VR?

[aprewett]

Hello, I have up till now been flying with mouse look with one hand, but have found it really difficult to manage throttle settings, fly and look. So I am assuming most other players are using some sort of VR? If so, as I know nothing about this, what should I be looking for?

Thanks

[76SQN-Minimayhemtemp]

You have four options AFAIK to control your head position in IL2.

 

1) Mouse look - Difficult to do when flying, especially during a dogfight

 

2) Keyboard shortcuts - These will move your head to pre-defined positions that can be used very quickly but are also challenging in that you need to remember which button to press to move your view to the right position; difficult when in a dogfight!

 

3) Track IR - An IR receiver sits on top of your screen and detects movement from an 'IR Cap'.  This effectively controls mouse look but with your head movement.  You are able to achieve substantial view movement with little head movement; which of course is critical should you want to check your six.  This is a cost effective option that doesnt require any additional computing power or kit beyond a the recevier and IR cap; of which there are plenty guides online on how to make.

 

4) VR - I'll preface this by saying IMHO FC is made for VR.  It's by far and away the most immersive way of playing any game that supports it, and flight sims stand up there as the best type of game to leverage VR, especially with WW1 birds.  The sound of wind rushing over the canvas and bracing is incredible.  Anyway, you're going to need a VR headset, a computer powerful enough to run VR mode and a way of connecting your VR headset to the VR.  You'll also want a HOTAS, as centralising all keys onto a flight control setu is easier than trying to hit keyboard buttons you can't see.  Headset wise there's quite a few to choose from and people have their favourites.  Mine is the Quest 2 for its combination of price, spec, and games library.  Loose spec wise you'll probably want at least an i7, 1080ti, 16gb ram and ssd; this should allow you to run the game at a solid 70 fps with medium settings.  With the Quest 2 its worth using the meta produced USB-C cable.  To actually setup the kit its very simple.  Create login in your headset, install Oculus app on computer, plug headset into computer and enable Rift Link.  Then start IL2 in VR mode. 

 

So to summarise I guess you should start by:

 

1) Looking at VR headsets and find one that meets your budget

2) Review the headset's PC spec and upgrade where needed

3) Buy VR stuff

4) Setup VR stuff

5) Start IL2 in VR mode

6) Head explosion

 

First port of call for step 1 I'd suggest should be the VR tech help section on these forums to get a sense of what system requirements are recommended, what headsets people use and how you can optimize.

 

Lastly if it helps I ran my Q2 on a mid-level i7, 16gb ram, 2070 super and HDD and with medium settings was hitting 70 fps consistently.  I found that using OpenComposite rather than SteamVR helped with frame rates, and with minor optimization everything was good. 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Bind throttle to mouse wheel. Most players use trackIR for looking around and hotas to manage airplane.

[Patricks]

2 hours ago, aprewett said:

Hello, I have up till now been flying with mouse look with one hand, but have found it really difficult to manage throttle settings, fly and look. So I am assuming most other players are using some sort of VR? If so, as I know nothing about this, what should I be looking for?

Thanks

 

If in the US and you have a system that can handle it, the HP Reverb G2 VR headset is at an all-time low price right now (In the EU it's still ~full price). If you are on the border of having enough performance for VR, or have already invested in a good monitor setup, the TrackIR 5/TrackClip Pro will get you what you want. There are also DIY solutions if $$ is an issue.