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

[Mqark]

Observations from a new DKII owner:

I experienced VR sickness for the first time after unpacking and playing with various demos and games for a couple of hours. The thing that really did it for me, I believe, is trying to play Project Cars - I really got travel sick very quickly swapping between the various viewpoints. Of course the naughty copy I've found is an early alpha and it runs OK, but not spectacularly on my set-up. I think being able to change the viewpoint of the camera in car by what ever amount you need and lock it to a position that's comfortable for you will help these sort of things greatly. The fixed camera points just seemed to short or too long for my preference.

Pixel rift is a great idea, nice and creative and I'm very interested to see if it develops into a story driven game. It reminded me wonderfully of drifting off in class at school.

Elite:Dangerous - finally, I really feel like I'm piloting a vehicle - the sense of sitting in the large enclosed cockpit space of my ship and moving around in a 3D environment (Space!) is truly amazing and very immersive.
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to read the in game text - and for a total noob at ED who hasn't assigned functions to a raft of buttons on some elaborate stick, it's pretty much just noodling around in space like a pleasure ride at the moment (for me - YMMV).

Finally, it's great when direct to rift rendering is supported - no dicking around. But when it's not and you have to extend the desktop and elect secondary or tertiary displays in the games settings, it's not so hot. Once this is all tidied up and standardised the practical rift experience will be a lot better.

Somehow, I find the comfort of using the DK1 greater than DK2 I think it may be the ease of being able to slip the rift up without feeling like it's going to fall off your head or that your hair is going to smeg up the lenses. Built in headphones will help remove the cable constriction too.

I'm also looking forward to more DKII compatible stuff. I know devs have had to cough up money for 1 and will find it a bit of an arse to have to cough up all over again for a 2 (yet alone a 3, and then the consumer version). IMHO, this will probably stifle development progress more than Oculus realize.

I daren't try anything that's been modded to graft on VR support like a Skyrim mod or some such - I think I'll totally blow chunks if the game hasn't been designed for VR from day one.

The VR sickness basically game me nausea and a headache for the rest of the evening. My setup may need tweaking, however, I think it's a matter more of the games really being carefully written to avoid this stuff.

[Mqark]

Crescent bay demo - 10 minutes in shows the reaction, it looks great...



Funny that Palmer comes across as a bit of a dick in the interview after, I felt my chat was much more natural - perhaps he doesn't like being on camera.

[Whiteball]

Elite:Dangerous.......
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to read the in game text

I hear this a lot but personally have absolutely no problem at all with text in ED, just how bad is it ?

[Muttley]

Elite:Dangerous.......
Unfortunately, it's basically impossible to read the in game text

I hear this a lot but personally have absolutely no problem at all with text in ED, just how bad is it ?

It's a little hard to read at times. I just lean towards the in-game display a bit though and then it's perfectly readable.

You definitely need to be able to map the most important controls to something better than a keyboard though. Thankfully the X52 Pro provides ample inputs, and the stuff that can't be mapped is less time-critical stuff that can be toggled from the in-game HUD which really helps with the immersion TBH.

Not had any VR sickness with Elite: Dangerous thankfully, even with a 4 hour sessions of flying around and dogfighting.

I want to try Asseto Corsa at some point for a driving game, but I shan't be bothering with anything but the in-car view.

[Mqark]

Lucky you, for me the screens to the left and right of me are totally illegiable, only the info, coms and forward screens are readable. The preflight checklist is totally illegiable.

How have you set your rift up, because I can't enjoy the game this way at the moment?

[Muttley]

Lucky you, for me the screens to the left and right of me are totally illegiable, only the info, coms and forward screens are readable. The preflight checklist is totally illegiable.

Even if you lean towards them? Odd.

Dunno about the preflight checklist, I disabled that.

How have you set your rift up, because I can't enjoy the game this way at the moment?

It's just set up as a second screen with the desktop extended. Nothing fancy.

[t0ne]

Oooh I just had notification that my DK2 is supposed to be being delivered tomorrow

[Mqark]

Even if you lean towards them? Odd.

Dunno about the preflight checklist, I disabled that.

I didn't lean too far - I'll have another go, the forward facing texts in the cockpit are mostly readable but not perfect. The side graphics are total indecipherable squiggles.

I'll lean-in tonight and see.

It's just set up as a second screen with the desktop extended. Nothing fancy.

Same as me, I read on rift arcade that there was supposed to be some kind of pixel modification setting - didn't see anything as exotic as that.
As it stands, it's a real chore for me to read the settings menus in-game on the rift.

I have noticed my eyesight is failing (having to hold things further away to read them, and I can't really focus on small print anymore) It may actually just be an indication of poor eyesight on my part rather than the Rift...

[Mqark]

Ok, I've leant in - it's better, but far from perfect. (Had to lean in about 30cm)

I have to look at text through my peripheral vision to really read it.

The set-up menus are off center to the left by a reasonable amount, there seems to be something wrong with my centering or calibration that may be affecting all this. This i fear is the root of most of my issues in E:D on the rift DKII.

I also seem to be getting RGB separation.

Any suggestions? (please )

[Whiteball]

The ED main menu is offset to the left a bit but not too much. Others like the settings menu are in the middle.
Have the Rift camera a good few feet away and make sure you 'center' it in ED using, I think the default is, F12

I can read the side text in the cockpit really well, even without leaning in.

Have you created a profile and set you pupil distance in the Rift config util?

I don't know if I'm just lucky or have something different here, but I have none of the issues a multitude of other people are reporting.

Tearing - No
Juddering - No
Poor performance - No

Sure everything is lower res than normal, but I don't have a problem with reading text and such.

[zip accident]

I don't know if I'm just lucky or have something different here, but I have none of the issues a multitude of other people are reporting.

Tearing - No
Juddering - No
Poor performance - No

Sure everything is lower res than normal, but I don't have a problem with reading text and such.

What are your system's specs?

[rowan]

I have noticed my eyesight is failing (having to hold things further away to read them, and I can't really focus on small print anymore) It may actually just be an indication of poor eyesight on my part rather than the Rift...

Don't worry too much about that, go to an optician and explain what you do most of [near vision computery stuff] and get a decent set of near-vision specs prescribed rather than messing with off the shelf reading glasses.
I've always used independent opticians except the odd emergency visit to a chain. You pay more but the independents seem to have higher quality frames [ie they don't break after years of daily use & hammer. Some *amazing* precision welds on glasses frames for they stick they get...] as well as maybe providing flashier options for fancy new lens technology etc.

I also seem to be getting RGB separation.

Arrrrgh the bane of my life as someone with corrected vision...

The technical name is "chromatic aberration" in imaging & it's caused by dispersion in optical materials. Light of different wavelengths is refracted by different amounts as it passes through lenses etc. causing a spectrum to appear, most noticeably at lines/edges with high contrast.
For decades I've only ever managed to get on with actual glass specs, plastic is safer but the aberrations are higher. Looking straight forward through my lenses is fine but the more out-of-the-corner I look, the worse the aberrations are. Because my prescription is fairly strong, this is quite noticeable [with any "thinner lenses," if I'm looking at the top-left of my monitor, I can't read the time in the bottom-right by just moving my eyes - the numbers are all split up into a rainbow. I have to move my head. With glass, it's totally possible.] You can get higher-refractive index materials to make strong lenses thinner but as a general rule of thumb, the more the material bends the light, the worse its dispersion & hence chromatic aberrations.
Here's an Abbe diagram - a chart of various optical materials, their refractive index & dispersion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbe_number

More expensive lenses, such as in photography & imaging use multiple materials sandwiched together, compensating for each others' differences to lessen these artifacts in the image.
Have a look at the 2 pictures here in the top right to see the effect more easily with & without the sandwiched materials.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromatic_lens



I've never seen an OR but from what I've seen of screenshots etc. they seem to be rendered with some kind of calculated chromatic aberrations to offset the effect of the lenses in the device itself. Whilst it may be nice to have some fancy lens, these days it's probably easier to get cheap-as-chips lens hardware & compensate in the rendering. Clever.

[gumboot]

Can you dial your prescription straight into the rift, or do you need to just fiddle with it until it's comfortable? Once you find a setting, is it numbered so you can restore it in the future?

[edit] actually, don't they paralyse your eyes at the opticians, to force you to relax so that they can tune things up accurately? Maybe it would take some training to be able to set things up ideally if you can't just defer to a set of figures you were given by a professional.

[rowan]

[edit] actually, don't they paralyse your eyes at the opticians, to force you to relax so that they can tune things up accurately? Maybe it would take some training to be able to set things up ideally if you can't just defer to a set of figures you were given by a professional.

Do you mean in the sense that they have you looking straight forward at the same point during the majority of a sight test?
They don't do anything medicinally to paralyse any part of me .

[Mqark]

With some tinkering of position of camera, it is getting better, I can on the whole read all text with some effort (either leaning in, or pheripheral vision tricks).

I'll keep fettering away, but we're sorta close now to something usable.

ED in the rift is still bloody amazing regardless of these minor niggles which I may be able to address.