mSparks

Sounds like you might still be using 2D? My flight sim usage has changed completely over the last few years. From 90% of the time fiddling trying to get stuff to just work even up to just a couple of years ago. To 100% immersed in the cockpit short and long flights with a dose of trying to get them recorded well like Today. Time wise I have xplane open far far far less than I did 5 years ago. Flight sim wise I am actually using xplane now more than I ever have before, but 2D is just as on ramp to VR.

https://github.com/mSparks43/747-400/releases/tag/3.8

Marketing

Steam stats and the new navigraph 2026 survey align pretty well: Steam MSFS2024: 4,077/8057 = 50%, Navigraph = 45% Steam MSFS2020: 3,165/8057 = 39%, Navigraph = 28% Steam XP12: 815/8057 = 10%, Navigraph = 11% So I think the "switching from XX flight sim" that just dropped are probably safe.

My new fun thing to do is watch movies lay down in the cockpit of the 744 (in VR). Headset plugged into a battery bank so it doesnt go flat. Flight test complete, matrix resurrections rewarched. Everything was great. Movie lasted longer than the flight so i shut the 744 down connected the causeway and finished watching. Very prophetic "unplugging" when it finished.

Excited and terrified. Excited, because a lot of the UI is fairly poor to interact with (e.g. opening the settings pages requires hitting a tiny button a long way away, starting in VR loses all the controller configuration), and that really, really needs an overhaul. Terrified because I only just got everything working pretty much perfectly, and for sure it will break everything... And maybe the UI doesn't even get an overhaul.

Really well, it's completely changed how I'm interacting with both my desktop and X-Plane. Just leaving ALVR/SteamVR running 24/7 now, the idle use is no more than without them and picking up the headset firing up ALVR (if needed) on that and double tapping B is far easier than ssh'ing into my desktop when I'm not at my desk in all instances. If the machine is busy working I can check progress, if it's finished I can immediately sneak in a quick X-Plane session. probably more time in X-Plane VR in the last couple of weeks than X-Plane for all of last year (lot of Population One as well, would be more Aces of thunder on the PSVR2, but apparently Sony have big issues with accepting credit cards online, so to buy it I need to buy gift cards from a retailer.. omfg).

https://developer.x-plane.com/2024/03/we-are-all-raster-farians-now/

Not gnome or kde, because it will be years (if ever) before they support https://github.com/zquestz/plank-reloaded That and show all windows are pretty much my must haves for my desktop now - which is why I can never go back to windows. Edit, and since I hate it when people just say "use this" but dont show what using it looks like, and I need a lot more practice recording stuff like this, plank and show all windows looks like this (saw it was missing in the earlier video)

There is more to it that that. Firstly, new users should really get a feel for the sim in default before loading up with addons. Especially as xplane is so fast moving that even the most popular addons break sometimes, while xplane default is mostly rock solid. But more importantly, its not just that existing scenery addons will be very obsoleted by the next gen scenery in a "soonish" timeframe (worst case less than a year, very likely longer). I have a fair bit of scenery addons. Free and paid. Some of which was bought fairly recently, currently not using any of it because default is in most cases better looking and always more performant. So for now, get used to default, play with some freeware. In terms of payware. Hotstarts CL650, Toliss getting highly recommended for next things to spend on. Sparky744 and Zibo essential freeware in my totally unbiased opinion

1. You should be fine 2. Should do 3. Freeware like simheaven will take you a long way. Not sure I would recommend buying scenery right now, there is some great payware for sure, but it will all be obsolete soonish, some older scenery has serious performance problems with XP12, and for the most part default is now good. There are some very very high quality airports coming out, but all the default airports are already very good thanks to the scenery gateway (nothing to do on your part unless you want to contribute, ships with the sim) 4. Xplanes addon ecosystem is enornmous. If you want it, its probably already been done, well

ALVR does wifi streaming for the quest 3 from steamVR WayVR is a steamVR overlay that lets you bring the desktop into the headset while VR apps like xplane are running. (So you I never have to go into the PC room). The "what I see" is recorded by casting from the headset to firefox on the desktop, and capturing that with OBS. Theoretically it should also work with monado/wivrn. But not tried them recently. Valve seem to have "fixed their word not allowed" with steamVR. And if you need MS office, it works far better on mac anyway. Very, very very satisfied with my linux PC, MacBook for mobile, PS5 PSVR2 for gaming trio. I currently want for nothing.

meanwhile, my cinnamon install is all like

https://www.sambent.com/microsofts-plan-to-fix-windows-11-is-gaslighting/

I have some bad news for you. Most of is here have spent years trying to get xplane to work properly, and that isnt constrained to one single OS, its all of them...