Oculus Rift

lmimmfn

feels like im spamming the thread, but this is absolutely mega, the Rift doesnt support positional tracking for your head, i.e. it will track your head turning, looking up/down and leaning to the left/right, but it wont track the position of your head in 3D space so if you move your head towards a wall it wont zoom in on the wall.

This guy made a quick mod to the Tuscany demo, strapped one of the hydras to his rift and it provides positional tracking( translation )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj6ERrbovBw

It might not look amazing but not having translation in the Rift is a serious issue and this is such a cheapo fix its brilliant.

ScumLord wrote: »

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

lol, we all want it now, but seriously, realistically it will be several years before this is good enough for everyone, currently the rift suffers from drifting so any cockpit view will mess up over time( im gonna use track ir for this to reorient and correct but thats a different thing ). Theres the display problems, but these are a lot bigger than people think, currently small screens are solely created for the mobile market, there is no need for low latency displays in the mobile market so this issue isint going to get resolved anytime soon and until it does people will feel sick using a rift for any extended period( maybe its something you can get used to but still the problem can be vastly reduced with the correct display ).

jumbobreakfast

The low res makes it easier for people to get 60FPS in stereo 3d so it was probably a good decision overall to keep the immersion factor high. A DIY screen upgrade shouldnt be too difficult but it might not be worth the bother if Oculus bring out a model with better screen and sensors.
I think it will be great for slow paced usage so the smearing effect of the low pixel refresh rate shouldnt be too noticeable and will only get better.

Here's a VR system that has higher res but it's a teeny bit more expensive :

http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/04/02/gdc-2013-half-life-2-virtual-reality-nvis-sx60-head-mounted-display-4508

ScumLord

lmimmfn wrote: »

lol, we all want it now, but seriously, realistically it will be several years before this is good enough for everyone, currently the rift suffers from drifting so any cockpit view will mess up over time( im gonna use track ir for this to reorient and correct but thats a different thing ).

In a cockpit setting surely they could lock the position and just let you rotate your head? Or maybe they could solve the problem by having another sensor at the PC that could track the position of the unit in the room? As this is a dev kit it wouldn't surprise me if these sort of issues are well on their way to be sorted.

Theres the display problems, but these are a lot bigger than people think, currently small screens are solely created for the mobile market, there is no need for low latency displays in the mobile market so this issue isint going to get resolved anytime soon and until it does people will feel sick using a rift for any extended period( maybe its something you can get used to but still the problem can be vastly reduced with the correct display ).

While there's no screen currently on the market I wonder is there any real technical reasons for not having those kind of screens? Once the oculus can order a bespoke screen in a big enough quantity, as long as there are no technical reasons preventing such a screen to be made there shouldn't be any major issues with producing it.

I'm about two weeks away from getting my fanatec wheel and will be building a rig but I just can't afford a 3 screen setup, I'd have to also upgrade my card to get it to work. The oculus rift would be the perfect budget solution to all my problems. If I wanted to have a rig like yours I'd really be looking at a new PC in the spare room. At the moment my PC is my entertainment centre in the sitting room so I'm a bit restricted in how big the rig can get and it's going to have to somehow blend in with the rest of the room. I have a 3d projector but even that would require a second screen to project onto and would end up taking up too much of the room to be practical.

So the bottom line is my only choice for totally immersive sim racing is the rift and I'm desperately awaiting it's arrival. Wit the amount of financial backing the company has got hopefully they can overcome the little issues that are left and this isn't another failed attempt at VR.

jumbobreakfast

I'm sure it can be improved but will cost more. They can reduce the screen door effect by increaing the "pixel fill factor" and decrease the ghosting by increasing the "pixel refresh rate". I had a quick google on those to try and compare the oculus screen to a nexus 7 tablet or ipad retina screen but couldnt find much. Perhaps you'll find more.

Also, be aware that driving sims may cause nausea especially since your body wont be getting any feedback from taking turns at speed etc but maybe that's something you can train yourself to ignore. You're probably right to hold off on buying the monitors until you know more.

ScumLord

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

Also, be aware that driving sims may cause nausea especially since your body wont be getting any feedback from taking turns at speed etc but maybe that's something you can train yourself to ignore. You're probably right to hold off on buying the monitors until you know more.

I think a good wheel, along with the rift could allow your brain to accept your in a car. I have a cheap enough one at the moment a thrustmaster F430 FFB and it sucks you into the game, you can feel the track through it. If you're completely surrounded by the game visually you'll see the car move around more, I'm quietly confident it'll be enough to trick your brain into feeling the inertia.

The biggest problem I have with sims at the moment is none of them have conveyed a sense of speed. You think your going much slower than you actually are. The rifts stereoscopic view should hopefully fix that.

jumbobreakfast

ScumLord wrote: »

I think a good wheel, along with the rift could allow your brain to accept your in a car. I have a cheap enough one at the moment a thrustmaster F430 FFB and it sucks you into the game, you can feel the track through it.

That sounds like it would help help your brain adjust alright. I do remember a gaming accessory that had fans that blew air in your face depending on how fast you were going but I cant remember the name of it now, it sounds gimmicky but combined with your force feedback wheel and an oculus rift it might actually work

lmimmfn

ScumLord wrote: »

In a cockpit setting surely they could lock the position and just let you rotate your head? Or maybe they could solve the problem by having another sensor at the PC that could track the position of the unit in the room? As this is a dev kit it wouldn't surprise me if these sort of issues are well on their way to be sorted.

That Hydra hack i linked above could autocorrect the rift if it starts drifting or trackir could be used( tbh it combined with the rift would be a great combination as the latency for trackir is only around 2ms ). The drift issue will definately be solved, its just that the best solution needs to be found and integrated into the rift for the consumer version.

ScumLord wrote: »

While there's no screen currently on the market I wonder is there any real technical reasons for not having those kind of screens? Once the oculus can order a bespoke screen in a big enough quantity, as long as there are no technical reasons preventing such a screen to be made there shouldn't be any major issues with producing it.

No, technically there is no reason for not having these screens, its just at the moment its driven by the mobile market which most likely will never need very low latency screens. OLED screens are more suited, and apparently there are laser projector screens( i think thats what theyre called ) which have next to no latency.
Its a chicken and egg thing, Oculus cannot ask for a million low latency/high rez screens to be produced for the consumer version because they wont have the funds for that, the need an established consumer base to be able to fund that kind of specialized production, so as it stands they have to hope that the mobile market will bring these types of screens to the masses reducing the cost significantly.

ScumLord wrote: »

I'm about two weeks away from getting my fanatec wheel and will be building a rig but I just can't afford a 3 screen setup, I'd have to also upgrade my card to get it to work. The oculus rift would be the perfect budget solution to all my problems. If I wanted to have a rig like yours I'd really be looking at a new PC in the spare room. At the moment my PC is my entertainment centre in the sitting room so I'm a bit restricted in how big the rig can get and it's going to have to somehow blend in with the rest of the room. I have a 3d projector but even that would require a second screen to project onto and would end up taking up too much of the room to be practical.

So the bottom line is my only choice for totally immersive sim racing is the rift and I'm desperately awaiting it's arrival. Wit the amount of financial backing the company has got hopefully they can overcome the little issues that are left and this isn't another failed attempt at VR.

Nice, Fanatec wheels look class, i still have my trusty old second hand G25
Yeah my PC is also hosting all the drives for my media centre, its in my man cave( 2nd living room used as the main living room as the kid has all his toys in it ), along with my media centre and incidentally a projector too with a 110" projector screen lol.

I can see where youre coming from( rift vs 3 screen setup ), most games will be best in VR, its just going to take time, i dont think it will fail this time as a lot of tech required has advanced significantly with the mobile market driving most of the advances.

I dont know if i linked this already, but this is one of the best presentations on the current VR/AR problems - http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/03/31/gdc-2013-michael-abrash-virtual-reality-oculus-rift-presentation-slides-4415

*Edit* - just saw someone on mtbs forums from Norway who's order changed to processing and their order is 249X, theyre getting through them quickly, only 7000 more orders and mine will be changing lol.

ScumLord

lmimmfn wrote: »

Its a chicken and egg thing, Oculus cannot ask for a million low latency/high rez screens to be produced for the consumer version because they wont have the funds for that, the need an established consumer base to be able to fund that kind of specialized production, so as it stands they have to hope that the mobile market will bring these types of screens to the masses reducing the cost significantly.

There are ways around volume production issues. IE: Where I work we use a supplier that will do the bulk buy for us and then sell the stock onto us in small amounts so we can get close to the large volume discount prices.

If the rift can keep the hype up and can show they have a certain amount of guaranteed sales someone will back the production.

The screens themselves probably won't cost them all that much if they have a proper production line setup for them, Once you can get a proper production line set up just about anything can be made relatively cheaply. It's shocking the price difference between producing something in the west and producing it in China. The difference can be $20,000+ in the west compared to €2000 in china for making a plastics mold die.

I would wonder how much of that dev kit is subsidised? $300 seems very cheap and because of the low run I would imagine it's being made by western companies. Once they move the consumer version over to the east they can bring about drastic cuts in their costs.

I would say where there's a will theres a way but in actual fact it's where there's money money will follow. rift seems to have built a strong following amongst the more hardcore gamers for next to nothing. They seem to be in the same sort of position that the GTA series is in. They don't even have to advertise because everyone that hears about it is doing that for them.

lmimmfn

yeah, i agree on the mass production and how cheap it can get when done in china.
Oculus are actually making the rifts in China, so they are taking advantage of the cheaper production costs. Also i seen some guy on the forums who has order number 44000 or there abouts, now they do have orders for tshirts/posters and apparently there were 2000 of those from the original kickstarter. 7500 kits were sold in the kickstarter, but my order is 90XX hence the tshirt orders etc.

Either way its still very impressive if theyve sold say 35k rifts so far and that is going to go way up even before the consumer version simply with devs now having them in their hands they can start producing cool content and people will be trying out different hacks( like that hydra one etc. ), all of that will be eventually be fed in as input for the consumer version.

I think the hype is only going to increase now that people have them and others can start seeing whats really possible with them. Theres also the factor of say me getting one and my mates check it out and then they want one.

ScumLord

I suppose it's just hard to tell at this stage, we just don't know how far along in developing the consumer version they are. Maybe they went head first into developing the consumer version as soon as the dev kit was ready. Or maybe they're waiting to see what happens with the dev kit before pushing ahead. I hope it's the former. Them being well funded and not under a mountain of debt allows them to take their time bringing it to market.

jumbobreakfast

The order numbers dont reflect the number of purchases, have a look at the rift order tracker I linked to previously and you can see that the order numbers jump up at different stages: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnqCTeq44YeYdHRoZDNCMnVuNm1qdTRudjlWYkRoTlE#gid=0

Order 44000 is estimnated to be rift number 13000 ish

Also, I found the name of that fan and rumble kit, it's made by a company called amBX (no wonder I couldnt remember it). Here's a link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/01/philips_offers_sensory_delights/

lmimmfn

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

The order numbers dont reflect the number of purchases, have a look at the rift order tracker I linked to previously and you can see that the order numbers jump up at different stages: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnqCTeq44YeYdHRoZDNCMnVuNm1qdTRudjlWYkRoTlE#gid=0

Order 44000 is estimnated to be rift number 13000 ish

Also, I found the name of that fan and rumble kit, it's made by a company called amBX (no wonder I couldnt remember it). Here's a link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/01/philips_offers_sensory_delights/

oh yeah sorry, i forgot to look at that, seems to be all over the shop with orders in preorder/ready.

Regarding amBX, thats Philips ambient lighting system( seems to now include speakers and fan though ).

lmimmfn

Current update is next batch of 2000 due 26th of April to start delivery. Looking like 500units per week so far so last Kickstarter international orders should be finished mid July.

Headshot

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/15/mirrors-edge/

Take my money

returnNull

Headshot wrote: »

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/04/15/mirrors-edge/

Take my money

and the drivers that make it work with mirrors edge also works with skyrim!

Pushtrak

About to watch this now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAC5SeNH8jw

Pushtrak

1080p, nice.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/11/4419802/oculus-rift-goes-hd-virtual-reality-cinema

stevenmu

It's looking really good. Can't wait until the consumer versions get released.

Zero-Cool

JUst sounds class

http://kotaku.com/playing-portal-2-on-oculus-rift-is-almost-a-religious-e-513971573?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

AlmightyCushion

sheehy83 wrote: »

JUst sounds class

http://kotaku.com/playing-portal-2-on-oculus-rift-is-almost-a-religious-e-513971573?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Portal on the Oculus Rift would probably cause your brain to explode.

cherryghost

Aren't they making a porno game too for this?

lmimmfn

^^ lol, yep

Shameless plug, but this is a good laugh, my Mrs trying out the rift with Ocean rift( she did try other demos but she had no real reaction to them )
Anyways hope you enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfs9gHnzmUE

Skerries

very funny, now sort out your wall sockets

ScumLord

Pushtrak wrote: »

1080p, nice.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/11/4419802/oculus-rift-goes-hd-virtual-reality-cinema

It would be even nicer if they had something like the iPad screen in there. That's got a resolution of 2048 x 1536, Given that you're essentially running two screens in one even HD could look pretty crumby.

lmimmfn

Skerries wrote: »

very funny, now sort out your wall sockets

haha, thanks, yeah theyre in a state lol, i only pulled them out that day, hadnt anticipated videoing that night, well thats my excuse anyway .

Oafley Jones

If there's one thing that could make me return to PC gaming it's this.

grizzly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqVM6meO2yo

FutureGuy

I tried oculus rift at Eurogamer Expo. It is the future. The uses for this are uncountable.

I also saw the omnidirectional treadmill that works with the rift. Absolutely amazing. Spoke to one of the developers and I think we are on the verge of a major change in how the we view games, both figuratively and literally.

Duggy747

Was very tempted to get the rift now but I want to experience in it's full HD glory, even if it will be a bitch to get hands on upon release.

Genghiz Cohen

Yeah, I'm pretty much sold on the Rift if we get 1080p.

Apparently the colours aren't too great on the current gen either. Hopefully that gets looked after.