@Atlas said in Considering a Quest 3, some questions please:
@Tomcattwo
That helps out a lot, I cannot thank you enough!
No problemo. Happy to help out as I can.
- I donāt use the āzoomā (look closer) function very often, if at all
I generally donāt either, but after doing this test, I think I will add it to a HOTAS shifted button
- rear aspect ā although not exactly 0 angle, I think ā just whatever the TE starts you at behind the tanker, is an easy and reproducible method for testing so I just use that, plus I think itās the worse aspect for spotting so itās great at testing.
Agree.
- you said initially that you could see a small speck at 15-16nm ā was that with the zoom view?
Yes. It also helps spotting if you know approximately where in the sky the aircraft you are looking for resides and if there is good contrast (against blue sky) or bad contrast (gray cloud behind the aircraft).
- if tanker starts at 8nm from aircraft, I presume it is visible straight away as you enter TE?
Yes. Though I fumble around adding the TACAN freq, AA and Band Y straight away into the ICP, switching to UHF Preset 13, setting up the pit, etc. which delays visual search for a little bit.
I do think Iāll get the S3 Pro ā the fan seems like a good bonus and if not, I can just turn it off. The bigger battery is great though!
Agree. If I didnāt have an M3, I would buy an S3, just for the extended battery capacity alone.
A couple of new questions:
- wired vs. wireless, specifically on the issue of visual and/or audio lag. Any issues with this?
Wired: originally I had issues getting connected because the Oculus PC connection software is old (made for the Quest 2) and wonky. Once I got that straightened out, connection was smooth and non-laggy but I still find it a PITA.
Wireless: Something I found early on: my router (and also my cable modem) were woefully out of date. On 5G, with my old router, I did have issues. After upgrading to a 6G router and a GB Modem, everything ran smooth as silk. So, check your router for throughput and if you need to upgrade it, so be it. That said, youāve already run 2 different VR headsets without issueā¦
My preference, therefore, is wireless, if you have a battery backup such as the BoboVR M3 or S3. I have absolutely no lag, visual artifacts, stutters or othe crap when flying BMS using Virtual Desktop plus SteamVR. It helps having a serious GPU and CPU, of course.
The hardest thing about flying VR for me is finding the darn mouse in the cockpit! Plus, wireless is less restricting obviously, though perhaps not as realistic as having something attached to your mask (as real pilots do with comms and O2).
You mentioned cable before but that sounded more like a charging issue rather than a data issue.
It is a power passthrough issue, not a data transfer issue. This is common (from what I have read) because the Quest 3 pulls more power than its predecessors. If you want to do wired, get the best cable you can afford (the VRCover cable is less than half the price of the āofficialā Meta cable).
- GPU power ā if youāre playing with the Q3 wireless, will someone with a 4090 get better performance than someone with a 2080 for example?
I would sure as heck hope so, or I have just wasted a whole bunch of $$$ also consider the CPU as you donāt want to be bottlenecked there. It was just time for me to upgrade my computer last year (it was 10 years old with a GPU upgrade once to a 2070 Super), and when I upgrade, I try to āfuture proofā as much as I can. This time, it was in preparation for deciding to give VR a go, and in anticipation of BMS 4.38.
There are a number of threads on the forum discussing how much GPU and CPU you need. Your 3080 should hold you for BMS for a while, I should hope.
One more thing to add, two actually. One of the big selling points for the Meta Quest 3 is Mixed Reality. The Quest 3 seems to have fixed many of the MR/AR issues in the Quest 2. MR/AR seems to me to be the way of VR in the future. Passthru works pretty well on the Quest 3, but isnāt perfect. But generally usable. Virtual desktop works well and the desktop is quite readable. Plus I like having that little space at the bottom of the headset to see my desktop ICP/MFDs, switches, without totally destroying the immersion.
The 2nd thing is the flexibility of the Quest 3 to function entirely independently of a connection to a PC. There is a whole 'nother world of fun-and-games out there when you need a break from flying BMS. Itās portable, and many games support multi-player support with your friends who also have a Quest 3. You can cast the Quest 3 to a phone (Android or iphone), smart TV or other capable large screen. Itās a very versatile VR headset that can do numerous things well, and independently from a PC. If you donāt plan to use many non-BMS games etc., you probably donāt need to get the 512 GB version, so you can save $150 for your necessary peripherals. If money is no object or you plan to dive into other non-BMS software, it never hurts to have more storage space.
There is also a āDeveloper Modeā you can put the Quest 3 in and unlock some additional settings if you like fiddling about with such things, though the mode allows .apks to be āsideloadedā and thus could pose a danger of getting some malicious software into your headset. But, developer mode is there if you want it. There are a fair number of non-Meta games and software developed outside of the Meta clutches, many of which are free and can be loaded to the Quest 3 as .apks. That opens up yet another area to explore.
Bottom line: I am a big fan of the Quest 3. I have not been disappointed with its ability to run BMS (except the worthless microphone), I love the flexibility, independence, ability to run smoothly wired or wireless (with the right equipment, of course), lots of very useful accessories, MR/AR capabilities, passthrough, pancake lenses, and powerful headset processing. It just has so much to offer as a VR solution at such an affordable entry price, I couldnāt pass it up, and plunged headfirst into VR after contemplating stepping off the edge for several years. Glad I took the plunge, as PC simulation flying is (as you know already) a complete game-changer (literally).
Regards,
TC2