I may have set my expectations too high...

[Andovar]

Or maybe there's just something screwed up with my setup.
It took some tinkering and fiddling, but I finally got it running on the extended display. yea!
...now for the bad news.

The resolution and chromatic aberration is just awful.
I fully expected fuzzy text based on everything I read, but not fuzzy stars and planets.
Every star pinpoint is a small white smudge with a companion 'red star' right next to it. It seems like the lenses are not converging the images correctly. Plus the whole HUD has a heavy blur/smudge factor.
I did the IPD test, and it came out to 71. I read somewhere that setting it to the minimum (55) helps, but neither setting helped, it's still the same.

I understand that this is still a dev kit, and I wasn't expecting perfection. But right now the spatial immersion isn't outweighing the poor resolution and terrible CA.

 

[ranix]

Did you go through the setup post and mess with everything for 3 weeks, enable Nvidia DSR or SweetFX (pick one or use the sweetfx dsr-specific settings), set all your brighness and contrast settings properly, check your FPS, etc, etc, etc?

What video card do you have?

 

[Andovar]

r9 290x

Yes, I went through the setup post. No, I didn't mess with everything for 3 weeks. Didn't know that was a requirement.

I've poured through this forum (and google) and continue to do so. I could live with the CA, and the less than perfect text. The main issue for me is the overwhelming blur everywhere. It's like I'm looking through someones prescription glasses, and my eyes are fighting to focus.

 

[ranix]

oooh do you normally wear prescription glasses? I am pretty nearsighted and used to looking through lenses - if you're not I could definitely see the Rift messing with you in a huge way

edit: also if you look really close really carefully can you make out all the individual pixels in the display? Like the green dots should seem closer together and more numerous than the red or orange dots

 

[CMDR Holycow]

Your issue isn't with the oculus per-se... sounds like you have some vision problems / lens alignment problems. Remember, the image in the oculus is only sharp dead center when looking ahead. The more you move your eyes to the side, the more blurry it gets. So you end up using your head to look around alot more than you would in real life. There should be a pretty decent size area in the middle of your vision in the rift that, while low in resolution, is pretty clear. (sweetFX with lumenshapen required to make things sharp) If you have chromatic aberations in the middle of your vision... something is WAY off. If your IPD really is 71.. you may need custom mounts for your lenses.

 

[Frank]

The IPD of 55mm that people were going on about here was just to adjust the scale of the galaxy, making everything life-sized. Your eyes do seem quite far apart though. The easy way to suss out if it's this that's causing the problem is to shut one eye and shift the headset about your head, both left and right as well as up and down. Find the ideal position on your face for that eyeball, then repeat for your other eyeball. Once you know both ideal positions it's easier to check if a compromise position for both eyes is feasible or if you need to invest in IPD-shifting mounts.

Something else that's quick and easy you can try... restart the service using the Oculus Configuration Utility. Sometimes I find the colours on my headset are wonky if I don't restart my service.

 

[djbordie]

i say IPD as well, your like a hammer head shark (jkjk)

check your IPD here https://pd.warbyparker.com/

not the oculus utility, its usually way off.

if you are really past 70 ipd, then custom lens adjusters might be in order.

it definitely sounds like a lens/alignment/on ur face issue.

you have amd and had problems with VSR, but still super sample or not it should still not look blurry like that.

 

[Andovar]

i say IPD as well, your like a hammer head shark (jkjk)

check your IPD here https://pd.warbyparker.com/

not the oculus utility, its usually way off.

if you are really past 70 ipd, then custom lens adjusters might be in order.

it definitely sounds like a lens/alignment/on ur face issue.

you have amd and had problems with VSR, but still super sample or not it should still not look blurry like that.

No vision issues, I have 20/20 vision. Been lucky to never need glasses.
Based on what I've read, that IPD value seemed abnormally large, but I did the rift calibration tool twice, and it came out to exactly 71.7 both times. I've seen people with wide-set eyes, and narrow-set eyes, and when I look in the mirror, I look pretty much average-joe from what I can see.
Thanks for the link, i'll try it and see what it comes up with.

I might also have to train myself move only my head and not my eyes, as the blur is definitely waaaay worse once you get off center.

Of course I can't do any of this until I get the darn thing working again. I'm now having the same issue I initially had when I was trying VSR. It's like it's trying to send a signal to the rift, but it's not coming through. I also have to avoid switching modes to test things, that's a nightmare as it gets all screwed up going back to extended mode. I basically end up with nothing going to either display, and it takes several reboots to get stuff back to normal. ...fun stuff.

Anyway, thanks for all the responses. I'll be back, hammering away at it tonight. ...think it's a good thing I'm at work today, gives me a break to clear my head.

 

[djbordie]

well dude you just said it...you used the rift calibration tool.

i just mentioned to use this website instead.
https://pd.warbyparker.com/
(well documented that the rift tool ipd is flawed and incorrect)

for example, my "rift tool ipd" = 59
that website puts me at 63

when my ipd is set to 59 its a bloody mess, 63 perfection.

your problem is now solved.

i just hope your actual ipd isnt like 75 instead of what the rift thinks incorrectly @ 71.
lets hope its actually 66-68

you say your not a hammer head shark, so im leaning towards you have average IPD and simply the oculus tool is screwing you up!

good news! simple fix.

 

[Andovar]

...we'll see tonight.

another question. Does the lens distance adjustment have any effect on focus? I didn't play with that much, just went with a comfortable distance (basically far enough to keep my eyelashes from touching)

 

[djbordie]

yes, you should be exteneded far out
we typically use 2-3 from the end.

I use 2 clicks from the end

also make sure you adjust the headset and also the rift utility to match

 

[atlas974]

Or maybe there's just something screwed up with my setup.
It took some tinkering and fiddling, but I finally got it running on the extended display. yea!
...now for the bad news.

The resolution and chromatic aberration is just awful.
I fully expected fuzzy text based on everything I read, but not fuzzy stars and planets.
Every star pinpoint is a small white smudge with a companion 'red star' right next to it. It seems like the lenses are not converging the images correctly. Plus the whole HUD has a heavy blur/smudge factor.
I did the IPD test, and it came out to 71. I read somewhere that setting it to the minimum (55) helps, but neither setting helped, it's still the same.

I understand that this is still a dev kit, and I wasn't expecting perfection. But right now the spatial immersion isn't outweighing the poor resolution and terrible CA.

Hi!
Your problem is with lens separation in the DK2 (63.5mm) and your IPD (71+mm). That means your eyes can't be in the sweet spot (middle of the lens) and that image is blurry and CA are way off. Easy way to check is to put the dk2 on, close left eye and try to move the right eye in front of the lens in order to have a clear image, close the right eye and open the left one: you'll see how far you are from the sweet spot.

There is a solution: change the lens separation using this tool http://www.vr-gear.com/ or use a knife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_OFWAOdYbo
For both method you will need to use a soft that will change the image separation on screen in order to match the new lens separationhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-XZ5ooeoqJdZ0FfWkl5YzNvdVk/view?pli=1 and these new OVR server files https://mega.co.nz/#!S0ljzAbK!PRZjAhThrKRawzL9WT8Pn8hYvYb6XF4bElt4O0diS0s

PS: i have a large IPD and i used the second method (knife) in order to bring the lens separation to 68mm, it really improved my VR experience.

 

[Jericho]

I did the IPD test, and it came out to 71.

The bad news is that with an IPD of 71 you are outside of the human 'norm' and your eye separation is what's messing up the visual acuity. (your eyes are not aligned well enough to the eyepiece optics)
.
The good news is that you can fix it!
.
I have wide eyes myself, but I have fixed my Rift to accommodate and you can too.
Check out this thread where I describe the process:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=136868&p=2094742&viewfull=1#post2094742
.
.
PS: Take a tape measure or ruler and actually measure your IPD (distance between the center of your pupils) as a double check.

 

[ranix]

doublecheck your ipd using the website suggested. The Rift config tool is messed up. It puts my ipd at around 71 also but my actual ipd is more like 62-63. Before taking any action find out what your real ipd is and do the one-eye test to see if you can improve the image by moving the rift around your face with one eye closed.

You should definitely be able to make out individual dots and should be able to tell definitively that green stuff is less blurry than other colors. If you can't then you definitely have some kind of issue for sure. There may be still ways to improve the image past that point too that you'll have to mess with.

The fact that you have perfect vision suggests to me that you might just be experiencing looking through lenses for long periods of time for the first time. I have a friend with perfect vision also who experienced something similar. I recall that when I first got glasses it was also hard to adjust, and there's even an adjustment period every time I get new glasses.

Amazingly it seems like those of us with less than perfect vision are actually advantaged in this situation!

Oh, one more thing - clean your lenses off with the microfiber cloth really well (careful not to scratch them) before and during your session. If it's really humid you might be experiencing lens fogging. You might not notice fogging immediately if you're not used to using the rift.

 

[Commander Pew Pew]

If it's really humid you might be experiencing lens fogging. You might not notice fogging immediately if you're not used to using the rift.

I might add to this that if the Rift is colder than the room temperature the fogging starts as soon as you put on the Rift. Take it off, fog is gone, put it back on and it's foggy again. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Lesson learned: make sure the Rift is at room temperature.

 

[Andovar]

Yup, it's my IPD. Measured using the https://pd.warbyparker.com/ site, as well as with a small ruler in the mirror. Apparently my ancestors were hammerheads after all... I'm at 70.

I've gone ahead and ordered a set of the 69.5mm spacers from vr-gear. I know there's the manual 'knife method' and such, but I spent enough money on this setup, it's worth another $15 to me. Plus it will allow me to easily swap them out and back to normal IPD when my son wants to use it. He tried it out today and confirmed that there's no blur (at least not in the middle). I guess he's got a closer to normal IPD.
I also tested with one eye and it was clear, which was a huge relief. So now more waiting until I get the spacers. Which if fine because I've still got plenty of work to get this setup working optimally. But that's a topic for another post.

Thanks again for all the help and info.

 

[surf]

Just wanted to add to this... I wear verifocal glasses for short sightedness.. when my glasses aren't on quite right in the rift I too see what the OP has described.. fuzzy stars, planets etc. eg Every star pinpoint is a small white smudge with a companion 'red star' right next to it (and blue stars for me I think too). this tells me that I'm clearly looking through the wrong part of my verifocal glasses and adjusting them brings everything back pin-sharp again. Hope that helps someone if you're having issues with verifocals.

 

[Jericho]

Y
I've gone ahead and ordered a set of the 69.5mm spacers from vr-gear.

I recommend against those.
I have some, I've tried them, and there are a couple issues you should be aware of:
.
1. First of all they are made of cheap 3D printable plastic, which flakes easily. This will inevitably result in some 'crap' on your screen, which will annoy the hell out of you and require you to take the rift apart to get all the way out of the system.
1b. This will also lead you to use canned air to try and get the flakes out, which will result in condensation on the screen which leads to noticeable streaking and again it will require you to take the Rift apart and spend 1/2 the night cleaning the screen.
.
2. They add some distance between the screen and the optics, which can be accommodated for with the eye relief.... unless you already need to set it all the way out, then you're screwed.
.
The knife method is by far the best, IMO.
Just be careful.... use a very sharp knife so you don't have to struggle, and make sure you have a firm grip on the eyepiece by wearing thick rubberized gloves.
.
Good Luck!

 

[Andovar]

Yeah, I saw your other post after i ordered.
I'm going to wait until they get here and decide. Maybe I can seal them to prevent any dust or flake-off.
If I'm not comfortable with them, then i'l just play hack-a-rift.

 

[djbordie]

interesting, too bad about those 3d printers. such crap results.

I would suggest a few layers of clear coat (krylon clear should be safe on the 3d printed plastic)
this will give it an extra layer of protection that may seal in the flakes.

worth a try!