So I've been thinking about coming back

[shu77]

9 years ago as it turns out I used to be fairly active around here, I did a bunch of stuff with the A-10C , wrtoe some Airfield maps played with a bunch of output apps and then married life and a pilots licence got in the way. I used to find the A-10C mucked up my glide scope. Covid has me thinking about coming back, so I am wondering in 2020:

-I dont seem to be able to get a Oculus Rift S but I can get a HP reverb Pro, is that a decent VR headset?

-what spec PC do I need, the laptop has a 1660TI, not sure if it will runt the warthog and other peripherals, so trying to decide between an i7or i9 and a 2060 or 2070?

-is it worth getting a second set of cougars for the Hornet?

-Is the F-18C Warthog stick upgrade worth it?

- Anyone know what happened to the 77th?

Anyway hoping theres someone aroudn that still remembers me.

[dburne]

Reverb gets a lot of kudos in the resolution department.

However also it can apparently be finnicky in getting all set up and dialed in. You can have a look at the big Reverb thread and see. Those that get them dialed in absolutely love them.

 

Rift S is a great device, and virtually plug and play. I have been using mine since it was released last May on a daily basis. Audio strap is crap though, I use earbuds plugged into the headset headphone jack. They are hard to get currently due to supply/demand, I would suggest anyone interested keep a check on the Oculus store, they get them but they go fast. They seem to get stock in on Tuesday's.

I also really like the Rift because I play other VR games, and the Touch Controllers are fantastic for that.

 

Running VR you will want to get as stout a system as you reasonably can. You can see my specs in my sig. I would recommend at least an 9700k with an AIO cooler for overclocking. And an RTX 2070 or better vid card.

[shu77]

Thanks for the reply, my big concern with the Rift S was availability, can you happily read the MFD's without having to slouch in? As you can see my original rig is agbout 1/5th the capacity of yours so I think an upgrade is in need.

[Baldrick33]

I agree with dburne, the Reverb can be finicky but IMHO will give you the clearest display of MFDs etc. than anything else. I have one and have tried several other headsets though not the Rift S. The latter seems simpler to set up but this is DCS so I am prepared to put the effort in just as with everything else with it.

 

VR in DCS pushes the PC to its limits so the fastest CPU and best GPU you can the better!

 

Cougar MFDs in VR can be fiddly, I ended up mapping each button as a mouse button so I didn't have to try and find individual ones in a rush and simply look at the button in VR and press an MFD button. The alternative is to add little velcro strips to help find them. I wouldn't recommend buying more until you find out how it works for you.

 

I got into DCS last summer after getting the Reverb. I had dabbled with it for a few years with older headsets (CV1, Odyssey+, Pimax 5k+) but it wasn't until I got the Reverb that I had the wow moment and have got the bug ever since! I still find it an incredible experience every time I start it up.

[shu77]

Im going to give the laptop a try which has a 1660Ti 6GB and i7-9750H Hexa Core as a next step. in 2010 I had the cougars on a second screen and hawg touch an external UI on a second PC. I still have the warthog and pedals and Cougars in the cupboard, I liked the tactile element of it, but the idea of VR seems a lot better long term. if you are happy the Reverb provides usable screens I did spend a lot of time playing with the set up back in tthe day. i always wanted to ffly the F/A-18C which we operate locally, but ended up on the Warthog just because it was what was available back in 2010.

[Fri13]

-I dont seem to be able to get a Oculus Rift S but I can get a HP reverb Pro, is that a decent VR headset?

 

By the specs the Reverb is better, but visually not so much but you get wider field of view than Rift S. The Rift S is excellent to start, but as well for the easy of use for no hassle setups etc. And Rift S allows using Touch Controllers inside cockpit.

I can read almost all cockpits very fine with Rift S (not such case with CV1) except now just F-16C tiny MFCD's. But slight leaning forward and it is possible. Hornet has no problems, Harrier no problems, JF-17 no problems etc. The Rift S really changed things when it went to RGB screenlayout and it increased dramatically the readability, https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3878124&postcount=1

 

-what spec PC do I need, the laptop has a 1660TI, not sure if it will runt the warthog and other peripherals, so trying to decide between an i7or i9 and a 2060 or 2070?

 

All you can invest is value for better. But it is not so simple really.

Rift S requires less from hardware than others because it is by specs less demanding. So your 1660Ti should be OK to start with. But as hunger grows while eating, you easily might end up wanting more and more...

But your laptop RAM can be limiting factor, minimum 16 GB would be good.

And laptops main problem for gaming is their thermal control, as when they start to heat up, they start throttling the GPU/CPU and your performance suffers when clockspeeds etc drop suddenly.

At this moment it is difficult to recommend hardware as Eagle Dynamics is implementing Vulcan technology, it is unknown when it is available and how much benefits it would deliver. So it is just speculations and coin tossing about the future hardware requirements.

 

The VR is really a hog for resources, and DCS will take everything you can throw at it. Why some people are waiting miracles from Vulcan and especially ED core working with new graphics engine, new terrain engine and new AI for ground units etc. So lots of things will change in coming years, far more than what has changed since you left....

 

-is it worth getting a second set of cougars for the Hornet?

 

No. If you have Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS, you are good to go, and if you are wearing VR, you can't do anything with them. So you want to get Touch Controllers or at least bind mouse to joystick and use VR as your mouse pointer so you look buttons and press HOTAS to manipulate them.

 

-Is the F-18C Warthog stick upgrade worth it?

 

No. You only get less features and functions for the joystick than what Warthog offers. But you will get authentic feel and its limited functions. You have same possibilities in Warthog grip, but just extra hats and buttons that you would need to ignore if not used.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Fri13

[shu77]

Thanks man, Laptop is downloading DCS World, will run up the modules Ive been buying on sale since 2010 when it finishes and see what I can plug in,The full spec on the laptop is

Intel Core i7-9750H Hexa Core (12M Cache up to 4.50 GHz)

NVIDIA GTX 1660Ti 6GB GDDR6

15.6" FHD IPS Edge-to-Edge Matte 144Hz LED

16GB DDR4 2666MHZ (2 x 8GB)

P1 1TB M.2 PCIe SSD

Intel AX200 Dual Band WIFI/BT

Windows 10 Home 64 Bit

 

I mainly speced it for video editing but thinking it might be a good lead in to a new gaming rig. If I could get an Oculus Rift S I think I would, but given the lack of any lead time on them I am leaning toward the reverb as I know I can at least get it through the work suppliers