Does VR work well in RealFlight 10?

royp

royp

Member
I am currently on RF8 (and have used it for many past releases). I use my Samsung Gear VR goggles to fly in VR with other simulators and games and it works fine (I fly Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 a lot). I have a gaming PC. I tried using VR with RF8 and it worked but was unusable due to issues experienced. RF reviewers have said there's really nothing in RF 9/9.5 worth upgrading for for, so I haven't done it. But now I have a reason to want to use VR with RF to practice F3A precision aerobatics. Before I pop $100 for an upgrade (there is no upgrade discount for RF8) I would like to know if RC 10/Evolution works well in VR mode? Has anybody tried this, and if so how does it work? Is it worth the upgrade price? I know KnifeEdge will say "It works", but what I want to know is how well it works. Does it really make a difference versus using a 2D screen? How is the performance?

Thanks for whatever feedback you can provide?

P.S. Is there a "trial" version of Evolution? Can I install and try it in VR, and then pay for it if it meets my needs/expectations?
 
Apparently nobody uses VR that's on this forum? I see that RF-Evo has upgraded to DirectX 11. This should make quite a difference within RC-Evo Beta.

ps - I made a mistake in my original posting. I have Samsung HMD Odyssey VR goggles. They still work well in Windows 10 and have high resolution video.

ps again - why isn't there a discounted upgrade path from any version, like there is for other products?
 
VR is not a widely used feature, but there are some here who have experience with it and may comment.

There is not currently a demo available. Steam does offer a refund policy which allows you to return your purchase within 2 weeks if you have used it for less than 2 hours. So that could be a way for you to try it out, as long as you keep an eye on the time.

Note that the DirectX 11 update is currently still in public beta (easily obtained), but it will release to all Evolution users soon.

Discounted upgrade paths exist from RealFlight Trainer Edition and RealFlight 9 (technically from 9.5S which is itself a free upgrade from 9.0/9.5). That does not help you with RF8, though.
 
Ryan Douglas said:
VR is not a widely used feature, but there are some here who have experience with it and may comment.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. Per that other post it sounds like DX11 made a difference.

The only way to simulate the full immersion of flying at the field is to use VR. Depth Perception is such a critical part of RC flying. 2D simulation is just not adequate for practicing aerobatics. Please ask your developers to thoroughly test VR with a variety of headsets before releasing the production version using DX11. To fully create a smooth and realistic VR experience the software has to take full advantage of CPU multithreading/multi-cores. MSFS 2020 learned this the hard way.
 
Evo's VR is better than all previous version but need more refinements. I have almost every sim on the market. The sim that has the best VR experience is Heli-X the photo fields are in 3d with depth and gives the best I'm there feeling. Heli-x has the VR photo fields down perfect. As of RF EVO the 3d render fields look good and feel good but the photo fields look flat while the models look great in 3d. The photo fields in EVO need 3d depth like those of Heli-x. I love RF and if VR gets better, it will be amazing since VR adds to so many levels in flying vs on a flat panel screen.
 
royp said:
Thanks for the feedback. Per that other post it sounds like DX11 made a difference.

The only way to simulate the full immersion of flying at the field is to use VR. Depth Perception is such a critical part of RC flying. 2D simulation is just not adequate for practicing aerobatics. Please ask your developers to thoroughly test VR with a variety of headsets before releasing the production version using DX11. To fully create a smooth and realistic VR experience the software has to take full advantage of CPU multithreading/multi-cores. MSFS 2020 learned this the hard way.
Click to expand...
The limiting factor to flying pattern in VR is the resolution of the headset. Not sure if DX 9 vs 11 really matters or not. I purchased my first headset specifically for practicing pattern in VR and like many I was dissapointed. Not with VR, I have surely wasted countless hours playing Table tennis and other games. But, flying pattern wasn't very good. Recently a few headsets have shown up with much better resolution and I decided to give one a try the Pimax crystal. The price of a Contra drive with motor and add to that you really need a high end graphics card (I have a new system with a 4090). So now it could be the price of a good pattern plane to experience it. The flight and car racing sim people are liking the Crystal for its graphics. A bit bulky and heavy to play games like table tennis and beat saber but fine for sims.
And yes it works. Still not quite the resolution of a good monitor but pretty close. Aerofly also looks good in the crytal but I haven't been happy with getting a pattern plane physics in VR with it.
And no more double airplanes as the FPS halved. I can fly at high resolution at both 90 and 120 FPS with the crystal. Another headset that should be pretty much as good is the Varjo Aero.
Good luck,
Stuart Chale
 
royp,
I'm new here and new to real flite.
I've been trying without any success to connect my Oculus system to Real Flite. My laptop has a GEFORCE GTX NVIDIA card that works well with the Oculus system through a high transfer cord but not with RF Simulator.
I like the simulator program because of the very close similarity of transmitter input to really flying.
The lack of depth on the monitor and tv screen is what's missing.
I continue trying...
gunr
 
I've been flying RF-8 using the v1 Oculus Rift. It's been a good experience, and I don't know why others say that RF doesn't lend it'self well to VR.
- My gaming pc is older and struggles to keep up the 90/45hz refresh rate, so I will need to upgrade on that account alone. 16gb, i72600, gtx1070
- My Oculus died.
So now I will start the process of replacing it with a next gen setup (leaning toward Bigscreen Beyond) which will mean replacing my entire pc... grrrr.
And after that, I will probably upgrade to RF Evolution... and hope they didn't "improve" the physics from g8 which are excellent.
 
Stringfellow said:
I've been flying RF-8 using the v1 Oculus Rift. It's been a good experience, and I don't know why others say that RF doesn't lend it'self well to VR.
- My gaming pc is older and struggles to keep up the 90/45hz refresh rate, so I will need to upgrade on that account alone. 16gb, i72600, gtx1070
- My Oculus died.
So now I will start the process of replacing it with a next gen setup (leaning toward Bigscreen Beyond) which will mean replacing my entire pc... grrrr.
And after that, I will probably upgrade to RF Evolution... and hope they didn't "improve" the physics from g8 which are excellent.
Click to expand...
While not Microsoft Flight Simulator quality at all, I'm fine with what it is using my Quest v2. Others may not be....

As for physics - little or no change between RF 8 and Evo.
 
Flapper said:
As for physics - little or no change between RF 8 and Evo.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. When Knife Edge Software was forced to upgrade to DX11 due to incompatibility with modern PC's, I thought it was a good thing because now their graphics would be state-of-the-art. But sounds like I was wrong. Apparently they kept their old graphics technology/resolution/fidelity and just made it compatible with DX11 (I'm basing this on reading reviews, YT videos, and things here). I've been flying Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 for three years, and when I go back to RF8 I am reminded how old the core of RF is! It's still usable, but not the "immersion" I am now used to in MSFS. I'm glad at least VR works, because it makes so much difference in the immersion/reality level of RF -- hence the benefit of virtual RC flying practice during the winter, even though looks and performance didn't improve!
 
royp said:
Apparently nobody uses VR that's on this forum? I see that RF-Evo has upgraded to DirectX 11. This should make quite a difference within RC-Evo Beta.

ps - I made a mistake in my original posting. I have Samsung HMD Odyssey VR goggles. They still work well in Windows 10 and have high resolution video.

ps again - why isn't there a discounted upgrade path from any version, like there is for other products?
Click to expand...
it works ok but kinda grainy im running a 4080 rtx tho should have been a very crisp clear video
 
sc204 said:
The limiting factor to flying pattern in VR is the resolution of the headset. Not sure if DX 9 vs 11 really matters or not. I purchased my first headset specifically for practicing pattern in VR and like many I was dissapointed. Not with VR, I have surely wasted countless hours playing Table tennis and other games. But, flying pattern wasn't very good. Recently a few headsets have shown up with much better resolution and I decided to give one a try the Pimax crystal. The price of a Contra drive with motor and add to that you really need a high end graphics card (I have a new system with a 4090). So now it could be the price of a good pattern plane to experience it. The flight and car racing sim people are liking the Crystal for its graphics. A bit bulky and heavy to play games like table tennis and beat saber but fine for sims.
And yes it works. Still not quite the resolution of a good monitor but pretty close. Aerofly also looks good in the crytal but I haven't been happy with getting a pattern plane physics in VR with it.
And no more double airplanes as the FPS halved. I can fly at high resolution at both 90 and 120 FPS with the crystal. Another headset that should be pretty much as good is the Varjo Aero.
Good luck,
Stuart Chale
Click to expand...
im runnin dx11 and i believe its related to the goggles
 
flyingryan said:
im runnin dx11 and i believe its related to the goggles
Click to expand...
I believe it to be the low resolution of RF graphics itself. It's what gives RF such a high FPS rate, and allows it to run OK on old hardware. My Samsung Samsung HMD Odyssey VR goggles are very sharp, crisp, and responsive in a VR flight simulator that exploits the GPU. It has 2880 x 1600 resolution and a field of view of 110°. But in RF8 the VR video is crappy. KE continues to rely on the code they wrote decades ago, instead of bringing the product into the modern world. Even more reason why a $100 upgrade is questionable. Using a 4090 doesn't really buy you anything on this product. The bottleneck/root cause is RF base code. It turns out that going to Directx11 was just a "band aid".
 
As I've noted before...Knife Edge DID jump into high end graphics several years ago, and walked into a buzz saw. For those that had high end machines at the time, RFX was the cat's meow (and graphics wise, still is). But the installed user base howled, as most rejected having to pay for expensive hardware upgrades to run it well. Yes, they did roll it out without many of the additional features, intending to bring them up later. The old product was dead and buried. Until it had to be reanimated to recover any hope of having anything people would actually buy. Then the sale to Horizon, and the Covid years, put another wrench in the development.
Yes, I was hoping that Evo would be at least a baby step forward, and disappointed that it really isn't. But the very recent forced update to DX11 does present some hope for the future.
But I too am one of those - my hardware had no hope of running RFX OR Microsoft Flight Sim OR any VR. It has only been this summer that I finally got something that could. So let's hope the user base has grown enough that now a leap to better graphics can be workable for them.
 
Flapper said:
As I've noted before...Knife Edge DID jump into high end graphics several years ago, and walked into a buzz saw.
Click to expand...
I wasn't aware of that -- thanks for the history. Seems like KE could have given the option of "legacy" or "upgraded" graphics. It's nice that KE was faithful to their installed base. Since there appears to be no reason to upgrade to 10 at this time, I'll stick with 8 until such time that an upgrade is warranted. If there was a free trial version of 10 I would give it a try to see if the "jitters" that I get in VR with 8 have gone away. Also, I have upgraded my GPU since then from GTX 1nnn to RTX 3nnn, but as you say RF10 does not support RTX technology. Later...
 
While KE Software stopped work on RFX before it was sold, it is a puzzle as to why Horizon elected to pass on purchasing that code along with everything else. You'll note the RFX section of this forum is nowhere to be found. Perhaps KE kept it to come out with their own future version? Or, more likely, the technology licensing and infrastructure to continue to develop what at the time was a dead product was more than Horizon wanted to invest in.
 
royp said:
I believe it to be the low resolution of RF graphics itself. It's what gives RF such a high FPS rate, and allows it to run OK on old hardware. My Samsung Samsung HMD Odyssey VR goggles are very sharp, crisp, and responsive in a VR flight simulator that exploits the GPU. It has 2880 x 1600 resolution and a field of view of 110°. But in RF8 the VR video is crappy. KE continues to rely on the code they wrote decades ago, instead of bringing the product into the modern world. Even more reason why a $100 upgrade is questionable. Using a 4090 doesn't really buy you anything on this product. The bottleneck/root cause is RF base code. It turns out that going to Directx11 was just a "band aid".
Click to expand...
Damn
 
Hmm. Well, I was hoping that Evolution would lend it'self better to VR than did previous versions. Although I did enjoy RF on my v1 Oculus until it died. Now I'm looking to replace it... maybe with the Quest 3?
Has anyone tried RF with the Q3? Does it's better resolution at least help with the 'screen door' effect of the v1 Oculus in RF?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top