I never bothered about VR. For me it’s a very very early technology with all the flaws early technology brings. A gimmick that shows a idea that can be beautiful but due to hardware and technology limitations is far from ready. 

Last year I had the chance to try PS VR and while it was cool to be in a 3D world all my prejudices have been hit. Blurry image, uncomfortable to wear and it looked like I was looking through binoculars as I could clearly see the two round displays with a lot of black around.

Further I am a hardcore game. But most VR games are stupid action showcases with the depth of a puddle. Well as a simmer with DCS, soon Fs2020 and Star Citizen I have at least a theoretical work space.

In the last days I read and watched a lot and thinking about trying it out. The only headset I would consider buying is Valve Index. While still a first gen headset at least best in class. Costs do not matter. Currently it’s sold out though.

now the convincing part. Here are my main concerns and questions which I hope to get answered to evaluate a purchase possibility:

1. as a 39y old dev my eyes paid the price. For 2 years I have to wear glasses to watch a monitor without hurting eyes. How do glasses work with a VR?

2. to my understanding the performance suffers significantly. When I have let’s say 30fps then the number half’s with vr on. What’s the truth?

3. the valve index comes with attached speakers. Speakers I don’t want. Can I remove them, disable them and anyhow continue to use my Razer Kraken?

4. the valve index comes with optional base stations and controllers. As I am not interest in jumping around the room and want only to sit in a cockpit and look around and click some switches I don’t understand if I need those

5. convince me 🙂 

Thx in advance.

You've done your research so you've hit the downsides for VR. You have to have a powerful enough machine to generate the needed framerates for smooth play. When VR is working though you won't find a more immersive tool for flight simulation. I believe the Index requires at least one base station for seated play. HMD's like the Oculus Rift S and HP Reverb do not. They use inside out tracking. I believe you can remove the over ear speakers if you want to use a headset. I know you can with the Reverb. As far as glasses are concerned, you can wear glasses with the headset on but you can also get custom made lenses if you have an eyeglass prescription. I currently own the HP Reverb and the Oculus Rift S. I did own the Index when it first came out. I had performance issues with X-Plane so I sent it back. The HP Reverb is what I use the most. I prefer the Oculus software but the Reverb is noticeably clearer with a higher resolution. Depending on where you buy your headset from, they usually have a 2 week or 30 day return policy, so if you want to try it you can and if it's not what you want you can return it.

Like everything in life, it comes down to personal choice, nobody will convince you unless you wanted to. Everyone is different. I never switched to P3D from FSX and I didn’t want to switch to VR, but only because I don’t want to spend time tweaking when I barely have time to fly. But other people may enjoy the tweaking even more than the flying. Nothing wrong with that.

I looked at VR from afar marveling at its potential. I took advantage of the recent Odyssey+ sale only because it was a good entry point to deep my toes in VR. And it seated in my garage for days without opening the box, pondering retuning it to seller because I didn’t want to fall into the tweaking spiral.

I eventually got it working and tried different simulators and I was hooked. It has problems you listed and more: blurry, low performance, uncomfortable, etc but it is worthy for the experience of seating in the VR cockpit. I don’t think I could go back to 2D. The technology is not ready but I will monitor the ongoing innovations to overcome the issues and will assess picking another headset once the next generation is out. In the meantime I’m enjoying flying again.

Wow, this is more than I talked this whole week.

thx for your input guys

I like to compare vr to ev's, first slowly but then accelerating as tech gets ahead and folks get convinced of the benefits.

I read that in the 1910's streets of ny city were horses and carts only but just a decade later cars filled the streets despite 

people first weary of the noisy and smoky machines....

Ok......As I put on my oculus and go for another great flight.

1. I use glasses with VR, some headsets have more room than others.  I have an odyssey which is one of the worst for glasses I think, but I make it work.  You can also get prescription inserts for most VR headsets.

2. It doesn't cut my performance in half, but I lose about 15 fps with VR.  You need lots of VRAM for VR.  I find the 11GB of my 1080ti to be the bare minimum.  Once you hit 95% vram usage your FPS will tank.

3. Not sure, im not too familiar with the index.  I use the odyssey, its earphones are not removable so unfortunately I cant use my own headset.  

4. I only use VR for flight sim and I don't use any controllers or move around the room.  The mouse is easy to use in VR and is all I need.  

5. Once you try it you can never go back.

I wear glasses for reading, but I find no difference if I remove them when using the Rift. My eyes do get sore though, so I tend to use short flights of about 1 hour duration.

 

My Samsung Odyssey+ is great for Dirt Rally 2 and Project Cars 2 but having just recently got a 55" Samsung NU6900 4K TV I am going back to a large screen with TrackIR5 Just the way I used to have it 5 years ago when I had enough room for that setup. I have the room again. The only difference is that in the past I used a Samsung 60" 1080p plasma. It's much better with 4K. Don't get me wrong, both options have their pro's and con's. For me for now the Big screen 4K with TrackIR is the better option for Flight Sim.

8 hours ago, AccusedChip said:

Ok......As I put on my oculus and go for another great flight.

right?🤣

Edited January 10, 20206 yr by blueshark747

Thx for the infos guys. Only thing that is still unclear to me is the base station. In fact this means: Do I buy the complete packackage for 1100€ or only the headset for significantly less

1. as a 39y old dev my eyes paid the price. For 2 years I have to wear glasses to watch a monitor without hurting eyes. How do glasses work with a VR?

Depends on the headset, in the future VR headsets will have adjustable optics but for now most do not. Some allow you to comfortably wear glasses without them contacting the lenses in the headset and others do not. You'll have to look at them individually.

2. to my understanding the performance suffers significantly. When I have let’s say 30fps then the number half’s with vr on. What’s the truth?

The performance does suffer significantly. Consider it like running a dual monitor setup with each monitor running a different game.

3. the valve index comes with attached speakers. Speakers I don’t want. Can I remove them, disable them and anyhow continue to use my Razer Kraken?

You can choose not to use them but it is not recommended. The quality of the audio from the speakers is excellent and because they sit apart from your ear they are very comfortable. 

4. the valve index comes with optional base stations and controllers. As I am not interest in jumping around the room and want only to sit in a cockpit and look around and click some switches I don’t understand if I need those

You don't need the controllers but you do need the base stations. The base stations track the device.

5. convince me 🙂 

If you're not already convinced, don't bother.

I dont need to convince you. I already know for myself. VR is one of those things you just need to try for yourself.  

There are also many sites springing up out there where vr aviators are gathering, and some great support and info can be found, as well as lots of videos and tutorials.

this is the video that convinced me.

It lived up to the hype. I use the psvr headset almost every day. I could never go back to 2d flight sim.

I have never seen anyone put the headset on and not be blown away, in videos or real life. One kid on internetional helicopter day literally spent his entire 5 minutes screaming "omg this is amazing " looking around the cockpit. A 4 year old girl who couldnt even reach the pedals flew like an absolute professional for 30 minutes, no one was willing to tell her that her time was up because they couldnt believe what they were watching.

Edited February 10, 20206 yr by mSparks