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What does VR look like

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  • What does VR look like

    The chap in this video used the recording function of JoinFS to display a flight of 4 aircraft. In it he used his VR headset and captured the visual quality of FSX.

    I had to cover the left half of the screen because I started feeling a bit of nausea watching the whole screen. I did not have that experience when I used a VR headset. That must have something to do with the display. Otherwise I noticed exactly the same thing with the gauges. Notice how the numbers on the gauges are too blurry to read?

    IMHO, the lower resolution is more than made up for by the natural feel of turning and looking around the cockpit. What do you guys think?


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KERkSnpG5Os

  • #2
    Hey Karl! That's my video you posted there and maybe I can answer a few things.

    First about the nausea. Unfortunately when I capture these videos, it also captures my head movements as I look around. If you pay close attention to your own head movements as you look around - especially in a very stimulating environment like an airplane cockpit with other planes in close proximity - people's heads move a lot as they focus on various things. But they aren't your head movements and not even mine as I look back at these things. That disconnect makes them somewhat harder to watch. It's worse in a way for the people who watch them on Google Cardboard or GearVR since the images start to approach what we see in VR headsets like the Vive or Rift where these images fill our field of view. For those that put on a headset, looking all around like that doesn't cause them any nausea since the head tracking is so fast and accurate - which makes it really so close to what you experience in real life it is amazing.

    Also, what you see in these images isn't exactly what we see in the headsets. The centers of the images are magnified for us due to the lensing. These images are pre-distorted to correct back for the distortions the lenses add so what we see is all rectilinear and properly proportioned instead of the wide angle distortion you see. The center areas of the images are not only magnified but also at higher detail. FlyInside (the software that does this) oversamples the images as part of the process. What is in these videos is sampled back down to fit a 1920x1080 format. So while the detail we actually see isn't what people see on a good monitor, it's really not bad at all and we also have another trick - Dan Church added the ability to zoom in which I map to a button on my joystick. There is nothing I can't read in the cockpit with the zoom feature. Also, when looking for things off in the distance, if I turn on zoom I can see all sorts of things that even people with monitors can't see unless they also zoom in (since that is what we are doing too).

    The B-17 is also kind of an extreme example with all the engine gauges over in front of the copilot position. They aren't even that easy to read from the pilot position in real life. But with zoom I can check fuel tank levels, engine temperatures, etc. Again, not as good as the clarity you get on a regular monitor but totally serviceable especially with zoom.

    What's coming is going to be really good, though. Right now VR is a bit fiddly and people have to work through various issues and bugs that may crop up even from just a video card driver update. But it is getting better as everyone gets more experience with it. It's also a computer hog. FSX is especially bad since it's really just single-threaded and needs a fast CPU, preferably overclocked, and a good video card (now preferably a 10 series Nvidia card) to run well in VR. But Nvidia is working with a company called Sensor Motoric Instruments to enable eye tracking and foveated rendering which drastically reduces CPU and GPU loads and will allow higher resolution displays so it becomes more like regular eyesight. It's going to take lots of innovation to get that good, but even now it blows people away.

    The thing about VR is not just the ability to see wherever you turn your head. We also see everything full sized. Things are as big as they are in real life. And it's all in 3D. We see the depth, the distance, the height above ground, etc. It makes low level, pattern, and formation flying a trip. It's really bizarre. One thing I've gotten to really like is on the planes that are fully rendered from the cockpit view, I get out of the cockpit and check them out. I can't walk too far from the cockpit because I'm still in my office, but I can walk out on a wing or back towards the tail somewhat. It's bizarre to have a real size airplane right there.

    I put a real pilot in VR and set him up on the runway of his home airport to let him go for a pattern. I didn't have really detailed scenery where he was but he was still using his real-life landmarks to navigate and make his turns from, and he was amazed at how much if felt like he was really flying the pattern. The only thing was I put him in a high wing and he was used to low wing planes so his turn to final was blanked more and he went a little wide and had to correct back. But this was a guy who flies real planes and had virtually no sim time that flew an otherwise perfect pattern, greased a landing, and got out remarking how real it felt.

    Flying is my favorite thing to do in VR. No way to really describe it either. It's just something people have to try to be able to see for themselves.

    I'll shut up now... ;-)

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    • #3
      I can sit back from my monitor and cross my eyes and hold my hands up to block the room from my eyes and make it 3d...lol....now my eyes hurt.
      [img]http://www.msflights.net/pilots/phpvms/lib/signatures/MSF0027.png[/img]

      Comment


      • #4
        It works! I had a narrow depth of field (blurry distant objects) when leaning back and doing it (though this was easiest on my eyes). When getting close, though--almost too close to manage to keep my eyes crossed, with a full-screen view (23" 16:9 monitor)-- I was able to get a good focus on nearby and distant objects. Still, not recommended for extended periods... like... 10 seconds...

        Crosseyed 3d displays... maybe it's the future!
        Take the time, a second to soar; for soon after, beckons a second more.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Wingman View Post
          Crosseyed 3d displays... maybe it's the future!
          OMG you're such an idiot. That me laugh too hard.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Robert455 View Post
            Hey Karl! That's my video you posted there and maybe I can answer a few things.
            I didn't sense any nausea when I was actually using a VR headset. I did though pretty quickly when watching the YouTube video. I think it is just a 2d display thing.

            Our natural head movements seem very unnatural through the limited and straight borders of a video display. I'm sure that we've all seen a video where it seemed like the camera was all over the place but it was simply the natural head movements of the person filming.

            I watched more of your videos. Definately a + in my book.

            Comment


            • #7
              Hey Karl, my apologies. I totally missed you saying you had tried VR flight simulation. I thought you were asking about it so threw in my 50¢.

              And thanks for the compliment! Got a topical one from this weekend with JoinFS for making your own airshow. That program is amazing!

              https://youtube.com/watch?v=rY2tqnerMGA

              Hope to make the Saturday fly-in!

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Robert455 View Post
                Hey Karl, my apologies. I totally missed you saying you had tried VR flight simulation. I thought you were asking about it so threw in my 50¢.
                No worries.

                Comment

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