ED and the Oculus Rift DK1 Discussion Thread

[Kerrash]

...
A zoom in button would have been a cheap but workable fix in the meantime, as the panels can be scaled to zoom in no problem, the game does this on 3D monitors already.

+1 to this. I would like an +FOV button or a way of making the UI's enlarge when focused upon.

 

[Cosmos]

I've never had the opportunity to try a Rift but I'd like to see a full on 3d immersive galaxy map/orrery.

Now that would be something!

 

[emacinnes]

I've never had the opportunity to try a Rift but I'd like to see a full on 3d immersive galaxy map/orrery.

Now that would be something!

Star Trek Generations has a lot to answer for

Yesterday, just having a cruise around an anaconda, trying to match speeds, circling around it slowly, with lens flare, engine glow, frosting on the glass, hands on the joystick, noise cancelling headphones on, that's literally "My Gosh, I'm in Space". Granted, a dramatised, and currently low-res version of it, but still, a singularly awesome moment. I'm still smiling thinking about it now. Wait for the final retail one though, the dev kit's resolution is way too low, and that's all they're selling right now, the updated crystal cove kits aren't for sale.

 

[Rog]

Somebody's come up with an OR simulator - it's supposed to highlight the differences between the current DK1 and the expected higher resolution and low persistence versions coming er, soon.

http://vr.mkeblx.net/oculus-sim/

Interesting, but obviously a bit tricky to sim on an LCD screen.

BTW, I think EVE Valkyrie looks fantastic too, well at least the trailer does.

---------------------------

VERY interesting Tweet:

I just saw the future of VR at @Oculus. Wow. Even if you've seen Crystal Cove. Even if you were at Dev Days. You ain't seen nothing yet.

http://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/434027067835822080
"Director of Marketing @GUNNAROptiks & CFO @HotBloodedGames. A/k/a that guy who brought back @RiseoftheTriad and put all the @ApogeeSoftware classics on Steam."

I'm under NDA obviously, but the tech that Oculus is preparing for the final consumer version is the best VR I have ever seen. I wanted to stay in it and walk around, but the room was only so big and I only had so much time. Everything was perfect. The fidelity, the latency, the scale, the presence. It was the first time I truly felt like I was in VR.

LINK.

 

[Bounder]

Just to restate a point i've made elsewhere - 'dedicated' multi-monitor support needn't be a top priority, provided the game gets its available screen modes from the users' systems, rather than simply pre-defining a finite variety of resolutions.


Lots of games get this wrong, and upon loading all you have available is the usual 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 etc. etc. - which is utterly useless if you're running a multi-monitor rig with spanned modes (aka Mosaic, Eye-finity etc.)...

Personally i only play games that poll DirectX for the available screenmodes - even BeebEm and WinUAE work fine on spanned modes (i can play classic Elite, FE2 and FFE spanned across 6 screens!). Pioneer also works perfectly.

Point being, dedicated multi-monitor features, such as bezel correction, multi-view (where the game renders to separate display ports, with aspect correction etc. (which, incidentally, i've never seen work properly and without exception always looks horrible compared to a simple span mode)) can wait, IMHO, indefinitely - you can do bezel correction from your monitor's controls, if not from within Nvidia or Catalyst control panels. Hence the only thing E: D needs to absolutely, definitely get right is to query DX for its screenmodes, and apply a simple algorithm for scaling the FOV and aspect ratios accordingly. Again, GTA4 is the best example of this i've seen so far - it always displays perfectly no matter what monitor configuration you throw at it - yet there's no mention (not even a smidgen of a consideration towards) explicit multi-monitor support - it simply doesn't need it.. it just works fine regardless.

If however FD are reading this and are currently doing things the 'wrong' way - please hard-code a 3840x2048 mode for my double-triplehead system? Ta very much... X

Back on-topic, this Oculus article on PhysOrg reports on an upcoming potential sister-accessory, a haptic armband called Myo... dunno if it's been mentioned already, first i've heard of it... video looks impressive though...

 

[carlisle]

I won't be worrying about it too much, even if there is an advantage to players with an OR, we will encounter players of various abilities in our travels it shouldn't be too much of an issue that some of those players are getting a little artificial boost in their abilities. The only situation where it would bother me (which I think is highly unlikely) would be if the advantage were so great that it unbalances the game's economy.

 

[Dunk]

I don't imagine I'll be getting an Oculus Rift or equivalent. Not until prices drop to what I subjectively call a 'reasonable' price and that is likely to be 3 years away at a guess.

Having said that, this game should definitely embrace the technology. If the wearers get an advantage then fair enough. The same is true for FPS players with more expensive mice. Those with OR have shelled out a lot of money for one and in doing so have helped progress a technology that we'd all like to see become mainstream. It won't be much more than going up against someone with a slightly better laser.

 

[Obsidian Ant]

Somebody's come up with an OR simulator - it's supposed to highlight the differences between the current DK1 and the expected higher resolution and low persistence versions coming er, soon.

http://vr.mkeblx.net/oculus-sim/

That's quite a good simulation of the DK1. However, in my experience, the current Dev Kit has a lot less ghosting than that sim shows.

 

[Dr Wookie]

Somebody's come up with an OR simulator - it's supposed to highlight the differences between the current DK1 and the expected higher resolution and low persistence versions coming er, soon.

http://vr.mkeblx.net/oculus-sim/

Interesting, but obviously a bit tricky to sim on an LCD screen.

BTW, I think EVE Valkyrie looks fantastic too, well at least the trailer does.

---------------------------

VERY interesting Tweet:

http://twitter.com/DaveOshry/status/434027067835822080
"Director of Marketing @GUNNAROptiks & CFO @HotBloodedGames. A/k/a that guy who brought back @RiseoftheTriad and put all the @ApogeeSoftware classics on Steam."

LINK.

Interesting stuff there .

Is there any way of telling how your pc might run an OR before getting your hands on one?

 

[Toumal]

Interesting stuff there .

Is there any way of telling how your pc might run an OR before getting your hands on one?

As a rule of thumb, the Oculus SDK1 runs at a total resolution of 1280x800, and the shader code to calculate the distortion is a piece of cake. If you can play a game fluidly at 1920x1080 then the SDK1 won't stress your computer. As for the consumer version, I really don't expect it to go much beyond the performance needed for full HD gaming - though that's speculation at this point.

 

[Rhombeus]

I can't see why there is a problem with OR, next people will be asking those players with high frame rates be nerfed.

It's a game, enjoy it anyway you like/can bar ruining others enjoyment.

 

[Lee Storm]

I think the point is that multi monitor support is generally a no brainier
I'd still like to see multi monitor support though

Indeed, I was a little disappointed to hear, FD aren't supporting this properly, was looking forward to using 4 monitors, one to the front, two on the sides and one for the top canopy. Sit in the middle and literally be in the game.
Shame

 

[TomS]

I'm not sure if it will turn out to be that much of an advantage at all. It's all very well in combat situations but, for most, they will only form a small part of the overall game experience. It looks cool but im not sure if the weight / comfort factors - not to mention the sea-sickness associated with any VR headset will really make it a viable option for playing the final game for any prolonged duration.

TBH I've never tried the Rift so maybe i'm wrong but IMHO I think that track IR would be a much better purchase.

 

[Mark8539]

I'm not sure if it will turn out to be that much of an advantage at all. It's all very well in combat situations but, for most, they will only form a small part of the overall game experience. It looks cool but im not sure if the weight / comfort factors - not to mention the sea-sickness associated with any VR headset will really make it a viable option for playing the final game for any prolonged duration.

TBH I've never tried the Rift so maybe i'm wrong but IMHO I think that track IR would be a much better purchase.

You're wrong, IMHO. I use my dev kit Rift for extended periods without sickness or discomfort in cockpit games. The dev kit is quite light, the consumer version will no doubt be even lighter.

 

[Rog]

Distinct signals that OR will possibly unveil a Developer Kit #2 (essentially the final Consumer Version V1 feature set) next month at GDR14 (Game Developer Conference, 17-24 March 2014).

http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-plan-debut-developer-kit-2-gdc-2014/

From the article:

Of particular interest to VR fans are two talks being given by Oculus VR. The first is interesting enough. Entitled “Developing Virtual Reality Games and Experiences” it’s presented by Oculus VR Software Architect Tom Forsyth and aims to once again emphasise that developing games for VR requires a drastically different approach to traditional monitor based games. Tom worked with Valve on their Team Fortress 2 native Oculus Rift integration.

But it’s the second talk that might hint that Oculus has something big planned for GDC. The “Working with the Latest Oculus Rift Hardware and Software” is as follows:

From Oculus VR:

Since the debut of the original Oculus Rift development kit at GDC 2013, we’ve shown off a set of critical improvements including a high-definition display, positional tracking, and low-persistence support. Likewise, behind the scenes we’ve also been making critical improvements to the core Oculus SDK like new feature support, optimizations (particularly around latency), and overall simplicity.In this talk, we’ll discuss everything you need to know to get started integrating the latest Oculus Rift hardware with your VR game or experience. The talk will be split into an overview of the latest hardware, a technical breakdown for engineers, an a game design discussion relevant to the new features. We’ll also talk about our vision for future development hardware leading to the consumer Rift and what that path might look like.

So it looks like we'll be getting a much clearer idea of the final device very shortly, and quite possibly the DK2 will be revealed.

Here's hoping.

 

[Crash_Happy]

Which is a little puzzling to me

I think there's some sense to that. Look at the cost of a decent second monitor (actually to do it 'right' wouldn't you want three monitors total?) compared to a presumed cost of an OR. Then after that take into account that the OR is being hyped as the next big thing etc, no one is hyping multi-monitor set ups as the thing to watch in 2015 and with good reason.

 

[TomS]

You're wrong, IMHO. I use my dev kit Rift for extended periods without sickness or discomfort in cockpit games. The dev kit is quite light, the consumer version will no doubt be even lighter.

Whilst i'm very glad that you are having a great experience with no nausea at all, there are many many people who are not so lucky. Simulator sickness is well documented and many of the reasons behind it are still very poorly understood.

I am guessing that by cockpit games - you mean conventional flight simulators - which I think bear very little resemblance to the full on 360 degrees (which way is up???) dogfights I have been experiencing in the Alpha. I'm not sure how much of a difference this makes - perhaps none.

I take my hat off to the guys at Oculus VR for making such a cool bit of kit - i'd very much like to own one. but I'm still siding with trackIR for now.

Perhaps you could persuade me otherwise though - Why dont you send me your Oculus Rift for a couple of months so we can settle the matter

 

[Philip Coutts]

You can spin this argument anyway you want. Bottom line is at present the number of people using OR is fairly small and as the release of a full version is still a long way off most people will not be playing with OR.

You could also say that people using certain joysticks will have an advantage but at least so far in Alpha I haven't felt at a disadvantage using my xbox360 pad.

 

[Tony Spaniels]

Whilst i'm very glad that you are having a great experience with no nausea at all, there are many many people who are not so lucky. Simulator sickness is well documented and many of the reasons behind it are still very poorly understood.

Hi TomS

I also own a Rift dev kit and am luckily for me in the camp that doesnt feel any motion sickness at all using it. I was immediatly so impressed by it I got one for my dad as an xmas present last year (with a warthunder package and a saitek x52 - 3 xmas presents rolled into one for him!) and as it goes he also has VR legs and played it for 3 hours straight on his first go, hardcore.
Ive demoed my kit to approx 30-35 people in work mostly, and of that lot 2 of them felt motion sickness but nothing too bad, while one other felt sick for the rest of the day after it, although he said that his astigmatism is quite
unusual in that he was both short and long sighted and gets travel sickness easily.

So from my experiences the percentages are good that you will be fine, even using an SDK and running it on my shonky laptop, and it was also lighter than one would assume by its size.

Valve and Oculus Rift are making great headway at understanding what does make people motion sick. There was a Steam Dev day recently where they explain how they are getting on..

This talk by Michael Abrash (Valve) is particularly informative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-2dQoeqVVo

Cheers!

TonyS

 

[jabokai]

Whilst i'm very glad that you are having a great experience with no nausea at all, there are many many people who are not so lucky. Simulator sickness is well documented and many of the reasons behind it are still very poorly understood.

Reading the latest stuff from Oculus and Valve it seems they understand the causes pretty well now (latency, persistence, positional tracking, can't remember what else), and the newest kits along with development guidelines are largely minimising, if not entirely removing, VR sickness.