nervousenergy

Haven't seen anything posted on this, but it looks like a worthy upgrade to my Odyssey (and anyone with a Vibe or Vibe Pro.) https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/03/hp-goes-pro-with-its-newest-vr-headset/ 2160x2160 per eye, at 90hz refresh, and 114 degree FOV, all for $599. It uses the WMR platform and controllers, though of course the controllers won't matter much here. The reviewer also notes it's a lot more comfortable. No, it's not a massive revolution in the VR experience, but it should be drivable with a good PC and provide a significant bump to rez and FOV. Looking forward to this one. Available in April.

This sounds fascinating and will obviously lead to the gold standard of damage modeling once it's finished, but is there any way y'all would consider a simpler intermediate step just to make some of the simpler missions/matchups more flyable against the AI? Right now it's a huge exercise in frustration, and the primary reason I haven't spent much $$$ on Missions (I buy every aircraft module, map, ect., even if I don't fly them... I'm a WWII fanatic, not jets, though I do love screaming down the Strip in a Mirage once in a while...) I can post track after track of damaging an enemy aircraft, where there are as many as four streams of black smoke pouring from the wings, and the AI continues to perform at 120% of max possible reality until I overheat or run out of ammo. Decals, smoke position, etc, are all 'nice to haves', but this is game-breaking to me, and directly causes me to not fly the sim nearly as much as I should. A simple 60-90 second timer for the AI to bail or attempt to fly home once a certain amount of damage in the CURRENT flight model is delivered would completely fix the playability from my standpoint. Even better would be something like a 50% AI penalty to speed and turn rate. A few lines of very general code... NOTHING like the above incredible detail, and the playability vs. AI would go from game-breaking to completely acceptable. I don't mind the simplified flight model for AI... I don't mind simplified visual or physical damage modeling. I mind the game-breaking inability to defeat AI aircraft after delivering crippling hits to them, that the game acknowledges as crippling with streams of black smoke. Is there any chance this can be addressed while we wait for the precise reduction in performance to be coded and tested that one would get with a 7.62 round through the turbo intercooler? :)

New rig and don't buy the graphics card yet. Ebay is going to get quite a few 1080 and 1080ti models soon as people sell to fund the upgrade. Theoretically. Benchmarks could come out and show the new 20 series cards offering a whopping 10% improvement in legacy games, which will make selling them at those prices a real problem for Nvidia. Regardless, OEMs will be selling cards in 6 weeks that are going to be cheaper than the pre-order Founders Edition cards. Nvidia is keeping a very, very tight lid on pre-release reviewers, requiring extremely draconian NDAs being signed and tightly controlling the pre-distribution of release-day drivers. This kind of thing typically means early reviews may not be exactly glowing.

Will the JetSeat SE have any problems fitting the Recaro style seat in the Obutto pit? If not I'll order one this weekend.

That's a... really good question. I'd assumed the transducer + sound module would be more universally applicable, but upon reading several reviews of the JetSeat it sounds like the more ideal solution. I'm assuming the JetSeat flight sim mod version will fit the Recaro/Sparco style seats in the Obutto?

I'll be happy to wait till September for the next batch, but how quickly do the runs sell out? Wondering if I need to write a script to check the VKB site every 4 hours or something and notify me if the 'out of stock' message changes. They should allow pre-orders, or at the very least have an in-stock notification system set up on the site.

General question, here... I've enjoyed a huge resurgence in sim flying since I started using an Odyssey in VR, and adding rumble effects is next on the list. Looking at the first few pages in the thread along with random sampling of the rest doesn't refeal a master FAQ on what's needed to start. Looks like purchasing the Sound Module and getting the free (donate ware) Simshaker for Aviators along with appropriate hardware is the proper path... is that correct? Any advice for hardware to use with an Obutto Rev pit? The default seems to be a Buttkicker Gamer variant (or Mini LFE), but there's a pretty wide selection of transducers including Clark, Aura, etc. My main goal would be ease of installation... I'm not particularly handy when it comes to fabricating mounting systems. Cost isn't much of an issue.. Everything I see in the transducer space is a lot less than what I've spent on other sim gear. ;-)

Yeah, I love my Odyssey, but it's the same price as the Rift here. If it was twice as much I wouldn't have bought it. On the subject of tracking, another vote for being very happy with Odyssey tracking in general. I only play Beat Saber in the non-sim VR world, and my only limitations with that game have to do with my lack of Force sensitivity, not the controllers. ;-) I'd also note that the resolution of the Odyssey in IL2:BoS/K/M makes for a big difference without the performance issues of the more powerful DCS engine. Almost all of my sim time here lately have been re-learning how to fly helos in DCS (and on a side note, VR is an even bigger game changer for helos than it is for fixed-wing craft) and dogfighting over the ruins of Stalingrad.

IMHO, if you're buying today the Odyssey is the only way to go. 5 years from now we'll hopefully look back on these bulky VR sets the same way we look back on the first cell phones when they looked like WWII field radios, but right now you just can't beat the Odyssey for resolution and lack of screen door effect.

Damn... bought one at full price last week. Oh well... it's still worth it at $499. $100 less? If you don't have a VR set and want to try it, this is the way to go. DCS is incredible, Elite is incredible, BoS/M is amazing though the flight model isn't as good (visuals, though, are smooth as SILK). Anyone want a used TIR5? It's getting unplugged and uninstalled this weekend. I can't fly without the Odyssey, regardless of any spotting shortcomings.

They've definitely gone up, but so has some of the engineering it seems. I own the very first generation of Slaw pedals (109, non-cam), and still love every bit of them. They've been hammered for years as I vainly try and avoid being shot down, and work perfectly. I've been considering buying a cam version of the 109 pedals and selling my current set, but I'll have to look at this first. I use a Warthog as my primary HOTAS, and TM will have to step WAY up in materials to get even close to Slaw, even with a $150 price advantage. Though I'll also happily admit my WH has given me years of trouble-free service. I replaced my Cougar with it about 6 months after it came out. Not even sure how many years ago that was. If it died tomorrow I'd shrug, wish it bon voyage, and buy another one... though I'm also very intruiged by the Gunfighter base. I don't use TARGET.

I'd also be interested in a comprehensive settings/optimization FAQ compendium. My Odyssey was working fine with my default, very high rez monitor configuration (simple flying around or instant action, though, no busy scripted missions), but I clicked the VR presets button last night and it was... terrible. For some reason it put PD at 1.0 and moved almost everything to Medium or Low. Smooth, but it was smooth previously looking way prettier. So I changed PD to 1.4, put my cockpit textures back to 1024, and increased several of the settings back to High (textures, water, etc.) Back in eye popping beauty, and still smooth as silk. Getting a good comprehensive list of what the options do from both an objective performance basis as well as a subjective 'pretty' basis would be awesome. The only visual drawback I can see with the Odyssey is the very tight sweet spot, as others have noted. If you're a little high or low on the HMD placement everything will look terrible, and we're talking milimeters. The F86 pit in particular is absolutely beautiful with PD at 1.4 and 1024 textures. The Mig 15 AI absolutely flies rings around me in a dogfight, but it's all so beautiful I just don't care yet. ;-)

I'd disagree with this if the qualitative difference is big enough. The exact same HMD design but using 4K per eye at 90 FPS, for example, would be such a radical improvement in the experience that I'd have to call that gen 2.

Return it and try the Odyssey. The higher resolution definitely improves the SDE. I'm also pretty sensitive to it (can't not look at it if it's prominent) and I hardly notice it in flight. The Rift was much, much worse for me. I look forward to 4K+ screens. Also make sure your pixel density is set to 1.4 or higher, assuming you've got the system for it.

Bought an Odyssey yesterday and promptly made my day at work today much harder than it would normally be, as I stayed up very late flying around with my jaw open. Tried both the Rift and the Odyssey at the Microsoft store in north Dallas (they had Rift, Odyssey, and Vive connected and running, but the Vive (non Pro) was in use), and the Odyssey had far less noticable SDE, though it was still there. Amazing experience. The headset tracks perfectly, and I do mean perfectly. Almost too perfect... I do somewhat miss the easy head flick of TIR5 to look behind like your neck is broken. Now I'm really using the mirror in the Spit. Can't comment on the reported mediocre tracking results of the hand-held controllers... haven't even put batteries in them. No interest. I'd say this experience has me even more excited for a true Gen 2 product. The Odyssey is *amazing*, but there are obviously clear compromises in graphics fidelity and FOV. I'd happily shell out 4 figures for a HMD that had significant upgrades. It would be an interesting discussion to see exactly what folks consider 'true gen 2'. For myself, I'd like to see at least a 50% resolution improvement, some amount (not sure how much) FoV improvement, and better HMD ergonomics. I'm sure a big part of the VR audience would also like advances in room scale movement & controllers, but as someone who uses VR while sitting in an Obutto cockpit those have no interest for me. Such a discussion unfortunately also has to take into account how much the state of the art in home computing power has to advance to support it. I'd love to see VR make good use of SLI, for example. Parallelizing previous gen GPUs can be a lot cheaper than getting the latest and greatest. Plus the latest and greatest likely can't keep up anytime soon... doubling today's HMD resolution would put 90 FPS way out of reach of ANY single PC graphics card... even the mighty Titan V. It's unlikely the upcoming 1180 will beat the 1080ti by more than 30-40%, and that's not nearly enough to run two 4K+ sreens at 90 FPS in DCS.

Thought about coming in and posting the exact same thing today. Picked up an Odyssey on the way home yesterday after reading/researching this forum for weeks. I'm sure if a camera was pointed at my face that first flight it would have shown my jaw down around my navel. The biggest hit for me was after taking off the first time in a Spit, looking to the side, then banking and pulling hard to go back over the airfield. I could feel a sense of real vertigo and 'stomach drop' that you get in a real small plane as I pulled through the turn, and I've *NEVER* felt that in a sim. Ever. I stayed up way, way too late last night just flying around in the Spit. The sense of speed down low is breathtaking. Flying down the strip made me giddy. It's as big a revelation as playing Doom shareware more than 25 years ago.

About to jump in to VR after years with TIR5. Reading endlessly through reviews and experiences here seems to indicate they're all fairly close, but without any existing investment in VR tech it looks like the Odyssey is the best one to jump into at the moment. And while I've got a pretty good gaming budget and excellent machine, I don't think the Vive Pro's 4 figure entry price is quite worth it. Is that accurate? I'm somewhat sensitive to SDE... I remember watching movies in theaters using new digital projector shortly after they came out (Attack of the Clones comes to mind), and the SDE effect was horrific in some scenes. Wife and friends with me had no idea what I was talking about, but it made me near nauseous. It looks like the Odyssey is the best to minimize SDE right now.

Me too. I'd decided to give a pass to VR version 1 and wait for the next major hardware refresh but hell.... y'all are killing me. With the current state of the art and considering ONLY DCS, is there any real performance difference IN DCS between the Rift and Vive? The latter just had it's first big price drop. It's still more expensive than the Rift, though, so it would need at least some noticeable benefit or improvement over the Rift in DCS for me to consider it.

This error is still happening, and now it's keeping me in a re-activation loop. Emails to Nicholas go unanswered, but I gather that's due to the company split. Who do we contact for this issue?

If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that the departing members are more interested in WWII dev and Heatblur are more interested in jets. This is a labor of love, not money, and it's likely most of the people in this biz could make more money elsewhere. Good coders and digital art people are ALWAYS in demand. Could be totally wrong, though. *shrug* Hopefully both groups can now pursue what they're most passionate about and provide us more great moduless in the future!

Ghost Skies was some of the most fun I'd ever had in IL2. Teaming up on TS with the regulars on Greater Green, Spits vs 109s, etc was incredibly entertaining, but the intensity of Ghost Skies was amazing. I'd love for anything similar to return to DCS.

I've got the four book series on the ME262... need to look through it to see if there's an estimate of how many of them may have been brought down by .50 fire from B17 gunners, but given what I recall it wouldn't have been many, and those would have been your typical golden BBs. The closing speed of a 262 on a B17 gives a .50 gunner a TINY firing window, and they're coming in so fast from so far out that they'd have to be looking right at them to see them. The 262 pilot has no such issue... the B17 is huge, and he's picked it out from way beyond the range his plane is visible. There's very little historical footage of B17s being engaged by 262s, so we mostly just have anecdotes about how it went down, but the surviving 262 pilots (particularly Erich Rudorffer, IIRC) extolled at length how incredibly stable a gun platform it was. The 30mm had all sorts of ballistics issues that made it hard to shoot down planes with it, but the 262 had four of them in the nose with no convergence issues. I'd have to research it again, but I thought I'd read that several 262 pilots were credited with multiple B-17 kills on a single pass through a formation. AI gunners with sniper awareness and reflexes might cause problems, especially since (if they're modeled correctly) a single hit on one of the engines should cause immediate failure 99% of the time. Human gunners should fare very poorly. Good P-51 pilots with a couple thousand feet of height advantage should bag their share just like they did historically.

The Spit lands like a dream compared to the 109 for me. I'm going to need a longer extension for the 'hog, though. 8cm isn't going to cut it... thinking about 12.

Normandy may not be, but the Spit has already been announced for December 16th.

Any information/confirmation that Normandy will be a 2.0 Map only at release like Nevada? I haven't been keeping my 1.5 installation up to date as I never really fly it... Nevada is just too pretty. Definitely purchasing the Spit while it's on sale, but I'd hate to miss out on a nice Spit + Normandy bundle price.