Oculus Rift - Dev Kit Discussion [Orders Arriving]

Looks very much like a smaller exhibitor stand rather than Sony's booth. Some company beginning with 'Op' I guess? There's a number of HMD companies other than Oculus now.

Oppo perhaps, though I have no idea if they're in that market or not. I definitely don't think it's a Sony VR Goggle, or someone would have blabbed. Why would Sony let a local news reporter (and photographer for a French tech website) anywhere near their secret reveal ahead of time?
 
They look more like they could be some kind of AR goggles. like a large version of google glass.

or they're just fancy skiing goggles with cameras attached.
 
I've held off on ordering current Oculus Rift DK for too long waiting for the HD version. Can't wait! Hopefully they become available very soon.
 
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This could be camera setup for extreme sports... except for cables? Why cables?
 
Are there any expectations that Oculus will announce a new model for sale at CES (new devkit or otherwise)? I've been holding out for an updated model and I don't know if I should be getting my hopes up.
 
Are there any expectations that Oculus will announce a new model for sale at CES (new devkit or otherwise)? I've been holding out for an updated model and I don't know if I should be getting my hopes up.

For sale? No. They're going to show their newest prototype supposedly, but will they show something that could actually go to retail? I doubt it.

I guess they could sell a Devkit 2, but that remains to be seen. I'd think they'd want the final specs locked down before doing some sort of limited Devkit 2 for actual developers or something.
 
For sale? No. They're going to show their newest prototype supposedly, but will they show something that could actually go to retail? I doubt it.

I guess they could sell a Devkit 2, but that remains to be seen. I'd think they'd want the final specs locked down before doing some sort of limited Devkit 2 for actual developers or something.

Hrmm, that's unfortunate. I'm pretty eager to buy a Rift but going with the first version doesn't feel like a good purchase at this point in time.
 
Does OculusVR has CES presconff? When will they unveil new headset? Close door demos? Public showfloor demo?

:( waiting is hard
 
Should hopefully be just a couple more hours until at least initial impressions start trickling in. But do we even know if they will be on the floor today?
 
It's just for positional tracking, though. Head tracking is still handled by gyro/accelometer (I guess).

Optical tracking is going to be the weakest link in the chain if this is what they end up using, and it's going to be the limiting factor of everything. There are of course privacy concerns but that's not a pressing technical issue. Image processing takes time and it can be very inaccurate - latency and incorrect motion are great banes of VR. Dot tracking from a single source means positional tracking would only work at certain angles, you won't be able to fully turn around (e: apparently there are two tracking dots on the back of the strap so you can turn around) or have a mobile system for example.
 
There are of course privacy concerns
Really?

Image processing takes time and it can be very inaccurate - latency and incorrect motion are great banes of VR. Dot tracking from a single source means positional tracking would only work at certain angles, you won't be able to fully turn around (e: apparently there are two tracking dots on the back of the strap so you can turn around) or have a mobile system for example.

My guess is that the data collected by the camera is only used for absolute head positioning/drift correction and that the heavy lifting is still done by the fusion of the gyros/accels/magnetos. Since we don't move our heads in space that much I'm confident it does the trick. At least for sitting play...

I'm a little worried about playing standing up and 360° rotation, though.
 
Really?



My guess is that the data collected by the camera is only used for absolute head positioning/drift correction and that the heavy lifting is still done by the fusion of the gyros/accels/magnetos. Since we don't move our heads in space that much I'm confident it does the trick. At least for sitting play...

I'm a little worried about playing standing up and 360° rotation, though.

Yes really, whenever tracking of this sort is involved it is of concern - no matter what. I don't own a webcam and there are no cameras that record inside my house. I have a microphone but I have it on switch to turn it only when needed. This is important to me and can be much more important to others even if it may not be to you.

My experience with optical trackers in the past has always been spotty, and even with very sophisticated tech that you might find in a mocap studio issues are extremely common. Noise in the video or dust on the optics can cause spasms, hair or clothing or random objects can obstruct the tracking dots, the camera can pick up things other than what it's supposed to (in peoples rooms that can be a huge issue if they don't have an area dedicated to VR) that could cause it to spasm or hitch, and the software tracking can have glitches that misinterpret the data since it it based on image processing and not hard data as in the gyros. Spasming is very bad, something that could cause immediate sickness in a user.

From what I understand though this is just a "get it working" solution and not what they intend to use in the final. Hopefully they can invent some new magic that wont require any optical tracking.
 
This should mean that the current dev kits can easily be modified for positional tracking. Either by ordering the required parts, or by making them yourself. It doesn't seem too complicated.
 
Yes really, whenever tracking of this sort is involved it is of concern - no matter what. I don't own a webcam and there are no cameras that record inside my house. I have a microphone but I have it on switch to turn it only when needed. This is important to me and can be much more important to others even if it may not be to you.

What are you afraid of? Oculus spying on you? Hackers? The government? They'd never do such a thing!

Oh wait...
 
I have no paranoia of being spied on but I don't feel comfortable having cameras/webcams facing me all the time. Kinect is permanently facing backwards.
 
That's what we're talking about and not them using a screen they can't actually get their hands on to demo the Rift?

Oculus wouldn't give me any details about the new screen, but founder Palmer Luckey says that the company's success has opened new doors. Manufacturers, he says, have started looking at the Rift as more than an untested product, which means they're willing to work with Oculus on displays that aren't just repurposed phone and tablet parts.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5285776/hands-on-with-crystal-cove-the-new-oculus-rift-prototype
 
Im surprised you guys are getting uptight about the camera. Surely we will be able to tell if the camera is broadcasting anything over the internet.. you can easily check software bandwidth going out and such. If the OR team did anything like that people would freak out and everyone would know it within a matter of minutes.

Outside of that just make sure you dont run any software that broadcasts your camera. Walla nothing to worry about.
 

They've also said that Samsung is the only one that can supply the OLED panels they'd need and that they ripped the panels out of Galaxy phones to make these prototypes. Up until the point that Samsung actually comes around, they don't have access. Unless something has changed, but they didn't make those comments that long ago...

Any word if they are shipping out (as a dev kit) the new prototype they showed off today?

No.
 
Still just amazing to think that 18 months ago this was a duct-taped garage project and now it's a $100 million dollar company with a vastly improved prototype on top of an already amazing dev kit, and an already growing developer community with a full blown SDK.

Valve has gone out of their way to not only test games and share research with them but to include dedicated VR support into Steam and subsequently Steam Machines. Oculus has now apparently gotten manufacturer support for custom OLED screens. Just remarkable.



Oh yea, and John Carmack.



Since late 2012 their target has been to release within 2 years, hoping to build to a fall 2014 release. Hopefully they can unveil DK2 at GDC or by E3, and release DK2 by summer, at that point locking in a Oct-Nov 2014 V1 consumer version. That's my estimated guess, anyways.
 
Quick question: if your PC can't hold the 120fps, does it drop on 60fps because of Vsync? And then on 40fps, 30fps etc.?
 
They've also said that Samsung is the only one that can supply the OLED panels they'd need and that they ripped the panels out of Galaxy phones to make these prototypes. Up until the point that Samsung actually comes around, they don't have access. Unless something has changed, but they didn't make those comments that long ago...

Where did they say they used Galaxy phone screens for the Crystal Cove prototype? Surely no Galaxy phone has this kind of screen? (or is the low persistence technology a software thing rather than a screen specific tech?).

Seems pretty clear from the comments in the post you replied to that something has changed.
 
Optical tracking is going to be the weakest link in the chain if this is what they end up using, and it's going to be the limiting factor of everything. There are of course privacy concerns but that's not a pressing technical issue. Image processing takes time and it can be very inaccurate - latency and incorrect motion are great banes of VR. Dot tracking from a single source means positional tracking would only work at certain angles, you won't be able to fully turn around (e: apparently there are two tracking dots on the back of the strap so you can turn around) or have a mobile system for example.

I'm assuming they will use the optical tracking to augment the internal sensors - i.e to provide realtime, continuous drift correction. And if they use a low resolution, high framerate camera that should be fine.

It'd also be a good solution for any Sony VR display :P
 
Quick question: if your PC can't hold the 120fps, does it drop on 60fps because of Vsync? And then on 40fps, 30fps etc.?

have they said the new proto supports 120fps? Because otherwise you'd just drive the current screen at 60fps (its a single screen with 'side by side' 3D) so you're drawing two 3D views, but only one screen.
 
Where did they say they used Galaxy phone screens for the Crystal Cove prototype? Surely no Galaxy phone has this kind of screen? (or is the low persistence technology a software thing rather than a screen specific tech?).

Seems pretty clear from the comments in the post you replied to that something has changed.

This is a quote from October by Nate Mitchell to Polygon

"If we move to an OLED panel, pixel-switching times would go down to about zero, because OLED tech just gives us that for free," he explained. "But we can't buy them at the size that we want because the only company that has them is Samsung. Hopefully, OLED tech will be caught up to by other manufacturers.

There's another quote from Palmer that I can't find (at least I think it was Palmer) more recently where they said they had taken the display out of a Galaxy phone for the prototype that they showed investors.

Unless some other company got OLED manufacturing at this size/quality online, Samsung is the only one. If Samsung was actually on board for selling them displays, I'd think they would have announced it.

Believe me, I'm hoping they can get it done.
 
I'm disappointed that a camera is required for positional tracking.
Final version could end without cam:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/07/oculus-rift-crystal-cove-hands-on/

CEO Brendan Iribe made sure to note that the camera is not final and may never ship with the final product. It's just the easiest solution for now.


what are the odds of a consumer version launching this year? slim to none?

with comments like this

"We have nothing to announce at this time, but I think 2014 really is going to be a big, big year for VR," Mitchell stated.
http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/7/528...otype-with-positional-tracking-and-mysterious

The chance should be good
 
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