DCS: Phone?

I'm in the middle of looking to replace my current cell phone and noticed that the current top end ones can have 1Tb of disk drive now. Combine that with them having VR setups and ludicrous pixel counts it got me wondering if we are reaching a point where one could do a Flanker 1.0-2.5 level VR flight sim on a cellphone? I wonder what sort of things need to be developed to get there from here?

Ehhhhh... Some of the games available graphically are approaching older computers. Setting power aside, the main handicap is going to be input. What are you gonna do? Hook a joystick to your phone? And a keyboard? You'd need AT least a gamepad to even attempt to play even a very simple flight sim. Mashing onscreen prompts or something won't work, and steering with anything vaguely approaching enough finesse to not die when landing...

Horsepower for a crude sim? Probably.

Is it feasible? Not really.

X Plane 10 had a mobile phone version. You tilted / rotated the phone for joystick.

:puke:

:puke:

+1

Tbh, there are tasks where my iPhone Xs 256GB outperforms my 8700k at 5G.

Respect to what ARM has achieved since 2010. Truely amazing.

ARM will be a strong performer once they make those dies for more wattage, like notebooks and ultra small PC's.

Yes, not too far in the future we could prolly do that, I have little doubt.

I've got an Xperia XZ with a 4k screen (although I think it runs the VR stuff at 1080p) but it still has a screen door effect and small text is not readable. And 60hz refresh rate means that when you look around everything is blurred, object are bearable, but text impossible unless you stop moving your head or move it only very very slow.

The mobile VR experience just does not compare to a true dedicated headset. Phones also lose their centre very easily, so you need play on a swivel chair or standing up, to constantly recentre yourself. So seated / cockpit style games aren't very viable. You also aren't able to move your head in space, only look around, which is quite unnatural. Large screen phones are also very heavy, so it's uncomfortable. Because of the limitations you also can't last as long without getting sick.

(New phones will have 120hz screens, and some already have two cameras so you could get the full 6 DoF.) still I think it is cheaper to buy a mid tier phone, and a PC VR headset separately.

But I don't see why you couldn't have a basic flight experience on phone if you are happy with the compromises. Flanker 1.0 is out of the question, as you need a texture to get a sense of speed and movement (flat shaded polygons don't give you the feeling of travel so it can make you feel sick). So it would have to be Flanker 2.0 style. And simplified for working on a gaming controller. (bluetooth controllers are not particularly responsive or accurate on mobiles either, so it's another obstacle). It would have to be simplified to something more like Ace Combat series, but also much slower paced to prevent nausea. It could work, but it is more of a gimmick I think, and it would be hard to have a serious gaming session.

Perhaps something where you can sit in a stationary cockpit might work better. Might even be a good way to promote DCS.

For some fun, I tried once to make a helicopter simulator for my phone VR. And I figured, to keep the graphics simple I will make it with green night vision. Well after about 10 minutes of testing, I took the VR headset off, and everything looked purple in real life for about 10 minutes because my brain got used to so much green it must have made some adjustments. I would be scared it will never go back to normal after playing for too long haha :-)

Anyway, try something like VR Space Cockpit on the android store if you want to get an idea of what VR on mobile is like. It's kind of cool, but the limitations are there. Have fun :-)

That's interesting story Tom!

Sony and Microsoft have both said they intend to abandon the console and run server-side games services to thin clients.

MSFS_X would work fine on your phone then....

There is software like Trinus VR which let's you use your phone as a VR headset(you still need at least a 20 dollar plastic phone holder though) but it's a cheap way to get VR. But I'm not sure how good the experience is.

There is software like Trinus VR which let's you use your phone as a VR headset(you still need at least a 20 dollar plastic phone holder though) it's a cheap way to get VR. But I'm not sure how good the experience is. I think it's better to save up for a HP Reverb so you can actually read the cockpit text and hud lol. Perhaps a 4k we would work OK.