Microsoft is at the stage with Flight Simulator 2024 now where it is confident to start showing it off properly. Pre-orders for the game went live yesterday and eyebrows were raised about the high cost of the Aviator version, but for flight sim fans who want to go all in, that probably won’t be an issue.
Jörg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, revealed in a live stream earlier this year that about 10% to 15% of MSFS2020 players choose to play in VR. In reality, though that number would probably be much larger if VR could just get out of being viewed as such a niche.
Even though the Meta Quest 3 can be hardwired up to your PC and used for VR flying, it is Pimax that has taken over from Valve and Oculus before it as the PC simmers VR headset of choice, as seen here by the fact Microsoft chose to show off its new game using Pimax Crystal Light headsets.
We looked at the original Pimax Crystal earlier in the year and were blown away at how good it was in flight sims such as MSFS and DCS World but this now has been surpassed by how good the Crystal Light is, which also addressed several of the niggles that could be leveled at the OG model.
The Pimax Crystal Light is specially engineered with flight sims in mind and its advanced optics and crystal-clear resolution, make every detail in the cockpit and landscapes incredibly sharp.
The Microsoft Flight Sim VR event was held in Tusayan, Arizona right next to the Grand Canyon – which of course is one of the coolest things to fly over in the game too, and with VR it is probably as close as many of us will get to doing it.
YouTuber TheVRPilot was suitably impressed with what he saw, both from the game and from the Pimax Crystal Light, saying, “The first thing I asked is when I was invited for this event, is “Do you have VR?”, and they had. They let me try the Pimax Crystal Light, and it’s absolutely amazing, I got to rock it.”
Flight Simulator 2024 is available to pre-order now and you can find out more about the Pimax Crystal Light and how to get one for the game’s launch at the Pimax site.