My Thoughts on the Controversy Around 'Check-Six' Assistance for VR

[Drum]

Who would criticize old men with broken backs or hurt & worn-out necks for using an aid to safely rotate their heads, other then a squad of guys who want to hold onto the advantage they've gained with their well coordinated teamwork and spotting routines?  I wonder if they also feel it's an unfair advantage when out numbering their pray and mercilessly gank as many as possible, too?

 

I've heard ducks fart in shallow water before, and that's exactly what they sound like.  ?  

Hail the mighty new and improved XRNeckSafer, I say.  ?

Edited June 6, 2022 by Drum

[ACG_Ginger]

I don't think anyone thinks neck saver is a bad thing , but it should still limit the amount on head turn you can have , the same as TrackIR should be limited, and snap views. they all allow 180 degree head turn which is just not possible in R/L when your strapped in to a harness.

 

[Thorne]

22 hours ago, SvAF/F16_Goblin said:

XR NeckSafer is in Beta

https://gitlab.com/NobiWan/vrnecksafer/-/blob/master/VRNeckSafer/Release/XRNeckSaferBeta1.zip

 

https://discord.gg/X59mrxfK

 

Eyyyyy! Good stuff.

 

3 hours ago, ACG_Ginger said:

I don't think anyone thinks neck saver is a bad thing , but it should still limit the amount on head turn you can have , the same as TrackIR should be limited, and snap views. they all allow 180 degree head turn which is just not possible in R/L when your strapped in to a harness.

 

 

I don't think the community will be able to find a consensus on this. We've all seen this type of debate play out a million times; someone post's an excerpt from a pilot's memoir to prove a point, then someone else posts contradictory excerpt, then someone posts a photo, and then every debates whether or not the pilot in the photo was properly strapped in.

 

The reality is, virtual pilots have had free range of rotation in the cockpit as 'industry standard', in every sim, since forever, and that is unlikely to change. Since head range of motion is unlikely to change we need to focus on making sure everyone can check six properly, this is particularly important for people with less mobility in the context of VR.

 

As an aside we must remember that keeping an influx of new players is important. If IL2 suddenly became the sim of neck-nazi's who decided pilot's shouldn't be able to check dead six regardless of what control scheme they were using that would be really bad for both retention and growth.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Thorne

[SharpeXB]

4 hours ago, ACG_Ginger said:

they all allow 180 degree head turn which is just not possible in R/L when your strapped in to a harness.

They’re not tightly strapped in like astronauts or F1 drivers. Is that dangerous? maybe but so is getting shot down. All you have to know to understand this is just look at the canopy designs which all evolve to become blister types even at the expense of stability and speed. 

[Voyager]

On 6/6/2022 at 6:03 AM, ACG_Ginger said:

I don't think anyone thinks neck saver is a bad thing , but it should still limit the amount on head turn you can have , the same as TrackIR should be limited, and snap views. they all allow 180 degree head turn which is just not possible in R/L when your strapped in to a harness.

 

 

USAAF Pilot manuals specifically call out tightening your harness so you don't faceplant the console if you have to ditch. 

 

F1 drivers are required to be HANSed in because the time between fine and impacting a wall with enough g-force you're going to disconnect your head from your neck is less than the time it takes for an F-14 ejection cycle. 

 

Around 5:30 you can see just how much the pilot can move around in a modern jet, even under g-loads:

 

 

The problem is less freedom of movement than it is finding something to get leverage on to get yourself turned around. 

 

And the last time we tried to model pilot kinematicks in a flight sim, it really didn't end well. Better to just limit it to no 360 no-scopes for now and leave it at that. 

[Spidey002]

When I’m sitting in my gaming chair, I can turn my head 90° and see directly behind me because of my field vision. I can still turn my eyes the rest of the way to check my 6. 
 

In VR, the field of vision is very limited. Where I should be able to check my 6, I can only see my wing. In this sense VR neck safer is more immersive. I feel like I’m in a cockpit looking around and even behind me without feeling constricted by my HMD.