| Title | Buy Now |
|---|---|
| Pimax 5K XR | Buy on Amazon |
| HP Reverb | Buy on Amazon |
| Valve Index Full VR Kit | Buy on Amazon |
| HTC VIVE Cosmos | Buy on Amazon |
| Oculus Rift S | Buy on Amazon |
X-Plane is FAA certified and from a 2D perspective, it’s very good. However, the graphics engine they are using is antiquated and very poor in handling VR. I hope they do have a Vulcan release coming soon. At some point, the developers of X-Plane 11 will have to confront this issue or lose out on the VR market. The VR experience in X-Plane is horrible from a user usability perspective.
In this article, we go through the VR Headset for X-Plane 11 available today with great picks on each of the popular VR platforms.
Best VR Headset for X Plane
Pimax 5K XR
The Pimax 5K XR is not for all of us. The headset is pricey and needs a lot of tinkering and tweaking to get the settings fine. Don’t get a 5K XR if you’re new to VR. But if you’re a veteran of VR and want something fresh and special, peripheral vision in VR, it’s an experience that will rekindle your passion for VR.
When we last looked at the 5K XR, it was very hard to get a decent output out of the unit. Although you could sit there and change the resolution settings for each individual game like x-plane 11 to get better results than we have achieved, the out-of-box experience was pretty bad.
HP Reverb
To be upfront, the HP Reverb headset itself is a solid upgrade over much of its predecessor. The new design is comfortable and has a better quality feel. New displays and lenses give a much better-looking image. And onboard audio is a major bonus. However, though the hardware has changed in several respects, it is still a ‘Windows Mixed Reality’ headset, which means that it shares the same irritating controllers as all Windows VR headsets.
What’s even better, however, is that the HP Reverb is compatible with Steam VR. This gives you access to a library of hundreds of great VR games, such as x aircraft 11, two of the best VR games we’ve played recently.
Valve Index Full VR Kit
The Valve Index is the next generation VR headset we’ve been waiting for, but the Steam VR platform on which the headset relies is still capricious and painfully difficult to repair. It has an ultra-crystal display that runs reasonably well even with older GPUs, a wider field of view, a higher refresh rate, and Valve’s ‘knuckle’ controllers that can track every finger’s movement.
However, if you can conquer some of the obstacles that the Valve Index brings in front of you, literally and figuratively, and if you can really afford it, the Valve Index is an awesome VR headset for games like x-plane.
HTC VIVE Cosmos
The HTC Vive Cosmos is a top-notch VR headset and you’re going to have a nice time with it – but high-priced and sporadic tracking blips mean that HTC hasn’t reached the bullseye quite yet.
Gaming is mostly a delight for HTC Vive Cosmos, whether it’s in newer games like X-Plane 11 or more developed VR-mode titles like Digital Battle Simulator Universe. The only ‘game’ we really didn’t like was a virtual reality roller coaster that took us a full five minutes to get back to the real world.
Oculus Rift S
Next in line is the Oculus Rift S for the VR headset crown, which comes along the heels of two other stellar Oculus products, the Oculus Go and the Oculus Quest. Both the Go and the Search were very critically acclaimed, but many were waiting for the Oculus Rift S to exceed them as the next great achievement in the VR.
According to Oculus, this is expected to give your hands a little more scope in the Rift S compared to the Search. In practice, I didn’t find a big difference—possibly because Quest games like x plane are highly optimized for that platform, and developers can do stuff like predicting your movements even when you’re out of range.
Final Thoughts
The most critical element of a virtual reality package is a headset, a device like a thick pair of goggles that goes over your eyes. The more costly, higher-quality headsets need to be connected to a computer to run apps and games, while some cheaper ones use a mobile phone clipped to the front of the headset.
Both headsets need to be used with a good quality pair of headphones, and there are other optional accessories from hand controllers to treadmills, all designed to improve your virtual experience of being in another country. Hand controllers convert the real-world movements into whatever game or application you use, while regular gaming joypads can also be used.
Founder of Stuntcorgi who has reported on the VR industry for the last 5 years. A keen gamer since the days of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Ben enjoys covering all aspects of the technology; from the latest consumer hardware to enterprise use cases.