Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3
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A few days ago, I got the 512Gb Meta Quest 3, along with the elite head strap with its included extra built-in battery (giving a total of 3 to 4 hours of play).
For those of you thinking about getting a Quest 3, it is everything as hyped and more. It is smaller, far more powerful CPU, far better pancake-style lenses, wider FOV, higher resolution, etc. With the elite head strap, it is super easy to take on and off, and the rear-mounted extra battery balances the whole unit well.
The interocular distance adjustment is now infinite instead of a trinary choice of ‘A, B, or C’. The eye/lens distance is now integrated and adjustable (choice of 4), so no more separate spacers, either.
Meta’s emerging approach focuses on mixed reality instead of virtual reality. I think they should have done a better job at educating their potential customers about the huge advantages of this paradigm shift. While I intellectually understood the difference between Virtual/Mixed reality, I had no practical experience in application. Having now worked with both mediums, I have a far better appreciation of just how significant this shift actually is.
With VR headsets, the real world disappears and the artificial world becomes your reality. This is problematic because the real world, although hidden, is still around, so you have funny YouTube videos of people running into walls and smashing their TV’s, etc.
With the Quest 3, it’s a whole new approach. The headset has four high-resolution color cameras on its face that reconstruct a very realistic and accurate view of the real world in front of you. So no more running into walls, bumping into furniture, etc. However, there is a slightly reduced resolution that makes reading small print on your phone or desktop problematic. For me, I can almost make out the print on my phone when I look at it while wearing my Quest 3, but not quite.
Bottom line? It’s important to understand that this feature isn’t just an ‘enhanced passthrough’ feature-- it’s a fundamental shift in how you use and integrate the potential of VR with the real world immersively and cooperatively.
So last night, I used the Quest 3 for the first time with Falcon BMS. I flew an ‘Instant Action/Moving Mud’ scenario.
The difference between my old Quest 2 and the Quest 3 is obvious and amazing. With the old Fresnel lenses, there were prismatic artifacts that are inherent to the lenses. With the pancake lenses, there are absolutely no artifacts.
With the old Fresnel lenses, perfectly clear vision was only available in a very small centered area of the lens. Things immediately got increasingly blurry away from that small center. So with the old lenses, you got into the habit of making small head-motion adjustments to keep the area of interest exactly in the middle of the lenses so you can see them clearly.
With the new pancake lenses, the entire (and wider) FOV is perfectly focused. So instead of having to make constant head-motion adjustments, all you have to do is move your eyes around just like you do in real life.
In the cockpit, the obviously higher resolution is immediate and gratifying. The details of the pit are clear and focused. Even when I “lean back” in my cockpit seat, the MFDs are in focus and easily readable. The outside world is just gorgeous, and 4.38 isn’t even out yet!!!
All I can say is that I had high hopes for the Quest 3 ever since they announced it over a year ago, and it has easily exceeded my hopes. Honestly, devs, I am MORE THAN READY for 4.38 to be released, now more than ever.
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@SoBad - thanks for the detailed write up. I tried a Quest 2 but struggled to get it to the point where I could read the MFDs etc in the time I had it. Sounds like the Quest 3 is much better in that regard.
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I’ve been looking at the quest 3 for the high quality pass through, with the intention to build a half decent pit and use a pass through mask to allow me to see the pit whilst in vr.
My understanding of the quest 3 tho is that it a) can’t be used for long stints as the cable does not supply enough power to keep the headset charged while running and b)it uses compressed video resulting in lower quality visuals. Is this correct?
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@MCDeedle said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
I’ve been looking at the quest 3 for the high quality pass through, with the intention to build a half decent pit and use a pass through mask to allow me to see the pit whilst in vr.
My understanding of the quest 3 tho is that it a) can’t be used for long stints as the cable does not supply enough power to keep the headset charged while running and b)it uses compressed video resulting in lower quality visuals. Is this correct?
No, and no. I’m not sure where “your understanding” originates from, because just the opposite is true for both of your concerns.
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I would be interested in your comment on any performance difference you noticed moving from Q2 to Q3?
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@1508AD said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
I would be interested in your comment on any performance difference you noticed moving from Q2 to Q3?
If by “performance” you mean FPS, I didn’t notice any big difference, but I didn’t look at the numbers either because subjectively it was obvious to me that the FPS was in the hundreds. But I have a pretty hot hardware setup.
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@SoBad do you use a pit, wondering how the immersion is without one
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@SoBad I have a Q3 inbound too.
Wonder if my rig will pull it off.3080 with 10GB Vram
5900x
32gb ram -
@b0bl00i I have a similar setup, please let us know after you tried it out
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@badboy45 said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
@SoBad do you use a pit, wondering how the immersion is without one
I see and understand the attraction of a physical pit (with or without VR), but I’m lucky in that I have a Saitek X65F with four independent modes of programmable buttons, and each one of those modes have a shift-state as well. Literally many hundreds of possible keybindings. Further, many of my buttons are programmed in such a way that if I hold them for a moment, they do something different. I have Mode 1 set up for all the things I typically have to do to takeoff and land. Mode2 is programmed for ‘standard flight’. Mode 3 is programmed for AAR, Hotpit refuel procedures, and a few other specialized things. Mode 4 is programmed for Emergency procedures.
For example: My keybinding to raise/lower the landing gear is Mode 2 -> Pickle button. Emergency gear is Mode 2 -> (Shift)Pickle button. There is no keybinding for my landing gear in Modes 1, 3, or 4. In Mode 2 (normal flight), the pickle button acts like a pickle button. In Mode 4, it acts like an EJECT button.
I also have VoiceAttack programmed so that I can quickly and easily press any MFD or UFC button. The left MFD buttons are activated by “Lincoln 1-20”. The right MFD: “Robert 1-20”. The UFC buttons: “Charlie 0-9”.
VoiceAttack also lets me activate many other pit buttons, knobs, and switches that are not bound to my HOTAS.
The end result of all that VoiceAttack & HOTAS programming is that I never ever have to take my hands off my HOTAS and use the keyboard for anything when I get into the pit. Not even non-pit stuff like outside views and so on.
So this long answer (sorry) is to explain why, because of the system I use, I would describe my sense of immersion as very high because I have no need to use the keyboard or “peek out” the sides of my VR to see anything. I agree, however, that a physical pit option would allow for less complex HOTAS and VoiceAttack processes.
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@SoBad I have similar to you with VA (FoxVox these days actually but used to be AVCS) and mouse clicks on hotas (and scroll wheel on my stick base too) but I also have physical MFDs and a small switch panel mounted in front of my throttle. Zero mouse, and the only VA stuff I use is radios.
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@rubbra i would like to understand or visualize what immersion you feel with the headset. i can’t imagine what it would look like
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@SoBad this for starters https://reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/s/SrrmT2U6LI
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@badboy45 hard to describe, but the only way I could better it really would be to have a 1:1 pit and, crucially, for BMS to have an updated cockpit model for VR. I don’t know for sure but I believe the current cockpit model is a bit off in places - eg I can’t imagine that real pilots have to duck their head to see the speedbrake indicator or that the MFDs are much nearer their ankles than their knees.
My setup relies on some muscle memory for the MFDs as they are closer to me IrL than in the BMs pit as above, and for the switch panel but really I just use master arm, the auto pilot and gear.
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I started down the route of trackIR and starting to make a simpit. I then tried VR and that was it, couldn’t go back; I tried BMS, my first love, in fake Vr and trackIR on and off but found it felt too much like a computer/armchair experience and was just lacking in the scale and immersion that VR gives you. So I flew DCS exclusively for a couple of years. As soon as BMS VR hit, I was back, and loving it. I now mix dcs and BMS 50/50 because I like flying the other aircraft (a10 in particular) and because I haven’t found a BMS multiplayer server for me yet. TBH, I haven’t looked hard, and probably should. -
@MCDeedle said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
@SoBad this for starters https://reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/s/SrrmT2U6LI
My experience is MORE than 3 hours and that’s without a cable linked to it. I consider 3 hours as a long stint. Perhaps you don’t.
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Hello there!
I got my Q3 as well but I seem to need some help getting BMS up and running.
Win11/3080/32GB
So far I have done the following :
On Windows 11, I have the Quest app (oculus) installed and the headset configured. Airlink seems stable but link cable does not.
I also have steam vr up and running and confirmed working.
In bms I enable the VR switch and I can see the bms window running in steam vr. I launch a simple dog fight but falcon Bms crashes to desktop or my computer reboots .
I’m also confused if oculus should be the active runtime or if steam should be set.
Other VR titles work.Please help me diagnose this issue. Cheers.
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@b0bl00i said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
Hello there!
I got my Q3 as well but I seem to need some help getting BMS up and running.
Win11/3080/32GB
So far I have done the following :
On Windows 11, I have the Quest app (oculus) installed and the headset configured. Airlink seems stable but link cable does not.
I also have steam vr up and running and confirmed working.
In bms I enable the VR switch and I can see the bms window running in steam vr. I launch a simple dog fight but falcon Bms crashes to desktop or my computer reboots .
I’m also confused if oculus should be the active runtime or if steam should be set.
Other VR titles work.Please help me diagnose this issue. Cheers.
I am not the one to ask about such details. I can tell you one thing that might help: If your cable link is USB-C to USB-C, disconnect the USB-C to your computer, reverse the orientation, and re-insert. I know it’s not supposed to make a difference, but sometimes it does. I initially had your problem with my cable link also, and that fixed it. Go figure.
Falcon’s VR implementation currently requires SteamVR. Hopefully, that will change in the future.
Good luck!
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Hi guys, I have a strange problem, which world scale do you use for BMS in steam VR? Even with 125% I feel sometimes motion sickness, in others sims everything is ok.
Both with cable and VD
I have a feeling like head movement in some cases are either slow or fast, maybe have to used to it -
@SoBad said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
@MCDeedle said in Falcon & the New Meta Quest 3:
@SoBad this for starters https://reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/s/SrrmT2U6LI
My experience is MORE than 3 hours and that’s without a cable linked to it. I consider 3 hours as a long stint. Perhaps you don’t.
“I do not” - Bowser, King of the Koopers