Flight Combat Game ‘Project Wingman’ Launches Today with SteamVR Support

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Dec 1, 2020

Project Wingman, an aerial combat game for PC, has launched today after beginning life as a successful Kickstarter in mid-2018. In addition to traditional monitor support, the game is fully playable with SteamVR headsets.

Update (December 1st, 2020): Developed by Sector D2 and published by Humble Games, Project Wingman launched on Steam today with support for SteamVR headsets (as well as regular monitors), priced at $25. The original article, which offers an overview of the project, continues below, now including the launch trailer.

Original Article (November 27th, 2020): The game, which was born out of a successful Kickstarter back in mid-2018, lets you fly a number of fighter jets across various missions and game modes, something the game’s Steam page says will range from “intense aerial dogfights to large scale ground assault in an alternate scorched earth setting.”

Now Sector D2 says VR support for Project Wingman is arriving at launch, which will provide a “1:1 experience with traditional players,” which puts you in the cockpit for some high-flying dogfighting against users with regular monitors.

Image courtesy Sector D2

Although you’ll be able to use any traditional controller, be it a HOTAS setup or gamepad, VR motion controllers are unfortunately not supported at this time. The team investigated motion control support during early prototyping, but it sadly never made it past the testing phase.

“If there’s enough demand we can try reinvestigating it, of course, as it was an interesting novelty, and an option for those of us without controllers,” the studio says.

Flat2VR Studios Announces Four Flatscreen Games Getting VR Ports for Major Headsets

Users playing in VR will likely need a higher than min-spec VR-ready computer to run it without a hitch. Lead developer Abi Rahmani says that, while using his Windows VR headset, he was able to playing at “very playable frame rates cranked all the way up at 150% render scaling.”

Granted, the following components below shouldn’t be considered officially recommended specs, but it should give you an idea of how the game will run on your computer.

Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Memory: 16GB DDR4 at 2133MHz
GPU: GTX 1070

To see VR support in action, check out full mission ‘Operation Blackout’ played in VR below:

Ron

Nice! Don’t see too many of these coming out.
- TechPassion
  
  Well said!
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Alextended

That video is from two full years ago. Others are far newer though they aren’t dedicated to the VR mode but then again you posted all the Squadrons 2D trailers just the same so.

2 weeks ago (yay finally you talk about the release date this revealed):
https://youtu.be/SNkEJYPAQhk

2 months ago:
https://youtu.be/YdUEQXxZAas

5 months ago:
https://youtu.be/zqo61FP9OeU

Most recent dedicated to VR glimpse of waht it looks like:
https://twitter.com/RB_Dev2/status/1320072886992793600

You don’t even talk about its features like the full campaign and conquest mode etc.
Wild Dog

This is a really disappointing release. The way it advertises itself as an AC7 VR alternative, without motion controls or even PVP, I don’t know how anyone can say this isn’t just a trashy cash grab.

This and squadrons have been some of my biggest disappointments in VR this year.

Those tie fighter joysticks were just begging to be grabbed.
- Alextended
  
  What a petty ignorant and childish comment, oh no,they spent years making a vidya game not exactly how I want it to be, what lazy cash grabbing knaves!
  - Wild Dog
    
    Preferring not to see trash lying around your storefront is anything but childish.
    - Alextended
      
      You don’t need to keep proving me right.
      - Wild Dog
        
        Clean your room, Alex.
- Amni3D
  
  I don’t get your angle, this doesn’t look like shovelware at all.
  
  Also I really dislike motion control flight cockpits in VR. Makes me sick as heck since no one figured out a consistently predictable way of converting your physical movement into a predictable analog movement. I can see why they want to double down on flight sticks, way more immersive and consistent, imo.
  - Gonzax
    
    Agreed!! it’s cool to have the option for motion controls but the handling is never good, it can’t be compared to a real joystick or HOTAS, that lack of physical connection is hard to solve.
    VR gloves + HOTAS would be ideal, you would have a physical joystick in your hand and still be able to interact with other controls and levers. One day soon hopefully.
    - patfish
      
      Visual hand tracking is the key for interactive cockpits + HOTAS
  - Wild Dog
    
    You hotas fanboys always talk about how great HOTAS’s are by comparison but you never seem to have the nads to try it our way.
    
    I’d really rather you didn’t judge it with a bad example.
    
    Have either of you tried VTOL VR?
    - Amni3D
      
      In order to form that opinion, it would imply I have indeed tried it the other way :p However I haven’t played VTOL in specific.
      
      If the primary input for your game is steering, 9 times out of 10 a flightstick or controller analog is the winning bet. But for those that want motion, I hope it gets implemented all the same. I personally just really dislike most VR hand control cockpits.
    - GunnyNinja
      
      Holding your hands in midair while having no tactile feedback is not better than a HOTAS. I could never keep from moving too far and losing “grip”. And resting your hands on a surface and rotating them is not realistic. While activating switched might be useful, as a flight control it sucks.
      - Wild Dog
        
        I’m sorry, but your conjecture just doesn’t match up with the experience. Try VTOL VR and eat those words.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        Your opinion is not accepted universally. I have a HOTAS. I will always use it. Eat that.
      - Wild Dog
        
        Buddy, you’re just not in touch with reality. VTOL VR is rated ‘overwhelmingly positive’ with NO official HOTAS support. Even War Thunder and MFS 2020 are just rated very positive at best.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        Are you a shill for VTOL VR? I have flown real planes. I will ONLY fly with real controls. I’m not interested in ANY game that does not support HOTAS. Stop trying to convince me I need to like something I don’t care about.
      - Wild Dog
        
        Do you think MSFS 2020 was rated overwhelmingly positive when they got their two hundred three thousandth review?
      - GunnyNinja
        
        I don’t know. More people have it. That in itself is a better metric. People aren’t buying your beloved arcade game in the same numbers as realistic sims. No big surprise. There is a reason that the HOTAS market is out of supply. Most of those people don’t even have VR. When VR is released in MSFS this month, expect those numbers to skyrocket. Meanwhile that ugly little VTOL game with its minecraft graphics will stay right where it is. It’s not fun for me, it looks cheesy, it flies cheesy, I already described my experience in my very first post and you keep wanting me to try and accept it. I wouldn’t even bother to rate it and I’ve had it for more than a year.
      - Wild Dog
        
        I thought you hadn’t tried it.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        I guess you weren’t paying attention. I don’t consider it quality. The controls do not even mimic real flight controls. You do not rotate your wrist on a fight stick. It moves though arcs. This game treats the stick as if you were holding the ball at the pivot point..Lifting up on a “collective” without throttle control is also not realistic. That’s not even how helicopters work. Sorry, but if it was good I’d say so. I’ve been flying sims for over 30 years, and as I said, I’ve flown real planes. This game isn’t as good as you make it out to be, but you are entitled to your opinion of it. The ratings it has received are all likely people who don’t have a HOTAS or fly realistic sims.
      - Wild Dog
        
        When you say you don’t rotate your wrist on a flight stice, what do you mean? Are you saying the VRIK animation’s unrealistic?
      - GunnyNinja
        
        I don’t care about the animation. Why would I be looking at my hand while flying? In this game your elbow does not move when you move the stick. Only your wrist does. Some planes have a stick that only needs slight pressure in the direction of movement, but then you would need a real stick with haptic feedback. Most sticks move and your arm would move with it. If you have ever used a joystick or HOTAS, which are modeled after real flight controls you would get why this game doesn’t feel realistic.
      - Wild Dog
        
        I’m still not quite sure what you mean.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        Unless you plan to fly a realistic sim, it doesn’t matter. If you do, you will have to invest in a basic joystick at least. Then you will get it.
      - Wild Dog
        
        I have a joystick, I’m still not sure what the difference you’re talking about is.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        It’s simple. Hold it and put your elbow on the armrest of your chair. Now try to move the joystick forward and back without moving your elbow from the spot.
    - ArSh
      
      I’ve got VTOL VR and Project Wingman. VTOL is more sim-based and yes, benefits from having VR controller support in a fully-interactive cockpit. It’s a very good implementation, but tiring having to hold virtual controllers in mid-air. You need a chair without armrests otherwise they just get in the way, so nothing really to rest your arms on.
      
      PW is far more arcade-like, there are very few buttons and all can be mapped to a gamepad or HOTAS stick. So yes, HOTAS just works better here no matter what you say.
      - Wild Dog
        
        Ace combat has an arcade flight mode and a more realistic flight mode, are you saying it doesn’t have the latter?
      - GunnyNinja
        
        This game is arcade only. You don’t even takeoff and land.
      - Wild Dog
        
        That’s not the flight mode I’m referring to. You’d know if you’d actually played any ace combat games before.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        I have no idea what you are talking about most of the time. Nor is it losing me any sleep. I generally fly sims, not arcade games. I’m fine.
      - Wild Dog
        
        I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.
      - GunnyNinja
        
        You can’t even lead a horse to water. You probably think the bobblehead is cute too. Find a real sim to compare. Here’s a freebie. DCS.
- Gonzax
  
  Why in the world would you want to play a game like this without a HOTAS?
  
  By the way, Squadrons is a fantastic game, I really can’t understand what it is you didn’t like about it.
Alextended

Played a little bit, seems as good as any actual Ace Combat, the roguelite conquest mode is even more promising to play after the story campaign and it comes with bonus excellent control configuration screen so you can easily map any of your connected (not too numerous so it’s not a complex mess where you don’t know what’s best to map to what) xinput and dinput gamepads, flight sticks, etc. to any function. Love it.
Arcticu Kitsu

Great game with great gameplay. Loving the vibes, music, the Avro Arrow, and the basic VR foundation. It needs a lot more work VR wise though everything there is neat.

I genuinely wish it had proper VR controller support. It really needs it.
oomph

Is it with ray tracing?