If your chat is on separate PC you can see the entire desktop of this PC with all the windows on it you want.
Yes, excellent point. But then I need to constantly switch to see VATSIM Radio, Navigraph, SimBrief OFP which would take me away from the chat window… So basically I need to have a windows desktop window popped into VR in its own dedicated window. Which is why FSDesktop is good.
You aren’t wrong at all, just doesn’t meet my specific use case.
Thanks!
Literally 100:0 since the VR update came out around Xmas 2020.
Im only in 2D when loading in or sometimes to do stuff in the menus, then go straight to VR. Haven’t done a single flight or even part of a flight in 2D since.
Exactly! Once you see it in VR and you are literally sitting in the cockpit, there is no way I could go back to flat panel. Situational awareness is vastly improved. Landings are better. Taxing warbirds is better. Leaning your head out of the cockpit to see.
It really adds to immersion. With the amount people spend on cockpit builds and multiple monitors!!! For that money you can buy the best current VR headset. And then you’re in the real cockpit in VR.
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I have Windows desktop with the apps I like opened in the All In One tablet VNC module. In the separate windows scattered around the virtual cockpit I have VATSIM Radio, Navigraph, VFR map. I also have OpenKneeboard for making notes (clearances) and displaying checklists and the charts I prefer to not have on the Windows desktop (I can navigate around them pressing buttons on my Wacom tablet).
Great to have all these options available in VR, everybody can build his own best solution.
I never bother with a screen. It seems so plain and uninteresting. Plus I have to keep moving my view around. VR is just in another league.
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What about length of session in VR? I’ve read a lot of posts where people say they can only use it for an hour or two. Anyone doing 5 hour airliner flights in VR or does it look so good in visuals that most people are doing short VFR flights instead?
I don’t do airliners much myself but I can use a VR headset for hours. I’ve done up to 5 or so hours as that’s close to how long my 10k MAh battery lasts. I got a head thing with a magnet to hold it. The weight counters the weight of the front part perfectly. (I can’t live with cords either!) Usually when I take it off it’s because I want to do something else. I’m fortunate in that I don’t seem to be sensitive to any of the issues that can arise with VR.
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Generally, I’m good for up to 2 hours of continuous flight in VR, then I need a short break.
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I don’t know if it’s off topic, I hope not otherwise I’ll delete it if necessary.
But can we share head tracking here as well? The great thing is that you can look around and freeze the camera whenever you want.
I’ll share my setup and if you have a webcam it’s free 
Percentage wise I think it’s 60% on the head tracking. It works great with taking a close look at instruments or look for the runway behind window pillar.
-Bram
SkyLane
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Its mind-blowing in VR even with the blurry G2 headset 
VR 100%. Since i tried it for the first time, there was no way back anymore.
You’ve lost the bet. Tried it twice, much more happy with 2D.
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I found that using a TrackIR 5 head tracker for camera movement gives me 90% of what I liked about trying VR (immersive, natural looking around which is great for both VFR and reading instruments) with only 10% of its downsides (fiddling with the mouse while the tracker is on is sometimes annoying – on the other hand you can pause the tracker without manipulating any headgear).
As far as cost, the name-brand TrackIR 5 weighs in at USD $149, cheaper than any headset or multi-monitor build, and it has no significant CPU or GPU performance cost.
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planning 2D, taxi, take off VR, cruise 2D, Landing VR
Can’t stand wearing the headset longer then 20min and picture quality still very inferior to 2D
sim looks amazing in 2D 4K
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Menu after loading in 2D, once in the plane it’s 100% VR until I close the program.
Everyone who tries VR wants to fly it all the time. It’s surprising that such a small percentage of simmers actually use VR.
Indeed, to have picture better than 2D display you need the very expensive headsets (Vario Aero, Pimax Crystal). If you can afford them, they are much better vs. 2D screens (especially if you run single monitor only).
I basically do 3 kinds of flights:
Free roaming/touring in something like the DA40, 1-2hrs, VFR
A round the world tour in the TBM, I try to plan around 1-1.5 hr legs, mostly VFR except ocean crossings or the like
Commercial legs in/out of central Europe in the Fenix, 1-4 hrs, if less than about 2 hours I do the return leg same day, otherwise on my next flight day
I can do 2-3 hrs comfortably, more than that and I need a break. When I cruise up in the FLs I take off the headset for a bit and read something on the ipad, putting the headset back on every 15 mins or so to check in. I tend not to exit VR mode as I’ve had issues with the sim crashing when switching in out, so I’m kinda scared to do that.
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5% VR, 95% 2D (with track-ir)
Still liking the eye candy, dislike the “i always seem to be fiddling with the settings of vr” as i’m always rather discontent with one thing or the other when donning the headset, may it be an update of the quest 2 that ever so slightly changes stuff or windows or simupdates. Besides that, wearing a monitor, whilst already having neck issues, is just not worth a long term relationship of this kind, hence short flights, whereas with monitor i can actually have a 3 hour flightsimsession and be quite comfortable. In the headset, the immersion combined with musclememory to find my buttonboxes makes for a very nice experience, just not the blown-away kind at the moment. Then jumping into Assetto Corsa in vr and having an absolute, none sulking, blast, with just this GTX 1080 i’m running, seems to make it even more evident that VR, Flightsim and me, just don’t get along before it gets more optimized and vr becomes more user friendly. If i’d have, say, a 4070 non-ti, my vr time would still not go beyond 25%, but that’s indeed an improvement i’m looking forwards to. Just not giving nvidia the gratutide of persisting in overpricing their cards 
Lowest price over here now 619 euro’s… for what i believe should be a three-to-four-hundred-ish-euro card.
But, back to vr: the amount of stuff alone, that i had to learn to set it all up in the first place would turn a newby run away crying or make 'm RMA the whole product. Ever heard of the term “plug and play”?
There’s now just too many variables for users, that there is just no solid one-way-solution to get things to run nice 100% of the time… it’s just not thát consumer friendly.
As a nerd with too much spare time on his hands, i find it challenging, but as an empathetic person, i feel many people are tearing out their hairs, whilst others are posting “there’s nothing better”. And from the “better” perspective, i see the compassion trying to help those hairless people, as with other things in life, standing on their pedestal looking down. It’s just how it is. Anyways… either way, vr or non-vr, i still enjoy flightsim tremendously.
I Just hope ms2024 might have a bit more elbow grease in the vr department but overall a smoother more refined experience for all, Veeee Are’s or two Dee’s.
Have a great flight, Captain’s
Woof ~ Woof & ~Salute!~
Steiny
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