How do you fly the ball in VR?

I can only see that there is an orange or a red dot. Everything else is too blurry, even with holding VR zoom. I have a rift with 2.0 Pixeldensity.

I had Rift and know exactly of what you speak. I simply flew the red ball best I could. Resolves somewhat in close, but sometimes too late to adjust. I upgraded to HP Reverb and ball is now much more clear.

I can only see that there is an orange or a red dot. Everything else is too blurry, even with holding VR zoom. I have a rift with 2.0 Pixeldensity.

You are too far from the boat. I fly with a Rift S at PD of 1.5 and can see the ball at 1 mile fairly easily.

If you are too low or too high the ball will not be visible as well.

Ideally, you should be crossing the wake of the boat at 370 feet radar altitude at 1 mile and pick up the ball at 3/4 mile as you roll wings level.

I have a reverb.

Rift S Pd 1.4. No problem making out the ball in case i or from ~1.5 NM in case III conditions.

It may be the OP has graphic settings so far out of whack that the ball is not visible.

PD 2.0 is far too high no matter what horsepower you have behind it. That tells me his other settings may be poorly chosen and resulting in less than optimal visual performance.

Translation: Click the VR button on graphics and set you PD to 1.0 and see how the ball looks.

Get a Reverb!

I have a Rift CV1, PD at 1.5 and can see the ball at 1nm as well. No real issue here with identifying it while on glide slope and from distance. VR zoom can also help. Wonder if your settings might somehow not be adjusted/selected optimally and causing some kind of issue...?

Cheers,

Don

I have a Rift and settings mostly low, PD of 1, still no problems flying the ball.

I suggest using ICLS Needles or fly a good pattern. Both bget you in a good glideslope position behind the boat. Put the Velocity Vector symbol (the thing where you center the e bracked) a little bit behind the wires. That is good enough, you only need little adjustments shortly before the touchdown. And then you have no problems with the ball.

Rift S here, at about a mile range no issue seeing the ball. PD 1.4

I had Rift and know exactly of what you speak. I simply flew the red ball best I could. Resolves somewhat in close, but sometimes too late to adjust. I upgraded to HP Reverb and ball is now much more clear.

Yep, that's Rift all right! I still use it for now and flying the ball is no problem once I realized that the red blob below the amber ball was just ghosting. The ghosting is pretty annoying but I can still see the amber ball above it from around a mile. When I tilt my head slightly down while keeping my eyes pointing up toward the ball the blob was not as severe. I can see the same effect on the AOA indexer donut. The red ghosting is at the bottom of the donut till I shift my visor or point my head slightly down. My PD setting is 1.8 with MSAAx2. Looks fairly good and performance isn't bad on my rig as long as I keep ASW disabled but... it's time for an upgrade!

PS. I wanted to show it in the vid clip but in the vid the ball was only visible from around .5 mile and was sharp with no ghosting at the bottom...:noexpression:

Odyssey Plus and PD around 1.3, no issues with the ball here. It is a bit small, but once you get at 3/4 mile it's fine.

a bit off topic...

is it possible to create an on-screen inset view of the ball in close-up?

(a bit like the controls position inset.)

hope that makes sense.

:)

Why not use ICLS like they do IRL to help out starting the groove.

Just use long enough in the groove until you pickup the ball etc. That's what I do anyway.

Most of the time you don't need it if your at the correct groove length etc.

Odyssey Plus and PD around 1.3, no issues with the ball here. It is a bit small, but once you get at 3/4 mile it's fine.

I've done some testing in daytime and at night. During a day, using my Rift headset, the ball clarity depended on sun angle. The red blob below the amber ball is present at around 1nm to .5, then it disappears and the amber ball is clear and usable. (during tests I approached at or above GS using ICLS as a backup reference). The sun at certain angles adds up to the mess by making the radar dome behind the IFLOLS glow bright white. Not helpful in VR but like any other obstacles in DCS, we learn to deal with it and adapt:)

To my surprise, at night the ball turned out to be more clear, at least on my setup.

Short clip, night approach from 3nm out. The red blob is not visible on vid recordings for some reason:

a bit off topic...

 

 

is it possible to create an on-screen inset view of the ball in close-up?

(a bit like the controls position inset.)

 

 

 

 

hope that makes sense.

 

 

:)

That would be a great help. They used to have it in another simulation that we are not allowed to mention.

a bit off topic...

 

 

is it possible to create an on-screen inset view of the ball in close-up?

(a bit like the controls position inset.)

 

 

 

 

hope that makes sense.

 

 

:)

Move that one into the wish list section. Would possibly get more traction..

Oh and +1.

Cheers,

Don

a bit off topic...

 

 

is it possible to create an on-screen inset view of the ball in close-up?

(a bit like the controls position inset.)

 

 

 

 

hope that makes sense.

 

 

:)

one way you could maybe get that going is to work with the folks in the "Mods and Apps" forum

It is possible to render 2D UI into the DCS VR context using SteamVR's overlay app rendering (I tested this)

So you could in theory make an external app (let's call it Helios VR :)) that would display various numbers and indicators in VR that you need. However, it is unclear to me if you could get the ship's ball lights state into the export context. But there are much more experienced modders that would know this. Just a dream right now...?

Thanks derammo.

Sent from my SM-A505FN using Tapatalk

You are too far from the boat. I fly with a Rift S at PD of 1.5 and can see the ball at 1 mile fairly easily.

Well that's like when someone can't reach M 1.0 in the A-10, you'd say you do easily in the Hornet...

one way you could maybe get that going is to work with the folks in the "Mods and Apps" forum

 

It is possible to render 2D UI into the DCS VR context using SteamVR's overlay app rendering (I tested this)

 

So you could in theory make an external app (let's call it Helios VR :)) that would display various numbers and indicators in VR that you need. However, it is unclear to me if you could get the ship's ball lights state into the export context. But there are much more experienced modders that would know this. Just a dream right now...?

The Tomcat has a Glideslope Overlay which works in VR. But i dont think you need it. 80% of the glideslope you can fly with ICLS. You need the ball only for final minor corrections.

Yeah, once appropriate AOA is achieved on approach to carrier, simply using the ATC (auto throttle) makes it a breeze. Simply babysit your velocity vector and aim for the 3 wire and waalaa - the rest takes care of itself.

Also useful for airfield landing, by placing your velocity vector on the overrun to start and slowly correcting when nearing.

Cheers,

Don

Simply babysit your velocity vector and aim for the 3 wire and waalaa - the rest takes care of itself.

 

 

 

Minor teachable moment here that may be helpful to many in the future.

It is not waalaa.

It is the french word, voilà.

pronunciation is vwä-ˈlä

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voil%C3%A0

Minor teachable moment here that may be helpful to many in the future.

 

It is not waalaa.

 

It is the french word, voilà.

 

pronunciation is vwä-ˈlä

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voil%C3%A0

Thanks, I am aware - but as an inside joke, I type waalaa. Unfortunately you weren't on the inside part of the joke - but nice to see others care and that others are also educated on the correct pronunciation and skilled in linguistics. To be fair, my iPhone tries to correct it every time I send part of said joke to the ones in the loop.

To quote Jeff Daniels from Dumb and Dumber, "I don't know Lloyd, the French are ......" :music_whistling:

It's only a joke, and a movie quote.

But the ATC is good practice for any who struggle.

Cheers,

Don

I aim to roll out on centreline at exactly 0.6nm which is 15-18 seconds in the groove.

The VFA-113 LSO mission triggers the “3/4 mile” voice at this point.

For glideslope my workflow is:

At the 180 - 600 feet

At the 90 - 450ish feet

At the 45 - put the FPM circle on top of the ILS horizontal line

Rollout on centerline- 300ish feet

The ball is easily visible in VR from here on in so I use that for glideslope.

It may be tough for some to see but if you can see it at the start and it’s not red you’re doing OK!