0:00 That is, look at that! Oh, that is just brilliant. That is brilliant. Welcome back to the channel folks and I've got a real treat for you today. We are going to be looking at the DOF Reality H4. This is their brand new 4 degrees of freedom motion platform and I'm going to give you my raw reaction in this video and how it may compare compare to my previous H2. Now before we go any further I'd just like to thank my friend and Monty for coming over on a Sunday short notice to help me put this thing together and I must admit it was a lot easier than we were expecting and also to DoF Reality for sending this over for review but of course my opinions are always my own.
0:48 But what's so special about this H4? Well it has four degrees of freedom which is pitch, roll, yaw and now heave and the latter being quite a big deal because it allows you to feel road bumps, turbulence, going over that crest in a racing car but with flying you can also feel a lot more than you realise and I'm going to show that in this video today. It's quite remarkable. but is it worth it should you upgrade from the h3 is this now the time for you to get into motion platforms well that's some of the questions i aim to find out in terms of putting it together it took about four hours which wasn't too bad at all And a massive shout out to a member of my Discord for making me some amazing 3D printed cup holders as well as some carpet sliders.
1:38 If you're interested in getting the designs for these yourself, they're on my Discord. And once again, thanks so much for sending these across. They look fantastic. And last but not least, a thank you to a fellow YouTuber, OzFlightSimmer, also known as Shane, for sending across this very clever keyboard mount which fits directly onto the yoke of the Moza Force Feedback yoke. Check out FS Mods in the description below and also make sure you subscribe to OzFlightSimmer. Fantastic YouTuber. Right, I think that's enough waffling for this part of the video. Let's now get into the sim and try the H4 in the Big Screen Beyond version 2 for the very first time. Here we go. Okay folks, so welcome to this very first impressions using this H4. in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
2:29 So we're going to do maybe two or three different experiences. I've been itching to try this, but I've been really, really strict with myself and I've got it to a point where I've got everything. In fact, I need to just get in position here. I've got all my peripherals, my Moser Force Feedback stick, the Bravo, my mouse and keyboard, everything where it should be. And again, a massive shout out to AusFlightSimmer.com. for providing this fantastic mount for the Moser force feedback stick because I don't need to worry about another mount for my keyboard but yeah I've been really chomping at the bit to get in to the sim but I've waited until now so I've got everything set up the only thing I've been doing
3:19 literally is just testing the axis making sure it all works I've set up my profile for my H2 as well as obviously the heave and everything else, I thought what we could do is go for a flight, a simple flight first of all, in the default Cessna 152. I want to start things fairly sedately and by the time we finish this video I might be flying a fighter aircraft or something, we'll see. Right, so we're on the ground here, I can already feel some shakes and rattles. from the rig. Now bear in mind this is not my first experience with motion platforms okay. If you'd like to see that video by the way of my very first flight in the H2 I'll link that in the notes below but I
4:05 am already well versed in what it feels like to be in a motion rig. But the things I want to know today with the H4, three main things. That is, how much smoother are these motors? Are they really that much smoother? So that's why I've picked this plane first. Also, does the heave really make that much difference? That's another thing I want to know. And finally, I've got yaw now. I didn't have that before. Does that really make a difference as well? So let's just put the mouse on my lap here because I haven't got it secure yet. I need to work out how to do that. Without further ado... Let's just do this, folks. So here I am. Oh, okay. Oh, oh, freaking hell. Okay, lots of
4:52 things are happening. So I could feel the yaw straight away. That is interesting. And I can feel the bumps as well. Oh, my freaking God. Okay, that was different. I'm giggling already. Come on. Right, I'm going to try and compose myself. That was... I want to do that again. I want to do that again. Let's just land... Oh my god, okay. Right, so I can just say straight away, I was completely wrong about your inner flight sim. That feels... Wow, wow, wow, wow. That is... Yes. Yeah, that's... I really feel that in the seat of my pants, and
5:39 it really gives you a sense of slipping through the air. It's unbelievable. Yeah, this is going to be incredible for tail draggers and helis. Right, let's just land again, because... I was feeling the bumps and I've got a couple of cameras around me. I'm not sure if it's going to pick out anything. Again, this is the first impression, so this might be a bit rough around the edges, to say the least. Completely uncut. This is just my reaction, folks. My very first flight in the H4. We're going to go for a landing here back on this sandy beach to see what it feels like. I'm going to make it too gentle, to be fair. Oh, yeah. God, that feels like suspension. That's uncanny.
6:25 And now I'm bumping around. I actually can feel myself going up and down. Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's amazing. I'm so sorry. Right, come on. Get a hold of yourself here. This is only the first two minutes. But immediately I can tell... Because the great thing about the H2 is it does simulate bumps. That was something that really surprised me from my very first flight, being just two degrees of freedom. But this, I'm feeling every undulation here of this sandy beach, and it feels immensely immersive. God, imagine what this is like in a race
7:12 sim, for goodness sake. Okay, right. Anyway, let's just take off again. In terms of motion comp... Oh, oh wow. Oh, I'm doing a massive slide here. Fricking hell. This is absolutely amazing. But yeah, right. I could actually feel myself skidding along the sand there. And now that I'm up, I can feel a little bit of clear air turbulence. It's actually making the sim feel more fluid to me. Like I'm actually, you know, in a constantly changing atmosphere. and i'm riding that cushion of air something that i often say about x-plane but i'm feeling it
7:59 in this sim because of the yaw and the heave right anyway i'm gonna calm down i actually genuinely did not expect i was gonna get this excited straight away because i'm already used to motion but this is a massive difference from the h2 like night and day in terms of that extra feel you get. Right, my next test, I'm going to do some really slow banks. I'm not going to talk because I really want to focus in on the smoothness of those motors because I'm a bit worried actually because I'm not convinced they're going to be like free from cogging but this is it now, the true test. And the
8:45 only way you can do that is by doing tiny, tiny movements You probably won't even see the motion rig move much. Holy crap. Wow, that is a massive difference yet again. That is superbly fluid. Like, first impressions, I've no idea what they've done with these motors. But finally, finally, this actually feels like flying. Truly, folks, this really feels like flying.
9:32 i am quite lucky to fly in real life a fair bit not a lot but i do have a couple of friends that i go flying with and actually chris as well the microlight guy if you're watching this buddy how you doing um i do do a bit of flying and i have been flying recently out of wickenby my local airport in a cherokee and what's really shocked me here You can feel the movement. This sounds absolutely ridiculous, folks. But in your arse, in your backside, you feel yourself moving, slipping. And it kind of makes you... It's quite unnerving in a way. Even in the real world, because you are... You've just got
10:17 that sense that you are literally in a constantly changing atmosphere. And that is... Yeah, that's all I can explain it really, is that feeling is definitely very pronounced here. Look at that. That's amazing. And by the way, I am using motion compensation, but I'm not using the WIT motion sensor hardware. I'm just using the SimRay Studio software algorithm. And I mean, I'm not getting well, let's just kind of really go for it here. I am moving a little bit in the cockpit, but not a huge amount. I don't know how much I'm moving. This is the thing about VR. I don't know how much I'm moving in the rig. And you
11:04 don't really need a massive amount of movement. It's about the initial inertia you get, the force of when you do your maneuvers. But yeah, hats off to the team at Dof Reality, or shall I say DOF Reality. I always get it in the neck for saying it wrong. Mark, how you doing, buddy? If you're watching this, which you probably are, I always say Dof Reality, which actually it's DOF Reality. I find that quite hard to say that. I don't know why. So I'm just going to say it as Dof Reality. But yeah, hats off. I want to now land somewhere on a beach. Right folks, I've decided I'm going to land on this beach, which doesn't look that particularly
11:51 smooth. Let's see what happens to the motion rig here. Let's see what happens to me. Oh my God. Oh wow, I can really feel the yaw. I'm trying to be gentle here. Whoa. Oh my God. Oh. Oh my God. That is, look at that! Oh, that is just brilliant. That is brilliant. It's so spot on, there's just no lag as well. I wasn't expecting this. I'm like rocking up and down here. As soon as I hit these bumps, it's literally instant. Look at that! That's exceptional. How
12:37 is this possible at home? Here I am in Scotland on a beautiful beach. I haven't paid to get here. I haven't paid any fuel. I'm in the comfort of my own home. I could literally explore the world and the feeling of being there in VR and with motion is absolutely immense. No, don't go on. Oh, no, don't do that. That's a stupid idea. What am I doing? Oh, wow. Oh, crap. No, don't go in there. Oh, no. Um... Yeah, he's getting back onto the ground again. Now, the thing is, as well, is
13:23 you really feel the P-factor on takeoff. This is just a simple default aircraft. If I just slow down a minute, oh my word, this is amazing. Right, and I just give it the beans. Look at that. I can really feel that I'm moving around in the sand. And then... We're on, we're in the air again and it's all smooth. But yeah, I'm yawing, I can just ever so slightly feel the heave. This is exceptional, I friggin' love it. Okay, so for this next test, we're back in Scotland, but since we
14:08 do have heave, I've got an idea. Let's try and land on water. So we're going to really crank up the wind here, so we can feel that as well, which... immediately i can feel that that's so cool right so we've got a wind of 42 knots gusting 55. i just want to see what happens if you land on water with heave i've just looked at the recording quickly and i have noticed that even though i am feeling going up and down i actually am feeling it it's truly like just bumping around like crazy like you would in the real world like it just feels like you're hitting bumps It just doesn't seem to show it on the VR recording. But one thing that
14:58 is hitting me is the smoothness of these motors. There's just no cogging. I'm sure there probably is a little bit, but in this first impressions, so obviously I'm going to give you updates using this for years. Like, you know, this is obviously going to be part of the channel now for many years. Just like the H2, you're going to be seeing this in all of my videos because... This is now where all the simming is going to be. All the excitement, all of the VR tests, all of the full flight videos, everything on this channel is going to be in this motion rig from now on. And it's moments like this where sometimes when
15:43 you get a new piece of hardware, in this case, admittedly, a huge piece of hardware, you just know it's changed everything. You know, and really just made your hobby even more immersive. Right, I'm really fighting the wind here. But what we're going to do, as I say, we're going to try and make a landing. This could get a bit bumpy here. I'm just quite curious to see if you can feel the swells, you know, going up and down. I might even adjust the settings. Oh, God. Whoa, this is frigging hell, man. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is, yeah, I'm really getting battered. This is what
16:28 you've come to see, folks, surely. Me being thrown around, fighting for my life here. Oh, my frigging word. Oh, crap. Let's not crash now. I've gone back up again. No, I didn't want to do that. I can feel it through. Whoa, no. Oh, I need to take that off. I've got crash damage on, folks. Sorry about that. Right. Let's switch that off and we'll try that again. But that was amazing. I must say I'm really happy with the way I've got things already done. because of the rails on this very nice seat by the way from dof reality this is a beautiful seat very comfortable just super quality um i've got rails here so i can go backwards and forwards and also adjust um you know the tilt so
17:19 that i i can sort of like recline back a bit but everything is falling to hand exactly where i want it my keyboard mouse plate here everything feels perfect and that's another thing about a motion rig that i love is the fact that uh you always have the controls exactly where you left them if that makes sense you know anyway i can't remember how you take the crash off crash uh oh i can't take it off look that's annoying right well let's just try not to crash them all right then folks are you ready for this i do you know what i absolutely love as well that now when i'm side slipping or crabbing into the wind i actually truly feel that sensation it's epic it is absolutely epic this
18:09 this is a night and day difference from my h2 make no mistake if you're thinking of upgrading your h2 i can't really comment on the h3 well i will do actually once i've had more time with the heave whether that's worth it or not i'm trying to figure that out right now to be honest um but in terms of these new motors oh there's no way we're gonna be able to do this we're gonna crash again i think Oh my word, this is ridiculous! How on earth? Oh, friggin how? Obviously, one thing this is really showing is how much this thing can move about. I'm
18:58 not sure I'm going to be able to do this folks, to be honest. Oh, friggin how? Oh my god. Like, how has this got this good? At home, I've got another idea folks. I tell you what, let's get the gear down. I'm going to try and land in that clearing there, which is going to be hard enough in itself. And then I'm going to gingerly go into the water. I could just do this for hours and hours and hours. Days in fact. My family will probably never see me again after today. That's it now. I'm just an
19:45 avatar inside this flight sim. On the outside view... Probably not a bad idea actually. Yeah, let's go back in. Oh! Oh! No! Oh, this wind's too... Oh, frigging hell, folks. Oh, I just can't do it. Right, tell you what, I'll see you in a minute and we'll basically spawn in the aircraft on the waves to see what happens there. Right then, folks. So, welcome back once again. We find ourselves in Ireland somewhere. And I thought I'd try a different aircraft, to be fair, one I haven't tried before. We're now on the lake somewhere. Let's see what
20:31 happens. I've also cranked up heave. I just want to see if it actually... if I can feel the telemetry here. I'm not sure I can to be honest folks. I thought I'd feel myself going up and down. Wait a minute, let's just give it time a moment. I just thought this would be a really good test to see... Oh my god, we've just basically turned into an out of control vessel here. I can feel some of the crashes of the waves but I'm not sure I'm really feeling the heave that much
21:19 because I'm going up and down here. So I do feel that's something that does need to improve in this sim. I mean, I'm sure heave works really, really well in a race sim. You know, when you're going up and down the crest of hills and you feel the bumps. Oh, hang on. Hang on. I feel a bit there. I have no idea. In fact, it's going to be interesting looking back at this footage because... I don't really know if I can feel it that much. I am obviously moving and bobbing up and down, but I don't really know if I'm going up and
22:04 down that much. Any case, let's just take off here for a moment, if we can. Oh, my word. That's pretty spectacular, that, isn't it? Oh, you see, I really feel the crash of the waves. Once I get going, it's strange. I can definitely tell that the heave is making a difference. It's a lot more... pronounce when you hit the waves and you hit bumps. Frigging hell, wow. Oh, that's going to be a big one. You really do feel that. That's a massive improvement over the H2. Whoa, just completely stole out the sky. But I do think it can be improved more. I really do feel that
22:51 way. And I'm amazed I haven't puked yet to be honest. Be fair though, my VR legs are quite strong these days. And you know what? Motion does help with VR sickness because it's not the motion that makes you feel sick. It's the lack of motion. Wow. Yeah, anyway, this is far too strong. So we'll leave it here, folks. I think we'll try one more experience. Oh my frigging God. It's amazing everything's holding together. This is a good test, actually. This keyboard is still in place. and i said to uh shane over at uh oz flight simmer that it will fly off and look it's not even being held down by anything but it's staying put so fair play if you want to check out shane's uh new business
23:40 i forgot what it's called now but basically there's plenty of mods there really like really great 3d printed accessories that will help you out For example, this mount for the Moser, which is superb. Right, anyway, let's just go back to main menu. If you're still here, thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. And we'll just fly a fighter jet here. So for our final test, as you can see, we're not in the UK anymore. This is Sedona. We're in the F-18 Hornet here and what we're going to do is just see if motion compensation is really working because I'm not convinced it is. But of course I am using an algorithm which is experimental but it is cool that SRS software has that option. I think SimHub also has that
24:26 option. I will be trying the H-4 with different software as well as different flight sims and scenarios experiences. So please do let me know in the comments below what would you like to see with this H4. It could be anything, even say Star Citizen or Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky, because I am tempted to try different things, even race sims as well. A because with the heave it's really opened up a new sort of different catalogue of games that I think this could really excel with. Anyway without further ado let's try this now our last test because I've had an absolute blast with this thing oh my word that felt good and straight away I could see actually that motion compensation did not keep me where I needed to
25:14 be so I do need to work on that Something I've always kind of struggled with with motion rigs is the lack of motion compensation in VR. Anyway, let's just really feel how violent this is. Oh my word. So that's the thing about motion platforms is The aircraft you're flying, you're going to really feel those characteristics, whether it's a tail dragger, a helicopter, a Spitfire, an airliner, fighter aircraft, they're all going to feel completely different. That's the magic of motion rigs. And of course, you do need to mess around with the profiles. and I've just got a default profile at
26:00 the moment for everything so of course don't be too critical with how the motion rig is performing because this will just be a series of settings that I need to change you know. This is just an unmatched experience folks. This is a very easy thing to recommend. I mean just look at me I'm like a kid at Christmas here. It's just ridiculous fun. Absolute immense fun. Oh wow. It's so good to be back in a motion rig again. And I'm so glad that it's not just these highly intensive experiences that you're going to enjoy in a motion rig now. Even sedate general aviation
26:45 is now possible thanks to those really smooth motors. And I can't wait to see because this is really early days, not just for me, but for the H4. The software will improve. absolutely will I do think he could be done better right now again that's more the telemetry fed into the sim it is working it does work quite well but I think it could be better than this and in conclusion really this is a massive upgrade for me from the H2 in both Well, many aspects, not just the heave and the yaw, which I love, but the motors, they're so smooth now. I just feel this
27:31 rig is built differently. It feels better made. I think Dof Reality keep on continually improving their products. And I just love how even with all these peripherals on it, it's quite a lot of weight on this rig. It's just no bother for it at all. It's got so much power. It's silence, you know, you can't really hear it unless you crash. It's not just about the axis as well. You can feel haptics. For example, if you're in a dogfight, feeling the guns and the missiles, the afterburner, I can feel that kicking in. I just need to get the motion compensation working because, yeah, it's not really... It's not... It's like it's... It's working... Interestingly, yeah, it's definitely working left and right here. but the surge isn't
28:21 working that well. But yeah, oh wow. Oh, that actually, I felt heave then. That's interesting. As I pulled up, I definitely felt the heave working. Oh yeah, and just the feeling of being, just ripping through the air here. It's just an absolute night and day difference. Absolutely phenomenal stuff. This is I'm gonna say it, it is an absolute friggin game changer this. H4, welcome to the VR Flight Sim Guy family. I can't wait to get to know you for the many years that I'm gonna own this, because it's just an absolute no-brainer. If you've got
29:07 the money, because it's about three and a half grand I think, plus all the import duty tax and everything else, but if you've got the Dosh, this is your next upgrade without a shadow of a doubt. Thank you so much for watching. Feel free to subscribe if you haven't already. Oh, we've just passed the sound barrier here. Wow. And lots more content coming. Please let me know what would you like to see. But for now, I'll see you again very soon. Wow. Oh, this is just so freaking good, man. Every now and
29:53 then something comes along that you just know completely changes your hobby forever. And for me, it's the H4 and my fuel's low, so I better go and land somewhere. I'm really going now, folks. Take care and bye for now.
