Flight Simulator in VR
When I first tried Microsoft Flight Simulator about a year ago, it was the most impressive thing I had ever done on a PC. The ability to fly literally anywhere in the world cannot be described, it must be experienced personally. Now, Microsoft has also implemented support for Virtual Reality, which makes something that was already awesome even more impressive. If your PC has the horsepower to drive it, it is by leaps and bounds the coolest thing I have ever done on a computer. The only thing that comes remotely close would be the first time I tried the Super Nintendo for the first time.
Flying works very well with VR, especially in Flight Simulator, because you are (mostly) flying civilian aircraft and not military dogfights. The slow turns and maneuvers hasn’t resulted in any motion sickness compared to some other VR implementations I have tried in the past. The ability to look around in the cockpit gives a massive improvement in visibility and your ability to navigate and orient yourself. It becomes very natural. The second thing that I noticed is that I often lean forward and inspect the instruments in the cockpit. I can read the small displays and buttons and figure out what they do, which is very pedagogical. Usually, when playing a flight sim, you might have a 500-page manual just to takeoff. You will also have hundreds of key combinations and commands on just about every key on your keyboard. With VR, you just press the actual buttons in the cockpit instead!
In the simulator, there is a huge marketplace where you can buy detailed 3D models of certain cities and airports and also a huge number of additional aircraft. I recently purchased the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is a modern high tech fighter jet. I think I heard they are about 90 million Euros a piece. Getting into the cockpit of a fighter jet was a whole new experience. These things are fast. Really fast. When you floor the throttle, you will approach Mach 2 in no time and the pace that you cover ground is insane. Journeys that can take half an hour by car, are completed in seconds. It’s so surreal because you are flying in the real world and can easily recognize landmarks and geography. I like to fly around the North of Sweden, my home. I have travelled so many times north and south on the E4, our main coastal road, that I know it like the back of my hand. Watching the journey from above gives a completely new perspective.
I have recently done a couple of YouTube live streams when I am playing in VR. I had a project to complete: To take off with the Eurofighter from Umeå airport, fly north and land at Kallax airport in Luleå without crashing. Easier said than done! I crashed during the landing sequence three times, but on my fourth livestream I made it. Barely… Now why did I insist on flying from Umeå to Luleå just to practice landing? Why didn’t I just take off, make a U-turn and land repeatedly, until I knew the procedure? That would save a lot of time. Correct, but it would also loose the adrenaline aspect. When you invest precious time to first do the flight it becomes real. There is some skin in the game! Usually with modern games, you just quicksave and quickload constantly or pass checkpoints where you respawn should you make a mistake. Forget about that in Flight Simulator. One mistake = Game Over. And that is honestly the BEST part of the game. Every time when I was on the approach to land, my heart was about to beat through my ribcage. You simply cannot get that feeling if you aren’t punished when making a mistake. In this case, the punishment is the frustration of flying for a long time and then crashing. I am an old school gamer and I remember the utter frustration and immersion during the NES 8-bit era. When you were out of continues and extra lives, it was game over and back to square one. That’s what skin in the game is all about. The highs are higher, and the lows are lower. With quicksaves and quickloads or checkpoints, the immersion is pretty much a straight line with no surprises. There’s no adrenaline rush.
The feeling when I finally touched down and managed to get the Eurofighter to a standstill at Kallax is one of the most epic gaming moments I have ever had. If you have the possibility to try out Flight Simulator in VR, you MUST do it. It is a complete game changer. Simply flying around and doing some sight seeing in Lofoten or the Swiss alps, for example, is very relaxing and enjoyable.