VR Hardware Setup Returning To IL-2

[Kandiru]

My days of joy were interrupted in 2003 when breeding season started in our family. Now that they are more independent, time to return to the fold.

 

Here is what I scrambled together in a hurry, please let me know where I could improve:

 

1. Dell Aurora R7, based on multiple benchmarks and after a lot of reading:

 

Intel i7K 8700K (6-Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology)

460W APFC PSU Liquid Cooled Chassis

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X

32GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2666MHz (2X16GB)

256GB M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive

2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 

 

2. Vive Pro. LG 34WK650 UW 1080p HDR basic monitor.

 

3. Wheel Stand Pro for HOTAS. Plan on drilling and likely downsizing mid plate for the VirPil.

 

4. VPC MongoosT-50CM Flightstick with extension kit, oh yeah the one with the cyrillic inscriptions, to remind me of our old masters in Eastern EU.

    I am planning on bolting into the wheel stand.

 

5. TM Warthog throttles.

 

6. MFG Crosswing pedals with adjustment plates set, 6'3" guy here.

 

I still have the diamond plate from my old setup so I may Velcro everything into it.

 

I am very excited to get back into my Győr made  BF-109G in 101st livery.

Edited August 4, 2018 by Kandiru

[dburne]

Welcome back and have fun!

Looks like a very nice rig there.

 

You are going to love IL-2 in VR!

Edited July 6, 2018 by dburne

[Kandiru]

Thank You!

[-332FG-Gordon200]

Using SSD is a must.

Ditch the spinning hard drive and go solid state.

Welcome back.

[dburne]

He's got an M2 SSD there. 

Assuming of course he is going to install IL-2 on it...

 

If that is a 460W power supply that seems a little thin.

Edited July 7, 2018 by dburne

[Kandiru]

On 7/6/2018 at 8:37 PM, Gordon200 said:

Using SSD is a must.

Ditch the spinning hard drive and go solid state.

Welcome back.

 

On 7/6/2018 at 9:13 PM, dburne said:

He's got an M2 SSD there. 

Assuming of course he is going to install IL-2 on it...

 

If that is a 460W power supply that seems a little thin.

 

Thank you both for pointing me in the right direction.

 

Canceled the old setup, here is the new Aurora R7 I ordered:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intel® Core™ i7 8700K (6-Core/12-Thread, 12MB Cache, up to 4.7GHz w/ Intel® Turbo Boost Technology)

Alienware™ 850 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Performance Liquid Cooling

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB GDDR5X

64GB Dual Channel HyperX™ DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz

1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

Windows 10 Pro (64bit) English

BDRE Drive (Reads and Writes to Blu-Ray disks)

Killer 1535 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I paid 3385.33 before tax after the 540 instant savings and the 250 additional discount along with free one year on site service from a nice chatwallah, IMHO nothing else prepacked comes even remotely close, heck even adding the parts on NewEgg was around 3100.  I will get a 1500W sine wave PSU a a basic monitor for this VR baby.

 

Man am I excited now, am I psyched, like badly, time for self-medication?

 

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Kandiru

[dburne]

Nice looking rig there congrats!

I will have to keep that in mind. I am planning a new build later on in the year and things have changed somewhat on my end. I have been

doing my own builds for many years but not sure how well I would do with them now.

[BeastyBaiter]

Should work well, provided you can overclock the CPU. My only concern is that it's made by Dell, they have a reputation for terrible quality components.

[Kandiru]

I have toyed and toyed with the Odyssey but cannot fix the lenses pushing right into my glasses issue, light spillage even with the aftermarket velour edge trim, and I keep reading about tracking issues. I played with the Vive Pro at the Win store and it is much easier to apply and wear, I could play it in total darkness in my bat cave HT with the transmitter cubes, so ended up ordering the package from HTC and returning the Odyssey. Double the price but I want comfort and will not sacrifice resolution.

 

The VPC T50 and MFGs are still en route, can't wait to start. I got the Warthog adapter for the WheelStandPro, one more hole and it will fit the lateral T50 mounting requirements.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Odyssey here, no tracking issues so far. It's true, it needs light to work properly. Light spillage was at the sides, I fitted the aftermarket velour around, so no light would leak in. I've heard the Vive Pro has difficult lenses. I hope it fits well for you.

 

 

Note aside, it seems like any VR device works best when wearing contacts. I also used them, then got my eyes lasered. It's something I recommend, you'll curse every day you have hesitated with this, later. Anyway, good luck that it fits this time! And welcome aboard!

[Kandiru]

1 hour ago, SCG_Fenris_Wolf said:

Odyssey here, no tracking issues so far. It's true, it needs light to work properly. Light spillage was at the sides, I fitted the aftermarket velour around, so no light would leak in. I've heard the Vive Pro has difficult lenses. I hope it fits well for you.

 

 

Note aside, it seems like any VR device works best when wearing contacts. I also used them, then got my eyes lasered. It's something I recommend, you'll curse every day you have hesitated with this, later. Anyway, good luck that it fits this time! And welcome aboard!

Thank You! I am glad you like the Odyssey and it fits well, sound is superior and the extra 10mm of Fresnel lens should give less aberation. I will not have surgery or wear contacts and want a comfortable set. 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Kandiru

[Aloha-Snackbar]

12 hours ago, SCG_Fenris_Wolf said:

Odyssey here, no tracking issues so far. It's true, it needs light to work properly. Light spillage was at the sides, I fitted the aftermarket velour around, so no light would leak in. I've heard the Vive Pro has difficult lenses. I hope it fits well for you.

 

 

Note aside, it seems like any VR device works best when wearing contacts. I also used them, then got my eyes lasered. It's something I recommend, you'll curse every day you have hesitated with this, later. Anyway, good luck that it fits this time! And welcome aboard!

 

would that be the VR Cover aftermarket velour padding?

 

and I can only +1 on the eye lasering. Its a real game changer. And by game i mean life.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Life is a game ?

 

P.S. Yeah it's from VRCover. I got a 2in1 pack, with two covers. I fit them both at the same time, one stretched out around the inner one. Distributes pressure over larger space as well. It's quite convenient.

 

I'd recommend to try of those from here though: http://www.vrelitegear.com/

They look much bigger - the Samsung required similar ones to the HTC's, don't get these made for the Rift for your Samsung. ?

[Kandiru]

I have now 24 hours or so of solid training fun. Man, the FW-190 stalls easy but adjusting sensitivities helps, and diving at 800km/h watching wings snap off bombers in one volley is fun.

FPS at 85-90 with standard settings.

Vive Pro very comfortable. The immersion puts TrackIR to shame, amazing how the body "feels" the forces, after nausea goes away. VR is the way I will always play now.

Love the Warthog throttle, all those A-10 buttons got new labels.

I BT paired the base stations to the PC, first had to delete them from Win Device Manager, after I installed the special driver from the STEAM VR app. 

 

Got a T16000m since the Virpil and MFG are dragging out more than a month, M2 holes match one of the WheelStandPro bases perfectly.

 

Here are my hiccups:

 

 1. I CANNOT bind the hat and button 3 to the arrows/enter or joystick, tried Joy2Key and TARGET also.

 

2. Cannot link acounts. No more CD key in Steam, linking with 1C does not want to happen. Steam removed the keys, it just says "activated".

 

3. BT connected HTC base stations will not turn off afte a minute although I have that marked in the SteamVR Settings. Earlier they received the wireless firmware update so I know connection is not an issue.

 

4. Someone drew a line at 0 and 180 degree parallels, I cannot see behind me at all, both in Gustav and Focke-Wulf.

 

10yo hijacking dad's setup, seat removed, Beat Saber is awesome BTW:)

 

 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2018 by Kandiru

[JonRedcorn]

Try deleting your startup.cfg file in the bin folder. See if that fixes the log in problems. That or restart steam. And literally 1k bucks of that setup was the 64 gigs of ddr4 you bought, no idea why you did that but hey it's your money!

Edited August 6, 2018 by JonRedcorn

[skline00]

Kandiru, I love the photo of your son "highjacking the rig". 

 

I can relate. My grandson, 6, has "borrowed" my Oculus Rift setup so he can play Marvel's Powers United VR. I should get it back this week sometime so I can try out Il2 in VR.

[BP_Lizard]

You’ve come up with the best use of a threadmill. 

?

[Kandiru]

Thank you all for replies. Son is devastated now that he is back to PS4VR, as I am returning the Vive Pro. I thought it was all going reasonably until the latest beta and 3DMigoto install using JSGME. Not only the mod did not work, but controllers are not recognized in VR with Steam wanting me use keyboard and mouse,  Joy2Key persistently and irreversibly minimized (fixed it though, great tech support BTW), stuttering. Reinstalled everything, no luck, base stations which earlier registered and updated via BT now not discovered but still good for tracking. This in addition to all the pixellation, stuttering on busy servers,  God-rays, photopsias, low plane identification rates, and crummy distance spotting, with frame rate drops, and non-stop fooling around removing the HMD to see keys and lack of overlay software and VR gloves allowing on the fly virtual button pushes.   Don't get me wrong, the action was beautiful at close range. The heat in the HMD, fogging on my glasses, smearing from the trim just additional hassle.  Just a few little spins in non-VR with breathtaking views and clear targets and no stutter convinced me it is time to get off the Kool-Aid.

 

I am returning the Vive Pro along with the LG 34WK650 basic monitor and getting a 3440x1440 curvie with a custom http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_alienware_aw3418dw.htm calibration profile,  TrackIR on left

top corner and Pro Clip on the AKG 702s with Blue Yeti Pro, I want beautiful fluid action and great sound.

 

I will be following the VR discussion with interest, once the next revolution in computing allows proper real-life refresh rates and resolutions beyond just panel specifications without need for messing with Steam VR endless betas (is that weird, I thought normal companies follow the beta with a stable version) and code lines I will return for sure.

 

And yes, as some remarked, i am privileged to be able to afford all of this, but I work hard helping people without robbing or hurting them, and pay taxes, etc. etc.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Kandiru

[JonRedcorn]

On 8/19/2018 at 7:17 AM, Kandiru said:

Thank you all for replies. Son is devastated now that he is back to PS4VR, as I am returning the Vive Pro. I thought it was all going reasonably until the latest beta and 3DMigoto install using JSGME. Not only the mod did not work, but controllers are not recognized in VR with Steam wanting me use keyboard and mouse,  Joy2Key persistently and irreversibly minimized (fixed it though, great tech support BTW), stuttering. Reinstalled everything, no luck, base stations which earlier registered and updated via BT now not discovered but still good for tracking. This in addition to all the pixellation, stuttering on busy servers,  God-rays, photopsias, low plane identification rates, and crummy distance spotting, with frame rate drops, and non-stop fooling around removing the HMD to see keys and lack of overlay software and VR gloves allowing on the fly button virtual button pushes.   Don't get me wrong, the action was beautiful at close range. The heat in the HMD, fogging on my glasses, smearing from the trim just additional hassle.  Just a few little spins in non-VR with breathtaking views and clear targets and no stutter convinced me it is time to get off the Kool-Aid.

 

I am returning the Vive Pro along with the LG 34WK650 basic monitor and getting a 3440x1440 curvie with a custom http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_alienware_aw3418dw.htm calibration profile,  TrackIR on left

top corner and Pro Clip on the AKG 702s with Blue Yeti Pro, I want beautiful fluid action and great sound.

 

I will be following the VR discussion with interest, once the next revolution in computing allows proper real-life refresh rates and resolutions beyond just panel specifications without need for messing with Steam VR endless betas (is that weird, I thought normal companies follow the beta with a stable version) and code lines I will return for sure.

 

And yes, as some remarked, i am privileged to be able to afford all of this, but I work hard helping people without robbing or hurting them, and pay taxes, etc. etc.

Seems like you just didn't really care for it, most of those issues could have easily been solved, mostly by opting out of the steamvr beta... You do you!

Edited August 21, 2018 by 15th_JonRedcorn

[Ceowulf]

I only skimmed this thread because I should be doing something else so forgive me if I’m being redundant.  

 

I couldn’t ever get joy2key working after reading all threads here.   However, SVmapper worked fine for every purpose WHEN I ran it in administrator mode.  

 

Cool rig rig by the way.  

 

Ceowulf<><

[Kandiru]

2 hours ago, Ceowulf said:

I only skimmed this thread because I should be doing something else so forgive me if I’m being redundant.  

 

I couldn’t ever get joy2key working after reading all threads here.   However, SVmapper worked fine for every purpose WHEN I ran it in administrator mode.  

 

Cool rig rig by the way.  

 

Ceowulf<><

Thank You. Joytokey has a learning curve, the YouTube tutorials helped a lot. Tech support within 24h helped me debug a persistent tray minimization issue.