Graham Parker in Christchurch will rent you an Oculus Rift for a few days, and I inserted Aerofly FS2 into it.
To coin a phrase…
O.M.G.
Just to back up a step: AFS2 is in the early stages of development, which for me was an attraction because abandoning my beloved FS2004 and playing catchup with its descendants seemed, well, just too hard.
On the other hand, getting into a new sim at ground floor so to speak, is an exciting ride.
It’s a 64 bit programme (App actually, it runs under Steam which as a newb I find particularly painless) and so has no performance issues with a suitable computing device.
There is a whole lot going on, ORBX has announced its Innsbruck airport scenery for release in June. More will follow. How nice it would be to have a bit of beautiful RealNZ in there…(Robin, there is a SDK available for you!)
They’ve concentrated on the visual aircraft models initially, in a generic low-res photoreal world, albeit with a reasonable mesh.
I could pick out the Waitakere ranges in it with some accuracy, although NZ is particularly fuzzy.
You can fly around California, Utah, and Switzerland in higher-res at present.
Some pics, just screens without editing:
The planes are visually well represented, work will follow on their performance aspects.
I did spend more time in the Cessna then one perhaps normally would, looking at how well done the pilot figure is
The textures and the way light is handled, are exceptional.
The last two pics above bring us back to the VR discussion. It’s very hard to describe what happens when you experience 3D in the sim, the most striking thing is situational awareness. I cannot wait to get my virtual hands on a helo.
The other is a sense of scale. Cockpits are really rather small spaces, no matter the aircraft. You don’t get that sense even in a VC in the 2D world. But in VR the switches are right here, and the gauges (3D with glassy reflections and depth) right there.
Similarly, in external view of say an F-15 on the ground, I got exactly the airshow experience of walking around the jet. It’s bigger than you.
The idea doesn’t really translate to 2D. I took this one in the Sopwith Camel, because if you stuck out your tongue, you knew it would stick to the metal. Absolutely real - and as you see, translates to a rather average screenshot.
Over the years, I’ve seen what there is to see in flightsimming.
But this was a wonderful experience.
I can only say: if you get the chance, do try it.
