VR incoming to MSFS 22th December!

[YoYo]

VR incoming to MSFS 22nd December - Finally!

VR By Christmas

Perhaps one of the most requested features by people for the new simulator is the implementation of Virtual Reality. Over the past few weeks the team has been testing in a closed beta environment, but “the feedback has been so good” that the team feel they are now ready to release it for everyone. Coming in Sim Update #2, releasing on December 22nd 2020, Virtual Reality will be added completely free of charge the simulator for all headsets. Whilst it was originally announced to be restricted to only a specific few headsets, it’s now confirmed that all VR headsets will work with the simulator. The VR experience will include the menu system as well to provide the most seamless experience possible.

[YoYo]

And what is good for many not only for Windows Mixed Reality but for other headsets too.

[UnknownGuest12]

Never try, but tempting. Suggestions for a good, affordable headset?
Thanks

[YoYo]

Never try, but tempting. Suggestions for a good, affordable headset?
Thanks

Which GPU do you have?

[BananaBob]

I was looking at the Oculus Rift headset with controllers for around $400 but then I read you have to have Facebook, so that's a no go for me. The others I looked at were low ratings or were out of my range money wise. So I'll keep looking, curious to what others think of options.

[odourboy]

I hate to be the downer Dan, but I can't maintain 30 FPS now in many situations. How bad is VR going yo be?

[ryanbatc]

I hate to be the downer Dan, but I can't maintain 30 FPS now in many situations. How bad is VR going yo be?

I tend to agree. You already need a monster system to get smooth 2k/4k performance as it is. I'm still getting stutters at 1080P with a GTX 1080 Ti - and that card is no slouch.

I played P3D on a friend's PC with Occulus (the newer one) and it was kinda meh. It made me a little sick with all the stutters. He had a pretty monster system for P3D v4 (10700K / RTX 2080 / 32GB ram).

[UnknownGuest12]

Which GPU do you have?

Hi, Nvidia 1080 32 ram...wondering about the new 3080 when available here in Portugal if not to pricey.

[YoYo]

Hi, Nvidia 1080 32 ram...wondering about the new 3080 when available here in Portugal if not to pricey.

For 1080 > take Oculus Rift "S" (exactly this version), but I advise against using 1080 or 1080Ti for VR and MSFS, you will see stutter. Minimum is 2070. Rift S on this GPU will be ok for P3Dv5, not for MSFS.
For 3080 > HP Reverb G2. Here will be ok with this GPU (but we'll see what optimizations will be in December). MSFS is CPU hungry too.

[Daube]

I was looking at the Oculus Rift headset with controllers for around $400 but then I read you have to have Facebook, so that's a no go for me. The others I looked at were low ratings or were out of my range money wise. So I'll keep looking, curious to what others think of options.

As others said, it will mostly depend on what kind of video card you have.
Can you tell us a bit more about your current hardware ?
There are several range of VR headset, maybe you will need to fallback on an older generation (which means, lower resolution in the helmet, then smoother performance).
Concerning the performance of the sim, it all depends on your hardware AND your settings.
For VR, you'll have to set a few settings lower than usual. That doesn't necessarily mean "ugly" at all.

[UnknownGuest12]

Thanks YoYo, think I´ll pass...one is too expensive and another needs facebook? nope, no facebook user here (we are two BananaBob)...

[BananaBob]

As others said, it will mostly depend on what kind of video card you have.
Can you tell us a bit more about your current hardware ?
There are several range of VR headset, maybe you will need to fallback on an older generation (which means, lower resolution in the helmet, then smoother performance).
Concerning the performance of the sim, it all depends on your hardware AND your settings.
For VR, you'll have to set a few settings lower than usual. That doesn't necessarily mean "ugly" at all.

I have the i5 9600 CPU, RTX 2070 Super and 32GB of DDR4 memory.

[BananaBob]

Yeah I read on the net (always suspect) that they originally said they wouldn't require people to have facebook but then went back on their word. I guess they are owned by facebook, which sucks.

[Daube]

An RTX 2070 is a good GPU.
I've heard very good feedback from a member of the beta testing for VR who has only a GTX 1080, an i7 8700k and a Samsung Odyssey+ helmet (1400x1600 per eye if I'm not mistaken). He told the performance is surprisingly good and smoothness is higher than he expected.
If you don't want an Occulus Rift S, then you might want to consider one of the "Windows Mixed Reality" (WMR) headsets, like the Samsung Odyssey+ for example.
Yes, the resolution won't be as nice as in the Reverb G2, but the price is not the same either.

Anyways, now is not the time to buy.
Wait until you get more feedback after the VR patch for MSFS is released, on 22nd of December.

[BananaBob]

An RTX 2070 is a good GPU.
I've heard very good feedback from a member of the beta testing for VR who has only a GTX 1080, an i7 8700k and a Samsung Odyssey+ helmet (1400x1600 per eye if I'm not mistaken). He told the performance is surprisingly good and smoothness is higher than he expected.
If you don't want an Occulus Rift S, then you might want to consider one of the "Windows Mixed Reality" (WMR) headsets, like the Samsung Odyssey+ for example.
Yes, the resolution won't be as nice as in the Reverb G2, but the price is not the same either.

Anyways, now is not the time to buy.
Wait until you get more feedback after the VR patch for MSFS is released, on 22nd of December.

Thanks!

[YoYo]

I've heard very good feedback from a member of the beta testing for VR who has only a GTX 1080,

My friend has 1080 and Odyssey also, he bought the new GPU (last week) after VR tests in MSFS (beta) because, as he claims, the simulator was unplayble on this card simply.
The situation was somewhat remedied by re-projection for 30 now but as he said it was an slideshow still, better as it was but slideshow even on low settings.

Its easy to check (or quite easy) - if your sim runs 100% more or more of your half refresh rate of your HMD - will be ok in VR or near OK. For example - if you have stable 60 fps on 2D screen it will be ok in VR with 30 Hz / 30 fps, or 90 fps, will be ok on 45 Hz with 45 fps. It's a very simple translation, but that's more or less the relationship. Unfortunately VR (in simulators) is demanding. MS did now new kind of reprojection and for example you can use 30Hz on for example 90Hz HMD, but probably the differences are very visible. However, VR experiences are amazing and I will never go back to 2D again ;D (just for some short tests sometimes).

[Daube]

I would be very careful about the reports of bad performance.
Many people get bad performance in VR in any game because they either set their settings too high, for example regarding the anti-aliasing, or in-game settings, etc...
Nevertheless, we should NOT ignore these reports of bad performance, you are right.
That's why I said to wait until the patch is released and we get a little more information about what kind of settings people are trying to use

[Daube]

Its easy to check (or quite easy) - if your sim runs 100% more or more of your half refresh rate of your HMD - will be ok in VR or near OK. For example - if you have stable 60 fps on 2D screen it will be ok in VR with 30 Hz / 30 fps, or 90 fps, will be ok on 45 Hz with 45 fps. It's a very simple translation, but that's more or less the relationship. Unfortunately VR (in simulators) is demanding. MS did now new kind of reprojection and for example you can use 30Hz on for example 90Hz HMD, but probably the differences are very visible. However, VR experiences are amazing and I will never go back to 2D again ;D (just for some short tests sometimes).

The logic is correct, but I would like to comment on one point: you are not going to use the same settings in VR mode than on normal screen.

On normal screen, you probably want to use high resolution texture, and very high display distance for small details. And add a good antialiasing level on top of that.
In VR helmets (excepted a Reverb G2 maybe), you cannot see the very distant details because of the lower resolution and the lenses. Same goes for the textures details.
AntiAliasing is another issue, it becomes a real FPS-killer in VR, while its efficiency becomes close to zero.
Once you reduce some of these settings, suddenly your FPS raises drastically. But some people are just unable to do that. That's why we need to wait until we can get more feedback from more people.

[YoYo]

[YoYo]

Today is a great day for VR users , we will see ?!

[FlyingsCool]

My opinion is it depends on your cash situation, and how important it is to you.

Personally, I think the smartest idea would be to wait till the next generation of headsets. As VR becomes more popular, prices will come down, and/or tech will increase a lot for the same price.

At the same time, it will give Asobo time to iron out issues that are sure to come up.

But, if you've got cash to burn, might as well jump in. Seems to me the Reverb G2 is the set to get.

My son just bought the Index, whole kit and caboodle. But I'm thinking, if I were to jump in, I'd only get the headset, as I'll be using my joystick, Ch throttle quad, and rudder pedals and a mouse, so I won't need the hand controllers since flight sim is the only place I'll use it.

Regarding cost, is $600 really that much more than $400 when you'll be using it over a multi-month period? Can you come up with another $200 in a month or two?

Here's a decent (oldish now, from earlier this year) review of what's available today for flightsim https://futureguests.com/best-flight-sim-vr-headset/
It doesn't cover the Rverb G2, though.

[YoYo]

[YoYo]

Its out!



The patch is big, 1Gb + 13,67Gb.

[Navy Chief]

Its out!



The patch is big, 1Gb + 13,67Gb.

YoYo,

I have downloaded/installed the update, but haven't tried using VR yet (been at PC too long today, so may have to wait until tomorrow); but what is your opinion so far? NC

[Cazzie]

As Banana Bob said, the Oculus Rift is hard to beat for the price. I cannot use the devices as I am blind in my left eye. I prefer the Track IR devices.

Cazzie