GAIM’s VR shooting simulator - GAIM Changes

If you haven’t seen my previous reviews of the GAIM shooting simulator, check them out at Gunmart.net or read the following intro. Otherwise, skip ahead to find out just how much recent updates have expanded and enhanced the GAIM experience.

The basics
GAIM is a hardware and software package developed and supplied by GAIM Immersive Technology Group - a sister company to Aimpoint, the world leader in red-dot optics for hunting and LE/MIL applications - that runs on Meta’s market-dominating Quest 2 and Quest 3 virtual-reality systems, which you will need to purchase separately.

Hardware
The core of GAIM’s own hardware is a unique Bluetooth trigger unit that slaves to the Quest’s right-hand controller and can be installed into either a hardwood stock or a training handgun. Each chassis features a secure cradle for the controller.

Software
The GAIM app is available online via the Quest App Lab. Two demo scenarios (Mallard and Winter Forest) are available for free, with 20 more available for purchase as a package or individually. Scenarios are available to suit hunters (flying and ground game), clay shooters (most disciplines), and sports shooters (IPSC, etc.). As hunting is my thing, I’ll focus on the former here.

In-game environment
Opening GAIM in the Quest takes you into an autumn woodland scene where you are surrounded by a carousel that shows all your scenarios (grouped by quarry type or discipline) complete with supporting information and tutorials. Like their compatriots at Ikea, GAIM’s instructions are based on diagrams you can understand at a glance. Video tutorials are also available from GAIM.com. Additional reminders, warning against shooting out of arc, shooting the beaters’ dogs (a real risk in moments of high intensity), or shooting a sow/hind/doe before eliminating their piglets/calves/kids, are presented within individual scenarios on a click-through screen. For added variety, several scenarios (High Pheasants, Wood Pigeon Farmer’s Field, White Tail Deer Trail, Wild Boar Corn Field and Sim Pro Clay Pigeon) also let you choose between multiple stands.

Aligning realities
Whichever your chosen chassis, you will need to calibrate it in the configuration screen. This involves matching the virtual gun you see to the physical gun you are holding via an interactive 5-axis adjustment diagram, so that they present and point identically in both the real world and the virtual environment. You can also add a choice of Aimpoint red-dot sights, increase or decrease the size of the dot, and adjust the zero range. If you do add a red-dot sight, you will find that gun fit becomes much less critical, which is something that holds true in the real world.

Practice zones
With the software set up and the hardware configured, you’re ready to shoot. Good places to start are the sport-specific Sim Pro training zones. These are ‘sandpits’ where you can select any of the target types that appear in the corresponding scenarios and configure them for range, position, direction, and speed. For example, hunters might set up a pheasant crossing left-right at a range of 30m, a height of 20m, and a speed of 45 km/h. Having mastered that, they might add additional directions, ranges, heights, speeds, and up to four more birds.

Post-shot analysis
After shooting, you can enter an analytics zone where you can replay each shot in real-time or slow motion, either from the shooter’s perspective or as a 3-D anatomical diagram showing the track of the shot through or past the target. Also shown is the track of the muzzle, range to target, and amount of lead given.

Benefits
I first tested the GAIM system in February 2022, bought it immediately, and have been using it regularly ever since, firing hundreds of thousands of virtual cartridges at a similar number of virtual targets. It has kept me entertained on wet days, provided active breaks from office work, saved a ton of money I could never afford on fuel, ammunition, shoot and trophy fees, and has almost certainly made me a significantly better shot.

New: Enhanced modelling
Since launch, GAIM has progressively improved the appearance and movements of its animal models, including how they fall (‘ragdoll’) when killed. There’s still a way to go as regards making the birds fall in a realistic manner, and I’d like to see non-fatal hits impact the model’s speed or gait, but neither refinement bears directly on the fundamentals of successful shooting.

More guns
The original long guns - a Sako 85 bolt-action hunting rifle, an AR15-style semi-automatic rifle, and a Beretta 686 O/U shotgun -, whose real-world counterpart is the GAIM gunstock, have been supplemented in the Mallard and Wood Pigeon scenarios, and in the Sim Pro hunting arena, by a 7-shot Benelli M2 semi-automatic shotgun. Additionally, shotguns can now be topped up by pointing them at a circular reloading zone. All guns still reload automatically when run ‘dry’, however, which is good for gameplay, but I’d still like to see a ‘manual-only’ option that would train strategic target selection and administrative reloads.
The GAIM training handgun, meanwhile, uses the polymer frame from a real Arex Delta II semi-automatic pistol, complete with a 9mm magazine, topped off with a blue 3D-printed ‘slide’ that mounts the trigger and controller cradle. This provides a great feel and a trigger reach that is perfect for my size 8 hands. You can use the Quest controller on its own, but the authentic feel of the GAIM/Arex trigger/frame makes it an essential upgrade for training.

New scenarios
GAIM regularly adds new scenarios, the latest being ‘Wild Boar Cornfield’, ‘White Tail Deer Trail’, and ‘Wood Pigeons Farmer’s Field’.
Cornfield lets you position yourself at any corner of either a triangular or rectangular block of tall maize, from which regular pigs, big keilers, and sows with piglets emerge at random, along with occasional foxes and chamois, presenting at distances from 10-100m, and at speeds ranging from a walk to the headlong dash to which all accelerate when shot at.
Deer Trail (the most recent) marks a step up in scale and realism, offering a choice of three hunting stands facing a 200m wide semi-clearing in a wintry Eastern European forest. As you shoot, white-tail bucks, prickets, does and calves stream from the forest, interspersed with the occasional fox or sounder of pigs. Stop shooting, however, and the pace will slow, permitting deliberate shots at slow-moving or grazing animals.
Wood Pigeons situates you in a cornfield surrounded by small woods, from which pigeons appear at random, either singly or in flocks of up to a dozen or so. Helpfully, they show briefly above the trees before flying into range, so you can adjust your stance accordingly, but they still present varied and testing targets. The challenge is accentuated by the fact that the model shows the birds’ tails and wings constantly flared, as if braking for landing, thus belying their actual airspeed. Delightfully, however, they shed a cloud of feathers when killed and ‘ragdoll’ more realistically than they fly!

Finding your limits
In every scenario, you can try for flashy long shots and snapshots, and watch your scores plummet (wounding shots are heavily penalised), or exercise the patience required to select only those opportunities that lie within your limits. Holding back also means feeling the tension mount as you near the end of your 30-shot ammunition supply and strive to maintain the focus required to achieve a perfect score. Success depends on developing mental composure as well as physical coordination.

Improved analytics
The analytics area now lets you rotate and zoom in on the anatomical model. This is nice, except that it also highlights the urgent need for more sophisticated internals to prevent real-life kill shots from registering only as ‘wounding’ shots. Having well-hit animals occasionally run on is my only major gripe with the system.

Multiplayer gaming
A key new direction – as yet limited to the Wood Pigeon scenario - is a multiplayer mode. Players need to be GAIM users and to have the pigeon scenario installed. Communicating initially via phone or social media, they nominate a host, who shares a code generated in the lobby area. The guest then inputs the code to start the session and enable in-game voice communication. Currently, there’s a two-player limit, but there’s obvious scope for expansion, and GAIM has committed to integrating multiplayer functionality in more scenarios.

Conclusion
The GAIM system keeps evolving, with new hardware, improved connectivity, more realistic graphics and modelling, an enhanced user interface, additional scenarios, and immense multiplayer potential. It is literally my most-used shooting accessory ever. €959 for the complete package (which includes all the software available at the time of purchase, the gunstock, training handgun, and two triggers, may seem a lot, but I bet you have much pricier things in your cabinet that will never see a hundredth of the use or give you a fraction of the fun. And when you do go shooting for real, you’ll find that all those hours on GAIM have made you a better shot.