Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

oculus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 142 posts

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#121

Post by staunch »

DanAndersen wrote: post #88
Tepix wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a little bit of extra information hidden inside the announcement: * They have an input solution and will reveal it in the next couple of weeks * The have improved the tracking and will now officially recommend standing experiences. All in all, a Q1 release date is somewhat sad but in the big picture it won't matter.

I am curious how much of the change to allowing "standing experiences" was technical, and how much was legal. In previous Oculus demos, they would give standing demos yet all official interviews said that the Rift is a "seated experience." My guess was that they were always constrained by not only a limited tracking volume but also the potential for litigation if someone sues them for tripping and falling. The fact t…

From their talks and interviews, I've gathered that both John Carmack and Palmer Luckey have always been in favor of standing experiences.

But...the early investor of Oculus is also the CEO, and he apparently has the weakest stomach for VR of anyone at the company. The hard line seems to have been set entirely by him.

Doom and Quake both made many people nauseous. So do rollercoasters, 3D movies, and Telsa Roadsters. There's no reason to eliminate experiences that most people can thoroughly enjoy. Fortunately, the fun camp seems to have won finally.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#122

Post by Impossible »

flycaliguy wrote: post #99
Symmetry wrote: post #71

Everybody talks about VR in terms of games but I wonder if it might be possible to create a productive desktop using a VR helmet. Surely it would be easy to emulate having N monitors but I bet you could do better.

In a similar vein, I can't wait until the world of music creation software appears in VR. Imagine a virtual studio in which expensive vintage hardware is emulated along side imaginative new instruments. Control mechanisms like step sequencers could be expanded to fill the space around you. Audio synthesis itself, with it's raw waveforms and various modulations, filters and distortions could be brought to life in spac…

This is an amazing startup idea (virtual reality music studio). I think the success of Tiltbrush proves that VR has a lot of potential for interesting new creative applications.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#123

Post by doorhammer »

soylentcola wrote: post #85
doorhammer wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never got to use Crescent Bay, but I've got a DK2 at home. Resolution for me will be a non-issue once I can read smallish text on virtual signs/displays. I'm thinking mostly for games like Elite Dangerous and other simulators like that, where a cockpit display is part of the game. Do you think the crescent bay prototype is at that point? (this might be a naive question as it's been awhile since I've looked up anyth…

I agree about the smaller text but at the same time, it's been more of an issue for me when the content wasn't created primarily with DK2-class hardware as the target. Elite is great and I feel like Frontier owes Oculus money because myself and just about everyone I know who got a DK2 also ended up buying Elite but it's still primarily designed for a monitor. If you're targeting a game or other application for VR (an…

I think Minecraft is a good accidental example of what you're talking about, especially on the DK2.

It's natural pixel style makes you not notice the resolution at all, and all of the text is large, and easy to read. The cube nature also really makes me aware of the 3D, which is nice.

It doesn't do anything to deal with the FPS/nausea problem, though I don't react very poorly to playing an FPS in the rift as long as it uses a keyhole style control with the mouse (half-life 2 is a prime example of that).

One other thing I like about minecraft on the rift is that it really shows off the true blacks you can get with the OLED display. It smears a bit, but it's still really rad to look into a mine shaft and have it fade to actual darkness (not sure if the consumer version is planning for OLED off hand).

I definitely agree that it'll be cool when game shops start really thinking about building their games for VR, and that they can work around VR weaknesses.

Weird scaling is another issue, when something was scaled to look right from 2D on a screen, but drops the ball in VR. I played Skyrim using Vireo and the mountains ended up looking like glorified hills, heh.

Another funny issue I had was playing Alien Isolation. VR made it super obvious that looking out through a spaceship window into "space" was actually looking at a black wall about twenty ft away.

Looking forward to wherever VR goes, either way.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#124

Post by melling »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #111
fooqux wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it depends entirely on your fidelity of course. For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander. That was one of the first games I know of that supported dual monitors, and it does it well. But I digress- the point is that I had it maxed out on two 1080p monitors and it was running at 60fps the whole time. So yes, you will need a big beefy expensive graphics card to play the newest AAA games m…

>For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander. I'm not buying a VR headset in 2016 to play a game from 2007.

If you're not happy with first generation then don't buy it. I guarantee that the second and third generation will be even better. Some guy whining on HN about a first generation product adds zero value. That first generation iPhone had lots of critics too, and rightly so.

Bottom line is that a real VR product ships in less than 12 months.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#125

Post by justifier »

from my experience with the dk2 i felt their biggest issues were:

  hard plastic frame,
  eye tracking,
  blood circulation
the hard plastic frame limits the variability of the distance between two pupils. Pupillary distance is ~62mm for women and ~64mm for men(i). With obvious variance even within the sexes. Just hardcoding a distance is a limitation that requires the brain to work harder to massage the inconsistencies causing added strain. ( the images appear to show lenses that are now even unable to be removed, one potential solution i saw was the possibility of buying lens kits for offsetting the lens to your specific pupillary distance )

the lack of eye tracking really disrupts the experience. Look around the place you are in right now, but keep your eyes straight only moving your neck as you move from object to object. The movements are awkward and feel like a retrofuture automaton. Now look around casually and notice how often you utilise the movement of the eyeball. ( unable to tell at this moment if there is any extra hardware in the mask )

as for the blood circulation if i wore the dk2 for more than 20m and took it off to look in the mirror the area around my eyes was white for want of blood and highlighted by the red marks where the mask was pressed against my face. ( the images show the same face pressing frame )

i had many more issues with the dk2, but these three seemed to me to be confirmation proofs that the direction digital stereoscopy is going in is innately flawed

a constructive alternative would be digital stereoscopy that uses eye tracking to measure pupillary distance and the pupils' direction vector in order to create a scene ad hoc, or virtual reality through direct sensory manipulation

(i) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distance

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#126

Post by jsmthrowaway »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #106
jsmthrowaway wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had to turn down numerous sliders, including the Oculus Quality slider which made screen door pronounced, but I was able to play Elite at 70fps (you want 70 on the DK2) on a Retina iMac bootcamped into Windows. It tore or jerked occasionally, like in Lave, but it's not nearly as demanding as you say. Minecrift did even better. My experience was very smooth and playable for hours. On a Mac. With laptop graphics. I'd…

If you're getting shitty graphics, turning everything off or lowering to low levels, low framerates, and screen door effect and jerking, etc uh I would rethink what it means to have an acceptable VR experience. If anything your sub-par experience is proof that I'm correct. Without excellent hardware, the experience is terrible. Just because "it kinda worked" doesn't mean its going to sell or impress anyone.

You were arguing a barrier to entry, not quality. My point was there's not a wall in front of this stuff as you say. You moved the goalposts to "acceptable VR experience," which is a different topic and largely subjective.

I also never said the experience was terrible or "kinda worked." Quite the opposite, in fact, I rather enjoyed it even at a lower quality because I understand the limitations of things. Outside of Lave I stayed right at 70fps and could turn my head from left to right without even a millisecond of delay. It was actually the most fun I've ever had in PC gaming. But you're right, because I didn't have everything turned up to maximum, I should rethink my enjoyment.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#127

Post by drzaiusapelord »

melling wrote: post #124
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander. I'm not buying a VR headset in 2016 to play a game from 2007.

If you're not happy with first generation then don't buy it. I guarantee that the second and third generation will be even better. Some guy whining on HN about a first generation product adds zero value. That first generation iPhone had lots of critics too, and rightly so. Bottom line is that a real VR product ships in less than 12 months.

The Vive ships earlier, so Oculus will actually be second fiddle.

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#128

Post by appsonify »

how far away will tactile simulation gloves come into market?

imagine gripping in-game items, being able to control them as you would with real objects. squeeze to fill the glove pressing back, feel cold/warmth, feel textiles.

Combined with increasingly photorealistic games + VR...we are at the mouth of uncanny valley...it's going to be a very interesting decade.

Maybe we live in a future where people completely abandon their real world life in favor of a virtual one while the appratus in the real world just keeps you alive, very much like Matrix...

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#129

Post by steve-benjamins »

amckenna wrote: post #110
steve-benjamins wrote: post #104

Recently I finally got to try VR— the Samsung Gear VR. I was a bit disappointed (my expectations were ridiculously high going into it though). I was surprised to find (1) the resolution to be quite pixelated and (2) visible black strips of the hardware bordering my viewport. After usage, both the resolution and the visible hardware were not issues. They "melted" away and I was "immersed". But I'm curious: is the Rift…

Yeah the Samsung Gear VR was like a mobile consumer version of the DK2. The Rift (CV1) will be a definite improvement over the Samsung Gear VR in terms of tracking, audio, and resolution (resolution hasn't been released yet but it is assumed).

Awesome— thanks!

Re: First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

#130

Post by [deleted] »

Impossible wrote: post #122
flycaliguy wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, I can't wait until the world of music creation software appears in VR. Imagine a virtual studio in which expensive vintage hardware is emulated along side imaginative new instruments. Control mechanisms like step sequencers could be expanded to fill the space around you. Audio synthesis itself, with it's raw waveforms and various modulations, filters and distortions could be brought to life in spac…

This is an amazing startup idea (virtual reality music studio). I think the success of Tiltbrush proves that VR has a lot of potential for interesting new creative applications.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN