Thinking of going VR, need suggestions

I tend to think of VR in FS2020 in terms of an illicit drug.

Before I tried it I was perfectly happy, flying around in my flat 2D world, looking around with hat switches and mouse. Didn’t know any better.

Watched a few videos of people seemingly having enormous fun flying over cities and through city streets, just moving their heads to look around. I need some of this action. What do i have to do?

My first few flights “Oh my god, this is amazing. It’s like I am actually in the plane and…whoah! look down there! I am up in the air!” etc etc

Now I am hooked. No 2d screen style flying is ever gonna match the immersion I have experienced.

I have tried weaning myself of of VR but to no avail. The 2d world is so flat and like a serious come down.

I squint at my instrument panel, giving myself a hernia, trying to lean forwards and read that tiny Garmin G3X. I fumble around in the 3d world outside of my headset learning to use a mini keyboard by touch and every button on my airbus flight stick is etched into my muscle memory. I suffer the hideous sometimes nauseating stutters and relatively poor graphical fidelity. However, I don’t care. I have tasted the future of gaming and I cannot let it go. I am addicted and there is definitely no cure.

BEWARE !

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VR is great fun and the sense of immersion is fantastic. How much of a novelty it ends up being for you depends a lot on how tolerant you are of its downsides. For people who aren’t too bothered about the technical shortcomings of VR the immersive aspect of it is what completely defines their experience. Thats why you’ll read some VR users here say ‘there’s no going back’ to playing a regular 2D screen.

For me the experience of VR in FS2020 just isn’t there yet. The potential for it is phenomenal but more has to come together to get it working well enough I think. Plus there are other downsides to it like being so cut off from things. I like using all the buttons and dials on my HOTAS and flight panels. VR cuts you off from all that. I love how beautiful the sim looks on a screen. Currently no matter what, with headsets not yet being high enough resolution and computer hardware not yet being powerful enough, those glorious graphics are to varying degrees partly lost in VR.

A VR headset is definitely worth getting though. Even though I’m not totally sold on VR I do enjoy putting on my headset every once in a while and dabbling with it. Its another way to enjoy the sim so the more options the better I think.

As to which headset. I got a Quest 2. The downside to it is you need to be logged on to Facebook for it to work. The upside to it is its a very good quality headset for the price and if you’re unsure about VR and just wanting to give it a go this is a very good selling point.

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Good to know! I don’t use Facebook, and never will.

I have done a fair bit of moaning about the limitations of VR. I have blown the dust off my Quest 2 and just completed an IFR flight and yes it is more interesting but the comments about resolution remain.
The frame rate was varying between 35 and 45 just the occasional stutter and egg timer appeared.
I have a RTX 3080 Card. The Quest 2 is set to its default settings.
Could someone advise what settings to tweak in the Oculus Debug Tool and what settings in VR Graphics. Does it help to reduce all the PC Graphics to low or does this make no difference.

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That does cut off possibly the best cheap option with the Quest 2. I don’t know how to use facebook and never use it . I just created an account for setting it up and had no involvement at all. Not really a problem.

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I dare to recommend two articles …

Of course, they are focused on WMR in general and hp reverb g2, but they illustrate well the general idea of finding a balance between the resolution in the simulator and super-sampling, which can be configured in utilities (such as the Oculus Debug Tool or OpenXR Developer Tools).

I had oculus rift cv1 and it helped there too.

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Yeah, same for me. I hate Bookface. I made an account and that was all. Never go there. Quest 2 user.

Regarding VR, I would answer simply:

There is some inconvenience of use, insufficient image quality, and even physiological discomfort -
such as overheating of the face, fogging, the severity of the device. As well as :

  • dangling cables that can be stepped on,
  • inconvenience to take off and put on a headset, which still needs to be put somewhere in the workplace,
  • glitches and drops in the desktop when changing the 2D - 3D mode
  • and just glitches, since another layer is added in the form of a complex device.
  • search for the keyboard by touch;
  • etc!!!

But I assure you - a person may well put up with it! The advantages outweigh the disadvantages disproportionately.

I have been using VR since 2016, first oculus rift cv1, now hp reverb g2, (on low or medium hardware) and it seems like I’m not dead yet.

At least after more than 1900 hours in Elite Dangerous (~ 100% in VR), x-plane 1100 hours (~ 70% in VR) and MSFS 500 hours (~ 90% in VR).

I recommend.

p.s.
Speaking specifically about the hp reverb g2 headset, it has quite a few “childhood illnesses” and I cannot definitely recommend it, although in terms of price and quality, in my opinion, it is very good.

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I’ve got a Quest 2 and an RTX3080. Reducing settings to low will win you back some FPS but be warned that the image quality really suffers. For me its just a bit pointless lowering everything. You’ll have really smooth stable frame rate but whats the point if the sim just looks terrible?

At the other end of the spectrum you can have great looking visuals but at the expense of FPS. Everyone is trying to find their precious sweet spot in the middle somewhere. How elusive that is depends on your hardware and what your personal tolerance is to bad visuals and low stuttery frame rates. My tolerance isn’t very high which is why I’m tired of going round in ever more frustrating circles with VR in the sim.

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Thank you very much …much appreciated but a lot to comprehend there…you need to do a VR Settings guide for Dummies as well as a lot I do not understand.
Like others I should mention I am a RW Pilot so not very bright and can only just remember my read backs.

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I have never managed that and not bothered about FPS .
What do you change ?

In the PC Oculus app go to graphics preferences and you can crank the rendering resolution right up. You’ll have pin sharp visuals in your headset. You can also crank up the settings in the sim to high and ultra. Everything will look spectacular. You say you’re not bothered about FPS but you will be because things will soon become a VR slide show.

Theres afew schools of thought on how to go about cranking up visuals, I use OTT which is similar to Oculus debug tool but has a few more options.

The differing schools of thought is where to crank up visuals, Oculus app via refresh rate and resolution, super sampling in OTT /oculus debug or render in MSFS 20, or a bit of all three

I follow the guidelines based on the TnT Quest settings - sharp and smooth … a thread in this forum.

Essentially Oculus app at 1.1x and 80hz. Oculus Tray tool… 1.6 SS, ASW at 18 hertz, adaptive graphics off, Mirror FOV multiplier at 0.85 and 0.85… essentially puts a 15% border around vision but due to less pixels being created gives back a bit of performance, you can adjust the 0.85.

MSFS 20 render 80 and setings mixture of medium/high. I think I said before , quality of visuals I think can vary and I think it coudl be more network/server load … only my opinion. SU5 also made a bit of a mess of things , though bit better now.

I also use airlink (setting on beta)… only doable with 5ghz router connection. I tried virtual desktop alos which pre airlink wireless solution but didn’t think much of visuals although some users prefer it

If you need anything further let me know

Yep I’ve never had a facebook account until Q2, however you can turn all settings off and privacy on etc

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Please quit spreading false information.
Also the the “vr religionists” and “Alcoholics Anonymous” references are very distasteful and inappropriate .

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I haven’t had an issue finding the controls I need on my HOTAS or even using my M+K while in VR. For the rare times I need to use a key on the keyboard I’m able to peek down my nose and see it.

A HOTAS is specifically designed to be used by touch, so that makes sense! :smiley:

For a panel designed to simulate a GA plane or airliner, you’ll have multiple switches that are normally labeled with visible text, and require moving your (usually right) hand to and fro while keeping the other hand (usually left) on the yoke or stick.

(My Index fits well enough that I can’t see through the tiny crack above the nose to identify things by eye.)

You can kind of manage, but it’s really not ideal, and it does involve some fumbling for me. So yes, I could lose immersion by using a less realistic (for some types of plane) input device that is designed to be used by touch, but for me (personally) that’s a minus.

On the other hand if you’re happy using a HOTAS, it will work better in VR, absolutely!

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When people say things like “VR is low resolution” etc… it’s not a valid argument anymore. Even if it was, the immersion is better than you will ever get, staring at a 2D screen.

Last year I bought three 43” screens… 3 Saitek panels… a Saitek Multipanel… but they all became pretty much obsolete just a few months later… when I bought a Reverb G2. WOW! I thought having three screens was good, but VR is something else. One major thing you get is the feeling of actually being in an aircraft. Lining up with arunway for landing is easier too because you’re not just looking at a flat screen.

I would recommend you check out some of “VR Flight Sim Guy”s videos on youtube.
Like this one for example…

Regards
Steve

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It took me a week or two tops to muscle memory my setup. With the VR HMD staying on.
I found no reason to have to remove the headset afterwards especially with a HOTAS setup that has over 25 buttons of real estate to setup hotkeys.

Within a month I was also able to use a Rii mini keyboard without removing the VR HMD.
These are very handy for VR when still needing keyboard and mouse functions in flight sims like MSFS because devs felt a LOW EFFORT 2d mouse implementation that works for pancake mode would be sufficient for VR.:upside_down_face:

I feel anyone pushing the whole “flight sim peripherals are impossible to access with a VR HMD” narrative are either just blowing smoke and don’t have any real experience with VR or they may seriously be suffering from pulse motor sensory deterioration from old age or other health issues. The human brain/central nervous system is an amazing thing when it works properly.

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One thing some of you might not know about… if you’re using VR for MSFS… go into the 2D (PC) graphics settings and lower everything to their minimums or off.
This will mean VR will be smooth, pretty much from the start. No more having to wait for it to speed up & smoothen out.

Regards
Steve