Astronut

Any price drop of this magnitude is going to be bitter-sweet as some people will have purchased at just the wrong time. This is good move by Oculus though. I wasn't expecting any kind of price drop until the end of April, the 1st anniversary of the (rather botched) launch.

Don't worry about the VR sickness, you will soon find it doesn't bother you. Very cool that you get to fly DCS with your Dad!

You pay now and enjoy what is available at this time, or you choose to wait and keep your money. But, when Gen 2 arrives with all the awesomeness it promises, Gen 3 will already be on the drawing board (or further along in development).. should you wait for that too? Personally I wish I had jumped in on the VR bandwagon when DK2 became available. There was about 2 years there where I was hyped up about VR but chose to wait because "it was not ready for prime time". At the end of the day, there is no good time to buy tech. It will always become obsolete and in a relatively short time. That is the nature of the beast. I am greatly anticipating Gen 2, but I don't regret the money spent on my CV1 for one second. It is a huge step forward in immersion. What do you want to get out of this hobby/pastime/addiction/obsession? That is a question that only the individual can answer as there are many motivations. I want to feel what it is like to fly a F15, Viggen, UH1, Mig15, Mig21, F5E, Mi8, etc, or at least get a taste of that feeling. Current gen VR, even with it's limitations, is the closest you can get without strapping on a real airplane. It beats a flat screen and Track-IR by a huge margin. I can't wait for Gen 2 though and I will no doubt be one of the first in line when the time comes. :) .

The physical aspect of flying is far better simulated with a VR headset than on a 2D screen. Flying a fighter is a very physical activity. It is common to see (new) VR users complain that they can't easily check 6 or that they lose sight of an adversary in a turning fight.. well, it isn't exactly simple IRL.

I think the Viggen is outstanding in VR. Some of the text can be a little hard to read at times but so far I have not had major problems with that (if the text is small I use the VR zoom feature). The cockpit sounds are excellent, which also adds considerably to the VR experience.

And yet you have the time to chastise someone asking a question. :huh:

ok, with the rudder axis set at saturation of 10, with SPAK on the rudder seems to be acting normally now (smooth operation and it centers when you come off the pedals). Of course, if you do this then the nosewheel steering now has little authority and when SPAK is selected off, the rudder hardly moves. Is there a SPAK gain setting that is cranked up too high maybe?

I'm using an X55, but I cleared the twist axis. I use CH Pro Pedals for rudder control. I'll tweak the saturation as you asked.. I'll be right back.

I suspect SPAK is at least part of the rudder problems. I just ran a test sat on the runway. With SPAK on, the rudder movement was behaving in a weird manner and didn't properly center when I took my feet off the pedals. With SPAK off, the rudder behaves in a normal, smooth manner.

I would recommend using something like Flight Simulator X Steam Edition. You can pick that up at a very reasonable price. That way you could conduct your flight lessons from a local airport that the children would be able to relate to, and fly a simple aircraft such as the C172. FSX also has it's own flight lesson 'campaigns' where you can earn a "virtual pilot's license". What areas are not modeled in flight sims? Well, these days it mostly is the "ground school" subjects. We are now used to learning about aircraft systems in the higher end sims, but things like Human Performance, Regulations, Aerodynamics, Flight Planning and Meteorology that tend to be glossed over. There is a lot more to being a pilot than simply flying the airplane. Of course, that may be beyond the scope of what you are trying to achieve at this point. It should also be said that there are a lot of people who work in the field of aviation who are not pilots... Mechanics, Technicians, Air Traffic Controllers, etc etc. They are all important parts of the big picture.

I would have to disagree with you on most points there chp. DCS in VR is an amazing experience. Do you actually have a Rift or Vive?

I went with the VR Lens Lab solution. The prescription lenses stay in the headset and you hardly know they are there. They make a big difference vs wearing regular glasses. The lenses are easily removable if you want to let someone else use your Rift/Vive. http://vr-lens-lab.com

I kind of consider the CV1 as being second Gen. You could even consider it 3rd Gen if you include the DK1 headset. The CV1 certainly feels a lot more polished to me than a regular 1st gen device and I have zero regrets in buying it except that I should have jumped in with a DK2 when they first released that back in 2014(?).

With VR we are experiencing some of the problems real pilots would have to deal with when it comes to maintaining SA.

I have a set too and they work vey well, especially with the new rubber inserts that make the lenses more secure within the headset.

I'm thinking that the motion sickness made it harder for you enjoy the experience Lt.Stich . It can take awhile to get used to it. I have had my Rift since April and to be honest, I could never go back to a flat screen now for any simulator. There are some titles that still make me feel a little 'off', Subnautica being the main one. Fortunately, DCS World does not have that effect on me. I have tweaked my labels settings to make them present, but very non-intrusive (basically Grey dots). That helps a lot to alleviate spotting targets at a distance. VR, even in it's present state, brings a lot to the table. Helicopters are a vastly improved experience. Air Refueling is far more intuitive because you can actually judge where the basket/drogue is in relation to your aircraft. I flew the Museum Relic campaign from start to finish purely with the Rift and had no problems with the combat, both air to air and air to ground, so it is perfectly possible to operate effectively with the Rift. Of course, when Gen 2 comes out I'll be right there in line to buy one (and probably a new PC to run it as well ;) ). I'm sorry that you sent it back after a week. I am sure that once you got over the queeziness you would have found things a lot better.

It is most evident if you are flying low over a town. Just look left or right and turn ASW off and on again. The trees and buildings no longer ghost. It looks significantly better/smoother for the most part.

This method doesn't work with Run.exe. You have to point the shortcut to DCS.exe found in the Bin folder. Took me a while to figure out that one. :doh:

I have seen a lot of people ask this question, but when you wear the Rift (I can't speak for the Vive), it is really easy to just peek down through the nose gap to see your keyboard. It sounds awkward but it really isn't. When looking ahead the nose gap isn't within your FOV and so it doesn't cause a distraction. I find it quite usable to navigate the comms menus with the keyboard for example. Not ideal but certainly do-able. Most commonly used functions will of course be mapped to your HOTAS where you operate via muscle memory to find the various controls. Adding a pass though camera would work I guess but a pop up video window would break immersion as much as a quick peek down, and it would use CPU/GPU cycles that might be better spent in other areas.

Looks like a Tornado to me! Nice work!

Have you tried it or have you just decided that it would ruin the whole experience for you? Have you read the number of posts on this forum from people saying they could never go back to simming on a flat screen? It is an utterly different experience. Peeking out is something you would do occasionally, not constantly. What is your current setup if you don't mind me asking? As a side note, I don't get 100% immersion when I train in a (very expensive) Level D simulator. 100% Immersion means going out and flying the real airplane or helicopter. You will always have things that break in from the outside world. Noise, dogs barking, your wife trying to talk to you, someone knocking at your door, the graphical detail available as even a DCS cockpit in 4 K isn't as good as the real deal, even the smell of an aircraft makes a difference.

You are making way too much of the limitations r@m. Manipulating controls under VR with the mouse is very easy. Muscle memory places my hand back on the mouse without having to look through the nose gap. You don't need to look at your HOTAS for most of the commonly used functions. You don't need to use a haptic glove. Having to occasionally glance through the nose gap does NOT ruin the entire experience, but you would have to try it to truly understand. Your brain fills in a lot of the gaps. It most definitely is the closest thing to giving you the feeling of being in a real cockpit - except being in a real cockpit or a professional grade simulator.

I suspect in the US they will come to about $200. That puts the Rift/Touch combination at $800 - the same as the Vive. No big surprise there.

Mapping the most commonly used functions to a HOTAS helps a lot, but you can see just enough through the nose gap that the keyboard can be used. It soon becomes no big deal to glance down briefly to peek at the keyboard.

There is no going back to a flat screen once you have tried flying DCS in VR. It really is that good. As previously mentioned, there are some drawbacks, but the whole experience is vastly enhanced by the fact that you are (as far as your brain is concerned) sat in the cockpit. It's all around you. From a personal point of view, I fly for a living and was finding flight sims to be getting rather stale and too much like work. Now I have the Rift that has completely changed things. I absolutely can't wait to fire up DCS and take an airplane or helicopter up for a spin. It's awesome. I also had to by a new PC to run the Rift (I bought a GTX980 powered Oculus Ready PC as a bundle with the headset). It was a lot of cash to drop but it was worth every penny in my opinion. I just wish the GTX1080 had been available back in April - but I just couldn't wait :) . Oh, and I did not get the opportunity to try VR before buying either. When I first fired up DCS with the Rift I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. 5 months later that feeling hasn't worn off in the slightest. Just be warned though. Since getting the Rift I have wanted to catch up on all the modules that I have passed up previously. Even the ones I haven't really had any interest in before.