DCS Combat Pilot's OR CV1 Review

[Sov13t]

Hello fellow pilots,

 

I know there has been plenty of these already, and I tried to read them all as I was patiently (sometimes rather impatiently) awaiting my Oculus pre-order that was placed 14 minutes after the store opened on January 6th. Today, it finally arrived - and I got to spend about an hour flying around with it. No, that is not an accident I underlined that bit of information on purpose. First of all to highlight that I haven't spent nearly as much time with the CV1 - but also to reserve room to change my opinions at a later time... treat it as a legal disclaimer if you will. This review is only concerning Oculus CV1 and DCS - nothing else, nothing more. (at least will try to keep it that way)

 

Few more items to establish or tarnish my credibility. I am a member of 51st PVO Regiment, some of you might have heard of us, some have not - by no means do I want to act pompous or in any way offend anyone who has different opinions. 51st specializes in as competitive as you can get within DCS Air to Air combat, as such my point of view is heavily biased in that arena. I have also spent significant amount of time in the DK1 - so I wasn't coming in "blind" into CV1.

 

Alright hope that was enough of an introduction...

 

Day 1 with CV1 in DCS

 

It is an amazing experience to look around the pit, and feel the depth and scale of the aircraft we fly in DCS. I would say it is the most gratifying part of heaving a VR HMD - you "feel" rather than see.

 

Now, as you recover from the awe of depth perception what immediately jumps out at you next is the resolution (or lack there of). If you think about the numbers... they sound decent right? 2160x1080 sounds good right? Especially after DK1 experience - I was pumped about this for DCS. Unfortunately, it is still not enough for us - part of it may be addressed with introducing some sort of a zoom ability (it might help). To give you an idea: I was playing "guess the shape" of numbers to figure out my heading on the HUD. The HUD, where there is a high contrast - clean text. Now imagine how it is looking at instruments? If you haven't spent enough time to memorize the markings or can't picture the instrument with your eyes closed - you will have trouble... and I am not talking that it is impossible. Certainly, you can spend 20 seconds trying to figure out and read the dials - but by then you might as well eject. Remember, I am discussing this from a heavy A2A/PVP perspective. I believe there is room to improve here, whether through mods/textures or introducing some sort of a zoom/snap view feature. Oh, I only flew in current 1.5 DCS World...

 

Performance - I had no issues here. I ran with settings nearly maxed out... before CV1, I had no issues running DCS at 5860 x 1080 triple 27" screens. Sure, there are some slow downs over cities and perhaps a bit of stutters - but I didn't focus on that this time around.

 

Visuals - as some have brought this up already... anything outside of maybe a click gets really spotty. The added depth perception and low resolution severely detract from ability to spot and identify units. As you can imagine, big no-no for combat. I will be honest here - I didn't perform as much testing as necessary. So will have to get back to this one.

 

Head tracking - superb. period.

 

Field of view - Not there yet; best way to describe it - it is like looking through the binoculars. Your peripheral vision is not engaged, I feel like I get better periphery with triple screens.

 

Freedom - Unlike TrackIR where your eyes tend to be glued to a certain screen and you move your neck. The ability to naturally move around both your neck and eyes is quite relaxing.

 

TL;DR Yet another review, stating some of the same things from perhaps a different point of view. CV1 is a technological marvel, flying and enjoying the sim is inspiring. PVP combat might be out of reach.

 

S! :pilotfly:

Edited May 18, 2016 by Sov13t

[Ranger79]

Very good post, thanks for sharing.

[Justin Case]

Field of view - Not there yet; best way to describe it - it is like looking through the binoculars.

I'd say ski goggles since binoculars zoom the view and actually help you spot stuff in the distance :megalol:

 

Otherwise a great review and I agree with you. Though I'm having trouble seeing my self going back to my awesome 3440x1440 34" display, which I love btw, due to the VR immersion.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Justin Case

[Damocles]

Personally, I don't have too much of an issue with reading the gauges and the Hud's seem to be better than I expected, possibly not in a competitive environment, but for general tootling around, acceptable.

 

If there was a surprise, disappointment, it would be, ironically, depth perception of bogies. The 3D effect in cockpit is superb and the feeling of being, up there, in the air is great however, because of the resolution, depth que's for other aircraft aren't as good as I'd hoped. That said, tracking manoevering targets, in 3D space, while manoevering heavily oneself is far easier than with TrackIR. I don't have a problem with FOV, except at the limits of looking up or towards the six, although more would certainly be better. The one big thing I've noticed in this regard is, noticing far more of what is happening within my FOV that weren't obvious with triple screens and TrackIR.

[Fab]

Personally, I don't have too much of an issue with reading the gauges and the Hud's seem to be better than I expected, possibly not in a competitive environment, but for general tootling around, acceptable.

 

If there was a surprise, disappointment, it would be, ironically, depth perception of bogies. The 3D effect in cockpit is superb and the feeling of being, up there, in the air is great however, because of the resolution, depth que's for other aircraft aren't as good as I'd hoped. That said, tracking manoevering targets, in 3D space, while manoevering heavily oneself is far easier than with TrackIR. I don't have a problem with FOV, except at the limits of looking up or towards the six, although more would certainly be better. The one big thing I've noticed in this regard is, noticing far more of what is happening within my FOV that weren't obvious with triple screens and TrackIR.

 

I have made handels, like in a real fighter, to assist me twicthing, look for my 6...

[Redacuragsr]

Thank you for the review Sov13t. I am currently using a hacked version of the Samsung Gear VR headset with the Samsung galaxy edge 7 as the screen and contemplating on purchasing the rift. Your review was spot on regarding what I am seeing trough my headset as well even though its not a CV1. The initial wow factor from looking around in the pit in stereoscopic 3D, to the lack of resolution for any kind of A2A target spotting and gauge reading, and I am streaming in 4K with the phone having a slightly higher resolution than the rift (doesn't mean the image quality is better) I was hoping that all these things were just related to my headset and getting the rift would fix it, but I guess that's just the state of VR at the moment. Thank you for putting things into perspective. BTW even with the Gear VR headset the feeling of flight, altitude and speed is amazing, especially flying through the canyons.

[hannibal]

Performance - I had no issues here. I ran with settings nearly maxed out... before CV1, I had no issues running DCS at 5860 x 1080 triple 27" screens. Sure, there are some slow downs over cities and perhaps a bit of stutters - but I didn't focus on that this time around.

 

whats your computer specs? please..

[Sov13t]

Thanks for the feedback guys, glad you found some useful information.

 

To answer some questions and add a few more tidbits:

 

- My specs are 3770 @ 4.5Ghz with 32GB of RAM and Dual GTX970s.

 

- I spent some time experimenting with graphic settings as well as paid more attention to the FPS. Setting everything to LOW definitely boosts the FPS a bit, however once you are up in the air and away from cities/objects settings don't seem to make much of a difference. I ended up with setting my Textures to HIGH, everything else to either Medium or Low. Since Oculus tends to like 45/90 - in the air I tend to bounce around 90/45.

 

- Flew a few combat sorties today. I found spotting targets within a certain envelope is actually easier than a 2D screen. Noticing movement with the added depth perception is huge, I was able to pick out aircraft quite easily against the sky/horizon. The ground gets a bit trickier - but not end of the world. The biggest issues I am having is lack of clear instruments and the HUD heading tape is a mess.

 

- Tell you what, going defensive into a split S with a launch warning on you and seeing that ground come at you faster and faster as you kick it into burners... boy is it scary.

 

- Oculus + iVibe (VRF) + Butt Kicker + HOTAS = immersion. I do have leap motion, perhaps when that gets more support will use that as well.

 

- WANTS: Higher contrast and larger font cockpit and HUD = this will be a big success if we start seeing modders stepping up and making it happen.

[NeilWillis]

It might be well worth your time to check this out - resolution improvements are possible, so you may get much better results.

 

[*Rage*]

I was about to post that as well. Check it out and report back!

[Vivoune]

He's running on a 970, I doubt that card (SLI not supported) can super sample DCS and keep usable fps. :\

 

Btw super sampling is a brute force technique to improve aliasing, not resolution. ;)

[Sov13t]

Yeah, I tried to super sample - DCS didn't quite like it, as others have reported.

 

I am not convinced that hardware is the issue of performance, engine improvements may have a larger impact - although 1080 is around the corner, so if I need to switch from dual 970s to a single 1080 so be it.

 

Squadmate is working on a project of retexturing gaugues. That may be the short term solution.

[PitbullVicious]

Sorry to butt in, but I also tried the supersampling, so I'd like to share my experience. I have decent specs on my computer and in general CV1 seems to run nicely with everything cramped up (except DOF and the draw distance on second highest).

 

While 2x supersampling looks very nice and crisp, I have to turn everything down to medium or low and turn on flat shadows to get playable (still occasional jitters) frame rate.

 

I'm still not absolutely sure which I prefer (supersampling or better game settings). I guess it would require actually optimizing settings and playing a few longer and more complex scenarios, both A2A and A2G, to properly compare the usability and benefits of supersampling. Or simply wait a few years when the hardware catches up.

[beers]

From Wags in Oculus Rift with DCS World Discussion thread

 

We have added a pixel density selection in the VR tab. 0.5 to 2.5.

 

Lot's of other improvements coming too!

[Cripple]

I am a member of 51st PVO Regiment, some of you might have heard of us, some have not - by no means do I want to act pompous or in any way offend anyone who has different opinions. 51st specializes in as competitive as you can get within DCS Air to Air combat, as such my point of view is heavily biased in that arena.

 

 

Erm, did I miss what you are flying? You mention problems with the HUD... Would that still be as much of an issue on WW2-era aircraft, which tend to try to give the pilot markedly less info (and specifically don't have a HUD)?

[Sov13t]

Sorry sir, forgot to mention that we specialize in Flankers.

 

I will be upgrading from SLI 970s to 1080 in the short term. Will see how performance/super sampling works out then.

[NeilWillis]

I have absolutely no doubt that this early on in the development life of DCS World and OR CV1, that we can expect to see some improvements along the way, and that super sampling may well be more effective over time.

 

I also think that we will all need to wring out the very maximum performance we can out of our systems, and that the limitations of hardware resolution are not nearly fully exploited. Only time will tell of course, but I have a feeling things are heading in the right direction, and DCS with a Rift will become the standard.

 

I have made my decision regarding which system to opt for, all I need now is notification about when I will be getting it delivered.

[*Rage*]

Still on the fence about OR.....

[hannibal]

mine is coming in tomorrow! :)

[NeilWillis]

You lucky lucky B........

[Krupi]

mine is coming in tomorrow! :)

 

Looking forward to your comparison :thumbup: