Anybody considering picking up an Oculus Rift..?

[Asmo]

No, never. I did with Doom though. Played about 25 minutes of it and I started to heave. It's definitely the constant 'rolling' motion that the walking has (up & down bobbing with side-to-side rocking whenever you walk).

I have a load of other demos, Wingsuit flying (controlled with head movement), Driving games, Spaceflight, you name it - there's a brief flash of something like vertigo sometimes, especially when falling unexpectedly, but the Doom experience is very different.

I suppose it doesn't help that it's also pretty frantic..

I just give it a break and dive back in after 30 minutes or so. I gave my brother a shot at it but he didn't recover for hours.

It just has to be seen though. All these amazing places that only existed on screen, and you 'know' so well, suddenly translated into actual environments you can look all around in.

 

[Nintendo]

Well, I've better stay away from those games then, because sometimes it takes me a day to recover from games like COD4 or Fallout 3.

 

[pmprog]

Asmo, sorry if you've already mentioned this, but what headset are you using? Oculus DK2?

 

[Asmo]

Well, I've better stay away from those games then, because sometimes it takes me a day to recover from games like COD4 or Fallout 3.

Games/demos that have a fixed point of reference seem to be less 'affecting' - driving, or seated with a visible cockpit/control panel causes me no dizziness at all.

There's a really good one, Sightline VR's "The Chair" -

http://sightlinevr.com/

In which you're seated with a visible torso from the neck down, and whenever you look around, something changes out of sight - so you go from a room, to an island, to medieval times to a city... all seamlessly, until you look around one time behind you and the world has dissolved into space, look forward again and there's nothing but space - all stars and colliding asteroids, a passing planet - and a copy of the Hitchhikers guide floats past (!). It should be pretty disorienting, but having your seated form visible seems to ground you. It's a great demo.

Asmo, sorry if you've already mentioned this, but what headset are you using? Oculus DK2?

Yep, Oculus DK2.

 

[pmprog]

Is it worth grabbing a DK2? Is there any idea when the official release is?

On a related note, how long did they say for production on the original kickstarter? Because this has been going on a while now...

 

[Asmo]

Is it worth grabbing a DK2? Is there any idea when the official release is?

On a related note, how long did they say for production on the original kickstarter? Because this has been going on a while now...

It's fantastic to play with, no doubt about it.

The consumer version (my guess is next year's CES before that appears) will blow it away in terms of resolution alone though. Don't get me wrong, although the screen grid is visible in the DK2, some stuff hides it well - in the Doom engine games it's almost invisible, in Space stuff (Titans of Space for example) it's unnoticeable, but when text or menus need to be read, it can look like the text is old dot-crawl riddled composite video quality. In some demos with large areas of flat colour it's pretty evident too, although you really do get over it very quickly.

The field of view is very good, although to either side there is some border - but none of the feel of it being a screen or window in front of you, the effect really, really is of being 'in' the game environment.

So I guess if you can't wait, have the hardware, patience, and the cash to spare, you'll enjoy it - BUT it'll be pretty much redundant as soon as the CV1 surfaces, or a rumoured DK3..

Then there's Valve's offering to come.. and Morpheus..

You do get the advantage with the DK2 though, of an existing (huge) pile of free software to mess with. Don't expect to be able to hoard all the psychedelic demos, retro remakes and crazy VR experiences for those rivals quite so quickly, if ever.

If playing commercial games titles is your main aim, I'd say wait.

 

[pmprog]

TBH, I barely get chance to play any games - "commercial" ones certainly won't be in the list. Elite: Dangerous was, until I cancelled my order. Doom and Duke3D, however...

 

[Asmo]

Then you'd probably pee yourself with excitement with a DK2.

I thought Doom and Hexen would be a novelty experience, but they work amazingly well, really convincing sense of space and scale - those horned dragon enemies (the two legged ones with fireballs) in Hexen are something else! When you run over to attack with fists or axe, you have to look up to see their heads! And all those crazy castles and caves..

Keep a bucket handy though, it'll take some getting used to.

 

[pmprog]

Cool. What connections does the DK2 use to the PC?

 

[Asmo]

1 USB (For powering the headset's display, and for the head & positional tracking), and 1 HDMI* on your Graphics card.

Joypad is almost mandatory, everything supports a 360 wired one.

*It comes with a DVI-HDMI adapter in case your card doesn't have a HDMI output, though tbh if your card isn't current you may want to think twice anyway...

 

[pmprog]

I have a dual DVI output card (used to connect two monitors), so that's fine.

I'm kind of tempted, though I don't really have the time. I guess I'll see how my next couple of months pan out first.

Edit: Ooh, Irrlicht support for the Rift...

 

[Asmo]

A couple of people have made attempts to get it to work with a Raspberry Pi even..

Now the Pi 2 is out it might actually be useable, if they can get a properly working display mode (where experiments have so far ended). Could be used for viewing 3D movies and 360 photos perhaps.

 

[Nintendo]

2016?

http://blog.gsmarena.com/oculus-rift-retail-launch-may-slip-2016/

Looks like I have to wait

 

[Asmo]

Late 2016 is what I'm guessing, I thought we'd be lucky to see a retail prototype at next year's CES.

It's not a 'consumer' device yet, the average PC user (you know the sort, nobody here) would have a meltdown trying to juggle all the settings and little hurdles various applications can have, and the spaghetti wiring, to get stuff working. The screen needs to be better*, and ideally a range of graphics cards with direct VR support would be on the market at the same time.

It needs it's custom controller. FPS games are hard when you can't see the keyboard, and although a joypad works, you really wan't to extend your hands rather than keep them close clutching the pad.

*- Don't get me wrong, it's easily good enough as is, for many games and demos. However, the average owner tempted by hype with no prior HMD experience will have much higher expectations of it. They won't be so forgiving of the apparently 'low res' pixel array they can see. All the geeks I've shown mine to freak out about how amazing it is - the ageing parents and not-previously-interested non-geek people are impressed, generally, but ask why it looks 'grainy' or what all the 'dots' are about. Philistines.

(ETA: A bit like after being told that the Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were computer graphics, computer illiterate fogeys were subsequently wholly unimpressed by the T Rex in Tomb Raider, despite gamers being in awe, knowing as they did the long road to games looking that way).

Where a substantial increase in screen density and resolution will be important (like I say, games already look amazing ) is with 360 degree video. I've been playing with that a bit, I have some sample videos of various resolutions, and although 4k spherical video is fantastically immersive, it's a bit 'soft' thanks to the actual screen limitations. Still mind blowing though. Virtual Tokyo tour clip is a blast, everything is 'life size'. It's impossible to relate the impact this has - no physical screen of any size is like watching a video you can look around in. Whenever anybody looks at the camera, they are making direct eye contact with you, no matter where in the 'frame' they are!

There's always something new to notice on a rewatch.

It'll be worth the wait.

 

[WizardStan]

"Slip"? I wasn't aware that they'd picked a launch date for it to slip from.

 

[Asmo]

Shooting spherical (360) video is currently possible with one of several 'ok' quality cameras (and a few crappy ones) hovering around the $400+ mark, or the benchmark quality level with a half dozen (or more) Go Pro cameras in a special mount, followed by much grinding & stitching to render a single video file from all the sources.

However, latest news is that GoPro are almost certainly going to finally release their own product with the announcement of their acquisition of French VR Video software company 'Kolor', eliminating all the various 3rd party bits you currently need to make a really good spherical video for VR viewing -

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/28/8509595/gopro-virtual-reality-kolor-acquisition-vr-video

http://gizmodo.com/i-think-gopro-is-building-a-virtual-reality-camera-1700759526

“I think we’re well poised to be a leader in that area,” said a GoPro executive on today’s earnings call, when asked about the possibility of consumer-grade VR cameras.

ETA: I grabbed GoPro's teaser video that came with this announcement, and watched it on the DK2 - the stitching is practically seamless - best I've seen so far - and even at 2k res it's stunning. Opening shot is 'you' (i.e. the camera) held about 2m off the bow of a rubber dinghy at sea. Sunshine, waves, fluffy clouds, and OHMYGOD GET ME BACK IN THE BOAT! Directly beneath you a silhouette of a large creature appears, and I swear your heart sinks thinking it's a shark. Turns out to be a Dolphin though...!

 

[Asmo]

IGN reported earlier today (then pulled the page, then put it back, then pulled it again..) and other sites are now reporting that Oculus are about to announce a Q1 2016 launch for the CV1, and a pre-order scheme opening later this year.

Also that (this is the BIG bit, certainly in regard to competitors specs) the CV1 will feature DUAL displays, not a single shared one, so expect in excess of 1080p per eye - which is going to make the visuals dramatically superior to DK2. Orientation and 'camber' of these displays will be interesting. Also, that the lenses used will be Fresnel, which I suppose may mean they're cheaper to make, but also that they could be larger, flatter and cover a rectangular area which dramatically improves FOV and reduces edge distortion requiring the chromatic aberration correction.

http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-announce-consumer-oculus-rift-release-date-is-q1-2016-breaking/

The link to the IGN story with more detail is in the above story, though still dead again as of posting.

 

[fusion_power]

1080p per eye @ (maybe) 90Hz sounds good but of course has a price. I guess we better save for a new graphics card...or better two. If they don't improve the performance of the OR, it looks like dual Titans are almost a must to have stable FPS. :/

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Is there a chance this could work with Pyra?  I would be more interested if it could work with Pyra.

 

[Asmo]

Is there a chance this could work with Pyra?  I would be more interested if it could work with Pyra.

It should work with anything that has HDMI output, if a suitable display mode can be output. The original DK1 and DK2 have - experimentally - worked on Raspberry Pi for example. I guess it depends on whether the CV1 demands a specific refresh rate or display mode the Pyra can't output. Then someone would have to port the headtracking drivers....