I just got my very own 737-800...

[ComSimPilot 623]

Totally agree but I thought that would be commonsense. IFR of a complex aircraft doesn't even need any scenery enabled either other than a terrain mesh and simple airports with accurate runways and taxiways with some simple gates for scenery objects. IFR training of a complex aircraft is a specific skill that needs specific equipment. No argument there.

 

But flyinside is about the overall experience of everything it is to flight sim including scenery. You cannot base an argument against first generation virtual reality all because it is unsuitable for one specific activity - IFR of complex commercial aircraft.

 

IFR in virtual reality works great for smaller aircraft that you find in GA and I'm sure it would be incredibly useful to complement real world training because in virtual reality you have much more overall situational awareness - not just the instrument panels.

 

 

I wouldn't go to the other end here. I mean, besides strictly training applications, simming has also the point of being a realistic graphic environment with add-on airports, weather, terrain textures etc. This is the environment I am aiming for and for sure I need to be able to see these MFDs on an IFR flight (I only do IFR).

[WebMaximus 372]

 

 

SGSS stands for sparse grid super sampling which is not what I'm talking about sorry about the confusion. What I'm talking about is the flyinside setting that enables 3840 whatever resolution which is straight super sampling (not sparse grid). It reminds me of DSR technology, upscales it to 4K res then downscales it to goggle res. Nvidia SGSS on top of supersampling would be overkill in my openion and I doubt it would do much might even make it worse (too blurry). That is why a 1080ti is probably useless for CV1 P3D Flyinside as it stands now but good for other games. EDIT: suggest adding some MSAA on top of supersampling but not adding SGSS.

 

OK, got it.

 

What I find strange is that when I tried out the highest resolution available in FlyInside I didn't really notice much of a difference from the resolution I'm running at now (2880x1620) other than the smoothness moving my head wasn't as good anymore.

 

Despite what you say about a GTX1080 in FlyInside I wonder if maybe in my case it actually would make a difference since I can't run the highest resolution in FlyInside without a FPS hit using my current 980Ti.

[WebMaximus 372]

Today I experienced precipitation in form of snow for the first time in the VR environment and that wasn't a very nice experience honestly.

 

Both rain and especially snow have always been one of the weak points in our simulated reality as we all know and I guess one of the main reason being the excessive speed of the precipitation but also how the actual snowflakes and raindrops are modeled.

 

In VR all this was even more noticeable and so far I was only parked at the gate, can only imagine what it will be and feel like once airborne...

 

I have PrecipitFX installed which I think will help some.

 

What is everyone else's experience, did you find any other ways making it look better? For instance it would help some if there was a way to slow the precipitation down a bit.

[ComSimPilot 623]

Hi Richard!

 

Haven't experienced that yet (though not much time this weekend to fly), but I suppose just a white or gray blob falling down is all you see in real life. Is it something worse than that in 3D? 

[theskyisthelimit 48]

OK, got it.

 

What I find strange is that when I tried out the highest resolution available in FlyInside I didn't really notice much of a difference from the resolution I'm running at now (2880x1620) other than the smoothness moving my head wasn't as good anymore.

 

Despite what you say about a GTX1080 in FlyInside I wonder if maybe in my case it actually would make a difference since I can't run the highest resolution in FlyInside without a FPS hit using my current 980Ti.

My experience as I've mentioned was that with the 1080 I could max out the flyinside resolution and use at least 2sgss, so for me it was worth the swap

[WebMaximus 372]

Hi Richard!

 

Haven't experienced that yet (though not much time this weekend to fly), but I suppose just a white or gray blob falling down is all you see in real life. Is it something worse than that in 3D?

 

Hard to put words on so I guess best would be if you set the weather manually and check it out yourself.

 

My experience as I've mentioned was that with the 1080 I could max out the flyinside resolution and use at least 2sgss, so for me it was worth the swap

Actually just picked up a 1080 today and will give it a spin when I get home and see what difference it will make if any in my situation.

[WebMaximus 372]

OK, so I have a brand new MSI GeForce GTX1080 Gaming X 8G plugged in running the latest Nvidia drivers 376.19 after a clean install using DDU in Safe mode and rebuilding my Prepar3D.cfg and clearing the shaders cache.

 

Still though I get some stutters when panning around using the highest resolution in FlyInside 3840x2374 and I honestly can't see any improvement when it comes to the shimmering nor resolution compared to when running at 2880x1620. I also see how the FPS in FI every now and then drops far below the recommended 90 FPS. I have the FPS in P3D set to unlimited but I also tried locking it at 40 and maybe that made things a bit more smooth...not really sure. Still not the kind of smoothness I want though...the kind of smoothness I get when running at 2880x1620 both when using this new 1080 as well as my old 980Ti.

 

I also tried 2xSGSS using this new 1080 and it did seem to handle that a bit better than my 980Ti but is the difference running 2xSGSS vs no SGSS and the overall difference between this new 1080 and my old 980Ti worth about $750...in my case not a chance.

 

Will now revert back to my 980Ti and return the 1080 tomorrow feeling good at least I gave it a fair chance.

 

This makes me come back to what I already said in some previous post. I honestly don't think we can expect to see much better IQ and FPS with today's hardware but instead we need to wait for next generation or maybe even a couple of generations ahead of both VR gear as well as CPUs and GPUs before it will be as good as we like it to be.

 

So does this mean I already decided to give up on VR...? Absolutely not! I still think the immersion is amazing and I still will keep flying in VR for another couple of weeks until I make my final decision. As said before I do hope I will feel the right decision is to stay with VR because the thought of going back to 2D is everything but attractive.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

OK, so I have a brand new MSI GeForce GTX1080 Gaming X 8G plugged in running the latest Nvidia drivers 376.19 after a clean install using DDU in Safe mode and rebuilding my Prepar3D.cfg and clearing the shaders cache.

 

Still though I get some stutters when panning around using the highest resolution in FlyInside 3840x2374 and I honestly can't see any improvement when it comes to the shimmering nor resolution compared to when running at 2880x1620. I also see how the FPS in FI every now and then drops far below the recommended 90 FPS. I have the FPS in P3D set to unlimited but I also tried locking it at 40 and maybe that made things a bit more smooth...not really sure. Still not the kind of smoothness I want though...the kind of smoothness I get when running at 2880x1620 both when using this new 1080 as well as my old 980Ti.

 

I also tried 2xSGSS using this new 1080 and it did seem to handle that a bit better than my 980Ti but is the difference running 2xSGSS vs no SGSS and the overall difference between this new 1080 and my old 980Ti worth about $750...in my case not a chance.

 

 

Sorry to hear it didnt work out for you.  When i did this swap it took quite a bit of effort to get where i am now with the 1080 ftw hybrid (see my thread in my sig on that one)..

 

I guess it may be too late to suggest/ask things if you are returning it however..

 

Here is what i did after swapping..

 

Before hand i did a driver clean using driversweeper and also removed the nvidia software from control panel before that.. (this seemed to help).. Then rebooted and also checked in device manager revealing hidden devices and removed any remnant card entries under display..

 

Ultimately i also ended up completely uninstalling and removing the userprofile roaming folder for flyinside.. again, no clue why this helped but it did..

 

The above two steps gave me better performance with the card and got rid of pan stuttering when turning my head.

 

I then ran into ground stuttering issues.. the ground if you looked at it while flying would micro stutter for maybe 1-2 seconds max.. annoying..

I found that if i set the frame rate limiter to 48 it eliminated this issue.. i tried 40 and other values but it did not help, not sure why 48 was key for me in my case.

 

So i'm curious if you did any of the above before hand/after installing the card or not.  Is this pan stuttering you speak of, when you look left and right the sky sortof shudders for a half second.. but you find its not present if you drop down from 3840 to the 28xx value in flyinside?

 

To fully test the difference in shimmering, i used New york city downtown area as a test.. particularly with NYCX installed.. i would monitor how much terrain vs building shimmer was present and compare between 3840 and the 28xx value (and also between NO sgss and 2x 4x etc).. i noticed the difference particularly in flat terrain shimmer.. it was less noticeable with either 3840 and or the combo of at least 2x on sgss.. granted yes even with 2sgss i would go to maybe 79 or 85 on atw values on the right side, but very rarely.. i did all this with "fair skies" as the weather situation for NYCx for comparison.

 

All that said, forwarding here in time, i'm quite happy with the results i now get with p3d.. still though.. this is an ASTOUNDING amount of mucking with the system to get something that could still be a tad better.. compared to say XP or aerofly fs2 which seem to fair better out of the box.  

[denali 74]

There is a less expensive way to give VR a try.  Flyinside is a must, as the framerate fix has to be in place.  They have a time limited demo.  There is an android app/Windows server program called VRidge or Riftcat.  It uses the oculus rift runtime and allows you to use any oculus program with a phone and a headset.  I have a Homido 1 and I really like it.

 

  https://www.amazon.com/Homido-HOMIDO1-Virtual-Reality-Smartphone/dp/B00PQA5DVU

 

 The newer version is probably even better.  But it's more than 2x the cost. 

(There is a VR headset that comes with the Air Hogs Sentinel Drone, which might be OK, and kills 2 birds with one stone, VR and drone cravings I know you all have.  It was seen online for $100 recently.  Just an idea.)

Really any VR headset, including cardboard, will do.  But lenses do matter as well as FOV, homido is 100 degrees I think.

 

So those together, there is a video you can follow.  

 

Even though I am using a phone, you still install the gear version of Flyinside, I don't know why.  

 

Head tracking by my cranky old note 4 phone (4k resolution is a good idea, same as rift) is a little drifty, and only 3 way, not 6.   And I use flyinside zoom as it is, I will probably custom the zoom for full time use and zoom in even closer.  It's more realistic to me.  Maybe it's an FOV setting.

 

 With photoscenery like Ultimate VFR, especially night scenery and AS16 and ASCA, the sense of really flying a plane is breathtaking (I made it to my cross country flights - solo 20 hours).  Just imagine really being in the aircraft (mostly Bonanza flights so far, but a little U2 raptor is exhilarating) without the G-forces.  You will get stutters, jutters and dizzy, even using USB for the connection which you must.  But I am sold on VR and I think I have permission to budget a $600 oculus (recommended over others) to my annoying hobby(to my wife) this holiday.   I am certain I won't be sorry. 

 

This is a less expensive way to try.  I can recommend the Homido by itself as a VR headset, so for that investment you will be happy.   Oh, and did I mention this way you can use other less demanding VR? 

This way I am certain now I want to cross into the Rift.  

[WebMaximus 372]

@theskyisthelimit

 

Thanks for all your tips but fact is most of them were automatically performed using the DDU tool and even when I didn't try all the things you mention I saw enough to know the upgrade from a 980Ti to a 1080 IMO isn't worth that kind of money.

 

If I spend that kind of money I want to go "Wow...." just like I did when I first tried out the Oculus glasses with the FlyInside software and not "Ok...I guess there might be a slim improvement" like I did trying out the 1080.

[ComSimPilot 623]

I also tested the highest resolution again and I did noticed some stutters now and then. I also noticed that the FI fps is not always above 90 and locks to 45 sometimes. The 2x supersampling seems better in terms of fps and I don't see that much difference in quality. When my VR-lesnes arrive I will be able to better judge the differences if any. I have a GTX 1070. As far as I know Dan from FlyInside is working in a way to better optimize the ASW function of Oculus in FlyInside.

[Lenny777 299]

To the OP keep the enthusiasm up. Despite some of the setbacks re performance - I have an i7-4790 3.5 ghz 16GB, 1080AMPExtreme 8GB system - there is simply nothing which can compare to the sensation of actual dimensions, height etc. with VR. Your commercial jet really feels like one not a sportscar. Just a great way to fly. Part of the issue I believe is related to the fact that P3D is a 32 bit application so there are potential bottlenecks as it uses a fair amount more of vram when flying in VR.

 

Now, have you tried AeroFly FS2 64 bit simulator? VR is natively built in and I find it is WAY better than the FlyInside 3rd party applications for both P3D and XP 10. The avionics are much clearer, less shimmering, and everything just is a lot smoother. This sim is still developing but has HUGE potential.

[WebMaximus 372]

To the OP keep the enthusiasm up. Despite some of the setbacks re performance - I have an i7-4790 3.5 ghz 16GB, 1080AMPExtreme 8GB system - there is simply nothing which can compare to the sensation of actual dimensions, height etc. with VR. Your commercial jet really feels like one not a sportscar. Just a great way to fly. Part of the issue I believe is related to the fact that P3D is a 32 bit application so there are potential bottlenecks as it uses a fair amount more of vram when flying in VR.

 

Now, have you tried AeroFly FS2 64 bit simulator? VR is natively built in and I find it is WAY better than the FlyInside 3rd party applications for both P3D and XP 10. The avionics are much clearer, less shimmering, and everything just is a lot smoother. This sim is still developing but has HUGE potential.

Thanks for the encouragement and no, I didn't try AeroFly FS2 yet but maybe I will.

 

In its current form though it hasn't what I want in lots of other areas since I do all my flying online and in an advanced aircraft in my case the NGX.

[theskyisthelimit 48]

Just another footnote for flyinsidefsx.. ever since oculus added ASW support to their titles (requiring at least 45 fps to work) a few weeks, i found this had to be toggled at least once using the Control + NumPAD1 key combo.. once i did this and unchecked the new entry in flyinsidefsx 1.7 called 'lock to goggle " or similar.. then my ATW (not asw but atw), jumped back up from a constant 38-45 to the usual 90ish.

[whitav8 98]

In case anyone - especially VR owners - want to simply see the amazing performance (>90 fps for VR and > 250 FPS single monitor) of Aerofly FS2 (https://www.aerofly.com/aerofly_fs_2/) on their hardware, but aren't sure they want to spend the $50 - I just found out that Steam has the following refund policy:

 

Valve will, upon request via help.steampowered.com, issue a refund for any title that is requested within 14 days of purchase and has been played for less than 2 hours. 

 

Most long time FSX/P3D users will miss many features (AI,ATC,night lights, weather, MP, etc..) but the point is to see what their hardware can do with such a highly efficient 64-bit, multicore graphics engine.We can only hope that Lockheed Martin will be able to match this performance. The Airbus 320 is pretty good, the F-18 is fun, a couple gliders are realistic, and a Q400 and heli are on the way. A very large area of the Southwest US is available in highres photoreal with KSFO in high detail. The download is quite large - minimum is about 30gb and another separate download of all SouthWest US in highres (free) is another 70gb - maybe a 10 hour download??