ED and the Oculus Rift DK1 Discussion Thread

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Thank you for the Rift support!

Although a fan of the original, I purchased the alpha exclusively to try out its Occulus Rift support. I have to say, this is BY FAR the best experience I've had with the rift (and I think I have tried everything with native support except iRacing)! The immersion is almost perfect despite the limitations of the current DevKit. So thank you Frontier!

There are some glitches with the rift on ED Alpha, I'm not sure if they are reported but here goes:
1. The aiming crosshair is not working, it's too close to my face I'm seeing doubles. I think setting its distance to infinity might solve it.
2. Every interface other than when you are actually in the cockpit are not correctly focused, so I was seeing doubles and had to close one eye to navigate the menus.
3. When in the cockpit, the only font I could easily read is the speed of the target, everything else are ALMOST readable. I don't propose for a fix as this is caused by the DevKit's low resolution and will not be an issue with their next kit. It'd be nice though if you guys could let me know how to change the font on my own, as I can't go back to flying using monitors even though I got a triple 30 inch set up with trackIR. :(

And I have a question: Is the alpha reading the Rift's calibration info? Such as IPD settings. I'm not sure but I think the image is not as clear as some of the other demos, but it could be caused by the complexity of ED's scenes.

Despite the glitches I got to level 7, and even spent 30 minutes just flying around the asteroid belt, amazing experience, I hope you guys continue your support for VR as this is surely the future!
 
Hi

What resolution do you have the game running at when using the rift?

I have found turning the resolution up to higher than the rift supports natively seems to cause the menus to appear as you described.

Not having the same issue with the focus, but there is a 3d separation slider you could try adjusting though can't recall if that has an effect on the rift.
 
1280x800, isn't that the native resolution? It's weird because sometimes the menus are correctly displayed, but most of the time it is not. I'll try the separation settings later, thanks.
 
Looks like Oculus might just have a competitor after all.

Anyway, have a look at this, and imagine planetary landing and exploration in E: D with a Rift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QN1rmNwxP0

Well, none of that is official, but here's the killer for me - "As of writing, the AMD based APU in the PS4 offers performance comparable to that of current mid-range PCs—although a single hardware platform affords benefits which inflate its potential—in PC terms the PS4 is already behind the curve in terms of performance. And despite an encouraging trend for games to target a 1080p resolution, frame rates are another matter. Killzone Shadow Fall (PS4, 2013) looks fantastic, but runs at a locked 30FPS, way below the minimum threshold of 60 FPS recommended by Oculus VR Inc for a comfortable VR experience. If PS4 developers are to offer high frame rate, high resolution visuals, it’s clear something’s got to give, and that’s fidelity. Will gamers accept titles sacrificing their cosmetic looks for more immersive delivery?"
 
Well, none of that is official, but here's the killer for me - "As of writing, the AMD based APU in the PS4 offers performance comparable to that of current mid-range PCs—although a single hardware platform affords benefits which inflate its potential—in PC terms the PS4 is already behind the curve in terms of performance. And despite an encouraging trend for games to target a 1080p resolution, frame rates are another matter. Killzone Shadow Fall (PS4, 2013) looks fantastic, but runs at a locked 30FPS, way below the minimum threshold of 60 FPS recommended by Oculus VR Inc for a comfortable VR experience. If PS4 developers are to offer high frame rate, high resolution visuals, it’s clear something’s got to give, and that’s fidelity. Will gamers accept titles sacrificing their cosmetic looks for more immersive delivery?"

Games like Tomb Raider may not be the height of graphical fidelity, but the PS4 version looks nice and has some great fidelity. It runs at 1080p and 60fps. I don't think graphical performance will be an issue with the Sony VR set.

What might be an issue is the headset itself. What is the FOV? Is the latency low? Will it have positional tracking?

The big question is; can Sony achieve what Valve and Oculus Rift have achieved?
 
Games like Tomb Raider may not be the height of graphical fidelity, but the PS4 version looks nice and has some great fidelity. It runs at 1080p and 60fps. I don't think graphical performance will be an issue with the Sony VR set.

What might be an issue is the headset itself. What is the FOV? Is the latency low? Will it have positional tracking?

The big question is; can Sony achieve what Valve and Oculus Rift have achieved?

I have no doubts that Sony can produce a quality VR headset - I just doubt the PS4's power to actually drive the thing to the best experience possible. As you've noted, games with lesser visuals shouldn't be a problem. Do you know if these games that are labelled as 1080p 60fps for the PS4 actually run at a minimum of 60fps? I.e. Never dropping below 60? Because that is quite key... it's not enough to run at an average of 60, or almost always at 60.

In addition to that it seems that Valve (and perhaps Oculus) have recently shifted the goal posts from 60fps to 95fps to get over the bar into what they call "presence". I don't know the ins and outs but as those two are pioneering this field (domestic VR) I have no cause to doubt it. I cannot see a PS4 pushing 95fps at anything like a decent quality of image.
 
The winner isn't always the best product though. Sony have a big dominance in the games market, it may simply be enough to push their product more.

Regardless, more competition can only be a good thing - make Vale and OR push for better quality!
 
My understanding is that the PS4 pushes a constant 60fps in Tomb Raider (but I may be wrong).

And yes I completely agree, there is now way a home console is going to push 95fps. That's going to be difficult for most PCs.

We still don't even know if the final Oculus Rift will be 1080p, some rumors are suggestion 1400p.

As you say, Valve said their research shows there is a minimum threshold to achieve presence...and that applies to fps, resolution and latency. I can't see Sony successfully achieving any of them with a kit designed for the PS4.
 
The winner isn't always the best product though. Sony have a big dominance in the games market, it may simply be enough to push their product more.

Regardless, more competition can only be a good thing - make Vale and OR push for better quality!

The only problem would be if that the Sony VR is so bad that it gives the technology a bad rep.
 
The winner isn't always the best product though. Sony have a big dominance in the games market, it may simply be enough to push their product more.

Regardless, more competition can only be a good thing - make Vale and OR push for better quality!

I agree! Competition is generally good for all, except when the crappier product "wins" to the extent that the better products are marginalised to extinction.

Perhaps with the separation between consoles (which OR were not intending to support anyway it seems) and the PC world it just means that both will flourish within their different markets.
 
And yes I completely agree, there is now way a home console is going to push 95fps. That's going to be difficult for most PCs.

We still don't even know if the final Oculus Rift will be 1080p, some rumors are suggestion 1400p.

As you say, Valve said their research shows there is a minimum threshold to achieve presence...and that applies to fps, resolution and latency. I can't see Sony successfully achieving any of them with a kit designed for the PS4.

Agree with all of that. I'm in two minds about the 95fps/1440p numbers being touted for the consumer OR. On the one hand - wow, what an experience it would be. But as you say, an awful lot of PCs could be cut out of the picture. It's all very well OR trying to stick roughly to their plan for a $300 price point but if it demands most people spending another £1k+ on a new machine then they start cutting out some of their potential market. It'll be interesting if/how they compromise on this.
 
Agree with all of that. I'm in two minds about the 95fps/1440p numbers being touted for the consumer OR. On the one hand - wow, what an experience it would be. But as you say, an awful lot of PCs could be cut out of the picture. It's all very well OR trying to stick roughly to their plan for a $300 price point but if it demands most people spending another £1k+ on a new machine then they start cutting out some of their potential market. It'll be interesting if/how they compromise on this.
Difficult for Oculus, isn't it?

Yes you can get a PC that'll consistently do >90fps @ >1080p now, but they are fairly high end and expensive. But that's only today.

New generations of GPUs are coming, and what's expensive today will be reasonable in 12 months, and commonplace 12 months after that.

I think Oculus probably will go with a high spec headset, and let the mainstream PC market rush to get up to speed.

Anything less will result in a lacklustre "experience" which would probably be a marketing disaster for VR in general.

The graphics card manufacturers though are potentially looking at a bit of a goldmine. Many PCs could run a high-spec headset with just a meaty GPU card added to the mix. All they have to do is sell an "Oculus Certified" card to people with a better than whatever baseline CPU will be required.

The current PS4 hasn't got a hope of running great graphics at high res, 1080p and in stereo. Could maybe see Sony releasing a VR variant of their console though. That is, completely re-specced. :D
 
Agree with all of that. I'm in two minds about the 95fps/1440p numbers being touted for the consumer OR. On the one hand - wow, what an experience it would be. But as you say, an awful lot of PCs could be cut out of the picture. It's all very well OR trying to stick roughly to their plan for a $300 price point but if it demands most people spending another £1k+ on a new machine then they start cutting out some of their potential market. It'll be interesting if/how they compromise on this.

It's also worth considering that most PC gamers are used to running games on different quality settings based on their PC spec.

No reason that Oculus Rift can't be 95fps and 1440p, but people set it to 60fps and 1080p on their PC (or even 30fps and 720p). It wouldn't be the optimal experience, but this is the way the PC market has worked for years.

Oculus Rift could fit into that perfectly and cater to almost all ends of the PC gaming market.
 
Interesting. But somehow I doubt that Sony has a quality research team that is actually dedicated to VR. Because they where in a position for YEARS to develop on this, they must be in a "catching up" situation. If you look at the research Valve has done it's driven by a vision and a desire to innovate. I don't think sony corporate culture and marketing driven management would allow for going to the necessary extremes that are needed. The previous headsets they produced have a fov of around 45 or something. I'm a bit "disgruntled" that it took all these decades for VR to be finally realized. But it's a good sign that others are jumping on the bandwagon since where there is no competition, there is usually no market.

About 1440p and 96fps, I think that's simply a question of fidelity. Also the guy in the valve paper mentioned that "a new visual vocabulary" has to be found, as things like normal maps look bad. So maybe we'll see much more cartoony or non realistic rendering first for VR which is less demanding, similar to nintendo games.
 
No reason that Oculus Rift can't be 95fps and 1440p, but people set it to 60fps and 1080p on their PC (or even 30fps and 720p). It wouldn't be the optimal experience, but this is the way the PC market has worked for years.

If the panel they go with is 95Hz then running it at anything other than 95Hz would probably suck! The current dev kit only works properly at it's native frequency - framerate too high and you get tearing when you move your head, too low and you get a vomit-inducing judder! I suspect any panel will have that limitation, no? The resolution could probably be changed but, as you say, it would be a substandard experience.
 
If the panel they go with is 95Hz then running it at anything other than 95Hz would probably suck! The current dev kit only works properly at it's native frequency - framerate too high and you get tearing when you move your head, too low and you get a vomit-inducing judder! I suspect any panel will have that limitation, no? The resolution could probably be changed but, as you say, it would be a substandard experience.

I don't know what effect that would have on any other panel. I do know that any half decent monitors do a good job at none native resolutions.

It will be interesting to see how Oculus Rift handle this, that's for sure...
 
I suppose the good news is that whoever comes out with what, a little competition will only result in a better consumer product for us.

Personally though, I'd like to see Oculus "beat" Sony in the first round of the VR wars. I think they deserve it.
 
It was interesting to see that EvE Valkyrie is actually being developed as an Oculus Rift/CCP co-production, and being released as an exclusive launch title. I hope the OR guys stay sensible and don't view ED and SC as competitors.
 
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