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X-Plane 11’s native VR support uses SteamVR, so let me clear this up now:

You will be able to use VR directly in X-Plane 11 with any distribution of our sim:

  • An X-Plane 11 digital download from Laminar Research (or any other reseller) if you have a 24-digit product key.
  • An X-Plane 11 DVD set from Laminar Research (or any other reseller) if you have DVDs.
  • X-Plane 11 on Steam if you bought X-Plane on Steam.

VR will work for X-Plane 11 no matter how you bought it. You do not have to have bought X-Plane from Steam to use VR.

(This post does not contain any guidance on supported hardware – I’d like to wait until we get further into beta and get some feedback on how system requirements affect actual users. This is just a reassurance that you didn’t buy X-Plane “the wrong way” for VR.)

What Is SteamVR

SteamVR is a free download from Steam’s app store that X-Plane (and many other games) use to talk to your VR hardware. We use SteamVR for both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift – X-Plane’s native VR support requires that you have both the Oculus drivers and SteamVR.

The good news is: SteamVR is free, and it works with the non-Steam editions of X-Plane as well as the Steam one.  If you are a Steam user, you just pick the app and download it; if you are a non-Steam user, you’ll need to create a free Steam account to get it.

(If you have the HTC Vive you almost certainly have done this already, as SteamVR is the only thing that lets you play games on the Vive.  If you have the Oculus Rift you can get apps directly from Oculus’ own app store, but SteamVR lets you get at a wider array of content.)

Why SteamVR on the Oculus Rift?

When using the Oculus Rift with X-Plane’s native VR, we have a bit of a game of telephone: we talk to SteamVR, which talks to the Oculus Rift drivers, which talk to the hardware. Why not talk to the Oculus drivers directly via their SDK?

The short answer is development time: we like SteamVR for the same reason we like OpenGL: we can write our app once and support a wide range of hardware from multiple vendors.  We don’t have to write our rendering engine twice for NVidia and AMD, and we don’t have to write our VR implementation twice for the Vive and Oculus Rift.

Our hope is that by using SteamVR, support for future headsets will be a relatively painless affair; SteamVR’s OpenVR API looks like the closest thing to a common API for VR.

(X-Plane is not locked into OpenVR – X-Plane has an abstraction layer and we could code to a second API if necessary.  But I’d rather have the dev team work on making X-Plane better than have them code the same feature over and over for multiple vendors.)

What Will We Support?

Recently I’ve received a bunch of questions about supported hardware, e.g. will we support Windows Mixed Reality (WMR) Headsets, or any of the software bridges to phones, or some of the proposed 8K headsets that are on Kickstarter.

I think we’ll end up in a very similar situation with VR as we are in with graphics cards and joysticks – we’ll have three levels for headsets.

  • Supported. Right now this list contains only the Oculus Rift (CV1) and HTC Vive. Supported devices will be ones where we’ve spent testing and dev time making sure they work, and where we expect a great VR experience. We’ll add more to this list based on development time, but this category is only going to be for major selling headsets.  E.g. PSVR (e.g. Morpheus) might be a reasonable candidate here but (from what I can tell) OSVR is not.
  • Unsupported. Even if a device is unsupported, we may still let you use it. If you want to try one of the new mixed reality headsets before we support them, go ahead and try – it might work. We’re not going to tell people “go get this”, but we’re not going to close the door to tinkering.
  • Banned. If a device is really, really, really bad and awful, we won’t allow it at all, and we’ll take active measures to keep it from being used accidentally.

SteamVR will hopefully* let us easily put important devices in the supported column without too much dev time lost, and have wide support for unsupported (but not outright banned) devices.

 

* I say hopefully because the VR ecosystem is still very young.  We think SteamVR is a good choice for our implementation, but it’s too soon to say unequivocally “hardware vendors can just develop for this ecosystem and it works”.

About Ben Supnik

Ben is a software engineer who works on X-Plane; he spends most of his days drinking coffee and swearing at the computer -- sometimes at the same time.

100 comments on “You Can Use VR With Any Edition of X-Plane 11”

  1. I assume you have run standard fps tests for the Rift and the Vive; can you share the results? Is there an fps cost to using SteamVR for the Rift? There are obviously other reasons, many qualitative, such as comfort, for deciding which to buy, but one might as well know this beforehand. Thanks.

    1. You know, that’s funny, I haven’t actually tried that yet. We _do_ have a “stereoscopic” version of the FPS test that simulates the cost of using GPU acceleration to draw both eyes at once (the rendering path for VR) – it’s not free but it’s a lot cheaper than drawing the eyes one at a time. The problem with the real headset test is we’ll have to kill the headset camera setup partly, so that where you look doesn’t change the results. I like the idea though.

      1. Interesting; I believe they have the same resolution, so I expect the answer to be not much difference, but who knows? I am now very curious.

      2. I’d like to buttress this with my own experience using Rift with SteamVR, which is that it always sucks. I consistently have terrible FPS using any SteamVR games, and great FPS through the Oculus interface.

        Like you said, the problem with a real headset is that you have so many variables with a moving target. However, that really is a big part of it because Steam for whatever reason doesn’t play nice with Oculus tracking hardware. At least from what I’ve seen. It loses tracking like mad, which compounds FPS issues and interrupts games frequently.

        Maybe you can put each HMD on a sort of metronome that produces repeatable movements throughout each test? If so, post pictures! 🙂

        1. I’d like to second Jeff’s sentiment that IMO Rift through SteamVR tends to suck, but at the same time let you know I support the decision to go with SteamVR.

          This affects me negatively as I’m a Rift user for now, but I think that SteamVR is the future of VR.

          I’m hoping the Pimax 8K gives a good experience, the Pimax 4K was no good for me. If the Pimax 8K is good, I’ll be on SteamVR before too long. As soon as there is a headset for SteamVR that has competitive or superior lens and display quality compared to Rift. I’ll switch ASAP.

          1. Let’s be clear: IF it turns out that we have a bug that can ONLY be fixed by using the Rift SDK _and_ it’s affecting a lot of our hardware, that’s not off the table – we have not boxed ourselves into a single API.

            But at this point “It’s Steam’s fault” is a hypothesis to be tested.

  2. I’m guessing this has already been considered, but just looking for validation here…. Have you though about reaching out to the developer of FlyInside to buy out their code? It works pretty damn well in its current state, and even more so once you optimize your own code for VR.

    OR maybe it’s like jamming an N64 cartridge into a blu-ray player. I don’t know, I’m not a coder.

  3. X-Plane 11 VR
    Approved product is Oculus Rift and HTC Vive
    Both cost a small fortune, so who is this actually made for, I would go as far as to say not the general public at this moment in time. Though OR may be affordable to some, it bet both are out of reach of many.

    1. Hi Tom,

      The Rift with touch sensors is $430 in the US right now. A GF1070 is $470 and and a 1080 Ti lists for around $800. The Thrustmaster Warthog is $440.

      So…I would say a VR headset is well within the range of flight sim hardware ‘extensions’ people might get for their machine.

      Once VR is out of beta and in the general population for a few weeks we can post some usage numbers.

      Cheers
      Ben

      1. The Oculus is $399. It was actually even cheaper the other day supposedly. There are WMR headsets that will be supported in the near future for < $300.

        1. I just bought one at Bestbuy today for $349. Not cheap, but I wouldn’t say it’s a small fortune. Then again, I guess the use of that term depends completely on the financial situation of the user.

          1. Chris,
            Just uploaded another MR/X-Plane VR vid…. https://youtu.be/7y6tsmWQr9Q

            HOPEFULLY it will help you diagnose faults ….as you see I was able to invoke the in-cockpit menu. Thanks to Rich of Gaming in Still Life.
            1. I only used the right Controller
            2. I lost the X,Y,Z capability…dunno what I did wrong But as you could see from my previous video, I had complete X, Y, and Z and I’ve always had roll, pitch and yaw in the headset… The latter was never a problem.
            3. Still no controller visible or Ability to press or manipulate any buttons or switches… Mind you Rich was able to activate throttle, yoke and switches;HE used both controllers…Maybe that’s what I should’ve done.

            Happy New Year and thanks To you and your team for all of your work.

            Chas

          2. Thanks Chas. I’m not expecting it to take a long time for me to get the WMR headset working once FedEx delivers it as long as its OpenVR driver was properly written.

    2. There is also people like that already have Oculus, and we are starting in Flight Simulators because they add VR support

  4. Lets pretend for a second that a future “8k” headset uses steamvr. Certainly that is coming. Will the VR UI scale automagically to accommodate the higher resolution? Or is that another update yet to come?

  5. Hi, great Job!
    It would be a great feature to play with two players in one plane (pilot and co-pilot) in multiplayer and in VR. 🙂

    I have done this before but i want to do it again. Thanks for implementing native VR support!

    1. Agreed about pilot/co-pilot. Would love to have the ability to import any Windows program into VR space so I can import Windows video chat app into my VR space!

  6. Just had my Oculus for the holiday season, loving the VR!! Great job getting it out of the door! Frame rates hitting me pretty hard right now, I have a 1070 with an i5 and 16gb of ram, I set the sim up to run 90-100fps before moving to VR mode, I’m finding even then the sim is at 45 but does go into 30 area quite frequently

  7. I run X-Plane 11.11 on Mac so at this time I will not be able to run VR. So if I download XP 11.20 will I see XP as normal on my screen. I would still like to see any improvements that are coming along in updates.
    Are we now going to see VR and non VR updates?

    1. There is next to nothing in 11.20 aside from VR and the Aerolite 103. You’re welcome to try it on your mac but it’s nearly identical to 11.11.

      1. I am a non vr windows user. I have -10 FPS with 11.2 in contrast to 11.11. So there are some changes…

    2. We’re trying to keep 11.20 to “almost entirely VR” so that when bugs come up, we can be sure that the are caused by VR and nothing else; the things going into 11.20 besides VR are ‘far away’ from the VR code (e.g. Philipp has more G1000 code to put in). After 11.20 it won’t be “VR or not” – VR will get incremental improvements if we have them, as will other subsystems.

      We’ll have a complete list of 11.20 features (e.g. the stuff for non-VR people) when we get to a public beta and out of this “VR preview” phase. The list isn’t nearly as long as 11.10 but there is some nice stuff coming.

      1. Is part of Phillips code to put into the G1000 include victor airways? I see it is greyed out at the moment.

    3. I initially bought X plane for my mac, then the more I looked into eGPU’s for a project I’m working on – I had to put windows 10 bootcamp on it. my x plane key still worked when I downloaded the windows version and ran it inside bootcamp. I have a 2017 kaby lake macbook pro connected to a water cooled 1080 ti eGPU node connected to a HTC Vive. Works fine. Haven’t tried X plane 11.20 yet, but flyinside Never worked (I know x plane VR will). 11.20 will probably be out of beta by the time I finish my 3HP AC motor VR motion platform/G seat thing (got the 1080ti literally for x plane VR before it was even announced). I fully expect to throw up when I use it for the first time. People seem to forget what mac os is capable of sometimes.

  8. We just multi-crewed (smartcopilot) a 737 from Las Vegas into Orange County and it was pretty cool. I have a 6700K and my buddy has a 4790K, both have GTX1080’s. We got 45FPS at best, which was good enough with our Oculus Rifts. With our Object settings on low our ZL17 Ortho scenery was breathtaking going across the desert and into SoCal. We struggled with touch controllers bumping into our desks and wish we had mouse support. It was a milestone experience for us as we’ve been flight sim buffs for over 40 years (DOS Flight Simulators, Janes, Flight Unlimited, FSX, DCS, Xplane, etc.). Thank you Laminar Research.

  9. Great stuff so far. Thanks for the “xmas gift”.

    Are you planning on giving us Rift users, a sort of “guide or tips and tricks”? When I initially installed, I couldn’t figure why my powerful computer wouldn’t even try to get more than 30 fps, with everything in X-Plane set to minimum. The judder was horrid, and I was ready to reinstall FlyInside.

    Through trial and error, some research, and an amazing vr facebook group, we discovered a few things that Rift users should do, to increase performance. Most notably, it appears that Oculus Debug, Tray Tool, and Steam VR, have a cumulative effect on Supersampling (pixel density). In my case since i use Oculus Tray Tool more than Steam VR, for other sims, I made that the priority, setting it to 1.6. In steam VR, I turned their slider all the way to minimum.

    Additionally, I had to set Oculus Home to run as administrator, so that it would be minimized, and not impact resources as badly… AND… I had to disable Steam VR’s home and theatre aspects, as having that running would peg my GPU at 100%, to the point of freezing my computer.

    This after about three days of tinkering. So hopefully there can be a more concise list of things to consider for Rift users, since we have an additional program to run.

    I am pleased to report that all is fine now, except I wish I could get that xpad to appear ONLY in the cockpit, and not in every single interior AND exterior view, including FlyBy.

    P.S. We still need that mouse and maybe some “mouselook” action.

    Keep up the awesome work! Thanks!!

  10. I think you mean any XP 11 that is 11.2 or higher. We need the “VR” checkbox in Graphics Settings and 11.11 does not have it.

    If we can use Steam VR in 11.anything, I’ll try it out.

    Right now, I’m stuck because I don’t have Oculus Touch, but I do have Xbox Controller (not recognized by XP 11.2 preview) and a LeapMotion sensor. Simple mouse and keyboard controls would also work fine, just like within FlyInside.

    Otherwise, I’ll be content to wait for support of these other manipulator devices.

  11. First Experiences:

    1. It took me a little while to figure out I had to uninstall FlyInside plug-in to stop X-Plane from crashing every time I tried to enable VR in the Graphics Settings.
    2. It wasn’t clear to me that when the headset kept going grey and not showing the sim that (I think) it was because FPS was getting too low to display anything.
    3. I would LOVE the ability to have a pre-set or two for rendering settings to help maximize FPS in VR mode so that the things that likely cause the largest performance drops are reduced WAY down to help TRY and ensure no drops in rendering during flight, and then go back to my normal settings when disabling VR display.

    Overall, I am BLOWN AWAY by the beautiful visuals and stunning immersiveness right out of the gate. I’m running an HTC Vive on a GTX1080 with Core i7-7820x (Windows 10 Pro) and was really transported into flying within moments it was so good. I have tried FlyInside many times and while it scratched the VR itch early and is still a great product, there simply is NO comparison in quality, the built-in VR display is stunning.

    I would LOVE a tutorial built into the system once the features, functions and performance is all up to production quality that walks you through how to navigate around, raise and lower your position in 3D space (I find I’m sitting about 2 feet too high in the air in the cockpit) using the controllers, and really ease you into the whole experience.

    Overall though, STUNNING WORK! A very impressive triumph of engineering that the entire team at Laminar has pulled off here to (as always, and expected) deliver an uncompromising implementation of this technology that doesn’t reduce or dismiss the fidelity of the sim that we come to Laminar for.

    Bravo

    1. Best way to reposition yourself is to use the controller menu to “Get back to pilot’s seat”. You can also adjust yourself with the keyboard UP/DN/LEF/RIGHTT and ‘<' and '>‘

  12. Quick counterintuitive problem. Ran the updater with Betas check. It downloaded the 11.20 VR beta. I have no VR hardware/ Not yet, at least. “No problem,” I thought. Then I went to uncheck the VR Hardware box on the settings page and it would not uncheck. It’s checked and grayed. Is this a problem? And is there a way to edit a PRF file to uncheck the box, if needed?

    Best,

    Marshall

    1. You have no hardware yet you were able to enable VR? Do you have SteamVR installed? That’s a bug i’d like to solve. For now you can disable it in the PRF. Search for “vr” in there and change the 1 to a 0.

      1. Hi Chris,

        Not at my computer at home right now.. but I dunno if I have Steam VR.. I never explicitly went to Steam to download anything.

        What i DID do was run X-Plane Installer, ticked install betas/ It said 11.20 VR was available.. clicked Yes.. and let it do its thing. I did later search in X-Plane.prf for VR.. but found no entry. Just FYI, and I can send a log later, it’s an anomalous setup.. I’m without a GPU at the moment, and have disconnected my yoke, rudder and throttles.. So I was just seeing if the sim would load. And seeing how poor it performs on just Intel’s internal GPU. So the setup is clearly an outlier… Still.. baffled about the checkbox and the lack of a switch in the PRF– am I in the right PRF?

        Best, Marshall

          1. Chris,

            Okay, got home. Opened the prf file. Found the correct entry. Changed the value to 0. . . . and in the sim, the check-box is STILL checked. Where shall I send my log file?

            Best,

            Marshall

          2. I have the same “problem”: The checkbox is active, and i can’t disable it.
            In the X-plaen.prf the line _eq_vr is on 0!
            However it doesn’t change anything, x-plane behaves like ever (as far as i can tell from normal use).
            No steam, no vr gear, only thrust master joystick.
            I am on a Mac btw.

          3. Same issue. No VR equipment whatsoever, but VR checkbox enabled and cannot disable. “_eq_vr” set to 0. Steam installed.

          4. I have the same problem, _eq_vr is already set to 0.
            The problem is the frame rate is too slow on the monitor.
            I did not get my HTC Vive headset yet, but mean while I should be able to use it as before this beta upgrade on my monitor.

  13. I saw that this area was not filled and I may be duplicating but if so, this submission supersedes any previous submission. Please delete any previous… CH

    X-Plane 11.20 NATIVE VR WORKS with MIXED REALITY!!!
    https://youtu.be/SpEFHQVoiEs
    Setup Instructions and problems included in the description. I am using a Microsoft Mixed Reality Lenovo headset.

    Big(Or perceived)Problems(These are not necessarily bugs, And probably user error, so I am including them here for suggestions on how to get my head out of my rear end ) .

    What ever the perceived problems are, I am positively giddy with the quality of the VR cockpit in the Cessna 172… It’s an “staggering and undescribable EXPERIENCE unless you’ve been there, situation. “

    1. No access to floating menu, but obvious access to the opening setup screen. What a shock to see a full scale 74x in the hanger…MIND BLOWING!
    2. But…No X,Y,Z tracking in the Virtual Cockpit;I am glued to the cockpit seat …unable to either move right or left, forward or back, or up or down; that may be a menu problem.
    A. However…headset resolution, Roll, Pitch and yaw is just phenomenal….TOTAL IMMERSION!!!
    3. And of course, the request of virtually every headset user with X-Plane Native VR… no mouse control.

    I am very excited and from what I’ve seen on YouTube, I am first and Only one to publish an X-Plane 11.20 VR 1 flight using a Microsoft Mixed Reality headset, and I don’t know why.

    I hope my video helps you guys at Laminar make a quick and easy blend of the Mixed Reality family because it’s getting huge and definitely supports OpenVR.

    Y’all at Laminar Research have done an incredible job of giving us a totally immersive, Hi-fidelity, high resolution solution! Thank you a million times over!

    Since I understand y’all are using the Rift and SteamVR as connectors, I don’t understand why the Rift mirror mini app, which gives full screen, blended left-right eye mirroring in the Oculus doesn’t work for me because it reports a mixed reality headset as being a Non-Rift headset. That may be a Microsoft problem but you would think that OpenVR is OpenVR..

    Seasons greetings to all and to all a good night.

    I hope my short video helps you guys at Laminar make a quick and easy inclusion of the mixed reality family because it’s getting huge and definitely supports OpenVR.

    Seasons greetings to all and to all a good night! A silly lil Christmas/New Years giftee from moi.
    https://clyp.it/user/53dddwaj

    Chas

    1. I got a stiff neck watching that video…but i’m glad it works even a little bit for you. I ordered a WMR. I’ll see if I can get it running properly for you guys.

    2. I have a HP WMR headset and have no problems with the XYZ axis. The only problem is I have no models of my controllers, and therefore no referencw for where my hands are. Luckily, items glow green when you are over top them, so I have a work around. I am still able the access the controller menus and teleport just fine.
      I am overwhelmed by this expiernce and can’t wait for more developments. Overall Laminar is nailing it!
      Thanks Chris for exploring the world of WMR as well, it works amazingly well and I believe is going to sell through the roof.

      P.S. how do you apply brakes? At the moment i just reach down and apply the parking brake. Am I missing a better solution?

      1. Yeah the missing objects for the WMR is completely not surprising (at least to us). We’ll get there soon I’m sure. There’s currently no button set for brakes so you have to use your joystick, keyboard or manipulator in the cockpit.

    1. It may work, but I have to caution people against doing this just yet…or at least take good notes and remember to put this stuff back when necessary. We’re still looking into performance on the Oculus.

      1. Chris, it work !
        It’s really better than Steam VR, i launch IL2 BOS or other sims with the same way.

        But I have to caution people against doing this just yet… Why ???

        1. Just because something works doesn’t make it right. I can get you 90fps by telling you to delete all of your objects but that’s not “the right thing to do”. The right thing, in this case, is to wait for us to investigate this further and come out with official guidance.

  15. HI Ben, could you elaborate a bit on the CPU time required for VR. I have a new i7 and struggle a lot. Basically the only way to achieve 45 FPS was to bring World Objects to medium (lower than that is just plain ugly) and additionally setting LOD to low (“5”) via datarefs. Is VR really THAT CPU intensive that we basically have to fly “without” scenery? It’s such a setback from what we got used to in the past years, but if that’s what it takes, well. I thought it was the GPU that gets stressed in VR, but my 1080ti doesn’t seem very stressed (unless I turn SSAO on). Also, how to we supersample? The resolution setting in X-Plane’s settings doesn’t seem to affect the resolution in the headset (it’s always 2160×1080), and using the supersampling in Steam VR’s settings doesn’t seem to have an effect either. How can I try to run at “1.5x” or “2.0x”?

  16. I cannot see the the VR on the settings page
    I am using the oculus headset it works fine with P3Dv4 but cant get it working on xplane 11 I cant find beta settings tab

    1. I have the same problem about the VR box not appearing in the Settings/Graphics section.
      I had no problems creating a STEAM account and STEAM recognises my VR Oculus Rift headset, hand controls and sensors.
      I installed X Plane 11 using the 10 CD copy then uploaded all updates. X plane indicates it has the 11.11 version but I cant locate a source of the 11.20 Beta upgrade.
      My new computer system is purpose built to run X Plane 11 for many years and includes the latest Oculus Rift VR system, Intel processor, Nividia 1080 TI graphics card, and 32 gig RAM.
      I have spent considerable time attempting to rectify the problem while assuming I had over looked something or made an error. I am certainly no computer expert but I feel I have enough experience with loading new software and upgrading existing software to get VR working.
      Hopefully my experiences will be of value when considering changes to the Beta version of X Plane 11 VR.

  17. Wow, you’ve really outdone yourselves with this VR implementation. For a preview version this is already so well done! Okay, there are still some memory and performance issues, but this is already very playable. I was a bit sceptic at first, using Oculus Touch controllers to control a plane, that would not make sense I thought. But it does, it really does, you’ll have to try it to believe it. You can really fly a plane without much effort by only using the controllers (I do use my hardware rudder controls though). And best of all, you can finally do a realistic pre-flight walkaround the aircraft.

    The Oculus Touch implementation actually is one of the best out there, you can really notice that a lot of time and love went into this. The tactile feedback is superb, so you have the idea you are actually touching the controls in the cockpit.

    The visuals are stunning and the light effects look so real. I was a strong believer in Aerofly FS 2, but this blows it out of the water (or probably out of the sky). Great to see some good competition on the VR aviation simulator scene.

    Some feedback to the devs:
    – Please get rid of the highlighting of the yoke when active, it ruins night flying a bit.
    – Please don’t lock the yoke into the last position when you let it go, you should be able to let the yoke go and trim the aircraft like in reality.
    – Please allow movement around the cockpit/aircraft by using the thumbsticks on the controllers and bind the recenter in cockpit seat to a button (or better, let us reconfigure the buttons on the controller).

    Thanks so much for this!

    Raymond

  18. Flying in Aeroworx’s DC-3 on/around RIM’s St. Helena airport/scenery in native VR is really awesome. Very smooth FPS and no shimmering at all (scenery done right). That sloping and bumpy runaway is wild!

    The aqua blue circle around the seat is annoying, would be nice to be able to turn it off as needed.

    Well done folks! No way for me to ever go back to 2d at all!

  19. Loving VR, so glad it’s native. I have a user interface question:

    What’s the reasoning behind showing a controller in VR as opposed to a cursor or cross-hair? Kinda like trying to use a push button phone with mittens on — it obscures what I’m trying to see.

  20. Hi,

    Now that the graphics path can draw both eyes point of views for VR, is there a chance you’d add an ‘Anaglyph’ mode as well, just for the old-school geeks suffering motion sickness and wanting to fly with 3D on a flat screen, or for getting a ‘sense’ of what it is flying in 3D?

  21. please, implement the “mouse -in VR manipulator”, so we can still control aircraft that isn’t ‘VR ready’ yet.

    (hint: take a look at how it is in that other sim DCS world)

  23. I wish I didn’t have to have the touch controllers. Please don’t force the touch controllers on us. Kb, mouse, and Joysticks for the win.

    1. i strongly agree on this, X Plane is a flight simulator, not a VR game. I really don’t see myself using the vr controllers to fly addon aircrafts like the ixeg B737, FF A320U.. etc

      1. Hi Rudy,

        Whether you even _can_ use touch controllers with the add-ons will depend on the add-on makers – touch ‘works’ well on our default aircraft (as indicated by users with touch controllers being surprised at how intuitive it is) because they use the most modern manipulators and have a VR config file that tunes movements.

        But I don’t think the statement “x-plane is a flight simulator, not a VR game” makes any sense. X-Plane is a flight simulator, and with VR, it is a _VR flight simulator_.

        In other words, you are literally in the plane and it look exactly like you’re in the real cockpit…the overhead panel with all of the systems is right there, and the MOST intuitive, realistic _simulation_ of real flying you can do is to reach up and flip the starter switch with your hand.

        To me, moving a disconnected mouse pointer and watching it – that’s a “game.” Literally reaching up and twisting the starter knob to “ground” to start the engines – that is exactly what a real pilot does.

        There’s nothing game-y about using direct interaction with the cockpits – it’s something that is only possible if the cockpit is modeled at the most realistic levels…that’s why as a user I’d be sad if my payware planes didn’t layer direct interaction on top of what is undoubtedly a completely accurate 3-d representation with complete working systems.

        1. well, okay.. i may change my mind once the ‘vr-controllers’ / manipulators feature will be fully accomplished.

          meanwhile, giving us the possibility to enable the mouse cursor in VR -as a back up (like it is now in DCS World) , at least we can still control cockpit instruments of aircraft that is not VR-compatible yet.

          so far, i could only experience the joy of being seated in the cpt’s chair in the FF A320U

      2. You should really try the VR controllers in X Plane if you get the chance. I’ve had the pleasure to both fly both a real Cessna 172 and a simulated 737 NGX (with a fully build home cockpit) and I can tell you that X Plane along with Oculus Touch controllers in VR is the closest you can get at home to both experiences (and this is a lot cheaper than building a home cockpit or renting a C172).

        Sure, you’ll miss the feeling of the real knobs and dials in the cockpit, but they have done a great deal at recreating those using the tactile feedback from the VR controllers and there is even still room for improvement. It feels so real having to flip some switches over your head or having to reach out to the gear lever just like in real life. Turning the dials of the 737 autopilot can be a real hassle using a mouse cursor, in a real 737 cockpit you can set the autopilot course for example really quick by turning the dial fast, this is recreated very nicely with the Touch controllers where you make the same movement as in real life.

        VR even has some benefits over a homebuilt cockpit in that you can see depth and that you can have access to lots of cockpits in your small office/room. It also allows you to make a realistic pre-flight walk around.

        So for me this is as real as it gets and I really hope that IXEG (and all the other aircraft developers) will make their aircraft compatible with VR. The dream I had for decades, of flying a complex airliner completely in VR, has almost come true now!

  24. Hello. Any tips for developers about how to make their products VR compatible? I mean how to create special places for crew members and manipulators for flight yokes and maybe some others, that has been added in 11.20? Looking forward to see documentation of that feature.
    Also i found that 2D panels doesn’t work in VR and this means i’ll have to create some special 3D object to place them there? I use 2D for various things, like fixing custom aircraft failures, ground service, calculate fuel and payload, etc.

    As a creator of Tu154M, Yak40 and An24RV, i’ll have a lot of work ahead to make my previous projects VR compatible.

    Andrey aka Felis.

        1. Imagine, my Tu154 was optimized for mouse control and now i’ll have to re-model all manipulators objects to control them in VR 🙂
          I’ve seen there is some manipulator override in vrconfig file, to make them work different in VR. Anyway, that’s a lot of work.

          1. If you’re using X-Plane manipulators and ONLY X-Plane manipulators, it’s really not a lot of work. I think I can tackle an airliner level of detail in about 3 hours if I have good music playing in the background. If you’re using all kinds of custom manipulators and plugins to track the mouse….that’s a different story.

      2. Thanx. Waiting for docs. Still don’t get what does AABB means in vrconfig.txt and how to calculate those numbers. Tried to use default aircrafts as an example, but so far i only managed to create huge circle somewhere in the cabin 🙂
        May i ask for a little feature for developers? Some option to show all teleport places in normal (not VR) graphic mode to make it easier to place them. Tuning them in VR is painful.
        Think i should gather my whole VR experience and write wanted features in Bug Reporter. Or there is better place for it?

        1. AABB is axis aligned bounding box. It’s in aircraft coordinates in meters relative to the aircraft’s CG. You can use the art controls to turn on visualizations. I think it’s vr/show_hotspots or something similar.

          1. Well, i used hidden rectangles and used them mostly for click manipulators. Hated those hold and drag ones for simple switchers. They were not convenient in normal mode, but in VR they feels more easy to use. So now i need to re-model them to be more VR friendly. And override some of them in vrconfig. Hope to do it just once, when i know how to do it properly. Right now i’m just experimenting.

          2. Ok, i get it. AABB requires 6 numbers, which are x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 – coordinates of the teleport area. But while tweaking the numbers, i got the blue circle smaller and then disappear completely. Obviously i’m doing something wrong. Maybe i wrote the numbers in wrong order: smaller to bigger or wise-versa.
            At least i can move around the cockpit. So now i need to figure out how to make the floor walkable. I suspect it’s something like separate object with bounds for camera, that forbids it to move outside the aircraft.
            What is vr/show_hotspots? Is it DataRef or some menu item? Can’t find it…
            Anyway, hope to make my biggest project, Tu154M, VR compatible as soon as i could. And all future projects will be VR ready right on release! It’s a great feature, especially for vintage aircrafts with large analogue gauges, that are much easier to read in VR, than small text on screens. And it’s a huge advantage for small aircrafts with large aerial view from their cockpits!

          3. The AABB is minx miny minz maxx maxy maxz. To make the floor a hard surface you’d need to edit the OBJ and add ATTR_solid_camera to the mesh or make a simpler layer on top of the REAL floor with the draw disabled. “show_hotspots” is an Art Control…they work like datarefs but they’re private. Look in the dataref plugin menu.

  25. I’ve spent the last few days in the rift with X-Plane and the new native vr, and this beta version blows every other vr general aviation sim out of the water. I’ve been dreaming about what a well thought out simulator would look and feel like, and this is the closest anything has come to fulfilling those visions. After having wired and built a fairly complete 737 cockpit with miles of wire in the overhead years ago, I was grinning ear to ear in the sim when I just reached up and flipped some switches and turned a few knobs. The software is beautifully implemented, and I know it will get nothing but better. Thanks guys for making my Christmas wishes come true!

  26. I just want to say that you guys have done an incredible job with the VR implementation in X-plane! Thank you!! This is what I’ve been dreaming of doing ever since playing flight simulator version 2 on my dad’s monochrome laptop. Everything feels just right. I do wish I could move the sun visors in the 172 though. 🙂

    Just wanted to say thank you. Keep up the great work on the VR stuff!

  27. I’ve been frustrated with 11.20 so far. Under the tree this year was an Oculus Rift, so trying out 11.20 was a must. I haven’t been able to get to the “start in hangar” home screen.

    -Sometimes, I’ll get head tracking and an image on the desk top.
    -Other times, I’ll get the 306 error

    Right now, it seems like an endless loop between killing the OVRServer process, closing SteamVR, and restarting X-Plane. All the rendering settings are as low as they’ll go. Any tips/hints?

      1. I figured it out:

        Both the monitor and Oculus have to be plugged into the NVIDIA graphics card. I was thinking the monitor could just stay in the stock graphics card.

  28. specs ( i7 -7700 3.60 ghz 3600 mhz 4 core windows 10 geforce gtx 1070)
    settings on low can’t seem to get the judder to stop at any setting and moving the cameras for the rift to the optimal position .

    1. The rift is so much cheaper than the vive at the moment (so tempting)- but all the performance comments seem to come from rift users.

      But i cant help wondering if we are only seeing half the picture – no-one seems to say if theyre using default scenery, hd mesh, ortho4xp@ a ZL, world2xplane.

      I’m sure that would help (…me find out if rift problems are surmountable and i can finally buy an xmas-pressie-to-self).
      (must hold… ‘till after… CES…)

      1. Hello no add ons at all I only use default scenery and aircraft and when I used flyinside all graphics were turned up high with no judder at all.

  29. How can I remove the left and right margins from the main monitor screen and change the screen to full-screen when I record or broadcast VR?
    My VR device is HTC VIVE.

  30. Great job with the VR implimentation, I have been flicking between Flyinside and the native offering, and am now finding myself spending more time in the Beta version.
    My wish for the full release would be for mouse implementation, as I am finding it very tricky using the rift controller down under the yoke (lights, parking brake etc) and also reaching the radials is very tricky. Its the sensors losing the controller. Other than that… Nice and Thank you.

    1. The same for me. Flyinside works at lower framerates, however native VR is sharper. Not yet missing the flyinside zoom functions in native VR.
      A zoom function Is however on the wish list for improvement as is the mouse or laserpointer support for difficult to reach buttons, switches, knobs or controls.
      The fuel selector in the Cessna can not be reached on my flightdeck
      I am now bumping into real life obstacles or reaching outside the vision of the Rift sensors.
      I also fly DCS and there is a crosshair pointer that can be either controlled by the mouse or is attached to the center of the view.
      Then you can look and select to control cockpit items.

      These are just some improvement suggestions to a really fantistic job done by the staff of LR.
      Thanks and looking forward for the things to come.

  31. DCS WORLD chose not to use the SteamVR API layer just because of the latency problem inherent in that API. While API layers do isolate the programer from the hardware, they add another layer of code to execute, lengthening the CPU path. Whatever DSC WORLD used for their VR interface (in house?), it works very well. There may be a Microsoft API for WMR that is more efficient (less latency) than the SteamVR solution.

    1. You’re making a false comparison here. Just because DCS is smooth and it doesn’t use SteamVR doesn’t mean that it’s smooth because it doesn’t use SteamVR. Other people are making similar false comparisons by comparing FlyInside’s performance to X-Plane’s Native VR…attributing any difference once again to SteamVR. They’re not even close to having the same draw path. SteamVR has yet to be proven to be affecting performance at all. If/when that ever happens, we’ll reevaluate.

      1. “If/when that ever happens” is not the statement I would expect from a person (out of the only two) who can prove or disprove it.

        1. What would you expect? IF our investigation finds fault with SteamVR we’ll do something about it WHEN that happens. I try not to speculate without data, and with the release only about 10 days old…through two major holidays…I can say we don’t yet have enough data.

          1. What you just wrote is what I would expect from you. The words “our investigation” convey a very different impression. I might be oversensitive, but the original sounded dismissive; I am sorry if I misread it.

  32. Hi, Does this feature work in the demo version? I dowloaded it to test if my computer can handle it, but when I try to check the vr checkbox nothing happens, the checkbox deselects itself. Steam vr starts but i only see the steam vr room. It only works in the full version?

    Thanks.

  33. UPDATE : I switched off all Ai aircraft running in the background and flew from KJFK to Kewr at night graphics up pretty good and now didn’t get any juddering at all wow it was real smooth so my AI aircraft which I had many in the backround was doing it for me.

    specs ( i7 -7700 3.60 ghz 3600 mhz 4 core windows 10 geforce gtx 1070

  34. Absolutely HUGE thanks to LR. I have been waiting for what this native VR promises since i first flew a flight sim on an Atari 800xl. Im a rift user, older I7 OC’d to 3.6, 12gb, and 1080ti. The controls blow my mind. I personally love the use of touch controllers. No more mouse for me. However, I still prefer the hardware yoke in left hand, controller in right, and then, wow…
    I do have shudder at all autogen settings, although minimal at low and over open country. I also use project cars 2, and for me, starting PC2 in oculus mode prevents some odd behavior that I do get in Steam vr mode.
    I used Flyinside before, and it was very smooth as long as I had VR optimizations checked. Most visible difference was the removal of the sun, which I could live with. However, the LR vr preview is so good I just struggle with the FI controls. Plus, the clarity in the native VR is excellent. I’m sure there are further optimizations that can solve the Rift judder issue, but I too am concerned about Steam VR being an issue.
    Anyway, phenomenal job LR, and thank you for all the hard work.

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