VR experiences IL-2 Korea

[YoYo]

Btw. New goggles from Pimax: https://www.pimax.com/explore/blogs/pimax-unveils-crystal-pro-with-native-foveated-streaming-sending-the-gpus-native-image-wirelessly-to-the-headset. Crystal pro.

[Aapje]

As expected, the Pimax Frame. Every time a competitor brings out a headset with something new, Pimax brings out a headset that does the same thing.

[Husar]

25 minutes ago, Aapje said:

As expected, the Pimax Frame. Every time a competitor brings out a headset with something new, Pimax brings out a headset that does the same thing.

Uncompressed wireless transmission is something new—a small foveal region transmitted without any compression.

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Aapje said:

As expected, the Pimax Frame. Every time a competitor brings out a headset with something new, Pimax brings out a headset that does the same thing.

Exactly, I feel the same way. I see it’s become trendy now to have the battery pack separate and show off how small the goggles are. Meanwhile, you’ve got a brick of a power bank on your strap ;). The resolution makes sense; it isn't excessive.

If anyone buys it and receives it, I’ll be waiting for the first reviews regarding IL-2 Korea (to avoid going too far off-topic, I’m linking this to IL-2 ).

Edited Wednesday at 08:41 AM by YoYo

[Husar]

54 minutes ago, YoYo said:

The resolution makes sense; it isn't excessive.

The panel resolution is reasonable but those asferic lenses are know to need significantly more pixels to be drawn per eye to achieve 1:1 panel resolution in the center of the the view.

 

 

[YoYo]

I recall seeing information, possibly even from the developers themselves, indicating that the engine requires newer graphics cards; however, it is worth noting that the  RTX 60xx series likely won't arrive until 2028. Setting aside the current component shortage and the potential for exorbitant prices for the next generation, a situation that could drag on for another two or even three years, we are effectively stuck with the current generation of cards for at least another two years +. Consequently, focusing on the future is a mistake; developers should prioritize optimization right now to ensure the game runs reasonably well in VR on mid-range hardware. Otherwise, not only will there be no influx of new users over the next two-plus years, but existing players might also drift away toward better-optimized titles. VR optimization, specifically addressing CPU bottlenecks, such as those encountered during career mode—should currently be a top priority for 1C according me.

[GiftGruen]

On 10/7/2026 at 10:38 AM, YoYo said:

Exactly, I feel the same way. I see it’s become trendy now to have the battery pack separate and show off how small the goggles are. Meanwhile, you’ve got a brick of a power bank on your strap ;). The resolution makes sense; it isn't excessive.

If anyone buys it and receives it, I’ll be waiting for the first reviews regarding IL-2 Korea (to avoid going too far off-topic, I’m linking this to IL-2 ).

I'd say that headset is simply not addressed to flight / race sim enthusiasts. It might be a good headset for people who play non-sitting games more often than occasionally. Same category like SteamFrame but somewhat more versatile since it also allows wired connections afaik.

Beeing aware that we flightsim guys are rather a niche, it makes absolute sense that Pimax also tries to get into the 'bigger' portion of the market.

Edited 7 hours ago by GiftGruen

[Dash,Polder]

Right now I'm running 3784 x 3798 per eye in a Crystal Super 57 VR Optimized setting with every in game setting turned on full up set to highest levels including direct lighting, the exception of grass being off which I don't care for. 

It looks stunning, flew for several hours in the box last night and it was great.  Second tier GPU 4090 and a 9950X3D combined with in my opinion an exceptional headset.  It took a whole lot of work to get here, but it is possible to do with peak hardware. 

It's the eye tracking and foveated that allows maximum graphical horsepower.  There is no game I have ever managed to bust 21 million pixel render with, and now I'm playing competitive pushing 28.7 million. 

I don't for one second buy the game isn't optimized anymore.   It just doesn't have the features necessary to make full use of its own capabilities built in native.  Accessibility and tuning tools are somewhat scant and lacking in the game itself.  It requires third party help in order to truly run with it.

Edited 7 hours ago by Dash,Polder

[Husar]

31 minutes ago, Dash,Polder said:

don't for one second buy the game isn't optimized anymore.   It just doesn't have the features necessary to make full use of its own capabilities built in native.

The game  is not optimized, I can send you a track from a multiplayer (CB) soritie (noting fancy) where you will noticed significant drop in performance with foveated DLSS also- in VR unplayable below headset Hz.

 

https://filebin.net/48yhork570e6qp77

Edited 6 hours ago by Husar

[Picchio]

28 minutes ago, Dash,Polder said:

Right now I'm running 3784 x 3798 per eye in a Crystal Super 57 VR Optimized setting with every in game setting turned on full up set to highest levels including direct lighting, the exception of grass being off which I don't care for. 

It looks stunning, flew for several hours in the box last night and it was great.  Second tier GPU 4090 and a 9950X3D combined with in my opinion an exceptional headset.  It took a whole lot of work to get here, but it is possible to do with peak hardware. 

It's the eye tracking and foveated that allows maximum graphical horsepower.  There is no game I have ever managed to bust 21 million pixel render with, and now I'm playing competitive pushing 28.7 million. 

I don't for one second buy the game isn't optimized anymore.   It just doesn't have the features necessary to make full use of its own capabilities built in native.  Accessibility and tuning tools are somewhat scant and lacking in the game itself.  It requires third party help in order to truly run with it.

With the current restriction in available presets, it's not exactly true that we're able to test the performance thoroughly... 🥸

[YoYo]

2 hours ago, Dash,Polder said:

Right now I'm running 3784 x 3798 per eye in a Crystal Super 57 VR Optimized setting with every in game setting turned on full up set to highest levels including direct lighting, the exception of grass being off which I don't care for. 

It looks stunning, flew for several hours in the box last night and it was great.  Second tier GPU 4090 and a 9950X3D combined with in my opinion an exceptional headset.  It took a whole lot of work to get here, but it is possible to do with peak hardware. 

It's the eye tracking and foveated that allows maximum graphical horsepower.  There is no game I have ever managed to bust 21 million pixel render with, and now I'm playing competitive pushing 28.7 million. 

I don't for one second buy the game isn't optimized anymore.   It just doesn't have the features necessary to make full use of its own capabilities built in native.  Accessibility and tuning tools are somewhat scant and lacking in the game itself.  It requires third party help in order to truly run with it.

Wow. A very bold statement. Of course it isn't. From what I gather, you use non official mods like for example Cheeky Foveated DLSS. I'm interested in the game "straight out of the box," not mods that revert the graphics to "potato quality" in certain respects. You’re using techniques that aren't officially supported and, as I’ve mentioned before, don't make sense to some people. In my case (on the Quest), the performance gain from "Cheeky Foveated DLSS" is less than the 10% the 1C developers claimed (even on my RTX 5090). Career missions caused stuttering with "Cheeky Foveated DLSS" in the exact same missions and during the exact same attacks as without it. So, how on earth can you claim that IL-2 Korea is optimized right out of the box, when even dropping napalm causes stuttering if you look at it?

Btw. Also, I don't quite follow what resolution you're talking about, logically speaking. You aren't getting 1:1 image quality at 3784 x 3798 pixels if you're using DLSS . Try turning DLSS off, then confirm that you actually get that kind of performance at that resolution with the sliders maxed out. If you have Balanced, then you have 2195 × 2203 as starting point, right? And with Cheeky Foveated DLSS, it's even lower at the edges, depending on your settings. Someone here has lost touch with reality and overlooked a pretty important point 🙂 (no offense). The topic of mods is a separate thread, so let it live there :).

Edited 5 hours ago by YoYo

[Husar]

20 minutes ago, YoYo said:

"Cheeky Foveated DLSS" is less than the 10% the 1C developers claimed (even on my RTX 5090)

I believe they said that about Quad Views. I understand why now: dynamic foveated rendering through Quad Views requires CPU headroom, which we obviously don't have in this game. Foveated DLSS works because it doesn't require the same CPU overhead. However, it's not a solution for Career mode, where unoptimized AI and visual effects like napalm are bottlenecking the GPU by overloading the CPU.

[nachinus]

I use a Quest3 with a 4070Ti. I've been trying the Virtual Desktop beta for USB cable for the last couple of days coming from Meta Link with Oculus Tray Tool and I can affirm it's a big step forward. This plus Cheeky Foveated DLSS thingie have remarkably improved my experience. I'm still playing with Cheeky's settings and I've yet to try the most demanding scenarios, but my average mission went from playable to really enjoyable.

So good news for us usb cable users!

Edited 4 hours ago by nachinus

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Husar said:

I believe they said that about Quad Views. I understand why now: dynamic foveated rendering through Quad Views requires CPU headroom, which we obviously don't have in this game. Foveated DLSS works because it doesn't require the same CPU overhead. However, it's not a solution for Career mode, where unoptimized AI and visual effects like napalm are bottlenecking the GPU by overloading the CPU.

That is why one must consider all the aspects of the simulator and the functionality it offers the player. There are people here who fly exclusively online; if you ask them if they’ve ever flown low over Seoul, the answer is no. Yet, at the same time, we hear that everything is working fine. Well, in a scenario like that, I probably wouldn’t have any complaints either ;). I get the maximum frame rate 90% of the time, but that remaining 10% unfortunately falls on the most critical moments, at least in SP mode.

59 minutes ago, nachinus said:

So good news for us usb cable users!

I really need to give VD a try, but I'm waiting for it to come out of beta for Link (is there any word on when that might happen?)

[Dash,Polder]

It may not be officially supported by the game, but the VR hardware/software itself is already third party and thus a completely different story, if I can make full use of it's own built in eye tracking capability than who cares how it happens. 

It's all a symbiotic relationship, there is no way you can honestly circumvent third parties out from the gaming equation, the hardware, the drivers, controllers, it's all third party stuff.  To exclusively load the entire equation all on the game and not look at the bigger picture isn't helping anyone.     

[nachinus]

49 minutes ago, YoYo said:

I really need to give VD a try, but I'm waiting for it to come out of beta for Link (is there any word on when that might happen?)

No idea, I'm afraid. I couldn't find any ETA in their discord.

[Husar]

19 minutes ago, nachinus said:

No idea, I'm afraid. I couldn't find any ETA in their discord.

Right now, the better solution is to use a USB-to-Ethernet adapter. It offers the same latency and can reliably sustain 500 Mbps.

[Picchio]

56 minutes ago, Dash,Polder said:

It may not be officially supported by the game, but the VR hardware/software itself is already third party and thus a completely different story, if I can make full use of it's own built in eye tracking capability than who cares how it happens. 

It's all a symbiotic relationship, there is no way you can honestly circumvent third parties out from the gaming equation, the hardware, the drivers, controllers, it's all third party stuff.  To exclusively load the entire equation all on the game and not look at the bigger picture isn't helping anyone.     

Still, judging performance with the "VR Optimized" preset makes no sense. Shadows looks awful, landscape textures look awful, graphics options are meaningless this way.

[GiftGruen]

I think both ‚sides‘ have their points here.

Cheeky helps a lot if you have a HighRes Headset which potentially overload your GPU. That‘s a fact well experienced by users with this setup and shouldn‘t be overseen.

On the other hand, it‘s also true that CPU bound problems especially in SP aren’t solved by Cheeky, and also LowRes headsets don‘t benefit a lot.

There is maybe not this single truth. But I agree that also people that don’t use a 4K headset with a 5090 behind and playing SP should have an acceptable experience, which is not the case right now.

And this, in the end, means that code optimization is necessary.