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Oculus Rift

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Re: Oculus Rift

#211

Post by ansible »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #148
pinum wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To rephrase my question, can anyone point me to a list of PCs manufactured by companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. that meet or exceed these requirements? Buying a prebuild is a bad idea. Apart from being overpriced, they often have strange custom motherboards and cases which make upgrades complicated. There's always those places where you select the parts and they assemble the machine for you, but I can't recomme…

I haven't built a computer since, roughly, 2006. It's just not very interesting to me. My computers today are an iMac and a MacBook Air, both of which work wonderfully. I normally play games on a PS4 or PS Vita. Again, they work seamlessly. I don't want to mess around with finding the optimal power supply. I'm too old for that.

If you did want to build a gaming computer again, probably the easiest thing is to find a build guide on one of the popular PC sites like Tom's Hardware. They often come out with several different builds in different price ranges. Theoretically, if you just order the same components, it should work with little trouble.

Re: Oculus Rift

#212

Post by ansible »

pinum wrote: post #173
Pxtl wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prebuilds do work for users that a) Want something that physically looks good enough to have in their living room - modern prebuilds are sleek and small while making a small-form-factor custom is super-hard b) Have more money than time. Who has time to track parts compatibility and figure out the upgrade path for your device, only to drop half of the cost of a new unit on your upgrade? There's a reason Apple has been…

>making a small-form-factor custom is super-hard Mini-ITX is easy enough. Micro-ATX is easy as pie. There are very nice cases for both. If you know of a sub-mITX OEM build that has 4690K+980Ti level performance, I'd like to see it. >compatibility is always frustrating Not really. A graphics card, for example, has two things to check to verify compatibility: * Will it physically fit in my case? (Check the length) * Is…

Every graphics card has been PCI-E for a decade. If it fits and has power, any card will work in any motherboard.

You do want to pay attention to the mobo choice if the card itself requires PCI-E v3.0. There are still a lot of v2.0 mobos for sale. Most mobos have at least one 16x slot, which is the one you'll want to use. Things get a little more complicated with multi-GPU card builds.

Re: Oculus Rift

#213

Post by epmatsw »

pyrocat wrote: post #146
taylorwc wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That really doesn't bother me. Having used an Xbox One controller regularly, I think it is a fantastic controller, and I like that Oculus didn't feel the need to reinvent the wheel. I am excited about new interfaces other than a traditional controller though.

Interestingly enough, it looks like it will be wireless, which currently isn't possible with the PC. The Xbox One controller is only wireless for Xbox, the drivers/wireless receiver aren't available for PC. I wonder if they partnered with Microsoft to make it wireless?

Microsoft announced a wireless adapter for PC a couple of days ago http://www.anandtech.com/show/9358/microsoft-launches-update...

Re: Oculus Rift

#214

Post by malandrew »

dbbolton wrote: post #111
jonknee wrote: post #28

The Xbox controller is really surprising to me. Years in development and it will ship with an Xbox controller. Oculus Touch didn't even get demonstrated and "prototype" was mentioned time and again.

I was equally surprised by the on-ear style headphones. I'm sure the design team thought about the choice in depth and has good reasons behind it, but I would have imagined over-ear to be better for immersion (personally I find them more comfortable as well).

The technical terms are supra-aural (on-ear) and circum-aural (around the ears). Both can be sound-wise excellent, but circum-aural is definitely more comfortable.

I used to own a pair of Joe Grado HP-1 HP-1000 supra-aural headphones and they were excellent and did a great job with binaural recordings. Since selling those, I moved on to the Denon D7000 circum-aural headphones. Far more comfortable. Bar none the best audio experience I have had was with AKG K-1000s hooked up to 75-watt tubes monoblocks. However, that wouldn't have worked for VR presence because of the latency from the tubes. With solid state speaker amps to keep the audio in sync, the presence would probably be unreal, assuming the K-1000s do well with binaural recordings, but that is something I'm uncertain of.

Re: Oculus Rift

#215

Post by brianorwhatever »

ethbro wrote: post #200
pavlov wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even close. The screens for each eye probably have about 1440 pixels of vertical resolution (I'm guessing they are Samsung OLED screens, similar to the display on the Galaxy S6). Imagine that resolution stretched out to fill your field of view and distorted by the lenses -- the perceptual resolution available for a virtual monitor would probably be less than VGA. VR environments that can do high-quality typograph…

> the perceptual resolution available for a virtual monitor would probably be less than VGA It's a shame we weren't able to program on VGA monitors. :(

programming wasn't really possible until HD came around

Re: Oculus Rift

#216

Post by malandrew »

oldpond wrote: post #205
LesZedCB wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds quality isn't really dependent on circumaural vs supra-aural headphones. The major complaint I hear with supra-aural headphones is that they apply pressure on the ears, which can be unconfortable. Sound quality, however, is largely affected by the drivers.

This is correct. It's called listening fatigue.

It's not just listening fatigue from sound, but the pressure applied to the ear-lobes. I have used circum-aural headphones that I can use for hours upon hours since they were very comfortable (no pressure) and were not too bright or forward that they caused listening fatigue.

Re: Oculus Rift

#217

Post by nightski »

agildehaus wrote: post #162
nightski wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is more than Facebook being MS "friendly". Like it or not, Windows is still the dominant platform for PC gaming period. As much as many would like this to change, it is not even close to happening.

Oculus not bothering means they're just part of why it's not happening. Valve on the other hand seems to fully embrace OSX/Linux (with both Steam and the Vive) and have done plenty to improve gaming on those platforms. I think I know which HMD I'll be purchasing.

Fair enough but I don't think a display is the place to start when trying to change something like this.

I am sure the Vive will be great, but let's face it the vast majority of titles on Steam are Windows only. Valve may like the idea of Linux gaming, but they push a lot of Windows games...

Re: Oculus Rift

#218

Post by colinramsay »

apetrovic wrote: post #194
colinramsay wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really the same though is it? A mobile doesn't strap on to your face and add half a kilo of weight to your head.

I was talking about the danger of predicting success of some technology based on personal bias, not about similarity between a VR headset and a mobile phone. Duh.

I'm surprised you didn't link to the classic Slashdot post on the iPod!

Re: Oculus Rift

#219

Post by Pxtl »

pinum wrote: post #173
Pxtl wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prebuilds do work for users that a) Want something that physically looks good enough to have in their living room - modern prebuilds are sleek and small while making a small-form-factor custom is super-hard b) Have more money than time. Who has time to track parts compatibility and figure out the upgrade path for your device, only to drop half of the cost of a new unit on your upgrade? There's a reason Apple has been…

>making a small-form-factor custom is super-hard Mini-ITX is easy enough. Micro-ATX is easy as pie. There are very nice cases for both. If you know of a sub-mITX OEM build that has 4690K+980Ti level performance, I'd like to see it. >compatibility is always frustrating Not really. A graphics card, for example, has two things to check to verify compatibility: * Will it physically fit in my case? (Check the length) * Is…

> It's no harder than getting the correct speakers for your home theatre.

I had to snicker here. Following the audiophiles is a sure-fire way to keep the PC gaming industry on the fringes.

Re: Oculus Rift

#220

Post by flurdy »

matmann2001 wrote: post #201
psychometry wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use case is particularly apt for frequent fliers. I've almost had a tray table-supported laptop destroyed on more than one occasion by a reclining passenger in front of me. It would be amazing to just set up a small keyboard+trackpad on my lap and not have to even pull the computer out of its bag. If I could do this, I wouldn't even care how ridiculous I looked.

You won't be able to see the keyboard though. So, how confident are you in your touch-typing skills?

MS HoloLens solves that. If text is clear enough. May be better as an addition to the main screen.
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