR. That isn’t because I am trying to push a product on anyone, or justify my own purchase. I just don’t want my friends to miss out on something that is pretty amazing. It changes the entire simulation experience, and we are all interested in getting as close as we can to the experience of flying these aircraft right? The strengths of current gen VR far, FAR outweigh the negatives. You certainly have to adapt and work around some of those limitations, and some of the gear you currently use will become somewhat redundant. I think that is the biggest hurdle for some people to get over.

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I have to agree Paul you have summed it up most eloquently. If it wasn’t such a game changer we probably would not bleat on so much. I can also see how our enthusiasm may seem excessive to folk who have not experienced it yet and I can only apologise for that.:vulcan:

I guess I’m a bit vocal about VR as well…
But I truly believe it’s the best thing to happen to flightsims, since TrackIR.
I had a blast flightsimming with TiR and a 2D screen. But VR is such a big improvement that I prefer not to use TiR and 2D screens anymore. But that’s how I feel about it. I don’t have a problem with people feeling otherwise. :vr:

Just going to stick this in, I don’t know whether BBC is available online worldwide though but I think this looks interesting and something new to try

I don’t have VR (yet), but I don’t feel anyone here at Mudspike is overdoing the recommendations for it. Every time I see a post from a user that talks about the VR aspect of that sim or game, I am glad I am getting that perspective from someone who has it. I treat it the same way we all did when TrackIR became a thing. It got a lot of mentions by simmers because it really was (and still is) a game changer.

The reason I don’t have it yet is primarily money. It is both a video card upgrade and the headset, which is a significant outlay for my hobby at this time. Having said that I admit to also having reservations like @linebacker has mentioned regarding the wearing of the device. For me it is not because of not being able to see my desk, but more the “being removed from the outside world” aspect. My wife and I have a great relationship (she games too!) and I enjoy still being able to interact with her while I am gaming. She has always been great about respecting when a session is “serious” like the recent BMS learning session I recently had with @AeroMechanical and @near_blind, or a Fly-in. I always try to give her advance notice of sim times and she pushes back when it feels like too much time is being spent gaming. I know this all might seem like too much information, but I am trying to paint a picture of the fear of that dynamic changing for the worst when I leave their world for my own via a headset.

I am curious if some here would be comfortable talking about that aspect of VR - How do you manage the disconnecting from the real world, the blocking of your senses to outside stimulus, and how you manage the relationships with the people or pets you are disconnecting from?

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That’s a good comment Tanker. I supposed adding visual blockout to the auditory block from headphones would complete my journey to another world, as it were!

muahahahaha!

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Very good and valid points, I think balance is the key. I am actually not very comfortable gaming with anyone in the room and still feel self concious. I think the secret for me is to fly when my wife rides her horses or at least visits them and I get an hour or two. For 229th mission events I normally find she is happy to go do her own thing on her PC or Skype with her son who lives in Paris. Its like anything in a relationship agree with her constantly, show interest in her, her friends, her horses, her friends horses ad nauseam. Nod a lot and smile stupidly muttering agreements of agreement till she goes and does something else :couple_with_heart:

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Oh and I think I exude a do not disturb odour only detectable by dogs and cats because they very rarely bother me when I am gaming :smiley:

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I have a Lab-Pit mix who generally leaves me alone while flying, until dinner time of course. Then the nudging begins!

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I was called biased when I finally got my Red-Blue glasses at home.
Furiously I put the Nvidia software at work and had every game I could find in my HD to work with the anaglyph 3D.

I was soo blown away from the 3rd dimension in games (yes, even with loss of colours) that I really wanted ANYONE to try it.

To the point that some colleagues honeslty told me to stop it. :confused:

I was simply amazed by the effect and I just wanted everyone to have my experience. :frowning:

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I’m just a hardware nut. So if there’s anything new tech out there I’ll be posting

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VR is a bit different though. It is a complete package of sensory enhancement that combined makes for a completely different experience. Totally smooth 1:1 head tracking, fluid frame rate and true depth perception are all combined to create the illusion that you are really there. This is a quantum leap forward in desktop simulation, but you have to experience it because words simply don’t convey the richness of the experience.

As for how my wife perceives it, well, she is, and always has been, very tolerant of my techno-geekiness. I keep the volume at a level where I can hear her if she wishes to talk with me. I play mostly offline, so I can generally pause the sim if my full attention is needed. She also gets perverse satisfaction from sneaking up on me and making me jump. :smile: .

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I’m not much for being sucked into a game/tv/movie/book that I forget where I am, that said though, there is a game or 2 in VR which has completely transported me there. I found for me at least, to stay connected to whats going on around in VR, because it can get the paranoia going, that I’ll push back my headphones on one ear. Enough so I can hear everything still in game through it, but still be able to hear any outside stimuli.

As for pets, well my dog has taken to the idea that the giant space i cleared in the living room is for him to lay down on, he may or may not have been stepped on a few times.

Other people? I limit myself to using it to only when no one else is around for the most part, although I keep that rule with gaming in general

I just finished the UH-1 UN campaign in DCS using VR. It’s actually the first campaign I’ve finished since Rolling Thunder in F4 waaay back when!
I just haven’t been that “sucked in” to it since F4, but with VR I actually found my self waiting to get off at work, in order to go home and fly the next mission. While the UN campaign is good, I give full credit for it to VR.
Can’t wait to get started on the Argo campaign, but unfortunately haven’t got the time for it right now.
In the meantime, my VR time is mostly used with the shooting range game, Hotdogs, Horseshoes & Handgrenades . Extremely good shooting fun :hotdog:

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A much better intro into what Steam VR Home is. If you have a Vive or Rift with touch (it works with either, just use the ‘Steam VR’ in tools and opt into the Beta version in Steam). The interactive rooms really are good fun in a group.

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Those are great comments @Tankerwade - and completely understandable. It is an interesting dynamic - looking back, I have almost never used my Rift when other people are in the room. My job is unique in that I spend a LOT of time on night shifts (half my work time) which means I’m on call from 7PM to 7AM - and after midnight is my primary sim and computer time, so that is when I don the headset. Otherwise I feel sort of self conscious about it.

When my son is a bit older, I can envision both of us in VR playing flight sims and games in the same room.

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That was the thing that blew me away when I first donned the Rift. The natural movement, 1:1 scale, and just the fluid motion. I mean, I was just in awe of the A-10 cockpit…it felt like a whole new dimension to sims opened up, way more so than what I felt with TrackIR.