This experience is amazing

[JG27_Steini]

Hello gentlemen,

 

i had a lot of complaints over the last years about some left behind aspects of the game. But lovings simulation for over 25 years now, i keep flying and flying this sim. I heard alot about VR and wanted to try it. I could not believe that i can change my mind about the game. What should i say. VR experience is amazing in this game. I dont know much about VR products, but my HP reverb G2 seems to be very solid. 

 

The way you can look around in the cockpit and seeing many things you have never noticed. You wanna touch every screw or gauge in the cocktpit, you keep looking at the instructions and switches. It really is amazing. So i want to encourage you to try out VR, you will never wann fly anything other.

 

Last but not least. If you might think planes are good to go for VR tanks are a lot more interessting. I dont have any words about how realistic you feel inside a tank and finally can use the periscopes. I spend many hours just to watch the gauges and mechanics in the tanks moving.

 

Gentlemen try out VR and buy Tank Crew. You will never forget.

[ITAF_Rani]

Agree with you..I fly IL2 in Vr since November 2020....and is a game changer..

Simlpy you fly your plane "in" and not in front of a monitor....

Wonderfull experience ...

The devs have made incredible job

[Jade_Monkey]

I agree, the VR experience is really good and tanks are even more impressive. Poking your head out of the gunner's hatch it's quite the experience.

 

The first few times you are in the cockpit/hull you realize how much 3D work is done by the devs. It's just very hard to appreciate it in a monitor.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

10 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

I agree, the VR experience is really good and tanks are even more impressive. Poking your head out of the gunner's hatch it's quite the experience.

 

On 8/7/2021 at 7:54 AM, JG27_Steini said:

Last but not least. If you might think planes are good to go for VR tanks are a lot more interessting. I dont have any words about how realistic you feel inside a tank and finally can use the periscopes. I spend many hours just to watch the gauges and mechanics in the tanks moving.

These comments have left me wondering; don't you have the problem that IL2 keeps resetting the head position when you're in the gunner's seat? Meaning the camera keeps slowly moving towards its starting position, which is incredibly annoying and leads to motion sickness. It makes some tanks and vehicles effectively unusable, especially the GAZ-MM (though technically not part of TC) where I'm completely unable to look through the visor because my head remains to the right of it.

 

Is there something in your settings why you don't experience this problem?

[Lusekofte]

Yes this game is amazing in my old Rift S 

I like a wider perspective but it is what it is. This game is the only one I fly exclusive 

VR. One loose some valuable things in other

[kestrel79]

I still have that reaction when fly VR. Just looking around at everything is fun. 

[BornToBattle]

I originally flew IL2 in the Rift, then in the Rift S and now the HP G2 Reverb and when the next gen VR comes out with even greater resolution and wider FOV invest in that too, as IL2 in VR really is that good.

[JLean]

I fully agree and cannot recommend VR enough. The "being there feeling" in this game is amazing. And it works fine for me with eyeglasses and in "low cost" Rift S

 

Of course you need good enough graphics card. I have been happy with my  GTX 3060.  

 

 JLean  

[Lusekofte]

My first VR trip was with mates in FNBF in a IL 2.

I got shocked how big that plane was. And everything was so damn cool.

IL 2 is great in VR. You really cannot se backwards anyway. But use gunner for that.

For some time I had the same feel as I had when flying a sim first time

[Feathered_IV]

Sounds like the jump from mouse look to trackir back in the old days.  Hopefully the price of the headsets comes down over time.  They are still well into the luxury category at the moment. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

5 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

Sounds like the jump from mouse look to trackir back in the old days.  Hopefully the price of the headsets comes down over time.  They are still well into the luxury category at the moment. 

True, but coming down fast. I use an Oculus Quest 2 that I bought for €350. Still expensive, but nowhere near the €1000 upwards from a while back.

[Lusekofte]

43 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

Sounds like the jump from mouse look to trackir back in the old days.  Hopefully the price of the headsets comes down over time.  They are still well into the luxury category at the moment. 

To me it is the sensation of sitting in a ww2 plane. See how big it is.

But the continious race for VR Vs GPU is unbearable. 

My Rift S got problems. Bought a Reverb G2 . Now probably need a jump to 30 series.

If you can do without. I wont reccomend it.

I was planning to wait until a mor comfortable headset came along. It is like having a humid watercloset strapped to your face in hot days.

Edited August 9, 2021 by LuseKofte

[Talisman]

On 8/7/2021 at 5:54 AM, JG27_Steini said:

Hello gentlemen,

 

i had a lot of complaints over the last years about some left behind aspects of the game. But lovings simulation for over 25 years now, i keep flying and flying this sim. I heard alot about VR and wanted to try it. I could not believe that i can change my mind about the game. What should i say. VR experience is amazing in this game. I dont know much about VR products, but my HP reverb G2 seems to be very solid. 

 

The way you can look around in the cockpit and seeing many things you have never noticed. You wanna touch every screw or gauge in the cocktpit, you keep looking at the instructions and switches. It really is amazing. So i want to encourage you to try out VR, you will never wann fly anything other.

 

Last but not least. If you might think planes are good to go for VR tanks are a lot more interessting. I dont have any words about how realistic you feel inside a tank and finally can use the periscopes. I spend many hours just to watch the gauges and mechanics in the tanks moving.

 

Gentlemen try out VR and buy Tank Crew. You will never forget.

And if you don't have Flying Circus then try that out in VR because it is brilliant and the visibility issues of flying WW1 aircraft on a flat screen just go away.  Looking over the side of the cockpits in those old crates can give you vertigo, lol.

 

Happy landings,

 

Talisman

[Voyager]

I agree with the Flying Circus recommendation. Open cockpit is absolutely visceral in VR, and you get to realize just how much of a chewing gum and bailing wire contraption you're in.

 

Seriously, the Bristol's pilot is, essentially, sitting in a wicker lawn chair strapped to a fuel tank. 

 

Plus, WWI aviation does not require the same level of distance vision or hardware performance that later eras do, so there's time for the hardware to catch up. 

 

The hardware will come down, but I'd expect it to be a while. While apparently you can do human vision with only 8 megapixels of video data, it needs around 580 MP of display space and eye tracking based foveated rendering to get there. 

 

Addendum: Based on this, I'm thinking they may mean 8MP per eye: What is the Resolution of the Human Eye?
https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/what-is-the-resolution-of-the-human-eye/

 

But even 16MP (2x4K) will probably be within the range of high end GPUs in a couple of years, so it's likely to be achievable. 

[LLv24_SukkaVR]

12 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

You really cannot se backwards anyway. But use gunner for that.

 

I can clip my head through the canopy and check my six in a way that simply wasn't possible with TIR. Feels like cheating. DCS has the same problem. I wish the head movement was limited so you couldn't move your head through the canopy.

[Sketch]

14 minutes ago, LLv24_Sukka24 said:

 

I can clip my head through the canopy and check my six in a way that simply wasn't possible with TIR. Feels like cheating. DCS has the same problem. I wish the head movement was limited so you couldn't move your head through the canopy.

In Expert mode (or when you disable external views), you can not clip your head through the canopy.

[GOA_Karaya_VR]

Right now, i introduce a teamate/friend to the VR world in Il-2 that flew with me many many years ago ( by the time of CFS 1 ), and the funny was that he dont believe me that this change his perspective of the simulation forever; the same day after he tries my Vr headset he order a HP Reberb G2,  and now the fella are attached literally to his seat fliying hours and hours! ? .

 

As personal comment , the only issue that i have is the tremendous neck pain while been checking my 6 , oh my god .. i wish that trackIR'ers put our shoes some day and feel what is checking your 6 for real ? ( its a joke fellas ).

 

S!

[Zeev]

I have bought Reverb G2 recently as well and unfortunately there are some issues I am still having as I did with first Oculus model, like blurry aim, I also feel a little bit dizzy when flying, did not happen with Oculus. Does not happen in simulation game like VTOL (which I really enjoy flying). My specs are i7-9700K, RTX2080ti, 16 GB RAM.
Could you share your settings? Even screenshot of video settings could help.

Everyone telling the VR experience is amazing yet I still fail getting immersed in this game, you could argue its my headset but I have tried already two, old one and one that should be of the best standards in terms of resolution.

 

Edit: Dont get me wrong, I am happy for each individual that opens a thread here and very happy with his VR setup. 
I just want to get the same feeling :((

Edited August 9, 2021 by Zeev

[Vishnu]

Yup...once you play this in VR, you never go back to 2D flight simming.....This is the way I dreamed it would be as a child.   And I'm a licensed pilot, glider pilot and ultralight pilot.

[Knarley-Bob]

I have wondered, when using VR, is everything look  life size? I have the IR tracker, but every thing is tiny due to the size of my screen.

[Vishnu]

7 minutes ago, Knarley-Bob said:

I have wondered, when using VR, is everything look  life size? I have the IR tracker, but every thing is tiny due to the size of my screen.

Absolutely!  You actually get a sense as to how cramped the cockpits were.  For instance, the Macchi is super cramped, but the P40 has tons of room.   If you look at the exterior of the plane,  look at the pilot.   Where his head is, is where your head is.   Even distance from the edge of the cockpit up.   The P40 pilot is really exposed from the waist up, but not in Maachi.

It's like you are literally in the cockpit.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Vishnu

[Charlo-VR]

3 hours ago, GOA_Firebird_VR said:

As personal comment , the only issue that i have is the tremendous neck pain while been checking my 6 , oh my god .. i wish that trackIR'ers put our shoes some day and feel what is checking your 6 for real ? ( its a joke fellas ).

 

S!

 

Just in case you or others aren't aware of this fantastic piece of free tech, check out

I also highly recommend SimShaker Wings with either a Buttkicker or better yet, a JetPad. See this thread:

 

[kissTheSky]

4 hours ago, Zeev said:

I have bought Reverb G2 recently as well and unfortunately there are some issues I am still having as I did with first Oculus model, like blurry aim, I also feel a little bit dizzy when flying, did not happen with Oculus. Does not happen in simulation game like VTOL (which I really enjoy flying). My specs are i7-9700K, RTX2080ti, 16 GB RAM.
Could you share your settings? Even screenshot of video settings could help.

Everyone telling the VR experience is amazing yet I still fail getting immersed in this game, you could argue its my headset but I have tried already two, old one and one that should be of the best standards in terms of resolution.

 

Edit: Dont get me wrong, I am happy for each individual that opens a thread here and very happy with his VR setup. 
I just want to get the same feeling :((

Is your IPD setting correct on the G2? Blurriness you mention might be related to that.

 

[kestrel79]

8 hours ago, Knarley-Bob said:

I have wondered, when using VR, is everything look  life size? I have the IR tracker, but every thing is tiny due to the size of my screen.

 

I thought the same thing when I first tried VR...man everything looks maybe 20% too small. I was at EAA a couple weeks ago and tried to get as close to the ww2 birds cockpits to see inside and see if certain things like the head pads, gauges seemed 1:1 as in real life and it came pretty close. They had a Spit IX there with the canopy open and door down so I got a good look inside and it looked pretty cramped and close to the one in game in VR to me.

[ST_Catchov]

15 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

If you can do without. I wont reccomend it.

I was planning to wait until a mor comfortable headset came along. It is like having a humid watercloset strapped to your face in hot days.

 

Yeah I'm not too enthused having that thing strapped to my head. But it's the expense man, and not only the headset. I'd have to upgrade big time. Not worth it for a casual flyer. Maybe one day ....

[SYN_Ricky]

12 hours ago, GOA_Firebird_VR said:

As personal comment , the only issue that i have is the tremendous neck pain while been checking my 6 , oh my god .. i wish that trackIR'ers put our shoes some day and feel what is checking your 6 for real ? ( its a joke fellas ).

 

S!

That's one of the main reasons I don't switch to VR, I suffer from chronic neck/shoulder pain, I don't think it would be good for me. I tested Il-2 in VR at a friend's place, yes, it's truly great, but I'll keep on with my TrackIr 5.

[RAAF492SQNOz_Steve]

14 hours ago, LLv24_Sukka24 said:

 

I can clip my head through the canopy and check my six in a way that simply wasn't possible with TIR. Feels like cheating. DCS has the same problem. I wish the head movement was limited so you couldn't move your head through the canopy.

I use a motion platform and when using it am strapped to the chair. That actually stops most of the ability to look outside of the cockpit and is, in my opinion, more realistic than what the IL2 developers have been able to implement in restricting viewing outside the cockpit for expert mode.

 

The safety belt is very handy for when I do a lawn dart due to having my tail shot off or hitting a ground obstacle etc. as the motion platform effects can toss you around quite a lot 

 

Like most responders in this thread, I am absolutely hooked on VR with IL2.

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by RAAF492SQNOz_Steve
removed an "out"

[slug_yuugen]

I totally want to see the motion platform in action, that's another level again.

 

I spent a bunch of time making VR experiences professionally and I think IL2 is actually one of the best anyone has actually come up with yet. It's pretty criminal it's not better known in that space. The combination of being able to very closely match the correct seated position, using a real stick, throttle and pedals and the relatively speaking very good framerate is very compelling.

[Charlo-VR]

1 hour ago, slug_yuugen said:

I totally want to see the motion platform in action, that's another level again.

It sure is! My Next Level Racing motion platform doesn’t appear to move much on video, except when I ditch in a field - but of course, the amount of movement feels much stronger from inside a VR headset, and most of us dial back the intensity to around 40%. You can read details in this thread:

 

As my next motion platform I’ve pledged to the Yaw2 Kickstarter, which you can read about in this thread:

 

My apologies in advance to your savings account ?

[Zeev]

17 hours ago, kissTheSky said:

Is your IPD setting correct on the G2? Blurriness you mention might be related to that.

 

What is IPD?

[Voyager]

1 hour ago, Zeev said:

What is IPD?

Inter pupil distance. 

 

Basically the distance between your eyes. If it is set wrong that the projection to each eye won't be properly aligned.

 

You can generally get it from your eye doctor, or there are ways to measure it at home.

 

Here's one set of instructions from an online glasses vendor: 

Your PD | Zenni Optical
https://www.zennioptical.com/measuring-pd-infographic

 

Addendum: the distance from the mirror is important because your eyes also turn in for near field objects, so your imaging surface needs to be far enough away that they're effectively parallel. The point of rotation is about the center of the eyeball, while you're measuring at the surface.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Voyager

[kissTheSky]

@Voyager outlined it perfectly. 

[Zeev]

1 hour ago, Voyager said:

Inter pupil distance. 

 

Basically the distance between your eyes. If it is set wrong that the projection to each eye won't be properly aligned.

 

You can generally get it from your eye doctor, or there are ways to measure it at home.

 

Here's one set of instructions from an online glasses vendor: 

Your PD | Zenni Optical
https://www.zennioptical.com/measuring-pd-infographic

 

Addendum: the distance from the mirror is important because your eyes also turn in for near field objects, so your imaging surface needs to be far enough away that they're effectively parallel. The point of rotation is about the center of the eyeball, while you're measuring at the surface.

OK but what then. No matter how I adjust the distance between the two displays its still blurry.
What can be done if adjusting it does not help?

[Charlo-VR]

50 minutes ago, Zeev said:

OK but what then. No matter how I adjust the distance between the two displays its still blurry.
What can be done if adjusting it does not help?

 

Do you wear glasses? It may seem counterintuitive, but the "view" in VR is set to about 6' away, so if you wear glasses in real life, you likely need to also wear them in your VR headset.

 

Some of us have ordered prescription lens adapters to save us the hassle of putting on glasses in our headsets, and also to reduce the likelihood we'll scratch our VR headset's lenses with our glasses. I ordered mine from https://widmovr.com/product/hp-reverb-g2-prescription-lens-adapters/

 

It is also possible that your personal IPD is larger or smaller than the IPD ranges of the VR headsets you have tried so far.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Charlo-VR

[unlikely_spider]

1 hour ago, Zeev said:

OK but what then. No matter how I adjust the distance between the two displays its still blurry.
What can be done if adjusting it does not help?

Are you able to close one eye and move the headset around until one of the lenses is sharp in the open eye? Just to troubleshoot.

[javelina]

my eyes aren't as good as they used to be, and I went with VROptician.  We'll worth it.  https://vroptician.com/

 

@OP - welcome to VR!  I started out with a Oculus CV1 then Rift S, and now the Reverb G2.  Never looked back at pancake mode ever since! 

 

enjoy!

Edited August 11, 2021 by javelina

[Talisman]

On 8/10/2021 at 7:19 AM, SYN_Ricky said:

That's one of the main reasons I don't switch to VR, I suffer from chronic neck/shoulder pain, I don't think it would be good for me. I tested Il-2 in VR at a friend's place, yes, it's truly great, but I'll keep on with my TrackIr 5.

 

I have had neck/shoulder pain in the past with TIR as well as the VR I use now (mostly happens after I have played with the Grandkids, lol), but I use a silk scarf or my old motorcycle head-over neck warmer to keep the neck muscles warm and that works for me.  I also keep my neck warm this way as a matter of course when I am out and about, especially to stay fit for my flight sim passion, lol.  With my VR I also have a small fan mounted on top of my PC to keep my head cool.  

 

There is also a trick to checking your six in VR that I don't hear most folks talking about.  Lets say you want to check your six over your right shoulder, first you look slightly over your left shoulder, then you click the centre VR button and immediately look over your right shoulder like an owl; easy!  Then, look forward and click centre VR button any time.  You can test this in TIR if you like.  Do the same thing but just click the centre TIR button.  Of course you don't need to do this for TIR, but the principle is the same and you can see how it would work if you get VR.  You soon get used to it and dog fights are easy.

Happy landings,

 

Talisman

[FTC_Mephisto]

I can only recommend this tool: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/67985-simple-tool-to-check-your-six/

[SYN_Ricky]

1 hour ago, ACG_Talisman said:

 

I have had neck/shoulder pain in the past with TIR as well as the VR I use now (mostly happens after I have played with the Grandkids, lol), but I use a silk scarf or my old motorcycle head-over neck warmer to keep the neck muscles warm and that works for me.  I also keep my neck warm this way as a matter of course when I am out and about, especially to stay fit for my flight sim passion, lol.  With my VR I also have a small fan mounted on top of my PC to keep my head cool.  

 

There is also a trick to checking your six in VR that I don't hear most folks talking about.  Lets say you want to check your six over your right shoulder, first you look slightly over your left shoulder, then you click the centre VR button and immediately look over your right shoulder like an owl; easy!  Then, look forward and click centre VR button any time.  You can test this in TIR if you like.  Do the same thing but just click the centre TIR button.  Of course you don't need to do this for TIR, but the principle is the same and you can see how it would work if you get VR.  You soon get used to it and dog fights are easy.

Happy landings,

 

Talisman

Those are good advices, good to hear your experience on this! I might start to think about it for the PC upgrade or new PC.

[Tonester]

Yep VR ruined me for simming…my favourite sim was CLOD but i cant fly it now due to lack of VR…i cant fly the old IL2-46 either which disappoints me as i did love landing on carriers…VR is just amazing… ant imagine what simming will be like in 20 years!