I’ve heard this statement many many times. I went back. Purchased a 65” LG C1, went back to track IR and setup some air manager touch screens. Much better.
Why?
Because, although VR gives you the feeling of “being in the screen(yes the screen, it doesn’t feel like real life)”, and yes the immersion is good, the rest of it is mediocre. Sweaty face, out of touch from reality, reaching for controls, messing about and fumbling around to read charts (even with the navigraph toolbar). And then the resolution, man, I felt like I had forgotten to wear my glasses each and every time! This was with a 3090 running a G2 at 100 render scale and 100 open XR. It’s just not there. Don’t even get me started on the poor FPS.
Sure, VR immersion is good. Do I think it’s the future? Not in its current guise. VR glasses and yes, maybe! But those sweaty headsets? No.
So, once you go VR you never go back? Not so likely!
I too, have the Reverb G2… but honestly, I haven’t put it on in months. Too busy learning the avionics that I can’t seem to comfortably access while in VR. Maybe as a passenger, but as a pilot, I agree… it’s not there yet.
Well I was exactly on the same place as you until I made this for HP G2.
Now I can do unlimited time with no sweat. I only do out of VR when preparing my flight and taxi. just before takeoff I switch to VR. To the point that I am now unable to correctly pilot the plane in 2D looking at a flat display. I have no feeling of speed and direction and where I am in space! In VR I can pilot VFR Takeoff and landing. In cruise it is less critical and you can switch back to 2D but since It is comfortable and beautiful, I don’t need to…
Track IR for me……I like having a pad and a pen near me, to write down ATC, VATSIM, instructions etc…Air Manager on screen 2, Little Nav Map on screen 3….thought about VR….tried a mates, great for about 5 minutes……I think it still has a long way to go….but can understand that others enjoy it….each to ones own…
I thought that’s the main difference between the flight simmer and the flight gamer if someone using a VR headset or not. For me even I’m not a hardcore flight simmer but I still never thought of buying or using a VR Headset at this moment because that makes me feel more comfortable and more confidence while flying any aircrafts.
I’m in the exact same situation. Even tho the game looks a lot better in 2D I just can’t get rid of VR because I don’t have any feeling in 2D anymore. I feel like I’m trapped in a box and looking around and feeling the speed became quite a nightmare. There’s is no way I can land my plane the way I do it in VR.
I had never experienced any VR before, and while I was building this system just for the pending release of MSFS (I was ahead of the Corona-Virus-lockdown-work-from-home wave) the G2 had been announced so I bought one on day one of its release. It’s impressive and I’m sure I’m not running optimally in MSFS with it, but I’ve just been concentrating on relearning the things I learned back in ground school as a teenager.
I find myself wrapped up in IFR, Flight Planning, ILS, and other technical things that don’t really require the immersion that VR brings. Instead I have three screens laid out with tons of stuff. I’m sure once I get adept with these things, I’ll be able to put the headset back on and just sight see. Admittedly the G2 with Google Earth is quite an beautiful experience in itself.
Hardware controls that are in the correct location and give a tactile feedback are just non-existent in VR. Once that get’s solved with some sort of a force-feedback exo-skeleton strapped around the extremities, then VR becomes viable.
In my opinion, VR is certainly great for the experience of immersion, but to “work” as we as simulator lovers want to in a cockpit, I cannot see myself giving up on a hardware cockpit / controls around me.
I am certainly looking forward to proper multi-monitor support. That way, I can wrap monitors around me. And 3D in the outside views doesn’t really matter anyway.
Hi, I agree to some point. I have a HTC Vive pro and I use it for sightseeing flights with small planes like the extra 300. I can’t imagine using VR for flights longer than 1-2 hours. because as you said → heat of the device, resolution of instruments and charts also you can’t switch to a browser or desktop. so long flights with autopilot are quite boring.
but for the sightseeing and crazy stuff, flighing very low in manhatten and doing some barralrolls and loopings it is very cool.
Went VR in 2016 for cockpit based simulators, never looked back. Started MSFS in pancake mode obviously but a soon a VR support hit then I’ve used that exclusively, nothing beats the immersion of "being in the plane"for me.
I have plenty of fans to keep my head cool, muscle memory for buttons and controllers is a doddle and I simply cannot use pancake mode anymore, simple a that.
For me personally, while flatscreen has undeniable advantages, it just doesn’t engage me in the same way VR does… I have no interest in playing sims in 2D anymore.
I can definitely see why someone who likes to fly airliners IFR for hours would prefer to stick with flatscreens for now, but personally that’s not what I use the sim for anyway.
For myself, VR and the motion rig are unbeatable… VR is only going to get better over the next few years too so I can’t see myself ever going back.
I’ve tried VR twice. Once with the rift S and then I bought into the hype of the G2. Both times I sold the unit in less than a month. It’s just not for me. The discomfort of having the bright screen so close to your eyes, the heat, the weight, and I honestly don’t like the feeling of losing touch with reality
Opposite! I have pain to fly short parts in my flights in 2D for making screenshots because, aehm, its so flat.
I will never go back.
VR is a very young child and far from being perfect but it will grow up quickly. We will see soon better, lighter, more comfortable headsets and with the next gen gpu we will have some more power to drive them.
For me it is the best thing since doom in 1995 and I am shure it is the one and only future.
I only play VR (HL Alyx was awesome). The last game I played in 2D was Tomb Rider on the XBox. MS had announced VR for the XBox, but never came. So my next console will definitely be a PS5 as soon as the PSVR2 comes out. And as for flight simulators … just VR. Preparation in 2D from taxi only in VR, regardless of whether small or large aircraft.
Once I lost my PPL due to atrial fibrillation in 2011, I started flying rc models, and quickly started using FPV gear to fly through a video camera on the model and using video goggles for the TV signal. It was not VR entirely, but it was way more fun than flying models line of sight.
So, for me in a sim VR is kinda familiar, but with 3D and even better headtracking, it’s as close as I can get to solo flying. Gliders in particular are very enjoyable for me in VR as they are in FPV rc models.
So I use both modes in MSFS. Sometimes I prefer the more vibrant colours and detail in 2D for sightseeing with Track IR, or with the interaction using the Alpha Yoke and Bravo throttle quadrant in tubeliners. Other times I prefer the greater immersion and “being there” of VR. Certainly my manual flying is more familiar in VR and I can really nail landing challenges and the like.
My personal preference is VR. Just like @Blacknet, I prepare ‘outside’ before the flight and then ‘fly’ from startup to shutdown in VR, and entirely from the cockpit view (using the external view in VR is strange and unsettling…)
Using the G2 in MSFS was my first venture into VR and it is the only time in decades of flight sim that I’ve ever had the same sense of spatial awareness flying circuits and approaches as I experienced flying for real. I have a NLR ‘cockpit’ with controllers for primary flight controls in approximately the right places, use the mouse for everything else and don’t touch the keyboard at all. That said, I do fly VFR primarily, and keep flights to about an hour / hour and a half.
Like most things, there’s no right or wrong. VR requires compromise in terms of quality, comfort and accessibility to other functions, so it really depends what, where or how you like to fly. it’s again just a matter of personal preference.
My favourite part is the “out of touch from reality” in a VR headset. It´s like saying “I don´t like planes cause they fly”.
I must be an alien but I can read my gauges in VR without a problem (sure it´s not 4K), work with my charts with navigraph toolbar perfectly and so on… and every day I find more and more inexplicable that someone prefers a 2D screen (even 50 of them around you) and pretend they are flying a TV, with the reality of your desk, your pictures on the wall and your cat…