ddahlstrom

Yup, I just got my Crystal a few days ago (former OG Vive. Index, and Vive Pro 2 user). Visuals really are in another league entirely. This is finally what I imagined VR could look like in the future since my first day in this hobby. All the top pet peeves I've had for years are addressed here. Blur, gone. Glare, gone. SDE, gone. Washed-out colors, gone. Imagine having 20:20 vision in VR, and that's basically what it is like. Even sound is great. And in the areas that are secondary to me, it is fine. Comfort is fine. Weight is fine, FOV is fine (seems between my Index andVP2), software is fine (worked first time out of the box), tracking is fine (and once my lighthouse faceplate comes in it will have both inside-out and LH). And then there's even more apparently on the way to look forward to: stand-alone mode, wireless PCVR support, eye tracked IPD and foveated rendering, and wider angle lenses. Yes it is still mortal. It does have a smallish sweetspot of distortion, so you need to be in that for best image quality (though its much easier to do this than find the even smaller zone of clarity on my VP2); there can be a bit of bloom in night scenes due to the local dimming; and it can exhibit some chromatic aberration when looking away from center (though this has been almost unnoticeable when gaming so far). But yeah. I'm pretty happy with this thing.

This appears to be fixed in the 1.2.2 update I installed tonight.

My first reaction to Windows 8 was that it looked kind of cool. After a using it for about an hour I became increasingly annoyed at the changes. It seemed that the UI was intentionally changed to discourage mouse users. But then, over the next couple of days as I actually learned how to do things the "new" way, the light went on. Things were not harder but just different. Whether you like the new UI or not, I can't say its harder. And it has grown on me. Just yesterday I got on a Windows 7 machine and "instinctively" poked the mouse pointer in the bottom corner to access the control panel and had a half-second of wondering why nothing was happening! But the UI was not why I have now switched all my PCs over to Windows 8. The reason is because Windows 8 really comes into its own when you use multiple machines (because of the integrated sync functions), multiple monitors (the metro interface and desktop can reside on separate monitors), and on touchscreens (I installed on my Dell Duo. The touchscreen capabilities are excellent--its like a brand new machine). There are also subtle but really nice "under-the-covers" improvement. The most obvious is the amazingly improved startup time, but in general, there is just a feel of smoothness to everything. Its actually better to think of Windows 8 as Windows 7 SE, with touchscreen additions. And, by the way; I don't miss the Start button. I also don't have any issue at all with the machine booting to the Metro interface since I rarely turn my computer "off", but rather put it to sleep. So if I was in the desktop when I left the computer, that's where it is when I start-up again. As far as apps and games go. Yes, you quickly learn that installing unsigned drivers must be done in a special mode (getting TrackIR caused me several minutes of consternation before I found this out). Every other app I've tried has worked perfectly, except ironically, DCS World 1.2.1, which continues to crash upon mission exit--but I understand the next patch will resolve this. Other than that, I'm a happy camper with Windows 8.

Great to hear!

That was one of the first things I tried (and just tried it again now). No dice. Does this work reliably for you every time? If so, you would be (apparently) the first person on Windows 8 that doesn't have this problem. Did you happen to make any other adjustments besides compatibility mode and admin?

Out of curiosity, is there anyone out there reading this thread who is running Windows 8 RTM with 1.2.1 and not crashing after existing a mission?

Me Too Guess I'll chime in too. On Windows 8 (RTM) I am having the same crash issue. I was running 1.2.0 fine on Windows 8, but 1.2.1 clearly has a problem. Like others there have been a couple rare occasions that it worked (I think they both happened immediately after an online update was done), but then it starts crashing again on the very next run. I submitted a ticket about a week ago and haven't had any responses yet. Hopefully there's a solution by the time Win8 goes retail.

Helios has been free for a while now (donation-ware) and gauge packs are now built-in.

Guess I'll add myself to this list. It happened in the Beta. It never happened (as far as I noticed) in the release, but it does happen regularly in the patch. Labels are ok, then just disappear perhaps 5 minutes later--including MFCD labels. Not all the time, but when it does happen, that's the pattern. nVidia GTX460 (260.99)

I'm experiencing the same in the release version. Kind of expected it to work since DCS:BS does. Does A-10 simply not work with 3D Vision?

Ah. I thought you were one of those people who believed that unless the real HOTAS has force feedback effects built into it, they shouldn't be supported in the simulator. I apologize. I guess the answer is that aside from trim effects and some possible stall effects (mentioned by someone else) I haven't felt anything noticeable. I thought I remembered an early beta having some rumble effects on the runway, but I might be wrong--and it doesn't do it now anyway.

The plane does...and the HOTAS is attached to the plane.

Yes, please! I have a G940 and was really expecting A-10 to exploit the stick to a much greater degree. The use of FF to control trim is very nice, but there isn't really anything that qualifies as "feedback".

Yeah, I'll submit a vote in favor of an option to hide the stick (and a similar option for the throttle). Since I already have a stick and throttle on my desktop, I don't have an issue with any compromised "reality". As a programmer myself, I agree with EtherealN that its doubtful this would do much if anything to improve performance. As far as how hard this is, it could be hard or really easy. It just depends on the object model they used. If each cockpit control is an object with an inherited and implemented show/hide method then this might be real easy. If not, then it could be significantly harder.

This approach has been around for a while. I found it seeming like a good solution but eventually abandoned it (as for reasons, you can see my comments in http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=763916&postcount=7). In addition to it having some reliability issues, I also found that unless I did this after moving the rudder pedals back to center, the pedals were now unnaturally centered. Using the control indicator (RCtrl-Enter) while flying helps to see the exact artifacts of this, and especially how positional uncertainty can build up over time. Of course, if your flying is improved by using this, then by virtue of that alone it's a good trick! The compromise I eventually reached (after that original post), however, is to just make sure that I only trim under conditions when my pedals are already centered (since the reality is that I never actually want my rudders trimmed, only the cyclic). This sometimes makes me delay executing a trim longer than I might otherwise, but short of implementation of my preferred solution (http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=882381&postcount=10), this is about the simplest and most reliable solution I've found.