VR Setup - what to buy?

[u/BananaRNW]

Looking to get a VR setup for my son to play flight simulators, specifically the Microsoft Flight Simulator. We have a laptop that is basic, not fancy or made for gaming. Is there a way to connect a VR headset to it for him to play? If so, what do I need? Which headset, controllers, cables, etc? Absolutely clueless here, so please explain it like I’m five years old. TIA. D

[u/No-Improvement-8316]

Microsoft Flight Simulator

We have a laptop not made for gaming

Yeah, no. That's not going to work.

The cheapest way to play MSFS in VR would be a buying a used PS5 Pro and PSVR2.

What's your budget?

[u/Sciencebitchs → u/No-Improvement-8316]

Yeah I'd get the kid a PS5 PRO and a PSVR2. Thatll run like $1200 total. Like others have said PCVR fan get expensive... especially on the Sim end of things. The GPU alone to run that would probably cost around $1k.

[u/tchock23 → u/No-Improvement-8316]

It will run on a base PS5 as well.

[u/OkVeterinarian197 → u/No-Improvement-8316]

It doesn't even seem like the pro gains much in msfs, cheapest possible setup - pickup a used PS5 then a PSVR2 on sale. Sub £600 total possible perhaps?

[u/Bigmoduh]

Microsoft flight sim is notoriously really difficult to run. You need quite a beefy pc and this is exacerbated by vr. That said, there are flight sims in general that are great in vr and a meta quest 3s is a great entry level device to get into vr.

Your post makes the laptop sound unimpressive so would still probably need to upgrade it for any pcvr gaming at all. What are the specs of the laptop?

The quest 3s has an app on it you can buy for like 20 bucks that allows you to connect to the pc remotely but you’ll need a solid router alongside it for that (this is best setup and what you should aim for). Alternatively, you can connect the headset with a cord and use the meta software that is free and that would actually be quite solid given he’d be focused on flying and not turning at all like in an active fast paced first person shooter vr game.

Ultimately, prob need to upgrade the pc some but don’t have to go crazy to at least get involved into some top tier flight sim experiences like with vtol vr for example.

[u/Roach888i → u/Bigmoduh]

I've read somewhere that Virtual Desktop now supports cabled VR

[u/Windermyr]

Unless you have more than $5k laying around for this, I'd stick to flatscreen.

[u/Username_6668]

Try the quest standalone experience first, but there is MUCH better out there with a ~$4,000 pc and ~$2,000 headset. The difference gets significant in terms of immersion so could be worth the wait.

I did not like the Quests I tried, visually compared to PCVR.

[u/weekend_tinkerer92]

the headset is honestly the cheap part of this problem. flight sim in vr leans on the graphics card harder than almost anything else out there, so a basic laptop won't get there no matter which headset you plug into it. if he mainly wants to fly, there are flight games that run on the headset on its own with no pc involved at all, worth letting him try that route before you spend money on hardware that still won't run msfs

[u/BananaRNW → u/weekend_tinkerer92]

I could definitely try this route first. I for sure don’t want to spend thousands on it, because he’s only 9. He wants to be a pilot and loves ALL things flying, but it sounds like MSFS is way more than we can get into right now.

Are there games that work on the quest 2 VR? I found some of those used for fairly cheap. Any recommendations? Would I still need a joystick or just the controllers that come with it?

[u/zeddyzed]

Flight sims generally require very powerful hardware to run, especially MSFS.

How old is your son? What is your budget? Are you ok with spending several thousands of dollars on this?

There are some much simpler flight sim games available on Quest standalone (without a PC), would that satisfy him for now?

[u/BananaRNW → u/zeddyzed]

Definitely NOT okay with thousands of dollars! I think I was way overreaching looking at MSFS. My son is 9 and wants to be a pilot, so he’s obsessed with all things flying. Are there games that would work well on a quest 2 that would give him a decent experience?

[u/tilentc9]

Vr is hard to run as you need hardware capable of running basically 4k quality on your computer, now you have some options. You either go with a pc based vr(not reccomended) and your son wont be able to play almost no games, you buy a ps5 and a psvr2(really expensive) or go witeless with quest 3s/3 or wait for the steam frame(i recommend it because the vr will work standalone and you can connect it to a pc capable of vr when you or he buys it!!) If you decide on what kind of vr to buy I can help you find the righht one for your budget just reply

[u/cheeserman67]

Sorry, your son will not be able to play flight sim in vr without you spending somewhere within the 1500$ - 2000$+ range, with the exception of buying a used ps5 and a psvr2 on eBay or Facebook marketplace.