Oculus "Rift" : An open-source HMD for Kickstarter

[hast]

I saw another video interview at GiantBomb today: http://www.giantbomb.com/e3-2012-john-c ... w/17-6164/.

And there are several examples in these videos of journalists listening and trying to make enouraging noises at the appropriate moments. But I have to say that having a video is really nice because that way we viewers can at least listen to what the developer is saying without relying on a filter of what the reporter took away from it. (It would be awesome to see a similar "interview" or discussion between Palmer and John where they talk about the technology but where they actually understand each other and can ask followup questions.)

Regarding the price on the Kickstarter. I just figured I should say that for me I'd rather see Palmer charge a bit more per unit to ensure that he doesn't get into unforseen economical problems when it is scaled up. Also, remember to look into shipping prices world wide before because I'm sure I'm not the only one who is interested in that. (Other Kickstarters that ship products have charged a bit more for world wide shipping.)

Also JohnCarmack: I've seen you mention in several videos that you haven't gotten translation tracking to work properly with the unit. One thing I wanted to try with it was to use a Playstation Move or similar device to optically track the 3d location of the unit and try to use that in game. Have you already tried that and found out that it doesn't work for some reason? (The USB webcam has too much lag perhaps?)

[SinSilla]

Media Coverage is exploding right now! (Kotaku, Giantbomb, Eurogamer, Neogaf, Golem.de, avsforum, pcgameshardware.de and many more...)

This is so so awesome, what a wonderful coincidence that John showed up here. Even if almost no one gets the crediting quite right atm (what may be a good thing at this point in time) thats probably the very best thing that could happen to us VR Folks, even more than Sonys move with the HMZ-T1.

Good job guys, good job!

[Guspaz]

only one person found it distractingly uncomfortable (due to their eyelashes brushing the lenses)

Which brings to mind something that's been nagging at me, how does this sort of thing work with those of us who need glasses? For myopia, for example. Does the Oculus Rift have diopter correction?

[BillRoeske]

blitter,

High resolution, low latency wireless video has actually been gaining a decent amount of traction lately. I'm not an expert, but from what I know most recent stabs use 5GHz radio signal. Because it's so high frequency, it can carry a lot of data very quickly. Tradeoffs include a relatively short range (around three to five meters) and a signal that's easily blocked by obstructions.

Probably the easiest example to point to is Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console, which uses wireless video to stream game play to the screen on the GamePad controller. They claim effectively no latency, which lines up with other comments I've seen that the overhead is about 1ms. Various recent home theater and networking equipment has also been shown off using similar high-frequency radio for wireless video, too.

So, I wouldn't call it common yet, but things are looking up. That Nintendo is effectively pinning the success of the new console on the technology speaks volumes about their confidence in its reliability and lack of latency. Overall I agree with John and a few others that the ultimate way to go will be the equivelant of a smartphone hooked directly to the HMD. But, wireless video certainly is useful, especially if you have a smaller arena and just want to throw gobs of desktop computing power at it.

[rajveer]

only one person found it distractingly uncomfortable (due to their eyelashes brushing the lenses)

Ooh ooh Palmer, can you make the distance from out eyes adjustable for those with long eyelashes??

Actual question though, how many of them found the resolution a limiting factor for the immersiveness of the HMD? Sounds like everybody you showed it to was impressed and it wasn't really an issue?

[Alkapwn]

I really hope that even with all the publicity that this has gotten lately, that I'm able to get in on the Kickstarter order. Seems like there's more and more people getting excited about this every day.

I have one question about the screen that's currently being used. I'm fine with it being low res as I know that the sense of immersion is more important than screen resolution. I was wondering however, what happens if during the process of the Kickstarter funding or in waiting for the Doom release, somebody comes up with a screen solution that yields a much higher resolution. Would the kit design of the Rift allow for a screen swap? I'm really new to this kind of stuff, but am excited about this project almost to an unhealthy level. The thought of FINALLY being able to be immersed in a virtual world as apposed to watching it through a window, has gotten me insanely geeked!

[brantlew]

Here's a funny writeup. This author seems to be the most impressed of any of the reviewers I have read so far. Just made me laugh when he referred to "Lucky Palmer". At least he tried...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/tech/gami ... ighlights/

[cybereality]

Eurogamer has their preview up now.

Wow! They actually linked to this MTBS thread!!!! Impressive.

[clancey]

Lurking as well. I am subscribed so I can jump on the kickstarter. I am most interested in the expandability. How difficult would it be to swap in a higher resolution LCD? I would be willing to pay more for a higher resolution!

[druidsbane]

Not to be a another me too, but I want to pitch in that I'm in for every iteration you produce and hope the responses here give you the drive and numbers you need! Will be a lot of fun writing toy worlds and 3D engines once again to play in, maybe even create something akin to "Snow Crash" one day... we have the tech, just need to get it out to more people affordably Prior experiences with VR were the exact opposite of what I had hoped for but the responsiveness and FOV of this kit gives me hope in my lifetime

[DragonM]

And there are several examples in these videos of journalists listening and trying to make enouraging noises at the appropriate moments. But I have to say that having a video is really nice because that way we viewers can at least listen to what the developer is saying without relying on a filter of what the reporter took away from it. (It would be awesome to see a similar "interview" or discussion between Palmer and John where they talk about the technology but where they actually understand each other and can ask followup questions.)

Personally I prefer to read what Carmack writes. While his speech is very information dense, it sometimes gets a little tangled. His writing is very clear though. But if the alternative is listening to him vs reading some journalist who may or may not actually grasp the subject, I guess I'll listen. I got a lot out of the interview Giantbomb posted.

I'm glad to see so many things coming together, and I'm glad Palmer is pushing ahead with the project, despite the issues. "The perfect is the enemy of the good." --Voltaire Let's have the good this year, and worry about the perfect later. Sure, I'd love for Samsung to buy about a million meters of Corning's new 100 micron flexible glass and use it as a substrate for 440 ppi 4k2k AMOLED displays with submillisecond latency. Wrap-around hi-res lag-free display goggles would be fantastic. Until then, well, a Rift will do nicely.

DM

[android78]

... Sure, I'd love for Samsung to buy about a million meters of Corning's new 100 micron flexible glass and use it as a substrate for 440 ppi 4k2k AMOLED displays with submillisecond latency. Wrap-around hi-res lag-free display goggles would be fantastic....

I've had a dream like that since I was about 10yo (even though AMOLED hadn't been invented yet)... now over 20 years later, I am still amazed it hasn't happened yet. The thinking was that they would pretty much be being used by everyone by now. Although, I think these days we really need to be pushing for QLEDhttp://www.qdvision.com/qled-technology displays instead of AMOLED

[paratay]

My first post here on MTBS and had to join in with this product, sounds Great! I just like to know PalmerTech, which LCD panel and Controller are you using, is it from Vitrolight?

The 5.6inch Panels I tested had Major Ghosting issues. ( http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-6inch-TFT- ... 45fd0f9722 )

They look great with images, however when there is any motion due to it's slow response, there is significant ghosting.

You mention you are using a 6inch Panel and I would greatly appreciate if you can provide a little more info on them, thanks again! and good luck

[Chriky]

I'm not sure if those are the screens paratray but Carmack did mention (and Palmer confirmed) - http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=14967 - that it is reasonably slow at switching colours (20ms) which can cause some ghosting. It didn't sound that bad though. It's not something anyone has mentioned in the actual Doom demo, I don't know if John actually put in the motion blur to minimise it or not.

[hast]

I found a post on Hack-A-Day which discussed these glasses as well: http://hackaday.com/2012/06/07/where-is ... y-display/. It seemed like a good fit for the Oculus Rift as that's a community about modding and hacking devices so I posted a link to this forum thread as well.

[hast]

Which brings to mind something that's been nagging at me, how does this sort of thing work with those of us who need glasses? For myopia, for example. Does the Oculus Rift have diopter correction?

I asked Palmer that in a disussion thread on The Verge article, which I think was one of the first: http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/30/30521 ... -with-john.

Anyways his answer was that it will have adjustable diopter correction and it will be "virtually limitless". From what I understood it may take a screw driver or something to adjust so it may not be something you want to do if you have a lot of people over. Then it'd be easier to use contact lenses if you have.

[zoost]

Hi everyone. Very exciting all this. I think i have read most interviews with JC and the threads here and I'm very keen on experiencing the Rift with DooM myself. I noticed that someone on slashdot mentioned that:

According to an engineer who worked on the Sega VR project, [sega-16.com] there's a very serious problem with this sort of device:


There is a danger with HMDs: the IPD (inter-pupilar distance) must be properly set. IO Glasses gets around this by having a really big aperture. Sega had a thumbwheel to adjust the IPD. Here is the danger: if the IPD for the LCDs are wider than the user IPD, you force the user’s eyes to look outward. This is the opposite of cross-eyed. This can really stress the weak muscles around the eyes, and can cause permanent damage in less than 30 minutes. What I heard was the Sega lawyers brought up the liability issue on the eye damage. That is the reason I heard the project was canceled. Take it with whatever block of salt you want.

http://www.sega-16.com/2006/07/intervie ... -engineer/

Is there anyone who can confirm / deny this?

Anyhow, I'm willing to take my chance

Thanks for all your dedication an hard work.

[hast]

I saw similar claims on some comment thread that Boing engineers who worked with design in VR environments suffered permanent eye damage in the early 90s. But I couldn't find anything online to support it.

Considering the number of head mounted displays available for casual use this is something we'd heard of by now if it was a problem. (Vuzix have been selling their devices for quite some time now.)

[bcpk]

Is there an audio element to this that is yet to be announced? Given that the demo was done using a Logitech gaming headset (not famed for their fidelity), I suspect audio is less of a priority. Yet it is just as capable of immersion. If you don't believe me, just look up "binaural" on Soundcloud (eg. http://soundcloud.com/carrionfeast/rain ... nd-cs10-em / http://soundcloud.com/carrionfeast/bris ... e-roland-1).

The trouble with truly accurate spatial audio is that each person's ears respond to frequencies differently, and these responses inform our positional inferences. However, even an averaged approximation of these responses (called Head Related Impulse Response / http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salle ... index.html) is much more impressive than simple, immutable stereo audio.

There's some more info about spatial audio at the following links: http://www.ausim3d.com/about/AuWeb_perception.html http://www.myears.net.au/pdfs/white.pdf (2nd is a brochure; take their claims with a pinch of salt).

Considering the impressive cues I've picked up in Quake Live, I imagine John Carmack already has a good grasp of spatial audio but I'd be happy to explain what I can. I did my fourth year project (ECE) on the subject so it's something I'm pretty passionate about!

[optimus]

Re: potential health issues, here's an article I remember reading on the ABC website a while ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32814.html

[Guspaz]

Which brings to mind something that's been nagging at me, how does this sort of thing work with those of us who need glasses? For myopia, for example. Does the Oculus Rift have diopter correction?

I asked Palmer that in a disussion thread on The Verge article, which I think was one of the first: http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/30/30521 ... -with-john.

Anyways his answer was that it will have adjustable diopter correction and it will be "virtually limitless". From what I understood it may take a screw driver or something to adjust so it may not be something you want to do if you have a lot of people over. Then it'd be easier to use contact lenses if you have.

That's good to hear; last time I tried taking off my glasses and using the dioptre adjustment on a camera viewfinder, I found that the dioptre adjustment on cameras was a joke, not nearly enough to correct typical myopia.

[hast]

Re: potential health issues, here's an article I remember reading on the ABC website a while ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32814.html

Seems like that's from the same source, Mark Pesce. Reading the comments there (and the Wikipedia article for the term http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binocular_dysphoria) suggest that this is pretty much something only Mark Pesce is concerned about. Importantly there seem to be no peer revied evidence of the condition. (So there is not only no evidence that it can be permanantly damaging, there is no evidence that it actually happens at all.)

In fact, Googling around a bit more there is a post from 94 on Wired (again by Mark Pesce) that claims that the effect exists and references a study performed by a Californian think tank called SRI on behalf of Sega. But no results were ever published and Sega has not released any information. People at SRI which were contacted then did not want to comment further than to say that there were "unresolved problems" which could mean anything.

This does of course not mean that there can be problems with it. But if no effects have been found in the last 20 years it seems reasonable that they are at least not as obvious as what Mark Pesce claims.

[zoost]

Re: potential health issues, here's an article I remember reading on the ABC website a while ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32814.html

Seems like that's from the same source, Mark Pesce. Reading the comments there (and the Wikipedia article for the term http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binocular_dysphoria) suggest that this is pretty much something only Mark Pesce is concerned about. Importantly there seem to be no peer revied evidence of the condition. (So there is not only no evidence that it can be permanantly damaging, there is no evidence that it actually happens at all.)

In fact, Googling around a bit more there is a post from 94 on Wired (again by Mark Pesce) that claims that the effect exists and references a study performed by a Californian think tank called SRI on behalf of Sega. But no results were ever published and Sega has not released any information. People at SRI which were contacted then did not want to comment further than to say that there were "unresolved problems" which could mean anything.

This does of course not mean that there can be problems with it. But if no effects have been found in the last 20 years it seems reasonable that they are at least not as obvious as what Mark Pesce claims.

Thanks for clearing that up! Lets get it on!

[gurehamu]

Re: potential health issues, here's an article I remember reading on the ABC website a while ago:
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/32814.html

Seems like that's from the same source, Mark Pesce. Reading the comments there (and the Wikipedia article for the term http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binocular_dysphoria) suggest that this is pretty much something only Mark Pesce is concerned about. Importantly there seem to be no peer revied evidence of the condition. (So there is not only no evidence that it can be permanantly damaging, there is no evidence that it actually happens at all.)

In fact, Googling around a bit more there is a post from 94 on Wired (again by Mark Pesce) that claims that the effect exists and references a study performed by a Californian think tank called SRI on behalf of Sega. But no results were ever published and Sega has not released any information. People at SRI which were contacted then did not want to comment further than to say that there were "unresolved problems" which could mean anything.

This does of course not mean that there can be problems with it. But if no effects have been found in the last 20 years it seems reasonable that they are at least not as obvious as what Mark Pesce claims.

I'm finding similar information. An interesting article I found did have quotes from one of the SRI researchers (Tom Piantanida) who said that the hardware at the time wasn't fast enough and he experienced perception issues after wearing the headset for 8 hours(!?!), but made no mention of permanent damage.

http://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/vo ... 9IXOeJYvKw

[BrianSmith42]

Replace the gyros & accelerometers with a 3d camera system (like the kinect) mounted to the goggles. Use the change in view and distances to "static objects" to figure out the position and orientation of the head. gyros are only going to give you good data for orientation, a stereoscopic camera systems will let you bob your head up or down or side to side to see around objects and will add to the realness.

After all mounting a stereoscopic camera systems is going to be a next step for augmented reality use anyway so why not use it to track head position and kill 2 birds with one piece of hardware.

The question is can it be tracked with low enough latency and accurately enough, I suspect it can.

(When i say "static objects" I mean any point that appears to not be moving aka ignore objects going by a car window for example. yup Head tracking via stereoscopic view should work in moving vehicles unlike a gyro/accelerometers based system.)

[pierreye]

Palmer might have a problem with normal user expectation as they might compare this to commercial HMD or big screen tv. The support might overwhelm him to design a v2 in the future and also of noob question such as why my desktop 2D is split in both eye (due to the device only work in SBS).

[brantlew]

DDD support for Rift moved to new topic

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=15027

[PalmerTech]

Oh man, this is what I get for going to SID and having not time for the forums. Long post ahead! To all the people signing up to let me know you support this project: Awesome, glad to have you on board! Responding to each and every one of you in this post would make it crazy long, but I really appreciate the support.

I do hope that you do turn a small profit from the kits. It sounds like you've devoted a bit of personal time to this and have come up with something good, possibly great. You should totally be compensated for that. My impression is that this is going to be an assembly-required kit, so I'm sure there will be some post-release support work to be done, too. If nothing else, I'd view it as an investment in you continuing the good work with new displays, optics, connections, battery power, weight reduction, and so on. At the very least give us access to a tip jar or something.

A lot of feedback on this, so I think this is what I will do: Set things up so that rather than allocating money for time on a laser cutter/CNC machine/other costs, I get enough money to buy my own. That way, I can work on my future units cheaply and more easily, so everyone benefits! If you want to leave money as a tip, Kickstarter allows you to send extra money on top of the reward. I will figure out some way for people to get recognized if they do that.

I'm not a "hardware guy", but I won't have any problem with DIY kits as long as they can be assembled easily: I don't have any soldering skills nor the ability or knowledge to place the lenses manually in the precise angle/position required to get the best effect, so I hope this type of skills are not necessary.

The kits will not require any soldering, it should be well within reach of anyone capable of, say, taking a phone apart and putting it back together. You will have to be careful with the lenses, but getting them placed correctly is not too hard. You just need to make sure they are aligned with the faceplate properly.

1) What is the process for getting existing games to work with the unit - eg: Flight Simulator X, or Just Cause 2 for example. Is it simple or do games need an entirely new driver..etc

2) When released what would one use with it? Would DOOM be our only demo for a long while (with hopefully Rage to follow) or would we be able to look forward to a slate of working titles (this question is kinda like my first one)

Existing drivers like IZ3D and TriDef DDD drivers will allow things to work mostly correctly. IZ3D has a mode that allows for proper aspect ratio that only works for some games, and distortion can be taken care of with Nthusim. Of course, you still only have mouse emulation for head tracking, so not at all optimal. Cybereality is working on a driver with proper 3D and head tracking support, but like he has said, it will be awhile before he finishes. As far as future titles, there are some things in the works, but I would rather wait for those developers to announce things themselves than have me spilling the beans.

RIFT is not so bad .. does it stand for anything ?

Not at the moment. Still trying to figure out if it is the "Rift" or the "RIFT". The choice to go all caps is mainly just for easy laser-cut readability on the unit. Thanks for the offers of help, I might need it when making assembly instructions. The Kickstarter should launch in one week.

This panel looks like it could be a great contender for a future HMD device: http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/5/306674 ... ppi-ah-ips

Yeah, saw that panel at SID, it looks amazing. Would need two of them, though, not quite big enough for single panel use.

- Is the kit spec on the RIFT webpage an all-inclusive list? Will the kit include an option for the "wireless video link" and if so, are there more details on that?
- Is head tracking also included as an option in the kit or will a solution for that be required independently?

The $500 version will not include a wireless video link, but it will be available as an option, probably for about $200. Seems expensive, but you get a good wireless link (Less than 1ms latency) and a battery pack to power both the link and the HMD. The hardware inside is nearly identical to this Sensics unit that costs $2,000! http://sensics.com/products/low-latency ... ess-video/
Head tracking is also not included in the base price, since a lot of people will probably want to use it with trackers they already own. One of the Kickstarter bundles will include a Hillcrest labs tracker and Doom 3 BFG edition for a little more.

Does the Oculus Rift have diopter correction?

It has diopter correction, you can set the focus during assembly. It would be better to wear contacts, though, so the lenses can be properly collimated.

[quote="clancey"Lurking as well. I am subscribed so I can jump on the kickstarter. I am most interested in the expandability. How difficult would it be to swap in a higher resolution LCD? I would be willing to pay more for a higher resolution![/quote]

It is not a matter of difficulty or even cost, at this point. Better panels that are suitable for this design are simply not available at the moment. Within the next 12 to 18 months, though, there are panels coming out that are 4x the resolution! Upgrading to use those panels should be a piece of cake.

My first post here on MTBS and had to join in with this product, sounds Great! I just like to know PalmerTech, which LCD panel and Controller are you using, is it from Vitrolight?

The 5.6inch Panels I tested had Major Ghosting issues. ( http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5-6inch-TFT- ... 45fd0f9722 )

They look great with images, however when there is any motion due to it's slow response, there is significant ghosting.

Yes, they are those panels. I am not buying them there though, for several reasons. I can get smaller and higher performance control boards from elsewhere, and they have sent me used panels before when I purchased as "new". On top of that, there are several different revisions of this panel, and I want to use the latest one. The response is still not perfect, but with the latest control boards and panel revision, I am getting extremely good results. I would love to be using a better panel, but there is nothing out there that can match this resolution at a reasonable price. The only things out there that would be suitable would push the price of the Rift into the tens of thousands of dollars.

I saw similar claims on some comment thread that Boing engineers who worked with design in VR environments suffered permanent eye damage in the early 90s. But I couldn't find anything online to support it.

Considering the number of head mounted displays available for casual use this is something we'd heard of by now if it was a problem. (Vuzix have been selling their devices for quite some time now.)

The thing is, diverging your eyes is very, VERY uncomfortable to do. If you have any sense at all, you are able to tell that something is wrong, and adjust the IPD. Aside from that, modern HMDs are no less safe than a normal monitor; You should really take a break every once in a while to give your eyes a chance to relax and adjust, nothing new. That said, the potential for a lawsuit is one reason that I am making this available as a kit instead of a "real" product.

Is there an audio element to this that is yet to be announced?

I love audio as well! There is a great VR game project called "Wild Skies" being done by some students at USC, they are going to do most of their binaural audio recording with a dummy head I made.

The thing is, I am a hardware guy, and this is a hardware project. Most of this audio work is done on the software side, and the best I could do would be to include some good headphones, something many people will already have. Perhaps selecting an specific headset that works well with the Rift would be a good idea, so we are all working with the same hardware?

Replace the gyros & accelerometers with a 3d camera system (like the kinect) mounted to the goggles. Use the change in view and distances to "static objects" to figure out the position and orientation of the head. gyros are only going to give you good data for orientation, a stereoscopic camera systems will let you bob your head up or down or side to side to see around objects and will add to the realness.

This will happen at some point, but we cannot do it with low enough latency yet, and that will not change in the short term future. We already have lots of other good tracking options, so not really a priority.

Palmer might have a problem with normal user expectation as they might compare this to commercial HMD or big screen tv. The support might overwhelm him to design a v2 in the future and also of noob question such as why my desktop 2D is split in both eye (due to the device only work in SBS).

Yes, that is the main reason I am doing this as a kit. I want it very clear on the Kickstarter that this is for the DIY/hacker/enthusiast crowd, not a mainstream product. If they miss all those clear warnings and then complain about having to put it together or something, I am not going to waste much time consoling them. If the HMZ-T1 is any indication, people will start modding and improving these as soon as they get them, and I hope to put those improvements to use in a second revision.

[yomer]

Palmer,
Let's suppose that in 1 year, an LCD with the same size, but double the resolution is available. If we fund your project and buy your kit, will we be able to mod the new screen, or is there a controlling unit in the way of replacing the screens?

I admit that with what I read on your post above, I only got the part the about not being able to use a better panel at the moment. I was just wondering if the first revision will be made to allow this future LCD upgrade. Do you use a video scaler?

I don't mean to sound rude, I'm really interested in your project. It's just that I would feel better investing in your project if your kit was easily modifiable in terms of the screen and it's resolution. I wouldn't be able to shell out an additional $500 for a second revision to gain better resolution and more compatibility.



Edit: For an example I would like to use http://www.techradar.com/news/tablets/l ... ay-1035567 That's a 2,560 x 1,600 panel, or 1280x1600 per eye.

Would we be able to fit a slightly larger LCD like Toshiba's by adjusting the optics?

[JohnCarmack]

I said "Toshiba 2.5k LCD panel demo" at least 20 times at E3. I hope they send me some

Being a little larger would fill out the entire horizontal lens viewing area, making it a full 110 degrees horizontal and vertical FOV. Some vertical resolution would be wasted, but you would wind up with around 1200 x 1200 per eye. Do want.

John Carmack

[PalmerTech]

@Yomer: The control board is flashed with firmware that is specifically made to drive this panel, so if you upgrade the screen, you will also need a matching control board.

That Toshiba screen is one I have mentioned before, and yes, it would be an easy upgrade. You would just need to make a few small physical modifications to the HMD so it will fit, and adjust the IPD in software to scale to the width of the new panel. If that panel is released, I would probably sell an at-cost kit that existing users could buy to upgrade their own HMD.

[3dvison]

I said "Toshiba 2.5k LCD panel demo" at least 20 times at E3. I hope they send me some

Being a little larger would fill out the entire horizontal lens viewing area, making it a full 110 degrees horizontal and vertical FOV. Some vertical resolution would be wasted, but you would wind up with around 1200 x 1200 per eye. Do want.

John Carmack

Any word on when the public could buy one ?

[PalmerTech]

Not until next year, at least. They won't be selling them with controller boards, either, they will probably be in Android tablets or phones.

[PatrickReddeck]

Before I make inquiries, has anyone looked at MicroOLED or Olightek? They make micro OLED displays.

[PalmerTech]

Microdisplays are not very suitable for high FOV. That is why even expensive $30,000+ units like the Nvis SX111 only have a horizontal field of view of 76 degrees, and weigh several times what the Rift does.

[bcpk]

A standard set of headphones sounds good. Happily, unlike mini displays, there are plenty of cheap and great sounding headphones out there, eg the Monoprice 8323 for $25 or Panasonic RP-HTF600 for around $35.

[fireslayer26]

@John Carmack- So at what point are you going to personally fly the Toshiba headquarters and demo the rift for them and tell them you REALLY REALLY need some of their panels???

[PatrickReddeck]

Microdisplays are not very suitable for high FOV. That is why even expensive $30,000+ units like the Nvis SX111 only have a horizontal field of view of 76 degrees, and weigh several times what the Rift does.

I initially thought the larger resolution ( 2,560 by 2,048 pixels per display) would help with that. Probably moot as that resolution must be expensive.

[yomer]

@John Carmack- So at what point are you going to personally fly the Toshiba headquarters and demo the rift for them and tell them you REALLY REALLY need some of their panels???

^^^
My thoughts too..

-If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain.-

[yomer]

Did anybody post this already?

http://www.j-display.com/english/news/2 ... 20604.html

A 2.3" display with a resolution of 1280x800. That would mean 3116x1947 give or take for a 5.6 inch.

BTW, http://www.j-display.com is the business that now manages Toshiba's LCD display technology. So any confirmation of a prototype or developer kit will have to go through them.


Edit: To avoid adding a new post: http://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/news/201 ... ay_killer/ 1920x1080... can the kit also be adjusted to a smaller screen? This will allegedly be ready for integrator products in Q4 2012.