DCS World | Headtracking vs VR

I need to mention this about Track IR: I use the hat clip and my wife laughs uncontrollably at me.

As a former USAF pilot, I can attest to the fact that if you have a good PC and VR headset, you will experience DCS in a way that is much much closer to real life than what you get using a head tracker with a 2D screen. I just bought the HP Reverb G2 a few days ago, and the first time I tried it in DCS (with the F/A-18), I was blown away with how real everything was and how much it felt like was back in a real cockpit again. Truly amazing technology that I am sure will continue to get better in time. Definitely the way to go if you are on the fence as to which one to choose...

VR will ruin flying with a flat panel... Once I plugged into the matrix, there was no going back...

Yesterday I bought HP reverb which is 4k resolution. Its like two different games. VR blew me away. Its like a dream. The feeling of size of an aircraft is so good! Messerschmitt felt so huge in VR when compared to monitor. Like real size plane. VR is phenomenal!

Loved the vampire bit....been there many times :) Oh and "did you get the chicken?" ... who hasn't been there.

Once I had VR I never wanted to fly DCS without ever again. It's just that much better with than without. For me 3D is somewhat like flying the jet instead of watching the jet fly. Also I find the community quite creative in solving problems you get when using VR (for example not writing down JTAC coords on a piece of paper). I don't want to miss it. And it has become a VR only experience for me, because it is just that much better for me!

Once I moved to vr I had so much more motivation to fly around (once my pc ran it ok in vr) I never wanted to go back the feeling was just so nice

I found dogfighting was actually easier in VR. In a scissors fight (yep, I’m defensive cause I’m dumb) I would always lose track of the enemy in head tracking. My first vr dogfight ended up in scissors again (did I mention I’m really dumb), but I never lost track even when I had to make sure there wasn’t a hill in front of me or something. My neck remembered exactly where to look again - having to physically look around gave me much more insight as to where he was in relation to my a/c. From that first fight I was hooked. I was never that much in control of the fight before when in that very bad position.

5 people are still looking around with their hat switch.

Just ordered a Trackir with the Pro clip a few days ago, what a well timed recommendation from YT.

I started flying in XPlane, Then jumped to DCS, Right there after went with the Rist S VR, Absolutely awesomeness, Then the neck issues, Old injury presenting from the weight of the VR Gear, So now I'm going with the Track IR, to spend time really learning. Then back to VR once I can accomplish all the multi-tasking. Thanks for sharing,

Never go to the supermarket when you're hungry, and never go either without a written shopping list :D Learned it the hard way.

lol - the vampire ref is too real! -*also the store one as well... great vid - have my trackir coming in tomorrow and so excited - im new to DCS and a warbird pilot as well as new member of the discord - ty for sharing!

Thanks, great summary! One advantage of VR is that it might improve visibility, because two eyes combined can look past things like window frames that are several centimeters wide. You lose depth perception in that area, since only one eye can see the object at a time, but it's a lot better than not seeing anything.

Great video as always brother. Just got my quest 2 today. Im trying to set it up in a little bit. Pumped

I just started flying DCS with my Reverb G6v2 combined for the first time with a 3080ti card. Wow, a new level of immersion - unmatched by head/eye tracking sets, I must say. Also, the improvement of my flying due to the added level of perspective/depth of field in VR is now significant, almost a true game changer. Just couldn't get this level of performance in VR up to now. Still, there will continue to be a challenge in referring to resources outside the goggles while flying - always a problem to this point for me. I also wanted to say, had a chance to go back and take another look at this video again today for the first time in over a year, and gotta say - TP never misses on providing a great blend of information, insight, and hilarity in these videos. Even months or years later they're brilliant!

Been playing in VR for about a year and a half. Honestly for flight sims for me it was a huge game changer. All your points stand, but for me in dogfighting it's way better then track ir ever was. The 1:1 ratio of head movement to in-game movement, and proper size and distance of objects in relation to my position makes it amazing. Turning your plane and then looking back to where the bandit should be and I don't overshoot the spot or have to wiggle around. I look and what I expect to see I see... Trying to dogfight with poor frames or micro stutter is a bit nauseating, though...

Thx for covering this topic! Hope it'll bring a new generation of VR pilots into DCS PvP :)

Even with all its flaws, it's VR for me everytime. I recently upgraded my whole rig (one of the many benefits of chosing to never get married or have kids) from a mid range system with an Oculus Rift s, to a high end machine with a HP G2 Reverb headset, and in 50 years on this earth it's by far and away the best gaming experience I've ever had. Yes it can be a bit of a faff not being able to take notes and having to pick up a controller to flip switches in the cockpit, but you're doing just that, flipping switches that have a real function in a very lifelike cockpit. The fov is a big issue in a dogfight, but this can be helped with a swivel chair so you dont need to crank your neck so much, but such minor draw backs are worth it for the immersion. I have around 500 hours of private pilot time in a few different light aircraft, and VR is easily the most comparable to flying a real aircraft. The flight models in DCS are worryingly realistic at times, and the skills I acquired flying PPL are absolutely transferable. The 3D sound quality and sense of immersion have been so intense at times, that I've had to spend 5 or 10 minutes just sitting in the now open and quiet cockpit of my A-10C after a frantic mission, just listening to the gyros spooling down and the breeze blowing through the dark cockpit whilst I calm down. All we need now is some way to simulate gravity and external forces to give us the seat of the pants feeling you get from a real aircraft, and we're there 👍👍

In VR for me it's exceedingly easy to keep track of where I'm actually looking, as in how far I'm off the plane's centerline. Also of course the 3d impression itself helps with AAR and difficult heli landings etc. Of course the drawbacks are still there - for me,playing with VR is quite hard in the summer months,not just due to unpleasantness, but mostly condensation - I think a cockpit fan would help with that though.