June?
Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 announced, up for preorder (based on Crystal Cove)
- Thread starter DieH@rd
- Start date
June?
Cool, I will look into Unity.
If anyone has any other recommendations of programming languages or graphics engines to learn, I'm all ears.
I think the Facebook acquisition is going to be a good thing for smaller developers, as the product will have more mass appeal with the possibility to upload smaller/cheaper experiences to an app store of some sort.
Sorry, I meant July. Got a bit too excited.
Unity and Unreal Engine 4 are the two obvious choices (with probably CryEngine a more distant third). Unity is generally easier to learn and to create something quickly with while UE4 is more powerful and better suited than Unity to larger scale projects.
Posted this in the other thread.
Just tried out the OR for the first time, the DK1 and it was a nice experience. The screen door effect didnt bother me as much as I thought it would. Same with the low resolution and I noticed no latency issues.
One issue that came up though is with FOV. Still felt like I had a minor binocular effect with my peripheral vision.
Mind you, the Rift was not calibrated for me whatsoever and I just tried it out real quickly at school. IPD or anything like that wasnt adjusted in the software either.
Tried out A and B cups.
Just tried out the OR for the first time, the DK1 and it was a nice experience. The screen door effect didnt bother me as much as I thought it would. Same with the low resolution and I noticed no latency issues.
One issue that came up though is with FOV. Still felt like I had a minor binocular effect with my peripheral vision.
Mind you, the Rift was not calibrated for me whatsoever and I just tried it out real quickly at school. IPD or anything like that wasnt adjusted in the software either.
Tried out A and B cups.
Even with A cups with a 64mm IPD on the most standardized settings and the lenses as close to your eyes as humanly possible, you'll always get a slight binocular effect with the 90 degree horizontal FOV. Even If you're close enough that you don't see much of the material surrounding the lense, you'll just see more of the edges of the rendered image that look like black blinders.
When I explain the experience to other people I describe it as basically it looks like it would if you were wearing scuba-goggles in another world, with a thin netting scretched over it. Your vision is restricted but it still feels like there is an environment beyond the edges wrapping around you. At least the 110 vertical gives you almost complete coverage up and down, and after you start to get lost in a good game or demo you tend to forget about it.
It's just one of those things we'll have to live with until more exotic solutions like curved or multiple screens become an affordable reality. With a single screen it's very problematic and inefficient to start going over 110 degrees horizontal.
Oh, and what software did you try out?
Vertically, the FOV was fine. Actually, more than fine. I tried to find the "edge" vertically and I couldn't. The screen door effect didn't bother me and that surprised me some. It's clearly there, but you forget about it soon enough.
I play tested a prototype that was being developed for a VR class (not a part of the class) so it doesn't really have a name. Also tried out Dumpy The Elephant, since that was developed by the professor teaching the class.
Overall, it was a nice experience. The FOV just surprised me since I kept on hearing all about how wide it was.
I'm still very excited though for my Oculus DK2 to come in.
Edit: B cups were clearer for me for some reason even though I'm near sighted on both eyes and wear glasses. That was another surprising thing. With the B cups, I could see fine.
trudderham
Member
Looks like the Unreal 4 Engine Cave demo can be used on the Rift:
http://www.theriftarcade.com/unreal-4-engine-cave-demo/
Anyone able to try it out?
http://www.theriftarcade.com/unreal-4-engine-cave-demo/
Anyone able to try it out?
E-Cat
Member
Mario 64 Rift'ed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ivkU5i_x4
It can be played in third-person, as well as first-person. I hope that in future Oculus games there will be the ability to toggle between the two at will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ivkU5i_x4
It can be played in third-person, as well as first-person. I hope that in future Oculus games there will be the ability to toggle between the two at will.
mario_O
Member
Downloading. Looks like a pretty demanding demo.
Lets see how my PC+overclocked Rift behaves.
Edit- Tried it, runs at 30ish fps with a 7970+i7 -- not a good VR demo. Weather effects like snow, wind look cool with the Oculus.
DunderHassan
Member
Oculus Rift Shares Developer Hardware Sales Data [2014-04-14]
Nothing new really, expect for those interested in the current sales number.
Kinda makes me sad that they are so set on July, seems a bit far away when they already are demoing DK2s.
Nothing new really, expect for those interested in the current sales number.
Kinda makes me sad that they are so set on July, seems a bit far away when they already are demoing DK2s.
flyinpiranha
Member
I know! I read that earlier and I am hoping they are building up a large stock. Maybe even start sending them out early because it seems developers would want to get their hands on them to get as much time with them before CV1 launches.
MacGurcules
Member
You can be sure they're sending those early units out to the name developers that they've already got relationships with. Anybody who's plebeian enough to go through a form on a website gets to wait.
DouglasteR
Member
They just released a new SDK preview.
Highlights:
There's also (not mentioned in the highlights) timing improvements which should increase prediction quality.
And of course, Carmack's Timewarp stuff is just plain awesome.
Highlights:
- Reorganized all headset and sensor interfaces to be exposed through a simplified C API.
- Introduced SDK Distortion Rendering mode in which the Oculus SDK takes care of distortion rendering and buffer swap.
- Significantly improved distortion quality, adapting the distortion function based on user configured eye relief.
- Introduced the Timewarp rendering technique, used to reduce latency through reprojection.
There's also (not mentioned in the highlights) timing improvements which should increase prediction quality.
And of course, Carmack's Timewarp stuff is just plain awesome.
Do we have details on Carmack's TimeWarp system? How does it compare to Sony's implementations?
KZ:SF MP used interlaced reprojection. Every second lines natively rendered, other being reprojection of it's previous frame + pixel motion.
Morpheus reprojects (with pixel motion) every frame once doubling framerate from 60 to 120hz.
KZ:SF MP used interlaced reprojection. Every second lines natively rendered, other being reprojection of it's previous frame + pixel motion.
Morpheus reprojects (with pixel motion) every frame once doubling framerate from 60 to 120hz.
trudderham
Member
Meanwhile, two guys have managed to get a VR headset from 1995 up and running on an MS-DOS PC: http://imgur.com/a/VfYTL
Gangxxter
Member
Finally I was lucky enough to try the Oculus Rift (DK1) for myself at the A MAZE Festival in Berlin. Of course it was amazing and I'm even more hyped about the CV1 now.
I was only able to play a special OR version of "Super Hot" which is not the best game to get introduced to the world of virtual reality because you really die very fast when you move around much. And I wanted to move (or better look around) a lot because it was so cool.
Screendoor effect was of course very bad, just like I've imagined it. Tracking is really awesome and fast, I couldn't notice any significant lag.
The FOV surprised me the most. I knew the horizontal FOV was "only" about 90° so I was prepared to get a rather narrow horizontal view. The FOV was just like I expected it, but I would have never guessed that it looks so... round. It felt like I was looking through a telescope rather than wearing scuba goggles like many others have described the OR experience.
I was only able to play a special OR version of "Super Hot" which is not the best game to get introduced to the world of virtual reality because you really die very fast when you move around much. And I wanted to move (or better look around) a lot because it was so cool.
Screendoor effect was of course very bad, just like I've imagined it. Tracking is really awesome and fast, I couldn't notice any significant lag.
The FOV surprised me the most. I knew the horizontal FOV was "only" about 90° so I was prepared to get a rather narrow horizontal view. The FOV was just like I expected it, but I would have never guessed that it looks so... round. It felt like I was looking through a telescope rather than wearing scuba goggles like many others have described the OR experience.
I haven't looked at the SDK yet, but I was last told that its still a problem they are working on. It was only orientation warping for now.
E-Cat
Member
That's what they said at GDC, which is why I asked. Is it possible they released it even though it's not completely "solved" yet?
Sounds like it wasn't fitted well. The lenses have to be the correct distance from your eyes, and the correct distance apart. The show floor is one of the worst places to try VR, because the hardware can't be calibrated for each user.
zephervack
Member
This is pretty cool, whatever happened to whoever made that headset, looks like they were on the way.
I believe they are totally different things. Timewarp reprojects each rendered frame with the rotational movement since you started rendering it. It basically tries to cut out the rendering time for each frame from the total feedback loop time.
For DK2 it will apparently be even more smart, and try to reproject slightly differently across the frame (from left to right), as the display uses a rolling update from left to right.
HDK1
I think that was the prototype before Crystal Cove.
googleplex
Member
I don't know if it's been posted yet, but the guys at Cloudhead games have come up with a very cleaver solution to the problem of player locomotion what in a VR environment.
Check it out
Check it out
Gangxxter
Member
I see, that explains a lot.
I feared that the OR experience wouldn't work at all without proper calibration but surprisingly it worked quite well. I had a sharp image (well, I saw the pixels crystal clear) and the depth perception was also very good. I expecting much worse things.
Oh, I expected somethign about forward/backward movement. not turning. Still interesting.
I'm really looking forward to The Gallery, probably one of the first game to release with a heavy focus on the VR experience.
googleplex
Member
From all accounts, moving backwards and forward doesn't seem to be an issue as long as you're not moving too fast. But turning makes people sick.
A simple thing I've done while experimenting with gamepad controls in VR is to dim the screen to almost complete black while turning. A little like blinking your eyes while turning.
It's also a common misconception that you need to rotate slowly but it's worse. You need to bring it to mouse speed or pretty damn close to it.
Hmm, sounds good. Perhaps this is why I can do an hour upside-down cockpit of a jet without any problem, but get an intense feeling nausea after playing Half-Life 2 for a minute?
Turin Turambar
Member
Nice video of how Time warping works
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvtEXMlQQtI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvtEXMlQQtI
Cool seeing it demoed at the very end (where they freeze the 3D scene rendering). Should be pretty much unnoticeable (the inaccuracies I mean) if the base rendering framerate is close to the intended locked framerate.
Although I don't see it performing well when different parts of the scene are moving relative to each other. You'd get localised judder.I don't understand how the Oculus version manages the disocclusion...
Does the scene warp a mesh relative to the Z buffer; stretching and pulling the image rather than just flat out cutting and pasting in the initial examples?
Also... why don't they render the camera view with a built in prediction of where they think the head will be at frame update based on the velocity and acceleration of the head at the time they start rendering?
And then use time warp to render into the future or past to compensate as required?
I mean... if there's a sudden deceleration, then you just time warp the frame that was closest to that camera location (so warp the previous frame rather than warping the most recently rendered predicted frame).
Wouldn't that get you rendered images with less warping artifacts (i.e. the time warp algorithm has to warp the image less as the delta between location of head at point of time warping and the predicted location of the camera based on velocity and acceleration would be less than the delta at time warp and actual location of head at the start of render)?
My DK2 is set to be shipped in july. I'm really tempted to upgrade to get a really smooth VR experience. But I don't know if I should.. What do you guys think? Should I update my graphics card or my processor as well? And to what should i upgrade?
My current rig:
8GB RAM
INTEL Core i5 2500K
2x RADEON HD6950
My current rig:
8GB RAM
INTEL Core i5 2500K
2x RADEON HD6950
Crossfire is a no-go for VR.
I'd wait at least until you get your DK2 to upgrade though.
Wait until DK2 comes and see how your rig handles it. If it's not up to snuff pick up a r280-r290 or a 770-780 (800 series might be out in July as well). I'll probably be picking up a 870 or 880 this summer for VR.
Azure Dream
Member
Edit: Nevermind.
Is this confirmation the CV Rift won't be available till next year at the earliest.
http://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-riftdate-for-sale-to-consumers-2014-4
http://www.businessinsider.com/oculus-riftdate-for-sale-to-consumers-2014-4