Showing Off - VR General Simpit Rig (2022)

[Sielu]

I think I've finally gotten my rig to a place where I'm reasonably happy with it, and wanted to show off!  I come from a family of aviators, but myself never got past soloing.  The work + expense = payoff equation for IRL flying just never added up for me, but I never could sahke the 'itch' either.  Thus, I got into simming.  I've had a forever-project simpit for about the last 12 years or so, making incremental advancements to it every couple of years.  For the vast majority of that time I've focused on space, but made the leap to DCS about two years ago and haven't looked back.  While at this point I spend the majority of my time in DCS, I do enjoy a good general aviation romp every once in a while.

VR has been an absolute game changer, and I've been "investing" in headsets since the DK2.  One of the under-appreciated powers of VR--to me--is it's flexibility.  The ability to slide into any cockpit and be present is unmatched, and I wanted my physical rig to take advantage of that.  I also tend to be a bit fickle with my aircraft, and often find myself swapping between modules.  Thus, while I have massive admiration for the detailed replica cockpits on this forum and others, I can't justify building out so many physical buttons for a platform that I may get bored of in a month.

Wanting to up my immersion game even more, and with the onset of the pandemic, I decided to start going down the motion-rig rabbit hole, and was able to design and complete a compact motion G-seat in the style of Bergison's.  The whole build thread can be found over on Xsimulator if you want more info on that.

The next piece of the equation was getting really good, immersive cockpit interaction.  I love the elegance of the PointCTRL solution, but after sitting on the waitlist for more than a year I decided to take matters into my own... hands... and stumbled on the fingers app.  A relatively quick round of programming and prototyping my own finger buttons (affectionately named 'Roosterhands') and I was good to go!  

Finally, the OpenKneeboard project has been ported to OpenXR, which means my rig is now in it's final form!  Until next month when I figure out how I want to tweak it again... 

Without further ado, a cold start of the F16 with takeoff:

 

[Viper1970]

Very impressive built!!!

I like the universal idea behind your project and this G-seat and the self made PointCTRL are absolutely amazing!

I can't commit to a single module either, so I also preferred a universal solution. However, my construction will not be as technically perfect as you have implemented here. Really great job!

[Sielu]

Thanks Viper!  If I was as artful at modeling/printing/building as you I would be making a lot more physical interaction doodads.  Been following your build for a while, super impressive yourself!