Quick question from a non-VR user (but interested):

Does the VR implementation have an equivalent to the numeric quickview keys where you can quickly zoom into a specific instrument or control? Or are you locked strictly to the virtual pilot viewpoint?

I use those keys to zoom in on a few instruments that are finicky to adjust from the normal view, like the tiny autopilot panel in the Carenado PC-12. Combined with any text resolution issues at the same time, I'm imagining myself craning my head around to see things in the VR cockpit, in a way I wouldn't do in a real plane. Is this a problem?

8 hours ago, charliewards said:

Finally I can use my touch controllers in a cockpit! But... and this may be a stupid question... how do I brake without pedals or touching a joystick button or keyboard? 

Grab the parking brake with the touch controller, would be the only way I could think of if you don't have rudder pedals. Otherwise you would have to set a button on your joystick/yoke. 

11 hours ago, Paraffin said:

Quick question from a non-VR user (but interested):

Does the VR implementation have an equivalent to the numeric quickview keys where you can quickly zoom into a specific instrument or control? Or are you locked strictly to the virtual pilot viewpoint?

I use those keys to zoom in on a few instruments that are finicky to adjust from the normal view, like the tiny autopilot panel in the Carenado PC-12. Combined with any text resolution issues at the same time, I'm imagining myself craning my head around to see things in the VR cockpit, in a way I wouldn't do in a real plane. Is this a problem?

You can move inside the cockpit, but quick views are not implemented yet. I think I read somewhere that this will be coming. 

The only downside with it being in beta and i understand why. Is that my payware 757V2 and IXEG 737 dont work properly :( 

Don`t know about the 757, but the IXEG works well, at least for me!

I have a few question about the VR setup

1) How much does an average VR headgear weigh, I tried to find the information on there web site but it is not available anywhere (http://oculus.com and http://vive.com)

2) Can you see your keyboard when using the VR headgear ?

3) In X-Plane, do you need any or all those controller that come with the VR headgear, or can you just use the normal yoke/throttle/pedal and keyboard ?

Thank in advance

The digits on the EFIS do not show up for me.

4 hours ago, rat7 said:

I have a few question about the VR setup

1) How much does an average VR headgear weigh, I tried to find the information on there web site but it is not available anywhere (http://oculus.com and http://vive.com)

2) Can you see your keyboard when using the VR headgear ?

3) In X-Plane, do you need any or all those controller that come with the VR headgear, or can you just use the normal yoke/throttle/pedal and keyboard ?

Thank in advance

I don't know the weight but I can say that I never feel the weight.  The current vive and rift dont seem to have any complaints but I do hear that the oculus is generally thought to be a bit more comfortable.   The way they are made teh weight is distributed fairly well.  It does not feel like something heavy on the front of your face.

 

     You can look through a small space around your nose to see keys.  I would use it as more as an occasional thing than want to do it often so I map what I need to my controllers and also use voice control in some apps for the odd thing.

 

     You can use your own controllers, the only thing you lose is the ability to use the mouse.  So if you were using the mouse for something then you either need to map it to a controller or keyboard or use the VR hand controller to interact with the VR cockpit.

21 minutes ago, JasonHarris said:

I don't know the weight but I can say that I never feel the weight.  The current vive and rift dont seem to have any complaints but I do hear that the oculus is generally thought to be a bit more comfortable.   The way they are made teh weight is distributed fairly well.  It does not feel like something heavy on the front of your face.

 

     You can look through a small space around your nose to see keys.  I would use it as more as an occasional thing than want to do it often so I map what I need to my controllers and also use voice control in some apps for the odd thing.

 

     You can use your own controllers, the only thing you lose is the ability to use the mouse.  So if you were using the mouse for something then you either need to map it to a controller or keyboard or use the VR hand controller to interact with the VR cockpit.

Thank you for the informations, it very much appreciated

7 hours ago, rat7 said:

I have a few question about the VR setup

1) How much does an average VR headgear weigh, I tried to find the information on there web site but it is not available anywhere (http://oculus.com and http://vive.com)

2) Can you see your keyboard when using the VR headgear ?

3) In X-Plane, do you need any or all those controller that come with the VR headgear, or can you just use the normal yoke/throttle/pedal and keyboard ?

Thank in advance

My Oculus Rift CV1 weighs 18.7 oz. (530.136 grams)

As already stated you can see under the nose piece, but it isn't really made that way. It depends on the shape of your face. LOL.

15 hours ago, rat7 said:

I have a few question about the VR setup

1) How much does an average VR headgear weigh, I tried to find the information on there web site but it is not available anywhere (http://oculus.com and http://vive.com)

2) Can you see your keyboard when using the VR headgear ?

3) In X-Plane, do you need any or all those controller that come with the VR headgear, or can you just use the normal yoke/throttle/pedal and keyboard ?

Thank in advance

My experiences match everyone else here so far

It's great to see native support and I like the implementation of the controllers and their menus, it's intuitive to teleport around your aircraft doing pre-flight checks

I agree with the shortcomings identified so far (although as this is beta they can hardly be described like that)

 - needs mouse support to be usable

 - needs a zoomable button like Flyinside. Supporting quick views isn't good enough as that probably needs keyboard support? we need a way to zoom in to screens and buttons and then change with mouse

 - I don't think the controllers will work well for controlling buttons etc as people's desks and flight controllers will always get in the way

 - agree with the earlier comment about the plane appearing too small. It's not as bad as the native P3D VR - that's like you're sitting in a toy plane - but it needs a feature like Flyinside where you can scale the world

For the record, both P3D Native VR and XP Native VR have both highlighted what an amazing job the team at Flyinside have done - bravo

I think we'll all need to accept that VR is only viable if you can do everything on your joystick, unless you want to lift the headset to do keyboard stuff - personally I find that irritating

Exciting times though for flightsim VR, 4k will be another game changer

No performance problems currently for me, though I have i7-7700 and 12gb 1080ti (humble-brag)

With regard rat7's questions

 - I don't know what the Vive weighs but I've never noticed it's weight

 - The Vive comes with a little rubber thing for connecting to the nose bridge of the Vive to further isolate you from the real world, blocking out light and improving immersion. If you fit this, as I have, you need to life the headset slightly to see the keyboard

 - with the current XP VR beta you need VR controllers IMO, hopefully that changes. I have controllers, but want to use mouse

The biggest problem with the Vive for me has been the build up of mist/fog on the lenses if the room is even slightly warm.

16 hours ago, Riah069 said:

The digits on the EFIS do not show up for me.

I have the same problem. re-installed the 737, still the same with either set of engine gauges.

Stu

8 hours ago, EGLD said:

 - needs a zoomable button like Flyinside. Supporting quick views isn't good enough as that probably needs keyboard support? we need a way to zoom in to screens and buttons and then change with mouse

Quick views can be mapped to joystick and other HOTAS controls, but you need enough available buttons.

A zoom function would be good because there are only 9 quick view slots, but I'd still like quick view support as an option for frequent functions. It's faster than finding where you want to look in the cockpit and then zooming in.

You can also set the quick view to be perpendicular to the instrument you're looking at, instead of seeing it at an angle from the pilot's viewpoint. That can be an issue with some of the larger cockpits where everything isn't right in front of you. I know this applies to how pilots see instruments and controls in real aircraft too, but sometimes we're manipulating controls a co-pilot would normally handle, and a perpendicular viewpoint would also help legibility of text and displays in the fairly low-res VR environment.

Quick views are one solution, and are definitely required for EFIS and other complex instruments.

However, something else I think could be useful would be an option to have text that would appear above the VR controllers when you touch a cockpit control item. Like a GUI tooltip. Visually it could be similar to the Advanced Menu that appears as a vertical plane above the VR controller, only more prominent (maybe always facing you, unlike the menu). Here's how I imagine it might work:

When your controller is hovering in the hot spot of a switch or knob and the bright green zone appears, the text would appear above the VR controller indicating the name of the switch/knob, and even better, show the changing value or state as you interact with the control. For example, as you tuned a radio, the text would momentarily show on the VR controller as large characters representing the changing frequency. For some instruments or interactions you would still need a quickview or zoom, but for many common adjustments or settings I think VR tooltips would really simplify things.

I understand that for some, this could possibly break immersion so ideally it should be a user option. All I know is that while flying the default King Air C90, which I am not at all familiar with, no matter how I positioned myself I could not find a position that allowed me to read the switch labels on the autopilot which is towards the rear of the center pedestal/console. Couldn't help but think that tooltips might solve some of the readability issues in VR.

Tried this out last night -

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much, but I came away quite impressed at what they've done. I took several flights in the new ultralight and was very pleased.

I've heard comments about desks and whatnot getting in the way, but I think the advice on Ben's blog about putting away the hardware to try this out was very wise - pushing the chair back a few feet from my desk and purely just using the touch controllers worked very well. I thought that the method they've implemented for the yoke was going to feel weird, but it became very natural after a few, and quite comfortable to use. Also noteworthy was that I found it to be extremely effective in that it was very easy to smoothly pull back on takeoff, as well as being quite easy to nudge the yoke to maintain altitude or heading. I've a couple of VR flight games that use the touch controllers for control and I don't find them nearly as intuitive or comfortable.

I think it's important that LR not only opened up native VR, but also that they created the interface to use VR without requiring any hardware whatsoever. The fact that I have enough hardware scattered around my basement to build a real plane, and yet I'm itching to jump back in without using any of it (well almost, still need to use rudder pedals) says a lot to me.

My 'suggestion' list, for what it's worth:

- Have a toggle for turning off and on the green highlights. I really like controlling the yoke with my touch controllers, but I don't really care for it being green all the time.

- Nudging your view around with a thumbstick would be great for positioning yourself in the cockpit. When not using rudder pedals it's easy to just shift your chair a bit, but not so much when you are using any hardware. I end up peeking under my goggles and using the keyboard, which is by necessity not exactly in reach.