Tips and tricks

[Vulcan]

So here are some things that I found help:
 - Cooling: VR headsets have a habit of heating your face up, which I think contributes to nausea. Have a fan blowing on your face/headset. This also helps prevent the display fogging up.
 - Dominant Eyes: it is a very common problem to have a dominant eye. Most people don't notice it until you try things like VR. In AH3 it is most noticeable in tank and bomber sights where the dominant eye comes into play. In AH3 it acts a little weird, if you are left eye dominant then your shots will go left and you need to correct to the right (i.e shoot to the right of your target).
 - Mono Vision Option: if dominant eyes is a problem you can switch the game to mono vision. Under Clipboard options/Preferences/VR there is an option to switch to Mono Vision (2D, yes you lose that cool 3D effect in this mode). I will often switch to this mode when GVing or bombing.
 - 6 oclock view: you can map a button or hat switch to look behind you. This flips you around 180 degrees and lets you look around with your headset like your whole body is facing backward.
 - Head Center: Try moving your center point around a lot to see what you like. I like to be close to the gunsight, so in views I go into non-headtracking mode, move my head around using the arrow keys and pgup/down. Once I find a center point I like I hit F10 to save it. I also do this for the 6 view as I find the default 6 views are often not centered and this feels 'odd' with VR (turn off tracking, hold down the 6 view button then move your head using keys until you find the spot you like then hit F10).

   just so you lot know I've been playing AH with a VR headset since 2008/2009! You guys are lucky, I had to use all sorts of tools/hacks to get the game to support VR. The old headsets had anything from 30 degree to 45 degree narrow fields of view with 800x600 panels. Nothing like this new crop of VR headsets.

[Kanth]

 

so in views I go into non-headtracking mode --snip--

(turn off tracking --snip--

Which is?  just disabling VR under preferences ? OR ?

Good tips! 

[Vulcan]

Which is?  just disabling VR under preferences ? OR ?

Good tips! 

You can map tracker on/off to a button or key. Cannot remember what is default sorry!

[Kanth]

oh okay, I can look for that. I didn't realize you could do that. 

[Gman]

I'd also add that the 6 oclock information from Vulcan can be applied to any direction with your hat.  IE you can look left, left/back, right, right/back, up, and so forth, and still be able to move your head around in VR with the Rift, while keeping the hat button or KP mutton depressed.  Most of the time looking left/right in VR, I find it to be just as fast and accurate as it was using TrackIR on a monitor, but further than the 3 to 9 line, personally I find that using the HTC built view hat/VR combination, is faster, and easier on the neck/back/whatever,  especially when doing it fast in fights.

It's a great feature, one I think other games will copy in short order, as it removes one of the things that was a drawback (IMO, some sim pilots bang that "realism!!" drum, and think it removes some of that from the experience..), not being able to look behind yourself or looking in places that require a lot of head/body movement, at least not as easily or quickly.  Playing PvP in some other games without this feature HTC has made, you really notice vs opponents with just TrackIR or thumb hats, they can keep you in sight far easier than you can keep them.  With the capability AH3 has to combine view hats/key pad/etc with VR, it eliminates much of that disadvantage, at least IMO.

[LLv34_Camouflage]

I'd also add that the 6 oclock information from Vulcan can be applied to any direction with your hat.  IE you can look left, left/back, right, right/back, up, and so forth, and still be able to move your head around in VR with the Rift, while keeping the hat button or KP mutton depressed.  Most of the time looking left/right in VR, I find it to be just as fast and accurate as it was using TrackIR on a monitor, but further than the 3 to 9 line, personally I find that using the HTC built view hat/VR combination, is faster, and easier on the neck/back/whatever,  especially when doing it fast in fights.

It's a great feature, one I think other games will copy in short order, as it removes one of the things that was a drawback (IMO, some sim pilots bang that "realism!!" drum, and think it removes some of that from the experience..), not being able to look behind yourself or looking in places that require a lot of head/body movement, at least not as easily or quickly.  Playing PvP in some other games without this feature HTC has made, you really notice vs opponents with just TrackIR or thumb hats, they can keep you in sight far easier than you can keep them.  With the capability AH3 has to combine view hats/key pad/etc with VR, it eliminates much of that disadvantage, at least IMO.

Yes, this helps overcome the narrow field of view of the Rift.  Also, having been used to flying with snap views 20+ years, it just makes the switch to VR a bit easier.

However, one problem with the VR snap view implementation in AH is that the snap view is relative to the head position of the pilot.  So if you've been looking front right (45deg to the right) with your VR headset and press snap view left, it will actually end up looking front left: 45 degrees to the left.  In other words, once you start moving your head with the VR headset, using snap views will effectively point you in random view directions. This is very confusing in a dogfight. 

It would be great if the snap views would be relative to the aircraft. This way you can always rely on the snap views to point to the direction you want and fine tune with the VR headset. Best of both worlds.

HT, would it be possible to make this an option in the VR settings:
1. Snap views are relative to pilot view direction
2. Snap views are relative to aircraft

Thanks!

Camo

[Kanth]

Is anyone using the Oculus Tray tool? I'm thinking about grabbing it tomorrow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/5okoju/oculus_tray_tool/

[Kanth]

I have it installed now . It basically automates your super sampling (so you don't have to use the SDK and manually set it each time) and allows games profiles. We'll see how it goes. 

[Kanth]

Tray tool broke and took out my VR, uninstalled it and all's well.

Never really got to use it, my old graphics card isn't handling it. I'll need to upgrade to the 1080ti here soon. 

[doright]

... However, one problem with the VR snap view implementation in AH is that the snap view is relative to the head position of the pilot.  So if you've been looking front right (45deg to the right) with your VR headset and press snap view left, it will actually end up looking front left: 45 degrees to the left.  In other words, once you start moving your head with the VR headset, using snap views will effectively point you in random view directions. This is very confusing in a dogfight.  ...

Re-think your interpretation of the snap views and it will be less confusing. The hat does snap your view relative to the nose of the plane. if you are looking straight ahead and hat right, you will be looking at the right wingtip. Your head orientation is added to the snap. So if I'm looking 45deg right, hat switch right I'm now looking 45deg right of the wingtip.

In a dogfight I find it easiest to maintain my orientation to the nose of the plane by limiting my snapping to 45deg L/R, then 90deg L/R when I have to look dead astern. Each time I hat by 45deg my eyes snap 45deg the opposite way to pickup the same spot in space, without it ever leaving the VR field of view. I practiced with ground objects and the offline drones until this felt comfortable. After years of using FreeTrack it feels a bit weird to be using the hat switch this much again (thumb needs some conditioning.)
It is still weird how you can spot a GV from the air, smoothly tracking it, then snap just 45deg and suddenly the terrain looks different.