Flightsim

This is a human's weblog.

entertain

to VR or not to VR, that might be a question

Part 3 of 5 - follows on from; Part 2 - Requirements and initial design

The dream of VR every year always seems to be, to me, just out of reach.

For many apps, games and experiences, virtual reality goggles are well suited. Furthermore the technology is advancing at a rapid pace. The Sony Playstation VR was released nearly five years ago! The current crop has better resolution, higher refresh rates, a wider field of view, more comfortable and adjustable head straps and excellent head tracking.

  • wasabi
wasabi • 2 min read
entertain

requirements and initial design

The high-level requirements for my simpit are that it is;

  • deeply immersive
  • suitable for different sized pilots as, for the short time being, my son cannot fully depress toe-brakes.
  • flexible such that helicopter controls could be swapped in place
  • not an affront to one’s aesthetic sensibilities
  • has adequate space for some instruments

Controls that I purchased are quite sturdy, requiring solid mounts to avoid unintentional control inputs. The peddles I elected to mount on a sliding sheet of concrete form plywood, as it has a nice hard wearing yet slippery surface, suitable to the movement of ones heels. The sheet itself can slide forward enabling shorter statured pilots full control of the peddles.

  • wasabi
wasabi • 4 min read
entertain

flight-sim setup

When you use peddles in an aeroplane or helicopter, it is imperative that when they’re pushed, you yourself do not move. Thus a typical office chair on wheels that spins is completely inappropriate.

Initially upon installing peddles one goes and grabs a chair from the kitchen to sit on. This chair and the controls, cables & PC setup looks somewhat unsightly and often one’s better half starts asking when you’ll remove your ‘toy’ from the kitchen table.

  • wasabi
wasabi • 1 min read
entertain

digital airframe recommendations for DCS

Keen to encourage friends and family to fly with me in the incredible DCS World, I complied this list of what one needs. This was for my cousin, whom is obsessed with military aviation. He is particularly fond of airframes used by the Royal Australian Air Force, such as the Dassault Mirage III.

Steam/DCS (software)

Decent graphics card (GPU)

Decent ‘gaming’ monitor/display

  • $250-$900
  • ensure it has a high refresh rate, >=75hz
  • ideally G-SYNC (or FreeSync) depending on GPU type
  • easy to setup

Modern PC that can accomodate a discrete GPU

  • thus, not a small, bible sized PC
  • Intel i5 or greater CPU. Ideally with high single threaded performance
  • 16GB RAM

TrackIR head tracking

  • whilst you can task head panning to a 4-way ‘hat’ on your stick, head tracking is pretty solid now, and a must have for flight simulation in my opinion
  • TrackIR 5 comes with a special camera that you place below/above your monitor facing your head, and a TrackClip which attaches to the brim of a hat or visor and has three retro-reflective markers that direct infrared light back to the camera. optionally you can use a TrackClip Pro, which attaches to most PC headsets, comes with active LED markers.
  • TrackIR

HOTAS hands on throttle and stick

  • ideally a stick and throttle with 4-way hats to steer radars and targeting pods etc
  • semi complex to setup, as the various buttons need to be ‘mapped’ to various systems in each jet
  • I like and use Thrustmaster products, both;- T.16000M which is now on my sons’ PC Thrustmaster T.16000m- HOTAS Warthog (my current setup) Thrustmaster Warthog
  • you can now swap out the stick grip for a F-18 grip (On my wish list!) Thrustmaster fa-18c-hornet-hotas-add-grip
  • like road push-bikes, there appears not to be an upper limit on how much you can spend —> [Procure] https://virpil-controls.eu
virpil-controls.eu

virpil-controls.eu

  • wasabi
wasabi • 3 min read