Questions before I buy

[OlaHaldor]

I just read the development status - glad to see it will be updated with Vulkan in mind.

How does this plane behave in VR? Is it enjoyable or quirky? Does anyone have experience with it in VR and can tell me about performance? (and please mention which headset you use for comparison. I have a HP Reverb)

[K4bel123]

First things first: I'm pretty new to VR myself. I've taken delivery of my first VR headset (a Pimax 5k Plus) just a few weeks ago. As far as I know, the Pimax tends to take an even bigger hit on frames than the HP Reverb due to its high FOV. As for the controllers, I'm using the Valve Index controllers. This shouldnt't be too important however, because I would assume that most/all VR controllers behave very similarly when it comes to rotating knobs, etc.

My PC specs are similar to yours but instead of the Threadripper 2920x I've got an i9-9900k and "only" 32GB of RAM.

Performance wise the 733 is just great! I'm always getting better frames in it than in other payware aircraft for the same scenario (Concorde FXP, Hotstart TBM, etc.; don't get me wrong, they also perform well enough on my system). The IXEG team has announced that they're going to update the aircraft's visuals in the upcoming patches (e.g. increasing polygon count on the exterior model such as engines, etc.) which might cost a few frames but I wouldn't be too worried about that because the IXEG devs are known to keep an eye on performance.

One thing I did notice when I started to fly the 733 in VR was that it was very difficult to rotate knobs such as the heading dial, etc. since they were way too sensitive. As far as I know the IXEG team is aware of that and will fix that in one of the upcoming patches. Additionally, there is an inofficial mod out there that addresses this and a few other VR related issues/quirks in the meantime (which works like a charm for me). I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to this mod but you can easily find it by searching for "ixeg 737 vr mod". However, please be aware that this or any other inofficial mod are not supported by IXEG and you should always back up the files you're replacing.

I have yet to figure out if there is a way to access the IXEG specific windows such as the preflight manager, etc. in VR or if I have to do that in 2D prior to a flight.

So, all in all, I would definitely recommend the IXEG 733 both in 2D and VR but I love it even more in VR.

If you have any other questions, just let me know. Cheers!

[DeshMindER]

This plane works great in VR. As @K4bel123 mentioned above, I use the "ixeg 737 vr mod" as well. I've also devised the current Avitab integration for it that is available on the x-plane.org forum, which is a must for VR users.

I did have the HP Reverb, however I noticed that I had a big drop on frames compared to the Rift S, so I kept the Rift S. Otherwise I would have to lower the sliders on X-Plane, and I think that it's bad as it is. With 11.50 beta, I'm having a much more smooth experience in VR thou, and would test the HP Reverb again.

I also have an i9-9900k, 32GB of RAM, but a 1080 Ti. I tested the 2080 Ti and didn't notice that much difference in X-Plane back then.

If you want to see it in action, I have a livestream of a flight on the IXEG on VR. The video is over a year old, and it was back on Rift CV1.

 

 And yes. I did end up on the water at the end. It's my fault, I should have aborted the landing when my X-Plane froze for a second before the flare. (FPS drops because of VR back then).

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by DeshMindER

[OlaHaldor]

I ended up buying it. I'll wait to do VR until I know the aircraft better.