Hi

As per the title, given that VR may not be suitable for everyone eg. initial cost, motion sickness, cost etc.

I would really like to give it a go, just to see what it's like.

Although I mainly fly IFR I assume that VR is much more attuned to VFR flying and sight-seeing.

My system is relatively modest (ish)

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800X-3D  GPU Asus Geforce RTX 4070  Memory 32GB

Many thanks.

Al

I'll say upfront that VR is perfectly suited for IFR and airliners too, not just for VFR. There are recurring testimonials that it doesn't work well for IFR/airliners, but as someone who is flying airliners exclusively and for years in VR there really is no reason why it would be less suited for it. You're still flying an airplane, so the 3 dimensional space you're in makes all the difference in flying it since you have real perception of space, speed, height, distance, etc. and that's just as important in an airliner as it is in a GA aircraft. Since MSFS supports controllers you actually reach out around the cockpit to flip switches and stuff which is easy and intuitive (and more realistic than a mouse, obviously) and helps to train muscle memory to aid in flows, making it all the more realistic.

Your system should do a decent job in VR, but be aware that you're probably going to have to compromise on some settings to achieve a suitable frame rate. At this time VR is still pushing hardware a lot so a powerful PC and some tweaking are needed (your system should still be giving decent performance, though).

I'd recommend the HP Reverb G2. It has some of the best resolutions in VR and is relatively cheap now that it's been out for a few years or so. There are one or two headsets with higher resolutions around, but far more expensive (couple thousands). I personally haven't seen a reason so far to upgrade to anything from my G2 and will wait for newer headsets that hopefully come with greater improvements over the current ones (hardware will also need to catch up).

the Quest headsets offer a good alternative,

can also be used wirelessly,

& the software generally works well,

plus the newest Quest 3 will be available around September 2023..

One aspect of IFR in VR that could be more problematic than 'typical' VFR is the amount of glass instrumentation. Legibility is not the best for these gauges and VR glasses in the midrange are on the edge. None the less, its well worth it IMHO.

As for headsets, I'd love to recommend a Pico 4, but it lacks a Display Port interface which places the additional burden of encoding the video stream onto your GPU. I have a 4090 and I'm really pleased with my Pico.

HP is discontinuing the G2, and afaik, getting out of VR.  I moved from 3ish years of G2 to a Quest Pro and love it. Lenses are night and day better. 
 

Your Pc specs are good and should be able to handle VR with some tweaking.  Nothing in VR is plug and go though. Be warned, once you go VR in MSFS, there’s no going back.

For me anyway, there was some motion sickness for the first couple hours till acclimated, probably didn’t help that my first VR flight was in the FI Spitfire. 

1 hour ago, BufordTX said:

Lenses are night and day better. 

What's better though? Both are LCD only and the resolution of the Quest Pro is lower.

The Quest Pro has pancake lenses. That's probably what he meant.

VR is amazing in both IFR and VFR.

I own a ton of HMDs but I just prefer the Oculus Rift S for MSFS.

It's the best bargain in price, performance and visuals imo.

 

Edited August 22, 20232 yr by blueshark747

1 hour ago, blueshark747 said:

VR is amazing in both IFR and VFR.

I own a ton of HMDs but I just prefer the Oculus Rift S for MSFS.

It's the best bargain in price, performance and visuals imo.

 

Sorry, I want to clarify - you have a ton of vr headsets and among this many do you prefer oculus rift S? May I know which of your headsets are worse than the rift S?

I also had a lot of vr headsets.  Now varjo aero but this is also far from a perfect vr experience

Edited August 22, 20232 yr by senya016

 Del .Double post

Edited August 22, 20232 yr by senya016

Hi folks.

Thank you for your input, so far.

Given that I am completely new to VR and it might not be suitable to myself, perhaps due to motion sickness etc. I would be very reluctant to spend £500+ on a headset to find that was the case.

Given that, do you think that the Meta Quest 2 might be a good compromise at around £300 new, or alternatively purchase something else on the second hand market (with it's possible  inherent problems)?

If the Meta Quest was chosen I assume that a link cable would be required to use with the PC.

Would a 3m good quality USB 'C ' be ok, rather than the official one be OK? (for seated use)

Again, many thanks.

Al

8 minutes ago, algy10 said:

Given that I am completely new to VR and it might not be suitable to myself, perhaps due to motion sickness etc

Probably  might  take  you two weeks  to get  over  the  motion  sickness, if  you do decide to go ahead  with it is   to use  it  for  5  minutes   as  soon  as  you feel  sick  stop  using  it  than  wait   repeat   3  times   for  a  week  increase  the  times   till  you start  to feel  sick.  Eventually you will get  used  to it.   Since  i use  vr  mainly  for  dcs   and  ga  aircraft in msfs

26 minutes ago, algy10 said:

Hi folks.

Thank you for your input, so far.

Given that I am completely new to VR and it might not be suitable to myself, perhaps due to motion sickness etc. I would be very reluctant to spend £500+ on a headset to find that was the case.

Given that, do you think that the Meta Quest 2 might be a good compromise at around £300 new, or alternatively purchase something else on the second hand market (with it's possible  inherent problems)?

If the Meta Quest was chosen I assume that a link cable would be required to use with the PC.

Would a 3m good quality USB 'C ' be ok, rather than the official one be OK? (for seated use)

Again, many thanks.

Al

I'd still recommend the G2 personally. Second hand it's very affordable and has higher resolution than the Quest 2. Resolution in VR is still not where a 2D screen is and I wouldn't want to go lower than 2160×2160 per eye which is where the G2 and a few others but way more expensive ones sit. Anything lower feels like a step back from the standard to me.

1 hour ago, pete_auau said:

Probably  might  take  you two weeks  to get  over  the  motion  sickness, if  you do decide to go ahead  with it is   to use  it  for  5  minutes   as  soon  as  you feel  sick  stop  using  it  than  wait   repeat   3  times   for  a  week  increase  the  times   till  you start  to feel  sick.  Eventually you will get  used  to it.   Since  i use  vr  mainly  for  dcs   and  ga  aircraft in msfs

This is good advice. I've heard that if you try to 'muscle' through it when just starting out, you can actually train your brain to start feeling nausea as soon as you put on the headset. Approach it slowly,  fly easy and take breaks. 

7 minutes ago, odourboy said:

This is good advice. I've heard that if you try to 'muscle' through it when just starting out, you can actually train your brain to start feeling nausea as soon as you put on the headset. Approach it slowly,  fly easy and take breaks. 

yep  think it  took  me  around  a week   to  get  over  the  motion  sickness ,  now  it  doesn't  bother  me  at  all on how  long  i use  vr