Holy Cow!

The Dreamer

I flew with a guy a few weeks back, and it wasn't until almost the end of the trip (6 days) that we got to talking about how my lad got a real head-start when it came to learning to drive, due to the fact he'd been playing several 'car-sim' type games on his Xbox One, with Logitech wheel, pedals and stick (thankfully he's left the J-turns and drifting for the sim, and hasn't taken that to the road..... yet)!


This guy then opened up with how he did a lot of VR simming, mostly cars, a bit of DCS, and some biking too. He and his wife are big bikers and do track events all over Spain (where he lives) - he's even waiting for delivery of a 'motion' bike frame through a kickstarter deal - so he and his wife can practice the tracks before they visit them for real!

Anyway, the upshot was that he said I should get my lad a Rift, or Vive (he has both) - but on balance, as a newbie he recommended the Rift.

Long story short, I know it's just been discontinued, but I picked up the last one in Dixons T5 the other day. Some £££'s later, and we've just wound up our new VR PC for the first time.

Holy Cow!

Now, I know all you 'old lags' already know this, but how on earth do you describe what this VR is like to someone? It is so different to anything I've ever experienced, It has literally taken my breath away on more than one occasion - even just playing Robot Recall for the first time - Wowzer!

Now my lad is in the middle of his A-level mocks this week, so can't have a really good play until tomorrow evening - but Asetto Corsa is just about ready to go (have to wait for Amazon to deliver a DP - HDMI cable to get it working properly (currently using HDMI from the 2070 for the Rift and HDMI from the motherboard for the desktop - I know it's bad practice, but I hadn't realised that graphics cards have limited (read 'one') HDMI ports nowadays).

Wow! Just.... Wow!

thesnowdog

Yup, sims in VR really are amazeballs

If you fancy giving flight sims a go too then check out DCS World (free on Steam), War Thunder (also free on Steam) and Elite Dangerous (I think that might be 75% off at the moment, get the version with Horizons because it let's you land on planets).

For my money Elite Dangerous is the best VR game out there so far, the scale of everything is just CRAZY

MikeKay1976

I love reading stories like this. It is easy to forget how amazing vr is and get bogged down bickering/worrying about tiny issues between headsets when in reality they are all great.
Enjoy VR there are a lot of cracking titles out there.
For racing games consider pCARS2 (ignore 1), dirt rally (often cheap as chips). As snowdog says elite D is a hell of a space experience
Then there are other games worth a look like lone echo and well the lost just goes my library has just too many games in with no time to play

bilbosmeggins

So........  How's it going with vr now that the honeymoon period is over?  Still loving it?

MikeKay1976

who are you asking? if it is me i am on my 2nd head set and have been full on VR fanboy since 2014 (didnt get the DK1 as was going through personal issues at the time and could not justify the expense. with hindsite a massive error that one!)

VR is still an essential gaming accessory for me, up there with a steering wheel and hotas.  Whilst 2D gaming has crept into my game time more now and i put a lot less time into VR (largely due to a child and more limited game time in general) I still totally love VR and have never regretted getting my rift.  if my rift broke today, i would be ordering *something* to replace it right away.  I am uncertain what hmd i would go for now however.

edit sorry i thought i was in a different post... question was obviosuly aimed at OP and not me. sorry about that, you may as well have my thoughts now anyway

thesnowdog

Playing games in VR NEVER gets old, particularly for sims and horror games. I haven't played a flat game since I got my Rift in October 2016. I've tried, but it just isn't the same.

Just like the ladies say:

Once you go VR you never go flat

The Dreamer

I’m guessing this is for me....

Still absolutely loving it. I don’t get to play as much as my lad - but he’s on AC every weekend (we don’t game during the week due studies).

I will be doing a lot more myself shortly though - just bought a Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS to go with DCS, X-plane 11 and Elite Dangerous.

I’m pretty sure I can teach my lad to fly properly using X-plane and take him through at least the PPL syllabus - which should give him a head start if he ever decides to fly for real. (I was a QFI many years ago - and while I generally try to avoid teaching my lad anything in real life, I’ll make an exception here). But VR is at a stage now that practising in it for ‘the real thing’ can save countless hours of making expensive mistakes in the ‘real world’.

bilbosmeggins

Yeah, it was aimed at the OP, but always nice to hear your thoughts

bilbosmeggins

Really glad that you’re still enjoying vr.  Flight simming just isn’t the same when played “flat”. I could never go back.

I bought the Warthog too, but for X plane 11, Elite and IL2. Great piece of kit.  Also added some high-end rudder pedals, the MFG Crossfire.  Awesome piece of kit.  I can also highly recommend the Orbx Total Earth series for UK flying if you don’t already own it.  Completely transforms the game, and VFR flying is a very real possibility.

I keep meaning to use X plane to learn how to fly properly, but never find the time.  I can execute good take offs and landings time after time.  It’s all of the comms instrumentation that baffles me, along with route planning using all of the fiddly bits.  I have a book, somewhere, specifically written to learn to fly with the aid of a flight sim.  One day

The Dreamer

I have a mate who is heavily into flight simming - though he tends to do virtual airline stuff (probably the last sort of simming I want to do) - I always give him kittens when I muck around on his setup, as I tend to do stuff I could never do in the real world - Aeros in a jumbo over Innsbruck anyone? Anyway, he seems to know all about the various scenery addons, albeit for P3D, so I have heard good things about Orbx.

He also upgrades his kit every couple of years, and was kind enough to gift us his last FSX setup, so we do have a triple monitor sim with full yoke and pedals (the yoke and pedals are on long term loan, as his wife won’t have them in his house) the pedals are full sized replica 737 jobbies, and I may use them with the Thrustmaster gear once I get it all up and running.

I haven’t got it all setup yet, but will do some research into exactly what extras I need. If I can get a decent weather and scenery package, there should be no reason I can’t get my lad to do visual Nav-ex’s - even to the point of dropping the weather to marginal conditions and teaching him what to do when that happens - all in complete safety - it’s going to be a great tool!