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Austin's thoughts on Oculus (Video)

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I'm a complete pass on VR at this point.  The main reason, ignoring the fact that I personally feel that the tech just isn't there yet for a truly immersive experience, is that I use a ton of hardware. I love having an actual dial or a switch for darn near anything that I can make work.  So much so, that I've built whole switch panels just for flying a certain piece of equipment, such as recreating the overhead on a B206, for example. VR is opposite to that experience.

 

Right, and that's why we're seeing it taken up first with space sims like Elite and air combat sims like DCS. With a HOTAS system like the Thrustmaster Warthog I use, you never have to take your hands off the two primary controls while flying. With maybe one or two exceptions, there are usually enough switches for everything you need in flight and in combat. 

 

Civilian aviation is different, or at least it can be different depending on what you're looking for and how deep you go into the various systems. When I fly the X-Trident Bell 412 I have everything I need under my left and right hand HOTAS controls (and pedals), but I don't do cold and dark starts,  Someone who wanted to flip every switch in that helicopter would need more physical controls, or access to the keyboard and mouse. 

 

I'm personally more excited about the possibility of AR (augmented reality) as shown by MS's HoloLens. Being able to be surrounded by a virtual cockpit, but actually have my yoke and switch panels showing, now THAT sounds exciting. But, I think the hardware is a few steps behind in that area as well.

 

 

Yeah, that could be interesting. It could show the virtual view out of the cockpit only in the upper half of the visual field, while remaining transparent in the lower half so you can see your flight controls, keyboard, and any other hardware instruments and controls you have set up. You might need a large wraparound piece of black cardboard or something in the upper half, but I could imagine that working pretty well.

 

Interesting times ahead. I'm just afraid it's not going to arrive soon enough for me, because I'm not getting any younger and this tech has been in the "not quite there yet" stage for a very long time. 


X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows 10 
i7 6700 4.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, GTX 1660 ti, 1920x1200 monitor

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My initial reaction to strapping an Oculus Rift DK2 to my face was "Really? This is what everyone's all hyped up about?" The resolution today is distractingly bad, the UI challenges are still being solved, sim-sickness is still a problem, and the hardware is clunky and uncomfortable. We've had as-good or better VR technology for decades; the only breakthrough here is the cost as we now have cheap phone displays that can be used.

 

There are ridiculous amounts of money being spent on solving all of those problems though, so in the long term, things may change. But we're not there yet.

 

You have to realize though that the DK2 is crap compared to the retail version which has higher resolution and is better in every way (lighter more comfortable etc). Also using a Vive with the Controllers improves the experience drastically.  Personally i prefer it to the Occulus CV1 because using your hands helps the sim sickness alot. I used it for 2 hours and appart from beeing slightly uncomfortable and getting warm underneath the headset  (which is problematic when you use glasses, as they tend to fog up)  you get no sickness whatsover. 

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just because you havent done it with Xplane

 

As mentioned before in this thread, Laminar have done it more than once with X-Plane -- in fact they were among the firsts developers of a flight simulator to adapt to this technology.

 

 

But then Oculus has dropped support for OpenGL, so all efforts and time spent were wasted. :sad:

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Mario Donick .:. vFlyteAir

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As mentioned before in this thread, Laminar have done it more than once with X-Plane -- in fact they were among the firsts developers of a flight simulator to adapt to this technology.

 

 

But then Oculus has dropped support for OpenGL, so all efforts and time spent were wasted. :sad:

 

Laminar has to get off of OpenGL anyways.

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We he doesnt very consistent with his owm words. On this video, minute 5.50 he says its ######ing amazing. Come Austin just because you havent done it with Xplane you dont have to put others down.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pnYz9LpTTus

 

 

Great catch Melchor!

This video was less than 3 months ago!!

 

Quite the flip flop that Austin has done on this....almost "politician" like, sheesh..

 

Perhaps he really is feeling the burn about OpenGL as discussed above.

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Laminar has to get off of OpenGL anyways.

well they are toying with vulcan, but honestly before xp11 maybe 12 you wont see that becuase it is simply not profilic enough and alot of older cards dont support it

Great catch Melchor!

This video was less than 3 months ago!!

 

Quite the flip flop that Austin has done on this....almost "politician" like, sheesh..

 

Perhaps he really is feeling the burn about OpenGL as discussed above.

i dont see the the big contradiction everyone is talking about ?  In the original video at the 1 minute mark he says it is fascinating and he can see it beeing the future and is very positve about it. 

 

 

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i dont see the the big contradiction everyone is talking about ?  In the original video at the 1 minute mark he says it is fascinating and he can see it beeing the future and is very positve about it. 

 

5-6 minute area - Just seems awfully over the top excited about it which, to me at least, feels a lot different than the latest video with the same guy.

Remember, there was only a 2 month difference in when they did these videos...

 

Just seems like the "tone" changed an awful lot in that small space.

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well they are toying with vulcan, but honestly before xp11 maybe 12 you wont see that becuase it is simply not profilic enough and alot of older cards dont support it

 

Right, it seems the immediate roadblock for VR is that X-Plane has to support not just Windows but Mac and Linux too. So with no OpenGL support, and Vulkan still not widely supported enough, VR is temporarily dead in the water. 

 

Here's the last dev blog about the status of Vulkan for X-Plane in the near future: http://developer.x-plane.com/2016/03/what-vulkan-means-to-developers/

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X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows 10 
i7 6700 4.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, GTX 1660 ti, 1920x1200 monitor

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The Guy asking the questionssays Flyinside has clunky interface. Made me laugh, thats one of the biggest complains people get about X-Plane.

 

Then Austin says he can see his hands. Well, Flyinside supports Leapmotion so you can see and interact with your hans.

 

Flyinside has virtual windows which obviously he hasnt tried yet.

 

Thirdly, even with my dk2 and P3d and the pmdg 737 I can complete whole flights on Ivao. So, yes you can read the instuments, maybe not in all planes.

 

I like xplane and hope they get support for VR. Just dont like the way they talk about such a good product like Flyinside

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Flyinside has virtual windows which obviously he hasnt tried yet.

 

What's particularly troubling about that is he actually literally talks about having virtual windows/interface in different directions and "seeing the possibilities/how cool that would be", etc..

 

Someone in his position really should be trying out the available options much more completely I think.

 

He almost comes across as a "Microsoft guy being forced to try out the 1-2 year old iPhone in 2008/2009 era".  Very biased against it, right from the start.

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Right, it seems the immediate roadblock for VR is that X-Plane has to support not just Windows but Mac and Linux too. So with no OpenGL support, and Vulkan still not widely supported enough, VR is temporarily dead in the water. 

And don't forget, that OpenGL is also the prerequisite for all their mobile offerings (Android and iPhone both run with OpenGL).

 

I think its no question - not even to Laminar - that they have to be open to new APIs (like Vulkan) ... but it should (an will) definitely not be one, which is only supporting one platform (like DirectX). And focusing too much on DirectX might even backfire on Occulus one day ...

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Well i think austin was very mild  about it.....read this ;

 

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nvidia-ceo-good-vr-20-years-away

 

 

"Oh my gosh, we’re missing so much, he said. First of all, VR displays are a little too cumbersome. It has to be much more elegant, being connected by a wire has to be solved. The resolution has to be a lot higher. The physical worlds do not behave according to the laws of physics. The environment you’re in isn’t beautiful enough. We’re going to be solving this problem for the next 20 years."

 
He added: "Having 20 years for employment is a good thing."
 
Yep, just as I thought. I'm not going to live long enough to see the real deal.  :Broken Heart:
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X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator on Windows 10 
i7 6700 4.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, GTX 1660 ti, 1920x1200 monitor

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Yep, just as I thought. I'm not going to live long enough to see the real deal.

 

...at least not on X-Plane anyhow...

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Right, it seems the immediate roadblock for VR is that X-Plane has to support not just Windows but Mac and Linux too. So with no OpenGL support, and Vulkan still not widely supported enough, VR is temporarily dead in the water. 

 

Here's the last dev blog about the status of Vulkan for X-Plane in the near future: http://developer.x-plane.com/2016/03/what-vulkan-means-to-developers/

 

Well yes and no, the problems are not only opengl. Well for Occulus OpenGL it is a problem. Take the Vive for example, the opengl support for the vive is great and Valve is pushing extensivly its performance because valve's steam machine will run on a linux system, so they have an interest in vulcan/opengl.

 

The thing atm is, we are still in the technology war.  this is betamax/vhs or hd-dvd/bluray.  Ontop of that VR technology for Flightsim (P3D/X-Plane) still doesnt have resolution it needs to work flawlessly. Yes it does kind of work if you manage to reduce your settings so you can handly 90fps but still readabillty is kind of poor. Yes you can guess the altitude based on the position of the dials, but try reading the altimeter without moving your head forward. Especially if you increase your field of view to make it more natural.

 

I played a racing sim for a few hours without any form of exhaustion or missing in immersion. But that works because you barely look at the guages and you have a steering wheel/pedals.  I can see it working for gliders or even small ga planes where you do not rely on the cockpit too much. But for airliners and other planes where a heavy interaction bewtween the cockpit and the pilot is necessary, i dont see it working anytime soon (with that i mean in a satifactory manner that you will always choose it over the regular monitor experience).

...at least not on X-Plane anyhow...

you wont see it on p3d either. Flyinside will continue to work on it, but currently you need to sacrifice too much in order for it too work. People will use it for a gimmick but then stop using it again.

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