flightsimJim

Well, one way is to go to the shortcut bar at the top, select camera and choose cockpit view from the window that pops up.

 

Regarding the switch view toggle, I assume you mean a key to cycle through the three primary view modes (cockpit, external - i.e. spot plane, and showcase). In that case, I'm not sure that there is a switch for that. But you can assign a toggle to each of the individual view modes, which will toggle between the current view and the desired view. I don't remember what the defaults are, because I changed them on my system 18 months ago.

 

I assume you want to toggle to the external view. Go to the controls settings and search for "Toggle external" or something like that. If nothing comes up, make sure that the bindings filter shows "All" keys, not just the "Assigned" keys.

 

Ha, and there you thought this would be simple...

 

It turned out to be really simple...just hit the end button on the keyboard. :)

On points 2 and 3:

 

2) Yes, I use one everytime I fly. They work well.

3) It's definitely possible to view the cockpit. In fact the view functionality works normally, other than starting outside.

 

Awesome...what's the default switch view toggle?

 

I think using the hand controllers is new. I personally prefer not to use them though.

Saitek throttle units have always worked. I was using one while I was an Alpha tester and I still use one now (although the Bravo throttles are my main ones)

I’ve only ever tried the discovery flights briefly..but I’m pretty sure it was the usual cockpit view.

 

Regards

Steve

 

Sry not the proflight throttle...the TPM box.

https://www.saitek.com/uk/prod/tpm.html

So if I have this right, and correct me if wrong, there's no vibration pad or mechanism, the vibrations are generated by the woofer under the seat? Steve £120 on Amazon UK

 

No the vibration is separate from the subwoofer. You have an on off button, 2 dials to control the rumble...I think one is intensity and the other changes the location...and a big dial for the subwoofer sound. I will test it out next time I fly since I don't mess with the dials very often.

Wow, I want one! Presumably they’ll be available in the UK?

Many years ago (20 years+?) I ordered a vibrating seat pad, after reading a review on this site. It still works.. I can feel the bumps and vibrations… but this seat looks fantastic!

I might have to save up a few pennies first though

 

 

Edit: how does this compare.?

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocker-Olympus-4-1-Gaming-Chair/dp/B094NFX6S8/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1P4X1AQFJWBJO&keywords=x-rocker+gaming+chair&qid=1644441411&sprefix=X-rocker%2Caps%2C65&sr=8-5

 

It seems quite cheap and I could have it Friday if ordered within 2 hours!

 

Another edit: Change of plan. Some of the reviews aren’t brilliant. All these chairs appear to be a bit low down and non-adjustable. There are complaints like.. the motor being too powerful & sticking in your back.

My current (20 year old) seat pad has several motors.. all in the padding that you’re sat on. Plus there’s a control box, from which I can turn the power up or down. Think I’ll continue with this a bit longer.

 

Regards

Steve

 

I think this is mine:

 

https://www.amazon.ca/X-Rocker-5125401-Wireless-Bluetooth-Pedestal/dp/B010496LJ0/ref=asc_df_B010496LJ0/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=335598791653&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=18421353712041551709&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9001451&hvtargid=pla-307817865039&th=1

 

I'm not sure about the reviewer but you can set the vibration to be as little or as much as you like with the dials...and the volume. You can set it so you feel the engine the whole time if you want. I just landed an Airbus and it totally thumped lol... I literally wouldn't fly without one any more. What fun is lowering the gear or hitting the reverse thrust if you can't feel it?

Those landing challenges are great...I just updated my MSFS2020 after a basement flood so back in the game now and enjoying all the new stuff! :)

 

I see that in the Cessna 172 I can set up autopilot now and all the frequencies for an ILS approach which is great.

 

1. I notice I could lower flaps and stuff with my hand controllers in VR...so is that new?

2. Is the saitek throttle quadrant compatible yet?

3. When doing the discovery flights can you possibly view it from the cockpit and not from outside the plane? If they did this it would be an awesome...but still cool for discovering new places.

VR...

Anyone trying to say it is best for immersion needs to realise I don’t have Vaseline smeared on my eyeballs.

 

I guarantee this looks better than your system.

VR for most sims for me is just an endless pursuit of chasing settings and not much flying happening. I for that reason gave up on vr long ago.

There is no hardware currently able to run it a what I call acceptable fidelity, DCS, XP11 and MSFS all look awful to me.

Anyone trying to say it is best for immersion needs to realise I don’t have Vaseline smeared on my eyeballs.

 

What???? That is one of the main reasons I went to VR because with my panel there were always issues popping up or something crashing etc...with VR there are no issues at all.

While there are many VR users that are not pushy, I am only negative towards those with the above attitude.

 

I do not want to try VR for a variety of reasons, and I am not required to state them here. They are my reasons.

 

Like I said in a earlier post, I have no problem with VR or those VR users that do not keep telling me I have to try it. Or asking why I don not try it.

 

There are some posters here, VR users, who do not throw it in your face every day. But they will assist anyone using VR to solve problems. They also assist the other members.

 

Please stop telling me, and others, that we have to try it. Or that we are somewhat inferior if we don't

 

Just my opinion of course.

 

Hal

 

You don't have to try it but I guess what VR users get perplexed about is how anybody who calls themself a simmer wouldn't want to try it?

 

There is a reason all the msfs2020 YouTubers have all switched to VR ..It is a vastly better flying experience.

 

btw where is our VR dedicated forum? I guess the msfs2020 forum will eventually turn into the VR dedicated forum as eventually everyone will be VR flying. :)

It's hard to be certain, but I think you might be aiming at me, among others. HOWEVER, the negative responses I make are not about someone ELSE using VR, but rather about them trying to push it on me, apparently refusing to understand that it's NOT for everyone at this point -- maybe some day, but not yet.

 

 

Well, at least for me, it's not bashing VR itself, it's pointing out that it's not for me. And as for trying it, I'm not going to spend all that money, including buying a computer system that can handle that heavy load, along with a flightsim program that is (to read all the posts here) sounding as if it is in beta.

 

But I don't need to try VR to recognize that a mouse is awkward and clumsy and time consuming for control operation (switch, knob, etc.), and I don't need to try VR to recognize that I don't want a heavy gadget on my head and that I can't see real, honest-to-goodness charts with it on.

 

I have absolutely NO objection to others doing it if they wish, but STOP PUSHING IT SO HARD. It's fine for you, not for me.

 

bye

 

 

This was one my sim in FSX...I had it set up briefly for MSFS 2020. I was a VR hater at first because IFR was the way I flew, and wanted to convince myself that it couldn't be done in VR...and I didn't want to give up my panel. Then I tried Ultrawings on the oculus quest, an arcade VR flying game and decided to give VR a try. So while waiting for VR in MSFS 2020 I set up flyinside FSX, WCS, and Aerofly FS2.

 

This whole setup is now piled in a tubbaware box under my stairs...THAT is how good VR is.

Which Rocker chair are you talking about? Link?

 

I'm not sure this is the same one I have as mine is about 8 years old....goes to show its durable. :)

 

X-Rocker 5125401 2.1 Wireless Bluetooth Audi Pedestal Video Gaming Chair, Black/Red https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B010496LJ0/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_i_MWWKDJP7QAZWFSZMQJ4H?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I thought this deserved it's own topic because it is such an important part of the simming experience. These chairs are plug and play, and can be picked up for $300 and they are worth every penny. I have had a full home cockpit build with a filling functioning panel and wrap around screen, and easily the rocker chair was the most immersive part of my sim. You can feel the engine rumbling as you throttle up...feel the landing gear thump you in the butt ..and feel the landings. It will actually help you fly by feel. I have since moved on to VR and given up my dual projectors and panel...but never giving up my gaming chair. I would say it is as crucial as VR for achieving the best immersive flying experience...together they are brilliant...bring on hand tracking and you will have the complete flying experience we have all been chasing. :)

I use VR on-and-off and while enjoyable for short periods and the novelty of it, I still prefer my 1440p monitor and Track-IR for "serious" simming, where I need to see all the keys, a second screen and/or the odd note.

 

The most frustrating thing in MSFS 2020 in VR is the lack of a VR keyboard to type the name of an airfield to depart/arrive. Perhaps someone can illuminate me on a method besides having to lift the headset and physically type it on a keyboard?

 

You can get all that information from the Garmin. I think the issue you guys are having is you can't "touch type" so you don't need to look at your keyboard. My last gaming keyboard was a mechanical DAP with no letters or numbers in it ..all black :) So anyway I can be in game with my VR headset on and still use the keyboard...and in the Garmin you can type in airports codes if you double click the cursor I think ..search YouTube tutorials.

 

Yes, and mine. Trying to create the impression of real flying misses so much of the vibration, audio and visual cues as to be UTTERLY pointless at this point. No doubt it will get better over time, but in my experience so far - and both of them - I don't see a real advance.

TrackIR just sucks at virtual recreation in this sim. So come on the future iterations of virtual flying as there is little doubt if the whole paraphernalia is better optimised it's gonna be worth looking at again.

But it is all too clunky at the moment -and has all the hallmarks of non-pilots trying to fake being pilots... which they aren't. Perhaps we'll need some new advances in hardware?

 

What are you talking about? I have a rocker gaming chair that vibrates and has sound ..you can literally feel the landings with a thump...even feel the landing gear lock in place...couple this with the 360 degree views of VR and you're in heaven.

 

Check out some YouTube vids good setups

I concur with FlightSimJim. Have you tried VR for yourself?

I have had two versions of Trackir. I used them for years and thought they were brilliant. When MSFS came along, I invested in three 43” screens.. three Saitek panels.. plus a multipanel!

Just a few months later, I bought a Reverb G2 - my screens & gauges are now obselete (not to mention my TrackIR)

 

 

Regards

Steve

 

Ditto...had dual projectors and 10 saitek FIPS, BIP panel, multipanel, a radio panel, switch panel and now they are all collecting dust bunnies.

I concur - VR is not YET fit for purpose. Give it another iteration or two (maybe three) and it will be at least up to the current level of in-cockpit representation - if not beyond. Then way may ALL decide to go VR... But not yet.

 

I tried everything and imo the best way to fly (IFR with approach plates) is a home cockpit build with functioning knobs and dials...and a wrap around screen..but if you are in VR and just want to hit approaches you can get VOR, ILS frequencies and GPS waypoints from the Garmin in game. I imagine at some point MSFS could introduce an in game tablet with all the plates so that will be great for VR..as will hand tracking. I think flyinside or aerofly have this? Hand tracking (sans controllers) will really take VR to the next level. So really VR is the way to go unless you are reading approach plates, SIDS, stars while in flight.

 

BTW for VFR flying it's VR all day long no comparison.

Obviously you feel that way, and that's fine. My answer to that, though, is no.

 

I'm not a gamer, period. The one computer game that I enjoyed was the original Crowther & Woods Adventure, which was strictly text, beautifully crafted text in many places, and I could mentally visualize all of the elaborate descriptions, just as I could mentally visualize all the wonderful radio programs when I was a kid, before TV came to town.

 

 

We certainly can agree on that. And I'd like to see the crusade against Non-VR use go away, too.

 

 

Another statement on which we agree.

 

 

I don't know where that notion came from. I don't have a "yoke and throttle quadrant," nor will I ever get one. My Warthog is more than adequate, and lets me (mostly, not completely) be HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick), with flaps, gear, spoilers, bringing up the GPS display, certain major view changes (not all, darn it), and more right there under my hands without the need to look (mostly), adding to the illusion FOR ME. I've flown IRL so many different configurations of controls from front seat, back seat, left seat, right seat, stick, yoke, throttle push-pull on panel, throttle on sidewall (fighter and Cub style), throttle on quadrant, all with or without prop controls, some even without mixture controls, toe brakes, heel brakes, Piper's brake handle under the panel with no brake pedals, brakes and spoilers on a single handle on the sidewall (glider), carb heat on sidewall or on panel, trim on sidewall, on console, on panel or overhead crank, flaps as a switch on the panel, either with defined positions or hold to operate, flaps as a Johnson Bar on the floor, switches on the panel, overhead or in the wing roots or combinations, that the fact that they are stick/throttle mounted in the sim is immaterial to my immersion, whether a Cub or an L-39 or in between.

 

And what I have to be able to see is not the flight controls, but the keyboard in order to operate the view changes and other infrequently needed things that are not assigned to my Warthog's switches and buttons, along with my coffee cup and other things in the area, including real world charts when I occasionally use them. The mouse, as I said above a couple of times, is NOT a viable control mechanism (for me) for doing anything in the cockpit -- it ruins my illusion, distracts from my flying, and is clumsy.

 

 

No, YOU (and many others) might be "submerged into the fs world" but I would not be, any more than the Viewmaster 3D slides "submerge" me into the view, though it's pretty.

 

It's kind of like a very good friend of mine who bought a TrackIR on my report of an excellent experience, but who never could get used to it, could never make it become automatic, so he abandoned it. I had trouble understanding that, but it was an absolute fact that his mind operated in different ways than mine, in that respect. We're ALL different...

 

And finally, not everyone who is into one (or more) of these PC sims is a gamer. I don't do D&D, Minecraft or any of the other thousands of computer games that seem to attract so many people. I am there because of the simulation aspects, weak as they may be, but they are MUCH better than the butterfly chair, plumber's friend, cardboard boxes and a makeshift "instrument panel" that I put together as a kid- everything else, EVERYTHING, was mental, pretend, visual. With the PC sims I have much more than what I strove for back then, including so many real world memories that they can be "overlaid" on the PC sim experience to create immersion. VR would break that.

 

The above is ME, it's not anyone else, and I don't try to tell everyone else "you don't know what you're missing" by not doing it my way -- after all, your experiences are different from mine and your mind likely works different. When TrackIR came out, I did mention my favorable experience, and I suggested it as a possible aid when certain questions came up about people having problems seeing certain things, but I don't try to push it on others, unlike some here who rave about VR. That's fine for them, but don't push it on others.

 

Enjoy...

 

How can you know any of this and never tried VR?

There are plenty of us remaining who don't mess with VR. When VR lets me reach my hand to the switches and knobs on the virtual panel, instead of having to occasionally look at the keyboard (mouse is very awkward and time consuming), and when it doesn't use a heavy contraption on my head, I might consider it. Meantime my TrackIR does very nicely for me looking around both in and out of the cockpit, and the small piece of metal to reflect my head position is less than an ounce and doesn't block my vision for keyboard and other things (phone ringing, drinking coffee, etc.).

 

Oh come on...you can't compare trackir to VR. I went from trackir to a full cockpit build with knobs and dials for the instruments, and 2 projectors to VR. My only reason to not go VR at first was I like to fly IFR, and like you thought it would be cumbersome. It's not ..you just turn the dials and knobs with your mouse while in VR. I have my trim and flaps on my yoke and good to go. Once they implement hand tracking it will be as good as the real thing....except you can fly EVERY plane...not just the one you built at home.

 

I can do everything in VR that I did with my home cockpit build. I just did an IFRil in the analog Cessna 172 tracking a VOR, captured the glide slope of the runway frequency and APR landed it on autopilot. It was awesome! But VR is so good that now I fly VFR as well ..never did that with my home cockpit build.

Any non VR flyers left? If so you don't know what you're missing out on. Before VR I used to spend most of my time tweaking and trying to get all my cockpit build just right ..now I just spend time flying. :)

I got the premium...for the price difference it didn't make sense not to go with premium.

Active Sky for X-Plane is available here:

 

https://store.flightsim.com/product/hifi-technologies-active-sky-xp/

 

Thanks :)

How is the Xplane default weather engine?