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Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

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Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#41

Post by Artlav »

phire wrote: post #33
Artlav wrote: post #28

Nothing to do with "multitasking" - instead of putting real, cost-$, monitors around you, just put virtual, free, monitors around - as many as you wish! Sounds like something awesome, but kinda impractical for now - at least not until the Oculus-grade headsets become the size of eyeglasses. I guess that should work great with AR headsets, since these won't constrain your situational awareness.

The bigger problem is pixel density. I've tried both the DK1 and the vive, and the vive is basically at the point where games are very playable. Some people complain about the "screen-door" effect, which basically translates to the pixels are so large that it's like you are looking a screen door. But in my experience that's not a problem. If you stop and concentrate you can see the pixels, and they are quite large, b…

Hm, i was expecting the "rotate head" to be the way it works - most headsets support that, and it feels natural that way.

I'm not really sure how big the text should be - in the games it looks natural, but there is no sense of scale.

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#42

Post by harryf »

fennokin wrote: post #40
harryf wrote: post #18

Despite plenty of studies showing multi tasking for humans is less efficient than single tasking ( e.g. http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-research-study... ) here we are inventing new ways to be even more distracted.

It's a false assumption that multiple windows equates to multitasking. Just because you have multiple applications open doesn't imply you are multitasking. This is an angle of VR that hadn't occurred to me other than entertainment.

Their product pitch is (I quote from their website);

> Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#43

Post by harryf »

StavrosK wrote: post #20
harryf wrote: post #18

Despite plenty of studies showing multi tasking for humans is less efficient than single tasking ( e.g. http://news.stanford.edu/2009/08/24/multitask-research-study... ) here we are inventing new ways to be even more distracted.

Why do you say that? I'd love something like this product, and my work flow is single tasking. I have all my windows open in full screen all the time and switch between them, and usually have a movie playing on the second screen while I work. Yes, it takes me a day to watch an hour's worth of movie, but it's a nice and easy distraction when waiting for stuff to build or doing other low cognitive impact work.

I said it because their product pitch (from the website) is;

> Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#45

Post by joncrocks »

Artlav wrote: post #41
phire wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger problem is pixel density. I've tried both the DK1 and the vive, and the vive is basically at the point where games are very playable. Some people complain about the "screen-door" effect, which basically translates to the pixels are so large that it's like you are looking a screen door. But in my experience that's not a problem. If you stop and concentrate you can see the pixels, and they are quite large, b…

Hm, i was expecting the "rotate head" to be the way it works - most headsets support that, and it feels natural that way. I'm not really sure how big the text should be - in the games it looks natural, but there is no sense of scale.

That probably is the way it works. But the problem is that the resolution of the VR devices at the moment is 2160 x 1200, i.e. the equivalent of a single monitor.

This monitor is responsible for filling your entire field of view, therefore the pixel density of any 'virtual monitor' must be quite low, therefore it'll not work 'like you're sitting at a desk of monitors'.

Imagine the inverse. Imagine you've got a single curved monitor at your desk that fills your entire field of view. Sounds great right? Now imagine that monitor is 2160 x 1200. Not so great.

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#47

Post by SparkyMcUnicorn »

harryf wrote: post #42
fennokin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a false assumption that multiple windows equates to multitasking. Just because you have multiple applications open doesn't imply you are multitasking. This is an angle of VR that hadn't occurred to me other than entertainment.

Their product pitch is (I quote from their website); > Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

When it comes to technology, multi-tasking is completely different.

For iOS, some "multi-tasking" features include "switch between apps by double clicking the home button and selecting a recent app", and split view.

Windows considers "window snapping" to be a multi-tasking feature.

As we all know, multi-tasking isn't really thinking about two things at the same time, it's switching between those two things very rapidly. When it comes to technology, you can hardcore multi-task by having 5 video chats going while watching a youtube tutorial and writing your grocery list (which is more along the lines of the study you linked), or else you "multi-task" by having plenty of windows open in a larger viewing area to lessen the need to constantly switch between apps.

e.g. As a web developer, I would not be productive without switching between code, terminal, and chrome.

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#48

Post by drzaiusapelord »

phire wrote: post #33
Artlav wrote: post #28

Nothing to do with "multitasking" - instead of putting real, cost-$, monitors around you, just put virtual, free, monitors around - as many as you wish! Sounds like something awesome, but kinda impractical for now - at least not until the Oculus-grade headsets become the size of eyeglasses. I guess that should work great with AR headsets, since these won't constrain your situational awareness.

The bigger problem is pixel density. I've tried both the DK1 and the vive, and the vive is basically at the point where games are very playable. Some people complain about the "screen-door" effect, which basically translates to the pixels are so large that it's like you are looking a screen door. But in my experience that's not a problem. If you stop and concentrate you can see the pixels, and they are quite large, b…

Agreed that pixel density is an issue, but that can be worked around via supersampling. I just saw the guys at /r/vive discovered a global supersampling setting. Someone post this before and after:

http://imgur.com/a/uDTwP

Of course, the issue now is GPU horsepower. Rendering two viewports at 1200x1080 at 90fps is no easy task. Supersampling at 2x means rendering 2400x2160 per eye at 90fps. Anything short of a 1080 is going to have performance issues at this level of supersampling, and even then it depends on how complex the game environment is and its settings. I messed around a bit with BigScreen and I can certainly see the potential for VR as monitor replacement for $some_tasks. I have yet to see supersampling settings for it or if these global settings affect 2D screen projections in 3D space.

So yes, current densities might be enough to get by without fuzziness and hard to read text if you have enough GPU muscle. I don't think we've figured out all the tricks with first gen VR yet. There are going to be a lot of little surprises like these I suspect. At the very least we know AMD and Nvidia are supporting performance enhancing features that no one has really implemented yet.[1] I suspect the Vive of June 2016 is going to be a very different experience compared to the Vive of December 2016. The same way console launch games don't look as good as games released towards the end of the console's life.

[1] Yesterday one of the PoolNationVR devs said he got a 20% performance increase using Nvidia's Multi-Res Shading. This change goes live in July. A 20% performance increase at no cost? Crazy.

Re: Start multi-tasking with your virtual reality headset

#50

Post by drzaiusapelord »

lux wrote: post #44

I've read that you don't need to go through Greenlight for VR apps right now, just to contact Valve. Not sure if that's true, but might be of help if it is.

Devs on /r/vive claim this is true. Appparantly, Valve is hurting for good VR content and will fast track anything VR related.

It also doesn't make much sense to Greenlight VR. You need x amount of votes, but because the VR population is so low, its much harder to get those votes compared to a traditional 2D game.

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