If the new RTX 3000 series video cards ever become widely available you should be able to build a system that runs well at 4k for $2000.

Looks like VR is coming.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/21499518/microsoft-flight-simulator-vr-closed-open-beta-test-sign-up

As soon as I see what AMD is going to release, and what price point, I'm probably going to go ahead and start building a rig on either them or nvidia. Will also have to consider what's actually going to be available up buy.

I wonder how VR will integrate with physical hardware (yolk, etc). I feel like it could be clumsy.

I predict motion sickness, but would love to be pleasantly surprised!

I've flown VR quiet a bit on XPlane 11 and DCS. It's really awesome, so much more immersive than looking at a 2D screen. There are some down sides, but it feels so much more realistic as far as the feeling of flight goes.

DCS F-18 module off a carrier is just unbelievably immersive.

Downsides are:
Motion sickness possible during extended use especially when moving around a lot.
Gauges are pretty much impossible to read, so not good for technical flights.
Have to memorize button locations on hardware and keyboard isn't really an option.
You need a beast of a computer to run at high resolution.

How does integrating real life hardware with the VR world work? Do you ever go to grab your yolk/joystick/other controls but find you are out of position to grab it?

dargscisyhp said:

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How does integrating real life hardware with the VR world work? Do you ever go to grab your yolk/joystick/other controls but find you are out of position to grab it?

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I feel like this could translate to "other" VR scenarios as well...

dargscisyhp said:

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How does integrating real life hardware with the VR world work? Do you ever go to grab your yolk/joystick/other controls but find you are out of position to grab it?

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It's kind of like walking through your bedroom at night in the dark. You might be a little more clumbsy than usual, but you pretty much know where to expect everything to be located. Like I said before, VR is best for recreation flying, practicing landings, carrier take offs, sight seeing, etc. The more techinical flights like flying an airliner using the FMC and autopilot are better suited for high resolution screens where you can actually read the steam gauges and button labels. I still have an old school oculus rift though, so it may be better in newer head sets with less sde. Hopefully the visibility is better on MSFS 2020.

The hardest part of keeping track of hardware location is the oculus controller. Everything else is pretty much stationary.

I've flown helicopter and fixed wing Oculus setups. Helicopter is pretty nice, becuase you can look outside as you're coming in to land and gauge how high you are and how to adjust. Fixed wing I don't think you gain a whole lot with the VR, other than the immersive environment.

I used the physical controls when I flew both, and you had to figure out where things were ahead of time with the fixed wing more so than the helo, (landing gear, flaps, etc). But once you had the general feel of things, throttle manipulation was pretty straight forward and trim on the stick is pretty intuitive. If you're flying something pretty complicated it might be an issue, but otherwise shouldn't be too bad.

The annoying thing was having a hard time reading gauges due to the resolution, as Aggieforester said.

I'm confused, isn't the resolution for VR better than 1080p? What causes the clarity issue?

I'm thinking it might be because, despite the resolution, the gauges are pretty small in the context of the larger screen. You can generally see where the needle is pointing, and make out what number it's pointing to, but it's not as clear as it would be in real life. You need to definitely focus more to see what you're looking at.

V8Aggie said:

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I'm confused, isn't the resolution for VR better than 1080p? What causes the clarity issue?

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It's honestly been awhile since I've flown because I moved my office to a different room in the house and have never finished setting everything up. From what I remember it's mostly due to screen door effect. While the resolution is high, it's spread across two eyes and you're awfully close to those pixels. Steam gauges and buttons are the worst part. Glass panels are typically easier to read. Mapping out all of the buttons you'll need on your various controls is crucial when you're in VR because the keyboard is unusable and you don't want to have to use an oculus (or equivalent) controller to try and fumble around with tiny controls in the cockpit.

Also Bigtruck is right about helicopters. It's much easier to fly one when you can easily see the ground all around you out of the cockpit. I love the challenger of flying helicopters with no aides.

I don't have a PC and want to get one pretty much exclusively for FS2020. Willing to spend about 1500-1900 for the rig, then more for the monitor and controls. What should I be looking for and want specs should I focus on? What should I be looking for on monitors? TIA

Installing this game sucks. It gets stuck in a loop on downloading a file.

Pman17 said:

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Installing this game sucks. It gets stuck in a loop on downloading a file.

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Amazing. 15 years later after FSX and the same issues exist even with SSDs and new Windows versions etc...