What the Jarhead said 
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VR gives you a whole new perspective when you purchase an aircraft online too. Let’s say you buy the Carenado TBM 850. If you’re looking at it on a 2D screen you go, “That looks great!”. If you’re looking at it in VR you go, “Holly crap! I own a TBM 850 now!”. 
I still go both ways though. IMO, VR is still in its infancy. You won’t catch me not playing this or that just because it’s not in VR. I guess running a 60” screen in 4K helps A LOT with that attitude.
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Good one that. Now that you mention it, when I got the Twin Beech in XP, because my granddad flew one corporate in the 50’s, I had a ‘moment’ when I slipped into it in VR the first time. Still do a tiny bit each time. Just not the same in 2D.
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I’m pretty sure some people think VR is like looking at a 2D screen with those stupid old 3D glasses on. Not so! Immersion is the key word here. Unparalleled head tracking and depth perception.
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Best video I’ve found to illustrate what VR is like (ripped from a post by @komemiute)
What VR is like for me, sort of
Only with better FPS. And less aliasing
No way bro. That looks nuts. You can’t quantify or qualify VR on a 2D screen PERIOD.
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I bought my TIR 4 for $130 or something when it was released. How long ago was that now anyway? I never had the 3 although I’d be looking into it, and when I finally decided to get it the 4 was brand new.
I still use it. So if you divide that by the number of years of use I’d say it’s turned out to be really cheap! Likewise I spent $10k on my family room furniture…20 years ago. The leather on the one couch has worn a bit of the paint off, but otherwise it’s still there and fine. So while it was a big upfront cost, it was quality and is now down to $500/year average for 2 couches, a chair, 2 ottomans, and a table.
Bought my Logi G27 wheel 8 years ago, still works great. Got my G940 FFB HOTAS when it came out, finally replaced it with a X56 last year when the rubberized grip became so sticky I couldn’t use it anymore. Still works, though, just not without gloves or something. I still miss the FFB. Only on my 2nd LCD monitor since I had a CRT, the first was already LED and this one is GSync, so they also last me a long time.
VR is still so new there is no way anything bought today is going to last a decade, and it’s too pricey to keep it for just a couple years and replace.
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I still use that one.
I also had the sticky rubber problem, so I scratched/rubbed off all the sticky rubbery stuff (IIRC using some kitchen/bathroom/window cleaning stuff), it is only the uppermost layer.
That is very true. I predict biyearly a new must have VR will comeout making old unit obsolete.
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I’m also looking at upgrading my VR headset every couple of years. In the case of the Rift S, it looks like it will be replaced after just 18 months.
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That’s a big financial ask for many people. My wife can just about accept my every-other-year video card (and I get the $500 or less models) and once-every-3-years CPU upgrades (and I spend $500 on CPU/mobo combined).
When it’s something else, it needs to last longer, like RAM or a drive or a peripheral.
However, all these other things have been “mature” tech for years, with the exception of SSDs which I think have just about reached that. I just last month replaced my final spinning HD with an SSD giving me an all-SSD box. I last bought the original SB X Fi sound card for PCI about 15 years ago and kept it until my last upgrade when getting a PCI slot mobo became too difficult. That said, I have been using USB sound for the last few years anyway so it didn’t matter.
I could’ve spent $150 on a PCI Express sound card but never bothered and I’m glad I saved the $$.
When VR is more mature, I think that would be the time to test the waters.
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Agree with you on the ‘amortization’ idea. I try to do that with, say, automobiles (I get a new vehicle about every 15-20 years); my HOTAS is 20 years old; etc.
As far a VR goes though, to me it still applies; The $3-400 I spent on my O+ has boiled down to a few cents per hour, if that, for a more enhanced experience.
It’s like…while they both have the function of displaying images to you, the experience is not equal. To me. We each have our own definition of what is an “experience”.
My history within flight sims is such that VR, even with the Gen-1 gear, the sensation of flight is so much more advanced. Had I ‘grown up’ with hi-rez monitors and 32 bpp color I’d probably be waiting too. Maybe.
I’m different concerning vehicular transportation, as an example of the contrary; the fundamentals haven’t really changed in over a 100 years. It’s a machine with a power plant to move me from point A to point B.
Spending [a lot] of money every year or two to get a few more gadgets makes no sense to me. Sport bikes now…ohhhhh…that’s a different experience! But I’ve no use for one anymore; commuting to work, track days (I don’t heal that fast anymore; it gets expensive), etc.
I can totally understand the reasoning behind your argument. I told myself the same thing. And then I tried VR and got hooked. To justify my purchase I told myself that if everybody waited until the tech matured, it never would…
So whatever the reasoning, it will always be valid, for you.
Not everybody are hooked by VR the way I was. I guess there was a certain amount of recognition factor, when I donned the VR goggles the first time. That feeling of actually sitting in the cockpit hit me hard. No going back from that.
But VR has numerous drawbacks and if you don’t get that big positive feeling, all the small negative feelings will win. As with everything else in life, your mileage may vary.
For me, the positive outweigh the negative. But I can’t tell if you or anybody else will feel the same about it.
I actually find it hard to recommend VR to anyone… I always tell people to try it first, or buy from a store with a good return policy. Their experience may vary between love it or hate it, or anything in between. And I haven’t got a clue as to which it will be.
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Better said than I did. I’d promote it hard but no one I know anywhere near my age even owns a PC…hmm…maybe that’s why I’m here [this forum]
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