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rogue_blade

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    Oculus Rift S With DCS World Discussion

    in Virtual Reality

    Posted

    *A Rift S review*

     

    (Caveat: My eyes seem okay and my ears are likely poorer-than-average. YMMV.)

     

    TL:DR - If you liked the CV1, but you crave more clarity, buy it. And probably some headphones.

     

    As someone who's been using one since early 2017, I'll admit that I packed away my faithful CV1 with something of a lump in my throat. Together we had dived the oceanic trenches, explored the galaxy, climbed the peaks of the world, slaughtered the denizens of Skyrim, flown the skies from Nevada to Normandy, and... er… run about as a small cartoon fox.

     

    However, the headset is dead. Long live the headset! Here are my thoughts on the Rift S (as compared to its predecessor), with particular reference to DCS.

     

    *Initial Thoughts*

    The deletion of the trackers means you get less in the box for your money. That said, it has a rather less industrial look that the CV1, seeming smaller and sleeker.

     

    *Setup* 10/10

    Simple. Plug in. Oculus home spotted it, downloaded drivers, a short vr-noob tutorial and it was up and running. Fewer things to plug in, and half the number of batteries for the wagglies.

     

    *Fit and Feel* 9/10

    Excellent. Better than the CV1, which was (IMHO) better than the Vive for weight and general fit. The weird wheel-band is actually way easier to use and adjust than the CV1's straps, while the lower button allows for a closer fit to the face. No sweaty mask-mark. Read that last one again. Yup, none. After a 3-hr session last night I had a clear (and dry) forehead. It also feels almost weightless once on. I was never bothered by the mass of the CV1, but the S feels lighter. Smaller too, as those moments of knocking your controllers off your headset seemed reduced. And cooler (both me and the headset), particularly at the end of a long session. I personally like the light-guard at the nose, but you can press the lower button to slide the headset forward for a quick peak of your keyboard if necessary. Still needs a wiggle about once on to find that sweet spot (but the CV1 had that too, particularly until you got the fit right). Fits fine over glasses, and easier to don and doff over them. Interestingly, I had the odd moment of looking-down-bad-binoculars with the CV1, but not in the S (perhaps as it fits me more closely). Not adjustable for IPD. Mind you, I reckon most people got that wrong, and its deletion saves us a few pennies. No trace of motion-sickness, but then I am pretty robust and VR-acclimatised.

     

    *Tracking* 10/10

    Spot on. Better than the CV1 as it seems harder to occlude or confuse the tracking. Sharp, smooth, and copes well with leaning forward and down in the cockpit (which sometime confused the CV1). Controllers also tracked fine. Some reviewers have reported issues with drawing-the-bow motions with the S, due to the inside-out tracking losing the controller behind your ear. Tested this out in Skyrim VR - no issues what so ever.

     

    *Visuals* 8/10

    It's not a generational step above the CV1, but then it never claims to be. The cockpit clarity compared to the CV1 is... amazing, and really has to be seen to be believed. I am now able to read compass correction labels in the AV-8B. MFDs have all their text legible without guesswork. No need to mess about with PD to fudge it either. "Screendoor" (which I personally was never much bothered by) is still there on static images like loading screens, but you have to be pixel-peeping to spot it. I did get the odd "sparkly" frame as other reviewers have commented upon. Not often enough to be game breaking, but definitely a bit odd. Maybe they are subliminal messages telling us how great Facebook is (and if you believe that, you need a new tinfoil hat). Code glitch, more like, and hopefully get sorted. Minor reminder you are playing a game, that's all. My IPD is 66mm+/-, so it all looked fine and crispy and all 3D for me. YMMV. Minor niggle at the moment is that everything inside the cockpit looks great, but the canopy perspex and HUD glass seem to be so well rendered that the view outside seems (comparatively) worse. Like looking through a filthy window or smudged glasses. Something the software will catch up with in due course, I reckon.

     

    *Audio* 7/10

    Probably, the IPD-range notwithstanding, the Achilles' Heel. It's not that the audio is bad, per se. The quality is fine, with an absence of crackles or clipping. It may just be a consequence of a lifetime of loud rock music, but it is just comes across as rather... insipid. Even at full volume, you wish you could crank it up a notch or three. Not a deal-breaker, but definitely a Bad Doggy moment. Salvaged by the fact they have a headphone socket in a sensible place on the headset itself.

     

    *Performance* 9/10

    In short, same as the CV1 - give or take. My rig is a 16gb i5 SSD with a 1060 6gb GPU. CV1 ran at a solid 45 fps, in downtown Vegas with cockpit textures at 1024 and a PD of 1.2. In similar terrain, Rift S maxes itself at 40 fps with the PD at 1.0 and the visuals improved as described above. In other words, if you can happily run a CV1, you'll run a Rift S. Yet to play with the settings much from what I had the CV1 set at. The lower max fps may be an issue for the more delicate amongst you, but I suspect you'd be pushed to notice the difference without the fps counter up.

     

    *Controllers* 9/10

    Not used in DCS, I know, but included for completeness. Smaller, lighter, and mostly similar to the last iteration. Oddly, the ring-bit has been reversed in orientation. This makes them initially feel a bit top-heavy, but there was zero impact on my ability to hack-and-slay my way through the snows of Skyrim. Buttons are in the right places - same as the last ones.

     

    *Look-through Camera* ?/10

    Gimmick? Used it once during set up. Too grainy to be any use for reading knee-boards or the like. Not being wholly uncoordinated, I can move about a 2m.sq empty space without banging in to things. I can also find my own joystick and keyboard by dead-reckoning. Could be cool, but not for me. Haven't used it, so not prepared to rate it, to be fair.

     

    *Value for Money* 9/10

    It's an improvement visually over the CV1, but is it worth the money? Despite a gut reaction against "S" semi-generational releases, I would argue that it is. Instead of just looking at how much you pay upfront, consider the lifetime cost of the item. I bought the original CV1 for £400 back in 2017. Later that year, I bought the hand controllers for another £100. Have I had £500 of use out of the CV1 over that time? Yup, it looks like it. Steam tells me I have spent 150 hours in Skyrim. I reckon one could easily say I have equalled that in DCS. Add another 50 hours of other VR games (another conservative estimate). Therefore my CV1 setup has cost me 500/350 pounds, or about £1.43 per hour of play. A bargain, particularly for those of us old enough to remember stuffing coins in arcade machines. Two years later, the Rift S cost me 80% of the price for comparable hardware and improved visuals. I've only had 5 hours under it, so it's currently cost me £80/hr. Ouch. However, the more I play the cheaper each hour gets. Assuming a similar level of use as the CV1, even if I end up replacing it at Xmas 2020 the cost of having used it will have been less than £1.50/hour. Or, with there being about 570 days until Xmas 2020, a projected daily cost of £0.70... whether it is used or just an expensive paperweight. Compare to your own income and draw your own conclusions.

     

    How did you find the FOV in your S vs CV1? Does it feel worse, easily adjustable to make it feel equal?

    Oculus Rift S With DCS World Discussion

    in Virtual Reality

    Posted

    Hi guys, I'm hearing a lot of reports on other sites that FOV on the Rift S feels like wearing a pair of swimming goggles or looking through two squares cut out of a piece of cardboard.

     

    Can anyone comment on FOV in DSC with the Rift S?

    Even better, can anyone who's upgraded from CV1 to the Rift S comment on FOV in DCS?

    Is it noticeably different, for better, for worse? Does it detract from the experience? Do the pros of the S outweigh the FOV con, assuming the FOV is worse?

    Coming from an original X52, are US aircraft still 'doable' with the MongoosT-50?

    in PC Hardware and Related Software

    Posted · Edited by rogue_blade

    Hi I'm interested in getting the MongoosT-50 as I get back into SIMs with VR. My previous stick when I played Flaming Cliffs was an X52 original.

     

    I'm seeing a lot of concern from Warthog users and other stick brands who say it's hard to use the Virpil stick with US aircraft control (slewing and hats). This worried me in my research as I only tend to fly US aircraft.

     

    But then thinking about it and looking back at my old X52, it never had a thumb hat or anything Warthog similar, and I think I managed fine in the F15C. If I recall correctly, I actually used a throttle nipple stick to aim my radar.

     

    So based on that, would I really have that hard a time mapping the Virpil stick to the US aircraft controls, or is it more so a concern for hardcore enthusiasts who want near matching experiences?

     

     

    edit: holy cow I have 383 posts, I must of been an active monkey......10 years ago

    Military.com video: 5 Armed Insurgents Meet 3 Hellfire Missiles

    in Military and Aviation

    Posted

    I like what you've said EricJ.

     

    To those who have such an issue with this video being posted....what do you honestly expect? Like I'm not saying to bugger off or anything, but really; look at the type of forum you are in, look at the category of this sub forum; these types of videos will be posted, they fit the category, they are on topic and cover the material that we come in here to see. That's how I feel about it.

    I figure anyway that most people that come here are avid internet users, and the way I see it, any avid internet user has 'seen it all'.

    Air France jet vanishes from radar

    in Military and Aviation

    Posted

    well debris from the crash has been confirmed including a seat, life jacket, bits of metal and jet fuel, other bits and even a turbine or some engine part.

     

    Thing is....earlier today they say at first the automated messages sent from the aircraft reported electrical system failures and compression issues.

    Now they say the computer reported "complete system failure" and decompression. So that in combination with the lack of any form of mayday call means it must have been a near instant, if not instant catastrophic event. I mean unless all forms of comms were knocked out and things progressed from bad to worse thereafter and the pilots simply had no way of communicating....but I'm thinking the former is what occurred....

     

    I am quite baffled as to how it can be so hard to find a downed aircraft. I would assume airlines would have live data feeds of gps co-ordinates their entire flights. And if so, surely they could calculate how far the aircraft could have traveled based of the last gps coordinate received? I honestly have no idea how this stuff works, just thinking out loud here. And apart from GPS what about some other form of satellite tracking, I mean isnt there some sort of satellite to aircraft datalink going on or something, like anything!?

    And then this blackbox. We always have to retrieve them and their valuable data which is always a huge task. Why don't these black boxes send a live data stream constantly throughout a flight? Like the same way they recieved the automated messges of the electical and pressuriztion failures?

    I don't know, I'm just confused and annoyed as to how it is so difficult to find a crashed jet.

     

    This definitely helps answer some of my questions

     

    http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/03/db.plane.nav.tracking/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

    Air France jet vanishes from radar

    in Military and Aviation

    Posted · Edited by rogue_blade

    well debris from the crash has been confirmed including a seat, life jacket, bits of metal and jet fuel, other bits and even a turbine or some engine part.

     

    Thing is....earlier today they say at first the automated messages sent from the aircraft reported electrical system failures and compression issues.

    Now they say the computer reported "complete system failure" and decompression. So that in combination with the lack of any form of mayday call means it must have been a near instant, if not instant catastrophic event. I mean unless all forms of comms were knocked out and things progressed from bad to worse thereafter and the pilots simply had no way of communicating....but I'm thinking the former is what occurred....

     

    I am quite baffled as to how it can be so hard to find a downed aircraft. I would assume airlines would have live data feeds of gps co-ordinates their entire flights. And if so, surely they could calculate how far the aircraft could have traveled based of the last gps coordinate received? I honestly have no idea how this stuff works, just thinking out loud here. And apart from GPS what about some other form of satellite tracking, I mean isnt there some sort of satellite to aircraft datalink going on or something, like anything!?

    And then this blackbox. We always have to retrieve them and their valuable data which is always a huge task. Why don't these black boxes send a live data stream constantly throughout a flight? Like the same way they recieved the automated messges of the electical and pressuriztion failures?

    I don't know, I'm just confused and annoyed as to how it is so difficult to find a crashed jet.

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