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Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:43 am
by bobv5
You guys seen this? Supossedly coming out in april bundled with portal 2. Should be perfect for use with hmd if they let you actually use the 1:1 motion they talk about instead of making you stay facing one direction.....

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:43 pm
by Johnny-Mnemonic
Image
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/08/razer ... rs-make-i/
Looks awesome!

This is exciting year for new consumer hardware :D

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:49 pm
by cybereality
Yeah, this thing looks awesome. I will get mine on the first day (hopefully) and do an S3D unboxing and review. I think this could add a lot to the immersive experience. However, it uses absolute positioning, so it is not as useful for an HMD. If you want full range of motion with a headtracking HMD (meaning standing up, full 360 rotation) it cannot be used. The Hydra only operated within a 6 foot cube coming off the base station. So you can't just run around the room, you still have to be in front of the computer stationary. Thats fine for me though, it still looks really cool. Imagine that with Nvidia 3D Vision Surround triple 3D projectors!!!!!!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4SCzxZIc8[/youtube]

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 7:56 pm
by Johnny-Mnemonic
cybereality wrote:The Hydra only operated within a 6 foot cube coming off the base station. So you can't just run around the room, you still have to be in front of the computer stationary.
Probably you can attach base station to your body :)

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:09 pm
by bobv5
cybereality wrote:. However, it uses absolute positioning, so it is not as useful for an HMD. If you want full range of motion with a headtracking HMD (meaning standing up, full 360 rotation) it cannot be used. The Hydra only operated within a 6 foot cube coming off the base station. So you can't just run around the room, you still have to be in front of the computer stationary.
I don't belive this is true. You have to stay within range, but you don't have to face the transmitter. The software is the bit that worrys me, but the hardware could be almost perfect. It uses the same tech as the expensive "real" vr trackers. Or at least it claims to. I see no reason that it couldn't calculate in which direction you are pointing away from the signal source just as easily as towards it. That 6 foot sphere would be more than enough for me. (Mount it on the ceiling and its range is bigger than my geek room) I don't realy fancy running around in a hmd and haveing it break my face when I hit a wall. Ok, you might rotate around your gun rather than you head, but this seems like a small problem compared to the current mess of hacked wiimotes and ir webcam's that I am curently failing to get working.

If you think I am wrong I would realy like to know why, I don't want to blow my cash on a device I cant use.


edit
"Probably you can attach base station to your body :)"
But that would need a reference point for the computer. The hardware is easy, but I don't wanna program it!

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 10:54 pm
by Okta
I'm a little excited by this as it has the positional tracking but unfortunately only short range from base station(magnetic). Not a huge fan of using it in front of a fixed screen=still inferior to mouse/keyboard.

It's a pitty glovepie is dead because there could be all sorts of cool things with the new devices like Kinect and this.

Im still looking for a cheap mobile method to track movement for running around with a hmd.

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 11:52 pm
by cybereality
Well a 6 foot cube is not that big for full range of movement VR. You would need at least a 10 foot cube. The best case scenario, is that you have the tracker directly under you (or above your head). In that case you would only have a 3 foot radius of movement. From my arm to the center of my chest is 32", leaving only 4" of wiggle room. If you think you can stay in the exact same spot, while you turn around wearing an HMD, then maybe it might work for you. But staying that static without any frame of reference is not easy (remember, you are wearing a headset, how would you know if you are drifting?). It becomes even more problematic if the tracker is not exactly lined up with the center of your body. So I think a 10" cube is minimum. Also, you have to consider what interference this would cause with HMD headtrackers (like VR920) that rely on magnets. So ideally the head-tracker has to be compatible with the same base unit.
Okta wrote:It's a pitty glovepie is dead because there could be all sorts of cool things with the new devices like Kinect and this.
Yeah, I know. Maybe we should start an open-source VR input device driver? I don't think it would be incredibly hard.

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 5:17 am
by Johnny-Mnemonic
Carl need to add to GlovePie, support of VRPN protocol, this would automatically adds Kinect and many other devices, in the same time you would be able to make VRPN drivers for devices that don't have them.

Here more about VRPN:
http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/vrpn/
It's already supports wide spectre of different devices!

And about Kinect for VRPN:
http://people.ict.usc.edu/~suma/faast/

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2011 11:37 am
by bobv5
The range seems to be 6ft in any direction from the base station.

"the Hydra uses a small base station that creates an electromagnetic field with a radius of about six feet."
http://www.ballergames.net/razer-hydra- ... rs-make-i/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 12:12 am
by cybereality
AH, OK. *Radius* of 6 feet. Thats fine then. My bad.

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2011 8:51 pm
by bobv5
More tracking gear...

http://www.youtube.com/v/AHf0t4VpFA8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:56 am
by Okta
bobv5 wrote:More tracking gear...

http://www.youtube.com/v/AHf0t4VpFA8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Demo here http://katonda.com/news/11/2011/2318" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That is awesome. Looking forward to more info and pricing. Hopefully new game engines will allow for multiple inputs like these.

Sword, shield and head tracking with massive force feedback motors :)

Re: Razer Hydra (formerly sixense)

Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:03 am
by cybereality
Yeah, that AikenLabs tracker looks interesting. Great that it doesn't require drivers, because that means it should still work if the company goes under next year. However the units seem a little bulky. I wonder how much they weigh. If they are light enough it still might be usable. Hopefully the final production units will be a little slimmer. Also, you would still need a wireless controller of sorts for basic actions (for example, pulling the trigger on a gun). Movement would also be weird using just gestures. So this would need to be combined with a Wiimote/Nunchuck, Razer Hydra or some other physical controller in order to be useful. Then there is the problem of interference. It seems the Vuzix tracker, the Hydra and this AikenLabs device all use magnetometers in some way. I have a feeling they will interfere with each other, might be a problem.