X-Plane in VR, Review and QnA

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    Spankybus
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    ok, so I am building avionics for my eventual immersive cockpit. Have everything planned out and been working towards the final product for 6 months  or so.

     

    But the Oculus Rift is is in sale,right now, so I thought I’d get one and give it a go. It is $399 for the headset, two sensors, and the touch controllers. Not entirely impulse, I’ve wanted VR since I was a kid lol I’d thought I’d share my experience here, for those who might want to try it while it’s this cheap.

     

    The Good:

     

    Using Flyinside (38 bucks, free trial with 15 minute flights) with X-Plane 11, all I can say is OMG! The sensation of flight is unparalleled! You are IN the cockpit,everything around you is 3d. Whatever you fly, you are inside it…a real sense of presence. I’ve tried the 172,  org default and Airfoil Labs, baron, piper archer, 182 with a G1000…each cockpit felt real and different…I was IN the plane!. Flew over the Grand Canyon with ortho and WOW! You look outside and the terrain drops away! (The terrain is also 3d) Mountains come at you, valleys fall away. Pattern work feels more substantial as you have a real intuitive sense of altitude and obstructions.

     

    hands down, the coolest experience for ‘flying’

     

    The Bad:

     

    Even with the best resolution settings, MSXX settings, the screens aren’t quite clear enough to resolve small text easily. GPS screens are hard to read, borderline impossible. Clicking on objects can be a chore in some planes because they are located in 3d space…and they keep moving as our heads are always slightly moving…even when we are still. But the mouse isn’t moving.

     

    Flyinside does have some features to help with this…binocular mode where everything gets magnified. It makes using gps easier, reading text and numbers, easier. You can have the elements that ‘pop ut’ in x-plane floating in mid-air anywhere in the cockpit, even in the cockpit ceiling, doors, floors, so it doesn’t obscure your view. You can even have external apps like foreflight floating in the cockpit and they are useable.

    but the methodology is completely unnatural. I am still looking up, into my airplanes roof, to read my gps unit…because the one on the actual panel isn’t legible enough.

    checklists, foreflight, any reference elements must be computer-based and pulled into the simbeforehand.

    Another downside is wearing something on your head might make longer flights uncomfortable. It can make you a bit dizzy, especially if you are doing combat or inverted flight (tried it with DCS in an A10 and wow…humbling lol)

     

    Verdict: if you are looking for an amazing experience, purely for the sense of flight without a strict purist dedication to instrumentation, VR is a blast! If you have the means (399 for all is a good deal), the rig (low-end computers will not afford the best experience), and normal depth perception (3D headset, wandering eye issues might not see VR properly?) it’s definitely an experience worth having. VFR flight is a joy, pattern work feels amazing. You really are IN the plane.

    But for real-world training, where instrumentation usage and cockpit operations are very important, the limitations of the hardware make it hard to recommend. Maybe with 4K headsets someday, or 8k or whatever, the clarity will match our current monitors. But even then, you cannot reach over and grab a physical emergency checklist when the engine dies, or bust out a sectional like you might in a real plane. Physical Interaction with all systems will be absent.

    Is it worth it? Hard to say. If it was an either/or situation, VR OR an immersive cockpit…I’d say no for real flight training, yes for pure sim funzies…especially if budget is a concern. The flight Illusions radio stack is a small fortune….hell, even making my own 3D printer avionics has been expensive. If you have limited space for a full-sized cockpit, VR might be a good option.

     

    But for that sale price, it’s a great time to give it a go. The sale will end soon and the price will go up by 200, making it retail for 599. Even if you hate it at 399, you can eBay it and at least break even (once the summer sale is over).

    Another advantage is that VR works for other sims as well. DCS for you combat jocks, Elite Dangerous for you space junkies, driving sims, first-person shooters….I’m like a kid again lol!

     

     

    UPDATE:

    I ordered something called a ‘Leap motion’ wwhich allows the sim you actually see my real hands and acknowledge them for sim interaction. I ShOULD be able to use switches and buttons, etc, with my real hands

    It also features a forward-facing camera for hand tracking…and it can also be used to grant a view into the real world and show this in the very helmet as an overlay. No clue how this might work in practical usage, but i might experiment with the idea of an immersive VR cockpit. IT would have the shape of a cockpit and all my avionics in place for tactile contact and panel interaction, but no screens or gauges.

    However, there would be a big downside to a physical VR cockpit: it’s fixed. A big advantage of the VR experience are the Virtual cockpits. Whatever plane you chose, you are IN that cockpit. No matter it’s shape or size, it’s all around you in 3D, from a 172 up,to a 747. Any physical cockpit I build will conform to OnE aircraft layout, making it meh for flying other birds.

     

     

    The Ugly:

    No matter the sale, your RIG needs to have some teeth to do x-plane 11 justice in VR.

     

    My hardware:

    X99 mobo

    i7 5970x (8 cores)

    64 Gbs ddr4 ram

    Nvidia Titan X

    Siatek Cessna yoke, throttles, and pro flight pedals.

     

    My machine is not average, I use it professionally for CAD , 3D concent creation, and vfx rendering. However, an average PC 94 cores, 8 gig ram) with the newer GPU cards, from gtx 107o and up, will likely do better for VR than my Titan X (maxwell). But even they start at 300+ bucks (used), more for new.

     

    NOTE: You will still have to use X-plane 11 with settings that your PC can push normally, maybe slightly less. Low FPS in VR can cause judder/stuttering, which can really make you wanna barf, for real. Adjust sim settings for 30mfps or more in VR

     

    NOTE: my understanding is that Oculus and Vive both do not like SLI/Crossfire setups.

     

    Links to mentioned tech:

    Fly Inside – works for XP11, fox, and p3d

    Leap Motion – haven’t used it yet, so will update once I ahve.

    Oculus

    Hit me up if you guys have any specific questions.

    • This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Spankybus.
    • This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Spankybus.
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