1. Get OpenXR Toolkit and experiment with the settings, it's a game changer for those on lower end GPUs with regards to performance & graphical settings ability with different resolutions + a  ton of other decent features. Still helpful on higher end GPUs for certain things as well.
2. Bind the Toolbar to a button press so you're not faffing with the keyboard, much easier. If you're short on buttons get a button box, anything will do (I use a SNES controller that's mounted next to my Yoke for example). I even made my own Button Box with Axis control (mainly for car racing) but it works for flight sim stuff too, I also use my HOTAS for buttons when I use the Yoke for control and I have a NUMPAD USB mounted on my HOTAS Throttle box for handy "keypress" binds. When you're "blind" in VR you soon learn from muscle memory where everything is located, doesn't take long.
3. I'm not much of a Chart person but the (brilliant) Sky4Sim App allows you to import PDFs for chart usage, other than that this App is a godsend for VR users, full of useful tools/maps/logs etc etc and links directly with NeoFly 4 https://sky4sim.com/
4. With regards to instrument clarity, once you get OpenXR Toolkit working to your needs then use the button bind VR ZOOM in the Sim, bind it to a convenient button and you can easily zoom in to buttons & dials which brings them to life so to speak. This way you'll easily be able to read displays, numbers, dials etc. With a better GPU you will of course be able to run a higher resolution so in some planes reading things from the Seat is easily possible, I can do that in with my G2 and 3070ti and indeed with my previous 2070Super GPU in certain planes. Zooming just makes life a bit easier, plus it's cool to "zoom" into the co-pilots seat and look out a different window!

Once I've gone through the Menu and clicked Fly then the HMD goes on, I do absolutely everything in VR, Cold & Dark starts in big jets is just great. Some planes are more fiddly than others where the Devs haven't paid much attention to VR users but you get around those annoyances. Hope that helps 🙂

 

I fly regularly in IFR in VR. IFR rating in real life. Piper with GTN is my combination for “real life” training but I also fly the TBM and Airbus regularly.

The only part I do sometimes in 2d is writing down the clearance which seems more realistic writing on paper than in VR. Also taxi instruction if I expect long and complex routing. But recently with the introduction of a sceen in Sky4sim that give access to the dialog with Pilot2atc, I tend more to do thoses steps in VR also but the feeling is less realistic than when writing clearance on a paper.

I use Navigraph charts in VR for airport layout, sid, star, plates. I put this screen on my left in VR in order not to ruin the immersion. And minimize it in cruise.

Sky4sim is on my right side and used for weather information mainly and Pilot2ATC dialogs.

I have two buttons on my yoke reserved for copilot toggling and copilot say-it for pilot2atc to reduce work load when necessary.

I still use some of my hardware like the Saitek switch panel, throttle and multipanel. I put some tactile identification material on some buttons and knobs to provide me feedback that I am on the proper control. Some controls like gear, trim, autothrottle are self evident. I dont use my radio panel while in VR and I prefer switching  frequencies in the VC.

You definitively need a better video card. I changed my 2090 to a 3090 and it allowed me to push sliders up. But as MSFS lacks clarity in distance compared to others title, I reserve cpu and gpu power to setting that increase the most the image sharpness and I prefer to reduce the level of details, especially at longer distance or visual effects that are not noticeable in VR. I also have prescription lenses from VR optician and use Open XR toolkit. No retroprojection for me as I hate the artifact it produce.

Yes VR menu works well and I have a button on the yoke for this one too.

Looking forward in the future, I expect the Primax Cristal to allow to push the image clarity but the price tag will be high as I guess it will require a 4090 card.

4 hours ago, MarcG said:

1.  

Once I've gone through the Menu and clicked Fly then the HMD goes on, I do absolutely everything in VR, Cold & Dark starts in big jets is just great. Some planes are more fiddly than others where the Devs haven't paid much attention to VR users but you get around those annoyances. Hope that helps 🙂

Thanks I will look into OVR a bit more and the button bindings.

This morning I tried all sorts of render scales using OXR.  For fun I set it to 30% which was really smooth - about 60 fps.  If I could have that smoothness with 80% rendering, it would be totally acceptable.  If I set 80% render I yield about 20 fps in big cities or 25-28 fps in rural areas.

So I've set a balance of 75% but I also was able to turn up some visual settings in MSFS - which didn't really seem to affect FPS.  I had most of the MSFS stuff set to low which was honestly a little ugly even when viewing through the sweet spot.

And then just now I flew the PMDG 737!  WOW!  The FPS was actually better than some of the GA (like C414 etc).  And the gauges were pretty readable at 75%.  Wow.... just wow.... lol  Investing in a new GPU seems to be the way to go.

7 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

Investing in a new GPU seems to be the way to go.

Definitely. That 1080 Ti card is really holding you back as far as VR is concerned. 

A couple of resources if you decide to stick with VR.

For controlling various dials in the cockpit, I use a Knobster along with KnobFS software from Sim Innovations. Russ Barlow posted a pretty good overview of using KnobFS over on YouTube:

And for VR setup and info in general, I highly recommend The VR Flight Sim Guy's YouTube channel and Discord. He has some very good videos on how to tweak your system to get the best performance from it (although he just upgraded to a new monster machine so you'll want to look at some of his older videos for more mid-range settings). His Discord has a great bunch of users on it that are very helpful in getting systems dialed in.

When I was setting up my Reverb G2, I used the "Essential VR" playlist by Mark over on SimHangar Flight Simulation YouTube channel. In Part 5 he walked through the setup from start to finish and showed some excellent starting points for settings for low, medium and high end systems. Well worth a watch.

 

Thank you!

On 11/27/2022 at 4:58 PM, ryanbatc said:

And then just now I flew the PMDG 737!  WOW!  The FPS was actually better than some of the GA (like C414 etc).  And the gauges were pretty readable at 75%.  Wow.... just wow.

There is a bit of an irony that that has been noted also by other VR users that some of the simpler GA instrument panels - especially the 'stock' ones such as the Cessna 172  - can be less sharp than some of the more complex ones, such as the PMDG737 and the new A310.

On my system, the clearest GA aircraft instrument panels include the Just Flight Warrior and Arrow III.

Also, it is fairly well acknowledged that, for RTX cards, DLSS - while making substantial improvements in FPS - significantly reduces gauge clarity.  I'm back to DX11 and TAA which, at the moment, gives me the best compromise between the two.

Oh - and the little Studio Form Creative VR  weight pack you can get to just wrap round the back strap transforms the wearer comfort and ability to keep the physical position - and thus the sweetspot - of the head set where it should be. 

 

Well boys....  I did it...pulled the trigger on a 4080 from MSI.  Should be here in a week.

31 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

Well boys....  I did it...pulled the trigger on a 4080 from MSI.  Should be here in a week.

Got mine (actually an ASUS 4080) yesterday. Now in the shop to build a new (i7-13700K-based) system using it. Unfortunately, I am afraid not being able to install the whole shebang before the holidays.

After some initial warnings about it being highly overprized (which it certainly is, but is the 4090 as well), I am now seeing reports from several people being satisfied or even excited about it. 

Kind regards, Michael

2 minutes ago, pmb said:

Got mine (actually an ASUS 4080) yesterday. Now in the shop to build a new (i7-13700K-based) system using it. Unfortunately, I am afraid not being able to install the whole shebang before the holidays.

After some initial warnings about it being highly overprized (which it certainly is, but is the 4090 as well), I am now seeing reports from several people being satisfied or even excited about it. 

Kind regards, Michael

I'd say it is overpriced.  However I was looking at used 3080s and even those are going for 800 bucks or more (USD).  800 is crazy!  Long gone are the days of 500 dollar high end GPUs.  I figured that A) I wanted a GPU to help balance my fairly high end system, B) if I was going to spend 800 used on a previous gen card I might as well spend more on a newer card and C) you guys really got me hooked on VR LOL!

I hope to run 100% render scaling with medium to high MSFS settings now at a good fps...if I do that with my 1080 ti I'm not even breaking 20 at addon airports.

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

I hope to run 100% render scaling with medium to high MSFS settings now at a good fps...if I do that with my 1080 ti I'm not even breaking 20 at addon airports.

So we're in exactly the same boat. That's my goal, too. On a 1080Ti right now, too, as you see from the sig. Which served me very well for 6 years but isn't up to the VR task anymore.

Kind regards, Michael

2 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

Well boys....  I did it...pulled the trigger on a 4080 from MSI.  Should be here in a week.

Congrats! I almost pulled the trigger on a new system a couple of days ago but after pouring over all the reviews and insider reports, I'm going to hold off for the release of the RX 7900 XTX and see how it plays out in the market.

5 minutes ago, odourboy said:

Congrats! I almost pulled the trigger on a new system a couple of days ago but after pouring over all the reviews and insider reports, I'm going to hold off for the release of the RX 7900 XTX and see how it plays out in the market.

That was the other card I was looking at.  Truth be told I feel like it will be a better value than the 4080.  This one I bought was 100 over the FE version so honestly not nearly as bad as EU is paying for these cards.  I believe there is rumored to be a 7900 xtxt also.

9 minutes ago, odourboy said:

I'm going to hold off for the release of the RX 7900 XTX and see how it plays out in the market.

exactly my thinking. even if I may still get the 4090 😄

11 minutes ago, turbomax said:

exactly my thinking. even if I may still get the 4090 😄

Exactly!