Image convergence for distance, Oculus Rift CV1

[jojon]

So, (and this is difficult, since you have to somehow prevent your eyes from doing their reflexive converging), if you manage to look straight ahead, eyes perfectly parallel (I never could do "magic eye" pictures myself), and blink your eyes alternately, you do see the the starfield "jump to the side" with every switch, proving it is not identical through both lenses?

The resolution really does matter. The pixels can not (nor can the SDE) somehow get smaller for things farther away, so that they can resolve the ever (with distance) tighter angles needed for stereopsis to work with - they get "chunky" real fast, with objects that move away from you. (Of course, I do get that this is the opposite problem to the one you describe, which is seeing gross angles where there shouldn't be any. :7)

I will watch this space with interest, eager to see what they (was your ticket with Frontier or Oculus?) have to say, because I can certainly not claim that my own perception of depth in ED is perfect by any means. Thanks for taking action. :7

 

[Orvidius]

Yep, if I relax my eyes, such as for those Magic Eye posters, I see two starfields, but it's hard to do that and maintain it, since they want to converge on the image. Very close, off by only a few pixels maybe. I opened the ticket with Oculus, but haven't followed through with the pictures and screenshots yet. I'll try to get it to them over the weekend.

EDIT: I just tried doing the "wall eye" thing again, and now I'm having trouble doing it at all. I can't rule out that I was slightly crossing my eyes when trying it earlier. I think the error I'm seeing may be down to one or two pixels, and now I can't completely rule out that the Rift might be pressing on my glasses and bending the lenses backward at the sides. I have a slight vertical convergence error in my frames, and when I alternately blink both eyes, I mostly see the image jump up and down, not left and right. It might be a problem with my glasses not fitting well inside the Rift. I'm trying to order some corrective lenses from VR Lens Lab, and I'm curious as to whether it'll solve this.

EDIT 2: Attempting to get my glasses to sit a little better, I still see the image jump left/right by about 2 pixels. Wow. I'm picky.

 

[Orvidius]

The Oculus tech support took a look at my images and followed up with my comments, and as far as they can tell, nothing is out of spec or defective, so they're ready to close the ticket. They said the IPD values are reported to each "experience" (game), but it's up to the individual programs to do with it what they will, and there's no additional setting to tweak the IPD spacing. So beyond my glasses possibly interfering with it, it's considered normal, and that's that.

I'm hoping Oculus and/or Frontier eventually add sliders that can be used to adjust the precision of the IPD spacing, for cases like mine.

If and when I can get my VR Lens Lab lenses, I'll try to remember to come back in here and comment on whether the depth/stereopsis looks any different.

 

[Orvidius]

OK, the lenses from "VR Lens Lab" finally arrived. It turns out that they have mostly solved this issue. It's not perfect, but it's finally at a place where it's not a glaring issue anymore. So I think somehow my glasses were interacting with the Rift in such a way as to interfere with proper stereopsis. I don't understand why though, since if the Rift's view is centered properly and focused to "infinity", then the view should still be parallel for both eyes when looking at distant objects. All I can figure is that somehow the Rift was flexing my glasses frame. However, when I bend them around by hand, I don't get the same effect in the real world.

I would still like to have a slider in the game settings to tweak the centering with an offset applied after the IPD, but for now I'm considering this problem solved.

My overall impression of the VR lenses: Wow, these are nice, but with one caveat. They induce spherical distortion, which is to be expected. It's most noticeable in the peripheral areas, but also the trade screen in space stations, which is normally flat, looks spherically bent, with the center a little closer and magnified, and the edges pushed a little further away. That's a small price to pay though, compared to the depth perception issues I was having, and constantly worrying about my glasses scuffing up the Rift lenses (which already had started). The lenses are a newer prescription than my glasses, so I get this odd mix of perfect focus, and the Rift's low resolution. Heh.

 

[Mav359]

So, (and this is difficult, since you have to somehow prevent your eyes from doing their reflexive converging), if you manage to look straight ahead, eyes perfectly parallel (I never could do "magic eye" pictures myself), and blink your eyes alternately, you do see the the starfield "jump to the side" with every switch, proving it is not identical through both lenses?

The resolution really does matter. The pixels can not (nor can the SDE) somehow get smaller for things farther away, so that they can resolve the ever (with distance) tighter angles needed for stereopsis to work with - they get "chunky" real fast, with objects that move away from you. (Of course, I do get that this is the opposite problem to the one you describe, which is seeing gross angles where there shouldn't be any. :7)

I will watch this space with interest, eager to see what they (was your ticket with Frontier or Oculus?) have to say, because I can certainly not claim that my own perception of depth in ED is perfect by any means. Thanks for taking action. :7

This is an eye dominance thing as well.... I have been playing snooker for years and we check so we know to place our good eye over the cue, even though i am right sided my left eye is the dominant eye. Easy check if you pick a distant object (we used to put chalk at the other end of the table) and with both eyes open hold your arm up and thumb in front of the object then close one eye you'll probably find that the object moves to one side, if it doesnt alternate eyes, which ever open eye stays on the object is your domanant eye. It doesnt apply to everyone but at least you'll know

 

[Orvidius]

One more point of data to add:

I got a set of the velour pads (and of course the adapter) from VR-Cover, and even though it's the standard/thin version of the adapter, it still pushes the HMD out away from the face a little more than the stock foam face pad. This has altered the depth perception further. Now, finally, the mountains look truly distant, and the station interiors feel cavernous and huge. When I had added just the prescription lenses, instead of everything looking like it was projected onto a 20-foot radius sphere, it was instead more like a 100-foot radius, but that was enough for it not to be stupendously obvious. Now, everything outside the ship looks great. The caveat, is that with both of these add-ons, the interior of the cockpit now appears a little stretched. The distances are slightly exaggerated at those close ranges. But that part is subtle, and for ED, I'd rather have that, than the flat world outside the window.

 

[Henri]

could it be that the skybox is actually 2d and therefore looks 2d?
3d rendered objects look fine but 2d objects look 2 because well they are.

a solution would be to have and sbs or ou skybox which we don' t it is a 2d 360 image.

 

[jojon]

The starfield is somewhat beyond stereopsis range.