smirkza

It really is going to be interesting to see how they solve the issues raised. Certainly, motors can move the mirrors more than fast enough to meet eye lens movement, but will the solution be noisy? Will it be lightweight? Can they get that crazy cost down? Funnily enough, if they use steam VR and can get a model with an acceptable refresh rate and response time, then I think a fair few simmers might be willing to pay the extra for the quality immersion it should provide. Big ifs though... I already have my fingers crossed they or someone using similar tech can get these headsets to us pre 2020. :thumbup:

A new start-up (Varjo VR) has revealed some mind blowing tech, that promises human eye quality resolution at no real extra GPU overheads. Reviewers have actually tested demos, which is promising on the vaporware front! Article here - https://www.wired.com/story/varjo-vr-microdisplay/ Comparison picture of their working tech next to current Oculus resolution attached below, which just so happens to be an aircraft cockpit! :pilotfly:. They just need to get the eye tracking working to allow the superior res image to follow the users focus point, but the consensus seems to be this shouldn't be too hard. I'm excited for this company to possibly bring us the headset in the future, but to be honest having read reviews from people who have actually used it I can't see Vive/Oculus not pursuing their own versions too. Also, they seem to be keen on throughput video, so AR is a very real possibility, which will be fantastic for use with home cockpits! Tactile feedback from real switches/dials whilst also seeing insanely high quality images outside the cockpit. Immersion on a whole new scale. I don't normally let myself get excited until tech is released and properly reviewed, but damn this looks amazing!

Just... Wow! That's some damn fine work right there! Also, +1 for the dancing idea! :thumbup:

Flying helicopters is a wonderful experience in VR. You get the small visual cues of movement that a 2D screen can't give you. I never really gave the KA50 much time before, but now it's my favourite mod. The Huey is a blast too, if you just feel like flying a motorbike for a while. Not really been bitten by the MI8 bug, but others love it, too. There are downsides of course - spotting is just stupidly hard to do in VR right now, meaning I have to use tags to find the enemy. Chopper control also needs more finesse, which means any drops in fps that running VR brings and you can find yourself off for a bit of a wobble. Still, it really is great. Can't wait for the new choppers when they come as well.

They're still there. They are just waaaay off location from what they're trying to highlight, which sadly makes them redundant in VR. For example, some from the front panel might be visible if you look straight down, or to the rear of the aircraft, or something similar. I have been trying to use the training missions to learn some new plane systems, but not being able to read the manual or see these training cues has made it pretty darn tricky. Trouble is, I just can't bring myself to go back to a 2D screen to do it easier - madness! :helpsmilie:

Evening all, After playing around a little with 2.02 I wonder if it could be possible to switch between the laser pointer and the normal mouse pointer. In the menus and mission editor, the laser pointer is a nuisance. But during a flight, some people might find it useful (I'd rather use a mouse, as my hand can combat the slight movements I make with my head that push the pointer off a switch). Am I the only one struggling to use my head to 'point' at a switch every time I want to press it, or do others prefer the mouse pointer too?

OK, I've been lucky enough to have been able to experience DCS with the DK2 for a good while now. I thought I knew what it felt like to enjoy this game inside VR. I was wrong. The latest update, with the massive improvement in smoothness it brings, just pushes things to a whole new level. I just spent 30 minutes doing nothing but flying around in the T51, enjoying the sunrise and chuckling to myself. Incredible experience. Only problem now is I know the next step is to build a 6DOF motion rig. Better start finding things to make the wife happy...

The only way of seeing something bigger is to lean in. There is no 'zoom' key. So, the way to think of this is that you have your mark one eye balls stuck in your mark one head, which you can lean anywhere your physical body will allow you to. Just like you would lean in to read small print in real life. But, you don't have any virtual binoculars to put to your eyes (the zoom). As said, it's not a missing keybind, it's a feature that simply isn't available to VR users. Hope this helps?

Wow, I just downloaded and tried the Apollo 11 experience from Steam. If you are a sim enthusiast, history buff or just want to experience a cracking piece of immersive story telling, I recommend giving it a go. Works fine with the Dk2 and no gamepad needed - keyboard works fine. The screenshots and videos don't do it justice. I've been using VR for a while now so thought I was over that laugh-out-loud feeling you get when you first put on a headset. This put me right back there in that happy place. An excellent experience. Very much worth it. (I know it's not DCS but sitting at the top of the rocket as it blasts off, with all of the switches and instruments modeled and the actual recording of the cockpit comms playing through your earphones is quite DCS like. Kind of...)

Ah, thanks. I'm guessing with 1.3 direct to rift is mostly essential? I haven't seen any games running in extended for a while. I guess I'll wait and see if someone else manages to get this working before diving in... Cheers, Smirkza

If the screen were to be replaced with appropriate mipi board would the option to use that resolution even be available? Or, would the Oculus runtime limit the res somehow? $300 is a lot, but if I can boost my DK2 up to higher than CV1 levels then it is money worth spending. (Your detailed how-to guide on upgrading the screen will be very much appreciated! :thumbup::music_whistling:) Cheers, Smirkza

I'm hoping this is what he is referring to, as I have just ordered one. I know it's a galaxy note 3 inside the DK2 so this should fit well, and if it doesn't work it's a small loss. Here are a couple of videos that hint at the improvements a matte screen protector could offer Will let you know if it makes any difference when it arrives... Cheers, Smirkza

If you do decide to give it a go, can you post updates on how it goes? If it's fairly easy to manage I might be tempted to try too. Cheers, Smirks

Hah, that's ace! (and sadly very true - I've lost a shed load of my gaming library as they aren't VR compatible) :music_whistling:

I agree, particularly as the controllers are visible in game even when not held. Easy to pick up and put down again. I haven't seen any posts anywhere though saying DCS is going to be using motion controllers this way. I'm thinking the sighting might have been FSX or P3D instead and mistaken for DCS? Would love to be wrong, mind. Now, after trying the Leap Motion in FSX for a while I can say one of the hardest parts to get right is knowing precisely when your finger is touching a dial/switch without haptic feedback. If you use a motion controller instead I can see two ways of cueing your brain in to recognising you are in the right place. 1.) Use the vibration motors inside the controller to give a physical hint you are touching something. I haven't been able to try this to see if it would work or not but in theory it could be ok. 2.) My preferred option is to have a small target appear on the control panels as your VR hand draws near (as if drawn by a laser shone at the panel). The nearer your hand gets to the surface of the control panel the smaller the target gets, until when you're touching the panel the circle turns red, or flashes or some other indicator that you're in position. A little practice and you could use this key to quickly hit the right switch. Then the haptic feedback can be used to signify the fact you have flipped the switch. The real joy of course is that the devs can try both, or a thousand other ways of using this new tech until they find something that works perfectly. As long as people are willing to say "We won't know until we try" then VR can move onwards until we find ourselves at a near perfect simulation. That's one of the keys to VR. You have to leave your previous experiences of how to interact with computer tech behind and be willing to try things that are crazy, or didn't work before, or are simply so left field they have no right working (like the Omni). Fun times! Cheers, Smirks

Not sure if you need a headset or not, but here is the link to the setup tool that installs the store - https://www.oculus.com/en-us/setup/ I think you can skip the headset setup wizard at the start and then the store should load. You can definitely add devices once the store is open so don't see why you can't start buying/downloading apps before your HMD arrives. Cheers, Smirkza

Reading those makes me feel slightly happier in my plan to keep my DK2 and skip the first generation of consumer HMD. 2nd Gen will likely iron out (hopefully) these problems. That said, I've just gotten used to any gripes the DK2 throws at me. Honestly, I know it's a cliche but the immersion just beats down most if not all of the negative feelings you might get. I would definitely say if you were considering buying one of the new HMD as a first VR purchase do it - I can't see you being disappointed. Or buy a 2nd hand DK2 for much less and get a pretty damn fine experience too... Also, remember there are other HMD besides the big two coming out - maybe one of the more expensive ones (guessing at price here) will offer a fix for these problems? Hell, enough capital could possibly buy an SLI Pascal system able to use StarVR at a consistent 90fps and amazing FoV. Maybe..:thumbup:

Flyinside does support 1.3 and ATW is a massive leap forward in smoothness. As soon as DCS supports 1.3 I hope to see a similar improvement which should make it playable for a whole load more people with lesser system specs. Cheers, Smirks

OK, I just installed the 1.3 runtime, latest Nvidia VR driver and ran Flyinside for FSX for a short hop (only as I know it supports 1.3 right now). The difference ATW makes is huge. I mean, it is a massive, massive difference. Smoothness is up to a whole new level. Judder was almost non-existent. I only have FSX installed currently so I can test the leap motion when it arrives in the next day or so, as Flyinside supports it. DCS is where the heart is though, so tests on that to begin shortly... For those of you running a DK2 - 1.3 is very, very nice (as soon as DCS supports it, heh). Cheers, Smirks

Brew a pot of tea and spend an evening or three catching up on these threads - Rift in DCS Vive in DCS They are up to date with how the products work in game, but you might want to skip a few hundred pages towards the front to get to the useful stuff for the current game at the end of each thread... I run with a DK2 and reading the gauges can be hard. Knowing the plane reasonably well helps as you can guess what the gauge is probably showing. The release stage HMD are supposed to be much, much better. Note that FPS and smoothness can cause some people real problems. I'm lucky, in that I can run with 20 FPS with peaks and dips without feeling ill effects. It's just a matter of defocusing whenever you want to move your head then refocusing when the movement has finished. Be careful though - VR ruins games that don't support it. I can't play without it now (as most people have said really) as playing on a standard monitor feels a poor substitute...

Aye, I have preached on this subject before, too. Add in animation for the arms following your leap motion controlled hands and I'll be a very happy simmer indeed! :music_whistling::thumbup:

This seems to be a rough video of how it works inside flyinside. Can someone with experience of using it for real confirm this is how the functionality is enabled? I can see this working very well with DCS, once you train your hands to work within the limitations of both the hardware and the software. Haptic feedback will bring it life, however. Cheers, Smirkza

Incredible talk. So much information presented and the future he paints really does sound amazing. Or scary, depending on how deep you go with it (think HMD shrunk to contact lens size and connected to billions of small sensors scattered everywhere). I think Haptic revolution is going to follow VR. The first all body encompassing product to successfully bring the wearers full range of senses in to VR (beyond just sight and sound) will break through in to a new age of user experiences. DCS & Skyrim should be a blast, too! :thumbup:

Hah, I just saw that delivery is expected somewhere between now and mid April. That's what you get for going for international ebay purchasing I guess. Ah well, as soon as it comes in I'll do a review...

I have just ordered a 2nd Hand Leap Motion, so will see how it works with the DK2. Obviously there is currently no integration with DCS - but fingers crossed they can get it slotted in nicely. Just need some sort of haptic response for when the finger tip makes contact with the switch/knob and virtual arms to link to the virtual hands and voila, a top notch sim experience. On paper anyway - I'll let you know how it feels and responds to actual use.