Here is the future...

[VBF-12 Gosling]

Omg. So exciting. We need to know everything about it. Which one? 5k+ or 8k?

[VBF-12 Stick]

It's an 8K. Just worked out a few more kinks tonight. Took a Yak-1b, started engine, taxied, took off, strafed some vehicles, and landed. Doesn't sound like much but OH MY F***** WORD. To have the game world surrounding you all in 3D is just amazing.  It literally feels like you can reach out and touch everything in the cockpit. You feel the closeness of the cockpit around you.  The gun sight is amazing.  The feeling of flight is soooo much more there than on a 2D screen. Take off brought me back to my ultralight days.  I did a slip on landing and I wanted to laugh it felt so real.

Reading the instruments is not a problem.  Just a matter of getting the best settings for quality/performance.

I only have the 2DoF tracking built into the HMD at the moment and that is not that good.  I have ordered a Vive LightHouse to get 6DoF and that should hit Friday.

I used Normal FOV mode which is about 150 degrees horizontal.  This is not at all a binocular view.  Top to bottom you notice no end of screen, like normal vision.  Left and right you will see some black if you look for it but normally you would be turning your head by then.

The unit itself is lightweight when wearing it.  Testing it this afternoon it seemed a little awkward but using it in game tonight I didn't even notice it accept when the 2D tracking would stick.  The feeling around the face is comfortable and non-intrusive.

I did not notice any SDE in game but then again I really didn't think to look for it.  Many things to still play with.

[VBF-12 Gosling]

Brilliant - I’m not jealous at allllllllll - OMG I am soooo Jealous its not true........

More info... please...

How is finding controls etc?

[VBF-12 Stick]

I tried out the various positions in a M4A Sherman this morning. If I was claustrophobic, I'd be in bad shape as the driver. Can't lean forward yet for the periscope, really need the lighthouse for tracking. Was able to take out some tanks and half tracks at 2000 yards. Need to tweak the gun zoom controls somehow. Can find controls on the HOTAS without an issue, didn't even really think about it. Riding cross country unbuttoned is a blast.

Once the head tracking is up and running I will try a dogfight. In the meantime maybe I'll jump in a WWI kite and look at the landscape...

[VBF-12 Stick]

I received the Lighthouse today. Took me all day and some of the evening to get it working (switch of Pimax's USB port did the trick). Took a Spit out for a sortie. What a difference 6DoF makes, very smooth. The following actually happened. I brought my Spit in for a landing, brought it to a stop, shut down the engine, opened the canopy, and without thinking about it (obviously) I lifted my right elbow to rest it on the fuselage. I just laughed out loud.

[VBF-12 Gosling]

Lol Priceless. You need a cockpit.

[Kadin]

Hey, Stick
I have an Oculus Rift CV1 and what you describe is what I still feel! However, the resolution and the subsequent draw backs start coming into the picture. Target ID and even Plane attitude is difficult to figure out at distances more that 500 m or so. How are you doing with the Pimax on this topic?

[VBF-12 Stick]

Hi Kadin

Ya, I am new to VR so what I have been describing could be the same as what others feel with other HMDs. I have spent the last couple of days tweaking the settings to get a balance between quality and performance.  This includes getting the right IPD setting, PiTools vs SteamVR settings and game graphics.  nVidia settings I still need to look into.  I'm sure it's still a WIP but it's looking pretty good at the moment.  In general there is a trade off of the immersion  of the 3D experience and a wide FOV vs the crispness a monitor provides. I think it will be a while before we see monitor quality in an HMD.   From my own experience the trade off is worth it.   The brain is fooled into "feeling" what can never be experienced on a monitor.  Following a bandit seems more intuitive (maybe because tracking is 1:1) and gunnery seems easier.  The cockpit and plane are rendered very well.  Some of the smaller instruments on the panel can be a little blurry but if you need to see them as good as a monitor I do a quick zoom.

To answer your targeting question. I waited until I tweaked it before I went into aerial combat. I have also been flying only offline. In QMB, I have a standard gunnery setup of 8 bandits (no ammo) at 3500m coming head on from 10,000m distance while I, and 4 friendlies, are at 3000m. On my monitor (1440, 32") I can spot them pretty much the moment I spawn. I was surprised that on the 8K I can also spot them at the same time. As they approach their images are actually larger but less defined. What helps is a quick zoom to recognize friend vs foe, given the right attitude. Head on is always difficult. I find with the zoom I can ID at ~4000m. Without zoom it's ~1500m to 2000m. Under 1000m, they are pretty easy to ID. I currently use 350m convergence without any issue which is the same as before.  Spotting aircraft below doesn't seem to be an issue.

I have been spotting and strafing ground targets since I started without using Object ID. Certain targets are harder to spot, I think it's a matter of getting acclimated and also some tweaks to contrast, etc.

The biggest difference is checking six. Even with a wide FOV, getting around to look is difficult. What really helps are mirrors.

At the moment I am using the Ultra setting in game with certain settings turned down.

Next milestone is taking a spin in mp.

[VBF-12 Gosling]

Really useful info Stick, thanks.

[Kadin]

This is a very thorough response Stick!!. Exactly what I needed to know . It seems that the PiMax is much better than the CV1.
I totally agree on the immersion. Taking off, landing, flying, tracking and leading targets is so much more natural and thus enjoyable. Hehehe, about checking six. Very realistic indeed and makes you want improve your neck limberness, doesn't it . I think the standard monitor view, track IR or otherwise, does not do justice to the cockpits. So beautifully rendered and they shine in VR.
thank you

[VBF-12 Stick]

A few more thoughts. Before ever owning an HMD there were a few reasons why I choose the 8K vs the 5K+ based on input from many people who had tried them and as it related to IL-2.  There were many that went with the 5K+ instead for other games, etc.

ID at distance
Colors warmer (better skin tone, especially in movies)
Somewhat less SDE
No color banding
Blacks are darker, more contrast

Now that I have had time to actually try the 8K I can say this about these items.

ID at distance - As I mentioned above I can see bogeys at about the same distance as my monitor. To ID them takes something closer than it would on a monitor, but not by much.
Colors - they are nice, haven't seen anything that struck me as wrong hue, etc. Skins look great. The water and waves are as beautiful as ever. The blue of the sky is good. Forests and field are good. Winter maps look good. Flames on bandits, best of all.
SDE - If I stop whatever I'm doing and look at a color section of the screen I can find SDE. If, on the other hand, I'm flying, looking for bandits, checking engine settings, doing navigation, etc., I never see it.
Banding - I was more concerned about this than SDE. I haven't seen any banding. In IL-2 I would notice it most on my monitor on a nice clear blue sky. In the 8K, I have not noticed any banding.
Blacks - I have left the PiTools settings for brightness at default. In IL-2 I have gamma at 1. I may play with these in the future but things look pretty damn good right now.

How any of these things compares to the 5K+ I have no idea.

Here's something I checked today which surprised me but probably shouldn't have. I went into non-VR IL-2 today for the first time in a week. What I noticed was the horizontal and vertical FOV on my 16:9 monitor was more restrictive than the Normal view of the Pimax. With the monitor I adjusted the view settings to the widest possible and I still couldn't see as much as in Pimax. I never kept my monitor settings this wide anyway because it starts to get a distorted fish eye effect. I took some reference points if anyone wants to compare. In the 8K I took a Spit IX, default skin with a mirror. Looking straight ahead I am aligned with the gun sight and can see the top of the engine compartment, on the left and right peripherals I can see almost the entire red portion of both roundels on each wing. From top to bottom I can see sky above the mirror to the black metal piece about half way down the control column, so the entire instrument panel, rudder pedals, gear lever on right, etc.  I can lean forward to check things closer, or use zoom.   There is no fish eye distortion at all, it looks the way you would expect to if sitting in the cockpit. The prop and wing sizes and distances look spot on. The look of tracers is just gravy.

The thing with the difficulty checking six is the reason we need wingmen!

[VBF-12 Gosling]

You are selling this to me. Amazing.
I have to go down this route.

[VBF-12 Stick]

This is being released soon.

www.valvesoftware.com/en/index/headset

[VBF-12 Gosling]

Apr 30, 2019 14:21:13 GMT -5 VBF-12 Stick said:

This is being released soon.

www.valvesoftware.com/en/index/headset

That’s an impressive description but they are bound to talk it up. How many degrees of freedom will Two Base stations give?

Not sure about off ear headset for an aircraft application as our sounds are tuned to be helmet realistic - ie it’s suppose to sound like its inside your head, especially the radio comms.

We’d more opinions on this...

[VBF-12 Stick]

Since I have things pretty well set with the HMD, I asked my wife if she wanted to try flying. She is a complete noob to flying of any sort though she had briefly tried IL-2 on the monitor.  She had also never seen anything in VR.  I expected to hear the usual "No way" but instead she gave me a qualified yes. She wanted to see what it was like in a plane in VR without actually flying it. I had the Spit just spawned at 2000m waiting to hit "P". I told her she would be on autopilot so don't worry, just look around. She got settled with the HMD on and I hit unpause. Her eyes took a little while to adjust as I hadn't made an IPD adjustment. She started looking around.  As it started coming together she thought things looked pretty good.  She leaned to the left and looked down and said "whoa".  I then put in some aileron and said look again.  It was a definite wow moment.  I brought the plane lower for her to check out the city better.  After a minute or so she ask, how do I make it turn? I got the joystick in position and put her feet on the pedals. Told her to be gentle on the stick. She made several low passes over the city when she spotted the oil tanks. Next thing I know she is wailing away with the cannons at them. She flew low out over the water gained altitude, trying to keep her eyes on the tanks and made a few more runs. She also made low runs over forest.  "Hey, I'm doing pretty good!"  After running out of ammo, she said it was OK to end. Her comment that stuck was, "I never got IT playing the other way, THIS I get."