Oculus Rift with DCS World Discussion

[Johnny Dioxin]

I didn't get any tracking email - just so you know ;)

 

I just took the Sabre, L-39C and Mirage 2000C for a test flight in the Rift (all are really great!). I was so gobsmacked, even just flying around admiring the default scenery, that by the time I was up in the M2k I had to start recording for YouTube.

 

About ten minutes flying around, showing it off, then a minute stopped recording to switch to the Mi-8, which is equally fantastic and started recording again.

 

A long, tree-top level flight, then weaving around multi-storey buildings and hotels of some town, before doing a not-quite-perfect-but-good-enough landing on a road in the town centre.

 

'Jumped out', went to look at the recording and.... I got the one minute in between flights recorded! :doh:

[SkateZilla]

what I love is, evej with everything on LOW (cept textures), the feel of actually being in the pit and the depth perception etc etc makes everything else in significant.

 

I can run on low even after I get my new GPUs, turning everything up didnt really make me feel anymore in cockpit than it does on low,

 

Which is the opposite when playing on a single or 3 screens.

[awjudge]

what I love is, evej with everything on LOW (cept textures), the feel of actually being in the pit and the depth perception etc etc makes everything else in significant.

 

I can run on low even after I get my new GPUs, turning everything up didnt really make me feel anymore in cockpit than it does on low,

 

Which is the opposite when playing on a single or 3 screens.

 

I think you've hit the nail on the head here Skatezilla. I've been tweaking settings for a couple of days, and came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter.

 

For the first time since I bought it, I can properly fly the Huey. I spent 2 hours in the Huey pit last night. It's nothing to do with details, it's all about the immersion. I can feel what the airframe is doing! I didn't use the trimmer once and managed to land on all manner of rooftops etc. It was amazing.

Edited July 21, 2016 by awjudge

[Sabre-TLA]

I joined the RIFT fraternity this week and had my first multiplayer combat mission last night with the BountyHunters.

 

I thought I had it made when I upgraded from a 21" CRT to a 47" LG HDTV but this VR is the bomb!

 

The feeling of presence is absolutely stunning. I heard someone else say once you go VR you will never go back. I absolutely agree.

 

Flying DCS in VR is like really flying. Going through clouds, seeing the terrain, all the cockpit switches, etc. Fantastic.

 

It really has changed my opinion about this. The hype is real. You really have to try it yourself to see.

 

No regrets and I'll happily upgrade (and give the wife the CV1) when CV2 comes out.

[eaglecash867]

As someone who just got his Rift, I wholeheartedly agree. The concept of VR in DCS was really appealing to me, but I had no idea what it would be like. I figured I'd just be sitting in the same cockpit, with the newly added ability of realistic head movement tracking. It turned out to be an experience beyond my wildest imagination. You can watch YouTube videos about it...have it explained to you...but you just don't fully understand until you put that HMD on for the first time.

 

Right before I got my Rift, I went through the painful process of getting DCS configured again to work with the mobile 'pit that I built, with Helios on the 24" touch-screen in the middle of it. Guess I won't be needing the monitor anymore. :P But I guess it'll still make a good place to hang a bracket for the Cougar MFDs that it once replaced. I think going back to the tactile feel of those OSBs will complete the VR experience. I won't be able to see them, but if you get enough time in a cockpit, you're not eyeballing switches anyway, you're finding them by muscle memory.

[hansangb]

Ordered my Vr Lenses Monday. Site still shows 7-10 days to finish Kickstarter orders before processing, but this has been up for a while so they might be current. My account says processing, but no tracking# yet.

I wear contacts, but I find the heat from the Rift dries them out fairly quickly. Also with lenses I should be able to make focal adjustments I can't with contacts so should be better.

 

 

Ordered mine on July 11th and it still shows processing.

[Ratcatcher]

Quick update on my screens going black issue... Can't actually remember if I read this solution in this thread or another, but I tried removing the USB3 input from the "approved" Inatek USB hub, left the sensor USB in it and hey presto, my rift "seems" to be sorted.

 

I have had a go in DCS and Adrift both have played fine, so fingers crossed that has sorted the issue!

 

Makes absolutley no sense and wasn't in the list of things from support to try, but hey its working!!!

[metzger]

Managed to get DK2 last week and as it was already mentioned it is a different world, no more flat screens.

With frame per pixel 1.5-2 I have no troubles with the Hud or instruments I can handle them

But I have huge trouble spoting things in distance and I m not talking about targets they are fine with labels mod but I cant spot the runway to land even if I know that I m actualy looking at it :( I have to do low vis landings even in clear day and sometmes I miss :)

 

I will appriciate any advices how to hadle this issue. Thanks

[Zettman]

Quiet happy with my Rift. Flying feels totally diffrent now. Problems I'm facing at the moment is spotting targets without labels, which is no problem if I fly a fighter with a good Radar and RWR. But spotting small groundtargets while flying the SU-25T or A-10 is quiet difficult.

 

Another problem is that the F10 map seems to be broken, the tactical symbols are on it, but there is no terrain on it, everything is just grey, so I can't bring the tactical symbols in correlation with cities, lakes, streets or rivers. Anyone has the same problem? It's anoying not being able to use the map properly.

 

I'm also considering upgrade as soon as the next version of the Rift arrives, given that it has a better resolution.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Zettman

[Flamin_Squirrel]

Another problem is that the F10 map seems to be broken, the tactical symbols are on it, but there is no terrain on it, everything is just grey, so I can't bring the tactical symbols in correlation with cities, lakes, streets or rivers. Anyone has the same problem? It's anoying not being able to use the map properly.

 

Yes, same issue here.

 

The low resolution is a shame, but not surprising. I think they've done a great job for a first generation model. I'll be (one of) the first in line for CV2 :thumbup:

[Kuky]

After having the OR for some 2 weeks now, and the novelty wore off, I can definitely say that this 1st gen of VR headsets are not good enough to fly DCS as I would with monitor (especially with large 4K TV). The clarity is just not there, the resolution is just too low. The FoV needs to increase to or close to 180° and I think there really needs to be 4K resolution on the screen, per eye. Then again the PC has to be able to run it on at least 40-50fps to be smooth enough. Big ask, and I don't see this happening in the next few years.

 

Having said this, the VR is good for where you don't need to read text in cockpit, depend on visual spotting of targets from larger distance, I mean for me I even start losing tally on aircraft in merge after some 2.5km, smaller aircraft even 2km... you really need to keep constant track of the aircraft, if not, you will lose him, and then pretty much impossible to spot him again unless he's close to you (but at close distance in dogfight aircraft position changes too quick making it even harder).

 

The feeling of presence is the only really good thing in my opinion... well clearly as this is what VR is supposed to add. Well also its easy to setup, works great with DCS also. I also don't feel dizzy when I fly. But for me to fly as easy as I can on large 4K TV I think hopefully 3rd gen of VR headset might be good enough to achieve this... but who knows when, and if VR will catch on that quick to the masses in order to develop quickly.

Edited July 22, 2016 by Kuky

[ariyaner]

hellas

 

i mean i read somethink about changing fov for the dk2

but i cant find it anymore :(

i just want to fix my limited view (see black lines on each site of dk2 screen)

[dogbite]

I agree that the clarity of current gen VR is an issue for flying combat in DCS. I fortunately bought the Rift to better simulate flight and spend little time flying my birds in combat. I particularly enjoy helos and the P51. The sense of flight for me is reward enough to prefer to do this in VR even at this earlier state. As I also am having a ball in Elite Dangerous and IRacing, these things alone will keep me in the Rift. I am also sure we will see much developed specifically at a level of graphics that this generation of HMD can handle (lower polygon count) that will keep it interesting. When titles are done from scratch for VR, they can look and run quite nicely. Although DCS supports VR, it wasn't originally intended, so I never expected it would run at the required resolution to run all the tasks necessary to be competitive in combat, but being able to fly beautifully simulated aircraft and properly judge distance to the deck is not going to loose it's enjoyment for this pilot.

It may be novel, but isn't wearing off here. I am excited to see what the 160 plus companies developing for Oculus come up with. A very happy early adopter.

[Ferrum Intra]

Labels are still on the table, just saying. They can also be configured to be very unobtrusive. I doubt a cv1 user with 1.6 pixel density, and light labels will find it impossible.

[yellow_jacket]

Does anyone have a youtube video of how the zoom function in the Rift works in 1.5.4?

 

Also is there any way to stop sending picture to monitor while I'm in rift ? it just uses up my graphics card %, while I need as much as I can in the headset. Can I use second card only for the rift instead?

Edited July 23, 2016 by yellow_jacket

[Kuky]

I didn't say I don't like it, I only said that resolution is still too low, I've tried pixel density at 1.5 and 2.0 and it's little better but only little. Spotting aircraft is very hard. I am honest about it, and while immersion with it is really good, it lacks in resolution a lot... I can't even use any FSAA as that reduces FPS quite a bit, at 4x FSAA my FPS is halved.

 

Flying helicopters is definitely more suitable, but fighting in jets where merge is fast and missiles dangerous, and AI is still all seeing within 10km range, you are at quite disadvantage with VR, this version of consumer product anyway.

 

There is no point saying how awesome it is without being honest about its bad sides also.

 

When FPS is high I see no blurring at all, and it feels super smooth even when rolling fast or looking around quickly, but I have to keep settings low-ish and can't use any FSAA. I have to turn off mirrors, one good thing is keeping shadows on low still looks good in the pit.

 

Anyway, like I said, it's not that I don't like it, but I am well aware of the downsides also... and that's all I'm saying ;)

[Einherjer]

Since I use my rift I have a strange problem, after a few minutes a message pops up that trackir is now activated, a few seconds after its deactivated and then activated again...

Trackir / opentrack is off, no trackir hardware connected.

[Kuky]

Since I use my rift I have a strange problem, after a few minutes a message pops up that trackir is now activated, a few seconds after its deactivated and then activated again...

Trackir / opentrack is off, no trackir hardware connected.

 

I've uninstalled my TrackIR software fully. I see no need for it any more.

[Einherjer]

Trackir is deinstalled, open track is still on my HDD but it's not on - so it's strange?!

[Kuky]

I've never used OpenTrack so don't know how it works. Would it hurt to uninstall it also?

[Einherjer]

No it would not hurt ;) but there was not much installation, you just run the program.

But have to say, this message appears IN dcs. Saw it the first time in 1.5.4.

When dcs says "trackir deactivated" - trackir also won't show up in the controls setting panel

[Flamin_Squirrel]

Does anyone have a youtube video of how the zoom function in the Rift works in 1.5.4?

 

Also is there any way to stop sending picture to monitor while I'm in rift ? it just uses up my graphics card %, while I need as much as I can in the headset. Can I use second card only for the rift instead?

 

What you see on your monitor is just the image from the left (or right, can't remember) eye. It doesn't have a performance impact.

[Purg]

For me the CV1 experience will be single player only. Will likely use minimal labels (showing the red or blue dot at close ranges without the info - just have to find out how to set that up again) as spotting targets is much harder given the resolution issues. Dogfighting in VR against someone with a high resolution monitor and TrackIR would put you at a distinct disadvantage, IMO. In a furball, it'd be almost impossible picking friend from foe unless you were right on them.

 

Having said that, I don't think I could go back to playing on monitor again. I tried briefly and the sense of being in a cockpit actually flying the aircraft is just too great to give up. If I do MP in VR, it'd likely be co-op with friends.

[Revelation]

The main disadvantage is simply down to zooming IMHO. Monitor guys have zoom and VR doesn't yet in Alpha but it's coming.

When multiplayer dogfighting I found I can see bad guys pretty easy and we ID each other by calling "are you going up or down?"

I can tell you that VFA-113 pilots use VR every single week in combat missions and we do just fine.

Not trying to argue but if I didn't have Rift yet listening to you guys would put me off, but I find it an amazingly cool experience and worth any of the perceived downsides.

 

It's a learning curve. We, in general, have been spoiled by high quality, pixel dense displays. Going to the Rift can be a little bit of a let down in terms of visual quality. For most, the loss in visual quality is more than equally compensated for in immersion.

 

Rift really shines when it comes to formation flying, landing SU-30s on a carrier, in the future F-18Cs, aerial refueling and just general flight. For now and maybe a generation or two of VR displays monitors will offer better visibility outside of the cockpit.

 

When flying with others that are using a Rift, there's not much of an issue as everyone is on a "level playing field." There are advantages the Rift user has over a monitor user. For now the monitor user has a slight advantage when it comes to having the ability to spot the enemy further out.

 

With proper tactics that can be mitigated by Rift users...

[yellow_jacket]

Sorry to hear you don't like your Rift Kuky, it does seem that guys used to 4K big screens have the most trouble switching over.

 

Half my squad is on Rift now and we tailor our missions to take advantage of VR. You should've heard Comms today, it's literally 3 hours of everyone babbling about how awesome something looks, and that was in Alpha which has no pixel density increase yet!

One of our guys is an active Huey pilot and he says the Huey in Rift feels exactly like flying the real thing.

I've been flying with it for almost 3 months and, as I've stated many times, when I turn the monitor back on I am amazed that I ever bothered to sim on a 2D panel.

 

Horses for courses but I disagree with your appraisal about res, even with 1.0 density it's good enough for me to read gauges and HUD etc. and I never suffer any judder.

I also compete evenly with guys on my squad that are still using monitors in BVR and ACM, plus it's a core workout.

I love the Rift, it's like my favourite thing.

 

Pixel density works in alpha as far as I can tell, but you gotta force it through debugger.