look at my building F-15E playlist. There are about 30 episodes on how to build each panel, knobs, wire switches etc. I have another playlist on how to build the A-10.

@@Byte_11 thanks!

laser engraving will always give better results than a 3D printer for text. My video is to show how to improve text if you only have 3D printer, by mixing colors instead of cut out or embossing. I've never owned any engraving machines. So we do what we can with what we have

@@simpitacademy nah, it's not engraving. It's just a transparent transfer foil and a black ink laser. Kinda neat. Also this is just my tidbit for the next fellow searching for more readable text. Not to criticize your video. I love the shared knowledge without all this usual influencer sugar on top.

@@BekoPharm so it’s a laser cut piece, transparent and glued on top of the panel? Like embossing? Many ways to do text

@@simpitacademy I'm pretty sure that's just cut with a scissor in the end but I'll take a closer look. Got a pack of foil for the printer with the kit.

@@simpitacademy Checked the foil today. It's "Signolit SC 42" - a transparent self sticking foil that can be printed on with most laser printers (so basically any copy machine).

@@tdg-gamingtdg-textures9553 thanks!

@@hvyskyfall8530 quest 3 resolution is not the best. But it’s pass through camera is decent, actually better than varjo and crystal light! When the Pimax MR faceplate comes out that’d be huge improvement to pass through. For best VR wait for crystal super. Better than varjo XR4 and cheaper.

I'm not sure what you are asking. If you mean do MR for the hornet, the steps are the same as per the Strike Eagle. VD, ONB, Q3, Helios etc. If you mean create a cockpit outline for the hornet, see how to trace out one for your choice of aircraft in episode 34

@@simpitacademy Thank you. I found it. You mentioned something about the MFD getting passed through issue. Can you talk about that some more?

@@pchow6829 see episode 33 about issue and solution

@@tensemonster3575 I didn’t track the cost. As mentioned at the beginning of my channel series, I’m using the cheapest methods possible. That is to design and print your own panels and knobs, not buy them. That saves a lot of money them for switches I buy from AliExpress instead of digikey or Amazon etc coz it’s 5 times cheaper. Then use wood from Home Depot to build cockpit shell. Everything DIY. Lots of work but satisfaction and saved money. U can build any aircraft you want. Software like freecad is free to design panels. To integrate to DCS use dcs bios. For msfs use Mobiflight it’s also free. Quest 3 for MR. Not the cheapest hobby but still way cheaper than what my friend spends on golf clubs and membership.

you mean pink line? If you watched the beginning of the video I showed various ways of drawing the pink shapes to represent the cockpit outline. Pink is the common color chosen for passthrough. Once in VR the headset like the Quest 3 will separate virtual and passthrough and the separation line is the pink line you see. If you choose whatever color you want for passthrough in Virtual Desktop. But then the shape that you drop into dcs folder for the right aircraft has to have matching color as the one you indicated in VD. See episode 27 for full Mixed Reality set up steps.

See episode 29. Basic setup done though I didn't turn it on for this recorded flight.

Without looking at an example I can't really say what is the cause. You should take a video and post it on Quest or VD discord to let others observe the issue. Without VD is your Q3 running good in DCS? You need to show your DCS and VD settings

Yup, this was made like 2 months ago. VD has changed some features.

I assume when u fly VR you still want to see the two MPCDs in MR. You can use just one profile. But in order to make MFDs and viewports from Helios appear on your LCDs in VR, you need to add this line "VR_allow_MFD_out_of_HMD = true" to your helios monitor setup lua file, as mentioned in this video. If they still don't appear for your aircraft, you need to add the "VR_MIRROR" lines as explained in episode 33 as the fix. Whenever Helios asks you to reconfigure monitor setup, these two lines will disappear. To automatically populate these each time, use the special control toolbox function as explained in episode 34.

I'm sorry, trackir was the only brand of head trackers I know. I've stopped using it since VR came out years ago. Looks like you don't like this company

@@simpitacademy That expresses it mildly :) There's no need to name a brand at all. The technique is head tracking just like finger tracking or else 🤷 Still a good video and thanks for the insight on mixed reality ;-)

if you want the best resolution, wait for the pimax crystal super and yet to be released MR faceplate. The super's PPD is higher than Varjo XR4 at half the price. don't know their MR faceplate passthrough resolution yet. but based on pimax's fixation on high resolution and the fact they stopped their about to release MR faceplate and went back to the drawing board after Apple released the vision pro, I suppose it'd be good. They seem to be aiming at eating Varjo's lunch. To really do so they need a good MR faceplate. Varjo's XR4 is expensive and it bragged about best resolution. Then I saw two youtubers saying how bad its current passthrough was. Good passthrough camera is as important as good headset resolution. Both need to be great for a great MR experience. the crystal light is good and popular but lacks good passthrough. Right now neither Varjo or Pimax have a great passthrough camera.

1. For the first question, please see episode 34 on how I improved the cockpit outline tracing. 2. For 2nd question, see episode 33 on how I found a solution after six months of trying to fix the MFD and other viewports transparency problem. Overall see episode 27 on everything needed to setup Mixed Reality. 3. For MFD I use a wide 34" monitor to display MFDs and also all instrument gauges. Only the UFC which is a few inches higher than the rest has its own little LCD. Software to display all instruments and MFD is Helios. See episode 26. All these are on the F-15E playlist. I have another playlist for the A-10 which will have more display related solutions later. I have already shown how to set up 20x02 LCD and OLED displays. Later when I do the radios I'd show how to do various combinations of 7 segment displays too. For inputs, all my videos show step by step how to wire and configure various types of switches. Building a cockpit is complex. All problems that I figured out I share in my videos how they were fixed.

@@simpitacademy thanks for the heads up. I will be watching a lot of your videos :)

@@Becek123 I’m using the Quest 3. By default screen recording is in narrow format. In headset settings you can choose the wide format. I suppose smaller fov helps with fps. As usual, fps depends on your gpu and various settings

Thanks for the compliment. I use the Quest 3. Note I also made a video on how to create the cockpit outline. Another video on how to set up MR. Another one to fix the VR transparency for MPD or viewports.

that will be nice and convenient for us, but I suppose ED has hundreds of things on wish list from users already. well, what's one more 😆

@@SlushieTee14 if u didn’t change any screen layout or gauges then no. But u have to realign knee board vs vr view of cockpit to latch up

@@simpitacademy so if you are using the same plane each time you only need to realign correct?

@@SlushieTee14 yes. U select Helios aircraft profile and run Helios. don’t have to change set up each time. Don’t have to edit or check Helios lua in monitor setup folder each time.

Quest 3

Thanks!

Great job finding the scripts to do this. Helios should be able to do it and apply it to whatever monitor setup you choose, you just need to type that script in.

@@MadKreator37 Oh I've been telling people to use this special control to automate the line "VR_allow_MFD_out_of_HMD = true". If it can also add the VR_Mirror lines too that'd save us the trouble. This is helpful. Thanks @MadKreator37

@@simpitacademy so it seems to add the lines to the bottom of the monitor file and users have said it does not work when its in that position in the file. I will talk with the Helios dev about it and see if he want to work it into the monitor setup scripting.

@@MadKreator37 It did work for me as shown in episode 34. I added the vr_mirror thing to the right in helios and it added to the lua file. then the MPDs showed up black background as desired.

Here is the link. www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832698845940.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.106.5f311802vOyTO3&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa I get almost everything where possible from aliexpress, which is several times cheaper than amazon, ebay, digikey, mouser, newark etc. US sites as mentioned in episode 1.

I don't own any winwing products. No idea how they export screens. If it is not using helios then they wrote their own software to do it in a similar way. At then end it's still editing a monitor setup lua file. First you focus on getting the winwing screens to display normally in 2D, then to display in VR you need to add a line "VR_allow_MFD_out_of_HMD = true" in your monitor setup lua as mentioned in episode 27 that shows all the steps to setup Mixed Reality, or add the 'export MFD in VR' special controls in Helios that will always add this line for you into your helios lua as mentioned in episode 4 of the A-10 playlist for Landing Gear Panel

First make sure you create a pink shape with transparent background and save as PNG file type. Then you put it PNG in saved games\dcs\kneeboard then the corresponding aircraft name folder. eg. A10C_2, F-15ESE etc. the openkneeboard discord will get you the correct name of each aircraft. Search for it or ask the developer who is very quick to respond. You can put the PNG in other dcs folders but they sometimes don't work. saved games path is the surest way to it to be found but you need to put it in the correct aircraft type folder that matches the aircraft you are launching. If you fly many aircrafts then you need to put into each aircraft folder

@@simpitacademy thx, I've figured that its not necesarry to use the png via the Aircraft Tab only, just load the png as new Tab, thus it'll be loaded as well. Its also possible to load while DCS runs, no DCS restart required.

@@MemphisBelle291 yes few days ago I found that changing the PNG file will change the passthrough outline in real time while in VR mode. and yes it's not necessary to put png in aircraft tab just found too but that's how I learned in the beginning. old habit. glad that MR is now working for you

Good question. In the past without this launcher, sometimes when I was already in VR mode through VD, DCS would still launch in pc mode then I'd be looking at a window in VR, not a 360 degrees all VR environment. This force openXR thing added to the properties will force to not only launch the VR mode, but to use openXR, not steamVR. I am not sure the VR mode in the dcs startup launcher runs openXR. You can skip this step and see if it works well. Personally I'd still do this step to be safe. It takes only a minute to add this line.

Thank you for appreciating my effort!

@@andreyugarov1853 thanks! The panels were more carefully calculated in dimension. The cockpit structure was built in a simple modified way. The sides are straight up. Not ideal. you can look at open cockpit the hornet group with a typical curved shell design

Thanks!

@@dcsshenanigans577 you are welcome! We share the same passion-dcs and cockpit building and VR. Got to share solutions to what many people are struggling with

@@simpitacademy exactly!

@@F15Aeagle I’ve mentioned in previous videos. It’s Quest 3. If you wonder how to set up MR, see episode 27

@@simpitacademy thank you

Thanks!

I was going to tell you the solution to A-10 RWR in a day or two in case you didn't notice my new episode with the discovery

This will make the ARC-210 readable too should one chooses to output it via viewport to an LCD with HDMI, instead of using dcs bios code. Basically all viewports will now be readable

U are wondering if this will make the cockpit transparent like the kneeboard pass through and look like the F-35 hmcs that lets u see through the floor of the plane?

@@simpitacademy I mean, think of taking the MFD's -- you are already exporting them to external screens... imagine "painting" a layer over top of where the MFD is in the cockpit texture, that would become a passthrough window to where your hardware external MFD is...

@@Munky332 Oh you are talking about the transparent MFD issue. I've since solved it. I know in this video they look ugly and unreadable. It took me a long time to find the solution. See the comment I wrote yesterday. I made a video about the solution in Episode 33 and what's great is that it solves transparent viewports for ALL aircrafts not just this F-15E. Your suggestion of making a passthrough to see the physical MFDs will not work. I can draw boxes in pink to passthrough them, but the ones in VR are much bigger than mine using TM cougar MFD. I've thought of this too but the difference in sizes make it not workable and aligning them will be tricky. But thankfully now the MFD issue is solved

Thanks. Flying full cockpit in MR feels great. It took me six months to fix the MPD transparent in VR problem. Now it’s perfect to fly in

VR expensive? The Quest 3 is like $500. I reckon 3 curved screens will add up to about the same? MR is the way to go for me personally

@simpitacademy for my setup the screens add up to 350, and I had two already so 🤷‍♂️

@@MrWarthog_ you can get a correct second-hand VR device for $200, like Q2 ... VR is unexpensive.. The expensive thing is doing the kind of setup of this video

Thanks for the compliment. Dcs didn’t fix anything. I reported this as a bug to ED and got ignored for months. This instrument transparency in VR affects many viewports in many aircrafts. The solution I just discovered should fix it for all aircrafts. I’d release a video explaining it tomorrow

See new video. This solution should fix transparent viewports in ALL aircrafts. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zSAmyZuGuYo.html

@@simpitacademy Working this now, just got the passthrough working, issues on my end using open kneeboard. Works perfectly now. Any idea though how to get the MFDs brighter? I've seen numerous videos using reshade but I can't seem to get it to work in DCS with multi-thread. Thoughts? With the passthrough it is still WORLDS better. Thanks again for your help and keep up the videos.

@@michaelconrad6366 Reshade does make everything brighter. I was trying it to help with the VR transparency issue which it didn't as expected, and it made my dcs crash often so I ended up removing Reshade. You may have better luck with it. The most important milestone is solving the VR transparency issue which I'm very glad is achieved. I don't have MFD brightness issue since I display everything on second monitor and just turn up the monitor brightness

I don't know how Winwing displays work, but they will have to export viewports like Helios or edit monitor setup lua in some way. Once you can export displays to secondary monitors or small LCDs, MR will work for F-18C DDIs I've tested them. As for hand passthrough it was only available in steam created by a Japanese guy for many months until now. Yes it's great for partial cockpit or if your secondary displays don't work and you want hand passthrough to help see and operate switches. It's a great option that VD now offers.

@@simpitacademy agreed all round pal - good job

the VirtualDesktop hand passthrough is still kinda shit. It offers no customization yet (cannot offset, cannot turn it on/off quickly, cannot adjust bubble size), and it flickers like a god damn mad man.

@@Munky332 it's far better than the alternative of loosing 15 years of ya fucking life though! I dunno what headset you are using but mine is crystal clear pal .

@@Munky332 yes it flickers like crazy lol. Since I have a complete cockpit I use my cockpit outline passthrough for MR. I use the hand passthrough only to check if switches are working by seeing the before and after of the switch positions in VR with the hand passthrough helping me find them and turn them

@@krakers665 I don’t know coz I don’t have other VR headsets. I know the pico 4 has pass through too. And varjo XR4. Very expensive with high resolution but bad pass through despite the price according to some RU-vid reviews. Pimax crystal same thing. Native pass through camera sucks. They are working on MR faceplate then it’d be the best MR headset. With the crystal super.

@@SlushieTee14 thanks. I was not happy with the F15’s MPDs being transparent in VR. Tried many things for months. Finally got a solution. Will make a video on that

@@kcthba6408 anything to note here?

@@simpitacademy nope…was accidentally…

Look at episode 24. You don't need two cockpits. The pilot has access to most panels and switches. For a few panels that are kinda exclusive to the WSO, I just added them to the pilot cockpit. Then now the pilot has all pilot and some critical WSO panels and switches.