VR. A knackered old git’s story.

The video does get across how realistic the simulation is (or can be), at least inside the cockpit. My professional instinct is to get him as far away as possible from anything that flies, but I find myself forgiving him as his joie de Vivre is infectious! He makes me smile, and occasionally laugh out loud. Like at his first attempted take off! 

Yeah, I liked that first take off attempt! For me, I'm just overwhelmed at all those controls and displays, I wouldn't know where to begin. Many years ago I tried a much, much simpler simulator and even that was too complicated for me. I mostly enjoyed being in the air and flying around, the finer details passed me by as I'd no idea what I was doing. By comparison, this guy in your shared video is a real expert.

By comparison, this guy in your shared video is a real expert.

Haha, I somehow doubt that your attitude was anything like as ‘gash’ as his. I love him, but he’d never pass a pilot interview that I was in charge of. If I’d seen a video of his, he’d not get an invite! 

Here’s a video of a guy playing the ‘game’ I’m talking about, he’s one person that’s definitely ‘playing’ the game, as opposed to taking it seriously. My strong recommendation to him would be “don’t take up flying real aeroplanes!”    Seriously!

The video does get across how realistic the simulation is (or can be), at least inside the cockpit. My professional instinct is to get him as far away as possible from anything that flies, but I find myself forgiving him as his joie de Vivre is infectious! He makes me smile, and occasionally laugh out loud. Like at his first attempted take off! 

DCS world still has the ability to blow my mind. Like yesterday when I looked at this very type flying from a camera view beneath it with blue sky above, sound included. I defy anyone to say it wasn’t extremely realistic! 

Absolutely brilliant! Made me laugh too. What kit would you recommend for VR Stan?

Absolutely brilliant! Made me laugh too. What kit would you recommend for VR Stan?

I have a Oculus Quest2 headset, but I bought it before I knew that I needed a high performance PC to play DCS. Now I’d buy the lightest one that I could afford that has decent reviews, the quest 2 can work independently, but now that’s not necessary. It would surely help if I knew the slightest thing about computers - but sadly, I don’t. The lockdown doesn’t help, or I’d have someone around to teach me the obvious, but there’s tons to learn, all I could do was basically fly, but I know now what they mean by ‘operating’ military planes.

I have a Oculus Quest2 headset, but I bought it before I knew that I needed a high performance PC to play DCS. Now I’d buy the lightest one that I could afford that has decent reviews, the quest 2 can work independently, but now that’s not necessary. It would surely help if I knew the slightest thing about computers - but sadly, I don’t. The lockdown doesn’t help, or I’d have someone around to teach me the obvious, but there’s tons to learn, all I could do was basically fly, but I know now what they mean by ‘operating’ military planes.

Thanks Stan.

For anyone interested in aeroplanes and gaming (vr in particular)sorry about the small font. I wrote it in pages before copying and pasting it here.

Baron Pilot Video (real life)

https://youtu.be/K9SDA-t1MHg

Jabbers video (Video game)

https://youtu.be/BJg0vv0G_j0

I wanted to write something about how we might learn lessons, and to ask others to think about this question; ‘How useful a tool lessons that we learn from virtual reality or gaming can be compared to lessons we learn in real life.’ The video by Jabbers is one I watched this morning, the one that has me thinking about things. The other is one that I watched around a year ago, that really vibed with me, it had me sweating and I knew exactly how it felt being there. It is a great example of how things can suddenly turn sour when flying, leaving those involved feeling really uneasy. 

If you are reading this, then you probably read about my current interest in Virtual Reality, with aeroplanes being at the fore. The game that I play on is called DCS (Digital Combat Simulations), but as time goes on, I’m realising that I’ve little interest in the the ‘combat’ side of things, and enjoy very much the thrill of both flying these aeroplanes and watching them, the truth is, I love watching them. You can relax while doing so, I could never really relax while flying.

DCS is continually being upgraded, the maps and the planes etc, bringing them closer and closer to reality. About two or three weeks ago, Version 2.7 was introduced. It contained lots of minor tweaks but the big one was the introduction of proper clouds to the various scenarios. There have been light clouds of course, but this allows game changing weather, and layers of cloud which have had an enormous impact. I’m both impressed by the work done by Eagle Dynamics and the reaction of the gamers, I don’t think I’ve read any negative comments. Critiques, yes, but positive in nature, nothing really negative.

The two people that are responsible for the videos, Baron Pilot and Jabbers, seem to have one common interest, aviation. Having watched a number of his videos, Baron pilot appears to me to be a very conscientious, bright guy, who takes his flying seriously. As one surely should, with a pastime that can be quite unforgiving. I’d fly with him all day long, even though I’m not sure if I really warm to him that much, I certainly respect his ‘approach’ (Darrrrum, ting!). I don’t know Jabbers, he may well be a serious guy that would take real flying as seriously as does Baron Pilot. Or he might be a gash slob! All I know is that they have a common interest in aeroplanes. 

Pilots take weather seriously, as a pal of mine once said...”Stay out of clouds and you’ll stay out of trouble”. That’s good advice for an amateur pilot, but of little use for professionals. Unless you happen to fly exclusively in a desert area limited to certain distances from base as well as certain times of the year, sooner or later you will have to contend with the difficulties of ‘weather’. It’s not only the modern jets that are finding it different flying with weather, the WW2 warbirds are finding it even more of a challenge. Here too, people seem up to the challenge. Learning ways to operate the machines fully as well as tactical advantages over their opponents. 

It is interesting for me to see how gash even a keen simulator/gamer but not trained by professionals often are. Jabbers made a schoolboy error by setting off on a mission to bomb the enemy without looking at the weather. Ducking below cloud barely in sight of the ground had me bracing and saying ‘that’s really not a good idea’ at my ipad! It’s no surprise, because up until now, the ability to see the target and your home runway has been taken for granted. This video demonstrates what a naive assumption that is to make. It is amusing to hear Jabbers comment to ‘Jester’ his AI back seater, when Jester continues to call out threats from outside their aeroplane, after it being badly damaged by ground fire. Well, I thought it was quite funny. 

I reckon navigation has been receiving lots of attention from players during this past two weeks! I felt the irony flying around in a modern jet with state of the art equipment but not having a clue how to use it. The manuals that can be found are hit and miss at best. I still struggle to work the basics, I don’t know if it’s my memory and brainpower letting me down, or the ‘teach yourself to fly the F16’ approach that we are mostly forced to take. I’m making painfully slow progress, not helped by not sticking to one type. Like humans, they all have they’re strengths and weaknesses. The looks of the Mirage are irresistible to me, looking like a French model should. This one however, has a nasty sting and has no qualms about killing you in a flash! 

This Baron Pilot video is unusual, it’s the only one that is able to get me nervous just by sitting on my couch watching it. When I play DCS I do sometimes react physically, then mentally, but I think this one works the opposite way around. I sense the potential danger before my body reacts, and my stomach starts to knot ever so slightly. I can feel the tension in that Baron. Real tension. So that had me wondering how real any tension I might feel when playing DCS might be? I think simulators are very useful and safe tools for training purposes. How much use they are to teach us discipline depends on the trainers. So I am tempted to say I would not recommend DCS while learning to fly the real thing. 

Anyway, nobody dies in either video, so if you’re interested. Enjoy. 

Steve,

Somehow just came upon this thread and I have to chime in and thank you for the initial post (and the subsequent dialogue for that matter).  I truly appreciate these personal insights that folks choose to share and applaud the gumption required to do so.

Good on your for exploring new things.  While not a tech myself, I too believe the future of VR is likely darn near endless.  Opens up a ton of possibilities for all of us.