Love their videos.
Yeah it’s such a pretty game. And to think that to use it just for looking at the pretty things, the thing is absolutely free is pretty amazing. It’s odd it hasn’t caught on as a tech demo. It’s easy to set up a AI vs AI spectacle that you can just watch. Don’t even need a joystick for that lol
Have you been flying since you got back home Jeff?
DCS porn!
Not yet. I need to get my strength back. Which may sound weird for just playing VR, but it is a lot of work with the full HOTAS setup.
Yeah I can see that. Hit me up if you want some live instruction on that Hornet.
Sad to say, I’ve found that I really don’t like strapping crap to my head for simming. I know, weird, right? Looking around at everything in 3D VR is like the absolute dream of the young scharmers of long ago.
I think it’s more laziness than anything else. All that fuss and bother, and I still have to peer down my nose every once in a while to peck at the keyboard, because I just can’t be arsed to take the time to perfectly map every function to my HOTAS. These days, I prefer donning my trucker’s cap and going the TrackIR5 route. I may be just too old-school for VR.
I have a dream about one day doing the VR thing, probably at some point where it isn’t either a huge investment, or involves being spied on by creepy stalkers at Facebook.
I’m not sure I have the stomache for it though. I tried playing Squadrons on my brothers VR set, and it made me very nauseous. I can’t imagine a Viggen pop-up attack being less intense.
It’s extremely strange to be pulling wild maneuvers in a ship, while not feeling any kind of gravity or motion physically.
That’s why you start out not doing pop-ups in a Viggen, but rather doing airfield circuits in something like an L-39. VR is something your brain needs to learn.
A dogfight for example is a very very bad neophyte experience. Upchucks and headaches guaranteed. Sitting still with the weels on the ground is a far better first experience. And even then you will want to take it easy. Only do it for about twenty minutes at first. Build it up. Train your brain to accept the weirdness.
Me, I had fallen out of love with simulated flight around the mid 2000s. I just couldn’t be bothered with the hardware race and never got trackIR to feel right. Then VR happened. At first an OG rift on a 1070. Yeah that was… suboptimal.
But I fell in love with it. *Hard. So now I’m sitting in a homepit wearing a G2 driven by a 3080Ti. Because to me, it’s worth it. I do sessions of up to three hours. After one of those, I feel slightly off about the real world, but that quickly subsides.
Next time you try Squadrons on your brothers’ VR, fly straight & level for a bit. Ignore the game, just marvel at being there, in a motherfucking X-wing, and it’s almost real man!
I got my sim VR legs in IL2:BoX free-flight, basically treating it as a civvie sim (but with far cooler airplanes). Gently rolling, and diving, and looking around. No fighting or anything else, so HOTAS configuration is at a minimum. No HUDs or undue switchery-jiggery, just you and a warbird flying around.
Squadrons just floored me the first time I flew it VR. Unfortunately my GPU is just barely at the edge of being able to handle the Quest 2’s resolution so the frame rate situation is subpar.
Schurem’s story is exactly my story, almost word for word. Fell out of love in mid-2000s… (all the same)… end with a Vive Pro being driven by a 3080TI. The past 5 years of VR flight simming have been some of the best gaming experiences in 40 years going back to the Apple II.
That’s good advice @schurem, thanks! I didn’t think of using a simulator as an actual simulator, but I bet it is a bit like the astronaut chair with the tennis ball. I’ll give it a shot next time I’m able.
Flights sims have always been part of my damage. I think the very first game I ever played was F-29 Retaliator, and I’ve kinda been hooked ever since. Stunt Island, Crimson Skies, Jane’s USAF, IL-2 Sturmovik (you guys missed the best one!) and LOMAC before it morphed into DCS.
LOMAC and DCS was the first time I really sat down and geeked out the systems.
If you’re looking for a dedicated sim forum, look no further than www.mudspike.com. We’ll be glad to have ya :)
There’s also a great blog at www.stormbirds.blog I recommend wholeheartedly.
Thanks buddy :)
Mudspike is where I go to get my guides-for-dummies and Stormbirds is where I go to find out what’s being worked on for DCS.
Get them while they’re hot! Scooters! Free scooters for the people!
I’m very impressed with the work they’ve done on the A-4. Last time I played it, the flight model felt a little undercooked, but it’s a totally different plane now. Definitely on par with the MB-339.
Also, here’s the very nice teaser for the F1 Mirage:
Finally getting a Phantom!
And it’s motherfucking heatblur that are doing it! The crew that did the gorgeous F-14 Tomcat and the excellent AJS-37 Viggen. Also, in their announcement, they said “starting off with the E model, we are adding the Phantom phamily”.
That means we’re getting the -C, the -B and mayhaps the -J or -S as well! Phabulous phucking news if you ask me! Phantom Phorever!
I’m so phucking excited over this! Phuck yea!
Kick-ass. This is the holy grail - a Hog.
I don’t know how excited I can get about a turkey that got its butt kicked by the MiG-21 (sorry Phantom phans!) but Heatblur are the best, and I’ll be happy to fly it either way.
If relative (historical) performance in BFM is the only metric, you miss a lot of what makes a DCS plane interesting imo.
Plumbing the depths of crappy 60s era avionics should be a great time. Find out why those MFD’s were such a revolutionary innovation.
I find the phantom a very interesting bird, not because of its performance (though it was hella fast!) but because of its historical significance and the era it represents. It went mach 2.5, its pilots wore mustaches against regulations and the machine could (and would) kill you if you forgot about its handling peculiarities in a dogfight. Phucking awesome!
Look at this motherfucker, I want to roleplay him. It’s col. R. Olds, one of the great Aces yankee air pirates of the Vietnam war.