I have seen the future pun intended

[GOAT-ACEOFACES]

As some of you may know, I work for a small software/hardware group that supports military testing.. And one of the guys has been following the Oculus HMD development.. We have been looking at ways to use the Oculus to control some of our remote tracking mount and remote controlled vehicles.. At this point it is just research on our part, just trying to keep current, read no requirements to do this..

 

We recently received the newest Oculus Development Kit II (DK2).. We tried a few of the demos that are out there, and than I recalled seeing the Oculus option in the DCS world software, which by the way I have been playing recently. I never really got into DCS simulators due to the poor network code that has been an issue ever since the first LockOn product, but with the recent release of the F-86 I figured I would take another look.. It was at that time that I noticed DCS had Oculus support listed in the options. So, I told the guys and we installed DCS world on one of our development PCs at work to test it out.

 

Now keep in mind, I played my 1st flight sim back in 1985 and have been playing combat flight sims since around 1991 (Red Baron, AOTP, SWOTL, CYAC, etc) and I have been keeping an eye on HDM development for the past 15 years or so, I have seen several false starts and none of them were worth the price they were asking anyways.. But I knew someday the HMD would be the holy grail of gaming. Also know that I have been using TIR for years, ever since it first came out! But, I have not really been following the whole 3D craze of the past few years.. Basically just not that interested, based on nothing really, other than when I have gone to a 3D moving, I was not all that impressed, nor was I impressed with some of the current 3D TV displays.. I 'think' it never really impressed me because, there was always the 'real' world within view (peripheral view) that 'spoiled' the immersion into the 3D simulation.. Long story short, I am not easily impressed! But when I put that Oculus DK2 on, and fired up DCS with the TF-51 Mustang

 

OMG!

 

The 3D was amazing! I have never felt so immersed in a game! The depth of the dashboard and cockpit in general and sizing was perfect!

 

The immersion is better in flight simulators and car racing games because you are actually sitting down, where as in FPS your not, I mean when my elbow hit the armrest of the chair I was sitting in I looked down and saw the control panel of the cockpit which provided the que to my brain that my elbow hit the control panel.. And the way you could look around in the cockpit and new Oculus is true 6DOF so you can lean all around and man oh man, you really feel like your sitting in a TF-51

 

Sadly, I don't think everyone will be able to make use of it! If you are someone that gets car sick when reading a book, or gets motion sickness when using TIR, you may not be able to make use of the Oculus. Even I could only play it for about 20min before I started to feel a bit 'weird' and I have a very high tolerance for motion sickness.. But a lot of that may improve with time, it only takes a little lag to make some people sick and there is some jitter in the current version that they are working on..

 

All in all, the future is finally hear wrt HMD and I think in the next year or two they will have it good enough for most people to make use of it.. Basically this is the most exciting hardware for PC flight simming since the advent of the joystick IMHO!

Edited August 30, 2014 by ACEOFACES

[1PL-Banzai-1Esk]

Nice read. Now try Elite:Dangerous , it will really blow your mind. When I first launched Elite in DK2 I said the same words as you , 'I have seen the future'.

[oneeyeddog]

As some of you may know, I work for a small software/hardware group that supports military testing.. And one of the guys has been following the Oculus HMD development.. We have been looking at ways to use the Oculus to control some of our remote tracking mount and remote controlled vehicles.. At this point it is just research on our part, just trying to keep current, read no requirements to do this..

 

We recently received the newest Oculus Development Kit II (DK2).. We tried a few of the demos that are out there, and than I recalled seeing the Oculus option in the DCS world software, which by the way I have been playing recently. I never really got into DCS simulators due to the poor network code that has been an issue ever since the first LockOn product, but with the recent release of the F-86 I figured I would take another look.. It was at that time that I noticed DCS had Oculus support listed in the options. So, I told the guys and we installed DCS world on one of our development PCs at work to test it out.

 

Now keep in mind, I played my 1st flight sim back in 1985 and have been playing combat flight sims since around 1991 (Red Baron, AOTP, SWOTL, CYAC, etc) and I have been keeping an eye on HDM development for the past 15 years or so, I have seen several false starts and none of them were worth the price they were asking anyways.. But I knew someday the HMD would be the holy grail of gaming. Also know that I have been using TIR for years, ever since it first came out! But, I have not really been following the whole 3D craze of the past few years.. Basically just not that interested, based on nothing really, other than when I have gone to a 3D moving, I was not all that impressed, nor was I impressed with some of the current 3D TV displays.. I 'think' it never really impressed me because, there was always the 'real' world within view (peripheral view) that 'spoiled' the immersion into the 3D simulation.. Long story short, I am not easily impressed! But when I put that Oculus DK2 on, and fired up DCS with the TF-51 Mustang

 

OMG!

 

The 3D was amazing! I have never felt so immersed in a game! The depth of the dashboard and cockpit in general and sizing was perfect!

 

The immersion is better in flight simulators and car racing games because you are actually sitting down, where as in FPS your not, I mean when my elbow hit the armrest of the chair I was sitting in I looked down and saw the control panel of the cockpit which provided the que to my brain that my elbow hit the control panel.. And the way you could look around in the cockpit and new Oculus is true 6DOF so you can lean all around and man oh man, you really feel like your sitting in a TF-51

 

Sadly, I don't think everyone will be able to make use of it! If you are someone that gets car sick when reading a book, or gets motion sickness when using TIR, you may not be able to make use of the Oculus. Even I could only play it for about 20min before I started to feel a bit 'weird' and I have a very high tolerance for motion sickness.. But a lot of that may improve with time, it only takes a little lag to make some people sick and there is some jitter in the current version that they are working on..

 

All in all, the future is finally hear wrt HMD and I think in the next year or two they will have it good enough for most people to make use of it.. Basically this is the most exciting hardware for PC flight simming since the advent of the joystick IMHO!

Thanks for posting your impressions on this.

[DD_bongodriver]

Welcome to the new era ACE........we have cookies!

[GOAT-ACEOFACES]

Welcome to the new era ACE........we have cookies!

Hey Bongo!

 

I read a few of the Oculus post here and see that you got one! NICE! I love the 3D, but, what with the advent of 4K monitors for phones, I think Ill wait a little longer for the Oculus that makes use of those screens, which should fix the screen door (pixels) look.

[DD_bongodriver]

 

 

I think Ill wait a little longer for the Oculus that makes use of those screens

 

Sensible, right now the tech is only able to satisfy curiosities and provide light and casual entertainment with a hint of 'WHOOAAA!!' but not any meaningful application beyond that yet, I don't think the first consumer unit will be 4K but I do believe it will be completely up to the task.

[GOAT-ACEOFACES]

yeah who am I kidding, I wont be able to wait for the 4k version, but I think I will wait for the consumer version

[AA_Engadin]

To add more sweetness to the sweet, a winner team, imho, is Oculus Rift + Leap Motion, shows in this video how our hands could look like and interact in a clickable cockpit (*) in a close future, hopefully:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ATQG9mnm34

 

And remember, Leap Motion is a 80$ device (+ 20$ for the mount on OR). I must admit I am NOT involved in any way on the Leap Motion project as it might look like, but I am a big fan of the combo. 

 

Source: http://recode.net/2014/08/28/leap-motion-hooks-up-to-oculus-for-controller-free-virtual-reality/

 

AA_Engadin

 

(*) I know, I know, a clickable cockpit is not in the forseeable BoS's future but I always think that good ideas like this always find their way in. 

 

 

 

 

 

[GOAT-ACEOFACES]

Yeah we were checking out the hands demo, we are thinking of getting one, just for research purposes!

[AA_Engadin]

 Get us updated mate, please. Thanks! I have the dream of once the sim is released for good, devs will enjoy a well deserved relaxation period. And afterwards, who knows, perhaps they make up their minds to make it even better. An a clickable cockpit would take it up to the Olympus of sims after implementing OR compatibility. 

 

Anyway dreaming is free. 

 

AA_Engadin