I bought liftoff and an indoor tiny woop and some goggles and a tx to use as a controller at the same time to get me into this hobby, after about 6 month of playing for a few hours a week on liftoff i built myself a decent fast racing drone for around £200, and on my maiden flights with the 1st 3 batteries i didnt crash once and even did some loops and tricks, without doubt it was for all the practice i put in on liftoff ! It has the Pobsky Seal Of Approval :-)
I did this twice. First when I learned to fly fixed wing around 10 years ago and just over the last 6 months for quads. The $20 you spend for the sim is going to save you hundreds on replacement parts.
Hadn't launched liftoff in a couple of months, was not disappointed to see Bardwell's yard featured in the tracks. PS. Sorry about your car, man.. And your window. And err, the chimney, too.
Liftoff has an amazing multiplayer matching feature you briefly touched on. It is what has made it my main sim. I can so easily in seconds fly with all my local chapter online on a rainy day or night when real flying isn’t possible or with people all over the world. It’s so easy to join your friends or any open room. I’ve done so much racing there it is helping to really improve my skills.
I have tried other sims but what sets liftoff apart is the ability to get the exact same rates that you fly with. I agree that none feel just like real flight, but by using the same rates you are gaining real muscle memory. This is perfect for everyone that wants to try new rates before you change them in your real quad
thanks for this recomendation. I installed liftoff, fly on ACRO mode for 30-45 minutes and the result in true life was amazing!!!! I finally can fly FPV + ACRO really good, no crash, better feeling of control. Ok the simulator is not very accurate, but very close to reality. Its helping a lot to avoid bad crashes in real life.
Joshua, I did get the latest rendition of the game on Steam, and after 18 months of no people, and now its dark at 5:30 where I live I need a SIM. I will have to say it is pretty accurate to real world, but like most of the Sims, they never seem to get gravity or physics just right. I'm amazed on how many Split-S, Power Loops etc. I can supposedly do on your property, I can barely do them in reality. Anyway, just wanted your take on that if you have a sec.. Long time fan, you have taught me a ton in this hobby.. Mad respect..
Omg! JB, you're so right!! Listen to this guy, he knows what he is talking about!! I'm brand new to FPV and I got Liftoff and attached my Transmitter and flying and crashing in no time flat! Then I was able to fly and practice some of the Freestyle tricks, rolls and flips that JB goes over in his top 10 tricks video. Knifes edges are still tough as the quad arcs instead of flying straight, but I'm brand new!! I highly recommend a simulator especially if you are starting out.
I have got more than 85 hours of fun with it and more I use it, more I want to. The fun factor is really there. The fact that you can create your own tracks and races, publish them on the workshop and download the other users tracks and races adds a lot of variety in the difficulty level and you always have new challenges. So you never get bored. The developpers are listening a lot the feedback from the users and bring updates on a regular basis. I would buy it again without hesitation.
Imagine being able to choose the parts you own and being able to tune betaflight /Raceflight etc and test it in the sim and when you fly your drone irl it reacted the same as in the sim. Try different motors, props etc and as you are tuning drop down sub menus would prompt recommended set up in relation to a stats graphic that can help choose optimal set up for both Drone and Taranis etc. That would be epic !
Liftoff has a killer feature for freestylers: Rewind ! After a crash, rewind a bit and retry the thing that just defeated you. You can assign the Rewind and Reset buttons to your taranis (or whichever) and never have to take your hands off it and can keep as much of the flow going as possible. Steam workshop tracks are also a big boon.
Awesome Joshua! I’ve learned SO MUCH from watching your videos! I’ve purchased an Emax Hawk 5 from watching one of your videos and a Taranis QX7, and I don’t even fly yet! I’m all new to this, but with your videos I feel more confident and have learned a great deal!!! So, I’ve ordered Liftoff and Velocidrone today, so I can get involved before I crash (Fly) my quad Haha Thanks for what you do and donation headed your way!!! Best M
Thanks for all your great videos! Being new at this it's great to have someone to turn to when you're learning. I've been flying the camera drones a few years and I thought they were quite sophisticated. Then I got my first race drone and thought it would be a piece of cake...LOL. I spent a week in Betaflight configuring my Tyrant S, and the Taranis plus. There is no lack of sophistication with these racers and was quite surprised at the power they have. I started out in level mode one time and before I knew it the drone was several hundred yards away and climbing. I managed to get it back but WOW!. Now I'm getting more stick time in Liftoff simulator so, next time out will be in Acro mode in a very large field. After flying those camera drones, it's a steep learning curve to break some of those bad habits. Thanks again Joshua!
Hi, due to the current depressing conditions and corona games I feel very down, so I'm thinking to learn drone flying, maybe it helps my mentality. I know nothing about drone or gaming, just wanna learn flying. Seems a stimulator is the best way to learn for beginners. Do you have any suggestions for a very beginner? Should I buy just controller Or it has some special accessories as well? Costly? Thx in advance
Nice and solid review! I like how you point out all the good points. Please consider reviewing Velocidrone next. I would like to hear your opinion about this one and how they actually compare against each other.
Great review! This is what got me started in fpv and influenced the decision on my first quad, the vortex 285. However, it's also worth mentioning the FPV Academy series that Lumenier and GetFPV did with Jack FPV. Jack uses Liftoff as not only a training platform, but also the tracks he built in game to supplement his video series.
One thing I don't like about most simulators is the minimum system requirements are usually quite high and I don't have a dedicated gaming PC. I like FPV Freerider because it'll run on just about anything, such as my MBP and Linux machines (as well as Windows if you run that). It's also only $5.
Thanks for this review! I'm looking forward to this series! I have FreeRider but haven't invested in any other sims... Thanks to your upcoming series, I'll gain an education on what is out there!
I had the exact same issues with the pids. I really really hope they fix that issue. Example Le Dribs Rate is super slow which seems to be very different than most people and i wanted to try them with out trashing a quad. When you put them in all you get is oscillation on the throttle bummer. I also would describe these sims out there as a bit more floaty than real life. So for me the transition from practice on the sim to heading outside is for me to remember things in the real world are gonna be faster so don't let the sim make you to lazy on the sticks. Happy flying all. Oh yeah and as always thank you Joshua your videos have helped me more then you will ever know..
Do a points system for rating the important factors for SIMs please. Been using Liftoff for since release, and would love to understand if it's been bested on other important factors. Would love a "tuning" the flight characteristics tutorial on Liftoff also. Almost only use rates to get feel, and I am sure there are better settings to utilize.
Thank You So much! You have no idea how much u saved me... I just finished building my Tyro79 and I almost went to buy the usb plug (from china.. so I would need to wait at least 2-3 weeks until it arrives!) so I can play and train acro on simulator.. Thanks again! Your channel is a lifesaver literally.
@@JoshuaBardwell I meant to post this to the previous video about 3.4 betaflight and using a flight controller on drone as a bridge to use radio as game controller, but autoplay went to another video, anyway I think you get it. You saved me money and time and now I can focus on simulator before flying the thing. Hopefully in the future when I will finish school and have a full time job I can support ur channel on patreon. Thanks again
Man, I totally agree with you! Even if a simulated drone will never fly as a real one, will absolutely help to understand the sequence/combination/coordination & cross coordination of how to fly/do a trick. I use liftoff and velocidrone. I should just practice more !
Love this sim. Had it for over a year now . Great for rainy days or late night fun. Its because of this sim my first acro flight was a full flight rather than a shoert flight followed by big crash. Still i crash but the simulator built and continues to build my skills and confidence.
Josh, did not realize I can use my Tx to reset in Liftoff. One of the features I really like on Velocidrone -- will have to set that up thanks. I have to agree with you also. I've used most simulators and my favs are Liftoff and Velocidrone. I find myself using Liftoff a bit more.
I tell Joshua is amazing how every time I watch one of ur videos I learn something u so right in the introduction of urs videos. Thank u for this video.
As per a recommendation from you i started flying just acro. I since have purchased liftoff and it is one of the easiest to use sims and the practice has definitly helped my flying!
I have a relatively powerful PC but have found the flight experience is improved dramatically by lowering graphics settings to 'fastest' and 720p resolution. The input lag is reduced to what feels like zero. Input lag is my main comolaubt with other Sims but I can get Liftoff to fly perfectly :)
Great video, one thing I'd like to point out though is that although no sims are perfect with replicating real life flight (and nowadays they are pretty good at it), I still think it would be possible to describe how they feel. For example, I find velocidrone to be pretty floaty, while I find liftoff very fast. I think the description of the way a simulator flies would be a good substitute to "does it feel realistic", because, as you said, simulators will never be perfect, and will always feel like an unfamiliar quad. I also think it'd be easier for you to do this as you have a lot of experience flying different quads, so I'm sure you'd be very good at describing the way a certain simulator flies. Again, great video, happy to see you reviewing sims.
try flying only in freestyle, its less floaty. it would be nice to have a gravity setting, i mean half life 2 had gravity settings and that game is almost 15 yrs old
for a while i flew liftoff with an xbox one controller and it was like training in the hyperbolic time chambe XD. I went in a noob and came out a fighter lol. Something i like about liftoff pro league is that it gives you a glimpse of where you stand competitively. for someone who has never raced with or against other people in real life its reassuring to know you wont be left completely in the dust lol
Brilliant review. I play liftoff quite often but I didn't know that you can assign reset to aux switch, that's very useful! Thanks Joshua, I did learn something today :D btw what happened to your voice?
Have anyone ever told you that you are like the Alton Brown of quads.. 👍🏾👍🏾Much respect man keep up the damn great content. I have 4 5 inch quad builds this year in the works using your internals can't wait.. Thanks
Joshua i find the feel of the physics in liftoff feel more natural when you match the ingame camera FOV with your real life camera fov. Arrow key left and right.
Dear Joshua, as you are now a full time youtuber, as a subscriber and fan of your videos for a long time, I prefer reviews, how to do and build videos. Your recent videos like interviews and livestreams, I know they are helping out many people, but now I am missing your old style videos, how you teach something, your personal opinions, your "who cares" type of opinions, etc. etc. Very happy to see this review. Loved it. Hope you will make more videos of these types, along with the interviews and livestreams. Happy youtubing.
Priyabrata Saha I'm not speaking for him but check out his playlist within the last couple weeks he has tons of reviews and shows us all sorts of cool interesting products other than live streams. Happy flying
FPV Freerider Recharged taught me the basic muscle memory of acro flying before I tried it on a real quad. Sometime in the future it's going to get a level editor which I'm really looking forward to.
I couldn't get the Steam version that I bought to work with the mod so I had to use a pirated copy. That map is so much better than any sim could ever be, just amazing.
Hi Joshua. Great vidéo as usual. You should have a look to obs software to improve your frame rate when you record liftoff on your screen. I did some liftoff tutorials too, and that's what gave be the Best results.
If you decide to give Velocidrone a try, make sure you are getting a decent frame rate etc to get the physics as accurate as possible. I'm sure one of the devs or the Facebook community will help you get the most out of it - trust me, it's worth the (small amount of) hassle to get it feeling awesome.
I always set graphics llow to make sure I'm getting at least 60 fps on these, although my screen capture doesn't always show it. I do think that helps the physics feel better.
Joshua Bardwell yeah it definitely helps a lot. 60fps is ok, but if you can get up to 200fps or more it's even better, something to do with the physics calculations being tied to the frame rate.
So, the Bfight 210 is (at least a copy of) JC's Blue Falcon?! I've always asked myself "what is the "B" for?", and "why is it blue?". Hey, his last upload was a vid about Liftoff. Interesting. Cool. Not sure what else to say, but I'm now even more glad to have been able to afford two $99 Blue Falcon's ...'er... Bfights for Christmas! :) Rest In Peace JC!
Hi Joshua, I enjoyed the video. Can you please review Velocidrone? I'm curious to see how that sim stacks up in regards to its physics and tuning. Thanks for all that you do. -Mike
Would love to see your opinion on Velocidrone. I am playing Velocidrone and LiftOff, one day Velocidrone feels better, the other day LiftOff ;) I use them to improve my Freestyle skills for most of the time. But also Race training helps improving your reallife skills.
Not clicked play yet, but are you going to do a while series on these? If I trust ANYBODY to tell me which sim is most accurate, it's you. Nobody cares as deeply or as nuanced...ly, as you do, about the minutiae of flight characteristics. Stoked for this.
Erwin Holland Hi Erwin, can you share your GTA5 settings? I already tried 2 sets, but stil feels weird... (I have real life fpv and sim experience). Thanks! :)
Sure! I based my settings on this video: ruclips.net/video/PpbGyk7CCzA/видео.html&t= (EDIT, was the wrong link) The only thing i did different are the personal settings, like rates, expo and camera settings. Also check that your sticks are going the full 100%, if not it can feel weird too. Let me know how it goes!
Mr. Bardwell some info on how to adjust your computer to support the sims would be a good idea for a video. Liftoff for example puts a strain on my Mac and I had to adjust my computer so it would stop glitching. Took me for ever to figure it out.
It would require 1,000 videos on "how to adjust your computer to support the sims." *Every* computer is different as to how it will need to be adjusted to run Liftoff. It isn't fair to think that a guy that reviews a piece of software can also supply technical support category info for all the computers out there. It's up to every computer owner to learn enough about their machines to know what needs to be adjusted to run gaming software.
floorpizza sorry for the suggestion, didn’t mean to bother you. It was just an idea. In all fairness it is the drone owners responsibility to learn their own drone as well. If that were the case we wouldn’t need any drone how to videos.
I'm sorry if I came across a bit strong, Duke. Not my intention. But yes, there are relevant videos to learn about setting up computers to handle gaming, much like Joshua teaches us about drones. But they are two very different categories, and just like there is so much to learn about drones that Joshua is able to make a living teaching us about them, the same applies to computers. There are hundreds of different drones, and drone configurations. If you say, "tune this drone this way to make it fly", it isn't relevant for *all* of them. Unfortunately, again, the same thing applies to computers; you can't just say "do this to run this game" and have it apply to every computer out there. Running games on computers is the harshest thing you can do; it taxes the hardware far, far more than anything else you can possibly do. Setting up your computer's individual hardware to run Liftoff is going to differ from everyone elses, unfortunately. Even more unfortunately, MacOS computers typically have very weak hardware specs for gaming. Don't get me wrong, I *love* MacOS, and have owned pretty much every Mac that has ever been released, all the way back to 1984's original Mac (yes, I'm old). I dream of the day when Apple will release Mac's with cutting edge specs regarding CPU's and GPU's. Until that day, I will run Windows machines built by me to have the horsepower needed to run the latest and greatest game titles. Sorry for the wall of text. :) Here's the tl;dr version: Trying to tell people how to adjust their computers to run any particular game title is beyond the scope of one video, or a comment made in one video. Happy flying, Duke. :)
I got early LiftOff beta days days days in first releases, even now it's fun but not even close to others, the Rotor Rush (aka drone simulator) is much better. Also Velocidrone is quite nice sim if you wanna really feel the real quad! And after all if you want just to try how it is, install GTA5 mode (if you have gta).
Hi Joshua, loving all your videos. I just wondered if you know on Lift Off if you can use a playstation style controller connected to your PC via USB ?
Hey JB! Thanks . just bought and tried out. It's pretty cool!! better than freeFPV. works good except for Hannover. That one is really choppy. will mess around with the setups next.
absolutely agree.. went flying straight after liftoff and my timing was just so damn off. another major with me was when you do an inverted yaw spin, it doesnt propel you to the ground...
Physics are more than just about gravity and if there's one factor not creating floaty feeling it's the gravity setting. The gravity in Liftoff, and I suspect in most other sims is completely correct. Considering games use standardized physics engines, it's actually harder to mess up the gravity in a game than having to the standard correct value. I can also assure you it's likely the first thing each dev checks when he embarks on years worth of physics related development. Adding a gravity slider in Liftoff would actually break the one thing that is sure to be correct and messes with the foundations of the whole simulation system. It would not fix anything that's related to a floaty feeling some players experience, it would just create another problem on top of it.
what do you propose the fix would be? are you working on improving the realism? I love the sim, though I am finding myself step away from it more and more due to this mentioned "float"
You sod JB lol.. I am halfway though making a video about flght sims and I also started with lift off. Well after watching your video mine is getting scraped, yours is much better, oh well 2 hours work down the crapper lol. This is a great review JB so keep them coming, Looking forward to seeing what you say about Freerider.
Bought a DJI FPV and found out quickly, and painfully, I can't fly it. Been using Liftoff a lot, but I want a DJI FPV drone in Liftoff. Is one available? If so, how do I get it?
If you want a fun way to do FPV on the computer with your radio then Liftoff is may fit the bill and I do still go back to it from time to time. However, if you want a simulator that replicates the feeling of flying a real quad then Velocidrone is another league entirely. You can also dial down the settings and getting it running well on an older machine, or bump things up to look nice on a fast rig. Something I cannot achieve with Liftoff on my laptop. RotorRush is awesome but you need a very good PC to run it.
James Allen so Do you think liftoff would work better than rotor rush on a computer that doesn't have much for a graphics chip? My laptop is a couple months old, but on rotorrush I have to turn down all the settings for it to be flyable. I want to try liftoff, but wasn't sure about if my computer can take it. It is not a gaming pc but it's a nice pc.
Mark - DEFINITELY try Velocidrone! - that runs fine on my ancient macbook air! and is more realistic than liftoff (by a long way) in my opinion. Cheap too www.velocidrone.com/shop
James Allen... Problem is laptops have much slower cpus than a desktop because of them using energy efficient cpus for longer battery life. Even $1500 laptops have slow cpus compared to a much lower cost desktop. Go to cpu.userbenchmarks.com and click on the EFFECTIVE SPEED header. I can build a cheap desktop that will BLOW AWAY ANY Intel i7 laptop, and I'll use the new Intel i3-8350 cpu. Yup, i3! That desktop build will cost HALF what the laptop will and SMOKE IT!... Don't believe me, look up the i3-8350k on that site and then your laptops cpu. It won't be close! Moral of the story... Stop buying laptops when they can barely be affordably repaired, don't perform close to a similar priced desktop, and can't be upgraded nearly like a desktop can. Unless you HAVE to have the portability, buy a desktop!
I do not agree at all... I even just retried Velocidrone to test if it had gotten any better. It has, but I still feel Liftoff is where its at. They update almost every week, which is super nice.
Hey JB this might be something for a later video or not. From your previous video I have a quad that I turned off the first 2 filters. Motors ran fine with cyclone 5046C's. I was put a set of 5042 ' s on just now for a line of sight and it flew horrible. Bobbing up and down and sounded really bad. The motors were really hot. I let it cool down and put cyclones on and it Flys just fine. I have tried different props before on that quad with no problems. Seams that once filtering is off a simple prop change could be catastrophic. Any thoughts? Figured this was worth mentioning.
Ok. I found the problem. I checked this but still somehow missed it. One of the prop blades had a slight bend and was out of alignment. Only 5.5 mm but that was enough to seriously degrade performance and make the motors hot on LOS hover with mild punches. Filtering on or off didn't matter. I straightened prop and everything is fine. Note these were 5042 props and 2205 2300kv Racerstar motors. I'm guessing that the lower pitch prop combined with these cheaper motors makes them extremely sensitive to any noise. Ive crashed this quad and bent props before with cyclones 46's and never had motors get that hot. Just a thought.
GTA V with the drone sim mod for environments hands down no contest. Still can do PIDs, Weights, Thrust levels so it's pretty mad. Started with liftoff but
I'd like to hear about hardware options to allow various radios to be used with these sims. I bought some cheap thing that allows my Spektrum to work via the trainer port and USB (phono mono male/male cable), but I'm wary of the software it wants to install.
Hi Joshua great video as always may sound like a silly question but can you run a sim like liftoff on a laptop if like myself you don't own a pc, great channel great content keep it up 👍
My old girl has been going for almost 5 years and survived a open drop off my car's trunk. I've upgraded to a hybrid HDD added an extra 8 gigs of RAM, the WiFi to an Intel AC 7260. and running in Win10. I play Liftoff at 720p thru HDMI to my FS Transformers. Q-X7 over USB for Tx. HP ENVY 15t-j100 Quad Edition i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz (3.4GHz in boost) 16GB Ram NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
One thing to add to the review of all these sims is hardware requirements...or at least your perception of how well they run on your system and maybe an example of what your system is. I really like liftoff (use it all the time), but with a 16GB i7 machine with a GTX960 I can't fly most tracks with graphic settings above simple. It just bogs down too much and the hesitation actually affects my timing. I don't have the same problem with FPV Freerider nor do I have it with DRL...that said I still use liftoff most often of the 3.
I'm an i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz running the latest greatest graphic drivers. Since this is a pre-release I am hoping that they still have some optimization left to do. I tried DRL again yesterday (it's been a while) and it is like flying a tank :-)
Ronn2664 Hi Ronn, first you have to set it în your radio like you set the arming or the modes switch, then gol to the screen which Josh showed in this video, and click on the right column (controller) on the line with the reset. I would suggest you do the same for the "rewind" function, as it is very usefull in racing :)
Lothar Krupka I think tried that before and it's not working. I click on the reset and flipped all the switches on my QX7 and it doesn't recognize any of the switches.
I bought liftoff and an indoor tiny woop and some goggles and a tx to use as a controller at the same time to get me into this hobby, after about 6 month of playing for a few hours a week on liftoff i built myself a decent fast racing drone for around £200, and on my maiden flights with the 1st 3 batteries i didnt crash once and even did some loops and tricks, without doubt it was for all the practice i put in on liftoff ! It has the Pobsky Seal Of Approval :-)
Did it start off really hard at first I am few hours into the game and I cant get control aside from just flying in open air.
@@iheart3dprinting951 Same here body :))
I did this twice. First when I learned to fly fixed wing around 10 years ago and just over the last 6 months for quads. The $20 you spend for the sim is going to save you hundreds on replacement parts.
Hadn't launched liftoff in a couple of months, was not disappointed to see Bardwell's yard featured in the tracks.
PS. Sorry about your car, man.. And your window. And err, the chimney, too.
Liftoff has an amazing multiplayer matching feature you briefly touched on. It is what has made it my main sim. I can so easily in seconds fly with all my local chapter online on a rainy day or night when real flying isn’t possible or with people all over the world. It’s so easy to join your friends or any open room.
I’ve done so much racing there it is helping to really improve my skills.
I have tried other sims but what sets liftoff apart is the ability to get the exact same rates that you fly with. I agree that none feel just like real flight, but by using the same rates you are gaining real muscle memory. This is perfect for everyone that wants to try new rates before you change them in your real quad
thanks for this recomendation. I installed liftoff, fly on ACRO mode for 30-45 minutes and the result in true life was amazing!!!! I finally can fly FPV + ACRO really good, no crash, better feeling of control. Ok the simulator is not very accurate, but very close to reality. Its helping a lot to avoid bad crashes in real life.
Thanks for taking another look, we really appreciate it! :)
+LuGus Studios thanks for continuing to make it better!
Joshua, I did get the latest rendition of the game on Steam, and after 18 months of no people, and now its dark at 5:30 where I live I need a SIM. I will have to say it is pretty accurate to real world, but like most of the Sims, they never seem to get gravity or physics just right. I'm amazed on how many Split-S, Power Loops etc. I can supposedly do on your property, I can barely do them in reality. Anyway, just wanted your take on that if you have a sec.. Long time fan, you have taught me a ton in this hobby.. Mad respect..
Omg! JB, you're so right!! Listen to this guy, he knows what he is talking about!! I'm brand new to FPV and I got Liftoff and attached my Transmitter and flying and crashing in no time flat! Then I was able to fly and practice some of the Freestyle tricks, rolls and flips that JB goes over in his top 10 tricks video. Knifes edges are still tough as the quad arcs instead of flying straight, but I'm brand new!! I highly recommend a simulator especially if you are starting out.
I have got more than 85 hours of fun with it and more I use it, more I want to. The fun factor is really there. The fact that you can create your own tracks and races, publish them on the workshop and download the other users tracks and races adds a lot of variety in the difficulty level and you always have new challenges. So you never get bored. The developpers are listening a lot the feedback from the users and bring updates on a regular basis. I would buy it again without hesitation.
6:00 Its me! Nice review, Joshua! Liftoff is my go-to. (I just added the track and races for Sebring 2018) :)
SICK TIME
I done 80 hours of sim before my first flight. My throttle was a on and off switch but I never had to fly in self level mode
Maybe review the velocidrone?
I was hoping for a comparison of the two... but thats unlikely to happen, since Joshua is involved in Liftoff marketingwise...
Imagine being able to choose the parts you own and being able to tune betaflight /Raceflight etc and test it in the sim and when you fly your drone irl it reacted the same as in the sim. Try different motors, props etc and as you are tuning drop down sub menus would prompt recommended set up in relation to a stats graphic that can help choose optimal set up for both Drone and Taranis etc. That would be epic !
Dat profile pic bruh...
It's a tribute to my favourite teacher . . . Bruh . . .
LiftOff feels the best its ever felt after their latest review. It is feeling the most realistic it has ever felt yet.
I totally agree... I love Liftoff!
Liftoff has a killer feature for freestylers: Rewind !
After a crash, rewind a bit and retry the thing that just defeated you.
You can assign the Rewind and Reset buttons to your taranis (or whichever) and never have to take your hands off it and can keep as much of the flow going as possible.
Steam workshop tracks are also a big boon.
Awesome Joshua!
I’ve learned SO MUCH from watching your videos! I’ve purchased an Emax Hawk 5 from watching one of your videos and a Taranis QX7, and I don’t even fly yet!
I’m all new to this, but with your videos I feel more confident and have learned a great deal!!!
So, I’ve ordered Liftoff and Velocidrone today, so I can get involved before I crash (Fly) my quad Haha
Thanks for what you do and donation headed your way!!!
Best
M
Thanks for all your great videos! Being new at this it's great to have someone to turn to when you're learning. I've been flying the camera drones a few years and I thought they were quite sophisticated. Then I got my first race drone and thought it would be a piece of cake...LOL. I spent a week in Betaflight configuring my Tyrant S, and the Taranis plus. There is no lack of sophistication with these racers and was quite surprised at the power they have. I started out in level mode one time and before I knew it the drone was several hundred yards away and climbing. I managed to get it back but WOW!. Now I'm getting more stick time in Liftoff simulator so, next time out will be in Acro mode in a very large field. After flying those camera drones, it's a steep learning curve to break some of those bad habits. Thanks again Joshua!
Thanx for the review Joshua!! I know this video is al little older but, I downloaded Liftoff last week. I like it. 👍
Hi,
due to the current depressing conditions and corona games I feel very down, so I'm thinking to learn drone flying, maybe it helps my mentality.
I know nothing about drone or gaming, just wanna learn flying. Seems a stimulator is the best way to learn for beginners. Do you have any suggestions for a very beginner?
Should I buy just controller Or it has some special accessories as well? Costly?
Thx in advance
Nice and solid review! I like how you point out all the good points.
Please consider reviewing Velocidrone next. I would like to hear your opinion about this one and how they actually compare against each other.
Great review! This is what got me started in fpv and influenced the decision on my first quad, the vortex 285. However, it's also worth mentioning the FPV Academy series that Lumenier and GetFPV did with Jack FPV. Jack uses Liftoff as not only a training platform, but also the tracks he built in game to supplement his video series.
One thing I don't like about most simulators is the minimum system requirements are usually quite high and I don't have a dedicated gaming PC. I like FPV Freerider because it'll run on just about anything, such as my MBP and Linux machines (as well as Windows if you run that). It's also only $5.
Liftoff runs fine on my MBP from 2013.
I picked this up a few weeks ago. I love it!
Thanks for this review! I'm looking forward to this series! I have FreeRider but haven't invested in any other sims... Thanks to your upcoming series, I'll gain an education on what is out there!
I had the exact same issues with the pids. I really really hope they fix that issue. Example Le Dribs Rate is super slow which seems to be very different than most people and i wanted to try them with out trashing a quad. When you put them in all you get is oscillation on the throttle bummer. I also would describe these sims out there as a bit more floaty than real life. So for me the transition from practice on the sim to heading outside is for me to remember things in the real world are gonna be faster so don't let the sim make you to lazy on the sticks. Happy flying all. Oh yeah and as always thank you Joshua your videos have helped me more then you will ever know..
Do a points system for rating the important factors for SIMs please.
Been using Liftoff for since release, and would love to understand if it's been bested on other important factors.
Would love a "tuning" the flight characteristics tutorial on Liftoff also. Almost only use rates to get feel, and I am sure there are better settings to utilize.
Fully agree with this!
101rotarypower invest into vecidrone (: it's worth it !
Thank You So much! You have no idea how much u saved me... I just finished building my Tyro79 and I almost went to buy the usb plug (from china.. so I would need to wait at least 2-3 weeks until it arrives!) so I can play and train acro on simulator.. Thanks again! Your channel is a lifesaver literally.
Glad I was able to help you out, Stefan.
@@JoshuaBardwell I meant to post this to the previous video about 3.4 betaflight and using a flight controller on drone as a bridge to use radio as game controller, but autoplay went to another video, anyway I think you get it. You saved me money and time and now I can focus on simulator before flying the thing. Hopefully in the future when I will finish school and have a full time job I can support ur channel on patreon. Thanks again
Man, I totally agree with you! Even if a simulated drone will never fly as a real one, will absolutely help to understand the sequence/combination/coordination & cross coordination of how to fly/do a trick. I use liftoff and velocidrone. I should just practice more !
You just made me fall in love with Quads.
Love this sim. Had it for over a year now . Great for rainy days or late night fun. Its because of this sim my first acro flight was a full flight rather than a shoert flight followed by big crash. Still i crash but the simulator built and continues to build my skills and confidence.
Josh, did not realize I can use my Tx to reset in Liftoff. One of the features I really like on Velocidrone -- will have to set that up thanks. I have to agree with you also. I've used most simulators and my favs are Liftoff and Velocidrone. I find myself using Liftoff a bit more.
I tell Joshua is amazing how every time I watch one of ur videos I learn something u so right in the introduction of urs videos. Thank u for this video.
As per a recommendation from you i started flying just acro. I since have purchased liftoff and it is one of the easiest to use sims and the practice has definitly helped my flying!
I have a relatively powerful PC but have found the flight experience is improved dramatically by lowering graphics settings to 'fastest' and 720p resolution. The input lag is reduced to what feels like zero. Input lag is my main comolaubt with other Sims but I can get Liftoff to fly perfectly :)
Great video, one thing I'd like to point out though is that although no sims are perfect with replicating real life flight (and nowadays they are pretty good at it), I still think it would be possible to describe how they feel. For example, I find velocidrone to be pretty floaty, while I find liftoff very fast. I think the description of the way a simulator flies would be a good substitute to "does it feel realistic", because, as you said, simulators will never be perfect, and will always feel like an unfamiliar quad. I also think it'd be easier for you to do this as you have a lot of experience flying different quads, so I'm sure you'd be very good at describing the way a certain simulator flies. Again, great video, happy to see you reviewing sims.
I got Liftoff months ago and it seemed really floaty to me. Looks like there are updates, time to revisit it.
try flying only in freestyle, its less floaty. it would be nice to have a gravity setting, i mean half life 2 had gravity settings and that game is almost 15 yrs old
Liftoff looks great. What transmitters are compatible to use?
Bardwells Yard map is one of my favorite 🙃
for a while i flew liftoff with an xbox one controller and it was like training in the hyperbolic time chambe XD. I went in a noob and came out a fighter lol. Something i like about liftoff pro league is that it gives you a glimpse of where you stand competitively. for someone who has never raced with or against other people in real life its reassuring to know you wont be left completely in the dust lol
Brilliant review. I play liftoff quite often but I didn't know that you can assign reset to aux switch, that's very useful! Thanks Joshua, I did learn something today :D btw what happened to your voice?
I've been using FPV FreeRider, just purchased this. Thanks Joshua, sadly my GT-R90 started stuttering today. So I'll be putting time in the sim.
i would love to see a review on the DRL sim.
Can't see why he would'nt review it at some point. Afterall, there are only so many flight simulators around.
Have anyone ever told you that you are like the Alton Brown of quads.. 👍🏾👍🏾Much respect man keep up the damn great content. I have 4 5 inch quad builds this year in the works using your internals can't wait.. Thanks
Have you tried the GTA 5 FPV mod? Would be interesting to get your opinions on that. I haven't tried it yet and DRL has been my go-to.
For me GTA is the best if it goes for physic and feel of the quad.
9Lives omg do you actually fly fpv? Been watching your cod vids for a pretty long time and didn't expect you here!
I have a Chameleon and a GoPro Session 5 so might make some FPV vids this summer :)
9Lives i only see this comment now but its great! I would love to see some fpv vids from you!
My fpv view starting to drift or tilt when i switched to acro mode (even when im haven't lift off
Joshua i find the feel of the physics in liftoff feel more natural when you match the ingame camera FOV with your real life camera fov. Arrow key left and right.
Dear Joshua, as you are now a full time youtuber, as a subscriber and fan of your videos for a long time, I prefer reviews, how to do and build videos. Your recent videos like interviews and livestreams, I know they are helping out many people, but now I am missing your old style videos, how you teach something, your personal opinions, your "who cares" type of opinions, etc. etc.
Very happy to see this review. Loved it. Hope you will make more videos of these types, along with the interviews and livestreams.
Happy youtubing.
Priyabrata Saha I'm not speaking for him but check out his playlist within the last couple weeks he has tons of reviews and shows us all sorts of cool interesting products other than live streams. Happy flying
QUADBOT FPV I am not offending joshua's videos. His channel is my favorite since I got into this hobby. I am stating my opinion. That's all.
build videos are boring and all the same motors camera vtx escs reciever done.
coppertop FPV those are not pointless at all. Those helping a lot of people round the globe. But it is your and mine preference.
QUADBOT FPV it is all about personal preference.
Thanks for the review. I just got this as my first sim. Im hoping it helps with the learning curve.
Great sim review JB.
*Frantically shopping for a gaming desktop build*
Thanks for the review I might actually pick this one up now.
Great video. Can you recommend a beginners radio transmitter to purchase for this and then obviously to use on the real thing ? Thank you in advance
Thanks 4 review...what gaming laptop do u recommend to run liftoff.
FPV Freerider Recharged taught me the basic muscle memory of acro flying before I tried it on a real quad. Sometime in the future it's going to get a level editor which I'm really looking forward to.
forsure my favorite simulator!
Have you tried the GTA V Drone mod?
I havn't tried myself, I only have GTA V on ps4 :(
I couldn't get the Steam version that I bought to work with the mod so I had to use a pirated copy. That map is so much better than any sim could ever be, just amazing.
this sim is the best for me, custom setup and amezing visual goggle display , i don t know which same this, perfect... thank you
DAYUM bruh another great vid can not wait till the next one
good points in a fair review. thanks
Hi Joshua.
Great vidéo as usual. You should have a look to obs software to improve your frame rate when you record liftoff on your screen. I did some liftoff tutorials too, and that's what gave be the Best results.
i want to learn to fly a tiny slow whoop indoors using this. not a fast one yet.
This is the only one I use now, love the fact you can go 3d as well.
If you decide to give Velocidrone a try, make sure you are getting a decent frame rate etc to get the physics as accurate as possible. I'm sure one of the devs or the Facebook community will help you get the most out of it - trust me, it's worth the (small amount of) hassle to get it feeling awesome.
I always set graphics llow to make sure I'm getting at least 60 fps on these, although my screen capture doesn't always show it. I do think that helps the physics feel better.
Joshua Bardwell yeah it definitely helps a lot. 60fps is ok, but if you can get up to 200fps or more it's even better, something to do with the physics calculations being tied to the frame rate.
Can we get a review for velicidrone?
So, the Bfight 210 is (at least a copy of) JC's Blue Falcon?! I've always asked myself "what is the "B" for?", and "why is it blue?". Hey, his last upload was a vid about Liftoff. Interesting. Cool. Not sure what else to say, but I'm now even more glad to have been able to afford two $99 Blue Falcon's ...'er... Bfights for Christmas! :)
Rest In Peace JC!
Would be even more cool if a portion of each sale went to his family.
Agreed!!! :)
Interesting!
How were you able to upload clips from the game?
I've purchased the sim using your link above, I hope it's affiliated so you get your slice of the pie for the good work you do.
Such a great sim Josh. Hope to play some races with you. That would be aweaome
Hi Joshua,
I enjoyed the video. Can you please review Velocidrone? I'm curious to see how that sim stacks up in regards to its physics and tuning. Thanks for all that you do.
-Mike
For me, the best one there
Would love to see your opinion on Velocidrone. I am playing Velocidrone and LiftOff, one day Velocidrone feels better, the other day LiftOff ;) I use them to improve my Freestyle skills for most of the time. But also Race training helps improving your reallife skills.
Not clicked play yet, but are you going to do a while series on these? If I trust ANYBODY to tell me which sim is most accurate, it's you. Nobody cares as deeply or as nuanced...ly, as you do, about the minutiae of flight characteristics. Stoked for this.
Can you do a review on the quadcopter mod in GTA 5? Been using it for a while, and with some tweaking in the settings, it feels really good.
Erwin Holland Hi Erwin, can you share your GTA5 settings? I already tried 2 sets, but stil feels weird... (I have real life fpv and sim experience). Thanks! :)
Sure! I based my settings on this video:
ruclips.net/video/PpbGyk7CCzA/видео.html&t= (EDIT, was the wrong link)
The only thing i did different are the personal settings, like rates, expo and camera settings.
Also check that your sticks are going the full 100%, if not it can feel weird too.
Let me know how it goes!
Your awesome thanks man
Mr. Bardwell some info on how to adjust your computer to support the sims would be a good idea for a video. Liftoff for example puts a strain on my Mac and I had to adjust my computer so it would stop glitching. Took me for ever to figure it out.
It would require 1,000 videos on "how to adjust your computer to support the sims." *Every* computer is different as to how it will need to be adjusted to run Liftoff. It isn't fair to think that a guy that reviews a piece of software can also supply technical support category info for all the computers out there. It's up to every computer owner to learn enough about their machines to know what needs to be adjusted to run gaming software.
floorpizza sorry for the suggestion, didn’t mean to bother you. It was just an idea. In all fairness it is the drone owners responsibility to learn their own drone as well. If that were the case we wouldn’t need any drone how to videos.
I'm sorry if I came across a bit strong, Duke. Not my intention. But yes, there are relevant videos to learn about setting up computers to handle gaming, much like Joshua teaches us about drones. But they are two very different categories, and just like there is so much to learn about drones that Joshua is able to make a living teaching us about them, the same applies to computers. There are hundreds of different drones, and drone configurations. If you say, "tune this drone this way to make it fly", it isn't relevant for *all* of them. Unfortunately, again, the same thing applies to computers; you can't just say "do this to run this game" and have it apply to every computer out there. Running games on computers is the harshest thing you can do; it taxes the hardware far, far more than anything else you can possibly do.
Setting up your computer's individual hardware to run Liftoff is going to differ from everyone elses, unfortunately. Even more unfortunately, MacOS computers typically have very weak hardware specs for gaming. Don't get me wrong, I *love* MacOS, and have owned pretty much every Mac that has ever been released, all the way back to 1984's original Mac (yes, I'm old). I dream of the day when Apple will release Mac's with cutting edge specs regarding CPU's and GPU's. Until that day, I will run Windows machines built by me to have the horsepower needed to run the latest and greatest game titles.
Sorry for the wall of text. :) Here's the tl;dr version: Trying to tell people how to adjust their computers to run any particular game title is beyond the scope of one video, or a comment made in one video.
Happy flying, Duke. :)
I got early LiftOff beta days days days in first releases, even now it's fun but not even close to others, the Rotor Rush (aka drone simulator) is much better. Also Velocidrone is quite nice sim if you wanna really feel the real quad! And after all if you want just to try how it is, install GTA5 mode (if you have gta).
Hi Joshua, loving all your videos. I just wondered if you know on Lift Off if you can use a playstation style controller connected to your PC via USB ?
Yes you can. It's harder to fly that way especially because of the spring loaded throttle.
@@JoshuaBardwell thankyou, its good for me as I work weeks overseas....means I can take a light controller to play it :-D
Have you tried out the DCL Xbox One drone racing game ? :-)
Did 40 hours on Liftoff before I built or flew a real quad. Saved me a huge amount of money, repairs and frustration.
What you think is compared to a velocidrone?
Hey JB! Thanks . just bought and tried out. It's pretty cool!! better than freeFPV. works good except for Hannover. That one is really choppy. will mess around with the setups next.
Ok..this is step 1...would you suggest flying something small first like a 2 inch or go straight to a 5 inch
as long as you've flown in the simulator I think hed say straight to a 5 inch quad
I wish you could adjust the amount of gravity... I think there is too much float. would help with real-time trick practice.
absolutely agree.. went flying straight after liftoff and my timing was just so damn off. another major with me was when you do an inverted yaw spin, it doesnt propel you to the ground...
Physics are more than just about gravity and if there's one factor not creating floaty feeling it's the gravity setting. The gravity in Liftoff, and I suspect in most other sims is completely correct. Considering games use standardized physics engines, it's actually harder to mess up the gravity in a game than having to the standard correct value. I can also assure you it's likely the first thing each dev checks when he embarks on years worth of physics related development.
Adding a gravity slider in Liftoff would actually break the one thing that is sure to be correct and messes with the foundations of the whole simulation system. It would not fix anything that's related to a floaty feeling some players experience, it would just create another problem on top of it.
what do you propose the fix would be? are you working on improving the realism? I love the sim, though I am finding myself step away from it more and more due to this mentioned "float"
d g this blogpost dedicated to the subject describes some of the things we do:
www.liftoff-game.com/2016/09/17/physics-and-flight-behaviour/
whats your liftoff name joshua bardwell? id like to race you there
What is the best controller, googles and drone combo money can buy?
You sod JB lol.. I am halfway though making a video about flght sims and I also started with lift off. Well after watching your video mine is getting scraped, yours is much better, oh well 2 hours work down the crapper lol. This is a great review JB so keep them coming, Looking forward to seeing what you say about Freerider.
Bought a DJI FPV and found out quickly, and painfully, I can't fly it. Been using Liftoff a lot, but I want a DJI FPV drone in Liftoff. Is one available? If so, how do I get it?
If you want a fun way to do FPV on the computer with your radio then Liftoff is may fit the bill and I do still go back to it from time to time. However, if you want a simulator that replicates the feeling of flying a real quad then Velocidrone is another league entirely. You can also dial down the settings and getting it running well on an older machine, or bump things up to look nice on a fast rig. Something I cannot achieve with Liftoff on my laptop. RotorRush is awesome but you need a very good PC to run it.
James Allen so Do you think liftoff would work better than rotor rush on a computer that doesn't have much for a graphics chip? My laptop is a couple months old, but on rotorrush I have to turn down all the settings for it to be flyable. I want to try liftoff, but wasn't sure about if my computer can take it. It is not a gaming pc but it's a nice pc.
Velocidrone FTW! ;) :D
Mark - DEFINITELY try Velocidrone! - that runs fine on my ancient macbook air! and is more realistic than liftoff (by a long way) in my opinion. Cheap too www.velocidrone.com/shop
James Allen... Problem is laptops have much slower cpus than a desktop because of them using energy efficient cpus for longer battery life. Even $1500 laptops have slow cpus compared to a much lower cost desktop. Go to cpu.userbenchmarks.com and click on the EFFECTIVE SPEED header.
I can build a cheap desktop that will BLOW AWAY ANY Intel i7 laptop, and I'll use the new Intel i3-8350 cpu. Yup, i3! That desktop build will cost HALF what the laptop will and SMOKE IT!... Don't believe me, look up the i3-8350k on that site and then your laptops cpu. It won't be close!
Moral of the story... Stop buying laptops when they can barely be affordably repaired, don't perform close to a similar priced desktop, and can't be upgraded nearly like a desktop can. Unless you HAVE to have the portability, buy a desktop!
I have a desktop computer ...that I hardly use because I can't move it / take it wherever I want it to be.
can you do velocidrone
Ehhh, why when Liftoff is where its at...
because velocidrone is also really good
I do not agree at all... I even just retried Velocidrone to test if it had gotten any better. It has, but I still feel Liftoff is where its at. They update almost every week, which is super nice.
I love velocidrone!
Me too, mate:)
I hear that a lot, I am kind of excited to see that review.
Hey JB this might be something for a later video or not. From your previous video I have a quad that I turned off the first 2 filters. Motors ran fine with cyclone 5046C's. I was put a set of 5042 ' s on just now for a line of sight and it flew horrible. Bobbing up and down and sounded really bad. The motors were really hot. I let it cool down and put cyclones on and it Flys just fine. I have tried different props before on that quad with no problems. Seams that once filtering is off a simple prop change could be catastrophic. Any thoughts? Figured this was worth mentioning.
Put the filters back on and change the props again just to confirm that was the actual cause.
Ok. I found the problem. I checked this but still somehow missed it. One of the prop blades had a slight bend and was out of alignment. Only 5.5 mm but that was enough to seriously degrade performance and make the motors hot on LOS hover with mild punches. Filtering on or off didn't matter. I straightened prop and everything is fine. Note these were 5042 props and 2205 2300kv Racerstar motors. I'm guessing that the lower pitch prop combined with these cheaper motors makes them extremely sensitive to any noise. Ive crashed this quad and bent props before with cyclones 46's and never had motors get that hot. Just a thought.
Try velocidrone next.
I second that - heard many good things about it
Ja, I snagged the demo of that, demo is a bit lacking but it seemed to feel ok. That was the one Mr Steele suggested in one of his vods
GTA V with the drone sim mod for environments hands down no contest. Still can do PIDs, Weights, Thrust levels so it's pretty mad. Started with liftoff but
Can you use a actual transmitter with GTA V Mod?
+BVD yep 100%
yeah gotta try this ... been meaning to for a while
When is x10s review coming
And will you do catalyst machinework merica review
Get the GTA 5 MOD installed Joshua love to see your impression of that. Limitless freedom for freestyle flying.
Check out his first video ;-)
Grand Theft Copter xD
@@renzevenir4853 there millions of videos i cant find it...
Question, what's the largest frame available? I'm trying to replicate my 680mm 15" prop drone...
You did the learn to fly series on freerider.??
Yes.
I'd like to hear about hardware options to allow various radios to be used with these sims. I bought some cheap thing that allows my Spektrum to work via the trainer port and USB (phono mono male/male cable), but I'm wary of the software it wants to install.
With spectrum I just use the dongle .... www.spektrumrc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=SPMWS1000
Great video! Thumbs up ! Have a good day!
Hi Joshua great video as always may sound like a silly question but can you run a sim like liftoff on a laptop if like myself you don't own a pc, great channel great content keep it up 👍
Depends.. I don't think a dual core will run it good at all, and that leads to wonky physics.
My old girl has been going for almost 5 years and survived a open drop off my car's trunk. I've upgraded to a hybrid HDD added an extra 8 gigs of RAM, the WiFi to an Intel AC 7260. and running in Win10. I play Liftoff at 720p thru HDMI to my FS Transformers. Q-X7 over USB for Tx.
HP ENVY 15t-j100 Quad Edition
i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz (3.4GHz in boost)
16GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M
One thing to add to the review of all these sims is hardware requirements...or at least your perception of how well they run on your system and maybe an example of what your system is. I really like liftoff (use it all the time), but with a 16GB i7 machine with a GTX960 I can't fly most tracks with graphic settings above simple. It just bogs down too much and the hesitation actually affects my timing. I don't have the same problem with FPV Freerider nor do I have it with DRL...that said I still use liftoff most often of the 3.
For what it's worth, that's exactly my system. Although my processor might be faster than yours.
I'm an i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz running the latest greatest graphic drivers. Since this is a pre-release I am hoping that they still have some optimization left to do. I tried DRL again yesterday (it's been a while) and it is like flying a tank :-)
Thanks for the video. How do you assign Reset to a switch on the taranis Q x7?
Ronn2664 Hi Ronn, first you have to set it în your radio like you set the arming or the modes switch, then gol to the screen which Josh showed in this video, and click on the right column (controller) on the line with the reset. I would suggest you do the same for the "rewind" function, as it is very usefull in racing :)
Lothar Krupka I think tried that before and it's not working. I click on the reset and flipped all the switches on my QX7 and it doesn't recognize any of the switches.
Joshua. Have you been in the military?
can u play with the new DJI Fpv Remote Controller? And if how
Can u review/compare velocidrone to liftoff?