Fool me, this is real good shit ! [the VR thread]

[gilesgoat]

15:34 .. Giles runs outside screaming ...

.. and I tought that PS4 coding was "verbose" ...

[edit] 15:55 .. Giles comes back and gets one more moka ..

[Dvorak]

So, this now is my third evening with my DK2 and I thought I could share some of my experiences.

As expected, it was a wild mixture of wow! and wtf! moments. DevKit2 still definitely is a dev kit and no consumer version, much like DK1 was, but maybe even more dev, given the amount of reboots I gave to my computer in the last three days. Reboots not because of BSODs or so, but because, experimenting with wild screen settings, I left the system often enough in a state of totally garbled video settings beyond any hope. Than reboot.
I still did not manage to run a single of the old SDK 0.3/DK1 apps without problems.
Interestingly, OculusMinorescue could be started without any hassle (good job there, Giles!) - but then couldn't read sensor data. So no head-tracking, no game. I know, there's Morpheus stuff to be done, but maybe... ?

So, about the differences to DK1.

The Screen Door Effect
THE turn-off with DK1.
It's, well, not totally gone, but really heavily reduced.
It's there still. You still can see not even pixels but also the sub-pixels quite sharp and clearly.
But:
that doesn't matter anymore. Finally!

Perceived (and entirely subjective of course), the effect is down to a quarter of it's original, quite distracting level. Which is something I do not have an explanation for, since the resolution 'only' has doubled.
Still, it would be awesome, if the screen door effect (ie the visible sub-pixels and the black lattice around them) could be reduced even further. But that's secondary now.

6DOF
We now have six degrees of freedom: the 3 rotational ones, known from DK1, plus the 3 translationals from the camera/positional tracker now new with DK2.
First, I just noticed it, sitting on my chair, moving my head a bit to and fro ("aha, cam working"), then, in the Configuration Utility's demo scene with faded-in tracking frustum I suddenly realised that there is a, what? 2 square metres area where I can stand and move and everything - now, that was one of these fucking wow! moments I bought this thing for. Money can't buy this. Oh wait, it can.
6DOF - everything one could expect from euclidean space.
DK1 was all about sitting on your chair, turning your head.
DK2 is standing. Moving. In an - admittedly - quite confined space, but hey, what a - relief. You're there. In it. This is real.

And on to trouble country we go...

Judder
Judder is the new screen door effect. Shit. Haven't seen this coming.
With DK1 I haven't had any problems even with a shitty old graphics card in low fps land. There was some blur when turning the head, but okay. Motion blur - others calculate this with much effort and costs.
With DK2 there is judder. Annoying, nausea-inducing, unpleasant judder, when - well, still not really clear when.
Reading the oculus forum I see that the general opinion tends to attribute this judder to, maybe, a bug or a natural consequence of a low-latency systems that runs below 75 fps. But then there are reports of high-end systems, running well beyond 75 fps, that equally show this judder in different settings/with different demos.
All I can say is that I've tried the DK2 with two graphics cards, a fairly out-dated Geforce 8800 GTS, and a low-end Radeon 7750.
The former delivering a really obnoxious amount of judder, the latter, performing much, much better - although, the only totally judderless experience I got was the fairly undercomplex Demo Scene of the Configuration Utility.
I think, this issue will be improved with coming runtime versions. But if you haven't thought of updating your hardware for a while, you might reconsider your options if you're awaiting your DK2 delivery.

and then there is

Chromatic Aberations
There are rainbow-like shades around objects. Nearly invisible on my 8800 GTS, quite prominent on my 7750.
That's new. Haven't been there with the DK1.
Because of the graphics card dependency I'd say, this is something that can be fixed. But isn't yet.

and, of course...

Nausea
Only from judder (see above).
Otherwise not in the slightest.


Bottom line?
It's not a finalised product, far from anything consumer.
But if you can, somehow, afford the 400 Euros (or whatever it is in GBP) for an intermediate, 3/4-baked product - go for it. It's an ontological machine. There are some cognitive experiences waiting, somewhat hidden maybe. But I for one do not regret any single Euro (and not a single reboot...)

Was worth it.

[Whiteball]

Anyone tried their DK2 with the lfs racing game? Apparently they have a WIP patch that makes it playable with the rift.

[Bod]

Wasn't aware of this, so downloaded the LFS demo & patch.

SUPERB !!!!

I can't fault it, especially if you lock the vsync. Think I'm gonna have to buy the full game now.
Cheers Whiteball.

[gilesgoat]

.. meanwhile still various "conversions MA DIO $_(#@($_#@ " going here .. why this shader with this new vertex format is still not drawing a shit on screen ?

[Bod]

Ha!

I'm glad I just enjoy playing games, so don't get the headache you guys have trying to code for such devices as the Occy.
My coding days started & stopped with the C64. Ever since then it's been pure gameplay for me.

[gilesgoat]

FINALLY I began to stop ripping my ( few left ) hair off my head ...

My DK2 experience so far ...



And I feel "a goat" because :

- I am starting to understand this new SDK
- it works inside the SDK
- it's DX11
- my shaders are working
- my vertex functions are working
- my buffers/etc functions are working
- my vertex declarations are working
- those (**&$(*@#&$*( how many times they change from ARGB/RGBA/RAGB/GRBA/add_your_permutation
- it's vertex, no it's bytes, no it's an offset from, no it's relative to, no it's absolute but ... AAARGH ..
- no normals left handed/right handed, no this matrix reverse, no the other not, no A*B yes B*A no look they are adding a 'transpose' there and reversing the .. NGH ..

Still quite a bit of road to go but hey .. it's only 3 days 1/2 I am on ..

Getting better .. now I can have some more coffee ...

Besides "new" ( for me ) discovery .. Bombaclaad Star of a certain "Liquid Stranger" and a fantastic mix - bit heavy - found around called "Apocalypse live mix" ..

All cause Psychedelik.com - WITH A K - that in those days seems to be a bit up and down ..

Love this stuff, reccomended : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvZLsc9vF1M

[gilesgoat]

Enough for today .. curry calls .. I am at the RGB spinning cube I can look around phase .. still improving things around ..

[Dio]

Spent half an hour chatting with Tom Forsyth about it today. V. cool.

[gilesgoat]

Spent half an hour chatting with Tom Forsyth about it today. V. cool.

Did he tell you about that custom modification in the video drivers that would be really useful for it ?

You should talk with Carmack too ...

[Dio]

There was all sorts of talk about video drivers.

[Bod]

Gumph !!!

[youtube]oWlH-C76lKI#t=166[/youtube]

[pogo]

Gumph !!!

FTFY

[Surfr]

Got a "We could not take payment" email this morning as the card I used for the deposit had expired since. Hoping that this means I'm close to dispatch!!

[gilesgoat]

Any time we are receiving "something new" from Oculus is another WTF ?? moment .. in a positive way

In some ways they really surpassed some of my expectations .. I believe that "the time they'll come out with the commercial product" .. "something should happen".

I cannot believe that "there wont' be a - BIG - market for those thingies" .. yes maybe .. for the first week or so .. maybe "it will be a thing for geeks only" .. but as soon as people will really start
to see what we see now I think "this is going to be a history changing moment" ..

The weird/strange thing is also IMHO the "adaptation" you get .. after a while - a short while - you are using this kind of tech putting up a VR visor and being immersed into another world
doing things is no different than just switch on the TV and watch something .. I mean it truly becomes "something so natural and easy to be done".

I still can't believe in some moments that "fook, I am here in 2014 I am into VR doing crap" .. truly this was some kind of tech that thinking back in a sense I could maybe even said that
"was not going to happen in my lifetime" and here I am surrounded by - even if 'semi primitive' for some - VR devices writing SW all time and seeing stuff made by other people.

In a way if you think about it it's nearly "mind blowing" and yet it already feels "so normal" to me

Let's put this thing on and let's have walk inside a Klein bottle .. or let's have a fight in space .. or let me see that Tuscany villa is crap outside but here is sunny ..

"Put more twist in that explosion I love when that space gem shatters into pieces .. " "We have to tighten up the graphics"

It's just "mental" and it's ALL REAL happening HERE NOW

If someone believe "maybe there won't be so much market for this" .. I say .. really ? .. wait until people start to actually see this thing ...