So i finally decided that VR is the way to go for flight simming and i am looking for recommendations.
I am aware other posts exist but some are 1+ years old and tech changes rapidly.
my current impression is that the meta quest 3 is the way to go. For me image clarity is the most important thing. I want to be able to read the gauges with ease.
Not looking to spend upwards of 1000 euros.
I have a RTX 4080 super and ryzen 7 5800x so i think performance will be decent enough.
Please let me know!
Iāve got a Quest 3 and find the guages perfectly readable. The only time I struggle is with the purple text on the G1000 (eg GS values)ā¦it just doesnāt stand out as well as the other colours, but nothing that leaning in a little doesnāt solve.
I hear that there are at least 4 new headsets due this year (probably by November for Xmas sales, so like in 6 to 8 months time from now) which may well be āthe oneā but it will need some time for actual user reviews to come in too specifically for MSFS use.
I think your best bet at the moment is to go for a refurbished Quest 3 (from Amazon for example, they always have them in stock and the price is very good compared to new, plus you still get the normal year warranty etc.) so you can get in now. It is a good headset and probably currently the best bang-for-buck (and way below your budget so no guilt! ).
Then keep an eye on the next ones coming by which time you will have some experience to draw on to see if you would think it a good upgrade.
New ones (rumours):
Quest 4 (apparently)
Steam āDeckardā (codename for now but it might be that! Replacing the Index. Could be Index 2. Will be a bit over your budget but should be user-friendly and feature packed.)
Google / Samsung āProject Moohanā
Asus / Lenovo āHorizonā
Oh and more things from Pimax (Crystal Super now / Dream Air coming)
Sure you can. Back on FS20 I would go back and forth all the time.
But seriously, VR is nice, but not always what itās cracked up to be unless you have top their components. I personally ran a Quest 3 on a 7800xt. It was usable, but the text was sometimes hard to read in glass cockpits if I wanted to maintain an acceptable frame rate.
Iāve barely touched FS24 and not at all with VR, which Iāve read is extremely problematic at the moment.
Yeah, Iām still with 2020 although I own 2024 as well, despite never trying it. I find performance with the Quest 3 and a 9800X3D/9070XT āgood enoughā. Itās not the best of the best with honours, but still pretty high end kit. I run the headset at 72hz, cap MSFS to 36fps, then let Virtual Desktop do frame doubling from there. It adds a bit of ghosting to faster moving objects (not the instruments) but itās still a better compromise than 36fps on its own. Thereās no hope of reaching 72fps native with decent-looking settings unfortunately.
I also run Virtual Desktop at Ultra (one notch down from Godlike) resolution and find that perfectly adequate. I think itās close to the headsetās own resolution (Godlike adding oversampling which is supposed to help) but tbh I canāt spot any difference between the two and running it a little lower gives more headroom for busier fps scenarios that might tax things harder.
Iāve also been experimenting with the desktop passthru options in Virtual Desktop (another good reason to get a Quest 3), and am really quite enjoying having a real-life view of throttle/stick/loupedeck etc within my virtual world. Thereās a youtube video out there of an incredible homebuilt (Warthog I think) cockpit with full passthru, really showing the best of both worlds. Hopefully the technology for this only gets better!
Iāll be dead before VR headsets offer everything I want.
My biggest problem is that Iāve invested pretty heavily in control peripherals (yoke, TQ, joystick, collective, GPS panels (Iāll own one some day)ā¦and especially Streamdecks.) Thatās how I like to fly - no mouse!
As such I need TRULY functional Augmented Reality for a fair price.
My dream is to see nothing but sky, wings, gauges, etc. as I look down and see my hands manipulating my physical controls. Long ways off I fearā¦
Im not really that familiar with virtual desktop and running it on ultra and how that helps FPS. But is the cockpit passthru a quest feature only? Seems quite handy
My understanding is that lower end headsets (the price range you are shopping) will not see much performance improvement in the next ten years.
This is because the components required to produce the big clarity, field of view, and light weight form factor enhancements are just too expensive and not expected to come down enough to use in a ābudgetā headset.
Thereās a thread called āVR optics explainedā with a long, technical video if you want to do a deep dive but I think this only serves to reinforce the previous suggestions to get one of the current ābudgetā offerings from Meta or Pimax.
Itās a shame that the software for the HP G2 Reverb is being retired. It was a great choice for the price.
muscle memoryā¦ takes a while, but you find touch points on your physical build that guide you. You align all things physically with the Virtual world. Perhaps driving a car is akin to flying VR, I donāt look for my shifter, I know where it is. donāt look for the turn signal or radio. As far as passthrough, a collaboration with the VR model developer is the only good way forward for MR. It is the grail so to speak. Virtual desktop has a box you can draw over your physical space and itās rudimentary as yet, but surprisingly noninvasive in the experience. $500 Quest 3 is surprising at times.
So what is the price range of a mid to high end VR headset? I thought around 1000 euros would not be in the āābudgetāā range. Better yet, what are you using?
I have a Crystal Light (previously had a Reverb G2). I think 1000 Euro is a fair line between low-end and mid-range (itās probably a moving target though). Perhaps 2000+ for āhigh endā. Arbitrary, I know. I didnāt spend time pricing anything over 1K because I had just spent a bundle on a new PC !
I have the meta quest 3 for my msfs 2024 since last friday and i was stunned with the view. You are literally inside an airplane, so realistic! Goosebumps actually! Then i got addicted, flying in VR my god! I have an RTX4070 and an asus H510M with 32gigs of ram. I have it running with virtual desktop. I chose the meta quest 3 because it has superior lenses over the 3S and quest 2.I would recommend an additional battery pack,
Now im a bit on the fence here. The Crystal light isnt that far up in price from the quest 3 where i am. However it seems the crystal light has better resolution but its heavier and the quest 3 is more meant for all kinds of vr stuff where as the crystal light is more flight sim focused? I dont need to to fly in ultra high resolution as long as things are clear and i can read the gauges ok.
Also, from my understanding, higher VR resolution means lower FPS right? I dont wanna go overboard with resolution and struggle with FPS. What GPU are you running?
Thanks for the info. I am strongly considering the quest 3. But it ships with a cable too right? So if the battery runns out you can play connected? Or is a battery in general an additonal product?
Pimax CL is fairly lean and simple. Cable for Displayport and USB connection, so you are tethered, but if itās just for simming, who cares? No Wifi, no batteries, no associated headaches. Also, no eye-tracking but great resolution. color, local dimming, great visuals. The PCL is, to me, a great replacement for the Reverb G2. I plan to use it for years with my 4090 and 9800x3d.
Having never used the Quest, I canāt compare it to the Crystal Light.
Compared to the G2, however, the Crystal is clearer but also ādifferentā. Itās aspheric lenses have a sort of fisheye effect that Iāve gotten used to (donāt notice it now unless I look for it on purpose) but if I could have that clarity without the slight curvature noticeable at the edges when moving, It would be even better.
Iām running a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 4090. I only have MFS 2020. Settings a mix of Ultra and High. Everything is butter smooth ā not even a micro stutter ā and everything is readable on the panel. FPS? No idea. Since itās smooth and looks good I donāt bring that stuff up on the screen
A lot of people love their Quest 3 too. Being able to try out both the Meta and the Pimax before buying would sure be nice.
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