mmike87

Just pulled the trigger and an Aero now that the price dropped. Tried to order from Knoxlabs ... They wanted $230 shipping to Virginia? I ordered direct from Varjo ... Free shipping. I have a G2 now ... It's the only one I ever tried, so looking forward to the Aero.

I have been experiencing stuttering issues as well - however mine are typically on load and they are so bad the main menu is impossible to use, even to exit the app. I can usually restart and it's fine and I can play for as long as I want. It started for me after one of the July updates (I am not sure which as there were two while I was on vacation).

So, I previously had very few issues with DCS and VR in general before the updates that dropped back in July. They happened while I was on vacation, I came back and when I updated everything, I started having crashes on the launch of the MT client. Additionally, sometimes it would load, but I'd have no mouse movement in VR (but it was moving within the on-screen projection). Or, I'd have control but it was jerky - freezing for a couple of seconds, responding for a fraction of a second, freezing again, etc. Restarting the game would usually resolve the issue, and I could play for two hours with no issues. I just built a new machine, re-using only the video and sound cards and the M2 SSD's. I also performed a fresh install of Windows 10 ... my previous install was 7 years old and from three upgrades ago. After re-installing DCS, same issues. Crashes, freezes, etc. I backed out all my mods and I think the crashes have stopped, narrowed down to A4, F22, or the VR hanger mod. The freezing is still happening, about 1 in 4 launches. Has anyone with a Reverb G2 had any intermittent freezing issues? Once I am in the game and flying everything works great. No crashes (of the computer, anyway!) and everything is nice and smooth. Specs are 13900K, 64GB DDR5 6400, RTX 4090, M2 SSD all around, and Reverb G2 of course. Thanks.

FWIW, a couple updates ago I started getting crashes with my G2 opening in VR mode. Usually if I try a second time, it works. It's annoying, but once it's running I have zero issues. Using MT binary, and opening in non-vr is fine.

Update: So far, the stick is working great and as it should have originally.

What can be done to improve the performance? To a degree, I'd think the higher resolution would be a constant degrading performance factor. Maybe eye-tracking a foliated rendering will be enough? I started with a 4080 and was never happy with the performance even with the G2 - and sold the 4080 and upgraded to a 4090 once they were widely available again. Now, I am pretty pleased with the smoothness I see at 150% rendering, no MSAA but still long for a wider FOV - which I assume will always require at some point a higher resolution and thus poorer performance.

I have a Reverb G2 and was considering the Crystal as an upgrade, but it sounds like - at least for the money - the G2 is still the best game in town. I paid <$400 on Amazon for my new G2, and I am pretty happy with it. Really looking for "better" lenses and a wider FOV, especially horizontal. And, it seems like the Crystal doesn't come with audio, and the DMAS is not available for US customers yet according to their website. The Varjo Aero looks like, but I need inside-out tracking as my space is also my home office workspace (I'm remote) and I don't have room to set up base stations and sensors (in fact, the idea of this seems ridiculous to me, the tracking on my G2 seems to work great). So, for now I guess I'll just play the G2 and see how the Crystal evolves over time.

UPDATE - I received my stick back from Winwing after paying $99 USD to ship it back. It was held in customs for about two weeks for reasons unknown. Once Winwing had it, they fixed it and shipped it back quickly and I received it quickly after they shipped it. Everything seems to work now! After about two hours of flying and exercising the stick while watching in SimAppPro, I no longer see the USB disconnections, random button presses, or the frequent "drop out" of the "Shaker kit" that adds the two additional hats and controls the vibration. I was waiting for it to come back, as the TM F-16 I was using in the meantime doesn't support a press on the castle switch which the F-15E controls seem to favor, and the WW does. I'm pleased the stick works, but I am not pleased with the four weeks of back-and-forth troubleshooting, $99 shipping, and also having to buy a TM F-16 stick and base to have something to use in the meantime. Good to have a backup, but this was a painful process that IMO WW could have made much better. After some initial troubleshooting, send me a new stick and a return label for the old one On receiving a new stick, I'd ship the defective one back If I don't ship it back, charge me The above model is pretty common and reasonable. Forcing me to be without a product that costs several hundred dollars for an extended time frame, and making me pay nearly $100 to ship back something that arrived defective is absolutely unreasonable under any circumstance. It just is ... I have NEVER had to do that with any company, EVER. The troubleshooting process seemed like it was designed to just wear me down so I'd just buy another one or just accept the loss. Try this. Ok, take a video. Ok, try THIS now. Send a picture. Take it apart. Send a picture. Back and forth for weeks. WW claims that the cable in the base was too short or something, and was tugged on when moving the stick or whatnot. That is a pretty poor example of quality control, as cable length is pretty easy to verify, and frankly, if the stick applies pressure to the cable when moving it, that is concerning especially when this is the cable from the base connector to the board in the base, I believe. Two fixed ends. So, I like the stick a lot now that it's working - but I can't recommend WinWing if this is how they handle these issues. Add in the inconsistent quality control that seems pretty prevalent on forums, Reddit, etc. - makes this a tough sell.

I'm sure - I could see the behavior on my gaming PC and also my laptop as well. My laptop won't run DCS but I was able to duplicate in SimAppPro. I am also using a powered hub, tried several cables, directly to MB USB 3.2 ports, etc. And, everything else I own works fine.

I just heard on the stick I shipped back at my expense for $100 to China - their request to have it clear customs was denied. Not sure what that means, but I'm NOT taking a loss on this. I'll give WinWing one more chance to do the right thing, then it's chargeback time.

Shipped the WW stick back to China today, for $99 and change. The only good news is that my TM F-16 base and stick are here. Initial impressions - the TM F-16 stick doesn't have the flexibility of all the buttons that the WW has. For example, the WW Missile Select button is also a 4-way switch, and mapped those to zoom the HSD in and out and inc/dec steer points. I moved that functionality to the countermeasure switch with a modifier key (left control) that I can easily locate with a VR headset on. The TM stick seems heavier-duty - I feel like I could bludgeon someone to death with it if need be. The magnetic base is, OK. VERY different feel from the WW base, heavier for sure. It's smooth and feels well-built, but definitely, a different feel to get used to. That said, it works and the WW doesn't so I'll retrain myself on the TM, and probably burn some calories with the heavy stick, LOL.

I have that MFD button mapped to a throttle switch on the WW throttle ... I can cycle through RWS, VSR, and TWS easily.

After a month of back-and-forth, opening the stick up, swapping wires, re-seating plugs, digging through hot glue, and tolerating disconnections that have become so frequent that the stick is a paperweight, I have to send it back - at my expense - so they can "fix it". It is going to be nearly $100 USB to ship it back to China, and get this ... you're supposed to put down that it's worth $10 on the customs form or they won't pay the landing fees. Am I committing a crime here if I do this? Lying on a customs form? This is a little shady IMO, and has been a horrible customer experience. I have NEVER been asked to pay out of pocket when shipped a defective product.

They want me to send it back, at my expense. It's going to be nearly $100 to ship it back according to the USPS estimator. This has been a terrible customer experience and I won't buy from this company again.

I purchased an Orion 2 F-16EX stick and Throttle after watching many Youtube reviews and reading online. Somehow I missed the "disconnect" stories, but regardless, I ended up with a defective unit. First, the good. The physical quality of both the stick and throttle seem pretty solid. They both have a good feel. The software, while a little clunky, does what I need it to do. I like how the stick has upgraded the basic momentary switches to be 4-way switches, such as the missile select button. I use this button not only as MS but also for zooming the HSD in and out, and cycling through steer points. Love it! The set I purchased included the shake kit as well as the finger-lift and detent kit. The instructions were not the greatest, but there were enough and I was able to assemble the unit without issue. For the first couple of days, it seemed fine. Every now and then, it would seem that I would encounter random button presses. At first, I thought I was simply fat-fingering buttons while flying and not realizing it, so I wrote it off as a user error. But, the problem progressed and became more frequent. I noticed in SimAppPro that, when moving the stick, the shake kit would appear and disappear in the app, as if it were disconnecting. And, the shake kit buttons, and sometimes buttons on the main stick, would randomly show as pressed while moving the stick, even barely and slowly. And, during DCS flights, I started to hear in my VR headset the USB disconnect sound, and I lose flight control for 2-3 seconds. Sometimes I can fly for an hour with no issues. Other times, I'll experience back-to-back, repeated disconnections that cause me to crash or get shot down, which stinks after prepping for the flight. A few times, the stick even refused to come back and had to be unplugged physically. On a hunch, I removed the shake kit and the problem seemed fine for several days. No issues. And, then they started again. Given the intermittent nature of the issues, it became difficult to say what helped and what didn't make a difference. I contacted Winwing support through their ticket system. They responded promptly and over the course of several days of back and forth, they provided some troubleshooting steps which I followed. I have sent logs of the disconnects in SimAppPro as well as videos of the shake kit dropping in and out. They provided a series of diagnostic steps that I followed. In all I have tried: Disconnecting the shake kit and re-connecting multiple times Replacing the shake kit wire with the replacements included in my original order (three of them, tried all three) Removing and re-seating the DIN plug that connects the stick to the base, many times Provided logs and videos Opening the handle and base and re-seating all the connectors WinWing sent replacement wires for the stick and the base. The stick wire was easy to do, but the base wire required a complete disassembly that was involved enough where IMO it's beyond what a company should reasonably expect an end-user to do At their suggestion, I disconnected the stick and flew around just using the base for about 15 or 20 minutes, during which I did NOT experience any disconnections. But, the problem is intermittent, so it's hard to say. I am running the stick on a powered USB hub. At their suggestion, I bought a new USB cable and tried that. I also tried plugging into USB 3.2 Gen 1 and 2 ports directly on the motherboard. No dice. I have held the unit upside down while standing on one foot and looking to the west ... and still experienced disconnections I have been going back and forth with Winwing for a solid month now. This is not a cheap device, and I am entitled (yes, ENTITLED) to a working unit that I paid for. I have asked Winwing to send me a replacement stick and a return label for the defective unit, and they did not respond today. I ordered a Thrustmaster stick and magnetic base that will arrive today that I'll use in the meantime, but I really want this stick to work, as the features and extra HOTAS controls IMO are perfect for VR where it's harder to use the keyboard. The Throttle, so far has been perfect. My only criticism is that the detent/finger lift is plastic, and I think after enough afterburner push-throughs it's going to eventually break. But, so far it's been fine. If I don't get some help soon, I'll open a dispute with PayPal and/or my bank. I don't want to do that - I like the stick and I just want one that works. I have been patient. A month of troubleshooting is patient by any sane person's definition. This is NOT a "language issue" like others in some threads have suggested. They understand it's not working, I'm sure. And, given I'm not the only one, I suspect they know what the issue is, as I am willing to bet they are all similar. I do not believe this is a wire or physical connection issue either - the disconnects happen with the SLIGHTEST movement of the stick, very slowly. It doesn't happen more with harder turns, etc. as I would logically expect a greater stick deflection in one or more directions to aggravate a physical connection issue. Has anyone been successful in resolving Orion 2 disconnection issues? Thanks, and sorry for the long story. This is very frustrating. EDIT: Just received another message that they are going to "contact the engineer" and get back to me. Again. It's been a month, and I am not willing to swap out circuit boards or take the unit apart, again. Ugh!

I followed their instructions and removed the handle from the base, and I was able to fly around in DCS with no handle, just moving the base for about 15 minutes, trouble-free. Obviously, this is not a solution, but I think it identifies the handle as the issue, more than likely. Earlier, I had multiple, back-to-back disconnects fly flying and it made the mission unplayable. It's getting worse - it originally seemed tied to the shake kit being installed, but now does it continuously. It does seem to start after it's been plugged in for a bit. I told them they need to send me a new stick and a return label for the old one or I'll dispute the CC charge. They have sent me wires and asked for videos, logs, etc. I have opened the darn thing up multiple times, swapped our parts, bought a new cable, and tried it directly connected to the PC MB USB and via a powered hub, the fact is their product is defective and I will either get a new one or a refund, one way or the other. They seem to just try and exhaust people with endless troubleshooting. Not going to work. This thing was not cheap, and let's face it - it's a JOYSTICK it's not something that is going to be highlighted on an episode of "Modern Marvels".

I'll toss my hat into the "50x" ring. Start the app, all my modules are disabled. They need to fix this and come up with a way to cache authorizations locally with an expiration. Windows can cache login credentials in the temporary absence of a directory server - so this is a solvable issue.

Update on my instance of this issue - Winwing sent me the same two replacement wires that they seem to send everyone else. Given that my Shake Kit disconnected and randomly pressed its buttons with the SLIGHTEST move of the joystick, I had serious doubts this was going to help, but I replaced the two wires nonetheless. And, you guessed it - not fixed! I let them know. I don't think this is a mechanical connection issue. Maybe some sort of voltage drop or something under some circumstances. And, the last couple of days I have been playing DCS more, and even with the shake kit disconnected, now I have had a couple of disconnects. If they don't get this fixed, I'll try and dispute the charge - no way I am sending a defective product back to China at my expense. They have my address - they can come get me.

I am new to DCS and VR in general, and I have "enjoyed" messing around with this setup to try and find what works best for my rig. I have watched every video under the sun, throwing every setting possible and ending up in total frustration. I too was confused by the 45 FPS "cap". I am running the MT client primarily. This is my rig: - HP Reverb G2 v2 headset - Intel 11700K (yes I bought a Rocket Lake) overclocked to 4.8GHz all cores - Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 4080 overclocked about +160MHz core, +210MHz RAM - 64GB DDR4 3200 - Orion 2 HOTAS setup (don't get me started) - Using OpenXR Tools for Mixed Reality (OXRTMR, the MS Tool) and the OpenXR Toolkit (OXRTK, the in-game overlay) This is what I have learned: - I don't have an autoexec.cfg file anywhere - I am "capped" at 45 ONLY when using motion projection - Running "Custom Render Scale 85%" and motion reprojection OFF in OXRTMR with no anti-aliasing whatsoever, shadows medium, water medium, clouds high, PD 1.0 I can get consistent 80-90 FPS in the F-16 "free flight" instant action (MT client). The visuals are OK but I really like the razor-sharp cockpit over everything else, can't stand to struggle to see the MFD - I tried the above in both the ST and MT client, and MT provides ~20 FPS improvement, so MT FTW - Changing the above to 100%, visuals are better, frame rate drops into like the 70's - Adding MSA2x to the above drops the frame rate a little more with a slight improvement to visuals, can start to notice a slight lack of smoothness - Bumping to 120% render scale in OXRTMR with MSA2x further visuals improvement, but unacceptable FPS at this point So, enabling motion reprojection in OXRTMR "use best frame rate", I started back through the same settings as above. It was always capped at 45FPS in-game with motion reprojection enabled. The motion was very smooth and looked even smoother than 85% with 80-90FPS that I first tested. My FPS didn't drop below 45FPS until I tried 120% with MSA 2x. Then, I started to dip into the 30's flying low through the mountains or over heavy sections of buildings. So, my TLDR: - Motion reprojection is a MUST IMO - 120% render scale, with all antialiasing OFF yields consistent 45FPS with motion reprojection enabled, clear instrumentation, and App CPU, Rdr CPU, and GPU latencies of about 6/5-6/15-16ms respectively - Clouds add more to the game than water IMO - Flying over Beirut with a half dozen or so other planes on a custom mission, even with the above there are occasional drops into the 30's but I really don't notice it unless I see the FPS drop in the overlay, doesn't affect gameplay IMO and it's only for a few seconds - WTH is with the rooftop shimmering in Syria? Nothing seems to get rid of it. Even running with no motion reprojection (which some suggested was the cause) didn't remove it. Other maps don't seem to have the issue - I played with the upscaling options in OXRTK and the visuals just didn't seem great IMO So, for me - I just keep my settings simple. It's easy to create a mess between the game settings, nvidia CP, and the two open XR tools. I am not using any options in the OXRTK aside from the overlay right now, and I will turn that off when I actually play.

I went ahead and paid the pre-order. It's a nice discount, and I can wait and continue to learn the F-16 in the meantime. I like this plane because I wanted an F-15 variant, but not the FC low-fidelity model. IMO this will be a welcome addition to the lineup.

I am currently working with their customer support on a similar issue. I experienced random disconnects and also some random button presses while playing DCS. I noticed in SimAppPro that while very slightly moving the stick, the "shake kit pendant" (That's what they call it) would appear and the disappear from the display in the application. Also, button number two which is on the axis for the trigger that comes on the shake unit would intermittently go on and off while very slightly moving the stick. I remove the shake kit, and all the problems went away. Regardless, I disassembled the unit and reseated it all the plugs, multiple times. I thought the main DIN plug was the culprit, given that the shake unit would malfunction only when slightly moving the stick. However, with the shake unit removed I have no problems with the unit whatsoever. So, I'm not sure if the problem is with the shake kit or the stick itself. My bet is on the shake kit. Even with the shake kit un-bolted from the joystick but plugged in, I can wiggle the connectors on the shake kit all day long and as long as I don't move the stick, the shake kit doesn't malfunction. I'm not sure how this thing is wired up, but it seems odd and is certainly resistant to typical troubleshooting techniques. I'm hoping they will send me another shake kit, but at this point I'm not going to hold my breath. I've been going back and forth with them all week.

True, I think the visuals in MSFS are much better ... and being able to fly over any point on Earth is pretty cool. That said, I've spent most of the past few days when I have had time to play in DCS learning primarily AA systems first. At some point, I need to settle on a HOTAS configuration, but the tweaking is part of the fun.

Hi all, new DCS player here. I have been playing flight sims on and off since the original SubLogic flight simulator on a PC XT and some instrument-only sims on my TRS-80. Decided to get back into it and jumped in with both feet. I acquired Winwin Orion 2 HOTAS set, VKB T-Rudders, and a Reverb 2. I of course downloaded DCS, and after considerable research and childhood fantasies, chose the F-16C as my first aircraft to attempt to master. It was overwhelming at first and still is to a degree, but I have made a lot of progress after spending two days flying training missions just to fine-tune the HOTAS bindings. I also bought MSFS as well for when I want to enjoy the scenery and not get shot at. In terms of VR, my 4080 and 11700K are handling DCS in VR smoothly. I struggle a bit whenever I have to interact with the keyboard in VR, and also use the mouse to select controls that are not mapped to the Winwing controls. The mouse seems very jittery when combined with the VR head tracking. I am sure I'll get used to it. Anyway, going to play solo for a while and then seek out some multiplayer experiences for beginners and see how I can embarrass myself. :)