Oculus Rift and DCS World Discussion

[metalnwood]

OK chaps, I managed to test it. It is truly awesome and immersive, but it is a serious handicap against trackIR equipped opponents considering the exercise you need to put on to follow your opponent in a dogfight or to check the airspace around you.

I can only imagine using it online on "Oculus Only" servers.

 

 

True but I wouldn't worry about it, sometimes you will get hit :)

 

It's been similar over the years with people with and without TIR. I knew a guy I played with online all the time with a bunch of us and I only realised years later that he played a lot out of the cockpit. I thought he was fantastic with the SA he had without a TIR and was much more deflated to find that he was constantly viewing outside the cockpit. It never occurred to me to every fly out of the cockpit.

 

The thing is I didn't really care about it too much because it would not be as fun for me if I flew as he was flying. That kind of flying isn't interesting to me so I was happy to get killed when I got killed and get the kills when I got them, as long as I was doing it how I wanted to.

 

I agree that a rift only server would be quite nice to even the playing field but as long as I am having fun either way....

[Kuky]

I don't understand why, if we are after realism, having to look over shoulder to see what is over your shoulder is a problem and not a desirable feature.

 

My thoughts also... why some people only think how they can win easier and not how they can win more realistic :pilotfly:I would love to be able to have full blown dome and have to turn my head to where I need to look, even Wags has said that with Oculus Rift the feeling for geometry in the fight is much better... why wouldn't you want that? I would take that over TrackIR any time.

[AurelTristen]

I would argue (as a user of DK2 in DCS) that the 1:1 ratio for the DK2 has more benefits than downsides. Honestly, if turning your head to look around is a problem, please don't drive a car.

 

Yes, it is tough to look directly behind me, but since my brain has been developing to associate muscle movement with the location of objects in the real world since I was 2, I find that I can mentally keep track of more targets, landmarks and locations when they correlate to a 1:1 position.

 

Sure, when you're using TrackIR (which I also love) you still can keep track of things with muscle memory because they require the same ammount of input to move back to, the fact that the movement isnt 1:1 seems to diminish how intuitive it is to move to them. Tracking with TrackIR is also somewhat finicky, so turning 10 degrees to the right and up might not always put my POV back in the same spot. With DK2, it is shockingly rock solid.

 

Personally, between a good triple monitor setup and TrackIR, or a CV1 of Oculus rift, I'd go with the rift if I wanted an edge. DK2 still suffers from being too low res to spot targets and effectively read instrumentation, but since Samsung just created a nice new 1440p screen that is the exact same size as the one in the DK2, I expect that won't be a problem much longer.

 

Here is a video I put together showing the F-15 in the rift. No comments on my piloting skill please, I was focusing on DK2 :)

${1}

(don't know how to make the imbed work)

 

I'll happily take requests to check various things out if anyone is interested, though I only have FC and A10c at the moment. And on that subject, I'm able to do a complete startup in the DK2 with the A-10c despite the resolution, so it isn't THAT bad.

Edited September 8, 2014 by AurelTristen

[aeliusg]

Well considering the low resolution already puts you at a major disadvantage in terms of actually seeing anything, Oculus only servers would be a necessity anyway. Looking over the shoulder isn't that much of a problem, but you'll have to keep up your IRL physical conditioning if you want to have any marathon turning battles. :P

 

Edit: Didn't see your post, as I was writing mine, AurelTristen. I have to agree with you, the sense of actually knowing where you're looking independent of any visual references is immensely satisfying with the Rift.

Edited September 8, 2014 by aeliusg

[CookPassBabtridge]

As with some others, I have been experiencing this strange cockpit stuttering whenever I rotate my head.

This is clearly different from frame-rate judder caused by setting things too high.

 

This "cockpit stuttering" disappears when positional tracking goes out of range, so I presume it has something to do with irregularities between head tracking and positional tracking.

 

Watching captured videos of DCS with DK2 show that this phenomenon is not universal, so I imagine that there are some workaround that can be done before official updates.

 

Are there anyone with solutions?

 

I just made a thread about this very thing :) I am only getting it with the Sabre - I start flying, there's no problems at all. Works for about 5 minutes, and then suddenly even with head perfectly centred, no leaning over or anything, the cockpit starts to 'jiggle'. I even checked my camera bounds in demoscene to make sure I wasn't disappearing out the top of the bounds.

 

To further make sure it wasn't my Rift or camera, I loaded up the Warthog. Behaved perfectly, so I am wondering if its only certain aircraft and somehow influenced by the model geometry?

 

I will try out some of the others to see (I recently binged in the sale lol)

[AurelTristen]

I've had this happen on the A-10 as well, though not very much. For me it happens somewhat randomly.

[CookPassBabtridge]

I've had this happen on the A-10 as well, though not very much. For me it happens somewhat randomly.

 

Hmm thats interesting. I was able to reliably repeat it with the Sabre (every time I flew it), which makes me think there is something deeper amiss there. Do you by any chance have the Sabre too? Even better, do you have a DK2? :)

[AurelTristen]

Hmm thats interesting. I was able to reliably repeat it with the Sabre (every time I flew it), which makes me think there is something deeper amiss there. Do you by any chance have the Sabre too? Even better, do you have a DK2? :)

I have this issue only when using the DK2. I do not have the Sabre though. With TrackIR, any stutter was normally caused by IR light leak, so I only had to run my arm behind my head to block it, and it was back on track.

 

With the DK2, it seems to be a deeper issue. I suspect software is to blame. And I'll bet it will go away once DCS World updates to use the new Oculus SDK.

[Bunyap]

I managed to fly pretty successfully this weekend although what I managed to record could have gone better. I think a lot of my complaints about the resolution are starting to go away as my mind adjusts to being able to see the pixels. Don't get me wrong, it is still not enough resolution, but I had a good time none the less.

 

Has anybody been able to successfully zoom the view in? I think a toggleable "binocular view" would do wonders but can't make anything work.

 

DCS: A-10C Warthog Oculus Rift Mission - Defend Camp Yankee Playlist

 

 

 

Of course, here is the Oculus Rift "Quick Look" video from a while back:

 

[rcmodels]

Was all geared up to watch it on my oculus... but nooo, someone had to post it for the muggles :p

[zahry]

http://sensics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dSight-spec-Mar-14.pdf - real full HD - 3640 x 1080 (1920x1080 per eye and no pre-stretch), good 9 sensor positional tracking, good quality optics instead of cheap plastic, augmented reality, good FoV (+/-75º from center as opposed to +/-43º on Oculus) and eye tracking for depth of field.

[metalnwood]

I am all for other companies coming out with competing products. While oculus isn't the first they have no doubt been the ones to give VR a shot in the arm and other companies, as long as they have good products will no doubt benefit from what oculus is doing. The exposure they are getting is enormous.

 

Oculus may play at many levels with top of the line stuff or they may only stay at relatively mid level consumer. I am not fussed as long as what I see with my rift keeps going forward and getting better!

[CookPassBabtridge]

I am finding I really need a zoom function as a noob. I just dropped some cash in the sale, and have new planes to play with, and whilst the Oculus does a pretty good job letting you lean in and see gauges, some of the tinier fonts on side panels can be hard to make out, not to mention sometimes being right at the bounds of headtracking. Its weird when you get that feeling of the cockpit 'sticking to your face' as you move your head back to position!

 

So a zoom ability that lets you look in the general direction of a gauge or switch to actually see what it is would be great. I know I could learn the aircraft on a normal monitor then jump back in, but once you've played DCS in the rift its tough to go back to flat world :)

[Python]

I managed to fly pretty successfully this weekend

 

Love your videos, thank you for the effort..

[whartsell]

http://sensics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dSight-spec-Mar-14.pdf - real full HD - 3640 x 1080 (1920x1080 per eye and no pre-stretch), good 9 sensor positional tracking, good quality optics instead of cheap plastic, augmented reality, good FoV (+/-75º from center as opposed to +/-43º on Oculus) and eye tracking for depth of field.

 

I guarantee for the price of this unit you could outfit yourself and at least your wingman with rifts and possibly your whole 4 ship as well

[rajdary]

Thanks Bunyap, that was an excellent video, really informative for guys like me who are very intrested in buying the Occulus Rift!

[AurelTristen]

http://sensics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/dSight-spec-Mar-14.pdf - real full HD - 3640 x 1080 (1920x1080 per eye and no pre-stretch), good 9 sensor positional tracking, good quality optics instead of cheap plastic, augmented reality, good FoV (+/-75º from center as opposed to +/-43º on Oculus) and eye tracking for depth of field.

Companies have been making big promises for all of time. The difference is, Oculus is real, and it is here right now. Every thread about OR has one of those guys bashing it and promoting something else (not saying that is exactly you, but close) and every time my response is the same. The best VR system in the world is the one that actually exists.

 

When one of these other headsets manages to jump into my hands for $300, I'll sure as hell give it a second thought. Until then, it is vaporware.

[Mnemonic]

Sensics makes professional VR HMDs for decades. These devices aren't cheap, in fact they are very expensive, but they are also high grade and use expensive components.

They are far from vaporware, this is industrial grade tech, not a consumer device.

It's like saying that giant Caterpillar trucks are vaporware, because they cost few millions, and you can buy small van for few thousands bucks.

Edited September 9, 2014 by Mnemonic

[Vullcan]

What are the steps you have to take to get this working with the 4.0.2 sdk? Are cockpit buttons only clickable when the rift is set to the primary display? I hate using it as a primary display as its impossible to see your desktop / menus in the game.

[Mnemonic]

I hate using it as a primary display as its impossible to see your desktop / menus in the game.

 

You can switch in-game menu to windowed mode, so game will be full-screen and menu will be windowed, and then drag menu on a separate screen to work with it.

 

Here is a part from awesome guide from PeterP:

 

Navigate to ...\Eagle Dynamics\DCS World\MissionEditor

and open the MissionEditor.lua with a proper editor (Notepad++)

 

Make a backup of this file before you change it!!!!!!

 

Than go to line #250

 

and change it from this:

Quote:

local function getScreenParams()

local width = panel_options.vdata.graphics.width.__value__

local height = panel_options.vdata.graphics.height.__value__

local fullscreen = panel_options.vdata.graphics.fullScreen.__value__]

to this:

Quote:

local function getScreenParams()

local width = 1024 -- panel_options.vdata.graphics.width.__value__

local height = 768 -- panel_options.vdata.graphics.height.__value__

local fullscreen = false -- panel_options.vdata.graphics.fullScreen.__value__

1024x768 is an example - You can put in your wished resolution for the windowed GUI.

 

 

Now every-time you start DCS-World the GUI will be windowed in the resolution you have set. But the Simulation will start as set in the options-menu .

 

Taken from the full guide dedicated to multi-monitor setups:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=84266&highlight=black+shark+triple+monitor

[CookPassBabtridge]

There's a chap over on the oculus forums who is quite insistent that if you set to window mode AND you have a 60Hz monitor, that you throttle the DK2 to 60Hz, so you may want to be aware of that as you could get more judder this way.

 

If you have a 75Hz main monitor, you are apparently OK. Don't know myself, I have a 75Hz monitor and a fairly mid range computer so I get a sh*t ton of judder anyway.

[SkateZilla]

most decent brand gaming monitors can be overclocked to 75hz

[metalnwood]

What are the steps you have to take to get this working with the 4.0.2 sdk? Are cockpit buttons only clickable when the rift is set to the primary display? I hate using it as a primary display as its impossible to see your desktop / menus in the game.

 

I got to the oculus config util and pause the service. I set to extended mode.

 

In dcs I select ' auto detect oculus rift' and set the display config to 'stereo'.

 

Thats it, the menus work on primary display but when I load up the game it goes on to the rift.

[zahry]

I am all for other companies coming out with competing products. While oculus isn't the first they have no doubt been the ones to give VR a shot in the arm and other companies, as long as they have good products will no doubt benefit from what oculus is doing. The exposure they are getting is enormous.

 

Oculus may play at many levels with top of the line stuff or they may only stay at relatively mid level consumer. I am not fussed as long as what I see with my rift keeps going forward and getting better!

 

LOL - This company is making HMDs for more than a decade and this set is on market for a few years :-D . There is so many other companies making better equipment than oculus for much longer - it's a shame all the "experts" on VR never head of it until very recently (no hard feelings ;-) You can either have good functioning HMD and it will cost or you can have a low grade broken toy that is cheap. That's the fact. The good news is there are HMDs which are actually delivering good results and delivering fully functioning product - these guys are actually pushing the field forward. All oculus is doing is limping far behind with lot of noise. The real HMDs are far ahead of oculus.

Edited September 10, 2014 by zahry

[Kaiza]

Anyone care to comment on AAR with the rift? Is it easier with an increased sense of depth perception and closure?