I have never tried anything on VR before but I am considering giving it a go given how much people seem to like it and the immersion factor that’s possible.

I have been looking at the Meta Quest 3 as I believe the G2 will no longer be supported fully in the future on W11. I’m an experienced MSFS user flying only tubeliners on a 5800X3D system with a 4080 at 4K using FG and mostly high/ultra settings. Typically will have anywhere between 60-100 FPS depending on the scenario and I’ve recently started using the dynamic LOD app to adjust lod when on the ground. I have a dual monitor setup with MSFS on 1 screen and additional apps like navigraph, vPilot, FS2Crew,STKP etc on another screen. 
 

How do you think the transition to VR might be from this type of setup? Would I need the link cable for the quest or better to use Virtual Desktop then I can get my other apps into VR as well? As I fly tubeliners, I would imagine I would likely do takeoff and climb out in VR then switch back to 2D for cruise then back to VR for arrival. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated as it’s a new area to me!

 

changing to VR has been by far and without a shadow of doubt the most important and significant improvement that i have made in 25 yrs of flightsimming.

Your specs should be ok i think. 

It’s not only in the cockpit … walking outside and looking up (you can literally stand up or sit and look up to your ceiling) to you tubeliner and appreciate how big it really is. These things make a pre- or post flight phase also more enjoyable. And the taxiing as well of course. 

When in cruise you can press CTRL+TAB to switch off VR mode and continue 2D and vice versa. Easy!!

You could even browse on you pc with the headset still on or close the link and use your internal apps on the quest if you like. 

In case you are also flying on vatsim you’re up for a challenge though although the are virtual tablets which allow you to take notes using mouse, stylo or keyboard etc.

I agree with Antonine.

You will need the cable unless you have Wifi 6 or better, and even then you're still probably better off with the cable. You can get the cable for about $25 on Amazon rather than spending  $75+. 

You can get a "comfort" type band on TEMU for $13.50 instead of paying $40.  The band if fully adjustable and well worth it. There is a lightweight silicone band you can get for about $3, it makes all the difference in comfort as well and it helps to save the Quest 3 material it covers.

The jury is likely still out on which size memory to get... as VR and MR progresses, memory might become an issue (although not likely in flight sim), so I went with the 512GB Ram.

Best wishes.

 

 

 

I hadn’t even put a VR headset in ever up until Christmas just gone, I borrowed the children’s Meta Quest 3 what they got for Christmas just for an hour …… well …. Nearly 2 months on now and I haven’t flown a single flight on my 42” monitor since and I never will ever again … VR is extremely immersive I tell you…. Once you put that headset on you are sat inside the Flightdeck, you really are. …. you can stick the monitors in the bin. Now the thing is you need a good system to get it running smoothly etc…. Now I have a i7 high end processor 32gb ram with a nvidia 306024gb card and the visuals inside the flit deck are ok, they are not crystal clear as they are on my monitor  but I put up with it because of the immersion factor it’s just so worth it, it truely is. I run fs2020 through virtual desktop wirelessly, no cable for me, I bought a cable but sent it back as it didn’t make any difference to the visuals at all, everything is set on high in the sim. 
 

You will not regret VR  but you will not want to go back to your monitor if your pc can’t run VR smoothly etc …”what you have never had you never miss” …. Once you have flown in VR that’s it!

😃👍✈️

I started with VR just over a year ago using the HP Reverb G2 and simply cannot go back to 2D. Anytime I try to go back that immersion is gone. I had a few short periods where I felt queasy during the first few weeks, but that is completely gone now. Best to remove the headset for a bit when it happens and keep your initial sessions shorter. 

You can open many apps inside of VR. I am able to open LittleNavMap with this free ingame panel that also lets you save charts and checklists and open them as well:https://flightsim.to/file/43086/little-navmap-vr-panel

If you use Navigraph, their ingame panel works great too.

The visuals are not as sharp as on a monitor, and you will have to do some tweaking to get things optimized fro you system and preferences. You will need to lower some of settings that you are using in 2D, but you will probably not even notice those changes in VR. Do not expect both high framerates and sharp visuals. With my 3080ti, using OpenXR, 133% render scale, motion reprojection and DLSS Performance, (looks slightly better to me than 100% render scale and DLSS Quality with similar performance), I maintain a solid and smooth 30FPS in the PMDG737, even at major airports with some fsltl traffic. I keep max active IFR and VFR traffic to 15 each, as traffic is a hit on performance.

In spite of the visuals not being as sharp, I still find VR waaay more immersive. Your graphics card should get even better visuals mine. As others have said, it's like you are inside the aircraft, not just looking at an image of it on your screen. The sense of scale is totally different than on a monitor, everything looks life-like in size. The horizontal and vertical field of view is better and you can just move your head to look around in a way that is much more natural than head tracking on a 2d screen. 

I find it quite easy to manupulate the controls using my mouse, but I also use Voice Attack which I highly recommend. 

The thing with VR is you can never really know what is is like without actually trying it. No amount of watching youtube videos, etc can even come close to conveying what it's like.

Thanks for all your feedback! 
 

I completely forgot that Navigraph has its own in game panel, that sounds like it could be a solution for me to get that in VR. Is there anything for vPilot? I think for the other apps I run, I could manage without in VR but it would be good to have navigraph and vPilot available. 
 

Regarding connection, I guess I would try wireless virtual desktop first and if it isn’t great then I could pick up a link cable. I’ve heard OpenXR mentioned but wasn’t sure how it fits in?

 

6 hours ago, mrlip said:

I guess I would try wireless virtual desktop first and if it isn’t great then I could pick up a link cable.

You could also try Steam link for vr first, as its a free download. Virtual desktop is, of course also highly recommended.

https://www.meta.com/en-gb/experiences/5841245619310585/

if your going  down the  route  of  vr  than  you need  to grab  hold  of  dcs 🙂

If I am adjusting MSFS settings for VR use and switch back to 2D mid flight, would I need to also change settings back? Or does MSFS have completely separate settings profiles for 2D and VR? 

Completely separate profiles, fear not 🙂

1 hour ago, Daube said:

Completely separate profiles, fear not 🙂

Thought so otherwise that would have been a bit of a showstopper!

 

Last question for now I think - the quest 3 has built in speakers and mic, correct?

Thanks for all your input!

 

47 minutes ago, mrlip said:

Last question for now I think - the quest 3 has built in speakers and mic, correct?

Yes

Took the plunge and ordered a Quest 3. Should have it tomorrow. Haven’t picked up a link cable yet, will try SteamVR/VD first and see how that goes. Haven’t picked up a better head strap yet but given what people say about the included one, I will probably get one

Will keep this thread updated with how I get on!

11 minutes ago, mrlip said:

Took the plunge and ordered a Quest 3. Should have it tomorrow. Haven’t picked up a link cable yet, will try SteamVR/VD first and see how that goes. Haven’t picked up a better head strap yet but given what people say about the included one, I will probably get one

Will keep this thread updated with how I get on!

If you are going Wireless, as much as SteamVR streaming is effectively free, I would look at Virtual Desktop long term as it uses it's own VDXR runtime so you don't need SteamVR at all. This gives much better performance than SteamVR which is very noticeable in MSFS.

You can also try the Oculus link app and Air Link which is free but again, it is not as performant as Virtual Desktop. 

17 minutes ago, Donka said:

If you are going Wireless, as much as SteamVR streaming is effectively free, I would look at Virtual Desktop long term as it uses it's own VDXR runtime so you don't need SteamVR at all. This gives much better performance than SteamVR which is very noticeable in MSFS.

You can also try the Oculus link app and Air Link which is free but again, it is not as performant as Virtual Desktop. 

Yeah this is what I read as well when doing some research earlier this week so highly likely I will go down the Virtual Desktop route