X-Plane 11.10 b6 and Flyinside VR -Some Feedback

[steve310002 1,198]

Having read that Flyinside is now updated to work with X-Plane 11.10 b6, I updated both (and xEnviro) and had my first Oculus Rift experience last night with the new updates. Firstly I should add that when I got Flyinside, XP 11.10 and xEnviro to work together, the result was hands down my best ever simming experience. I flew at sunset with overcast conditions over EIDW (Dublin) and it was breathtaking. Added to this I had World Traffic v3 running and was circling around EIDW in my Baron just watching planes land. Wow...the lighting of xEnviro blew my mind. I can't wait until it all works properly in VR (especially having to pretty much do voodoo to get xEnviro to work in VR). We are so close to these different factors coming together to give us a complete experience but it just needs a little more polish to make it a trouble free plug'n'play experience.

Regarding performance...I had updated xEnviro and attempted to get it to work in VR using the 'trick' of first pointing your headset at the sky. I am not sure yet if it is placebo but it appears that for me anyway the shimmering that was present with HDR turned on is somewhat diminished (but still slightly annoying when compare to how good AA is with HDR off). With my 1080 GTX and i76700k 4.5Ghz, I was hovering around 34fps over payware airports (e.g. Aerosoft Dublin V2) using default aircraft (HDR on, 2XAA, High Objects in X-Plane settings and 4MSAA with the highest native resolution set in Flyinside). Strangely the fps didn't increase once I was away from the payware area. I also noticed that xEnviro is causing strange behavior with the lower atmosphere turned on and off in the xEnviro options. If you leave it on, you get a wall of fog surrounding the aircraft which makes it largely unplayable. Leaving the xEnviro lower atmosphere on also decreases the fps from 34 to 17 (again no matter where you fly). When you turn it off, it jumps back to 34fps. I read there is a shader that you can install that fixes this but gives you lower resolution clouds or you can revert back to xEnviro 1.04 to avoid issues. I am guessing that xEnviro is causing some of the strange behaviour I reported with my fps so I might uninstall and test without it. Also, for anyone thinking of updating Flyinside to work with XP 11.10, make sure you turn off 'VR Optimizations' in the Flyinside menu if using HDR or the sun disappears!

I have high hopes for what native VR will offer. May main wishes are for better AA with HDR and higher fps. Hopefully Christmas will come early and we won't have to wait too much longer.

If you have any questions, thoughts or tips (especially with xEnviro), please do share!

[GCBraun 2,390]

I would really love if you could transition from 2D to VR seamlessly on XP, just you can in P3D 41. with its native VR implementation. Having the full monitor view some parts of the flight (esp. flight planning / cruise) is something that I really go used to.

In any case, I have no doubts that native VR will eventually be better. Just look to P3D. While Flyinside may perform a bit better, it really does not play well with multiple addons and does not have HDR! Native is the way to go...

[steve310002 1,198]

Just in case anyone is interested in getting xEnviro 1.07 to work in X-Plane 11.10 without having to perform magic tricks, I tried replacing one of the plugin's shaders based on what I read over at the org and it works a charm. Here is the link to the download the shader -

https://forums.x-plane.org/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=286925

Just copy it into the shader folder in the xEnviro plugin and replace the file (back up the old one first).

You can also now turn the lower atmosphere on without the weird wall of fog surrounding your aircraft. There are still a few weird behaviors like low lying fog retreating as you near it (if there is a fog bank) but you can at least see through it unlike the wall of fog before which made it impossible to fly no matter where you were. This will do nicely until Laminar release native VR.

Happy VR Flying!

[mac44 15]

On ‎09‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 1:45 PM, steve310002 said:

Just in case anyone is interested in getting xEnviro 1.07 to work in X-Plane 11.10 without having to perform magic tricks, I tried replacing one of the plugin's shaders based on what I read over at the org and it works a charm. Here is the link to the download the shader -

https://forums.x-plane.org/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=286925

Just copy it into the shader folder in the xEnviro plugin and replace the file (back up the old one first).

You can also now turn the lower atmosphere on without the weird wall of fog surrounding your aircraft. There are still a few weird behaviors like low lying fog retreating as you near it (if there is a fog bank) but you can at least see through it unlike the wall of fog before which made it impossible to fly no matter where you were. This will do nicely until Laminar release native VR.

Happy VR Flying!

Steve thanks for the suggestion - reading it with interest as I just got xenviro and really loving it (except for the weird fog issue U mention) -  have a couple of question as will eventually try XP11 and the rift also.....

1)Can you provide a link to the discussion over at the org - above just gives the shader to download?

2)Will this work to solve the fog issue both in VR and normal modes in XP11?

3)Out of interest are you trying to use XP with flyinside and SLI together? (my issue with flyinside and XP before was lack of SLI support - tried the P3D version which supported SLI and made a big positive impact but strangely they didn't implement it in XP11 version).

[steve310002 1,198]

20 hours ago, mac44 said:

Steve thanks for the suggestion - reading it with interest as I just got xenviro and really loving it (except for the weird fog issue U mention) -  have a couple of question as will eventually try XP11 and the rift also.....

1)Can you provide a link to the discussion over at the org - above just gives the shader to download?

2)Will this work to solve the fog issue both in VR and normal modes in XP11?

3)Out of interest are you trying to use XP with flyinside and SLI together? (my issue with flyinside and XP before was lack of SLI support - tried the P3D version which supported SLI and made a big positive impact but strangely they didn't implement it in XP11 version).

1) The link is as follows: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/128688-vr-settings-for-oculus-rift/

2) I haven't used X-Plane 11 in normal mode since buying my Oculus so can't answer that (VR is just too much fun to go back!). However since I updated to XP 11.10 Beta 8, the fog wall is back in VR even with the shader replacement added. Now I have reverted to turning off the lower atmosphere again which is a bit annoying due to how it looks. Furthermore, with lower atmosphere turned on, my fps have again taken a plunge and are down to the low 20s. With lower atmosphere turned off, I am averaging in the mid 30s so something really weird is going with the lower atmosphere turned on. I will avoid turning it on for a moment.

In any case, I have read quite a lot folks complaining about the fog representation even in normal mode so I think that the developers need to fix it in general. I think I read they are working on it for xEnviro 1.08 so let's hope that also removes the issue in VR.

3) I have a single gtx1080 so no SLI here. As far as I am aware, X-Plane 11 does not support SLI at all so it is probably why it is not implemented in Flyinside. 

[mac44 15]

thanks

just tried the new shader and they seem to give a nice result (lower atmosphere) weather but without the mist effect - also seems to boost the fps! note am using the normal XP11 - not beta so assume that's why it seems to be working.........................