Why wouldn't it? I don't need my glasses to read or view my iPad, which is generally a foot away from my eyes. I do need my glasses when gaming on my HDTV, which is 10 feet away.
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Oculus Rift Kickstarter [Ended, $2.4 million funded]
- Thread starter Lord Error
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Why wouldn't it? I don't need my glasses to read or view my iPad, which is generally a foot away from my eyes. I do need my glasses when gaming on my HDTV, which is 10 feet away.
dollartaco
Member
Jesus, I misunderstood. Next time I'll end something with an ellipsis so I'm not so horrifyingly offensive.
blitzcloud
Banned
would this work with dayz for headtracking? like would it be able to do the work of trackir?
He's already explained it. Optics make your eyes relax like they're viewing something in the distance. So your HDTV at 10 feet is probably the more likely analogy.
Although I don't claim to know how this particular unit will work. Just that it has optics. And there's a decent chance your eyes will be tricked into relaxing.
Well if that's the case, then I won't be able to use this. Bummer.
It's not really tricked. It's just how optics work!
Our eyes simply cannot push on the cornea hard enough to distort the light coming in from such an extreme angle to focus on our fovea properly. To do so, our cornea would have to be made from a different material - that has not traditionally been available in our environment, or would have lead to unacceptable degradation in the lenses (for our lifespans).
Whatever the nature of the optics (be it the lens setup that these devices typically use, or more innovative systems that can block divergent light rays from a particular source (real thing, not made up)), the end result is that it bends the light coming from really close to your face, to an angle that is far more tenable for your eye to accept. The best optics bend incoming light so that it runs parallel - same as it would if it were coming from the distance.
Assuming you don't wear contacts - I'm pretty sure that this device is suitable for nerds with glasses. After all, Carmack is in a way one of the lead developers on this project, and that guy has big ass glasses!
BlueTsunami
there is joy in sucking dick
I wonder if this thing could be equipped with a diopter? Which would help those who need glasses.
From the FAQ:
Can I wear glasses while using the Rift developer kit?
This really depends on the shape and size of the glasses. The developer kit is designed to sit as close to your eyes as possible which makes it a bit unfriendly for glasses. That said, we'll do everything we can to make it as comfortable as possible for the developer kit and we have a lot of great ideas for supporting glasses in the consumer version (especially since huge portion of the Oculus team wears glasses everyday!).
Carmack has even stated if your eyesight isn't too bad, it's actually not the worst thing in the world to go without glasses. Since it helps hide the pixel structure if you don't have razer eyesight.
That's the reason for the optics.
Fair enough.
Worst comes to worst, I'll grab the lens out of my spare pair of glasses and attach them to the rift. Should work pretty well. Or I might go without - although things will just look like blobs then... giant pixels or blobs... hmm.
It says on their FAQS that the people that are working on this also wear glasses, so they are going to try their best to make it compatable with them.
Edit: I really need to learn to read the posts above me lol
Ah, the unfortunate side effect of being a developer who also has PC gaming as a hobby. I know it all too well...just graft a screen overlay under my cornea and be done with it.
People talking about pixel structure: Are the optics not going to get rid of the screen door effect somehow, or is that not what we're talking about here? It sounds great, but I don't know if I can get past an obvious screen door effect, even if the FOV is huge.
I am so close to funding the $300 version... it's not even funny. My brain is trying to tell me that the $300 prototype is probably not going to be that end-user friendly, but it still sounds like there is fun to be had.
I am so close to funding the $300 version... it's not even funny. My brain is trying to tell me that the $300 prototype is probably not going to be that end-user friendly, but it still sounds like there is fun to be had.
MrCunningham
Member
I'm pretty sure you're right about that. I think this Kickstarter exists to promote and take pre-orders for the hardware, and is not really being used for funding at all... which is still a perfectly acceptable use of KS.
Yeah, this version really only exists as an SDK kit to get developers feet wet in VR development. It was never intended for the mass consumer market, nor is it the final model (as it has been stated many times). It is really for Developers, modders and DIY'ers. I remember reading somewhere in the past that it is also possible to replace the screens in this version with higher resolution ones if you have the technical know-how. But I don't really know if that is still the case.
It wouldn't be the optics job necessarily to get rid of the screen door effect, that all really depends on the screen's pixel layout. While at this resolution it is going to be at least a little blocky no matter what, depending on the space between the pixels you might not see any lines between them at all, which would mean no screen door effect.
EDIT:
See this post for an example of what I mean. http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=14777&p=75819#p75819
papersleeves
Member
Aaaaaand I'm a backer. $330 waiting to be taken from my bank account.
I'm a sucker for that kind of tech. I just hope my bad eyesight won't be too bad with it.
I'm a sucker for that kind of tech. I just hope my bad eyesight won't be too bad with it.
Crash Station
Member
Aw man, I would totally pledge if this wouldn't be mostly first person games.
This is probably going to be the biggest kickstarter in terms of amount funded ever.
I mean... assuming they don't go 'sold out' before it gets too crazy.
I dont think so. That smartwatch managed to snatch 10 mil.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android
Angry Fork
Member
I don't understand only developers can support this at the moment? I don't see an option just for buying the actual headset. 75$ support nets you a t shirt and a poster? Is that for real?
Anyone can, but they're calling it the developer's headset because it's barebones and not really supported by anything yet. They're basically saying it's working, but not pretty and doesn't have software besides Doom.
Yeah... but only after I looked at the funding chart. That pebble watch picked up around 1.5+ million on its first day.
Currently they are only selling development equipment so that when the consumer version comes out there is a lot of support. And as for the reason for the high prices on the bundle you are referring to; It's because it is signed by the whole team. You can get an unsigned version for $35 if you look at the kickstarter page.
Stealth20k
Banned
people thought ouya would be the highest but
while the amount is high, the amount of backers wasnt enough
At this point in time, it'll be anyone's guess as to how people figure out how to do VR with anything other than FPS or maybe TPS.
Maybe some will crop the screen, reduce the FOV (although that would reduce the number of already limited pixels working on producing the graphics and UI - so this iteration wouldn't really be workable)... or maybe they'll change the camera/perspectives if it's within their framework.
Imagine playing RTS games on a virtual holographic table. That'd be pretty neat.
Bomber Bob
Banned
If possible, they should just add some mechanism to adjust the focus like a reflex viewfinder.
Haint
Member
Maybe, maybe not. I think you may be over estimating the complexity of the device though. Not to be too reductive about it, but conceptually, they're selling one of these with a display and strap. The real "cost" was the idea and software correction. From what I gather, there is no image processor, scaler, or anything like that--it's a pure bare bones display, USB powered, with a DVI/HDMI input. Internet direct speaker companies spring up every month, so it must not be too insurmountable to set up relatively low volume component sourcing and manufacturing.
Schweinehund
Member
Man GabeN is in all these kickstarter videos. Damn.
Sounds awesome.
Sounds awesome.
It also needs accelorometers for head tracking. Otherwise it's not VR. I assume that's what the USB is for as well.
MrCunningham
Member
Racing games should be able to lend themselves nicely to VR. Also, with MechWarrior making a comeback... could you imagine MechWarrior Online with VR? Dear god, that would be awesome.
Flight simulators could also benefit from this too.
A display, a strap and an accelerometer. The display is the "real cost" in terms of hardware. I really doubt they are making much (if any) profit at $300.
Edit:
Just saw a Forbes (contributor) article on Why The Oculus Rift Kickstarter Is A Better Bet Than Ouya
In your opinions, how well will this get supported with patches/injectors etc for many popular PC games? Almost tempted to jump in just for doom 3 but realistically if eg 5-10 decent games got support I'd almost jump in for the experience, even though I'm no developer
Can you just plug in and go, or will it be hard together with bits of string and only run from a dev environment?
Can you just plug in and go, or will it be hard together with bits of string and only run from a dev environment?
Well, the first version of an open source injector driver for Skyrim was written weeks ago, without any access to hardware, simply based on the Carmack video.
I think a ton of games will be well supported by the community in terms of visual output (the image splitting, scaling and pre-warping).
Good head tracking input integration will be much harder. I think it will happen, but only for a smaller selection of games.
Well, I imagine if you're not a developer, then you'll be hunting around for mods and patches for games.
We know at the very least someone has made (or is it mocked up?) a fish eye lens corrector patch for Skyrim.
zephervack
Member
Reading the thread about this patch, seems like even though it works, you have to turn all shadows off and the HUD is not working.
Im sure they will fix all issues in due time though.
It's quite real, you can even download the source code.
It's far from perfect though, and as I said above I think that good input integration will be much harder.
If the consumer version of this thing works as well as described and costs $300, I could definitely see myself purchasing one. I'm not much of an enthusiast so I'll leave these prototypes to the more hardcore tinkerer, but I'm excited at the possibilities something like this could provide. It'd also be beyond awesome if this became a peripheral supported by next-gen games. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but assuming the consumer version supports HDMI there don't seem to be any technological hurdles to prevent it.
Haint
Member
Yea Palmer has said all along the KS release was going to be about breaking even. Not sure if that will hold true for a consumer version, but this first batch was always intended to be a non-profit so to speak. Point was he wouldn't necessarily need outside funding to sell these things for $300, which is what I was responding to.
blitzcloud
Banned
will the devkits purchased be like those seen so far... duct taped and all?
Or will it live up to the renders?
If it's the renders i'm probably in.
Or will it live up to the renders?
If it's the renders i'm probably in.
PC accessories are approximately 1000x more DOA than any console accessory has ever been.
Think how long it took just to get reliably consistant gamepad support across PC titles.
I would love for this to work out, but I'll just watch and see what happens.
Think how long it took just to get reliably consistant gamepad support across PC titles.
I would love for this to work out, but I'll just watch and see what happens.
Hah, the huge number breaks the UI.
wait until you experience Just Cause 2, with the super man mod and First person view mod combined.
It is amazing...its every thing i've wanted to experiense in a video game. If you ever watched the movie Flight of the Navigator..and there is that scene where he flies around land and ocean in the spaceship and its in first persons view....its like that, heck you can even go under water like in that movie.....but i haven't because its pretty scary in Just Cause 2's oceans as it is......i'm not ready to go deep down there yet with this set up, especially with the surround sound.
But anyway this is all with no head tracking or true 3D (although its not adverised, i think the HMZ converts 2D to 3D on the fly becuase it seemed like 3D).
So with updated tech, at least regaring FOV and headtracking, it might look even more amazing. (Minus OLED and 720p).
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