Oculus Rift -

[J G 927]

Are you interested in Oculus Rift?

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

balanced the poll for ya

[Kevin Firth 114]

balanced again

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

either way you both will get a unit eventually; its implied from your response that it’s just a question of when!

[Kevin Firth 114]

hmm, dont know about that, its interesting, but has drawbacks such as:

1. its bloody expensive

2. it requires bloody expensive hardware to generate the framerates necessary to avoid sickness

3. I am really not that rich

4. noone AFAIK has yet come up with a way of making it work when youre a speccy four eyes like me

5. by the time I can afford it I will either be dead, or my children will have consumed it fo fund either a university education/the million £ deposit required to purchase any property in the UK/a drug fuelled party lifestyle (delete as appropriate)

K

[brett 2,316]

On the fence.

 

They do not look that comfortable to wear over time. I would have to upgrade my PC, they will be more expensive than the developers version due to upgrades, will be hard to see outside for looking at other screens or using keyboard. I will wait to see if all these and more perceived downsides are incorrect after its release, the bugs are worked out and others claim it's a must have after the hubbub has settled down. 

[J G 927]

I have to admit that I am on the fence with this, but probably fit into the price dependent category.

 

I tried one out at the Cosford FS show. As it was a generic setup I had an issue with focusing on the VR image as I wear glasses. |I understand that the product will come with two lenses do that may not be a problem on its release.

 

The headset is very light and I don't think prolonged wearing of it would present an issue, although I see several issues arising for it after its release

 

1. Almost everything you want to use will need to be on the one PC. Having Plan-G or some such other remote software on a second screen for a second PC just wont work  The only exception to this that I can think of is Radar Contact which provides an interface on the main PC whilst running on a remote PC.- So increased load and inconvenience.
2. The set its self, from the rumor mill, is heavy on processing, and so, yet again a high end PC will be needed. Combine this with point 1 and this compounds the grunt required.
3. You will have no sight of the controls you are using.  This probably limits you to a joystick and throttle. two controls you can fly on with out pooping your head out of the headset to see what you are pressing.
4. Because of point 3, to get the best results, a complex sim will be needed so that everything is operable from the VC. These very comprehensive sims inevitably demand a higher end PC to support this degree of complexity, which together with point 1 and point 2 will most likely have an impact on even the quickest PC.

Finally there is one other and unexpected problem.  After chucking a jet fighter around the skies for just 10 minutes at Cosford I was ready to see my lunch again. I guess this is a good thing as it proves the realist experience the the headset provides.  Could I get used to it?  Well  I wouldn't know until after I had purchased one and used it for a while.  This in its self is a risk given the price.  I don't suppose there is much of a market for VR sets that reek of vomit.

 

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

I am between "on the fence" and "price will dictate". I am excited to see the tech advance, but suspect early versions will be clumsy, heavy, not very accurate, and an overall downgrade in Sim Experience.

BUT, I hope it keeps developing and ends up as a unit small enough to be comfortable, allow "exterior" views without having to remove the unit...and incorporate hand motions accurately into the unit's functions.

So I voted "Price dictates"

[bilirubin 50]

It's a no from me. I wear glasses when flying and I already suffer from an illness that causes me to feel sick when I put myself into certain positions i.e. laying flat on my back.

Having read about the sickness feeling OR causes some people I would not risk it.

Mike

[MyPC8MyBrain 273]

Mike,
when you lying flat on your back; put one foot on the ground (encore/ground yourself) to stop the world from spinning

[Captain Coffee 2,030]

Have you tried holding one hand over one eye too Chris?

And be sure to drink lots of water before bed.

[Andrew Godden 945]

It's a no from me. I wear glasses when flying and I already suffer from an illness that causes me to feel sick when I put myself into certain positions i.e. laying flat on my back.

Having read about the sickness feeling OR causes some people I would not risk it.

Mike

 

 

Mike,

when you lying flat on your back; put one foot on the ground (encore/ground yourself) to stop the world from spinning

 

 

Have you tried holding one hand over one eye too Chris?

And be sure to drink lots of water before bed.

 

I have a similar problem, but mine is often caused by AUD! 

 

Cheers

Andrew

[brett 2,316]

 You should exchange it for GBP

[Andrew Godden 945]

The exchange rate sucks though, Brett. 

[wain 879]

dont think I will bother, dont like the idea of being cutoff from my surroundings, also I think its maybe good for combat and fighters but not so good for GA or Airline flight where you need access to panels and keyboard.......

[stu7708 244]

I assume the motion sickness would go away ones you get used to it.. I had the same issues when I first started using Track-IR actually, but it stopped being a problem after a couple of weeks.

 

As for actually getting one... no interest at all, at least not at this point in time..

 

Firstly due to the fact that you will be restricted in what add-ons you can actually use, and secondly due to a little five year old that tends to come in to talk to me while I fly.. Trying to do that with that kind of kit covering my eyes would not go well I fear  

[J G 927]

It's a no from me. I wear glasses when flying and I already suffer from an illness that causes me to feel sick when I put myself into certain positions i.e. laying flat on my back.

Having read about the sickness feeling OR causes some people I would not risk it.

Mike

 

I too have this problem. I usually feel giddy and sick in one particular position.  That is standing next to a bar with several empty pint glasses in front of me!  

 

But seriously...

 

I wear glasses and at the Cosworth show I found it difficult to fit them into the head set. Eventually I had to go without them to have a go on the thing.  As a result the images were blurred during my tryout session.

 

I felt quite ill after using the head set for a short time.   I don't know how much of this feeling was because of the blurriness or just due to the sensation that the set gave me. 

 

To be honest, having tried it I still don't know if it is worth getting, price aside for the moment. I would have to give the set a proper and fair trial. This would mean:

 

First setting the headset up properly for me.  

• At Cosworth the headset was setup for a 20/20 vision user, and I know that the production model comes with lenses for nearsighted people. Just how effective this is would be interesting as I can't see it working for all nearsighted folks.

• Adjusting the set to accommodate my glasses.  Fortunately I have two sets of glasses, my main set are vary-focal and my secondary pair have standard lenses. The blurb on the OR website states that vary or bifocal cannot be used with the set.

• Try the set with contact lenses.  I don't ware contact lenses, having given up on them years ago. I don't want to start using them again now.

Second, having a prolonged testing period.  

• If the feeling of sickness persists, then I would be wasting a shed load of cash.
• Without somehow adjusting my vision I would not know if the blurred imaging is causing the sickness.
•  I would want to understand just how this interface fits with a Flight Sim. This brings me back to not being to read or interact easily with elements of the FS that are or may be outside the headset, for example a keyboard, mapping software such as Plan-G etc..
• Performance would be a consideration that would not be apparent with your own rig and potentially be an expensive showstopper.  Again, any performance impact is not apparent  at the moment.

And my chances of this of doing the above?  Slightly less than bugger all. 

[needles 1,013]

Hey JG, when did Cosworth start trying out Oculus Rift?

Now I know they had one at Cosford...........

[bilirubin 50]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

 

I would have replied sooner but laying here with one foot on the floor, one hand over one eye and a drink of water in the other hand has slowed down my keyboard skills

 

Mike

 

[brett 2,316]

[J G 927]

Hey JG, when did Cosworth start trying out Oculus Rift?

Now I know they had one at Cosford...........

 

Whoops my mistake. Cosford it is.  I must have been  worrying about getting pansies in at the time 

[J G 927]

Having recently reviewed the JF Tornado and being on the verge of purchasing an all singing all dancing PC I am beginning to think that VR is the way forward for me. 

 

Let me explain why.  The JF Tornado has a lot of bespoke code in it. There are may features that MS FS key commands just don't exist for and the only thing that cope with this tailored code is to add them into on-screen controls, through a VC and/or through popup panels.  As a result there is a lot of screen based work involved in flying this advanced add-on.

 

VR for complex sims like the Tornado fit well together, you don't have to be able to see outside your 'screen' for anything. However for older sims, programmed buttons and switches provide a vital enhancement to the use of the sim. VC controls are provided in most sims but don't usually cover all that are required for an immersive experience.  I for one don't fancy having to rip off the VR headset to find keyboard and then the "g" button to raise or lower the gear as an example. For me this was a severe limitation of VR and one I thought killed it for me.

 

I think I have found the solution to this issue and will be experimenting with it as soon as I can. Its is this:

 

http://chessware.ch/virtual-keyboard/

 

This software enables you to pull up a screen based keyboard so that those pesky keyboard commands can be used within the VR headset. Okay so what, there are any number of these gadgets. Well this one is fully customization, the number of keys and key layout is changeable and more importantly each key can be individually custom coded and named.  So if you need a start key for engine 1, you can name a key "Engine 1 Start" and have it send the sequence "e 1 ctl e". Bobs your uncle!

 

I plan to test this out with a small key matrix to see how it goes. If it seems to be a good tool I will purchase it ($20) and develop a full FSX keyboard.  If I get this far I will share the keyboard with all.

 

JG 

[J G 927]

The touch-it keyboard doesn't work with FSX.  There seems to be some sort of conflict between the two and this results in crashes.

 

I am now looking at a second product called Hot Virtual keyboard available here:

 

http://hot-virtual-keyboard.com/

 

A bit more pricey at $30 but so far the thing seems to work well.