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I took the plunge...


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I took the plunge and decided to buy myself a VR headset to use in XP11. I got the recently released Oculus Rift S and i am loving the results.

The immersion is awesome but VR still has some way to go as the visuals in VR are lacking in quality and resolution at the moment but you soon get used to it.

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  • 6 months later...

I've loaded Amazon.ca several times but I haven't pulled the trigger.  Best Buy is out of the running because they have no stock (in Victoria, Canada)

I do not want to get into second-guessing the developers. You know the routine: BUY! No, wait a bit, maybe an improvement is waiting in the wings.

Right now the choices are not that hard to make - Oculus Rift S or Vive. The price of Vive is over the moon for something that may get dropped pretty quickly. I've got the hardware so no need to spend big bucks on another PC.

Let's see how it goes - "Click".

I'll be back!

March

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I'm back. I bought the Oculus Rift S, FSX-SE and Flyinside FSX. 

First Impression: Nice toy.

Lots of fun for a VFR experience. I really like the 360 degree aspect. For me, it makes it easier to fly the aircraft by hand. All aspects are a similar experience to the real thing. The spatial orientation is so superior to the 2d experience.

I'm using a Saitek Yoke and Quadrant, Trim Wheel and CH Pro Pedals. Everything easy to use, even blind, except maybe the Trim Wheel which is horribly inaccurate - that will be solved with a bit more tuning. Not a biggie anyway because the electric trim switch on the yoke seems to work fine.

IFR - useless. That is, unless you tend to do your IFR flying by hand. I'm still searching for a way to tune radios and navigation instruments. "FlyInside" has made a decent attempt to address this problem and I'm hoping that, with time and practice, I'll get their tuning technique down pat. Radio tuning is actually quite easy.

I'm sure I'll find lots of tips and tricks but at this time trying to tune the CDI or the heading bug on the HSI is all but impossible. I'm just flying the Stock 172 and the Sim Cockpit Yoke is in the way of any serious attempt. Flicking that bug one degree at a time is getting old - fast. FlyInside allows the use of a mouse pointer inside the sim but I haven't found a way to use that effectively. I should mention that I use a Trackball - lots of thumb squiddling to move across the screen. If I set the mouse pointer acceleration to a level where I can accurately keep the pointer on the knob, it takes ages to traverse.

Cheers,

March

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Also i hate the manipulators, pointing laser beams and twisting them for dial turning is just horrible, they would be better with natural gestures like flicking a switch with your finger an so on.

My VR hardware is back in the box as i just hate it now.

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I'm not at the point where I want to put it back in the box...yet.

It is quite good for VFR flying as long as you leave the nav gear alone. Dialing in a course or a heading on the HSI is nigh on impossible. The radios are tune-able in a lot of sims with a popup that allows using the "hands" to move the frequencies. Unfortunately, this means you have to pick up one of their controllers - a bit difficult when you're blind and hanging onto a yoke with your left hand and a throttle quadrant with your right. I'm still looking into this and haven't given up. I'm thinking that it might be possible to map the electric trim switches to the heading bug and course selector.

Take the Extra 300 for a burn :). Also fabulous for soaring.

The more I read on it the more I think I jumped a bit too soon (story of my life). The developers were working with the guys who developed "Leap". But as is often true when a couple of children get involved in the adult world, they screwed the pooch holding out for the big score. Instead they wound up selling for a fraction of the original valuation. Sadly, this also temporarily took the tech off the market. Wikipedia lists the company as "Defunct, 2019". See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_Motion. Sold to "Ultrahaptics", a UK company.

Rumours are that this tech is heading towards being built in to the next gen VR headsets. Look up "Ultraleap", but exercise caution - my (Malewarebytes) anti-malware software tags the website as potentially dangerous. See also: https://www.magicleap.com/

Cheer up, mate. It's coming.

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On 19/01/2020 at 11:17, phil white said:

Also i hate the manipulators, pointing laser beams and twisting them for dial turning is just horrible, they would be better with natural gestures like flicking a switch with your finger an so on.

My VR hardware is back in the box as i just hate it now.

I am with you Phil. I had an Oculus Rift a couple of years ago and ended up giving it to my son for his gaming pc. Track IR is better for FS I think. 

As soon as the headset is on it becomes so hard to use any controls not on the joystick and so anything other than a very simple aircraft becomes a pain to fly.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 23/01/2020 at 23:59, J G said:

As soon as the headset is on it becomes so hard to use any controls not on the joystick and so anything other than a very simple aircraft becomes a pain to fly.

Fully agree with that.  Bought mine about 2 years ago.  Back in the box after about a month of use.

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