Johnny Dioxin

It just arrived - right after breakfast and opening my cards! Perfect timing UK charges were explained on a sticker - the large part of the charge was VAT (@20%). There are no instructions at all, which is pretty unacceptable for a device of this price. Yes, I'll work out how to put it together, but tips on adjustments etc would have been very useful, at the least. It's a lot smaller than I expected - no bad thing. PS - I know I'm probably sounding overly negative and very cautious, but I'm actually quite excited and looking forward to fiddling with it - I'm still just pissed off about the charges!

Thanks - I did have a good look around for one based in the UK or Europe, but couldn't find any. Oh well. At least it's arriving on my birthday - so hopefully a nice present to myself!

Damn! Mine has just arrived (10 days after the date I'd been given) and it's waiting at the local depot - for me to pay the £46.08 import charge to HMRC I'm glad I offered less than the asking price, but I should have made it a lot less. This puts the total price at over £220 and that's getting towards branded equipment price. It had better be darned good. edit: I just went to my ebay account to find a message claiming that they had tried to deliver it yesterday morning, with an exact time quoted. This is total rubbish - both my wife and I were at home at the time, plus my dog goes ape every time anyone comes up the drive. The seller had also assured me the pedals would be here by 19th January (which I didn't believe anyway). This seller should be avoided. There are more than one selling these rudder pedals, so choose wisely - though ebay isn't trustworthy in any case as far as reputations go, - I've been unable to give any bad rep to sellers for years, despite some pretty shocking behaviour by some. They also still haven't closed an account I had and tried to close over 15 years ago - I can still sign in and all my personal info is still there - but if I try to do anything I get a "this account is being closed" message, and if I send ebay a message about it I get zero response. If only there were a viable alternative for many items I want to buy.

Well in my honest opinion this sort of thing will hold zero interest for ED and they are sure to not want to waste their programming time on it, considering how popular it is likely to be (or not). I'm sure they will think (imo quite rightly) that there are far more important things to work on. Too many people don't know where to draw the line between leisure and monomania. As has been said - it's a game, for enjoyment at leisure and although some devs here have sometimes imho been swayed by persistent vexation by the more enthusiastic element of their customers online, ED seem to understand that point very well (and who better to judge it than the sim's developers themselves?) as they have clearly pointed out several times over the years when the issue has come up on the forums. Still, you can continue arguing away as much as you like (or discussing if that's what you prefer to call it) - time will tell. I'm done here, though - good day to you and may many successful sorties find their way into your log

Did anyone have to pay duty on these pedals? Just thought of that. I think the UK has a trade agreement with China which means certain product imports are duty-free (which probably explains why I've been getting masks that say "mobile phone accessories" on the label!), but I don't know what's covered - have to try and find out. My replacement Index controllers have been stuck at customs for several days - those are from the US though, and it may be due to strikes. update: Seems the answer is yes, probably. An item over £135 imported to the UK is liable to customs charges of 2.5% depending on the item (and unfortunately, this is where it gets muddy). I've not been able to find a definitive list of what gets charged for - or whether a payment is also due to the courier for paying customs on my behalf. No wonder so many people get ripped off by scam couriers and importers!

I found that, too. Think I will look at a cpu/mobo upgrade anyway - although the 9600k is holding its own, it is getting close to its limit.

Pleased I didn't decide to go with the AMD card. The 4000 series isn't perfect, but it has given me a reason to get back into DCS World in VR after so much disappointment making me hesitant since 2.1, now that I'm able to fly again too, instead of just watching AI fight it out - a nice 'welcome back' situation! I checked last night and there are indeed a number of servers still using 1.27 2.7 (d'oh!), so I'll keep an eye on them and if one gets a good number of clients (a big "if") I'll jump in and see how the 4080 handles things.

VR Optician are the ones I had issues with - as described in my post, and they didn't want to know. "We did it right, so it's not our problem" end of subject. Swings and roundabouts. Did you bother speaking to Lens Labs support?

I highly recommend VR Lens Labs (Gauss Tech) for their prescription lenses. I've used them for all of my headsets since 2016. I did try other makes but none were as reliable or consistently able to produce the goods. To say nothing of customer service for either general queries or when something isn't right, which I didn't get when I had an issue with lenses bought from another brand who basically told me to get lost after I took the lenses to an optician who told me they had been put into the frames at the wrong rotational angle - they were useless to me. The only thing that led to me trying other brands was the long delivery times for Lens Labs. Not any more, though - they've really upped their game. I ordered my Pico prescription lenses on the 19th and they arrived yesterday. That's just 10 days, including Christmas! That's some turnaround rate. Maybe it's down to them now using FedEx. The lenses themselves are excellent - with magnetic frames that have little pins for proper locating and to stop them moving. First class - and no issues with warping etc, they are very clear and make my experience so much better - I'd been using specs up to now. Now I'm just waiting for my new face gasket to arrive, which will hopefully also give me a slight increase in horizontal FOV and I'll be all set and a very happy teddy with my Pico 4

Thanks

Came up as a blank to me. Looks like it's a link to a voice channel and therefore comes up as a Discord error message - for anyone who isn't logged into the Vaicom channel already, I guess. Edit - just clicked on the other link posted and got the same thing.

You and me both

If I can find a server running release version I'll test my set-up on it - provided there is anything going on, of course.

Just flew a night time mission over the Caucasus in the F-16C with a huge amount of units and a lot going on. Framerates were half, as expected - 36 with Pico's ASW kicking in, but performances were still smooth and the average framerate shown on fpsVR was in the high 50's. CPU was most affected, but even that was well within the acceptable range. I did record it, but as it was night time and without NVG there isn't a lot to see. I'll post a couple of fpsVR shots in the heat of the action. Okay here are the screens. I magnified them so that the fpsVR info is easier to read, and added titles to describe what was going on at the time of the screenshot, also included a shot of the mission editor (its a QM generated mission) to show how many units are involved:

Seconded

It was reddit I was talking about - loads of complaints on there.

People say a lot of nasty things about Valve support, but I've never had any issue with them, they've always been good to me (and efficient). That hasn't changed - I just contacted them about my left controller having suffered a power surge while charging and even though they are 18 months past the warranty expiry date, Valve are replacing both controllers for me! They are also very keen to investigate exactly what caused the surge, I understand it has become a - not exactly common - but regularly reported issue. Hats off to them - made me a happy camper!

Yes - it's a shame the commentary didn't record in my video as I was saying pretty much the same and I was only using the A-10A because I am redoing my profiles and that is top of the list! Next one will be in the A-10C II and F-16C, which I've also completed now.

I've just done a flight in VR with my Pico 4 and the RTX 4080 - jaw-dropping smoothness. I used the same settings as with my 2080Ti, which always had either a solid 30 or 45fps, depending on headset used. Despite having my Pico 4 settings at 90Hz, DCS World ran at 72 - but OMG! Now I can finally up my settings. Not sure if the HD is processed yet - this is the onboard Pico headset recording - finally a VR headset manufacturer has included an easy onboard recording option - just a press of the screenshot button on the controller: I recorded the test flight, which was just a take-off from Addis Ababa in the A-10A followed by a low-level flight around the city until my demise when I misjudged a couple of appartment blocks! Unfortunately, the commentary wasn't recorded. Nevertheless, fpsVR is visble for the whole flight - flatlining

That isn't the point - the point is that the statement that a 4090 is required to get decent performance from a Pico 4 is driven by something other than being a fact. I have a 4080 but I'm sure my 2080Ti would have given good performance with it. So why do they say that? Of course the better the card the better the performance, and so it's obvious that you will get the best out of a headset by having a better graphics card. But it definitely isn't a must have to get decent performance.

Anyone with a Pico 4 that wants a new gasket - you can get one from eBay (both UK and US). Price varies, but around £22-23 and just under $30. Usual month for delivery. I expect the pad to be garbage, so it will help if you have some already - or you can order them directly from the likes of VR Covers. The pads all use velcro so no worries about fitting - I swap mine about all the time with ones for Rift CV1, Quest, Quest 2 and Index and it's no big deal. Link This is the only proper one I could find and I spent a lot of time searching. No doubt the usual commercial types will spring up after a while, but the only other ones I found were bodges involving using the glasses spacer, sticky velcro and an old pad! Apparently this gives a big increase in horizontal FOV!

I know what you mean, mate. I just ordered a face gasket for the Pico 4 and I just know the padding is going to stink of synthetic chemical yuk. Good job I have lots of spare pads for other headsets.

I just found an earlier review by the same guy, claiming that they don't work in DCS World - and someone said that because of that they won't buy it! When I try to get the link for the video, it just gives the link to the one I already posted (it's the same guy). YouTube at its worst. Don't know what he's up to.

I was really cautious about buying the Pico 4. Now I have, I'm so pleased I did - it's a great headset that doesn't get the credit it deserves. I can understand why it isn't sold in the US, but that choice does mean they get a lot less "air time". Vertical FOV is on a par with Index as far as my feeling goes (if not the actual numbers), though horizontal FOV seems a little less - I'm using the glasses/spectacles spacer until my prescription lenses arrive so can't give a definitive opinion on that. I think start-up is quicker than either the Index or Quest 2 - it's very quick for me, though I only have two apps on mine. I do hope for some higher resolutions at some stage, though. Can't see me bothering with Quest 3, though I was already not keen on going that way.

Hi - the review isn't mine, it was just the only one I could find, apart from a few comments on reddit. My offer got accepted this morning, so I've bought the pedals for £170. They told me I should have them within 9 days, though the official delivery date is end of January. I've been looking for some good pedals that don't cost a mint for a long time now - though my Mad Catz Cessna Pro's are good with helicopters once I adapted my technique - they are hopeless with anything else. Maybe I will find these far better with rotaries, as others who bought them have experienced. When you buy from the acknowledged brands in this game, you always get a brand name courtesy percentage, for want of a better description (can't think of the word I want, with my morning after Christmas day thick head). But these are looking every bit as useful and durable. Time will tell. Cheers