Great write up Chris. The kicker is that it is only going to get better with subsequent generations of hardware. Oh, and I take zero responsibility for your current VR addiction 
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I am insanely jealous, I know its my fault for not having controllers and I guess there is a valid reason now to get a set but we have the house deposit to present at the end of the month and a 10K tax bill so I will just look on enviously 
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Hey Beach, your Sentinel looks really good. I wish that I could say the same for the ASDG Super Cub. Itās pretty grim in VR. On the other hand, Iāve got a Beaver which Iām enjoying immensely
Thanks for posting your opinion on native VR in XP. I still havenāt warmed to using Touch with my Warthog, but confident thatās LR will figure out a way to keep both camps happy.
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Iā¦mustā¦focusā¦onā¦myā¦jobā¦!
Just one more week now.
I sneak up for a quick dogfight VR fix every now and then, but Iām staying clear of anything thatās new and engrossing.
Need to finish my feedbacks and repeat all the briefing items, this weekend. The check ride is on the 22nd. Thereās talk about moving it to the 19th. The difference being a full weekend. Perhaps not that much in the grand scheme of things, but it will make a big difference for that weekend!
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I donāt really think youāre missing too much without controllers other than Laminar hasnāt added mouse control in VR yet (they plan to). It does add some immersion but as others have said, you need to have your sensors in the right spot and and youāll probably still want to use your hardware controllers for flight controls, so youād have to somewhat awkwardly pick up the touch/vive controller every time you want to flick a switch. Theyāve done a great job though, Iām not meaning to downplay it and full controls with VR controllers will allow a lot of people to try flight sims without spending tons of money.
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@BeachAV8R You inspired me to jump back in the way Laminar asked us to in the blog, with the Aerolite 103 and without stick and rudder. Easy for me as I currently own none. I launched at your strip of choice (1N7) but I canāt say I quite enjoyed your performance. It was smooth facing north down either runway but coming over the strip mall and power lines for landing brought lots of VR skip. But I didnāt do a clean install. I only took the HD scenery out of the custom scenery folder and edited the scenery_packs config file. The Aerolite is wicked fun with the Oculus controllers!
Yeahā¦I sort of wanted to go in with a fresh install. It is pretty quick and dirty, just run the installer, select a new location, and I only installed the western US scenery so that it wouldnāt take long. Then run the beta updater and you are totally vanilla with no plug-ins or anything. Later tonight Iāll see if I can get the Tray Tool perhaps to show me my FPS in game (?)ā¦
These are my settings (obviously I check the VR boxā¦just unchecked it for the screenshot). It might also help to reboot before each session just to clean out anything.
Now if I could just find a way to stream the Eagles v Falcons game in the VR cockpitā¦ 
Alright. So Iām pretty much addicted to XP11 VR now. Iāve spent all evening watching football out of one eye, and going through my virtual hangar in the other. Well, actually, I DO have to use both eyes in the Riftā¦so thereās that.
I learned that I can actually use my Super Duper XP11 install and donāt have to stick with the vanilla one. I just have to bump some of the sliders down, but the overall look is still really, really good. Not every plane works with VR - some work perfectly, others have buttons that wonāt activate (so we will need a mouse cursor at some point). Planes with manipulators seem to do the best. The X-Aviation MU-2 is just unbelievable.
I sort of hung out at my payware Aerosoft Twenty-Nine Palms since that has some nice scenery, not too much in the way of objects, and clear skies.
The Aerosphere Seminole is phenomenal. Superb 3D gauges with a ton of depth to them. They look as real as they could up close in VR. Pretty much everything I tried worked in it.
The VSkyLabs Aeropro Eurofox is another that looks fantasticā¦so much fun zipping around in these thingsā¦
Demonstrating the Touch Controller and how it works with things like course selector knobs and altimeters. You just get close, it turns greenish and you twist your wrist or some have you slide back and forth. It is THE most intuitive feeling and realistic way to manipulate stuff that Iāve come across. Itād be even better if you didnāt have to use the bulky controller, but Iām sure weāll get there.
Doing some crop-dusting. The cockpits with 3D pilots can be really great or sort of intrusive. As long as you set your viewpoint in front of their faceā¦it isnāt a problem. You can move your view wherever you want in the cockpit using the arrow keys and that becomes your new viewpoint.
Always been a fan of Danklauās ERJ-145ā¦
This is another one that has a mix of manipulators that work really well, and buttons that cannot be pressed (so that will wait on mouse support).
Reaching up and hitting overhead switches or rotating knobs just feels spot onā¦
Rotating lighting rheostatsā¦
Night lighting in VR is just jaw dropping. Like I said, it triggers in me that feeling of actually being in the sim in Dallasā¦kind of a weird Pavlovian reaction I guessā¦
As you can tell, Iām a fan. XP11 VR is just insanely funā¦and this is their first version of it. I canāt wait to explore some more.
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Iāve spent about 5 hours in VR this morning in XP11. Kid in a candy store. Itās like an entirely new sim. Mostly just going through my aircraftā¦seeing which ones work, which ones donāt work, which ones kinda work. It is sooooo much fun just going through the inventory.
Todayās experimentations thus farā¦
So you can see the clouds in this screen. This is my full-up X-Plane install with SkyMaxx Pro, Real World Connector, blah, blah, blahā¦ Clouds donāt render properly in VR (whether created by 3rd party or by the default sim), so you have to turn them off in the menu system by turning off the plugins controlling them.
So this is a picture of my monitor, to which the Rift output is sent (there is no penalty for thatā¦it is just projecting what one eye is seeing in the gameā¦wellā¦sortaā¦because it doesnāt look like that in the game). But what is important is that the full menu system is available in the monitor if you need to make adjustments there (which can be easier than using the menus in VR).
The RW Twin Otter is pretty nice looking in VR, but it will need a cockpit overhaul to get some buttons working. Here you can see the knob selection using the Touch Controllerā¦left inner / right inner / left outer / right outer. It works, but it could be tough to get the ādepthā of the Touch Controller just right. Not because of depth perception problems, but just the small amount of difference between the inner and outer knobs.
Somewhere in Idaho (Johnson Creek I think?)ā¦
The Carenado Cessna 337 looks fantasticā¦but the engine sound wasnāt working, and some of the buttons donāt work. By the way, a lot of these problems are not VR specific, but rather the developer hasnāt gotten around to updating some of these models for XP11 at all yet. With the VR beta, it is probably a good thing that some developers held off because I donāt know how much work is required to get them VR compatible.
The 3-D-ness of the 337 panel is just awesome. The gauges look soooooo good. Another note - almost all of these screens look like they are taken from far away, but when you are in game, in the VR headset, you are right up in there. Hard to describe, but the screens always make the image stretched and do not represent the in-game FOV.
In a multi-player perfect world, I could see riding in the back of this 337, talking to my friends flying in VR in the front, then getting out at the destination and getting in my own airplaneā¦
Next up the awesome Shade Tree Micro Aviation Husky. These guys make fun stuff and Iāve always been a fan. I think pretty much everything works in VR on this planeā¦and you can even grab the stick and throttle and fly purely with the Touch Controllers if you like (I prefer hardware). The ADI ball in particular is gorgeous in VRā¦here Iām using the Touch to grab the ADI adjustment and then you move your hand left/right to adjust it. Very, very intuitive and quick.
Just a great plane to fly and would be a good VR demonstrator (although the default Stinson is darn good too)ā¦
On a whim, I tried out the JAR A320ā¦which appears to be a bit of a mess at this point in X-Plane if you are running any of the current X-Plane releases or betas. It is advertised as XP 11.0 to 11.1 onlyā¦so be aware of that. The flight model is not working right at the momentā¦and as for VR, most buttons donāt work but lots of knobs, switches, and controls do.
On this plane, and nearly all of the others, the cockpits are just insanely detailed. Again, one of the big āAHA!ā moments or feelings you get all the time in VR is that these cockpits were designed to be flown in 2D, but their 3D nature makes them instantly āworkā in VRā¦and all that 3D goodness has been there all along, but we didnāt have the technology to view it. It really is a weird thing when you get into something youāve flown for years and all of the sudden it isā¦awesomely different. My advice - find someone nearby that has a VR headsetā¦and get them to download the free XP VR demo and just check it out. Youāre perception of what is there will change forever. Or donātā¦probably cheaperā¦LOLā¦
As mentioned alreadyā¦walking around outside aircraft is insanely cool because of the scale and detail of things. Againā¦warped perspective that doesnāt show how close I wasā¦and how āpresentā you feelā¦
Love the fly-by view on the groundā¦again, just a really cool feeling of being there (sorry for the repetition of adjectivesā¦)
The super cool FlyJSims 727adv (version 2 I believe it is). Drop dead gorgeous at night and the detailing in the cockpit is insane. My sounds werenāt working. Lots works well in VRā¦some stuff doesnātā¦
The default 737 by Laminar. It was updated specifically to work in VRā¦so I think almost everything works. You could spend weeks and weeks just flying this in VRā¦
These kind of perspectives could make you sick if you are sensitive to heights or some motions. Iāve had zero VR sickness in X-Planeā¦but that could be because my mind accepts it as something I do everyday in real life. Yaw axis always seems to get most peopleā¦and for instance, the VR demonstrator Air Car can get me a little queasy because the car moves in ways Iām not used to seeing. I think exposure is the biggest thing that will get people through itā¦small sessions to let your brain adapt.
The Rotate MD80, as expected, looks awesome. Mixed bag on what works and doesnāt. It also has some odd daylight lighting issue on the PFD and HSI where they donāt show up unless you turn up the cockpit flood lighting. I think they are aware of that. But at nightā¦it is just a gorgeous aircraftā¦
The purpose of me expanding into the more heavy aircraft (Airbus, Boeing) was to see how the more complex cockpits would work in VR with regards to framerates. While they did bounce down more frequently into the 30sā¦which is borderline for VR flying (particularly if you are prone to VR sickness)ā¦I found them all to work fine at my medium detail settings, even at places like Phoenix and Philly. I suspect graphics cards and optimization by both developers and Laminar will get there eventually where we can turn on all the goodies. Even if they fix the cloud projection at this point, I always get big FPS hit with clouds when not playing VR, so that will be maybe the toughest nut to crack.
So that was about five or six hours of VR flying today. My wife must think Iām nuts because Iām just like āooooohhhā¦ahhhhhhā Of course, I go to work I fly, I come home and flyā¦so there is something clearly not right with me anyway.
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Anyone tried the Rendering Options Tool for X-Plane with regards to tweaking VR settings? I think some gains could be made with regards to object distances and stuffā¦ I might give it a whirlā¦
Also - for those that arenāt awareā¦the XP 11.20 VR beta did do some funky things with glass reflections in some aircraft. So if you are seeing problemsā¦I believe Laminar is aware of it. For instance, my Virtavia C-17 and I believe the Rotate MD80 have that problemā¦
I fly for a living.
I read every book and magazine about flying, that I come across.
I watch every movie about flying, even the bad ones.
I build, and fly, model aircraft.
I fly simulated aircraft on my computer.
Nobody understands this, besides my fellow aviation nuts, and not even all of thoseā¦
I think Iām living my dream!
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Is this just for use in VR or will it alter settings for 2d use too? Sorry if the answer is obvious
It works for VR or 2Dā¦
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I bet we can turn that āForest Outer Ring Densityā down without really noticing trees are missing in VR. Not sure what kind of distance that would be but I think there are a lot of smaller distant objects that we canāt even see with current VR resolutions.
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Hmmā¦this looks interesting tooā¦
Havenāt had time to try any of these todayā¦been doing some X-Plane Hangar house cleaningā¦
Honestlyā¦I feel like Iāve reached flight sim nirvana with XP11 VR. It is like completely rediscovering simming. I mean, I have dozens of planes and helicopters I just want to go fly because of this. Tonight, I got hung up on just two. With the caveat that not all things are working in the cockpitsā¦but just getting the engines running and flying is so, so good. I just canāt stop going āwhoaā¦āā¦
The JRollon T-34Cā¦a pretty old planeā¦but it looks fantastic in VR. Lots of smudges, scratches, and dirt on the canopyā¦and the whirling prop arc out front makes it really feel like a beast. And you can even slide into the rear cockpit. I tooled around the Mt. Hood area. Despite the high tree density, my FPS was fantastic. A hiccup or two here when loading new areasā¦but for the most part just fluid flying around some gorgeous scenery.
So I did some rolls, a loop, then flew along inverted for a whileā¦and darned if my engine didnāt quit. I was at about 11,000āā¦and it was a flurry of hoping stuff would work. Condition lever to cut-off, prop forward, starter engage, hope for 12% or so, condition lever forwardā¦a bit of a warmish startā¦but we are flying againā¦ Just insanely funā¦
Picked out a little dirt strip to land atā¦
Did some more flyingā¦I tried Boeing Field, and that had too many objects. I stuck with itā¦and just didnāt move my head for about ten seconds and everything loadedā¦if I moved my head to fast, objects would have to load and Iād get judder. But after taking offā¦and as more and more objects faded away behind meā¦things settled out. Not the best feeling for someone that might be prone to VR sicknessā¦but it didnāt bother me. I still havenāt tired that plug-in above that limits or dials back objects to maintain a minimum FPS.
With a little bit of VR compatibility tweaking (getting buttons and some knobs to work)ā¦the T-34C could have a long X-Plane life ahead. Or at the minimum, some sort of mouse pointer will solve many of these problemsā¦
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