Oculus Rift

[Hielor]

Rift is an overblown piece of glamour hardware as long as TIR is still in the picture and updating at a rapid pace.

Unless you are looking forward to virtual farmville that is.

Except that with Rift, you actually look to the left to see things to the left, rather than the TrackIR method of "twitch head slightly to the left while looking to the right with your eyes."

There's the minor problem of difficulty using more complex input devices like keyboards, but other than that, the Oculus Rift offers a lot that TrackIR can't.

 

[Pablo49]

Rift is an overblown piece of glamour hardware as long as TIR is still in the picture and updating at a rapid pace.

Unless you are looking forward to virtual farmville that is.

Can you spare just this one thread from your relentless trolling, please? Some of us actually care quite a bit about VR. I personally find it absolutely fascinating and could discuss it for hours.

Also TrackIR isn't really that comparable. I mean, they both track your head, but that is like it. You are welcome to not want (or seemingly understand) VR, but trolling a VR thread with your "BUT...BUT... TRACKIR!" posts is just annoying. As is replying to any criticism with OculusRift bashing like the ever so funny HERP DERP VR FARMVILLE LOLOL jokes.

There's the minor problem of difficulty using more complex input devices like keyboards, but other than that, the Oculus Rift offers a lot that TrackIR can't.

The Razor Hydra is kinda interesting for this. Not comparable to mouse and keyboard, of course, but some games that support it do some neat things with it, like holding it to your chest so you can track yourself "leaning" to look out the cockpit window of your plane, etc.

 

[Hielor]

The Razor Hydra is kinda interesting for this. Not comparable to mouse and keyboard, of course, but some games that support it do some neat things with it, like holding it to your chest so you can track yourself "leaning" to look out the cockpit window of your plane, etc.

Obvious solution is that we need real-time high-fidelity "hand tracking" to go with the Oculus Rift, and then project a virtual keyboard in the virtual space in front of you...

 

[jedidia]

Obvious solution is that we need real-time high-fidelity "hand tracking" to go with the Oculus Rift, and then project a virtual keyboard in the virtual space in front of you...

And then you're still lacking physical feedback, which makes using a keyboard a real pain...

Occulus Rift would probably work best for things that are not too complex. A friend of mine (who's job is kind of related, or might at least be related if the occulus rift ever gets anywhere) tried it out, and he said it works extremely well for sightseeing tour stuff. This might sound kind of boring, but he said when you float above the earth and see the abyss beneath you in actual 3d and without outside interferance, the feeling is pretty awesome. So when hearing sightseeing, don't just think "virtual museum", think "space engine" and similiar stuff.

He also said it works extremely badly for actual gaming, the major problems being the invisible interface, the fact that you can't turn your head 360 degrees and turning the head is therefore a rather silly way of controlling a characters body in a game, and the motion sickness, which might get better when the resolution improves. He is totally not into simulations, so he didn't try that out, though.

Something in that vicinity. Yeah, I'd prefer a billion in Enron stock in 1999 over $1.6 billion in Facebook stock today...

You'd just have Facebook initiate a hostile takeover. With 2 billion on the plate, you need really, really idealistic partners to keep the company out of their hands.

 

[MattBaker]

You'd just have Facebook initiate a hostile takeover. With 2 billion on the plate, you need really, really idealistic partners to keep the company out of their hands.

I rather meant how 3/4th of that 2 billion wasn't cash but Facebook stock. First it souns horribly complicated to get that much stock into cash without selling way under its worth. And second it's Facebook, there's so much talk about its inevitable decline already that I wouldn't want to have over a billion in stocks on a company that might be gone in less than a decadeor even half a decade.

 

[SolarLiner]

The only reason I'm kept updated about Oculus is because of Space Engine. I'm happy he didn't stop coding for the Oculus with the buying by Facebook. If there were no Space Engine on Oculus, the subject would be dead and buried for now. And it's a big shame actually because this is a revolution. This is the way my children will play video games, Oculus or not. Morpheus is the Sony's VR device, yes, but the restrictions to the PS4 makes it unusable for me, and none of the games out on this console is worth having one.

So if you're really interested in having an Oculus Rift, buy one now oor in the near future I think because sooner or later ogre Facebook will have eaten Oculus and a dozen others companies.

 

[Hielor]

I rather meant how 3/4th of that 2 billion wasn't cash but Facebook stock. First it souns horribly complicated to get that much stock into cash without selling way under its worth. And second it's Facebook, there's so much talk about its inevitable decline already that I wouldn't want to have over a billion in stocks on a company that might be gone in less than a decadeor even half a decade.

Not really, you can just sell the stocks. Facebook volume averages 62million shares/day, and 2billion in stocks is only half that. You could dump the stocks over the course of a month without making much of an impact on the daily volume.

 

[Pablo49]

So if you're really interested in having an Oculus Rift, buy one now oor in the near future I think because sooner or later ogre Facebook will have eaten Oculus and a dozen others companies.

I would not by an OR right now unless you have stacks of cash laying around or you are developing for it. The hardware is still in development.

Also, facebook put a stupid amount of money into OR, they aren't going to be keen on having it die on them, so I wouldn't be too scared of our facebook overlords. That said, again OR =/= VR, and if OR does die another brand will take its place. Sony announced their gear basically out of the blue, I doubt they are the only ones working on VR in the background. VR is happening with or without OR and facebook.

 

[Quick_Nick]

I would not by an OR right now unless you have stacks of cash laying around or you are developing for it. The hardware is still in development.

Seconded. Dev Kit 1 is...horrid. Dev Kit 2 has smoothed out a lot and added the first iteration of positional tracking but still has issues. Next version should be the minimal 'consumer ready' version. I think Dev Kit 2 is acceptable for development since it has rotation, translation, and fair resolution.

 

[ex-orbinaut]

Well, I remember some popular science TV shows from the beginning of 90s telling that VR gloves and headgear would be in every home at the end of 90s, and then it somehow didn't happen (well, there was VFX1) and was forgotten, just to be back with the Oculus Rift craze lately. Maybe that's why I don't see anything revolutionary in it. :shrug:

I am in complete agreement with orb on this one. Way back in 1995 a good friend of mine got a job at Virtuality House in Leicester, where they had developed a version of these things. I spent a memorable afternoon there during Christmas break that year playing a boxing game with him, which included a motion sensing glove, and we had a whale of a time virtually punching each other out.

I had more to say regarding. I will reserve it, save to mention that I continue to suspect that all these gadgets, which we will continue to get sold (to entertain or communicate ourselves) over the next 30 years, are already more or less completely developed and will be meted out with a dropper at exorbitant prices beneath an elaborate and continual barrage of marketing (now there is a successful modern "industry", alright), at little real R&D expense, to the sole end of - it seems...

Nah, I have said more than enough evading RANT brackets and without bordering on altruism about that facet of opinion. On another facet, I am glad someone is finally making an attempt to get this thing salable to the consumer. It was high-time.

EDIT:

I will just add that I think Track IR is such a poor substitute for this device. It looks so unnatural, and capable of producing some serious "ocular-cerebro" dissociation syndrome, yet to be named.

 

[Dickie]

This may be slightly off topic, but how is OR different to this:

http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap_1200dxvr/

Vuzix have been making these things for a while, and as far as I can tell it offers the same sort of functionality as OR is promising?

On that note, has anybody tried the Vuzix sets?

 

[Quick_Nick]

This may be slightly off topic, but how is OR different to this:

http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap_1200dxvr/

Vuzix have been making these things for a while, and as far as I can tell it offers the same sort of functionality as OR is promising?

On that note, has anybody tried the Vuzix sets?

As it says on that Vuzix page: "Crystal clear 2D and 3D video is delivered on a 75” virtual widescreen display, as seen from 10 ft. (~3m)."
Meanwhile, OR is immersive and gives a real sense of depth and presence.

 

[Hielor]

This may be slightly off topic, but how is OR different to this:

http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap_1200dxvr/

Vuzix have been making these things for a while, and as far as I can tell it offers the same sort of functionality as OR is promising?

On that note, has anybody tried the Vuzix sets?

Vuzix doesn't have motion detection, it's basically a monitor you strap to your face.

 

[Ghostrider]

Vuzix doesn't have motion detection, it's basically a monitor you strap to your face.

Aw. Virtual Boy all over again?

Man, I remember the '90s VR craze and I did use some of the early gear... Remember at a Star Trek convention I was there dressed in a black suit and a tie (I was RP as a Quentin Tarantino character) and with that darn helmet I got nicknamed "Johnny Teutonic"...

 

[Pablo49]

and with that darn helmet I got nicknamed "Johnny Teutonic"...

You let the wrong person hear that, Johnny.

 

[Melvin]

Until the holodeck is perfected, VR will be nothing more than a monstrosity that one straps to his/her face while still trying with all of their might to suspend disbelief and convince themselves that they are in a virtual world, and not sitting at their computer with an enormous apparatus hanging off of their brow.


Of course some will buy it based on the "isn't this neat" factor, but my guess is that it will start to gather dust rapidly.

 

[Ghostrider]

Well, why sit at a computer, and why enormous. In the '90s we had big helmets because the sensors were bigger, the displays were mostly small CRTs and early LCDs, and we had to hook up with wires. Now we have accelerometers inside our phones and very small AMOLED displays, and even 3D without special glasses, not to mention wireless connections. We can have the game data streamed wirelessly to the device, and have its own processors create the imagery.

And why sit down... You can do it flat on your back.

 

[Melvin]

And why sit down... You can do it flat on your back.

SOLD!

 

[nens86]

Oculus Rift integration proof of concept

Hi orbinauts,

I was curious to see the Rift working with my favourite space flight simulator (Orbiter), so I just integrated the support by myself.
What I used:
Orbiter Beta from svn://orbithangar.com/orbiter/
D3D9Client R12 for Orbiter Beta from http://d3d9client.codeplex.com
Oculus Rift SDK from http://www.oculusvr.com/

I modified the custom graphics client to support stereo rendering.
It was my first project with directx and c++, so it's very quick and dirty.

I will give back the code to the open source community soon, that we can improve the support for the oculus rift.
Further things to improve:

• Make rift support optional in the config.cfg
• Make the HUD working with a virtual 3d mouse pointer.
• Rendering a bigger backbuffer than the actual screen resolution
• Optimize the rendering for upcoming consumer version of the rift (min 75 fps at hd resolution, multipass rendering)

Let me hear your thoughts.

Cheers
nens

 

[dgatsoulis]

That was awesome. How did the "presence" in the VC feel?
Also, have you done an EVA in LEO, take a stroll around the ISS?