While VR had been promised before, it was limited to professional, highly expensive headsets for military users. So it is no wonder that there was much anticipation in the flight sim community with the development of consumer VR. TrackIR – a head-tracking update based on IR sensors then arrived and was adopted by flight simmers to allow them to use their head to control the camera view in the ‘virtual cockpit’. It was in the 2000s that PC flight sims started incorporating ‘virtual cockpits’ allowing users to pan around with keys or a joystick hat switch making it possible for virtual pilots to see all around the inside of the cockpit or flightdeck. Fly into fog or thunderstorms which envelop you all around and you begin to experience a sense of dread. Weather, which for 2D simmers is a factor but never feels intimidating, suddenly becomes much more threatening. Landings become easier thanks to the ability to judge height, and keeping the runway in sight in a circuit is doddle. “I wonder who lives down there?” “Where does that river go?” and “wow what an amazing sunset up here all alone above the clouds.” Looking down you get an almost perfect sense of how high you are above the Earth and you become mesmerised by the same thoughts as when you idly look out of airliner windows. All these fool the brain to think you are actually there and it is all you can do to not reach out and touch the instruments and controls in front of you. Looking around you can see behind the ejection seats or into the cabin. Little details stand out, like scratches or wear and tear. Suddenly you are aware how tight and cramped some cockpits are. This is virtual reality (VR) and flight simulation today.īut it is extremely difficult to explain the feeling you get when sat in a PC flight simulation cockpit or flightdeck in VR – and 2D screenshots and video really do not do the experience justice. "Jesters dead!” Add ‘G’ and the smell of Jet A1 and my senses would almost be unable to distinguish this Top Gun fantasy from real flight. I’m still wired, triumphant and grinning like a maniac from ear-to-ear. I’m sat in a chair, safe at home and have just beaten the hardest AI in DCS World in a 'MiG-28' (F-5E) in a 1 vs 1 dogfight. I roll level, sigh with relief and take off my Oculus Rift headset. The F-14 Tomcat bursts into flames and see two parachutes blossom far before. I quickly roll to put my nose on his flightpath – and squeeze the trigger. I pull harder and see the vapour coming off the wingtips and the wings flex, then I spot movement – a speck heading back my way. I grip the seat to peer further around behind my aircraft. I’m twisting in my seat, sweating hard, craning my neck high as the desert looms above me – lost him!!! I twist around the other side, scanning my instruments quickly – still no joy. TIM ROBINSON reports from the cutting edge of consumer flight simulation. That's the process the AI will undertake just to get in your airspace.Immersive, exhilarating, educational and even emotional – virtual reality is the Holy Grail of PC flight sims – giving the sense of flight like never before. While you can take off with a single button press, there's also a more complicated multi-step process that requires you check gauges, flip switches, and pull levers first. In Battle of Stalingrad, your enemy will make every crucial and complicated step available to you. Think about it in other dogfighting games when you face off against the AI, where do they come from? How often do the other pilots have an objective besides “shoot you down” (or on rare occasion, “attack a stronghold”)? With most other flight-focused titles, all that matters is that your enemy is in the air and knows what to attack. Particularly, AI opponents smart enough to pilot a drone. While IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad is still approachable to folks who have yet to unbox their first flightstick, it should have plenty to offer for veterans of air combat. Despite the existence of the term “auto-pilot” and arcade-style titles like Ace Combat that purport to teach you dogfighting over the course of a ten-minute tutorial, it takes a lot of training and time in the air to properly pilot a plane, let alone engage in air-based attacks.
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