X-Plane Public VR Preview

I’m clearly among true friends… :smirk:

1 Like

Ok, updated performance tips. X-Plane is a bit weird. :slight_smile:

I’ve had the best results doing the following:

  • For this VR beta, just temporarily, rename your X-Plane / Output directory (so XP makes a fresh one when it starts), just to reset all your settings back to default. The VR will not like plugins, so this is also a way to make sure you aren’t running any. Remember, you don’t need any controllers set-up, so just hit ‘Ignore’ and set graphics to Medium and you’re ready to go.

  • Disabling the Oculus ASW thing in the Oculus Tray Tool like this:

image

  • Setting the Steam VR ASW things to this:

image

  • Set SuperSampling to 1.5 (on a 1070, 1080 can probably allow more). Note: you can do this on the fly in game, just to see how it looks for clarity. I am not sure it even does anything as yet though.

  • Considering not running Oculus Home by default, as in put it to run with an ‘Admin’ prompt, like this - Oculus Home 2 - #8 by fearlessfrog

image

So my environment is the Oculus Home version 1 (not the beta v2), the Steam VR Beta Channel and up to date Nvidia drivers.

The Microlight is especially good. Here’s my X-Plane settings for reference.

image

3 Likes

Thanks fearless. Waiting for my in-laws to go to bed. Unlike @BeachAV8R, mine have shacked up with us for the week. I guess that I could lock myself in the home office and go under the hood.

2 Likes

Other non-obvious things that I did wrong for quite a while, so wanted to share:

  • If you have any cockpit control ‘grab’ issues with the large jets then put back Super Sampling to 1.0. I think there is a bug.

  • For the ‘twist knobs’ you literally turn your wrist like you are holding the actual knob, i.e. ‘press trigger and then rotate your whole controller/wrist around’. It works great.

  • For reversers and flaps you need to physically move the controller like in real life, i.e. ‘lift and slide’ for notches etc.

  • The yoke/stick (in the left controller works best for me) is actually really nice. As described in the X-Plane dev blog link above, you just tilt the controller up/down (you don’t push pull) and rotate left/right. As it ignores any lateral movement when in this highlighted mode (click yoke with trigger to activate it highlighted blue) then you can rest your arm but still get really accurate controls.

  • It works better with some physical room, i.e. lean into the FMS etc. If you have a desk then either disable your rudder pedals (disabled rudders mean you can yaw using the yoke) or move them in-front of your chair so your feet can reach them. Push your chair back from your desk, so you can reach forward like in a real cockpit without putting your hand controllers through your monitor :slight_smile:. Basically, clear a space and it works well. Use the menu button / ‘reset pilot view’ button when in a good space. If you do stay are your desk then consider moving your sensor tracking cameras, as they need to see you hands clearly, so maybe one of them down low etc.

  • The iPad/Map works well, you can ‘dock’ it with your yoke and ‘laser point’ in and use the joystick to zoom in/out pan etc.

  • On Oculus if you press click the thumb joystick down you enter ‘teleport move’ mode (sort of like a ‘throw arc line’ appears, with a circle where you will land). You can rotate your stick around to see which way you face, indicated by a red line on the circle. It is a really nice thing to go to ‘Circle View’ and then do an aircraft walk-around. The big jets really do feel big, and it’s nice to inspect the undercarrage, wings and generally have a look around the airport. Is going to be huge for scenery designers as you can effectively ‘get out of the aircraft’ at any time and move around. Cool.

So far so good. It shows great potential. I landed a 737 in a quick loop around YVR (got family here too) and I don’t think I’ve ever found it so natural, as in hand on yoke, hand on throttle levers on approach. Seemed so much easier and natural…

5 Likes

Wow…that’s a great endorsement…! Can’t wait to try it. I should be able to tomorrow (taking my VR rig on the road!)…

2 Likes

Would you recommend using that Oculus tray tool for every tweak over the debugging tool in the Rift software? I sometimes feel it only works some of the time depending on it’s mood particularly the ASW change.

New to Rift, only had it a week. Thanks.

For ASW on/off the tray tool should be calling the same API as the Debugging tool. Sometimes a game will need to be restarted if you change a setting in either though. I keep the Tray tool around as I use the power options for the fresco power management bits, as I have a PCIe USB board that needs it.

Thanks for the reply.
Is there a particular order to make changes eg, open debugging thingy and make the adjustment, open the rift app, launch dcs and voila?
Reason I asked is because it seems hit or miss sometimes whether it works or not. Maybe I am not consistent or just thick :wink:

I’ve not noticed any inconsistency with the Tray Tool, so my order is pretty much this:

  • Let Oculus Tray Tool start-up when Windows starts ups (to do my Fresco power options, to prevent USB power drops that lose tracking).

  • Run the game.

  • Remember I need to fiddle with it, when noticing bad performance :slight_smile:

  • Alt-tab etc out of game, right click Tray tools and ‘show application’.

  • I’ll change the ‘ASW Mode’ setting i.e. force to Off or force to 45 etc.

  • I’ll likely change the Visual HUD to ‘Performance’ as you can see the graph on the left in the HMD alter, usually to a fixed 45 etc. If it works then I’ll turn off the Visual HUD.

  • Play.

I don’t bother with the View/Add Profiles and tend to do pixel density or super sampling in game if I can (as that tends to be saved in the games config rather than me having to remember it).

For the hit or miss, do you run DCS as ‘admin’? I wonder if sometimes it’s not a permissions thing?

Great info thanks :slight_smile:
I’ll check all that next time I run dcs, away from it all just now.

Hmm…I cannot seem to get the checkbox to show up in my X-Plane menus to enable VR. I have SteamVR installed, but I’m also not seeing X-Plane in my Oculus Menu as a foreign app…

Maybe I’m not on beta…standby…

Yep…I think that was it. Always Step #1 I miss…

2 Likes

Wow. Looks cool. It will take some tweaking to get my setup feeling good…but I like what I see so far. They’ve really put a lot of work and thought into the controller menus and functionality.

1 Like

If you get ‘glitching’ looking around then see above in the thread for the ASW witchcraft tips.

Also, using the MCP on the 737 is a joy now, the twisting of things like the Speed knob just works really well. Really enjoying it, and don’t even mind having to ‘lean in’ to some of the displays that much (like Mr Magoo became a commercial pilot I guess). I’m pretty sure they’ve disabled Pixel Density / Super Sampling, so we just have to use 1.0 and put up with that for now. Just like the iPad map, I can see things like the FMS being a ‘pop-out’ holdable window. When that day happens, I think I’m going to uninstall poor ol FSX/Flyinside.

Also, don’t forget to try the new microlight - works really well in VR.

Most 3rd party aircraft don’t have a yoke hooked up, but the stock aircraft in this beta all do (maybe not the F-4).

Also, should say - if you don’t own XP then the demo version can have VR enabled. Just download it as normal, then opt-in to the Beta in the launcher, and it VR’s just fine. Good to get an idea of how (this very early) version will work on your system Try It - X-Plane.

2 Likes

I went for a walk around my Cessna to try this out and it’s brilliant, I was at Morlaix airport in France (my local) and I got carried away and ended up going for a walk around the area. What was really funny is I had so much traffic on the roads it was murder trying to cross the road. I was actually standing at the kerb waiting for a gap and jumping over the road :slight_smile: I really should grow up and concentrate more !

6 Likes

Love the twisting of the knobs! :slight_smile: Thanks for all the tips so far @fearlessfrog.

X-Plane VR is now forcing me to adjust my two Rift “cameras” for the Touch controller activity. They USED to be about 6 feet apart up high, slightly behind my monitors and facing parallel toward me (great for Onward where I’m standing back from my desk wandering around shooting at baddies) but now I have them set up at the good ol’ 10 and 2 o’clock positions to the sides and slightly in front of my monitors pointing inwards so they can capture my down low cockpit interactions. (why does this remind me of the Clinton administration?) It goes against the Oculus sensor setup rules which you have to click to confirm but it works beautifully for both first person shooter and cockpit scenarios.

1 Like

I don’t know. I flew a back to back comparison of XP VR and P3D with FlyInside and I actually prefer the latter. The Touch controllers feel somewhat cumbersome IMO. At least compared to how easily you can navigate around a 3D pit with P3D/FI. In XP the Touch felt a bit awkward. And I get much better frames in P3D/FI. Like low 60s compared to mid 30s. I probably need more time tweaking XP VR.

FYI, the Xtreme Prototypes GLJ 25SE is simply amazing in VR. You can’t appreciate that 3D panel in 2D. Really an amazing piece of work in VR.

2 Likes

Me too. I have to have one pointing down low. I don’t rerun the set-up or anything, I just grab the sensor cameras and it figures it out after I do a ‘reset to 3d pilot position’ (or whatever it is called).

It is early days for this for sure. Plus the stock aircraft can’t really compete with some of the detail or pedigree of the P3D payware either. I am just glad that XP is in the VR game now, as previously Austin had made lots of noise about it not being worth it - it looks like they are now pretty keen. To make VR better in XP they have to improve framerate, and even if you don’t use the goggles then that will be better for everyone.

2 Likes

Wow can’t wait to sell my house and get into a new one so I can set all my stuff back up. If my yoke becomes redundant that is all for the better to save on cabling and space.

1 Like