After much deliberation, I finally made the jump and invested in the VRInsight 737 overhead panel. It arrived last week and I thought some of you may be interested in seeing it's unboxing...  

 

You can also buy a touchscreen monitor and have multiple overhead panels / all in one.

I switch from Airbus to Boeing in 1 second.....

`And then all the lights and gauges are really working instead of being a sticker.....

But then also VRInsight makes sturdy products, have a MCP combo which is working fine already for years!

Edited October 2, 20232 yr by rob0203

5 minutes ago, rob0203 said:

You can also buy a touchscreen monitor and have multiple overhead panels / all in one.

I switch from Airbus to Boeing in 1 second.....

`And then all the lights and gauges are really working instead of being a sticker.....

Don't the physical buttons punch through the display and break it? 🙂

Given that the company name is VRInsight, I would assume they are selling to those of us who fly with goggles on. Touch screens don't help much when you can't see them - something that really annoys me because I have a great buttonbox setup on an old tablet for the F18 in DCS, and it's useless if I fly in VR.

This would take some precise fiddling to get the panel to match the displayed overhead, but once you did.. Man.. That would be somethin' else.

 

3 hours ago, eslader said:

Given that the company name is VRInsight, I would assume they are selling to those of us who fly with goggles on. Touch screens don't help much when you can't see them - something that really annoys me because I have a great buttonbox setup on an old tablet for the F18 in DCS, and it's useless if I fly in VR.

This would take some precise fiddling to get the panel to match the displayed overhead, but once you did.. Man.. That would be somethin' else.

 

I don't think that is the idea at all. I'm pretty sure they have an approximation of the a real 737 flight deck in mind with 2d monitor or monitors or projector for display in mind.

I see what you are saying but that kind of thing is merely a remote future possibility for hi precision hand and finger tracking. In fact if that day ever comes for the purpose of tactile sensation all you would need is surfaces and foe switches and dials to mimic the position of VR object in your real environment. The real stuff would require not functionality at all since all the function would be performed digitally when the VR hand flicks the VR switch of turn the VR dial.

Except that a bank of actual switches 1) don't require hand tracking to work and 2) feel like actual switches rather than swatting at nothing. 

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that when my nephew got a VR game called Superhot, where you try to shoot opponents before they shoot you while ducking behind things like counters, my brain got a little too fooled. I ducked behind a counter, then grabbed it to stand up... Or tried to, and ended up on my face. 😄  That "solid looking object is actually thin air" thing is a major annoyance in VR. This is why I still use a yoke and throttle with my VR setup. I could use the controllers or a hand tracker, but gripping a yoke that doesn't exist wouldn't be very satisfying. 

Even when part of the thing you're interacting with is physical, if it isn't all physical it breaks the illusion. In another game I tried you had to shoot a rifle. the left controller was the forestock and the right controller was the trigger. But since the controllers weren't actually connected, the in-game gun looked solid but the "physical" gun felt like a noodle. In short, it sucked.  The same thing will be true of trying to flip a switch that doesn't exist, unless you have some really good haptic gloves, and even that will only get you so far.

 

8 hours ago, Rockliffe said:

After much deliberation, I finally made the jump and invested in the VRInsight 737 overhead panel. It arrived last week and I thought some of you may be interested in seeing it's unboxing...  

 

Looks great.
Did VRInsight write it's own SpadNext profile for it or is it a matter of buying
SpadNext and hoping the community can work it out?

6 hours ago, eslader said:

Given that the company name is VRInsight, I would assume they are selling to those of us who fly with goggles on. Touch screens don't help much when you can't see them - something that really annoys me because I have a great buttonbox setup on an old tablet for the F18 in DCS, and it's useless if I fly in VR.

This would take some precise fiddling to get the panel to match the displayed overhead, but once you did.. Man.. That would be somethin' else.

 

This panel has been around at least since 2012, so before affordable consumer headset days....

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by gboz

3 hours ago, gboz said:

Looks great.
Did VRInsight write it's own SpadNext profile for it or is it a matter of buying
SpadNext and hoping the community can work it out?

Unsure whthere VRi wrote the profile or someone else, but so far it works a treat!  Yes, you have to buy the Complete Edition of SPAD neXt for the panel to work. But, apart from this overhead, there is no physical product on the market other than those super expensive overheads from other companies that cost five times as much. This product is aimed at the average simmer who may want to have an overhead but hasn't got the funds or inclination to drop £5000 upwards to have one! It's not perfect, but it's a great alternative to a touchscreen, which I used for a couple of years.

11 hours ago, rob0203 said:

You can also buy a touchscreen monitor and have multiple overhead panels / all in one.

I switch from Airbus to Boeing in 1 second.....

`And then all the lights and gauges are really working instead of being a sticker.....

But then also VRInsight makes sturdy products, have a MCP combo which is working fine already for years!

Hi Rob, sure, I have used a touchscreen for the past couple of years, but I wanted something more realistic and having actual rotaries, annunciator lights and switches works far better IMO.

 

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by Rockliffe

Loved your video... There's nothing quite like receiving and opening a new "toy" that you've been hankering for for ages. Great stuff ..I could almost hear the packaging crackle as you unwrapped it. Good on ya... Enjoy!!

Enjoy, Howard!!! 👍

 

4 hours ago, danielwilliam said:

Loved your video... There's nothing quite like receiving and opening a new "toy" that you've been hankering for for ages. Great stuff ..I could almost hear the packaging crackle as you unwrapped it. Good on ya... Enjoy!!

Indeed Daniel! Thanks.

 

3 hours ago, David Roch said:

Enjoy, Howard!!! 👍

 

Cheers David.

Edited October 3, 20232 yr by Rockliffe

Looking forward to the next video. Literally drooling watching the unboxing. I went the VR route but love the look of that hardware!  is it 1:1 or a tad smaller than the real one ?

18 hours ago, rob0203 said:

You can also buy a touchscreen monitor and have multiple overhead panels / all in one.

You could also just buy a VR headset and have a different unique virtual overhead panel for each different unique virtual plane...

 

 

 

I'm just messing around folks....relax...relax....🤣