Official VR Headset discussion

[aviphysics]

Originally Posted by DaJMasta

It's taking a while...

Hopefully there's still potential for an end of 2014 release, but the fact that there's a second dev kit announced like this doesn't suggest to me that they're making all of their deadlines.

Sure you want the devs to be using complete hardware, but still, this project is taking longer than I would have expected from all the hype and early demos.

They call it a "dev kit", but it is more like pre-release beta/alpha hardware. They just call it a "dev-kit" so people don't buy it with the expectation that it will be plug and play.

BTW, anyone can order one. Would totally do it, if I didn't have other things going on right now.
https://www.oculusvr.com/order/

[jolle]

Well they ARE dev kits, you get one if you want to make a Rift game, or add support for Rift to your existing game.
But they´re not stopping curious people from just getting one to check out techdemos and Skyrim hacks and whatnots... all those Unity "things" people are putting out.
And I suppose there are some "proper" games with support out there already, like TF2 if I dont remember wrong?
But still, Dev kit is a appropriate term I´d say.

[DaJMasta]

Yeah, that's exactly what a dev kit is. The hardware, sometimes with some debugging modifications and workflow enhancements, along with a software suite and some level of technical support.

The kickstarter 'dev kit' was a gimped prototype build that didn't match any of the final features, though it did come with the proper support.

[Cyko]

Originally Posted by _TiTaNiuM

Anyone? Anyone?

Pre-ordered it. I have a DK1 already and it's pretty fantastic (could be improved upon of course). Looking forward to what this release will bring.

[Sundance Kid V2]

Originally Posted by _TiTaNiuM

Is it though? What's a good gaming monitor cost? 250-300. What's a midrange graphics card cost? 250-350. What does a next gen console cost? 400-500. I think the price point is right on for what you're getting honestly.

I agree... it could be more expensive example $500+.

$300 is not too bad... but if it is worth it then I'll buy it!

[_TiTaNiuM]

Originally Posted by Cyko

Pre-ordered it. I have a DK1 already and it's pretty fantastic (could be improved upon of course). Looking forward to what this release will bring.

what all have you been able to do with it? is there anything that supports it currently or is it mostly half-assed right now?

[jolle]

Followup on resolution, just ran into this bit:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/19/55...it-2-announced

The 1080p OLED panel still isn't high enough a resolution to avoid jagged edges — Oculus says the consumer version will have even higher resolution

[night]

[bill dennison]

Originally Posted by jolle

Followup on resolution, just ran into this bit:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/19/55...it-2-announced

shoot for 3840 × 2160

http://gamerant.com/oculus-rift-4k-resolution/

[BababooeyHTJ]

Originally Posted by jolle

Followup on resolution, just ran into this bit:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/19/55...it-2-announced

Nice, this is what I was hoping for.

[bill dennison]

Oculus won't commit to a release date for the consumer version, except to say that it will be before the end of next year

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/03/19/oc...t-2-announced/
last year it was by end of 2114 and now 2015


the retail version will come out about the same time as star citizen in 2020

[Omega53]

Originally Posted by bill dennison

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/03/19/oc...t-2-announced/
last year it was by end of 2114 and now 2015


the retail version will come out about the same time as star citizen in 2020

Star citizen with oculus rift = my dream of living out star wars in real life

[YellowBeard]

Pre-ordered. Also this thread just got banished to Purgatory. WTH?

[SirBaron]

Originally Posted by bill dennison

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/03/19/oc...t-2-announced/
last year it was by end of 2114 and now 2015


the retail version will come out about the same time as star citizen in 2020

Yeah but if they released it, you same people would complain it's rushed to market missing features, or very poorly done.

Do we want a EA style release.

[_TiTaNiuM]

Originally Posted by YellowBeard

Pre-ordered. Also this thread just got banished to Purgatory. WTH?

sure seems like it. may people never see it ever again.

[SirBaron]

See what?

[General Lee]

I can't wait until they release a finished, polished product. I want to play Titanfall or (depending on release dates) Titanfall 2. I know they got it working with Mirror's Edge, but imagine a game like Titanfall with this thing. Wall-running and other parkour movement with intense combat situations and piloting a Titan with this would be awesome.

I already find myself wanting to punch something whenever I smack people with my Titan, this would probably have me knocking my monitor over.

[jolle]

Originally Posted by General Lee

I can't wait until they release a finished, polished product. I want to play Titanfall or (depending on release dates) Titanfall 2. I know they got it working with Mirror's Edge, but imagine a game like Titanfall with this thing. Wall-running and other parkour movement with intense combat situations and piloting a Titan with this would be awesome.

I already find myself wanting to punch something whenever I smack people with my Titan, this would probably have me knocking my monitor over.

I think fast paced shooters might be less then ideal for VR.
Might depend on how you manage rotating your character + VR tracking data, but the demos I´ve tried I seem to recall using analog stick to "move the camera" and the tracking is added ontop of that.
So flicking around with a mouse, twitch shooting etc.. could be disorienting and possibly nausiating..

Not that´ve tried, and even if I had the now dubbed DK1 pair was less then ideal in many ways.

A more slow paced mech game could be pretty damn epic though, got the sense of vertigo using the DK1 pair in some tech demos, going close to edges and such, and you get a very tangible sense of scale on everything compared to viewing a 3d world on a monitor.
So sitting up in a mech cockpit could be a pretty awesome experience in itself, just by sitting there.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Might not be too bad. I enjoyed painkiller in 3d. Hard reset and shadow warrior were also very good.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[jolle]

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

Might not be too bad. I enjoyed painkiller in 3d. Hard reset and shadow warrior were also very good.

It´s not the stereoscopic part, if that´s what you mean by "in 3d".
It´s about motion sickness, where what you see doesnt correspond to how your brain knows your head is moving.
I think it´s worse with alot of mouse twitching when you´re "in the world".. so to speak. (if your head movement is additive ontop of the mouse movement, which I assume would be the case since you dont want to rotate 360 degrees in your chair, for several reasons)

Watching a screen through sterescopic glasses still has a lot of fixed world points outside of the monitor edges, so your brain knows YOU´RE not moving.
With a VR set there are no fixed points, there is only the virtual world in view.

Going OP flashpoint might be a decent way to handle it, but that´s not great for twitch shooting anyway.
But essentially you move the crosshair freely within a deadzone, and when you go outside the deadzone, you start rotating the character.
That way your character is static when you aim around inside the deadzone, and the camera is only influenced by your head movement.

Well, I cant be sure, I only tried the DK1 with a controller in "walk around and take it easy" demos.
But in worst case scenario, those kinds of games might still be kinda awesome using a VR set for display only, not using the sensors?
Or it´s fine anyway, I dunno.

[BababooeyHTJ]

I never really thought about that. I see where that could be an issue if the vr is that convincing.

[jolle]

Originally Posted by BababooeyHTJ

I never really thought about that. I see where that could be an issue if the vr is that convincing.

The worst thing you could do with DK1 is look down, and rotate your head, as I understand it.
Since it doesnt track position, and when you lean forward your head moves forward a bit, while the camera (provided the game doesnt supply a "spine approximation") just pivots in place, and then rotates in place.
The disconnect there from what your brain knows it´s doing, and what you see, will induce motion sickness.
That type of thing is solved with the camera tracking the IR leds on the DK2 kit though, it gives positional tracking as I understand it.

But I would assume the problem resurfaces if you slave the camera (with head tracking) under a mouse input and twitch around like a CS player.

[SirBaron]

The only way you could help with that beaides getting used to it, would be a 120hz+ screen, the more fluid it is the more natural it would look, as like the brain it self anything that moves too fast is blurred via motion blur.

But then you'd have a 4k 3d, 120hz screen that would make my pc wet it self.

[jolle]

Originally Posted by SirBaron

The only way you could help with that beaides getting used to it, would be a 120hz+ screen, the more fluid it is the more natural it would look, as like the brain it self anything that moves too fast is blurred via motion blur.

But then you'd have a 4k 3d, 120hz screen that would make my pc wet it self.

They mentioned aiming for 90hz with the consumer version in some interview, apparently that´s where you NEED to go. (DK2 is 75hz)
I THINK the 90hz limit is for the strobing caused by low persistance displays, which from what I understand means the pixels are only lit briefly then go black until the next frame is displayed. (if you do this at low refresh rates it´ll probably be noticably strobing/flickering)
Which ofcource cuts down motionblur and such.

[CurrentlyPissed]

I really want to. But I know I'll buy the final product so just trying to hold out.

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[YellowBeard]

Originally Posted by CurrentlyPissed

I really want to. But I know I'll buy the final product so just trying to hold out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

Eh, I figure if I get most of a year out of it before the consumer version comes out I'll be happy. That and I'm kinda excited about all the development behind it with the other motion technology at the moment.

[badboy]

Im excited about all the porn games

It will just be hard to aim with the oculus on the head... need to use a sock instead of paper

[acroig]

Originally Posted by Chubz

I'm psyched about the Rift, but I'm going to wait until it's completely finished before ordering one.

The last thing I want to do is spoil my first-ever VR experience with a prototype intended for developers.

Same here.

[aviphysics]

Originally Posted by jolle

Well they ARE dev kits, you get one if you want to make a Rift game, or add support for Rift to your existing game.
But they´re not stopping curious people from just getting one to check out techdemos and Skyrim hacks and whatnots... all those Unity "things" people are putting out.
And I suppose there are some "proper" games with support out there already, like TF2 if I dont remember wrong?
But still, Dev kit is a appropriate term I´d say.

While it fits some classification of a Dev-Kit, it is definitely an alpha or beta version. It both lacks the full set of features of the final version and has some number of bugs in the design. TBH, I am not really sure what makes it a Dev-kit.

The thing is, it is just a piece of hardware and it doesn't seem right to call every piece of hardware I can write software for a devkit. Normally a devkit has features above and beyond what the consumer version of the hardware has in order to make development easier. The Rift kits don't do this. Classifying it as beta hardware just makes more sense to me.

BTW, there are a bunch of commercial games (i.e. not tech demos) that support Rift. I think the number of proper games might even be more than currently available for PS4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...s_Rift_support. I have been told that Hawken with Rift is amazing

[jolle]

Well early console devkits have been all sorts of cobbled together machines, or straight up PCs and whatnot, they were still devkits even if they werent the final specs.
Sure, it´s not a post release devkit as a PS3 devkit you would get today..
It´s not in it´s final state, and the final specs for everything arent 100% set, and it´s not a retail product.

But these are out there with the main intent for developers to use them to get their VR games or support going, not for consumers to buy as a retail product, which I suppose is why they´re called devkits.
You get them to develop VR support, sure there isnt a bunch of switches, buttons, mysterious ports and whatnot, but I rather think that´s because you dont need them.
All you need probably supplied by the SDK, which might not be available with the retail version? ( who knows?), and reading the sensor output.
Any rendering issues is solved on the game engine side, all you´re doing after that is outputting a display signal.

A PS3 reference kit has all those knobs, bells and whistles because it´s a complex machine running complex code.

Well, either way it´s just a question of definitions, it doesnt matter.. it is what it is.