First flights with the Rift

[Guest]

Ok, the resolution is bad. Disappointing. Really pixelated. Feels like you are playing inside a PS2 game or something like that. Not good. Things in the distance are nothing but shimmering pixels. Things also seemed a bit small, as if I am flying in a smaller version of the Cessna or Airbus. I expected things to be bigger.

But...

...once you actually take off, look around, fly, go up and down and whatever you do in a plane I tend to completely forget what I just said above! My PC is on the attic and my wife could hear me laugh like a little kid when I was admiring all the 3D screws and knobs and switches. For the 6th time. Taking off feels totally different now. Seeing the ground getting further and further away from you is great. Looking out of the window is incomparable to looking out of the window in 2D. You are actually looking out of the window! Flying low and fast over a busy airport is thrilling. Doing a complete flight with the Airbus feels so much more real. Again, you are actually looking through a window down to the earth below you... You really are there, up high in the sky!

Ok, when you pay attention it is very clear things are not real, it's not THAT real, but when you let yourself go and stop being a negative &@($* like I can be it is soooooo immersive... After doing this I can't imagine ever getting statisfied again by a flight with Track IR on a 2D screen... even though resolution is WAY better on it. If you let yourself go into the virtual world it simply is... totally utterly extremely awesome. There is no way you can compare VR with using Track IR.

When I am not flying now I tend to think about the negative things, I guess that's just me, but as soon as I start flying again... a big stupid grin and laughter that can be heard all through the house. Loving it. In fact, I am going to do another flight right now above the Grand Canyon! Totally forgot to give that a try! Cya later!

 

EDIT

BTW (Pausing the sim while I am above the Canyon.) The depth of everything in the VC as astonishing! Seriously everything is in full 3D! I never even KNEW things were this 3D in real life! The various arrows really stick out, the turn coordinator, that little ball, you can really see it in a tube or something! It is soooooo great! I don't even like Cessna's but now I do! Ok, I am back to the Canyon!

 

EDIT 2

O, wait, what I wanted to say just now: the materials looks incerdibly real! I am sure the same effects can be seen on a 2D screen but seeing the light and shadows play on for instance the yoke... You REALLY see the light there! The little reflections etc. suddenly come to live! Soooo cool!

[FlyIce 354]

My only question is before how long you may feel tired of the low resolution of Rift. I loved DK2 when I first tried years ago. But over next few months the low resolution eventually worn me down and DK2 has been collecting dust for more than years. 

 

Given how great the FS2 image quality and fps are in VR I'm now tempted to dust off my DK2 and try it with FS2. Before in P3D I had to turn down graphics so much to achieve like 30fps the image quality really suffered a lot in VR. 

[whitav8 98]

@ J van E,

     Glad you are having a lot of fun. I've helped develop flight sims (Boeing and US Navy) all my career (40 yrs) but VR brought back the fun of flying!

 

     What values of Render Scale Factor have you tried so far - hopefully a minimum of 1.5 which is where I fly with my Nvidia 970 (and DK2). Also, make sure you move your eyepoint as close to the instrument panel as you can so a lot of the instrument panel is clear. The Pitts (where you can see your wing easily) and the new F15e should look good as far as instrument panel clarity whereas the 747 and A320 won't be too good - electronic instruments just require more pixels and no SDE. It feels to me like about 20/30 vision in the distance. Some of the Nvidia Inspector settings in the "crispness" thread might help and try different positions of the Rift on your head.

 

Enjoy!

[HiFlyer 9,334]

Yup, resolution is NOT going to be close to a monitor. And I second the comment about render scale factor. It can make a big difference.

 

And remember what I said before. The Rift may not be worth it if you only use it for one thing, so by all means try Flyinside and use it for P3D and X Plane, and also try other things like Elite dangerous, or watching a 3d movie or 3d Youtube vids. Try other experiences and games. Don't let it get stale!

 

Try some free stuff and get a feel for what's possible:

 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/429180/

 

http://www.vrcircle.com/page/top-rated-oculus-rift-vr-demos

 

Oh! And remember, If you need glasses, then you probably need to wear them in the rift, as well. That's important! Careful not to scratch the lenses!

[Murmur 3,941]

What resolution (per eye) do you think would be needed to get close to a monitor clarity? 2K? 4K?

[HiFlyer 9,334]

What resolution (per eye) do you think would be needed to get close to a monitor clarity? 2K? 4K?

 

I suspect we will probably see a headset from the big guys within two years with the necessary specs. All of us using it now are the early adopters that just can't wait, or that want the experience now before we fall off a cliff, get hit by a bus, or something else dire that causes us to miss the boat entirely.  

 

https://vrworld.com/2016/11/10/hands-on-review-pimax-4k-vr-headset/

[HiFlyer 9,334]

 

 

Things also seemed a bit small, as if I am flying in a smaller version of the Cessna or Airbus. I expected things to be bigger.

 

By the way. I suspect that in real life, cockpits really may be more cramped/smaller than us former 2D users believed. Or maybe you're right and the scale is slightly off.

 

This can be adjusted in Aeroflys VR settings under "Scale factor"

 

Adjust it up or down until you're comfortable, though whether that will be accurate is an open question.

[BaldyB 20]

The Rift CV1 lenses need to be upgraded and adjustable both vert., and on the horizontal plain, expense??? You need a top notch video card with 8GB of memory. I found a vast difference between my RX-480 8gb And the R-980 4GB. I saw no screen door effect with either card. I am waiting to see AMD's new CPU and Vega GPU's before making a major upgrade! As whitav8 stated, your eyepoint adjustment is very important. If you use Fl;yinside you will see your view. eyepoint change positions every time you change a view window. In other words if you go from VC view to outside and back (like I did) you may find your self going lower and lower each time. You then get a marvelous view of the bogees and the underside of the center console construction details etc. How to fix: Navigate to Flyinside installation directory. You will find an Aircraft CFG. Folder. In my case I opened the 777-200 fv freighter version. You will find a long list of various parameters, about half way down just before a slew of camera views you will find the 'VIEWS" section. It will have a string of 3 numbers. The first is a reference number 80' in front of the airplane. The first for me was 80.125, reducing the number by a fraction put me closer to the seat, another slight adjustment put me IN the seat. The second string was 1.825, adjust for left and right!. The third string adjusts up and down. I could not see over the damn panel to see the runway, kind of hard to take off like that! My first adjustment had my head sticking out of the top of the cockpit, another adjustment was needed. After you complete the adjustments they will not move around on you. Things are stable with regard to your position across all views, You will also notice better reading of textures on you panels, your sitting closer. I also notice my adjustment seemed to carry over from PMDG's 777-200 to the PMDG 737-NGX. The NGX seems to be a bit easy on Flyinside than the 777. Set your resolution in FSX to your native monitor resolution and match it in Flyinside's setup. Found that to work best. There are a slew of settings and bindings etc., in Flyinside. Flyinside is Beta, Dan Church is working his butt of to build a first class/world class VR application. I personally think he deserves some support. It's not a lot of money! Of course as some of you know the HTC or Oculus (I use Oculus) equipment is a bit expensive now but will come down in time. After playing around for a few hours and doing the needed adjustments I decided to go for broke. Set up a flight outside of VR with PMDG's 777-200 FedEx. I figured a nice hop from KLAS tp KBOS would be a good start. After starting Flyinside I found if I used the large window view and left the status bar visible(Do not auto hide) you could switch back to flight sim desktop if you got kicked to regular desktop view by clicking on FSX. I found that by exploding the FMC with the mouse and then making it a little bit wider you suddenly got a different little hand mouse pointer that was much smaller than the regular mouse which is too big and not much use. The direct to button binding give you a blue dot to high lite a control and to use some of it's functions. The little FMC mouse pointer is perfect. Sitting IN the cockpit on RNW 25rt and getting ready TG was immersive as all get out, No need to switch views, just turn your head and look out at the ground sinking away from you is amazing. The first time you approach a cloud bank you feel like your actually in a cloud. Big difference in seeing a cloud and feeling like your IN a cloud! Landing in Boston was a pure definition of Immersion as I ever experienced, unbelievable, flew right by Deer Island where I ran a crane a few years back. It's far from perfect but I find myself going back to VR, monitors are so....flat! VR will be the future of flight sims, too bad some get vertigo or motion sickness. But then again, if it's real life like then it's real life like! Best BaldyB

[Guest]

Given how great the FS2 image quality and fps are in VR I'm now tempted to dust off my DK2 and try it with FS2.

 

I do think the DK2's quality isn't as 'good' as the CV1 but you might give it a shot.

 

 

 

What values of Render Scale Factor have you tried so far - hopefully a minimum of 1.5 which is where I fly with my Nvidia 970 (and DK2). Also, make sure you move your eyepoint as close to the instrument panel as you can so a lot of the instrument panel is clear. The Pitts (where you can see your wing easily) and the new F15e should look good as far as instrument panel clarity whereas the 747 and A320 won't be too good - electronic instruments just require more pixels and no SDE. It feels to me like about 20/30 vision in the distance.

 

I went to 2.0 immediately LOL and so far it works great. But in order to see things a bit 'sharpish' you have to look straight at it: everything that's not in the middle of your vision gets a bit blurred already. 

I wonder though how you can move your eyepoint...? Seems to me the position is fixed? In most planes the position is quite okay but the Baron has me setting way to far back!

BTW Good info about larger cockpits needing more pixels and hence looking less good. Some VC's look indeed a bit sharper than others. Still, I am an Airbus fan and I really love seeing everything in 3D!!!

 

 

 

And remember what I said before. The Rift may not be worth it if you only use it for one thing, so by all means try Flyinside and use it for P3D and X Plane, and also try other things like Elite dangerous, or watching a 3d movie or 3d Youtube vids. Try other experiences and games. Don't let it get stale!

 

Well, I think I will keep on using it for flightsims because, as I said, a 2D screen suddenly looks falt and dull and distant and disconnected (but very sharp though LOL) but yes, I certainly will use it for other things! I already tried Euro Truck Sim 2 with it, which was okay (the view has a weird fish eye distortion and things look very cartoonish), but I also tried Dirt Rally with it (both games I already owned) and Dirt Rally is GREAT! Totally different experience with the Rift! Unlike ETS2, where you drive so slowly that you have more than enough time to see the shimmering low pixel scenery in the near distance, Dirt has you screaming along small roads and things look pretty real colorwise and pixels... don't have the time to look at pixels! I might even buy something like Project Cars for this!

 

I have to add that flying and racing games are great for the rift because they have a lesser chance of making you sick. I did feel my stomach every now and then, like when I did a sharp turn while flying and looking out of the window LOL but it wasn't too bad and I didn't feel sick afterwards. This evening I will try a longer flight and see how that goes.

 

O, one little drawback of the Rift... I am used to doing some other things while I am sitting in the cockpit, like checking the internet in a small screen while flying longer flights: this you can't do with the Rift. It's all or nothing. So I wonder how I am going to keep myself entertained during longer flights... well, probably simply by looking out of the window like I would in a real plane!

 

And I do wear glass and I am happy to say mine fit perfectly well in the Rift! Not uncomfortable at all so that saves me some 100 bucks for Rift lenses. Money I will probably spend on some nice VR games. Or... the Rift Touch...!

 

EDIT

Another great thing: no screen tearing in the Rift! And btw I also still use my Ultra settings (no clouds though) and so far, so good! Even Dirt Rally performed great straight away with a high preset. That 1080 is a great card!

[HiFlyer 9,334]

I have to add that flying and racing games are great for the rift because they have a lesser chance of making you sick. I did feel my stomach every now and then, like when I did a sharp turn while flying and looking out of the window LOL but it wasn't too bad and I didn't feel sick afterwards. This evening I will try a longer flight and see how that goes.

 

No..... the real test of your VR nausea resistance is Eve Valkyrie. If you can survive in a No-up, No-down environment, twisting and diving while turning your head every which way and sometimes opposite of the direction you might actually be spinning at any given moment....

 

While struggling to keep huge numbers of other similarly twisting, diving friendly and enemy players in sight.....

 

In full 3D, while also holding onto your lunch.......

 

Then, you are VR nausea safe.  :wink:

 

(And believe it or not, I actually enjoy the vertigo, It certainly provides a nice contrast occasionally to sedately flying a Cessna over a river) 

 

[pipeorgan 0]

Welcome to the VR club Jeroen, loved your post.

 

The eye point is not fixed and can be set for x,y and z. I have one button assigned to eye point reset and other buttons associated to up, down, right, left, forward and backward. Before each flight I change the eye point, if required.

[Guest]

 

 

In full 3D, while also holding onto your lunch.......
 
Then, you are VR nausea safe. 

 

LOL Well, I am not spending 60 dollars only to see if a game can make me sick...  I am sure I won't survive that test.  :wink:

 

 

 

The eye point is not fixed and can be set for x,y and z. I have one button assigned to eye point reset and other buttons associated to up, down, right, left, forward and backward. Before each flight I change the eye point, if required.

 

Ok, and those are buttons I should assign in AFS2, I think? I did try the arrow buttons yesterday in AFS2 and nothing happened: could be I don't have anything assigned to up, down, etc. I will test this tonight: would be great if that worked!

 

BTW I am slightly, just slightly, disappointed by how the Rift keeps you in your position. After looking around a bit and pressing Space to reset the Rift view I often see a noticable difference. I was hoping I would have gotten rid of that because it is the one thing that I never liked about Track IR. Maybe a second sensor would help here...?

[pipeorgan 0]

Ok, and those are buttons I should assign in AFS2, I think? I did try the arrow buttons yesterday in AFS2 and nothing happened: could be I don't have anything assigned to up, down, etc. I will test this tonight: would be great if that worked!

 

BTW I am slightly, just slightly, disappointed by how the Rift keeps you in your position. After looking around a bit and pressing Space to reset the Rift view I often see a noticable difference. I was hoping I would have gotten rid of that because it is the one thing that I never liked about Track IR. Maybe a second sensor would help here...?

 

Yes assign buttons, or Xbox joysticks, in AFS2 to eye position controllers.

 

This reset Rift problem needs to be resolved but may require another sensor as you indicated.

[HiFlyer 9,334]

Page up page down changes your height position.

[pipeorgan 0]

Yes but that is difficult when using the rift.