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Jerad

What is it like flying in VR? I'm planning on getting one.

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I'm gonna get a VR headset for the new Simulator, cause it just seems like it'd be quite an experience.

Do you feel like you have more control in VR? It seems like you'd be able to land better when you have that sense of depth, and feeling how close you are to the ground.

Do you use one hand on the flight Joystick, and then one hand on the VR controller to turn knobs and stuff? I'm a bit confused, can u set down that VR controller to use a throttle or something?

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There are two answers you can expect.

1: VR is the best thing EVAH. Once you try it you can't go back.

2: It makes me feel sick. Cant stand it.

As for controllers. Use you mouse in the cockpit and controller braille for everything else. You know where your throttle is, you know where your stick/yoke is and you ought to know which switches and buttons you've assigned for flaps etc. Simples.

EDIT: Incidentally, I'm in the Best thing EVAH category

Edited by Ron Attwood
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How long does it take for 'smug' to wear off after buying an EV?

"It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled". Whoever said it wasn't wrong!

 

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I absolutely love flying in VR. The emersion is amazing if you have never tried it. Its very hard to explain, you just have to experience it. If feels like you are actually sitting inside the cockpit. Everything is sized to real life. I'm always  amazed when starting up P3D with the PMDG 747 in VR,  you really feel how high you are off the ground.  I do find taxing around, take-off and landings to be much easier as you do get a much better sense of how high off the ground you are and where you are.

Even though  my 47" 4K TV/Monitor has better resolution, seeing my desk, and surrounding room kills the emersion. The best I can describe this, its like flying a plane though a window. So its difficult to go back to flying my monitor. 

The first time I tried VR is with the F/A-18 hornet in DCS. I was so amazed looking around the cockpit. How real it looked. I found it hard not to reach out and touch the knobs and switch's in the cockpit that are not really there. I use my yoke, Joystick, throttle control and rudder petals like I always did. I use the mouse in front of me for buttons and switch's. You will quickly develop muscle memory to where your hardware is. I don't use the VR controllers with the simulators. 

When I first moved the throttles to taxi, it was "wow". It was kind of like the feeling, when you are sitting in your car and not moving, but the car next you starts to move, and you are not expecting it to move, so for a spit second, you think your the one moving. 

 As Ron mentioned above, the one downside to VR for some people, is the it can make you feel sick. Your eyes tell you, you're moving, but your body (ears) doesn't. I only experienced  a slight sick feeling when banking the aircraft, but I got used to it within days. I can fly combat missions in DCS, doing all kinds of maneuvers, looking all over the place for the bad guy for hours and not feel sick anymore. 

So if you do get that sick feeling, just take it slow and in short sessions. Don't give up. You're body should get used to it over time. 

 

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Rick Verhallen

i9-13900KF OC to 5.8 Ghz | 64 GIG- G.Skill 7200 RAM | Asus ROG Maximus z790 Hero Motherboard | Gigabyte  RTX 4090 OC |  47" Samsung 4K Monitor I HP Reverb G2 HMD I Varjo Aero HMD I  Windows 11

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Awesome but get the HP reverb G2 if you can, get the highest and clearest resolution you can afford you won't regret it

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Wayne such

Asus Hero Z690, Galax 3080 TI, I712700K, Kraken x72 CPU Cooled, 64 GIGS Corsair DDR5, 32 Inch 4K 

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11 hours ago, Jerad said:

I'm gonna get a VR headset for the new Simulator, cause it just seems like it'd be quite an experience.

Do you feel like you have more control in VR? It seems like you'd be able to land better when you have that sense of depth, and feeling how close you are to the ground.

Do you use one hand on the flight Joystick, and then one hand on the VR controller to turn knobs and stuff? I'm a bit confused, can u set down that VR controller to use a throttle or something?

Hi Jerad,

in this video you can see how i fly in VR using real Hardware, it's an old video and no longer up to date now i have completely different hardware but just to show how it can work. I use a wireless gamepad too, especially for walking

around and some buttons assigned for opening doors ect.

I mainly fly GA.

 

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For me, flying in vr adds back some of the senses lost when only simming in 2D.

Judging your altitude returns to being instinctive, a real-time update as you fly that not only adds to the immersion, it helps you in things like landings.

Also is the sense of scale. Your cockpit is life-sized, as is your plane, the other planes around you, the airfield, the parking area........ this makes a huge difference, and feels like finally coming home.

In VR, you are there, sitting in the actual plane. You turn to the left, you see the left side of the interior of your plane, life-sized. You-are-there, and the room you are playing in ceases to exist for a while. (Don't step on the cat!)

Many people have had the weird experience of reaching out absent-mindedly and attempting to put their drinks on the seat next to them before remembering at the last moment that there is nothing actually there......

Finally, there is the sensation of actually reaching out physically to manipulate your aircraft controls.....

Its a completely different way of approaching simming.

Edited by HiFlyer
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We are all connected..... To each other, biologically...... To the Earth, chemically...... To the rest of the Universe atomically.
 
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As a RW pilot on single-engine piston aircraft I can only say: Nothing is as close to RW flying as flying in VR. Whenever I sit in the virtual cockpit I totally forget that I am actually in a simulator. The feeling of sitting inside the cockpit is overwhelming and can not be replaced by whatsoever high screen resolution of a 2D monitor. Just be warned: If you do the step, you can never go back to the flat image of a monitor. Everything else looks flat and unreal.

In addition, flying in VR is actually easier than with a monitor, even if you use TrackIR. You can almost feel what your aircraft is doing when you virtually sit inside. An example: When you are on the final to an airfield/airport, approaching the runway, you can judge far more precisely how to use the controls until touch-down; it feels exactly as in the real world. 

Be warned AGAIN: Once you do the step and go for VR, there is no way back!

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Felix

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As you can see it’s actually pretty hard to put the VR experience into words.

The best way I’ve found to describe it is using a sliding scale.

0 is sim flying on a monitor 10 is flying a real aircraft. VR would come in at least a 6 or 7, ie it’s nearer to real flying that flying on a monitor.

The aircraft I was flying previous to this virus situation I’d been flying for 23 years so over the years had developed little habits of where to rest my arm or rest my head etc. When I fly that aircraft in VR I often find myself reaching out for the grab handle or the coaming as I did on the real aircraft.

Ever wondered what it’s like to sit in the flight deck of your favourite aircraft, well VR truely replicates the exact feel, small GA planes can feel realistically cramped and claustrophobic, big airliners feel cavernous.

I also feel that when you purchase a new aircraft you’re getting much better value from it because you’re truely feeling and flying that aircraft , you can detect it’s hidden nuances , rather than watching a video of the experience on a monitor .
 

And yes the aircraft are much easier to fly in VR as your actually sat in them not flying them remotely.

checking over your shoulder for the runway doing circuits, looking down the far end of the runway during the flair are all done realistically.

 I think VR is the best thing to happen to flight simulators since the sublogic Scenery disks

Edited by jon b
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787 captain.  

Previously 24 years on 747-400.Technical advisor on PMDG 747 legacy versions QOTS 1 , FS9 and Aerowinx PS1. 

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I should add, that in this ghastly heat we in the nice part of the UK are having VR has been put on hold. The headset fills with sweat and it becomes a scuba sim!

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How long does it take for 'smug' to wear off after buying an EV?

"It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled". Whoever said it wasn't wrong!

 

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Following on from Ron’s comments I’ve invested in a small usb powered desk fan to waft cooling air over you while in VR after reading  a tip in these forums.

It helps with the nausea , although as Ron says it’s just too hot at the moment to do anything here in the U.K. 

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787 captain.  

Previously 24 years on 747-400.Technical advisor on PMDG 747 legacy versions QOTS 1 , FS9 and Aerowinx PS1. 

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I know that next Tuesday I'll back to flying a 2D screen, but VR is coming to FS2020 and I have the HP headset on preorder.

Once all that happens, I will disappear into my headset, never to emerge again.

 

 

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Petraeus

 

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I don’t blame you. During the lockdown the world inside the headset was considerably better the world outside, and probably still is to be honest.

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787 captain.  

Previously 24 years on 747-400.Technical advisor on PMDG 747 legacy versions QOTS 1 , FS9 and Aerowinx PS1. 

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I've been flying VR for 2.5 years now.  There's no way I could ever go back to pancake (2D) mode.  When I saw that FS2020 was going to support VR, I jumped all in....  For the near term, I'll fire up the TrackIR.  But that's been quite a while with using that...  🤪

Indeed, VR is so immersive.  You're in the cockpit as opposed to flying a screen. 

I also ordered the G2 (to replace my Rift S).

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18 hours ago, Ron Attwood said:

2: It makes me feel sick. Cant stand it.

My last upgrade was a 3770k, so a major upgrade is imminent. I have the  HP G2 on pre order. I’m also planning ordering the P2 from https://dofreality.com/

 Are any of you using a moving seat/platform setup? Will this solve the problem of motion sickness?

Thank you for all your comments. 


Lyn the trucker

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