[GekkePrutser]

The experience in VR is much much better in X-Plane. Sadly it doesn't have the amazingly realistic cities and world textures of MSFS but the controls work so much better. Especially X-Plane's "ergonomic yoke" which uses the tilt sensor in the controller instead of having to hold up your hand in thin air. MSFS is far behind this.

And why call out VR specifically? Well, VR is in my opinion absolutely groundbreaking in flight simulation. I've flown small planes too and I've never felt that a flightsim was able to provide the feeling of flying. Until VR that is. Now it's amazing.

[mdip]

First, thanks for the info -- you answered my question, too. :)

  > VR is in my opinion absolutely groundbreaking in flight simulation.

I completely agree. I'm not a pilot nor interested in becoming one. My Dad owned his company and flew a plane for work[0]. He used the 1980s version of Flight Simulator to get licensed for IFR flying. I was impressed with the latest, but if there ever was a use for VR, it's this. You've got a panel full of instruments in front of you and an array of windows to look out of. At least half of the "controlling" in that game involves looking at specific places/in specific directions. Everything would be much more natural if I could control what I was looking at by ... moving my head.

So far I've held off on buying any VR-related non-sense because I have yet to find something that it would improve the experience of enough to warrant spending money on. It sounds like this might be getting me closer?

[0] I've written at length about this in the past, but he owned his company and sold to manufacturing plants. Many were out-of-state, so the plane allowed him to get to a few appointments and back home without a hotel stay -- or ... "gave him an excuse to own a plane". You pick :)

[dwringer]

Have you tried something like a TrackIR? It gives you the ability to do what you describe in a cockpit, as well as using your head to fix your eyes on a point of the horizon/landscape/object during maneuvers. I haven't tried a flight simulator with a VR headset, but TrackIR increases immersion so much that I never felt like I was missing the experience.

Admittedly it can take some tweaking to get the response curves calibrated to what feels natural, and it never feels as natural as simply looking around (but I'd argue putting on a headset comes with ergonomic issues of its own).

[meheleventyone]

TrackIR doesn’t really compare. I went from TrackIR to VR for multiplayer IL2 and the difference is stratospheric in terms of actually feeling “in” the aircraft. It also significantly improved my gunnery.

[leobg]

What headset do you use or recommend? Thx

[meheleventyone]

I use an OG Quest which is quite low res compared to other headsets. Most seem to recommend the Reverb G2 which is what I’m eyeing as an upgrade.

[GekkePrutser]

If you think TrackIR increases immersion that much you really need to try a VR headset and get your mind blown :)

The 3D vision (a horizon never looks the same on a screen), full 6DOF tracking (you can look over your shoulder, bend down etc), motion controllers with which you can turn buttons.. It feels so real.

Even the way you look out the window to see if it's time for the turn to base, it just looks like how it looks when you do it in a real airplane. Seeing it on a flat screen is really not the same.

[JeremyNT]

I use XP 11 with my HP Reverb 2.

The VR works and works pretty well. The feeling of looking around in the cockpit is a nice improvement even over my old standby of TrackIR, which I used to use more frequently.

I will say that I think I might dust the TrackIR off and use it again at some point. VR is a little disorienting and uncomfortable for long time periods and just having head tracking with a monitor does get you part of the way there.

I do find it difficult to "touch" the controls in the cockpit, so if you want to actually learn the cockpit layout (rather than mapping a bunch of stuff to your keyboard and/or other input devices) you may want to pause the game while you select things.

The graphics in XP 11 can be somewhat improved with "Orthophoto scenery" and there is a lot of payware available too, but this is a deep rabbit hole with lots of sketchy downloads and mucking about. Even after doing this I don't think the visuals ever get close to competing with the MSFS "out of the box" experience.

[nightski]

I used to spend a lot of time in flight simulators and am very interested in VR. What headsets have you used? Just a Quest 2? Or one of the high end ones?

[GekkePrutser]

I have used a Rift CV1, a Quest 1 and now a Quest 2.

What I like about the Q2 is that it's cheap and offers wifi capability so I can sit on the couch far from the PC. More relaxing that way.

Sometimes I use real controllers and I got a USB extender cable for that.

[zeusk]

The samsung odyssey"+" is the best flight sim headset imo; they use some sort of screen to reduce the pixel/screen door effect and it works wonders in making stuff look realistic.

[GekkePrutser]

Yeah I've never tried that one, as Samsung never even bothered to sell it in Europe :(