Michael Brookes talks to Eurogamer about ED VR hardware requirements.

Mad Doctor X

M
I wonder if the talk about CPUs has something to do with the number of USB3 connections it can support?
Apparently my i5 2500K is VR ready according to GeForce, but is lower than the recommended specs. The only obvious thing that's lacking is support for the three USB 3.0 ports required.
 

Soda Popinski

Soda Popinski
Mad Doctor X said:
I wonder if the talk about CPUs has something to do with the number of USB3 connections it can support?
Apparently my i5 2500K is VR ready according to GeForce, but is lower than the recommended specs. The only obvious thing that's lacking is support for the three USB 3.0 ports required.
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I think we can assume the Rift HMD will require 1 USB 3. If the camera also needs a USB 3 and eventually the Touch controller needs one too (sharing with the second camera), that accounts for all 3 USB 3 ports. The Xbox Controller likely goes to the older USB port required.

So maybe if you don't plan to get the Touch, you may not need that many USB 3 ports.
 

vic

V
Bran Tse Mallory said:
It looks like FD are backing the Vive more and more these days which I'm glad about as I think it's better than the Rift after trying both. Getting up and walking around in VR trumps sitting still everytime!
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In theory yes walking around in VR is great, but practicality it's a no-no. There's the cable that you need to take care of not tripping over, and requires a complete empty room. I tried the VIVE at a show and it was mandatory to have someone dedicated watching over.
 

wstephenson

wstephenson
Remember that shows have to demonstrate hardware to people with zero experience of the headset in an unfamiliar space. And nothing will mess up their show like someone tripping up in their excitement and smashing the hardware and their nose in the process. In your own home, your brain will soon form a mental map of how to move around the obstacles and handle the cable. As well as that, you'll have the Chaperone/Tron view mode to help you visualise things.
 

Mazhurg

Mazhurg
wstephenson said:
Remember that shows have to demonstrate hardware to people with zero experience of the headset in an unfamiliar space. And nothing will mess up their show like someone tripping up in their excitement and smashing the hardware and their nose in the process. In your own home, your brain will soon form a mental map of how to move around the obstacles and handle the cable. As well as that, you'll have the Chaperone/Tron view mode to help you visualise things.
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Besides, it is fairly easy to place a hook in the ceiling for the cables, and a belt cable holder to remove the pressure from the headset. I do not know the length of the cable on the Vive, but it is about 5M on the CV1 and could probably easily be extended another 3M or so without fancy active adapters.
 

Bakkster

B
Soda Popinski said:
I think we can assume the Rift HMD will require 1 USB 3. If the camera also needs a USB 3 and eventually the Touch controller needs one too (sharing with the second camera), that accounts for all 3 USB 3 ports. The Xbox Controller likely goes to the older USB port required.

So maybe if you don't plan to get the Touch, you may not need that many USB 3 ports.
Click to expand...

That's correct. One USB 3.0 for the HMD, one for each camera (second one comes with Touch), and a 2.0 port for the XBox controller.

The important point is they all need to be full-speed USB 3.0, which means a hub is out.
 

Spork

S
wstephenson said:
with MB telling us that the game actually supersamples to get the best image quality on Vive:
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It does that on the rift, too. It's what the HMD quality slider does.

In fact all VR games do. It's to compensate for the barrel distortion. If they rendered at the native resolution then applied the barrel distortion, the center pixels would be stretched making the image look low res and blurry due to the center pixels being larger than those on the panel. So they render a larger resolution, apply the barrel distortion, then shrink the final image down to the native panel resolution. That way the center pixels of the image stay in 1:1 ratio with the pixels of the panel keeping the image sharp. IIRC for DK2 the render target needs to be 1.25x the panel resolution to achieve this, but a lot of games go higher as it seems to help with anti-aliasing and reading text.
 

RiftFlyer

R
Spork said:
It does that on the rift, too. It's what the HMD quality slider does.

In fact all VR games do. It's to compensate for the barrel distortion. If they rendered at the native resolution then applied the barrel distortion, the center pixels would be stretched making the image look low res and blurry due to the center pixels being larger than those on the panel. So they render a larger resolution, apply the barrel distortion, then shrink the final image down to the native panel resolution. That way the center pixels of the image stay in 1:1 ratio with the pixels of the panel keeping the image sharp. IIRC for DK2 the render target needs to be 1.25x the panel resolution to achieve this, but a lot of games go higher as it seems to help with anti-aliasing and reading text.
Click to expand...

I'm curious about this. We have the quality slider AND a super sampling menu option. Don't they both then do the same thing. I wonder how the two are related.
 
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