Oculus Rift

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Oculus Rift

Post by Diablo25 »

I know this thing was talked about in a few threads but i searched and couldn't find any topics appropriate so I made this one. Anyways, I've been truly entertained for the past 30 minutes or so watching some Youtube videos of people using this thing. The one below had me in tears a few times. If you are looking for a good chuckle give it a look. The guy is playing a horror game on the Rift and it really funny. The Oculus Rift looks VERY cool. I imagine it would be great for racing games. Lots of potential.

Link to Oculus Rift. http://www.oculusvr.com

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

My "devkit" is due to arrive on Wednesday!! No PS4 or Xbone for me this year, THIS is next gen for me.

I've been following the news on this for a few months, all the vids are great, and it seems the official release is still several months off, at least. Figured now was the time to give it a shot with the devkit.

I'll play all the demos and mini-games people have made, and try the various patches and other tomfoolery out there that makes it work on major releases with varying levels of success.

I figure anything that simulates a cockpit will be amazing. I'm not a horror fan, but immersive world games like Skyrim could take on a whole 'nother experience as well.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Diablo25 »

Naples39 wrote:My "devkit" is due to arrive on Wednesday!! No PS4 or Xbone for me this year, THIS is next gen for me.

I've been following the news on this for a few months, all the vids are great, and it seems the official release is still several months off, at least. Figured now was the time to give it a shot with the devkit.

I'll play all the demos and mini-games people have made, and try the various patches and other tomfoolery out there that makes it work on major releases with varying levels of success.

I figure anything that simulates a cockpit will be amazing. I'm not a horror fan, but immersive world games like Skyrim could take on a whole 'nother experience as well.
I'll be looking for some impressions Naples!
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by GameSeven »

I have more than a passing interest in tech like this, and was disappointed to read reports that the Rift was disregarded for Next Gen systems as I don't have a gaming PC rig of note at this point.

Hopefully, I can check it out at some point. In the meantime, I'll vicariously enjoy feedback in this thread.

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

GameSeven wrote:I have more than a passing interest in tech like this, and was disappointed to read reports that the Rift was disregarded for Next Gen systems as I don't have a gaming PC rig of note at this point.

Hopefully, I can check it out at some point. In the meantime, I'll vicariously enjoy feedback in this thread.
I was a little surprised at their lack of interest in getting this on next-gen, but I guess the openness of PC is important to them. Additionally power is also helpful when you have to generate 2 independent images for ideal 3D tech. I've also heard Sony may have their own headset in the works?

Conversely, the long term goal for Oculus seems to be android. The benefits are obvious; 1) open platform, 2) rapidly advancing tech, 3) and an onboard processor so the headset doesn't need to plug into any system/console.

Once I get this thing going, of course local DSP'ers could try it sometime. :) It's clearly "you have to see it to believe it" tech.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by DChaps »

Wow, I am jealous Naples. That is very cool that you are getting a dev kit. iRacing is working with the Oculus Rift now and the first reviews I have been read very positive. Main things are that the dev kit is still low res, and that it is difficult to use keyboard hotkeys and button boxes since you can't see them through the Rift. I have been thinking about picking one up as well. Will be looking forward to your reviews!

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

DChaps wrote:Wow, I am jealous Naples. That is very cool that you are getting a dev kit. iRacing is working with the Oculus Rift now and the first reviews I have been read very positive. Main things are that the dev kit is still low res, and that it is difficult to use keyboard hotkeys and button boxes since you can't see them through the Rift. I have been thinking about picking one up as well. Will be looking forward to your reviews!
I've seen some of those reviews. The iRacing support is supposedly pretty solid, but I've realized that game is beyond my skill and I'm not gonna bother putting in the time to get up to speed. There are plenty of other racing games with some level of playabiility though.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Macca00 »

Naples - the nerd jealously is strong here - that's awesome you're getting an Oculus Rift! Way more exciting than an XBone or PS4! Really looking forward to some hands-on impressions.


Diablo - that video was comedy gold! That said, I am such a pus when it comes to horror games (I barely lasted 30 minutes in Amnesia: Dark Descent before turning it off) I don't think I'd survive more than 30 seconds in an Oculus Rift horror game before screaming like a girl!

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

FYI, they're not hard to get. $300 ain't cheap, but I just ordered it off their website 3 weeks ago.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Macca00 »

Oh yeah, I forgot to add;

Porn.








:)

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

Macca00 wrote:Oh yeah, I forgot to add;

Porn.








:)
What ever do you mean?
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

Okay, so I tried this out last night!!

-It was easy to set up, as it's basically an extra monitor on your computer, and I initially tried setting the inter-pupillary distance and calibrating the motion tracking. Not really sure I have that set the best it can be, but it works well either way.

-First thing was just going in this demo room http://i.imgur.com/Ct0Mt0s.jpg. Can't move, no detail graphics, but I couldn't help but say "woah" out loud while sitting by myself.

-Cons: the resolution/pixel density is a ways off from where it needs to be. The "screen door effect", basically seeing the gridlines between the pixels, is instantly noticeable. Also, everything seemed kinda blurry at first, also largely due the low resolution. I switched lenses to the one designed for the best eyesight (the dev kit comes with 3, and I initially used the middle one), and that helped with some blurriness. Eventually you stop noticing the screen door so much, and I got more comfortable.

-The 3d effect when approaching objects is really good. Guaranteed you will flinch if you come at objects too fast. I think it's partially exaggerated because the object is kind of grainy/blurry from a distance, and all of a sudden it becomes very clear right in your face.

-I had no motion sickness, which apparently a lot of people get, but did have a brief light headache after my first 30 minute session mainly due to blurry graphics, needing to make lens adjustments, adjust headstraps...

-I've rode the Riftcoaster several times (http://youtu.be/LmPMCx2-Aho). Still makes me gasp every time I go off the big drop at the beginning, and I can physically feel my stomach drop at two other drops. Really fun.

-Titans of Space, was neat, floating around space. Really cool sense of scale. This was the third thing I tried in the Rift, and after finished this demo I noticed my lips were dry, and I realized my mouth had been open the whole time!

-Tried a few other things, and the thing I had the most fun actually playing was this simple motorcycle demo (http://youtu.be/Coh5KoFtfDY). Tooled around for 15-20 minutes. The jumping was fun, particularly when you look down and brace yourself as you come back down, but much more fun for me was leaning into all the turns. I would've liked to see a video of myself while playing this demo, because looking into a corner and physically leaning my body as I banked was an irresistable urge. I already expect a real motorbike/motorcycle game will be epic on this thing, leaning, snapping your head around for traffic...

-Next up will be to try some other demos, maybe some of the horror games. Then I'll start trying to use this on real games; Half-life 2, Skyrim, War Thunder, Live for Speed or rFactor, Euro Truck Simulator, Surgeon Simulator, maybe Dishonored or Bioshock.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Diablo25 »

Naples39 wrote:Okay, so I tried this out last night!!

-It was easy to set up, as it's basically an extra monitor on your computer, and I initially tried setting the inter-pupillary distance and calibrating the motion tracking. Not really sure I have that set the best it can be, but it works well either way.

-First thing was just going in this demo room http://i.imgur.com/Ct0Mt0s.jpg. Can't move, no detail graphics, but I couldn't help but say "woah" out loud while sitting by myself.

-Cons: the resolution/pixel density is a ways off from where it needs to be. The "screen door effect", basically seeing the gridlines between the pixels, is instantly noticeable. Also, everything seemed kinda blurry at first, also largely due the low resolution. I switched lenses to the one designed for the best eyesight (the dev kit comes with 3, and I initially used the middle one), and that helped with some blurriness. Eventually you stop noticing the screen door so much, and I got more comfortable.

-The 3d effect when approaching objects is really good. Guaranteed you will flinch if you come at objects too fast. I think it's partially exaggerated because the object is kind of grainy/blurry from a distance, and all of a sudden it becomes very clear right in your face.

-I had no motion sickness, which apparently a lot of people get, but did have a brief light headache after my first 30 minute session mainly due to blurry graphics, needing to make lens adjustments, adjust headstraps...

-I've rode the Riftcoaster several times (http://youtu.be/LmPMCx2-Aho). Still makes me gasp every time I go off the big drop at the beginning, and I can physically feel my stomach drop at two other drops. Really fun.

-Titans of Space, was neat, floating around space. Really cool sense of scale. This was the third thing I tried in the Rift, and after finished this demo I noticed my lips were dry, and I realized my mouth had been open the whole time!

-Tried a few other things, and the thing I had the most fun actually playing was this simple motorcycle demo (http://youtu.be/Coh5KoFtfDY). Tooled around for 15-20 minutes. The jumping was fun, particularly when you look down and brace yourself as you come back down, but much more fun for me was leaning into all the turns. I would've liked to see a video of myself while playing this demo, because looking into a corner and physically leaning my body as I banked was an irresistable urge. I already expect a real motorbike/motorcycle game will be epic on this thing, leaning, snapping your head around for traffic...

-Next up will be to try some other demos, maybe some of the horror games. Then I'll start trying to use this on real games; Half-life 2, Skyrim, War Thunder, Live for Speed or rFactor, Euro Truck Simulator, Surgeon Simulator, maybe Dishonored or Bioshock.
Sounds awesome. I watched a video of that Euro Truck Simulator. For a simple driving game it looked very cool. The guy had a legit steering wheel. Looking left and right prior to making turns, etc. I'm very interested in seeing how this technology grows.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by TCrouch »

Euro Truck Simulator is badass without the Oculus--I can imagine what it's like with it.

I've spent hours upon hours just cruising around listening to the internet country stations in that game. The day I made enough to buy my own rig was a happy day. It's just a relaxing game, period.

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

I've gotten in a bit of quality time with the Rift. Clearly it's not consumer product ready, but it's a trip and a pretty fun diversion if you are so inclined.

It's mainly a matter of resolution IMO. Even if you 'forget' about the screen door effect, which everyone seems to, the graphics are just too blurry, and most text unreadable. Despite these tradeoffs, I will probably spend more time on the Rift than on standard game setups for the foreseeable future.

It's very fitting that people write impressions about what it's like "inside" the Rift, because that's what it feels like. When I want to stop playing, I'm always mildly surprised when I look down for my keyboard in the game and it's not there. :lol: There's definitely an element of re-entering the real world when you those goggles off.

Games:
-Euro Truck Simulator. I have about 2 hours in on this, and it has official Rift support. Even with official support, the majority of text is unreadable (recognizable if you know what to look for though), and I kept veering off the road when checking my passenger side window because I have to look extra-long to focus on the grainy graphics for a small object. Where it shines is checking traffic left and right, and backing up. It's really cool that I am literally turning in my seat and twisting my head around to stick my head out the window in the game, while I can quickly glance back at my wheel alignment as I go. It's very close to a 1:1 re-creation (not that I've ever driven a truck :lol: ).

-War Thunder. This game also has official support, although the menus are completely borked with it, and ingame you lose all UI like maps or hit indicators. I've also figured out to use third party drivers with it, which solve some of those issues but isn't quite as good for 3D and immersion. For me, all that is worth it to be sitting in the cockpit, constantly spinning your head around tracking targets up, down and around. When I play this game in the cockpit with the Rift, I would estimate I'm only looking straight forward about 20% of the time (generally when I have a target dead ahead), which I think is a great sign.

-Bioshock Infinite. I just quickly ran through the ending sequence with 3rd party drivers. I didn't tweak the settings, which is probably necessary, and while cool, something was lacking in the total immersion. I mostly ended up snapping around my mouse as if I was just playing with a big screen right in my face. Official support in Half-Life 2, which separates mouse/hand movement from head-look, is apparently the standard here. I'm going to try that next, as I've never finished Ep. 1 or started Ep. 2 anyway after playing this game on 360.

-The ghetto motorcycle demo is still kind of my favorite. Leaning into the turns and tilting my head never gets old.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

For anyone interested, Oculus (the company) just took in $75 million in new venture capital, presumably for the resources to move towards the actual production phase of the device.
The company showed him a new version of the virtual reality headset — and a new vision — that reportedly blew him away.

"I looked at him and said, what do you think? Are you ready to change the world? And he said absolutely, let's do it. It was pretty much unanimous, right then and there," Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe tells The Verge.

"For me, it was up there with the first time I saw Apple II, Mac, the web, Google, iPhone," writes Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz partner and new Oculus board member.

What Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon saw was what Oculus plans to unveil at CES this year: a prototype version of the Oculus Rift headset that the company claims will no longer make people sick when they use it. It’s higher resolution, lower latency, and effectively eliminates the motion blur of the original $300 dev kit that went on sale last year. And importantly, it now incorporates full positional motion tracking so the headset actually knows where your head is located.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/13/5207 ... vr-headset
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Re: Oculus Rift

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Naples39 wrote:For anyone interested, Oculus (the company) just took in $75 million in new venture capital, presumably for the resources to move towards the actual production phase of the device.
The company showed him a new version of the virtual reality headset — and a new vision — that reportedly blew him away.

"I looked at him and said, what do you think? Are you ready to change the world? And he said absolutely, let's do it. It was pretty much unanimous, right then and there," Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe tells The Verge.

"For me, it was up there with the first time I saw Apple II, Mac, the web, Google, iPhone," writes Chris Dixon, Andreessen Horowitz partner and new Oculus board member.

What Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon saw was what Oculus plans to unveil at CES this year: a prototype version of the Oculus Rift headset that the company claims will no longer make people sick when they use it. It’s higher resolution, lower latency, and effectively eliminates the motion blur of the original $300 dev kit that went on sale last year. And importantly, it now incorporates full positional motion tracking so the headset actually knows where your head is located.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/13/5207 ... vr-headset
I read this earlier. Sounds very promising.
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Re: Oculus Rift

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

Yes, I am really eager to see what they show.

After some time with the dev kit unit and letting it sink in, I am a big believer, but it's not there yet.

Basically, the sense of presence--the feeling of actually being there and wanting to reach out and touch things, is striking. The first time you try it, you will probably let out an involuntary Keanu Reeves-style "woah." Common reactions are "everything looks so big (in a good, realistic sense)", and that you don't play it, you "go inside" it.

The downside is that, one, the resolution on this model is too damn low. For all the amazing features, you're playing the game at a de facto ~512x560 resolution (as calculated by some fans, which seems accurate to me). Objects in the distance are just a mess of pixels, and forget about reading in-game text and signs unless they're really big.

Two, properly utilizing the tech in software is not a trivial matter. It adapts easily to cockpit games (driving, flying), but FPS games are much trickier and really need to be thought about at a deeper level or else it feels weird or makes you motion sick.

Long story short, there are problems, but they are very surmountable. Who knows what strides they made internally at the last 9 months on newer models. I have high expectations! My personal hope is for HD OLED screen in the consumer model! :)
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by macsomjrr »

Naples39 wrote:
The downside is that, one, the resolution on this model is too damn low. For all the amazing features, you're playing the game at a de facto ~512x560 resolution (as calculated by some fans, which seems accurate to me). Objects in the distance are just a mess of pixels, and forget about reading in-game text and signs unless they're really big.

Long story short, there are problems, but they are very surmountable. Who knows what strides they made internally at the last 9 months on newer models. I have high expectations! My personal hope is for HD OLED screen in the consumer model! :)
I believe that the tightening of the graphics to a level 3 should wholly improve the subpar resolution you've seen thus far Naples.

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

For anyone keeping score at home, as expected, Oculus showed a new prototype.

-OLED, "low persistence" display for higher quality image and eliminated motion blur

-Positional tracking via an external camera to track head position in space

No commitments on release date or spec of final version, although they say the final version will at a minimum have every feature in the latest prototype.

An enthusiastic hands-on:
So the Oculus Rift is fantastic. If you've used it in its original incarnation, you know that it's incredible. It's virtual reality done better than you've ever seen it before. It's revolutionary. And it's nothing compared to what's coming next. I mean Oh. My. God.
But if the original Oculus was a proof of concept, this model is proof that the concept is genius. There's zero doubt in my mind that when the final version of this device comes out it is going to change the world. For me, today, already has.
http://gizmodo.com/i-wore-the-new-oculu ... 1496569598
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Re: Oculus Rift

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Naples39 wrote:For anyone keeping score at home, as expected, Oculus showed a new prototype.

-OLED, "low persistence" display for higher quality image and eliminated motion blur

-Positional tracking via an external camera to track head position in space

No commitments on release date or spec of final version, although they say the final version will at a minimum have every feature in the latest prototype.

An enthusiastic hands-on:
So the Oculus Rift is fantastic. If you've used it in its original incarnation, you know that it's incredible. It's virtual reality done better than you've ever seen it before. It's revolutionary. And it's nothing compared to what's coming next. I mean Oh. My. God.
But if the original Oculus was a proof of concept, this model is proof that the concept is genius. There's zero doubt in my mind that when the final version of this device comes out it is going to change the world. For me, today, already has.
http://gizmodo.com/i-wore-the-new-oculu ... 1496569598
Wow.
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

More 'ZOMG' impressions:
t is one of those rare products where describing it in mere words doesn’t come anywhere near to realistically depicting how incredible the experience of wearing one is.

Two-dimensional photos and videos are a poor substitute, too.

It’s one of the most completely bizarre, wonderful, unique, laugh-out-loud, holy cow! video experiences I have ever had.

The reason I’m so blown away by this product — by far the most impressive thing I’ve witnessed at CES, the giant electronics show in Las Vegas, this year — is due to some impressive technical improvements the company made over the last version.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/oculu ... ove-2014-1
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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by DChaps »

I have been so close to pulling the trigger on this for racing sims, but with my limited funds I still think I need to wait for the retail version. That article is interesting, but I don't think the following statement is true though. Are there really already 50,000 “Crystal Cove” prototype versions out there?
The Crystal Cove version of the Oculus rift is currently only a prototype that game developers can buy and experiment with. There about 50,000 of them out there. It is not available at retail yet, and the number of top-quality games you can play on it is limited. So gamers will have to wait.

I left the Oculus booth in Las Vegas completely convinced that it’s the future. Oculus games make Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty played on a TV look like Pong.

There was just one question in my head: Why does this company still exist? It should have been acquired by Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo or EA or Take Two or any of the other large gaming companies months ago. The firm has taken about $US115 million in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and backers on Kickstarter. That sum would imply a valuation in the billions.
One can only assume they’ve been saying “no” a lot.

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Re: Oculus Rift

Post by Naples39 »

DChaps wrote:I have been so close to pulling the trigger on this for racing sims, but with my limited funds I still think I need to wait for the retail version. That article is interesting, but I don't think the following statement is true though. Are there really already 50,000 “Crystal Cove” prototype versions out there?
The Crystal Cove version of the Oculus rift is currently only a prototype that game developers can buy and experiment with. There about 50,000 of them out there. It is not available at retail yet, and the number of top-quality games you can play on it is limited. So gamers will have to wait.

I left the Oculus booth in Las Vegas completely convinced that it’s the future. Oculus games make Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty played on a TV look like Pong.

There was just one question in my head: Why does this company still exist? It should have been acquired by Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo or EA or Take Two or any of the other large gaming companies months ago. The firm has taken about $US115 million in funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and backers on Kickstarter. That sum would imply a valuation in the billions.
One can only assume they’ve been saying “no” a lot.
The statement is not correct. There are probably 50,000 dev kits like the one I have. The "Crystal Cove" units at CES are probably the only ones in existence of that prototype.

Buying a current dev kit for racing would be a luxury/sideshow. It's fun to use, but if you are a serious racer you will find the low resolution unacceptable. I've tried rFactor 1, Assetto Corsa, and Euro Truck. It's the kind of thing where you can't read road signs or HUD elements in Euro Truck, and when racing at high speed it's tough to pick out the apex or turn-in points due to low resolution.

Playing Assetto Corsa and bombing around Monza in the Formula Abarth on an empty track was great fun in the Rift, but not ready for serious stuff yet. A high-res 3-monitor setup would easily beat the Rift Devkit IMO due to low resolution and motion blur, for instance.

Wait.
XBL-Naples39; Steam-scrub47; GameCenter-MasterOnion39;

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