VTOL VR

Wow…low approach and way off centerline…but still some cool angles…

3 Likes

Haha…the arresting gear guys are pulling their hair out with these approaches. This guy appears to actually break the arresting cable… :rofl:

1 Like

Man I love this game. And I love watching other people love this game. Here are some more traps…this time a little saner. I didn’t know the F/A-26B (the fighter in the game) has variable geometry inlets…around 1:30 you can see them moving…

2 Likes

It looks fun. Just for discussion’s sake (as don’t want to make this seem you have to defend it and all that jazz) but why would you sit down and start this up when you could land the hornet in DCS? Is it the VR controls a la X-Plane, or the clarity of the graphics, or the ‘less hassle’ factor? Curious on what makes you click that icon vs another, when we are lucky to have the choices now.

1 Like

This game looks like it has pretty awesome potential. My biggest hurdle is not being able to put my hands on a throttle and stick (as I understand it, you ‘grasp’ them in the virtual world and I feel like I need that feedback to be able to make fine control inputs). But everything that they add makes it more and more tempting. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I honestly don’t know. It is just really immersive for some reason. The hand motions and the virtual controllers “just work” for this sim for some odd reason. And I swear, I can see the ball so well on carrier landings and feel that power makes it move. I think mostly it comes down to - in VR, it is made for readability and usability, and I love VR so much that when a product just fits that just right, it is really great. And what is odd is I really haven’t done much other than just fly around in it, do some tanking, carrier takeoffs and landings, but really haven’t done much in the way of combat or missions at all. It is just really fun to fly around in. Man, if it had multi-player, I’d be screaming at you all to get in game. Haha…

2 Likes

And I’m going to review it at some point. I just end up putzing around in it each time I fire it up and don’t do any “hard punching investigative journalism”…haha…

I am a disciple of the Church of @smokinhole VR Controllers, in that for X-Plane I’ve made the jump to push back the chair and use the VR controllers for it all, despite having a HOTAS all set up and ready to go. As @smokinhole has said, for helos and using the cyclic especially, it is far better than you’d think it would be. Despite the lack of ‘physical’ there is just something about it that really makes it very immersive.

2 Likes

I would hazard two things:

  1. This was designed for VR, meaning that as a flight sim it doesn’t have to make compromises for non-VR (fonts for VR, displays for VR, no HOTAS config for a million peripherals);
  2. It requires knowledge but doesn’t require the weight of real world ops (meaning it is more relaxing because it isn’t as close … meaning it can be treated lighter without actually being lighter);

I’m stretching to explain what I mean on that last one :slight_smile:

3 Likes

But I like my peripherals! I’ve also spent most of my adult life striving to get those peripherals because I didn’t have them when I was younger :slight_smile: and now technology is starting to suggest that they are no longer necessary! Heresy!

If multi-player was available, I would be unable to resist.

2 Likes

Yeah, interestingly, I find the precision in this game in particular, with the hand controllers instead of hardware, very, very intuitive. I think part of it is the very cool feature of being able to auto adjust the “resting” control locations using the “auto” button. So I just rest my forearms on the comfy arms of my computer, hit the button to set that where I want my hands to grip the stick and throttle, and then I can just sit back and relax, and also find that position in a second without struggling.

It is really interesting in the VTOL aircraft (the AV-42C) I can takeoff vertically and almost just think my hand positions into the proper place to hold the carrier steady as I sideslip in the aircraft. It is incredibly precise and natural, moreso than I’ve experienced with hardware controllers paired with helos in other sims. Kinda weird I know.

@Fridge - you are correct, designed for VR, so it is VR specific and the developer has that to consider foremost. So it stands to reason that everything feels natural.

And yes, since there is no real world comparison, there isn’t the nit-picking that you’d find with other sims. I mean, I don’t know what the wing loading would be for the AV-42C, but it probably shouldn’t be able to fly like it does. Of course, who says that the environment we are operating is Earth’s atmosphere too…who knows?

And even though it is lite in some areas, the targeting, TGP, weapons, HUD, and commands are all quite deep from what I’ve dabbled in. I’m pretty happy that I’ve preserved a lot of the sim to still peel back in the coming months.

1 Like

Nah…hardware isn’t going anywhere for certain things. I still love my hardware stick and throttle in Aerofly FS2 VR…mostly because I’m just used to them in that setting (like you were saying…expectations!). But I think I could easily shed them for simple stick and rudder planes and helos where the focus is more on the flying than systems. I sure do wish that bush pilot sim that is coming out were going to be VR (I haven’t read anything to suggest it is)…

1 Like

@fearlessfrog…my first deacon. But of course I resisted longer than most; so I am no founder. But I am a proselytizer for sure. If you want an even better experience, fly a helicopter like the B407 that allows for wrist rotation so that you can rest your wrist on your thigh as opposed to wrist translation (realistic but fatiguing). For some reason the Bell 412 only allows the 2nd option. (See VR options). Remember also that force trim still works. You only need to return your wrist to center and release the trim. It also reduces fatigue considerably.

Anyway, this is not just some quirky way to fly a sim. Before I went to training I taught myself quite a lot about the 757 by flying from a chair in the middle of a room. After having since flown several actual crossings in both the 757 and 767 I can vouch for miming VR as a silly but totally legitimate learning tool.

(Oh and sorry…I didn’t even peak to see what thread I was replying to. This comment was in regards to X-Plane.)

2 Likes

Really cool. I mean, I think in some ways it beats the cardboard sims for getting the hands going in the right spots. At least you can also interact and make the system “go” (or “stop”) to sort of complete the hand/brain learning. I’d be surprised if pilots of aicraft like SpaceShip2 and similar weren’t using VR to fly their profiles and train for what they might see out the window and in the aircraft.

You’ve totally captured what VTOL VR requires of its players. The depth of systems deployment shows an obvious knowledge of study sims like DCS on the part of the developer. What he did was design feature-rich systems that can be operated intuitively.

3 Likes

Can I steal that paragraph for my review? I’ll credit you… :rofl:

1 Like

Are you kidding!? I plagiarize you all the time! :grin:

2 Likes

Even Stevens then. :smiley:

1 Like

That new desert-ish map is pretty cool. I don’t know what I’m doing in this mission (it’s the F/A-26B) but I love the environment.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/408290968232525868/539062076275032075/AFTMTNHILLS_Map_Demo_Raid_0.1.zip

1 Like

This is weird flight sim.

In VR it makes you really fell to be more fighter pilot than dcs , immersion is awesome!!

You dont have to fight against rez or dry your eyes to try to spot.

It feels so natural and you dont be like blind man. More real world spotting and seeing fell. Hard to explain.

-edit- and personally i think that scale of everything is more spot on than dcs. Thats one reason why it feels so natural. Dcs scale is bit off here and there because its made for monitors first before headsets.