First VR Flight Ever Via Rift S!!! AMAZING. Some questions too...

[Cavemanhead]

4770K, 1080TI, 16GB RAM, SSD, Win10 (latest drivers, etc...)

 

Ok, another one of these "first VR flight" reports...

 

I started simulating back on the first MS simulator ~1984... Almost impossible or me to believe it's been 38 years since I was a 7th grader!

 

Like many others, I'll say the obligatory "I never thought I'd see the day". I'm an engineer so I really appreciate the technology aside from the amazing immersion. What a great technical achievement. VR is perfectly suited for flight simulation. I wish someone from the HR community figures this out and drives their design with this priority (and not waste resources on full body room scale technical issues).

 

The setup went "ok"... Seems like there were more hoops to jump through than expected, but eventually got things going. VR-induced nausea is certainly real but I suppose a first flight at 2:30 am didn't help the situation. Seems perfectly manageable though as I was able to fly basically 1 hr on my first flight - the excitement helped me force my way through the sweats and impending puke for most of the flight but... I may be bringing a bucket along for the ride next time just in case :)

 

Wow!!! Just wow!!! The feeling of being there is crazy real. The feeling of flight is simply beyond what I could imagine. Especially noteworthy was the feeling of flight... I could just "feel" the plane floating through the air turbulence as it yawed and tossed like you can feel especially in RL (especially in a light plane). My brain was producing gs from what I was seeing. The sense of speed is really improved. Flying over Vegas just made me "think" I was buzzing houses. It just felt like I was there... For whatever reason, the clouds looked so much better too - maybe again because of the illusion of flight and depth of the world... they just provided that certain je ne sais quoithat made me think I was there. They "belonged" in the world and added a depth to the whole 3D space that felt "right" - this was not expected. The ability to look around just like in a real cockpit really does a great job at fooling one's mind into thinking you are there... Wow again.

 

And the cockpits... Did F-14, F-16, and ME-109 (didn't have a chance to try the others). These 3 looked fantastic. The whole thing was more 3D than I imagined. I felt like I could reach out and "touch" things. I can't wait for the ability to activate the switches/dials with my fingers in 3D Virtual space. That will take it to the next level. Again, the sense of scale is so fascinating. The planes just looked like they should and you just get a great sense of being there because of that. The F-14 felt so much larger than the cramped 109. Amazing.

 

Some things I noticed that I hope some non-VR virgins can help me with to optimize the experience:

 

1) I want the ability to make the "pass through" feature work at any time to grab the stick, etc. and/or relieve my mind for a bit to alleviate nausea. Do most folks map a key on their HOTAS to do this? It seems like it was only a function that can be activated by the hand controllers (which I don't use anyway)...

 

2) I started at at PD of 1.4 and left it there. I'd like to set it higher but my understanding is that anything above 1.6 doesn't really do anything anyway in terms of IQ and just slows the frame rate. Law of diminishing returns sort of thing... Can someone comment on this?

 

3) Scaling... The relative size of the planes felt good but absolute size could be better. I saw a "scale" sort of menu choice in the Oculus software. Is this were I scale things or is there a scale setting somewhere in DCS to do this? In general, all the planes felt a bit too small.

 

4) Semi-related to #3: View positioning... The default view out the cockpit felt like I was sitting too high in the cockpit. I was able to fake this out a bit by re-centering after putting my head up high and looking straight up. Is this a LUA file setting or something? I want to get the scale and positioning inside the cockpit as natural and real as possible but need to know the best place to start poking/prodding the settings to do so.

 

4) Frame rate optimization... It seems like the FPS were fine but I noticed a lot of "hiccuping" halts/jerks very intermittently... This may be just a TSR hanging out in the background (Win10 Firewall perhaps?). OR... more likely maybe the frames are dropping through a critical FPS (45??) and I'm seeing some weirdness that AWS can cure. I'm not really sure what AWS is or how to activate it (Oculus SW or DCS settings) but I know it's used to help frame rates. Again, I was not seeing a constant frame issue - the animation seems very smooth (looks like 80+ fps) when it wasn't halting and bucking... Exact same machine in Win 7 (dual boot) is always glass smooth when flying via a monitor, so I suspect something directly related to VR or my Win10 setup.

 

5) Focusing the HMD... Aside from adjusting the IPD, and moving HMD in/out or up/down, are there any other optimizations that can be done? The sweet spot does seem pretty small. My IPD is on the low end of the scale.

 

6) Oculus SW... Does it need to be running in the background while playing?

 

The dawn of a new age of flight simulation has begun. Totally stoked to share the experience with other everyone and I look forward to tweaking based on feedback from others. Thanks in advance!

[Ala12Rv-Tundra]

4770K, 1080TI, 16GB RAM, SSD, Win10 (latest drivers, etc...)

 

Ok, another one of these "first VR flight" reports...

 

I started simulating back on the first MS simulator ~1984... Almost impossible or me to believe it's been 38 years since I was a 7th grader!

 

Like many others, I'll say the obligatory "I never thought I'd see the day". I'm an engineer so I really appreciate the technology aside from the amazing immersion. What a great technical achievement. VR is perfectly suited for flight simulation. I wish someone from the HR community figures this out and drives their design with this priority (and not waste resources on full body room scale technical issues).

 

The setup went "ok"... Seems like there were more hoops to jump through than expected, but eventually got things going. VR-induced nausea is certainly real but I suppose a first flight at 2:30 am didn't help the situation. Seems perfectly manageable though as I was able to fly basically 1 hr on my first flight - the excitement helped me force my way through the sweats and impending puke for most of the flight but... I may be bringing a bucket along for the ride next time just in case :)

 

Wow!!! Just wow!!! The feeling of being there is crazy real. The feeling of flight is simply beyond what I could imagine. Especially noteworthy was the feeling of flight... I could just "feel" the plane floating through the air turbulence as it yawed and tossed like you can feel especially in RL (especially in a light plane). My brain was producing gs from what I was seeing. The sense of speed is really improved. Flying over Vegas just made me "think" I was buzzing houses. It just felt like I was there... For whatever reason, the clouds looked so much better too - maybe again because of the illusion of flight and depth of the world... they just provided that certain je ne sais quoithat made me think I was there. They "belonged" in the world and added a depth to the whole 3D space that felt "right" - this was not expected. The ability to look around just like in a real cockpit really does a great job at fooling one's mind into thinking you are there... Wow again.

 

And the cockpits... Did F-14, F-16, and ME-109 (didn't have a chance to try the others). These 3 looked fantastic. The whole thing was more 3D than I imagined. I felt like I could reach out and "touch" things. I can't wait for the ability to activate the switches/dials with my fingers in 3D Virtual space. That will take it to the next level. Again, the sense of scale is so fascinating. The planes just looked like they should and you just get a great sense of being there because of that. The F-14 felt so much larger than the cramped 109. Amazing.

 

Some things I noticed that I hope some non-VR virgins can help me with to optimize the experience:

 

1) I want the ability to make the "pass through" feature work at any time to grab the stick, etc. and/or relieve my mind for a bit to alleviate nausea. Do most folks map a key on their HOTAS to do this? It seems like it was only a function that can be activated by the hand controllers (which I don't use anyway)...

 

2) I started at at PD of 1.4 and left it there. I'd like to set it higher but my understanding is that anything above 1.6 doesn't really do anything anyway in terms of IQ and just slows the frame rate. Law of diminishing returns sort of thing... Can someone comment on this?

 

3) Scaling... The relative size of the planes felt good but absolute size could be better. I saw a "scale" sort of menu choice in the Oculus software. Is this were I scale things or is there a scale setting somewhere in DCS to do this? In general, all the planes felt a bit too small.

 

4) Semi-related to #3: View positioning... The default view out the cockpit felt like I was sitting too high in the cockpit. I was able to fake this out a bit by re-centering after putting my head up high and looking straight up. Is this a LUA file setting or something? I want to get the scale and positioning inside the cockpit as natural and real as possible but need to know the best place to start poking/prodding the settings to do so.

 

4) Frame rate optimization... It seems like the FPS were fine but I noticed a lot of "hiccuping" halts/jerks very intermittently... This may be just a TSR hanging out in the background (Win10 Firewall perhaps?). OR... more likely maybe the frames are dropping through a critical FPS (45??) and I'm seeing some weirdness that AWS can cure. I'm not really sure what AWS is or how to activate it (Oculus SW or DCS settings) but I know it's used to help frame rates. Again, I was not seeing a constant frame issue - the animation seems very smooth (looks like 80+ fps) when it wasn't halting and bucking... Exact same machine in Win 7 (dual boot) is always glass smooth when flying via a monitor, so I suspect something directly related to VR or my Win10 setup.

 

5) Focusing the HMD... Aside from adjusting the IPD, and moving HMD in/out or up/down, are there any other optimizations that can be done? The sweet spot does seem pretty small. My IPD is on the low end of the scale.

 

6) Oculus SW... Does it need to be running in the background while playing?

 

The dawn of a new age of flight simulation has begun. Totally stoked to share the experience with other everyone and I look forward to tweaking based on feedback from others. Thanks in advance!

 

 

Congrats, I guess it´s going to be an epic weekend at your home ;)

 

1) no idea if "passthrough" feature works with DCS

2) ideal settings just comes with testing your particular computer. Most missions will be heavy impact on fps at taxi. MP takes a toll, too, and your system CPU may be a bit old. 32 Gb RAM would definitely help for Tomcat and MP missions.

3) There is an option within DCS called "IPD", which has nothing to do with your eyes settings. It´s in the Special VR settings of DCS. It´s sort of "World scale". Try different values, but I guess the common numbers are around 45-55.

4) Move your seat with

RCtrl + RShift + NumPad "*", "/", "8", "2", "4" and "6". I find default position is too far from the frontal panel.

4) no idea

5) no idea

6) yes, always start Oculus Home, then Oculus Tray Tool, then DCS. Keep everything open.

 

Happy flying sir, your days of just staring at a flat panel while pretending you are flying, are gone.

[Lange_666]

4: Use the OTT (Oculus Tray Tool) to control ASW (you can either use it global or through a profile per game). Settings are Auto (works comparable to Adaptive VSync), 45 (which translates to 40 on Rift-S) or OFF.

 

I set mine to 45 fix (we have +/- the same system).

 

ASW: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/asynchronous-spacewarp/

[Bob_Bushman]

Unfortunately, the Passthrough feature is only activated by pressing the touch controllers dash button, it works of course, like with any feature, since this is a core function of the oculus software, like dash view.

There is already a suggestion which has barely seen any traction whatsoever :(

 

https://oculus.uservoice.com/forums/918556-oculus-rift-s-and-rift/suggestions/37732891-enable-a-keybind-for-passthrough

 

But I also wouldn't consider it much of an anti-nausea feature, the image is far to blurry, far to wobbly.

Especially things close to yourself, like your hands have a lot of swimming, and the frame rate is very low, and all these things would more than not induce more nausea.

 

That said, it has it's uses, but I would be vary if you are prone to a little nausea.

Personally I have the oculus software set to disable home (this is a feature in dash itself now, don't need to install homeless) and passthrough on when dash is enabled, so I press my dash button once, and I get a passthrough with 200" large virtual desktop view.

 

Welcome to VR, I personally probably wouldn't be simming without it :D

Edited December 28, 2019 by Bob_Bushman

[Fri13]

Passthrough+ can be set to activate when HMD goes through guardian wall. And you can draw that so it is just front of your face, then set triggering to zero range and disable guardian grid from being visible. Now you get so when your head moves slightly forward, you get passthrough+.