[VR] Big Week in VR News
"You may have heard of the Metaverse, it's become a buzzword." Lol no it hasn't, but we understand you can't say "OASIS" without getting sued. But holy crap does it sound like OASIS is nigh. A few years earlier than the movie (and novel?) predicted too.
So yeah, been a crazy few days in VR and DCS World news. In a good way, and by "good" I mean amazeaballs.
Heatblur released their long-promised USS Forrestal aircraft carrier for DCS World (trailer), and confirmed that the rest of the Forrestal class will be forthcoming. USS Saratoga will be next since it's the least different from the FID; apparently Ranger and Independence will require more work. As much as I lust after DCS: Supercarrier, the three late-model Nimitz class ships it offers are "set" in the 2000s and better suited to Eagle Dynamics' in-house F/A-18C module. In Forrestal we get a carrier contemporary with Heatblur's circa-1987 F-14A.
Because Heatblur―a third-party developer―promised it for free to all DCS users, the FID doesn't have any of the stuff DCS: Supercarrier brings to carrier ops, like the animated deck crew or comms. At least not yet. We all hope that Heatblur and Eagle Dynamics can work something out so that purchasers of Supercarrier can get all those extra features on the FID.
Speaking of the Supercarrier module, the promised addition of player-controllable LSO and Air Boss stations is close to completion and is still on track to be pushed out to users by the end of the year. (Landing Signal Officers help guide aircraft down onto the carrier, and LSOs are themselves always aviators). Once I get proficient in the F-14 I hope and expect to train as an LSO. Eagle Dynamics has also been working on a new more realistic and dynamic AI movement model, which will pay its biggest dividend for ground troops, but is being applied to Supercarrier's deck crew as well. ED has also released a second free map for all DCS users, their modern Marianas Islands map (with a WWII version coming as well) as well as their new more dynamic and realistic weather system.
Back to Heatblur, they always said they would produce an AI A-6E Intruder to accompany their F-14 module, and there's long been speculation―or maybe just hope―that they'd expand it to a full player-flyable module in its own right. It's now officially confirmed that they will. We're getting an AI KA-6D tanker as well, so we won't always need the zoomies for air-to-air refueling.
Meanwhile another 3rd party developer, Flying Iron Simulations, released an update on their A-7E Corsair module. It's about 66% done. Like the A-6E, this is a must-have for a proper 1980s carrier air wing. Speaking of which, ED has promised to revamp their now rather dated S-3 Viking and SH-3 Sea King AI models. Now if someone will just work on an AI E-2C Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound, and Heatblur would add in the EA-6B Prowler, we'll be all set! (Every time I see the curved prop blades on ED's E-2D it takes me right out of the moment, cus I know those are too modern.)
Whew! This post is getting long and I haven't even gotten to the VR news yet!
I'm a simple girl, I just want Index-level image clarity in a full human 220º x 135º field of view, with foveated rendering so I can run it without having to upgrade my graphics card. I don't mind if it has even better image clarity, but it's not a priority for me. As long as I can read my cockpit instruments, I'm good. I went with the Valve Index as my first (and so far only) VR headset because it had the best FoV I could afford, 130º, but that's still not great. It's still a literal pain in my neck when I have to check my tail rudder and elevators during preflight.
For over a year I've watched with growing frustration as one new headset or another was announced that not only didn't improve on the current industry standard of ~110º, but didn't even mention it. The already-big players in the arena like Valve, HP, Vive, and the newcomers like Deca and Pico and Varjo, none of them seemed to even care. In some cases they actually regressed! 90º, are you freakin' kidding me? The StarVR One is a proof-of-concept with crappy image quality for its prosumer price tag, and the XTAL 8k is basically made for the US miIlitary. Yeah you, the home end-user, can still buy one―if you have $8000.
The one exception has been Pimax, a Chinese company that has an uneven reputation where quality, reliability, and customer service are concerned. But unless you've got eight grand lying around they're the only game in town if you want anything close to real human FoV. Their headsets are expensive, ranging from $800 to $1325 depending on the resolution, and that's just for the headset. My Index was $1000, but that included the hand controllers and tracking stations, which for a Pimax would have tacked on an extra $500. Hence my settling for the Index, which was already pushing the limits of my budget even with the help of a Covid stimulus check.
And as I read more reviews, I began to wonder if I should have considered the Pimax even if I could have scraped up the money. It turned out their "200º" is simulated in a way that produces visible, immersion-breaking distortion at the edges and comes at the expense of refresh rate. Reviewers also spoke of poor, uncomfortable headstrap design, cheap low-quality materials, and crappy audio.
Yesterday they had a press event and I had signed up to attend, but had to bail on when I couldn't get anyone to cover my shift at work. But I was able to watch the recorded youtube livestream today, after the fact, and it was like Pimax had personally listened to all my griping. As I'd hoped, they announced a new headset, the Pimax 12K QLED, and it promises the almost-human 200º horizontal FoV, and fully human 135º vertical, with no edge distortion and no compromise on refresh rate, as well as foveated rendering and improved audio, a wider overlap between the left and right eyes to create a larger "sweet spot" and more depth perception, face tracking for VR Chat (supposedly camera-based full body as well, but I'm skeptical), and a few bells and whistles I don't care about such an option to use wifi instead of a cable.
The downside is the price―$2400―and its release date, "4th quarter 2022" (which, knowing the industry, probably actually means Q2 of 2023). But that comes with an enticing offer: anyone who's bought an existing Pimax headset, either already or before the 12K is released, can get a credit equal to its cost toward the purchase of the 12K, for up to one year after the 12K's release date. So if I were to, say, spend my tax return next year on their current 8KX, bare bones at $1325, I could then subtract that $1325 from the $2400 price tag of the 12K, making it just ("just") $1075. As of this writing, it's not been clarified whether you have to actually "trade in" your current headset (incurring shipping costs to China) or just show a proof of purchase, but the language (and the fact that Pimax would face import duties on the trade-ins) leans toward the latter. Pimax has promised to publish the fine print "a bit later".
Despite the criticisms I mentioned above about their current lineup, that's an offer worth considering. I can always use my own headphones and mic, and there's a thriving industry in improved replacement facecovers and headbands, and most of all, I'll have cut the final cost by more than half.
So yeah, been a crazy few days in VR and DCS World news. In a good way, and by "good" I mean amazeaballs.
Heatblur released their long-promised USS Forrestal aircraft carrier for DCS World (trailer), and confirmed that the rest of the Forrestal class will be forthcoming. USS Saratoga will be next since it's the least different from the FID; apparently Ranger and Independence will require more work. As much as I lust after DCS: Supercarrier, the three late-model Nimitz class ships it offers are "set" in the 2000s and better suited to Eagle Dynamics' in-house F/A-18C module. In Forrestal we get a carrier contemporary with Heatblur's circa-1987 F-14A.
Because Heatblur―a third-party developer―promised it for free to all DCS users, the FID doesn't have any of the stuff DCS: Supercarrier brings to carrier ops, like the animated deck crew or comms. At least not yet. We all hope that Heatblur and Eagle Dynamics can work something out so that purchasers of Supercarrier can get all those extra features on the FID.
Speaking of the Supercarrier module, the promised addition of player-controllable LSO and Air Boss stations is close to completion and is still on track to be pushed out to users by the end of the year. (Landing Signal Officers help guide aircraft down onto the carrier, and LSOs are themselves always aviators). Once I get proficient in the F-14 I hope and expect to train as an LSO. Eagle Dynamics has also been working on a new more realistic and dynamic AI movement model, which will pay its biggest dividend for ground troops, but is being applied to Supercarrier's deck crew as well. ED has also released a second free map for all DCS users, their modern Marianas Islands map (with a WWII version coming as well) as well as their new more dynamic and realistic weather system.
Back to Heatblur, they always said they would produce an AI A-6E Intruder to accompany their F-14 module, and there's long been speculation―or maybe just hope―that they'd expand it to a full player-flyable module in its own right. It's now officially confirmed that they will. We're getting an AI KA-6D tanker as well, so we won't always need the zoomies for air-to-air refueling.
Meanwhile another 3rd party developer, Flying Iron Simulations, released an update on their A-7E Corsair module. It's about 66% done. Like the A-6E, this is a must-have for a proper 1980s carrier air wing. Speaking of which, ED has promised to revamp their now rather dated S-3 Viking and SH-3 Sea King AI models. Now if someone will just work on an AI E-2C Hawkeye and C-2A Greyhound, and Heatblur would add in the EA-6B Prowler, we'll be all set! (Every time I see the curved prop blades on ED's E-2D it takes me right out of the moment, cus I know those are too modern.)
Whew! This post is getting long and I haven't even gotten to the VR news yet!
I'm a simple girl, I just want Index-level image clarity in a full human 220º x 135º field of view, with foveated rendering so I can run it without having to upgrade my graphics card. I don't mind if it has even better image clarity, but it's not a priority for me. As long as I can read my cockpit instruments, I'm good. I went with the Valve Index as my first (and so far only) VR headset because it had the best FoV I could afford, 130º, but that's still not great. It's still a literal pain in my neck when I have to check my tail rudder and elevators during preflight.
For over a year I've watched with growing frustration as one new headset or another was announced that not only didn't improve on the current industry standard of ~110º, but didn't even mention it. The already-big players in the arena like Valve, HP, Vive, and the newcomers like Deca and Pico and Varjo, none of them seemed to even care. In some cases they actually regressed! 90º, are you freakin' kidding me? The StarVR One is a proof-of-concept with crappy image quality for its prosumer price tag, and the XTAL 8k is basically made for the US miIlitary. Yeah you, the home end-user, can still buy one―if you have $8000.
The one exception has been Pimax, a Chinese company that has an uneven reputation where quality, reliability, and customer service are concerned. But unless you've got eight grand lying around they're the only game in town if you want anything close to real human FoV. Their headsets are expensive, ranging from $800 to $1325 depending on the resolution, and that's just for the headset. My Index was $1000, but that included the hand controllers and tracking stations, which for a Pimax would have tacked on an extra $500. Hence my settling for the Index, which was already pushing the limits of my budget even with the help of a Covid stimulus check.
And as I read more reviews, I began to wonder if I should have considered the Pimax even if I could have scraped up the money. It turned out their "200º" is simulated in a way that produces visible, immersion-breaking distortion at the edges and comes at the expense of refresh rate. Reviewers also spoke of poor, uncomfortable headstrap design, cheap low-quality materials, and crappy audio.
Yesterday they had a press event and I had signed up to attend, but had to bail on when I couldn't get anyone to cover my shift at work. But I was able to watch the recorded youtube livestream today, after the fact, and it was like Pimax had personally listened to all my griping. As I'd hoped, they announced a new headset, the Pimax 12K QLED, and it promises the almost-human 200º horizontal FoV, and fully human 135º vertical, with no edge distortion and no compromise on refresh rate, as well as foveated rendering and improved audio, a wider overlap between the left and right eyes to create a larger "sweet spot" and more depth perception, face tracking for VR Chat (supposedly camera-based full body as well, but I'm skeptical), and a few bells and whistles I don't care about such an option to use wifi instead of a cable.
The downside is the price―$2400―and its release date, "4th quarter 2022" (which, knowing the industry, probably actually means Q2 of 2023). But that comes with an enticing offer: anyone who's bought an existing Pimax headset, either already or before the 12K is released, can get a credit equal to its cost toward the purchase of the 12K, for up to one year after the 12K's release date. So if I were to, say, spend my tax return next year on their current 8KX, bare bones at $1325, I could then subtract that $1325 from the $2400 price tag of the 12K, making it just ("just") $1075. As of this writing, it's not been clarified whether you have to actually "trade in" your current headset (incurring shipping costs to China) or just show a proof of purchase, but the language (and the fact that Pimax would face import duties on the trade-ins) leans toward the latter. Pimax has promised to publish the fine print "a bit later".
Despite the criticisms I mentioned above about their current lineup, that's an offer worth considering. I can always use my own headphones and mic, and there's a thriving industry in improved replacement facecovers and headbands, and most of all, I'll have cut the final cost by more than half.