Oculus Rift

jumbobreakfast

Dean Hall who created DayZ talked a little about the Oculus Rift and the problems in getting it working in DayZ Standalone and Arma 3. For anyone who hasnt played them, the Arma games allow you to turn your head around while while on foot as well as while driving (unlike most first person games where your body turns as you look around). Arma already supports TrackIR but he mentions how keeping a steady 60 FPS is the biggest challenge to getting Oculus Rift working: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBcJwrBfwxg&feature=youtu.be&t=8m6s

Icyseanfitz

he seemed to think it was good, its just trying to get the game locked at 60fps thats the big issue, i think i read that the only reason their finally able to make something like the oculus rift these days is because the gpu's etc. have finally gotten powerful enough to do it properly, id take minecraft level VR over a better looking game on a standard tv any day

Headshot

wow this looks superb

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/11/half-life-2/

balkieb2002

Headshot wrote: »

wow this looks superb

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/11/half-life-2/

Me want now!!!

Pushtrak

Crysis now has Oculus Rift support thanks to a mod.

o1s1n

Headshot wrote: »

wow this looks superb

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/11/half-life-2/

TAKE MY MONEY!

/Edit - I keep looking at the rift dev kit and really want to get one. The only thing holding me back at the moment is minimum specs. I've a laptop with an i5, 6gb of RAM and a nVidia 450m - seems to be giving me about 120fps in HL2.

My PC hardware knowledge is seriously behind the times though, do you reckon I've any hope in running something like Doom 3 BFG in the Rift at a level which won't make me vomit? The minimum spec requirements listed for it are all very vague.

Squidwert

.

Pushtrak

I guess it was bound to happen eventually.

lmimmfn

just a few more weeks until i finally get my hands on this, the new UDK integration looks like it will be good.

Gamespot @ GDC with the rift - http://www.gamespot.com/events/gdc-2013/video.html?sid=6405910

Headshot

lmimmfn wrote: »

just a few more weeks until i finally get my hands on this, the new UDK integration looks like it will be good.

Gamespot @ GDC with the rift - http://www.gamespot.com/events/gdc-2013/video.html?sid=6405910

I hope your report back your experiences you lucky fecker

lmimmfn

Headshot wrote: »

I hope your report back your experiences you lucky fecker

haha cheers, will do, although the resolution is very low and there are latency issues so im not considering this to be 'unbelievable', but its a start( and a good one at that ) and im hoping to combine it with my TrackIR so it has minimum latency for looking forward/slightly left and right and for looking behind etc. relying on the rift head tracking for that( wont work with any of the demos but ill throw something together to see how much it improves the experience ). It depends on how flexible their SDK is though.

COYVB

lmimmfn wrote: »

haha cheers, will do, although the resolution is very low and there are latency issues so im not considering this to be 'unbelievable',

You'll be pleasantly surprised sir

TPD

I was just thinking about this today. Would be interesting to see a mishmash of this, the kinect, and a couple of ps move / wiimotes, all working together.

ScumLord

I was wondering how it would work with FPS, if your hand left the keyboard or mouse during play you'd be desperately fumbling around for them. Still don't know that it will make all that much sense in FPS.

It's ideal for cockpit games where your in a seated position, what would be a cool addition is gloves. It might be a bit alarming to have no control over the hands in front of you, if they had gloves that replicated you hand and finger movements you could use them to press cockpit buttons.

o1s1n

Ive one coming too. Havent been this excited about new hardware in years.

Gbear

ScumLord wrote: »

I was wondering how it would work with FPS, if your hand left the keyboard or mouse during play you'd be desperately fumbling around for them. Still don't know that it will make all that much sense in FPS.

It's ideal for cockpit games where your in a seated position, what would be a cool addition is gloves. It might be a bit alarming to have no control over the hands in front of you, if they had gloves that replicated you hand and finger movements you could use them to press cockpit buttons.

They'd need to have tactile feedback. Otherwise it'd be a bit like QWOP.

ScumLord

Gbear wrote: »

They'd need to have tactile feedback. Otherwise it'd be a bit like QWOP.

Not necessarily. If it's a cockpit set up and the gloves have fingertips that could register hitting something you could just use a bit of ply as your button rack.

The possibility for this with race sim driving is what excites me, a race rig had been a pipe dream due to the cost and space requirements. A proper race rig would need 3 screens which wouldn't fit in my sitting room beside my main PC so it was looking like I'd need a completely new PC, 3 new monitors and then build the frame work to support all that. Not possible, either space wise or financially.

The oculus means I could have a basic fold up rig and could connect to my existing PC. Even if the oculus doubles in price by launch it would still be considerably cheaper than a 3 screen rig. If I could lay out the steering wheel and gear stick so it's in the same position as the virtual car and had the gloves it would be a very believable experience.

Squidwert

I'm sure it won't be to long before someone fits it into a helmet. A headset would all so be needed but it would be awesome.

lmimmfn

ScumLord wrote: »

Not necessarily. If it's a cockpit set up and the gloves have fingertips that could register hitting something you could just use a bit of ply as your button rack.

The possibility for this with race sim driving is what excites me, a race rig had been a pipe dream due to the cost and space requirements. A proper race rig would need 3 screens which wouldn't fit in my sitting room beside my main PC so it was looking like I'd need a completely new PC, 3 new monitors and then build the frame work to support all that. Not possible, either space wise or financially.

The oculus means I could have a basic fold up rig and could connect to my existing PC. Even if the oculus doubles in price by launch it would still be considerably cheaper than a 3 screen rig. If I could lay out the steering wheel and gear stick so it's in the same position as the virtual car and had the gloves it would be a very believable experience.

my problem there is i have 3 screens, G25 wheel, and trackir, so no VR is going to give me the realism and feedback i get from racers( and tbh with my setup its the only time i have ever got an adrenelin rush from racing ). It will be several years before VR is good enough for what i experience( i.e. lets not blow everything out of proportion on what the rift can achieve currently ).

On a seperate note they have 50% off for rift devs for the Razor Hydra, works out delivered at 70euro( not bad compared to the original price, not sure how useful it will be, would have preferred 2 gloves that you could see in game. )

lmimmfn

For us guys in ireland this might be good news( might mean batch deliveries )

We're still in the process of setting up our international fulfillment network. We expect to start shipping our first large batch of units to European backers toward the end of next week. Asia should follow a week or two after that.

To be honest, our logistics process is still in its infancy -- we're sorting out the details and optimizing as we go. For example, this week we're working on setting up a fulfillment center in Europe that should cut another week off future European delivery estimates.

This is what happens when you have a team of engineers leading your distribution efforts. ;-)

We promise we'll get faster as we go! Thanks again for your support and patience.

Best,

-- Nate

source - https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=103&start=20#p1311

o1s1n

Good to hear I have the SDK ready to go, just need my damn Rift!

See one sold on Ebay yesterday for almost $1000?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oculus-Rift-VR-Development-Kit-/140944692965?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item20d0f556e5&nma=true&si=AzOQCP63SAwGck0u4ezzHZw6SPo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

lmimmfn

o1s1n wrote: »

Good to hear I have the SDK ready to go, just need my damn Rift!

See one sold on Ebay yesterday for almost $1000?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oculus-Rift-VR-Development-Kit-/140944692965?pt=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item20d0f556e5&nma=true&si=AzOQCP63SAwGck0u4ezzHZw6SPo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

you prob know this already, but if not an excellent place to keep an eye on rift stuff is - http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=140&sid=e7748adb568e69d4d67ab56bde82394b

You have first impressions of those who recieved the rift, links to videos of the rift with razor hydra and tonnes of other stuff, excellent forum( and where Palmer originally looked for help when building the rift )

lol at the $1000 sale, much as i would like that cash, WTF, i need it NOW!!!! haha

I havnt downloaded the SDK yet, its too early to get too excited about it lol.

Theres a great video of TF2 posted on mtbs which is a video through one of the eye pieces to give you an idea of the res and the the screen door( i.e. black lines between pixels ), tbh i think its way better than i expected. Havnt got the link handy.

o1s1n

Thanks for the link, will keep an eye on that. Only heard about the Hydra a few minutes ago. Plenty more reading on that alone.

Download and run the SDK just to see how your computer handles it. You can run that Tuscany demo that they have in their videos with stereoscopic images on the screen.

jumbobreakfast

The low refresh rate and screen door effect look to be a problem alright but not bad for a first dev kit at that price. Motion sickness is a very real problem too but apparently it gets easier the more you use it and is reduced if the game devs are careful, see here: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/2013/Team_Fortress_in_VR_GDC.pdf

I came across an order tracker too but cant find it now, I saw it linked on reddit. I think I'll wait for at least the Dev Kit 2.0 which was mentioned on their roadmap but I'm kind of sorry I didnt order one several months ago, I cant wait to try it out.

*edit: found the order tracker but apparently it's been screwed around with so they disabled anonymous editing. It might give ye an idea about when your order arrives but hasnt factored in the euro shipping announcement:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnqCTeq44YeYdHRoZDNCMnVuNm1qdTRudjlWYkRoTlE#gid=0
I see that there is at least one Irish entry in it, perhaps it's one of you guys?

Headshot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P50fvL_EWYY

ScumLord

lmimmfn wrote: »

my problem there is i have 3 screens, G25 wheel, and trackir, so no VR is going to give me the realism and feedback i get from racers( and tbh with my setup its the only time i have ever got an adrenelin rush from racing ). It will be several years before VR is good enough for what i experience( i.e. lets not blow everything out of proportion on what the rift can achieve currently ).

I don't think that would be the case. While the 3 screen setup is as good as it gets now, if you replaced the screens in your setup with the oculus (the consumer version that will be HD and with a fast refresh rate) it is bound to be a huge improvement on immersion. You'll be in the seat of the car not looking through windows which is the feeling you get with screens. You can freely look around the car and your entire view out to your peripheral vision will be game. Combine that with your wheel and it wouldn't be massively immersive.

lmimmfn

ScumLord wrote: »

I don't think that would be the case. While the 3 screen setup is as good as it gets now, if you replaced the screens in your setup with the oculus (the consumer version that will be HD and with a fast refresh rate) it is bound to be a huge improvement on immersion. You'll be in the seat of the car not looking through windows which is the feeling you get with screens. You can freely look around the car and your entire view out to your peripheral vision will be game. Combine that with your wheel and it wouldn't be massively immersive.

no, i agree with the potential of the rift/VR in general, but there are too many problems at the moment with VR that it cant compete with the response times of trackir( a few ms's ) and 3 screen setup( max delay for screens G2G with trackir is around 12ms or 85FPS compared to the rifts 40ms-50ms or 20-25fps), where because the screens arent directly in front of you means you dont notice the delay of LCD pixel upates or the screen door affect.
Im not knocking VR, its just there are so many problems at the moment that its going to be several years before its perfect and transports you to another world where you cant tell the difference.

Heres an excellent slide pack from Valve's Michael Abrash on the problems which need to be overcome for both VR and AR - http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/03/31/gdc-2013-michael-abrash-virtual-reality-oculus-rift-presentation-slides-4415

lmimmfn

10 Oculus Rift Demo impressions from GDC 2013 - excellent viewing as its impressions from non gamers and gamers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovcEK9UbIo

Recent Rift related updates:
- UDK now available for Rift. - available from the Oculus Drift development forum
- Hydra support for Unity now available, download - https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/search/sixense
- The Gallery( built from scratch with the rift in mind ) needs funding to make its kickstarter goal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=svY8Wz2GjQ0#!
Support it if you can, the Hydra support and slow pace/puzzle solving makes it one of the best contenders for VR( considering blur is currently a problem for quick head movements, so slow paced wandering the environment games are better suited )
- Oculus Rift demo Museum of the Microstar - http://rustltd.com/news/adventures-in-virtual-reality

- Apparently some people are reporting having their Rift as in Ready status for shipping( i.e. nothing happening with it ), but at the bottom of the page its showing shipping info, so worth a double check )
- Team Fortress 2 now supports the Rift + Razor Hydra
- Update on international orders

International orders are shipping, just a little slower than North American orders. Unfortunately, we don’t have accurate delivery estimates because there are so many variables (see below), but rest assured, they are coming. If you’re looking for a detailed estimate of when you’ll receive your kit, we don’t have one for you yet (sorry!), but remember that we’re shipping 1,000 - 1,500 kits a week.

All right -- Let's break down where we're at with international shipping:

1. So far we've shipped a couple hundred international orders. Some of those have already arrived.

2. We’re shipping 1,000 - 1,500 units a week right now. Each week, we ship the majority of the units to a different region (see below). We started with North America, that’s why more NA backers have kits.

3. 1,000+ units will be shipped to Europe and Asia over the next few weeks.

4. We're setting up a top-notch international fulfillment network so that we can speed up deliveries and lower shipping/duty/tax costs for backers.

5. We're now including tracking information for shipping orders at http://www.oculusvr.com/sales. If your order has been shipped, you can login to see your tracking number.

Right now, the main bottleneck is the number of units coming off the line at the factory. We don't have a huge stock of units sitting in our warehouse waiting to ship out. As soon as we have enough units ready to ship a large batch, they ship out the same day.

Once a batch is ready, the next step is actually getting them from the factory to your doorstep. And that’s when shipping development kits internationally starts to get tricky. The proper way to ship internationally is to ship large quantities (1,000+) to different continents (Americas, EU, Asia) for local distribution, thereby significantly reducing the overall shipping cost per unit.

Why is this important? Cost and speed. An example: shipping one dev kit from our factory to Germany costs more than $125. Instead, we can ship 1,000 dev kits to Europe via air as a single ‘batch’ and that costs roughly $20 per unit, plus another ~$15 from our European warehouse to your European doorstep. The single batch way is also faster because it clears customs more quickly.

In contrast, let's pretend we fulfill all the orders using FedEx from Oculus HQ. It would cost $100 - $200 for us to ship a single dev kit from California to Europe/Asia, depending on where it's headed. For example, it costs roughly $100 to ship from Oculus HQ to Buckingham Palace, UK, 6-8 day delivery, plus the cost of shipping from the factory to Oculus HQ. You can see that if we did this for every international unit, we'd burn through a lot of money very quickly.

Unfortunately, shipping directly from the factory to backers is just as expensive (~$125+) and even slower. We experimented with shipping a few dozen units from China and they were held in customs for almost two weeks.

We have a great logistics team on board now, but they walked into the logistical storm that we'd already created with the Kickstarter (Sorry, Oculus logistics team!). We're moving as quickly as we can to put a more streamlined system in place so that kits are flying out to developers faster and faster.

Thanks again for the patience and support. Sorry for the wait. We’re on it!

-- Nate
nmitchell
Team Oculus

lmimmfn

o1s1n wrote: »

Thanks for the link, will keep an eye on that. Only heard about the Hydra a few minutes ago. Plenty more reading on that alone.

Download and run the SDK just to see how your computer handles it. You can run that Tuscany demo that they have in their videos with stereoscopic images on the screen.

dont forget the hydra is 50% off for those who ordered the Rift, although in europe theyve currently run out so have to wait until they have stock. I ordered mine as soon as i seen how it can be used with the Rift, bit of a no brainer tbh, especially as support is added to unity, the demos, rift games etc.

Sorry for treble post, too many different topics

ScumLord

lmimmfn wrote: »

Im not knocking VR, its just there are so many problems at the moment that its going to be several years before its perfect and transports you to another world where you cant tell the difference.

I hope you're wrong because I want it now.