VR immersion in FS2020 is amazing, yes there are some issues with VR scale, the frames could be better a bit, but it was already a jaw dropping experience for me. I always wanted to be a pilot, but life turned differently. What I experienced so far in VR, is indescribable immersion and I can now never play this game on the monitor in 3rd person view, looking at my plane’s tail, or even in the cockpit, after the Reverb G2 experience flying a plane in a first person, in the cockpit. As someone said, the real simmers should try this as soon as they get a chance. And I strongly recommend not just VR, but a good chair with a frame to connect the yoke flight system along with pedals. it is magical to have a complete immersion with all the toys combined.
I finally had a chance to play for a few hours and just finished my training exercises on Cessna and sure, I still need to learn a lot more to even try to land a real Cessna, but the first steps are made and I feel pretty confident in the air. The attitude, the instruments, the plane handling, the sounds of rushing wind, grumbling plane under the forces of downforce, etc, etc… What an immersion. The graphics of course will be much better on 4K monitor, or even 65" 4K big screen TV, but again, even playing at 80 RS OpenXR and 80 in game Super Sampling is close enough experience to real life to recognize something extraordinary. I may never fly a real plane (almost 48 and no real prospects to buy a plane), but FS2020 with a complete VR immersion (chair, yoke system, pedals) is something that brought me so much closer to fulfilling my childhood dream. And that is a feeling just from the training exercises. I can only imagine, what I’ll feel, after I fly to see the world.
It only took 30 years. Thank you ‘Asobo’. Here is to a few hundred more hours of enjoying FS2020. You got yourself a customer.
I agree, a really immersive experience knowing that you have the whole world to explore. I would also recommend adding bass shakers to the seat/rig. Relatively cheap and adds a lot to the immersion!
Thanks for advise. Maybe I’ll do something like this: https://blog.codinghorror.com/my-racing-simulation-rig/. I have the same chair and it seems that it doesn’t require too much effort. If you have experience with bass shakers, please let me know, if this setup would work ok, considering that I use G2 Reverb and not speakers.
Yes this will work. As long as there are mechanical connection between the shaker and your body the placement is not very important. I have one shaker under the pedals as well as the seat and my X56 throttle and Joystick is mechanically connected to the seat. I use a regular audio amp, separate audio board in the pc and voicemeeter sw to control the audio levels, mixing and EQ to remove high frequencies on the bass shaker output. Using 2. Voicemeeter input as the windows communications device you can select this to NOT go to the shaker output. This way you dont feel the rumble in your ■■■ when ATC is speaking. I have the plane audio on speakers and ATC on either rift headset or other headset. As in real life! Do it - you wont regret it!
I have three Saitek panels… a Saitek autopilot unit and 43” TV’s
they have all become obsolete since getting my Reverb G2 and Asobo adding VR to MSFS.
I don’t think I could ever go back to looking at a flat, 2d screen (or 3 of them!)
I also have a vibrating seatpad. I ordered it online about 20 years ago. Some of the motors don’t run as well as they used to, but the thing still vibrates pretty well & adds to the immersion.
By the way… if anyone hasn’t been to Lukla airport then I recommend it. I went there last night (in VR of course) absolutely stunning details!
p.s. sometimes we take for granted for what the technologies bring to our lives nowadays, it’s amazing to think about what just happened over the last 10+ years, let alone to compare today with even an earlier time
Yup - the absolute bizznuss! I did get to fly a few times in an RAF Chipmunk (3x 25 minute lessons in the logbook) and physics aside, nothing else comes close to the feeling of looking out of a real cockpit like FS2020 in VR.
I also lived in Cyprus for 3 years (Dad was RAF at Akrotiri) and flying over Crete just sends me back 50 years!
I can echo everything you said in your post, both about this sim and the dream of flying. But don’t count yourself out yet as far as flying a real plane goes. At 48 I would have never envisioned myself having a chance to fly for real, but now at 53 my situation has changed just enough to make it plausible. This summer I’m planning on taking some lessons. Whether or not I see it through to a PPL, I’m going to fulfill my dream of climbing in a real cockpit and flying. I intend to make it to soloing and decide from there how far I want to take it.
Look into taking a Discovery Flight. It’s surprisingly affordable, and my understanding is that if you get the right CFI and go in with some basic knowledge you get to do quite a lot just in that first lesson.
And I want to take a second to follow your lead and thank Asobo & Microsoft for an amazing experience!
Yes, the same goes for me too. I am 48 years old and have been using the flight simulator since the first hour (1982). Back then with black and white graphics and an approx. 14 inch monitor. Mountains consisted of very few polygons and lines. The sound from the engine beeped terribly. Now, 38 years later, I can fly through the entire digitized, very detailed and beautiful 3D world in VR (HP Reveb G2). For me, too, a childhood dream came true.
I thank Microsoft and Asobo and everyone who worked to make this possible. I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be an alpha tester and a VR beta tester. It’s a great time and I’m very happy that the development continues …
I’m 56 and disabled, but was still hoping to be able to get my PPL. I’ve been looking at the costs - two local airfields (well one is just a strip alongside a rugby field) have flying schools. I could probably afford the lessons, but whether I could afford everything else is another matter.
Even the costs for keeping an aircraft at and running it from my local ‘proper’ airfield (EGCL Fenland) looks very reasonable.
That would just leave getting past the medical, which has already failed me in a couple of career ambitions I had - but I might just get through!
Unfortunately the rugby field strip school only does this new EU licence for aircraft up to 2,000kg - but I suppose it’s better than nothing. Incidentally, they have a fully decked-out B737 simulator there, too, for public use.
Fenland does experience flights, too and I have every intention of getting my 4th flight in a Chipmunk with the one they have procured, sometime within the next year (Covid permitting). Shame I no longer have my logbook.
