Lee

The release of FC beta was my signal to upgrade the i3 2500 cpu with gtx 680 gpu computer I built in 2012 just for Rise of Flight. Just swapped in a i7 8700 cpu, new MB and gtx 1080 and got it up and running. Minor who-ha with Windows license and disk formats, but it’s all sorted (google is your friend). Wow! I can run RoF maxed out with the supersampling box checked! Silky smooth and not a hint of shimmer. FC runs smooth on Ultra, but I’m a little disappointed as there is still some shimmer. Next step is to install the Oculus and see if I can get FC working in VR.

Decided to stick with Oculus for now. A known device that works out of the box for the two games I’m interested in. Oculus Rift is a generation 1 VR device. I usually skip every other generation of fast changing technology, so won’t be upgrading again until the gen 3 VR headsets appear. And of course that will require a complete computer upgrade when the time comes.

The swivel chair works for my space simulator because it’s dual stick with no foot pedals. I’m in the process of bringing my flight simulator computer up to VR standards. The swivel chair trick won’t work with pedals, so I’m also wondering about neck flexibility exercises. TrackIR is the perfect old man’s device. Turn your neck 20 degrees to look backwards 180 degrees. Maybe we can get 777 to add a rear view mirror exclusive for seniors using VR? You have to show your Medicare card to qualify.

I’m updating my flight simulator computer and will be giving it a dedicated VR headset. I have an Oculus Rift on my other workstation so the Rift is my first choice. But I was wondering what other headset people are using that might offer advantages over the Rift? Only requirements are it runs Flying Circus and EliteDangerous.

@Luftritter The first time l launched the game my CH controllers were picked up as individual direct devices. The second time they were mapped. No problem as I sorted it. Had I been thinking a bit further ahead, I would have activated the mapped configuration before starting the game for the first time.

Launcher not closing is solved here: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/38237-launcher-stay-running-after-shutdown/?tab=comments#comment-644925

Installed Flying Circus. First time I launched it was just to see if it would start. Loaded OK and I looked at the SPAD in the air. Basic flying controls worked as my CH controllers were plugged into the computer, but I exited as a test flight was not my objective and no buttons were set-up. Exited the game. Whats the deal with the IL2 launcher? It doesn’t want to close. Next time I launched, I had made a copy and renamed the CH Control Manager profile I use for RoF. Started Control Manager then started the game. Got a message about new joysticks found and did I want to transfer settings. Huh? Opened the controls setup and set the pitch, roll, yaw and throttle axis. What’s this? Joy4, Joy5 and Joy7? Took the SPAD up for a circuit of the field. Head zoom starts closer and doesn’t have quite the range of zoom in and zoom our as the RoF SPAD. Did a couple of landings. Handling seems similar to RoF and I’m just as bad landing the SPAD in either game. Exited and looked into the joystick game files to see what was up with the device numbering. Yup, my CH Fighter Stick, Pro Throttle, Pro Pedals and Throttle Quadrant were listed as devices 0 through 3 and the Control Manager virtual devices started at number 4. It remembered the device numbers it assigned to the CH kit when I first started the game and continued the number sequence for the Control Manager virtual devices. I edited the CH physical controllers out of the list and renumbered the Control Manager virtual devices 0 through 4. Rebooted and restarted the game. Now the FC joystick numbering matched the RoF numbering. Reassigned the axis. Did another couple of landings and noted carry over from the RoF button assignments with FC button convention, at least for the keys I used during my flight. Hopefully I won’t take much to update my keybinding file. Final test was to launch RoF and make sure it was still working correctly. It was.

The advantage of my spaceship setup in VR is two joysticks and no foot pedals. Chafe neck? Not with a swivel chair!

Ok, I bought FC and got an extra RoF discount of $15. Downloading now and we will see how it all goes.

My brother sent me this link. Thought some of you might be interested. Time lapse construction of 750 piece Fokker Dr.1 Artesania Latina kit. S!

I did that for a while, but abandoned the Xbox controller as I usually forgot to turn it on. You know what happens if Elite doesn't find all the controllers connected to the computer it's expecting.

Voted.

I don't have a quick and easy way. I quit to desktop, use EDProfiler to switch display setting, then log back on. When I'm done with the map, I quit to desktop again, switch the display back to the Rift and log back in.

In regards to setting the monitor in game to full screen to mirror the Rift display and keep the mouse focus in the game's window. I've found there is very little performance hit in setting the monitor to its native resolution, in my case 3440x1440. The game has already done the hard work to rendered the image and the graphics card is just putting pixels on the screen. Multiple monitors are common with today's high end cards and not an issue at all. Advantage is in screen shots. Before they were rendered in the game's default setting of 1280 768. Now they are rendered at 3440x1440. In order for the shot to be correctly framed, I do peek out from under the Rift to make sure all is properly composed when taking the shot.

You can teach an old brain new tricks. When I first got the oculus, the lack of sharpness in the display bugged me. I preferred the “photo real†2D display. Now that I’ve played in VR a lot, I can’t stand the confines of the monitor screen and fly Elite exclusively in VR. I don’t use the debug tool anymore. My settings are the GeForce Experience recommendations. I do switch to 2D when setting up galaxy map bookmarks, then back to VR to fly. The galaxy map just doesn’t work for me in VR. But I can easily select bookmarked stations in the headset. I haven’t, but probably should change my monitor settings in-game to display full screen. It’s a curved 34 inch ultra wide so I’m a bit wary of overtaxing the video card. I do loose mouse focus and thus control input occasionally. I’ve become very fast at lifting the headset and repositioning the cursor into the game window. I check that I have control during each jump by pushing the stick while looking at my in-game VR hand to make sure it moves. EDIT: I was overthinking the full screen display option. Just tried it out to see how it works. Setting full screen while in-game but leaving the resolution as is stretches the image to fill the monitor at the Rift's 1280x768 rather than my monitor's native 3440x1440. Picture on the monitor is distorted, but who cares as I'm viewing the game in the Rift. It probably lowers the overall graphics card load in addition to preventing loosing mouse focus and thus ship control.

Fortunately, I only have to reassign the main joystick axes. I use the CH ControlManager to assign keyboard commands to all my buttons so it doesn’t matter what the controller device number is, text is text and the buttons function as expected.

Another Windows 10 update and another joystick device number shuffel. Axis again had to be reassigned in settings.

Just had this big Windows 10 update run on my flight sim computer. I use CH Control Manager to program my controllers and the update caused the joystick devices numbers to get shuffled. I had to reassign the all axis in the RoF settings. Most of my buttons are programmed to give keystrokes so weren't affected. Had this happen a couple of years ago after another windows update.

Congratulations all! Great job Snaggle! I think you’re our first 2-seater pilot to earn the Blue Max. Well done.

In June I picked up a new turn key PC. It has an i7-7700 and gtx 1080. Your doing the right thing specifying a K processor and Ti graphics card. Mine is certified Oculus ready, so as long as you have four or more USB3.1 ports you should be able to handle anything out there. The more USB ports of any flavor the better, I have nine and wouldn’t mind a couple more. You are probably better doing your own build and installing windows 10 yourself, if for no other reason than you won’t get all the extra crap the system manufacturer’s put on your hard drive. I had to spend a couple of days getting rid of worthless stuff.

SpaceX bloopers.

You also need another USB 3 for the first camera, although I believe this second camera can use USB 2.

Ok, you are using the game’s VR Ultra setting. Fired up Elite and ran it at VR Ultra with acceptable frames and the usual VR blur. Restarted with the Oculus Debug Tool and set Pixels Per Display Override to 2.0. Sharper, but stuttering in stations. Lowered Pixels Override to 1.5 and better, but still some hesitations. Lowered Pixels Override to 1.33 and had acceptable frames with the sharper image. Will run these for the time being. FYI, my machine is an “Oculus Certified†ASUS ROG G20CI with i7-7700 and GTX 1080 new this June. It’s sort of half way between a mid-tower computer and console game machine. Very interesting appearance, but the fans are working overtime to keep it cool. One would think it would have no problems with the Rift. Driving my 34 inch ultra-wide curved monitor at 100 hz is a piece of cake.

Yes, in the search for more clarity I tried the debug tool. Indeed, setting the pixels per pixels displayed override to 2 did sharpen things up a lot. Problem is choppy frames in stations. Dropped it to 1.5 and still not smooth. Using EDProfilier I set super sampling to 1.0 and HMD image quality to 1 (anti aliasing was already off) and then used the debug tool to set pixels per pixels override to 1.7 and things look sharper with smooth frames. Still need to play with it more, but I'll go with this for now. What VR graphic settings are you guys using in Elite? I'm still looking for good baseline settings for my gtx 1080.

I fly with auto-panels disabled. Even so, Verity still gets messed up and lately isn't resetting properly after requesting docking. She also won't "look ahead" from the left panel, but if I say "right panel" then "look ahead" she's fine.