Sim Build convert to VR?

[mdavenport]

I'm not sure if I'm right to post this question here but I will.

I've invested quite a bit in my 737 sim having got p3d, prosim, with fly engraving MIP, cpflight kit along with Sismo overhead and pedestal.

I'm struggling for space to fit much more on (and it's not a cheap hobby to keep going). Ideally I would have wanted a full cockpit with projectors etc to give me maximum immersion but I don't think it's going to happen.

I wondered if with the world of VR advancing a lot whether anybody see this as a good alternative to the cockpit, especially when they are at where I am. VR is meant to be very immersive these days and I wonder if this is a good step or not?

Let me know your thoughts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[navymustang]

I believe it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your sim. If you are a scenery flyer, wanting to just enjoy being in a cockpit and looking out the window, then VR has its place.

But if you are trying to fly an aircraft, learning navigation, learn how to operate equipment, then VR fails terribly because of the inability to interact with avionics and flight controls in any meaningful way.

Take a look at complex military and commercial sims - they have no interest in VR. However, it does play a role in very simple aircraft, e.g., drone operation.

But it does fill the role of flying with much less expense. The other area to look at is augmented reality, where you look through the VR headset and can still see the cockpit hardware interior, yet when you look out the window, you see the scenery. But I don't think it's available for home sims yet.

[727s4ever!]

I have built an F-16 pit and I am in the process of gathering things for a 727 cockpit build.  It is very expensive and takes lots of space, time and skill for a full build, especially for a 727 with a flight engineer panel and thus a bigger cockpit.  I must admit I am impressed with VR.  I am using the Oculus rift, and as an A320 Captain with a major airline, I find the VR very useful for practicing engine failures, and other emergency procedures which we only get to see in the simulators when we get our check rides.  This beats the heck out of traditional "chair flying" pilots have done to keep these procedures fresh in our heads for the moment we (God forbid) actually need them.  In fact, I just had my first sim check since I have had the use of VR and it was probably the best check ride I have ever had in the 28 years I have been an airline pilot.  Practice makes perfect, as they say.  I now have a simulator at home.  Game changer.
   
That being said, I too face a bit of a decision.  I am at the very start of my dream cockpit build, the 727 which I flew for 7 years and enjoyed immensely.  The problem is, I really enjoy the VR experience of flying the FlyJSim 727 V3 in X-Plane, and the practical side of me keeps saying "why build an entire cockpit with all the expense and time and space requirements, when you can just do VR?"  Well, because it would be COOL to have a cockpit!!  That's why!!

The VR experience will only get better and better as the technology matures.  Remember, we are still in the 1st generation of the tech.  The ability to interact with the virtual cockpit is highly dependant on the software at this point.  For example, the FlyJSim 727 works pretty well with the oculus controllers, but the FF A320 ultimate, while it is a great simulation, is pretty much useless with the Oculus.  I bought the ToLiss A319 and it works much better in VR.  Granted, I may not know enough yet about all the tweaking needed to make the FF A320 work well, so that may be self inflicted.  Your mileage may vary, as they say.  I am very excited about the coming development of devices like the hapto glove which will allow you to interact in VR without a cumbersome hand controller.  In fact, even more exciting than that is Oculus' work on the ability to track your regular, unmodified hands in VR allowing your to flip switches, turn frequency knobs, etc. with no tracking equipment attached to your hands.  Incredible, and again "game changing".

I am also considering the hybrid route.  This would be a partial pit with the hardware I would want my hands to be able to manipulate regularly like the yoke, rudders, everything on the throttle quadrant, and the course and heading knobs on the HSI.  Everything else would be manipulated with the hand controllers (or soon to be available hand tracking) in the virtual cockpit.  Best of both worlds?  Perhaps.  I am still deciding....and still buying 727 stuff too. 

And there are my thoughts on the matter.  Good luck with your project, whatever route you take!

BTW, if you want to hear me blather on about this subject here is a youtube video I did recently.  Don't laugh too hard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tBBjKAbnao

-Woody