RealFlight 8 VR Tips

TomC said:
Great news, I'm soooo jealous! You probably have enough horsepower to give RF-X VR a go.
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Hey Tom,

It was time for a new pc anyway. It has been about 5 or 6 years since I built a pc. This is the first time I have really needed anything this high end. The VR tech really pushes everything to the limit. The only thing I wish I could have done was get a 1080 or 1080Ti, but as I stated in a previous post, the cost of gpu's are just ridiculous! I was VERY lucky to get my 1060 6gb at all, let alone at a somewhat decent price.

As far as RF-X VR I am not sure if there would really be any difference as we are limited by the headset resolution.

Mike
 
Newbie at this Forum and Maybe RFX

Hi All:

I have been out of the hobby for 20 years, and I have been studying this forum, minimum computer requirements, etc for a couple of days. Needless to say, I am a tad overwhelmed. I can see that the system reqs' for RFX are out of the top due to the nature of the product.

A question I have is this: Can RF8 still be purchased new anywhere? If it can be, then is it supported? If I only need RF8 and can save on the RFX high end computer purchase, then is that a reasonable thing to do? All I want to accomplish is to get some simulation practice on some helicopter models.


Any advice in this regard would be most appreciated. My apologies for being a fossil! lol
I thank you.
 
RF8 is actually newer than RFX. It's readily available from hobby shops & Tower Hobbies. It can also be installed via Steam, but you'll need a controller. You can use a 4-axis PC joystick, but the Interlink controller is MUCH better, so I'd recommend the boxed version with the controller. The hardware requirements are much more reasonable than RFX. It runs OK on my 10-year old first generation i5 laptop with onboard video. You'll probably need a pretty good video card if you want to try VR.
 
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Thanks Bill …. this is helpful. So can the interlink controller be purchased "boxed" with the RF8 software? I would love to get it as a packaged deal. I think this is what you said.
 
Since the Tower / Great Planes bankruptcy …. I think things are shaky. Both Amazon and Tower show the RF8 w/ Interlink-X controller (GPMZ4550) as unavailable.

My computer is old (Win 10) and does not have stand alone Graphics board so I was thinking about buying a lower end gaming machine to fit the Optimum specs for RF8. I don't mind doing that because it will be a far cry from a 1.5K machine. I would get one next week if I could find a supplier for the RF8 package w/ the controller.
 
Tower Hobbies says this combo should be back in stock later this month. Maybe check their website and ask them to let you know when it’s available, or just backorder it.
 
I didn't know that it seems to be out of stock everywhere I've looked, too. IMHO, it's worth waiting for - to get the new controller. As long as the wait isn't too long. There are older controllers on ebay, but If it were me, I'd wait for the new one.
 
Well, thanks for all the ideas guys. I got on the phone today and called several Hobby shops in the area and I have the RF8 package (with Interlink controller) being shipped to me from a shop about 50 miles away. He had the package …. a miracle. So if all goes well, I can get a little better computer and be in business. Thanks for all the help!!! I will let you know how it works out in the next week or so.
 
No VR improvements with latest HHE 800.044/052 imho

Best current RF8 VR tip I can give you all is to just stick with the current 800.023 version. The newer 800.044 and 800.052 do not add any VR improvements. In fact, they seem to be worse. There is no longer any Virtual Reality Settings item (lo/med/hi/highest) anymore, just VR menu size %. It looks to be like they have reduced this to ~medium , maybe in order for more lower end PC to cope. Who knows?

Maybe HH will get back into improving RF VR in the near future but for now this does not look very promising to me. Very sad.
 
Jeremy Sebens said:
We had to make some changes to VR resolution for a few reasons. Here is a post on how it works now.

The short version: It's less visible, but you have a lot more control now.
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Many thanks Jeremy. I have the RF8 download version form Tower. I followed your instructions and found that with my system I was able to increase SS to 1.35 using the RF8 console and still maintain 90fps everywhere. VR resolution with 800.052, while still not all that great, is now ~ the same as the previous 800.023 version. Thanks again mate!
 
New laptop for VR Odyssey+

Hi All, im in the market for a brand new high end gaming laptop (desktop is not an option), and i will get the new samsung odyssey+. I would love to play RF8 with VR, maybe even RFX with VR. But i got scared looking at the performance issues people on this forum experience. What chances do i have getting 90 framerate? Should i wait for the RTX 2080 gpu? Any tips are welcome.
 
RvH_VR said:
Hi All, im in the market for a brand new high end gaming laptop (desktop is not an option), and i will get the new samsung odyssey+. I would love to play RF8 with VR, maybe even RFX with VR. But i got scared looking at the performance issues people on this forum experience. What chances do i have getting 90 framerate? Should i wait for the RTX 2080 gpu? Any tips are welcome.
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That's too bad, your best option.. isn't an option. Especially for RF-X. I would think a RTX 2080 Ti would be best for RF-X.
 
First of all I would reconsider the Odyssey + because it uses Windows Mixed Reality (wmr). I originally used wmr with my Alienware 17r4 gaming laptop and I found wmr was pretty unstable after each and all Win10 updates. I got an Oculus Rift +5 months ago and this has worked very well for me.

If you are not in a big hurry to purchase a new gaming laptop I would probably wait for the new 20 series GTX 2070/2080 to come out, maybe early next year.

If you need to buy a new gaming laptop right now I would probably get a 17r5 w/i7-8750 and at least a gtx 1070, preferably a 1080, and at least 16gb ram, preferably 32gb, and at least a 512gb ssd and 1tb hdd. Also, I suggest you just get it with the standard 60hz screen and then get yourself a nice 120-144hz external gaming monitor connected via the mini DisplayPort for home use.

If you need more grunt later you could look at adding an Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA) with a 20 series GTX which I think the AGA now supports. You would also need to add an external gaming monitor and only project to it for the best performance btw.
 
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TomC said:
First of all I would reconsider the Odyssey + because it uses Windows Mixed Reality (wmr). I originally used wmr with my Alienware 17r4 gaming laptop and I found wmr was pretty unstable after each and all Win10 updates. I got an Oculus Rift +5 months ago and this has worked very well for me.

If you are not in a big hurry to purchase a new gaming laptop I would probably wait for the new 20 series GTX 2070/2080 to come out, maybe early next year.

If you need to buy a new gaming laptop right now I would probably get a 17r5 w/i7-8750 and at least a gtx 1070, preferably a 1080, and at least 16gb ram, preferably 32gb, and at least a 512gb ssd and 1tb hdd. Also, I suggest you just get it with the standard 60hz screen and then get yourself a nice 120-144hz external gaming monitor connected via the mini DisplayPort for home use.

If you need more grunt later you could look at adding an Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA) with a 20 series GTX which I think the AGA now supports. You would also need to add an external gaming monitor and only project to it for the best performance btw.
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The AGA device is only compatible with Certain Alienware laptops. It uses a proprietary cable connection that extends the system bus.
 
csgill75 said:
The AGA device is only compatible with Certain Alienware laptops. It uses a proprietary cable connection that extends the system bus.
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Ya, that’s a good point. You need to check the Dell website regarding compatibility for sure.

I’m currently using an AGA w/gtx1080ti (Zotac blower, basically FE) with my AW 17r4, i7-7700hq, gtx1060, 32gb ram. Works pretty well but I still kinda wish I had just bought this with an internal 1080 to begin with.
 
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