Posts by psionmark

  • OAHU for AFS2 in development - Share our excitement!

    Personally, I'd prefer the installation instructions and perhaps a list of (what appears to be a tremendous amount of) POI's for us to go visit.


    We could then have a little treasure hunt discovering the fruits of your labour and there's always Wikipedia if we want more info. Extensive background info will, I'm sure, be of interest to some, but it may perhaps not be the best use of your time to replicate what's already out there. Perhaps a "Useful links" section in the docs for those that do want to research further?


    Can't wait for this. It looks stunning - a huge well done and thanks to all involved.

  • Almost there

    I know we've probably covered this multiple times across multiple threads, but I just wanted to get my thoughts down.

    For me, AF2 is SO close to being a perfect VR flight simulator. It's main advantage over every other flight sim I've tried is it's fluidity. The smoothness we get in VR far surpasses everything else I've tried. And this alone, for me, makes it almost the most enjoyable experience.

    I think the one thing I miss is the perception of any sort of life within the sim. I know the good folks here and elsewhere have added some wonderful little enhancements to help bring areas such as Florida to life with animated traffic etc. I love this stuff and it helps immensely with the immersion. However, that is all pretty localised. Which is fun when you're in the animation area, but then we revert to static outside of those areas.

    I think (and this is maybe on the cards anyway), if the sim could be enhanced with these little hints of life (e.g. ground traffic, air traffic, animated water etc), it would be near perfect for me. I'm almost exclusively VFR when in VR so I appreciate others may prefer better navigation etc (I would love a VR map, for sure).

    I obviously keep an eye on the competion and especially with the current frequent updates to XP11, it always raises a smile when I go there and see the cars driving around, the airport vehicles etc. It's nowhere near as fluid as AF2, even with Vulkan, which keeps driving me back to AF2, but I sure do miss those little bits of life when I do.

    What do others think? What's the "one thing" that woud make AF2 perfect for you?

  • A new era of Flight Sims

    Quote from Bellah1z

    I have to say with X Plane 11.50 they have pretty much caught up to Fs2 with VR given though that 11.50 Beta is still full of bugs but when they iron them out its going to be a game changer for VR.

    Yep. Gotta admit, I've not fired up AF2 since 11.5 beta arrived. Even with all the bugs, I'm getting a very impressive experience in VR.

  • ORBX Truearth GB

    Quote from donka

    psionmark Out of curiosity, which are your favourite UK airports from the Orbx collection?

    My current favourite of theirs is Southampton. I've also got a non-ORBX Newcastle (my home airport). PM me if you like and I can give you details in case the mods don't want me filling up the forum with details of other sim products :)

  • ORBX Truearth GB

    Quote from donka

    Thanks for your insight.

    Yup, I installed the South England demo area in XP11 and I like the immersion it provides. I wasn't expectng much in the way of differing ground textures given they mostly all share the same sources but the additional modelling of areas and airports is the main attraction, especially for someone more casual like myself. It's more the region that is driving this as my local airport is Edinburgh which Orbx provide a great version of. I'll probably start with GB North and Edinburgh then if liking that, grab the rest of the UK and main airports.

    Don't get me wrong, I do like flying over the area in AF2 and was looking to try and create a respectable version of Edinburgh airport myself at some point if freetime allows but then I would be looking to do the same with the likes of London City, Cardiff etc. - all of which are available from Orbx just now.

    I'm also not flying in VR at the moment. Something I will likely explore as the tech and sims mature as I don't have enough ime to justify the purchase at the moment.

    That all makes sense. For non-VR VFR flying, the TE stuff is terrific. In fact it's great anyway - I just prefer AF2 for VR and that's most of my flying at the moment. But yeah, the quality of the airports is very impressive.

  • ORBX Truearth GB

    Quote from donka

    Not going to lie to you, I'm looking to pick up TE GB for X-Plane 11 in the next Orbx sale along with some of their excellent UK based airports. This won't be replacing AF2 but will scratch that itch when I want to get low down in the UK. I really do wish Orbx would develop more for AF2 as I like the performance and immediacy of AF2.

    I've got most of these (full set of TE for UK, plus most UK airports). I still fly mostly AF2 for VR, with the community supplied UK scenery, which is awesome. In a lot of cases, I find the texture quality of the community stuff here actually better than TE. There's nowhere near the amount of 3D objects, of course, but it's definitely usable.

    I've done a few comparison flights, trying to do the same flight in both, and it's a close thing to be honest. Personally speaking, I prefer the fluidity of AF2 over the "extras" in XP11, e.g. global traffic, moving cars etc. Before buying the whole lot, you might want to try just one first to see if it's for you.

    Having said all this, it's partly because I'm almost exclusively VR these days and XP still struggles in that regard, at least for now. VR in X-Plane with TE at ORBX airports will slow the frame rate right down to the point of being distracting. Which never happens in AF2.

    I still prefer the systems aspect of XP11, but of course, flying a tuber at 35,000 feet kind of negates a lot of the stuff you get with TE :)

  • How to use Virtual Reality

    Quote from Tregarth

    Thank you, I will give it a go tomorrow. "Cycle internal views" is obvious!

    Do you live near Gatwick? If so have a look at https://www.gfsg.co.uk/ We meet on the first Sunday of every month. People come from Luton and West Worthing so we have a wide catchment area.

    Thank you,

    Tregarth

    Unfortunately, I’m way up North from Gatwick - right next to EGNT - but if I do find myself in the area at the right time I’ll certainly pop my head in :)

  • How to use Virtual Reality

    Quote from Tregarth

    Sorry to be a pain but I can't see how to make the seat switch. I am looking in Settings / Controls / View but don't see anything about switching seats. Could you please send a screen grab of your View screen?

    Thank you,

    Tregarth.

    No problem at all - I’m not at my PC at the moment so will send tomorrow but from memory, the setting is something like “Cycle internal views” I think. You can assign a key or controller button.

    Will send screenshot tomorrow if you’re stuck.

  • How to use Virtual Reality

    Hi Tregarth,

    Do let us know how you get on.

    For me, the Rift adds an incredible feeling of immersion - far better than I’ve ever managed to achieve with head tracking. For example, flying the R22 helicopter is a completely different experience in VR than with a 2D screen. Almost all my “flying” now is with VR, as I find the lack of immersion on a flat display too limiting now, so I definitely don’t consider my purchase of the Rift a bad decision. Quite the contrary. It literally takes things to another level for me.

    As for the controls, that’s just my personal preference. I’m sure others here may well only use the VR controls and are very happy with that. One of the great things about our hobby is that we can generally find a setup that works well for us.

    And of course the Rift can be used for other things. Project Cars 2 in VR is simply incredible :)

  • How to use Virtual Reality

    Hi Tregarth and welcome to AF2 world!

    I also have the Rift S. I use it in conjunction with my Gladiator joystick and CH Products Pro Throttle, You can indeed try and fly using the virtual blue hands, but I'd strongly recommend using your hardware for flight controls. I also have some of the common functions (flap, gear etc) bound to my Throttle hardware and I also use Saitek panels to control heading bug etc for navigation so I can access most of the funcionality I need without having to leave the VR world. It can take a little getting used to, but muscle memory soon kicks in.

    I love the VR aspect for the view and immersion it affords, but I do prefer hardware for controls. I do still use the virtual hands for some not-so-common stuff as and when needed, but that feels somewhat artificial for me, but to each their own :)

    To use the Blue Hands to control stuff like flaps, press the button on your controller to get it to "point a finger", then flick the control up or down. To turn a knob, get the controller into "pinch" mode to "grab" the control knob, then twist left or right etc. You should be able to do everything you want entirely within VR using only the VR "hands", I believe, if that's your wish.