Prepar3d and VR headset, the next big thing?

[MikeT707 1,181]

I tried the oculus rift with FlyInside software for P3D. In my opinion, the fly inside software is not ready for prime time. It does not support any HDR, so no adjusting brightness, bloom, or saturation. This is a shame because the visuals in P3D in a Rift are too dark and increasing the brightness would help. With FlyInside, you also have to turn off most shadows because the software does not allow it. To add, the resolution is poor. I typically use a 1920x1080 monitor, but the FlyInside software seems to really downsample the image to where everything is quite blurry. For instance, when looking out the window, you cannot see the definition of trees or buildings that well as they are all blurry. FlyInside is a work in progress, and I would think that in time they will  be able to support a more robust feature set, but if the items I mentioned above are important to you then I would wait. 

On the positive side, using VR within a flight sim is truly amazing and hard to describe the feeling of immersion. It will simply blow you away, so if you can compromise to accept low resolution, no HDR, and some other limitations then I would recommend it. The best thing to do is purchase a VR headset and give it a try, as long as you are able to return the headset if you are not satisfied. That is what I did, got a Rift at BestBuy and was able to return it within 14 days.

[wiler 394]

I returned my rift after a couple weeks. 2 deal breakers for me, the resolution is a major step down from my 4k 40in tv. the other thing is i get motion sickness after a session.  in a couple years i might come back if the tech has advanced enough because the immersion is amazing, like you are really there in the cockpit. 

[Flic1 976]

 

 

i get motion sickness after a session

 

This will be a bigger issue than most people realize with VR technology.....

[MarkDH 234]

I've flown on a flat screen for a long time and have trained my brain to make the conversion from 2D to 3D in my head.

 

What 'conversion'? When you talk of 'a real 3D display' you're either talking about stereoscopic vision or about the fact that the Rift's head tracking creates an impression of being inside the sim. For the latter, we already have that with TrackIR (slogan: 'put your head in the game'). For the former, it is generally accepted that stereoscopic vision only contributes to depth perception up to about 20ft away and hence your stereoscopic display, cool though it is, is only really relevant inside the VC. Everything outside the windows is just like it is on a flat screen (or in real life).

 

Personally I would like to see a monoscopic variant of the Rift, which at least would have a sensible horizontal resolution. Of course that still doesn't mitigate the elephant in the Rift's room, which is that it shuts out those parts of the world that aren't (and don't need to be) simulated.

[jkeye 152]

I own the vive and I'm not going back to flat screen ever.

As technology improves I'll keep upgrading and adapt

Jay

[glider1 90]

What 'conversion'? When you talk of 'a real 3D display' you're either talking about stereoscopic vision or about the fact that the Rift's head tracking creates an impression of being inside the sim. For the latter, we already have that with TrackIR (slogan: 'put your head in the game'). For the former, it is generally accepted that stereoscopic vision only contributes to depth perception up to about 20ft away and hence your stereoscopic display, cool though it is, is only really relevant inside the VC. Everything outside the windows is just like it is on a flat screen (or in real life).

 

Personally I would like to see a monoscopic variant of the Rift, which at least would have a sensible horizontal resolution. Of course that still doesn't mitigate the elephant in the Rift's room, which is that it shuts out those parts of the world that aren't (and don't need to be) simulated.

I meant the conversion that we are doing in our brain when we look at a flat 2D screen of a 3D rendered world. Since it is not stereoscopic, our brain cannot judge distances it can only make a best guesstimate. A flat screen TV only works when we are able to recreate an imagined 3D world in inside our brain from the 2D image, to assist our brains in guessing distances.

 

TrackIR is not 3D. TrackIR just means that we rotate our view looking at a flat image.

 

It is impossible to have a monoscopic 3D display unless the 3D world is actually represented in 3D physical space.

 

The Rift is the real thing, because it presents a virtual world the same way that our eyes see reality. Our eyes collect light from reality which is then projected onto our retinas as a 2D image in each eye. Our brain takes both eyes and converts reality back into 3D.

 

We do not even see reality directly. We convert reality.

 

The Rift works because it presents virtual reality to our eyes the same way as reality does. The flat 2D images in the Rift are just copies of what is placed onto the back of our flat 2D retinas in our eyes when we look at reality.

 

EDIT: At least I think it is impossible to have a monoscopic 3D display of 3D reality. Someone prove me wrong!

[MarkDH 234]

Since it is not stereoscopic, our brain cannot judge distances it can only make a best guesstimate.

 

So you're talking about the stereoscopic display and you have convinced yourself that this makes a big difference to your flight sim. You probably missed the part where I pointed out that stereopsis is irrelevant for the outside view - there's a nice quote from this article that says we are "effectively one-eyed for distances greater than about twenty feet". That article also goes some way towards explaining why we are better at perceiving depth than we predict from the limits of stereopsis (and why one-eyed people can play tennis).

 

We already know that a stereoscopic display is largely an irrelevance for flight sims - nvidia cards have had stereoscopic 3D since about 2008 but hardly anybody uses it for flights sims. Which is why a monoscopic Rift would be much better for flight sims at the current state of the art. But the Rift isn't designed just for flight sims, so we probably won't get it. And people seem to enjoy the game-like experience of sitting in a 3D virtual cockpit. I'm not knocking this, I'm just saying the 3D VC experience isn't the totality of a flight sim and in my estimation isn't worth the great compromises it requires.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I have been flying my "cockpit" with three 27" in a wrap-around format along with a 4th for gauges.  Been very satisfied with the immersion and good FPS.  Next upgrade I will probably go with three 30" 4K.  I like all the display space for when I do normal computing and design as well as flight simulation.

[glider1 90]

So you're talking about the stereoscopic display and you have convinced yourself that this makes a big difference to your flight sim

 

 

No, I appreciate you applying a cold shower on this technology that is excellent. I have not committed to it yet but all my logic tells me the Rift makes a lot of sense.

 

I have no idea what you mean by a "Monoscopic Rift" technology would be. As I understand it, the Rift gives our brain depth information. When we are looking at a flat screen no matter how big, we are one eyed and there is no depth information. How would a monoscopic display give depth information to our brain then?

 

On your point about not seeing 3D beyond twenty feet or so, that argument isn't relevant. The Rift duplicates how our eyes work in reality. So whatever the Rift does is worthwhile because it will induce the same response we have to reality regardless of our eyes limitations in reality. If you stand at the edge of the Grand canyon, will you be more scared looking down in a Rift or just as scared looking at it with a 2D screen? Does the 20 foot limitation matter to your overall emotional reactive response? 2D just can't do that.

 

The reason the Rift has emerged now in 2016 is only because GPU's are just capable of driving two displays in 3D offset. I doubt any card prior to 2010 vintage would have had any hope of doing that.

[Bryn 72]

I wonder how it goes with the infinitus prime...

[MarkDH 234]

The reason the Rift has emerged now in 2016 is only because GPU's are just capable of driving two displays in 3D offset.

 

Well a couple of minutes with Google shows you're just wrong about that. In fact if you followed the original Kickstarter campaign you'd know that Rift's main innovation is ultra-low-latency head tracking.

[EGLD 436]

 I wish there was a way for me to try these before I buy.

 

Google Cardboard!

 

Just need an Android phone and a £10 carboard headset from Amazon