Aapje

Does the FFBeast software simulate the same extra effects that are not natively passed on as the Rhino? For DCS and the other two sims? For example, the Rhino manual mentions a special 'Low Hydraulic Pressure Effect' effect for some DCS planes. Is this implemented for the FFBeast? The manual also mentions that it implements extra effects for IL-2. Are those also implemented in the FFBeast software? I personally don't look for maximum fidelity, but to have fun. Perhaps it is helpful to have more power, but this is also something that is hard to judge without having some proper reviews of the products.

Given that this is the DCS forum, I thought that it was obvious that it's about the joystick. Very interesting, although it's a lot to read. So would you say that cogging is unnoticable on both the FFBeast and the Rhino, in normal use cases? I wasn't really giving feedback to you, since I'm not a user of either product, but I was more interested in hearing from you what things you see as lacking and whether you plan to improve things. Note that forming an opinion based on the opinions of people who already have a product is how many people decide whether to buy a product. This is especially true for buying from you or Walmis, since I doubt that either of you provide an easy return policy or even allow returns. I understand that you are probably much more of an engineer than a sales person, but from the perspective of someone who still has to decide which one to get (or whether to get one at all), it's very helpful to understand the pros and cons of the available options. Good to hear. Frankly, this is a lot better response than the one you gave earlier.

This is not really the kind of response that I would like to see from a company. Ultimately, everyone who makes a product is going to have a bias towards their own product*, if only because they are more experienced with it and have more knowledge. So I'm sure that you are happy with the user friendliness of your software, but you know it inside and out. That doesn't mean that people who don't start off that knowledge or any bias, won't have more difficulty with it than you. This is why the better companies seek out external reviewers to give feedback, as they don't have the the bias and blind spots as those that involved with making the company. It's a bit unfortunate that there don't seem to be any people who tried out both the Rhino and the FFBeast, who can truly compare it. Anyway, I've never seen anyone who used the FFBeast mention cogging, but Rhino users mention it, so I don't know what to think. Do you believe that there is any cogging in your product? * That includes me, as I also make products for others.

The users with experience are saying that the software for that device is better when it comes to cogging and ease of use.

Apparently, the Rhino code is freely available under the GPL, so FFBeast could adapt it to their needs: https://github.com/walmis/VPforce-TelemFFB/blob/wip/aircrafts_msfs_xp.py

That doesn't mimic sustained G-forces and many people with VR set their motion rig up to make fairly small movements, giving more of a suggestion to the human body than truly trying to mimic G-forces. This is very different to a FFB stick where you do want to mimic sustained forces.

Hoggit has a discussion about this right now and apparently the software of the Rhino is a lot better:

Motion platforms don't simulate G, so that's not really a proper comparison. In general, it is a true apples to oranges comparison that makes little sense. The price difference seems just 100 euros, which is not really that significant compared to the price of the thing. I like the metal construction a lot better and if it is way more powerful, then it's hard to fault the price.

Smoothtrack is pretty good as a free TrackIR app.

It might be for those worried about uncontrolled equipment swinging around between their legs. Then again, I have lived with that all my life and I survived so far.

@Buzzer1977 AMD seems to have a driver team that is too small, so what we've seen for a long time now is that Nvidia is close to max performance right away, while AMD gets gradually better as the card gets older. It typically takes at least half a year. And it's not just performance, but they also don't optimize VR until later on, so it tends to be really bad at first, but later in the life cycle people tend to be quite happy with the VR performance. More recent experiences on this forum seem to suggest that AMD works fine now: You are right that DCS is a VRAM hog of course, so it makes sense to buy a 7900 XTX now, since there won't be a new 24 GB card from AMD, nor a 24 GB 5080. Another option can be to wait for the 5090 release and then buy a second-hand 4090, since a lot of the money-no-object people will surely upgrade from the 4090 to the 5090. You may even be able to get a good deal from another DCS player on this forum. Of course, that second option means waiting and there is no guarantee that those 2nd hand cards will have good prices, especially if the AI people keep snapping them up.

@Buzzer1977 I don't get your list of choices since the 7900 XTX is closer to a 4080 Super than a 4090. You probably feel the desire to stay with the top end because you have a 3090 now, but it makes much more sense to look at what actual performance (improvement) you get, as well as performance per dollar. For high end VR simming I would pay the premium for Nvidia, unless it is a big gap. Nvidia is better at driver support for VR and it's much easier to find advice, support and such in the simming community with Nvidia. Since you have a 3090, I would certainly wait for next gen, especially since there are pretty solid rumors that the next gen from AMD will improve on the fairly mediocre current gen quite a bit and will be a strong value play, where you will get a bit over 7900 XT performance for probably around $550, rather than the current $900. Even though AMD won't come out with a truly high end product, this should still put big price pressure on Nvidia's mid-range and to make their line-up work, they probably need to give us a significant bump for the same price across the line-up, except for the 5090, which I expect will be very expensive, hard to get, etc. Nvidia clearly learned this generation that the x090 buyers will pay a lot, but they have to provide proper value to the x080 buyers and below. Hence the price drop for the 4080 Super, while the 4090 remains very expensive. So unless you are willing to pretty much get ripped off to get the best of the best at the time with the 5090, I would loosely plan to get a 5080, although we'll only know the actual price, performance, value, etc when it is announced and reviewed. But of course that is just my reasoning and you have to make up your own mind.

He may have given up on us anyway.

@kksnowbear The issue is more that your screenshot shows only one drive, so if he has a classic setup of a SSD for Windows plus a HDD for gaming, or has another config with multiple drives, it would be hard to get him to make screenshots that show the info for all drives. He would have to know what he is looking at or would need extra instructions. My suggestion would require downloading a standalone exe, running it and making a screenshot. Easy and relatively foolproof.

Yes, I was wrong on that. However, if he has multiple drives, it is harder for him to show us the type/size/etc of the drives with those other tools than with HWInfo, which shows it all on the starting screens in one view.

@corbu1 Did you pay VAT/sales tax twice? The seller should have charged a zero rate VAT in the UK and then you would only have to pay the sales tax to customs: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-exports-dispatches-and-supplying-goods-abroad#vat-on-exports

Q: How much was it? A: Yes, much.

@Rayzer Although since you mentioned slow load times and given the age of your system, I'm wondering if you still have a HDD-drive. Unfortunately, CPU-Z doesn't show that, nor does System Information. Perhaps you can download and run this: https://www.hwinfo.com/download/ You can click the green button in the middle under Portable and then select a download location. Then unzip and run the downloaded software. It will show three panels with info, if you screenshot those, we will have a ton of useful info.

@Rayzer Did you build the PC yourself or was it done for you? This is an example of what you would have to do, although you'd have to remove the existing cooler and CPU first, which is pretty much doing the procedure in reverse first: Also, since you would reuse the existing cooler, you'd have to buy and apply a bit of thermal paste as well. That's pretty easy, you buy a tube and squirt some on the CPU, before installing the cooler. You can probably just leave the motherboard in the case, so you don't have to remove any of the cables, other than perhaps to temporarily remove the CPU fan cable (you'll put it back in the same connector when reinstalling). Upgrading the RAM and video card is also fairly easy if you follow a good guide. Of course, you wouldn't do all upgrades at once, but you do one at a time, then you test that it works correctly and then you do the other.

The BIOS is from 2018 and does not support the 5800X3D. He needs the 7B78v2I BIOS or newer, according to the compatibility list. It can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X470-GAMING-PRO-CARBON/support#bios

@Rayzer Please post a screenshot of the second tab as well (Mainboard) @kksnowbear People have tested it, including on this forum and the memory speed makes barely any difference for the 5800X3D:

Not the X3D processors. Those are the exception to the rule that Ryzen is more memory sensitive. The 2700X doesn't even support 3200 memory, so he almost certainly has slow memory. And I would get 32 GB right now for flight simming, especially since the cost is so low. But I'm waiting for the screenshots

Another option is just to go for a platform upgrade, which will provide more of an upgrade path for the future, but will cost more. I also don't know if the gentleman is comfortable with doing a full system build or has someone to do it for him.

My advice is just to toss out the old RAM and put in a new 32 GB kit for $53. The 5800X3D doesn't need any faster than DDR4-3200 and doesn't care much about timings. The question is more whether it is worth saving his motherboard.

How is that relevant for giving upgrade advice?