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

[Dio]

The whole trailing wire thing could be fixed by having a hook on your ceiling.

We've experimented with that and it's OK but not enormously succesful unless you have some kind of spring coiling on the wire as well. Generally we've found a bit of a need to have someone guiding the wire around, when we've set up the full 4mx4m area.

[Mqark]

The whole trailing wire thing could be fixed by having a hook on your ceiling.

We've experimented with that and it's OK but not enormously succesful unless you have some kind of spring coiling on the wire as well. Generally we've found a bit of a need to have someone guiding the wire around, when we've set up the full 4mx4m area.

It is of course a great way to inadvertently hang yourself too!

[pogo]

They really need to be wireless, don’t they. Which may mean they really need to put the GPU, CPU and so the platform in the headset. Google and MS have the right ideas here, they just need the technology to catch up.

They do seem to be much more positive about the VIVE. The controllers, the greater freedom of movement, the clever camera, the better FOV. The Rift controllers in particular look like they will need some getting used to.

[Misfit]

Seems to come out in favor of Vive. TBH I'm sure I won't want to be walking around a room - just as I grew very tired of the simulated physical sporting movements of the Wii. So for me that's not too much of an issue.
The whole trailing wire thing could be fixed by having a hook on your ceiling.

Don't know much about Vive, but is it going to suffer like Kinect did? WHo has a big enough room to set it up in?

[gumboot]

They really need to be wireless, don’t they. Which may mean they really need to put the GPU, CPU and so the platform in the headset. Google and MS have the right ideas here, they just need the technology to catch up.

When you say "in the headset" you're talking about a belt bag or something, right?

[Dio]

Yeah, there's a load of people looking at backpack 3D. Migrating it to the headset itself seems unlikely, since it caps you under 10W and struggling for an hour in battery life without a massive improvement in battery power to weight ratio. A belt system doubles that; a backpack system you've got ten times the horsepower and twice the battery life.

Wireless is not completely out of the question, but that looks to have real troubles to scale with resolution and rate.

[Misfit]

I've got one of these coming in a month or so...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/17 ... escription

Backed a previous project from the guy (York based) so expect it to deliver and have used the prototype for a short session. It was surprisingly good. It's basically a Android based Gear VR alike with the 'phone' built in but has no overhead on the phone's software.

The fact it cost me around £100 makes it a no brainer to have a mess with. The release price will be a lot more than that, but also a lot less that a Rift or a Gear VR + phone.

[pogo]

They really need to be wireless, don’t they. Which may mean they really need to put the GPU, CPU and so the platform in the headset. Google and MS have the right ideas here, they just need the technology to catch up.

When you say "in the headset" you're talking about a belt bag or something, right?

I mean like Google Glass or Hololens; everything in the headset. It will happen. Today you can buy a tablet, the iPad Pro, with as much CPU and GPU power as all but the fastest laptops, and that CPU and GPU will go in phones probably this year, which will mean it could fit in a headset. Apple are a year or two ahead of everyone else in performance but others will catch up. Or maybe even Apple will release an AR platform. It will happen.

I think Rift have limited the platform somewhat by insisting on very high end PC and graphics specs. One of the games highlighted in that video uses mostly flat shaded polygons and relatively few of them:

Games don’t have to need bleeding edge graphics cards to be good, and you could ship a very good VR/AR platform with more modest specs. Especially if it had app-store like, rather than console-like, game pricing.

[gumboot]

Yeah, there's a load of people looking at backpack 3D.

Seems to be begging for a 'jetpack' gag regarding fan speeds on inefficient hardware.


For tether mounting, I thought the ideal was a cantilever arm with elbow. I think those can be pretty fluid. Although I guess since you have position tracking data already, you could use active joints.

Or just a ceiling so high that the difference in angle as you walk around doesn't mean anything.

[pogo]

For tether mounting, I thought the ideal was a cantilever arm with elbow. I think those can be pretty fluid. Although I guess since you have position tracking data already, you could use active joints.

Or just a ceiling so high that the difference in angle as you walk around doesn't mean anything.

Not many people have very high ceilings, but you will be limited by the length of the wire. You don’t want to be rotating too much; the wire will get twisted somewhere adding tension and limiting movement, whether of you or any mechanism. And this is all if you don’t have a landlord/parents/significant other that objects to your plan to clear a room of furniture and install hooks, brackets and arm in place of the light fitting.

Strikes me this is one thing that might be much easier to do in the USA than here or Europe, as they do have much bigger rooms than us, at least in the suburbs/away from cities. Thinking of this house there’s really only room big enough for anything like that, but it has a dining table in the middle of it. And this is not that small a house.

[gumboot]

More of a media-room or man-cave kind of scenario, really, isn't it. The high-ceiling solution is a bit of a warehouse-conversion scenario for commercial use.

But the arm obviously fixes at only one point on the wall, so it doesn't imply a significant amount of damage to the property.

I don't know what kind of data rates you can get through those unlimited-rotation joints (there's a name, what's the name?), though.

[pogo]

But the arm obviously fixes at only one point on the wall, so it doesn't imply a significant amount of damage to the property.

I don't know what kind of data rates you can get through those unlimited-rotation joints (there's a name, what's the name?), though.

An arm fixed to the wall would need to be mechanically much stronger; as it would need to bear the weight of the wire and handle any tugs/tension. Attached well to the ceiling you can just transmit those forces to the ceiling and get by with a simpler/cheaper setup. A simple hook would do in some cases. Attaching it to the wall does limit cable length though.

As for unlimited rotation joints I don’t know if you can get them for HDMI; not many people swing their TVs around through 720°. But it’s not just a HDMI cable but includes USB as well. HDMI for the video signals, USB for other communication including the other way. The only way you will get that rotating without limits is if you disassemble it and rebuild it around such a joint.

[Little stoned kiwi]

Here’s What Your Computer Needs To Run Virtual Reality Games Flawlessly...According To Nvidia

Desktop GPU: GeForce GTX 970 or better
Mobile GPU: GeForce GTX 980 or better
CPU: Intel Core i5- 4590 equivalent or greater CPU
A PC with USB 3.0 support,
8GB+ RAM of Memory/RAM
2x USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.3
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

In a nutshell, they've created the GeForce GTX VR Ready certification and badge to go on computers. Not unlike how Microsoft have a certification program so computers can be branded with a Windows badge. As you'd expect, AMD probably isn't certifiable. Of course there's nothing to stop AMD from doing their own certification program, but I don't see this sort of thing as being helpful to consumers. It's just nvidea being anti-competitive as always in a market share grab.

As one of them quirky Linux using types I've formed a very harsh view of nvidea. While many of my ilk have a beef with Microsoft, I perceive nvidea as a greater threat to consumer freedom.

[Misfit]

Completed sales of DK2s on eBay over the last 2 days are between £275 and £390.

Hmm, If I could get £350 (less fees) might be a no brainer to upgrade...

[Whiteball]

Here’s What Your Computer Needs To Run Virtual Reality Games Flawlessly...According To Nvidia

Desktop GPU: GeForce GTX 970 or better
Mobile GPU: GeForce GTX 980 or better
CPU: Intel Core i5- 4590 equivalent or greater CPU
A PC with USB 3.0 support,
8GB+ RAM of Memory/RAM
2x USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.3
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

In a nutshell, they've created the GeForce GTX VR Ready certification and badge to go on computers. Not unlike how Microsoft have a certification program so computers can be branded with a Windows badge. As you'd expect, AMD probably isn't certifiable. Of course there's nothing to stop AMD from doing their own certification program, but I don't see this sort of thing as being helpful to consumers. It's just nvidea being anti-competitive as always in a market share grab.

As one of them quirky Linux using types I've formed a very harsh view of nvidea. While many of my ilk have a beef with Microsoft, I perceive nvidea as a greater threat to consumer freedom.

Oculus have got a similar thing going with some of the PC companies whereby they are going to put a little sticker on saying 'Oculus Ready'