A guy who is far too happy overviews the features (good if you’ve not seen it working):
Personally, I am very happy with it. Even on world details at Low, things like the Ortho scenery really work well and are framerate friendly. Took a quick tour of around KSFO today and it was more or less perfect.
I discovered you can use the in VR menu and get up ground services etc, so when the proper map is available (to get frequencies etc) then it will be great.
Anyone gets a workaround for keyboard and mouse or Xbox control so I don’t have to wait to buy the rift controllers just for xplane
I’ve been pondering getting P3D/FI just for the good VR. You think I should go for it @chipwich? Is it THAT good?
One does not go to Mudspike to be talked OUT OF buying something. 
That’s such a subjective question LB, and it probably depends on how invested you are in another sim, like XP. I do think that today, P3D/FI is the superior VR experience. But in a month or 2 of XP VR development, it’s anyone’s guess. P3D has superior add-on aircraft by a large margin and well developed utilities like Active Sky. But the ease of access to free ortho tiles for XP and proven developers now creating aircraft for XP somewhat negate those advantages.
I’m talking brass tacks here … frames per second on default everything and I’m thinking P3D wins by a large margin.
If VR frames per second is your metric then Aerofly FS 2 is probably the best for you. Far better than this initial early beta of XP VR and much faster and better looking than P3D.
But you’re also looking at this instant and not the near future. Unfortunately no one can give a concrete glimpse of the near future.
That’s going in the Discobot fortune quote list. 
Until today I had no idea what Aerofly FS 2 was so I had to do a Mudspike/YouTube search on it and I was quite surprised at how nice it looks … with native VR no less! VERY tempting!
I do like the idea of worldwide/hometown airport coverage though so I’m not quite ready to pull the trigger on that yet.
I was about to pull the trigger on P3Dv4 though but then I saw this vid …
… the old MSFS flight sim look and feel just doesn’t appeal to me anymore so I’ll be sticking with X-Plane 11 and all it has to offer. FlyInside is currently broken with X-Plane 11.20 btw.
(I haven’t even looked at Ortho4XP so I’m also looking forward to that)
Yeah, I think that’s the right call LB. XP probably has the brightest future.
What is frustrating right now is that XP has been rolling out updates so quickly that aircraft developers are having a hard time keeping up. Carenado is in a huge tailspin because they have so many aircraft (50), that they can’t possibly keep pace with the pace of change. Customers are really beating them up on the forums.
Definitely not a good situation. I own the B1900D for XP11 but I’m just gunna let it simmer for a bit as well as the whole VR idea.
IMO, first gen VR BARELY pulls off close to mid range firefights in titles like Onward. How is it supposed to tackle highly detailed civilian and combat flight sims? Have you tried a night VR flight in X-Plane? All the individual points of light like stars and whatnot are way too overblown. 
The rate of change for xplane while good for users is not great for third party devs. Which in turn ends up not being good for users. It’s a weird dynamic that has no real solution that works for everyone.
Still, as bad as it is, the Carenado Do228, Thranda Kodiak, and JustFlight Arrows are all in pretty good shape. As much as I eagerly await every Carenado release, I wish that they would focus on a core fleet of aircraft, say 10, so that the developers are are not overburdened. Their 3D modeling is obviously beyond reproach, but they need to give the systems guys some relief.
Current gen VR is the biggest tease in the world to me right now … it gives you that sense of being there … but it’s a bit blurry! 
I agree Linebacker, I am a Rift user for 3 weeks and this is how it’s gone for me. First few times I’m blown away, then I start fiddling with it to try to get a better picture with not a great deal of success, now feeling a bit disappointed because I love the scenery and modules in DCS, but already I have accepted it’s limitations and am just concentrating on the positives, like the thrill of almost being there, last night I just did an hour floating around in the Huey and it’s got me loving it again. X-Plane I am finding better as for some reason I expect less in there than I do DCS.
Only a few weeks for me so my opinion is not one to go by.
ps I have a high spec set up and can’t imagine how it would be with something just scraping through the VR demands.
So getting back to this - tonight I finally had a couple hours (well, one hour) to sit in front of my computer and go through the excellent tips that @fearlessfrog gave further up in this thread. I renamed my OUTPUT folder, made the changes to the Tray Tool and Steam VR…and whoa! I mean…anyone who experiences VR cockpit has just got to be floored over and over again by the technology. It is insane.
First real impressions - I took the default Cessna 172, plunked it out in Bermuda (islands are great for FPS!) and was tickled to death with the reaching around the cockpit and grabbing things, twisting them, hitting buttons on the Garmin. It feels great. Not perfect…but great.
One quick realization I have is that my PC gaming area is waaaaay too small for some of this VR stuff that has you reaching. I mean, I literally have about a 4’ by 4’ box I’m sitting in…and that just doesn’t cut it when you are reaching for flaps in the MD-80. Anyway, yes, the controls are unique…the yoke works, but I’ll always prefer hardware…but it does work. I was getting pretty good FPS at a bit above medium settings.
I switched to the mainland and one of my custom scenery areas and things began to tank a bit…but recovered well enough. Definitely a “medium settings” situation at the moment…which is good enough. The jump/walking stuff is insanely fun. I walked all around Lufker Spadaro and felt like I should come across someone grilling steaks behind a hangar.
I only tried a few aircraft. The Cessna 172 looks great. The MD80 is insanely fun…all those switches on the overhead panel that you can reach up and flick…just amazing. I tried some of my 3rd party stuff…and a lot of the controls didn’t work…as to be expected. I do wish I could get the Laminar X-15 working…I could grab the throttle, but not the stick.
My plan for tomorrow is to try it all out in a clean XP11 install (I have one I was using earlier today)…so I don’t have a bunch of other stuff perhaps cluttering up the works (meshes, scenery…etc…).
Overall it is a really nice start by Laminar on this…particularly the Touch controllers and the menu systems. Really nice. And yes, I do need a garage.
^This.
I wonder if people that are screaming for haptic VR gloves, and what not, are aware of the area needed…
And the fact that they have to clear this area of obstructions, and that your physical controllers indeed may be one of those obstructions.
VR controllers are cool and all that, but I hope there still will be a type of wand control to point and click, as opposed to reach and click.
I too want a garage! I mean, I have a garage, but I need to keep the car in there. I need a bigger garage!
Oh man…I just spent another hour again dabbling with this this morning…what an amazing experience. The worst part is, no screenshot, video, or description really is ever suitable - you just sort of have to see it for yourself or it doesn’t really make sense.
First of the morning’s observations - we are definitely going to need finger tip sensors of some sort. Either that, or mouse cursor integration like ED has done. Finger tip would be even better probably…it is just a super cool feeling reaching up to those overhead panels in the MD80 and B737 and flipping switches.
I’m using a vanilla XP11 install with pretty much all medium settings and the experience is pretty darn good. Yes, the orthos and add-ons I have in my Super Duper XP11 Deluxe install are great and have spoiled me, but the VR experience sort of fills in a lot of those gaps.
Teleporting is really, really cool. I didn’t realize until this morning that you control the distance AND direction you face when you end up teleporting with the mini-joystick on the Touch Controller. I was walking around that big hanger having a great time. Again, it showcases how incredibly useful VR is going to be at showing people in all industries how to do things, or what they are going to expect. The usefulness is mind blowing. In game, the ability to walk around, then point at the cockpit and teleport IN is pretty freaking cool too. Not real hard to imagine doing a preflight and reaching out and removing chocks, pitot covers, checking the oil, visually inspecting the fuel levels…this stuff is going to happen and it’s going to be insane.
The X-15 is awesome. More on that at a later date. 
Night XP11 VR is simply stunning. It is about as close to being in the real simulator (if that makes any sense) as I’ve ever felt. What that means is, lots of our Level-C/D simulator time out in Dallas at SimuFlite is done at dusk, dawn, or night. Some sims have better daylight visuals than others…but traditionally, the Citations and King Airs do better with night projection. And XP11 VR really makes me feel like I’m there…it’s nuts.
Resolution is still a factor…no doubt, but again, the experience sort of overwhelms that. You can use pretty much all of X-Planes camera functions (zoom, moving around the cockpit to adjust yourself, FOV) but not all are 100% comfortable when you use them (zoom starts to distort things after a bit). The stars in VR are a bit too brilliant…and during daylight, the clouds don’t project right. I would assume they are working on something to address that.
The Touch Controllers are great for some VFR flying, but I do still prefer the feel of my HOTAS, so I’m guessing I’ll just be sticking largely with that.
Thus far I’ve tried the:
737-800 - awesome, great VR cockpit done right. By that I mean things like the pressurization gauge have three levels of depth, and a floating 3D needle. Almost all the gauges are 3D and not just 2D graphics printed on the panel…it really, really adds to the immersion.
MD-82 - awesome. Both the 737 and MD-82 are pretty much payware quality.
Cessna - perfect starter VR aircraft.
King Air C90 - is OK, but I’ve been spoiled by the looks (if not the realism) of the Carenado B200
Aerolite 103 - another great VR demonstrator, but some new people to flying in VR might think it a smidge TOO airy…LOL…
Space Shuttle - cool cockpit, but largely 2D painted instruments…and the scale seems crazy big. I don’t know if it is like that in real life…but it seems BIGGLY.
So that’s all I’ve looked at so far. Mostly staying with default aircraft…but I might switch to my normal XP11 install and see what I see there. I still haven’t settled on whether ASW on or off is better…or pixel density settings or anything. Mostly, I just want the next gen of Rift. I reeeeeaaaaallly want it (and a 1080 to run each eye probably…LOL…)
Alright - I gotta put my Rift and XP11 away for a few hours or I’m going to waste away my entire Saturday, and a cold snap has come back to the Carolinas and I’m out of firewood. Hmm…play with VR or freeze? (Not actually, we have a wood stove that I adore…but we are civilized and have central AC/heat…)
The point is - I’m having an absolute blast with this. I don’t know why I’m liking the native X-Plane VR better than the FlyInside version. Whatever the case, with ASW off, Oculus shutdown, and just Steam VR running the show at 2.0 pixel density, I’m having a great time.
Now, again, I’m running vanilla X-Plane at medium settings. I’ll try to push it later tonight (after I do some man-chores). Some additional thoughts:
The Cirrus SF-50 is just awesome looking in VR. The Garmin 1000 looks fantastic, the entire 3D modeling is great…just a cool aircraft.
I did try the Sikorsky S-76, which has a mix of good and bad on the inside, but was a blast to fly. I didn’t take time to remap my HOTAS for a collective, so I just did what should come naturally and used my HOTAS stick for the cyclic, and reached with my Touch controller for the collective (hmm…pull for power…innitthatsumpthin?). It works great, but with a desk in the way, I’m probably going to have to get an X-Plane specific sensor setup at my left and right 90 degrees. As usual in VR, flying helicopters becomes insanely precise and intuitive - the depth perception cannot be overstated.
Next I tried out the Stinson L-5…and even though it has the flat instrument textures (the bezels are 3D, but the actual pointers are 2D)…it is a beautiful and simple aircraft to fly in VR. Manipulating the mixture control with the Touch Controller feels great. And just good old fashion stick and rudder flying in that thing is a blast.
With my current medium settings, everything is very smooth. There are some glitches here and there…looking through the prop disk there is a little shimmer that isn’t quite explained away by it being a prop in front of you…but it is barely noticeable.
Another thing I really like is that all the default X-Plane views (fly by, spot view, 360) all work great and really provide for some awesome perspectives (some of these views could induce sickness in non-VR or non-pilot types perhaps…so I’d use them with caution for people you are introducing to VR).
And again, I’m sorry that the screens don’t really represent what you see in VR. I guess the only analogy I could make is perhaps if you only saw baseball games or football (or soccer) on TV all your life and finally got the opportunity to go to an actual stadium game…or similarly a concert after only seeing bands perform on TV. It is just surreal…(I’m so excited for this technology…can you tell?) @PaulRix is right about everything. LOL…
Again, all of this just makes me weep silent tears that Air Hauler 2 isn’t going the X-Plane 11 way because I’d trade all my P3D stuff for X-Plane VR at this point (maybe).