How to Record Flights then Replay in VR?

With VR, unlike 2D cockpit, I can no longer share my flight experiences with friends that come to visit. They’ve heard me brag about how amazing MSFS is, especially in VR. But they cannot fly and so I’d like to record some flights, replay them with my visitor sitting in the pilots seat or as a passenger, just to experience the thrill of a complete flight.
Is there any descent software that can do this?

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I too am intrigued to hear about solutions to this question.

So far, the best I’ve come up with is to let the built-in MSFS “AI” fly the plane. Not exactly ideal because it’s usually a much calmer experience, may not work properly, or doesn’t fully replicate everything I’d like the guest to experience.

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That could be a solution. How do I go about setting up an AI flight this way? Thx!

Could you record your flight with Sky Dolly and just play it back with the VR headset on? I don’t recall Sky Dolly knowing or caring what you use as your display for playback, but I never thought of trying it, so maybe there’s some issue I’m not aware of?

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Sky Dolly works great for me. I start recording at the beginning of a flight, put on a VR headset, land, exit runway, remove the headset, turn on replay at a desired time position (usualy to watch my approach and landing), put on the headset, watch and enjoy. You can view from different camera positions - like a passenger seat in an airliners, etc. Works great with PMDG.

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Hi,

Apologies for the delay in replying.

To use the AI pilot, it’s best to configure a flight plan in the world map. I normally do it over a scenic location (e.g., Queenstown, New Zealand) with a departure and arrival airport close to one another.

Then just create custom way points as you desire for the flight plan, however, be sure to set an appropriate cruise altitude in the nav log section (whilst configuring the flight plan) that is above real world terrain heights and plan your departure and approach routes carefully, otherwise there’s a real risk the plane may fly into the ground. On occasion, you may need to get creative with the waypoints to avoid collisions with the terrain, but generally speaking I find using the Baron G58 with a cruise altitude of 2000m or 3500m sufficient.

Setting up a flight plan usually takes less than 5 minutes. It’s also a good idea to save the plan and test the experience yourself after creating it, just to make sure it all works as intended.

Then simply load the flight and hop into VR. Once sitting on the runway, press TAB and select Flight Assistant (3rd icon from the left I think). The icon is a person’s head wearing a captains hat. Then enable the following: AI auto-trim, AI anti stall, AI piloting.

As soon as you click AI piloting, the plane should begin to depart, follow the flight plan, and all going well it will reach the destination and land on it’s own.

If the guest wants to try some basic flying techniques after you reach sufficient altitude, just tick/un-tick the AI piloting mode, otherwise the guest wearing the VR headset can simply enjoy the view as a passenger. They can also fiddle with the garmin map device, open windows etc.

It’s an incredibly relaxing way to fly in VR sometimes because it truly feels like you are a passenger :slightly_smiling_face:

Cheers,

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Excellent! I’ve seen this flight assist option in-game, where the AI takes full control. I’ll definitely try this, thanks!

Sky Dolly sounds perfect! As long as it works in VR. I’ll definitely download it from FlightSim.to and try it out, thanks!

Tried both suggestions. The in-game flight assist was very unstable. When activated it goes immediately to the gps course, right from takeoff, so it steered off the runway in the direction of the direct gps lol! On approach it just continued over the field lol! I see therefore the entire flight must be planned from runway heading to approach, flight levels and landing runway etc… Too much work.
Sky Dolly is great! I did a test from Ottawa to Montreal, about 1/2hr in the Baron. At first, playback was terrible with the aircraft spinning out and crashing. I replayed it again and it was perfect (must have been loading). I sat in the back seat as a passenger in VR, and it was so realistic coming into Montreal. This is what I’ve been looking for! Thank you!! :pray: :+1:

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Hi there. I am a newbie VR MSFS 2020 simmer. I also fly model RC planes with FPV goggles. I am amazed with the 3D VR flight simulator experience and would love to share this with my fellow model RC plane enthusiasts. There’s so little information and YouTube videos on how to record and playback 3D flights. Can you please write up a guide on how to use Sky Dolly to record my flights and playback in 3 D on my VR Headset (Quest 3).

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From SkyDolly manual

Basic Usage
Start a flight
Click on “Record” (key R)
You may pause recording (key P)
Stop recording (key R) and click on “Play” (spacebar)
Adjust the replay speed and seek the play position, also during replay
Recorded flights are automatically persisted in the “logbook”
Select a flight in the logbook and press “Load” (or double-click the row) to load the persisted flight

You can just fly with LittleNavMap open. At the end of the flight, you export as GPX the flight track. You can then load that file in SkyDolly to have the whole replay ready.

@ stekusteku Thank you so much for your assistance. Your guide was useful. I did manage to record and replay my flights using the flight saved in Sky Dolly and profile in the logbook in MSFS 2020. I now have an easy way of sharing my VR flights with my friends.

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Thank you. Sounds like a good alternative.