Author Topic: BMS and Augmented Reality - Final thoughts and Testing (Read 827 times)

Marvin · « **on:** January 08, 2024, 09:15:59 AM »

Hey guys,

I’ve been getting lots of questions in regards to AR so I thought I would post a final review after 62 hours of flying/testing AR.

I take no credit other than the joy of flying the hard work of others. Along witb the usual Devs of BMS credit goes to John for the specific AR features.

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My triple projector and screen was a nice setup but I’ve always been waiting for the AR to be a reality. Those screens are a massive pain the ass. And I’m sure if your climate is like mine it was impossible to keep the images aligned and along witb the other things I was happy to tear down my $9000 screen and throw it in the garbage.

AR is amazing!!! Nothing beats it. Let me say it again NOTHING beats it!

Now I consider the Quest 3 first generation AR headsets. So they will improve but they are not perfect yet. I would say they are about 90% perfect.

The issues are: slightly out of focus, camera warping, and wifi connections.

Blurryness is not bad. The ICP, CP are in perfect focus. The MFDs RWR misc panel and engine gauges are slightly out of focus but I found turning the brightness down helps a lot and otherwise if you have built a cockpit you know where 80% is on the RPM or what your MFDs look like so you know what you are reading and when I am working the target pod a slight lean in puts it in focus. The side consoles are actually pretty good as when you look down to your sides they are relatively in focus. I do find that centering your head to where you are looking helps a lot. So yeah not perfect focus yet but you learn to work witb it. My biggest concern was eye fatigue as the VR world is perfect focus and the AR world is slightly out of focus. I’m happy to report that I did a three hour flight completely under AR with zero fatigue. So short answer is yes it’s not perfect but definitely worth it and you can look forward to better headsets down the road. So why not start getting your cockpit and yourself use to the AR world because it is the future.

Camera warping as you can see if my videos is hard to explain. First off let me clarify the recorded images are done in the headset so it is smoother in the game than the recording. It also only records through one of the eyes so the warping is worse. I think it’s the hand tracking technology that really causes the warping as you can see when my hand goes near my face it messes with the cameras. But I have to tell you I honestly don’t notice it when I am flying. Maybe cause it’s so fast and you are occupied doing other stuff but you really don’t notice it that match so in my opinion it’s not an issue.

Wifi is really nonsense in my humble opinion. Why anyone thinks with the graphic power we are pushing in simulations that a wifi connection to a headset will suffice is a little disconnected with reality. Or maybe in my country (Canada) wifi is just not as strong as some countries but either way I think a wired headset is a must for flight sims. Well the good news is we now have that figured out. One of our members came up with tha brilliant idea of just using a USB-C to Ethernet adapter and BOOM! Problem solved! It’s as fast as my quest link cable. But I should clarify to do AR currently you have to use Virtual Desktop which as it stands now can not be used via quest link cable. So this adapter fixes all those problems.

One final issue you will notice right away is a fine magenta line that divides the AR from the VR split. As it stands now we don’t know if you can fix that but trust me like the slight camera warping with quick head movements you just don’t notice it after a while. Your eyes just get use to it and before you know it’s no longer there.

I went with tha smaller Quest 3 as I don’t really use it as a standalone and only for simming so I don”t need the larger capacity and it’s cheaper.

There are a lot of contraptions you can buy for it. I even purchased the extra battery pack headstrap and it is still in the box and I have never used it. For me I find it extremely comfortable and even better I rest mine on my avaiation headset and it is stellar. It just rest there with no pressure on my head and I can easily flip it up and down to see outside the goggles if needed. My goal is to keep it as low profile and light as possible specially when yo are twisting around in the cockpit.

Lastly all credit goes to John. He did all the work for us boys. So when BMS releases AR in whichever build they decide it’s all done. All you need to do is set your “toggle” to turn AR off an on (very handy if you need to see the 3D cockpit for whatever reason) and set your virtual desktop pass through to magenta and that’s it.

So in the end the really only issue is the slight out of focus on some areas of the cockpit but you just learn to work it. And trust me it is worth to do it right now and know it only gets better.

Dreams do come true!

tiger-31 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 08, 2024, 09:41:35 AM »

Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience with the AR setup.

John Fredrik · « **Reply #2 on:** January 08, 2024, 10:03:13 AM »

Thank you Jody.
I've been watching your videos and my smile gets bigger with each new video release.

For a guy who is scared of wires, VR is a god sent blessing

Tulkas · « **Reply #3 on:** January 08, 2024, 11:02:13 AM »

Congratulations Marvin!

You are the first one to achieve and experiment what many of us were awaiting. I think it is going to be the absolute pinnacle of cockpit building. It has arrived faster than I planned, I thought it was still a couple of years away. My head is already working things

Marvin · « **Reply #4 on:** January 08, 2024, 11:05:24 AM »

Agreed. I thought we were at least 5 years away. When I first tried my Quest 3 pass through I wasn’t convinced because you need sufficient lighting. But with back lit panels and/or flood lights and actually trying it in BMS it actually does work fine.