by ProsperGuy » Fri Nov 11, 2016 1:32 am
Jim,
I have almost 20,000 hours flying the real thing, and over two decades of training in FAA level-C/D simulators.
If you want a complete replica of only one airplane, you will never be able to beat (or afford) a cockpit with a complete wrap around screen. If you want to enjoy many types of aircraft in a completely immersive experience, you will never beat VR. Home flight simulation is now to the point where I think you can accomplish some meaningful training. FlyInside extends that to not only instrument work, but visual work as well. Flying traffic patterns and approaches in VR now replicate the real thing quite well.
That being said, VR is still in it's infancy, and there are some limitations. It took me several days to completely get over the VR sickness when I first started using FlyInside. The first time I tried it, I had to stop after 5 minutes. I have no ill-effects now, and can use FlyInside as long as I want to.
As far as what it does: If you are looking at it, you see it. If you want to look over your shoulder, that is where you look. It is 1 for 1 tracking, so if you want to look 90 degrees to the side, you have to look 90 degrees to the side. Pretty straightforward.
As far as what it does not do: The resolution is not what you see with your monitor, it is less. This is just a hardware issue.. not just of the VR headset, but of the computer power required to run it. I would expect every 'generation' of VR to get better. The only other thing I would mention is Field of View. Although quite good, you do lose most of your peripheral vision. I hardly notice it anymore.
Overall, I am a huge fan. If it were not for FlyInside, my rift would be mostly collecting dust. There is no way I can ever go back to flying on a monitor. Even with it's drawbacks, the VR positives far exceed the negatives.
I went into it sight unseen, but maybe you can arrange a demonstration before you decide which way to go. I hope this helps.
Intel 6700K @ 4.6 GHZ Thermaltake Water Cooled - EVGA GTX 1080ti - 32 GB DDR4-3000 Mhz - MSI Z170A Gaming 5 Mobo - Win 10 x64 - P3D v3 - XP 11.something - Oculus Rift CV1.