Cyber's DIY Stereo Driver [Work Log]

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:44 pm

@rajveer: There are still issues with clipping, but I think they may be solved by adjusting FOV within the game console. Still have to test this out though.

@Fredz: Thanks! From what I can tell True Combat is based on the Quake III engine (OpenGL) so it won't work with my driver unfortunately. Though I may want to try it anyway in 2D since it looks so cool.

Post by **CyberVillain** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:55 am

Another game that would be cool that has freelook with translation is Arma2. You would need to use optical tracking though.

Post by **rajveer** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:58 am

Yeah I was wondering why setting the FOV to 90 (for games that allow it) and setting the correct aspect ratio wouldn't get the right frustum that we need, but I suppose not all games support custom resolution to be able to get that aspect ratio in the first place (especially portrait resolutions).

Will your driver also support other headtracker APIs (Freetrack/TrackIR) so that we can interface with existing games without having to use mouse emulation?

Post by **brantlew** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:07 am

Looking good cyber.

Post by **Alkapwn** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 9:23 am

@cyber
Is there any way, via a screengrab, that you'd be able to show the final resolution that these games would display once on the Rift? I'm really curious to see what the final rendered resolution will be.

Keep up the good work! And again, if you setup a donation page once the driver is done, I'm sure people would donate to the time you've spent. I know I would.

Post by **cybereality** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:27 pm

@Alkapwn: That image of HL2 is pretty close to actual resolution for the Rift. Its at 720P (1280x720) and the rift is 1280x800, so on the Rift the image will be a little taller, but its close enough.

In terms of donations: I am considering turning this into a commercial product. However the initial version for the Rift will be heavily discounted.

Post by **Alkapwn** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:51 pm

@cyber Sweet deal! Count me in!

This doesn't seem to be as bad as the Crysis photo print test thing was. Though not sure if the two are comparable as I believe his was trying to factor view through the Rift with the high FOV. Do you think the HUD will be readable once the warping is applied and it's wrapped around the large FOV?

Sidenote, CANNOT wait to play Mirror's Edge, and get everyone I know or don't know to test the Rift out. I can't stop talking about how awesome this device will be and how game changing it's going to be for the FPS market. And can't wait to see what people do with things like RTS's and other innovative games.

Keep up the good work!

One more thing I've been thinking about. If Valve and these other studios seem to be on board with the Rift, would them releasing Rift Ready updates/patches negate the work you and brantlew and Emerson are doing? I'd hate to see you guys spend all this time and effort, and then have Valve and others be like, "Oh hey, here's the Rift patch".

Doh! Knew if I named people I'd miss somebody.

Post by **brantlew** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 11:25 pm

I sure hope Valve offers native support. Bethesday too. I'm sure Cyber and Emerson wouldn't cry too much if their work was negated - they would be too busy playing

Besides, either way - it was a learning experience and the knowledge will just transfer to 100 other games that don't get native support. I hope Palmer and Co. spill the beans a little about the Rift SDK this weekend. That may change everything - and next week we may all be whipping up some other type of software support.

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:32 pm

I know Valve has some interest but who knows what will come of that. They could be adding support to upcoming games only, developing their own hardware, or any number of things that don't involve existing titles like HL2 or L4D. Anyway, eventually I will be supporting other games and I don't imagine all those developers will go back and create patches. Also, Mirror's Edge is one of my favorite games and is the next title I will be adding support for (and hopefully that will enable other Unreal games like UT3).

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 6:40 pm

So I spent the weekend trying to get Mirror's Edge to work. Its somewhat working now, aside from a few issues. Namely that transparent objects are visible through solid objects, and they also are oddly doubled between the eyes. This seems to be something with the Unreal engine, because I see the same behavior in UT3. I probably need a way to just turn these objects off or something. Will look into this more.

MirrorsEdge.jpg

Post by **brantlew** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:21 pm

Looks cool. I gotta say though - after checking out the Rift I think Mirrors Edge might actually give you a heart attack if you played it like that.

Post by **Alkapwn** » Sun Aug 05, 2012 10:35 pm

cybereality wrote:So I spent the weekend trying to get Mirror's Edge to work. Its somewhat working now, aside from a few issues. Namely that transparent objects are visible through solid objects, and they also are oddly doubled between the eyes. This seems to be something with the Unreal engine, because I see the same behavior in UT3. I probably need a way to just turn these objects off or something. Will look into this more.

MirrorsEdge.jpg

I'm not too sure what the equivalent of drooling to the mouth, would be to the eyes, but I think mine are doing just that.

DOOM 3 BFG + Cyber's Mirror's Edge = #WorthIt

Post by **android78** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 3:48 pm

Wow! The progress is looking great here Cyber. The only flaw I can see in that Mirrors Edge image is the steam coming from the vent in the distance behind the big blue sign on the building on the right of the image appears to be drawn at the wrong depth.
Like the transparent objects, you might have to just turn it off?

Post by **artox** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:12 am

Great work, Cyber, I knew that eventually a forum member with mad coding skills will do something like that. Being a big fan of Mirror's Edge too I can't wait to see what you'll accomplish

As for the Rift...I guess this is what we've all been waiting for, the thing that can't be accomplished by pushing the separation to extremes or simply sitting closer to the tv. Too bad I'll be waiting for the consumer version, which means that sadly I won't be able to check it out soon, but on the plus side I bet that your driver will be pretty polished by then

Post by **illkillu1a** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:23 am

can you work on Team fortress 2 next? id like to play that with the Oculus rift

Post by **hammerbot** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:28 am

You can also try out Arma2 because it has a freelook. Arma2 has a super popular mod called DayZ that surpassed 1 million unique players today. So i think that supporting that game would be a huge benefactor for your drivers and rift.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/07/dayz- ... n-players/

Post by **WiredEarp** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:57 pm

DayZ is pretty awesome really. Its the only shooter i've ever played that makes me actually nervous to do stuff. Sometimes its like that sniper scene in The Hurt Locker where they wait for hours after shooting someone just to make sure hes actually dead. Its nice since so many games nowadays have so much hand holding and lack of penalties for death etc, to appeal to everyone and make it easy to progress, whereas DayZ is more about difficulty/risk/reward.

The best way I can describe it is that most FPS's (like BF3) are like the movie 'Aliens'. DayZ is like the movie 'Alien'. Half of the fun comes from the stress/uncertainty of just when someone will open up on you, potentially terminating your entire character.

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:27 pm

@illkillu1a: TF2 might actually work, since all the Source games I've tried seem to work. However this driver would very easily get detected as a hack, so I would NOT recommend playing with this online. Maybe if you play on non-VAC, non-Punkbuster servers or something then it would be OK.

@hammerbot: I will check out Arma2. Never got to play it, and that DayZ game sounds like fun.

Post by **cybereality** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:00 pm

Mirror's Edge is now fully working.

MirrorsEdge2.jpg

Also got UT3 mostly working except one annoying bug that makes it choppy sometimes. Still somewhat playable. Gonna try some other Unreal games and see if they work.

Maybe do Bioshock next. Any requests?

Post by **mrfahrenheit94** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:21 pm

I second hammerbot's suggestion of DayZ/ArmA II mainly because of it being an awesome game and secondly because it does have independent head looking and gun aiming integrated into the game so you don't have to work on that like you did with left 4 dead (which might I add is so incredibly awesome that you managed to control camera movement independent of where the gun is aiming). This would be a mind blowing experience, of course next to leaping from building to building in Mirror's Edge

Also, is there any way that we, the members, can try out your driver? I read that you may have plans on commercializing the driver, which is great, but I'd love to try it out just for fun.

Post by **cybereality** » Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:30 pm

@mrfahrenheit94: Ok, I will take a look at Arma II tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't think I will be releasing anything until its ready. Mainly because this is going to be a commercial product, and also because some things are not finished yet. With the way things are currently set up it will be difficult to make a trial/demo version, so I may just have no demo, but some sort of money-back guarantee. None of this is really final yet, but that's what I am thinking.

Post by **rajveer** » Sun Aug 12, 2012 10:35 am

Since you've got Mirror's Edge working, could a similar approach be used for other Unreal Engine games? I'm thinking Tribes Ascend, playing that as a pathfinder in the Rift would be insane (mouse emulation would probably be best off with it since it's so fast, but the Rift's high FOV and 3D would still be awesome).

Also Crysis Wars, so I can play MechWarrior: Living Legends

Post by **Chriky** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:12 pm

A version with full functionality that cuts out after five minutes shouldn't be too hard right, as a demo?

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 6:26 pm

@rajveer: I figured other Unreal games would work (at least UT3 does mostly) but I attempted Bioshock and it has a lot of problems. So it still seems each game will need some custom work.

@Chriky: Yeah, I could probably do something like that. I just want to make sure I am spending most of my time adding support for games and not spending it with copy-protection/DRM. But I guess I have til around Nov/Dec to have things finished so I should be able to figure out something.

Post by **android78** » Wed Aug 15, 2012 10:43 pm

cybereality wrote:@rajveer: I figured other Unreal games would work (at least UT3 does mostly) but I attempted Bioshock and it has a lot of problems. So it still seems each game will need some custom work.

@Chriky: Yeah, I could probably do something like that. I just want to make sure I am spending most of my time adding support for games and not spending it with copy-protection/DRM. But I guess I have til around Nov/Dec to have things finished so I should be able to figure out something.

Shame to hear about Bioshock. One of my favorite games ever!
How much work do you think it'll be to get it working?
If it's not a rude question, what sort of price point are you aiming for once complete? Are you looking at an upfront cost + additional fee for each game? I just think that it could be good in terms of keeping it viable after release if you have some income for your after release efforts. It would be better for both you and customers if their initial investment can continue to be usable for many future games... assuming they don't all start including native support.

Post by **cybereality** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:10 pm

@android78: I want to have a price-point that is competitive with other similar products out there, so probably around $50 give or take. I was thinking that would cover all updates for a given release number (i.e 1.x numbered releases). And then when a 2.0 version came out, I could give existing users a discount to upgrade. But I think that is a while down the line, once I have support for a lot more titles.

And, yes, I do want to get Bioshock working so I will continue to investigate this.

Post by **android78** » Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:16 pm

Awesome!

Probably a good way to go with the pricing.

Post by **bobv5** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:31 pm

With your driver, will it be possible to have HMD roll mapped to your hacked game camera roll, and pitch/yaw mapped to (wiimote acting like a) mouse ?

Post by **cybereality** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 5:06 pm

bobv5 wrote:With your driver, will it be possible to have HMD roll mapped to your hacked game camera roll, and pitch/yaw mapped to (wiimote acting like a) mouse ?

Yes, that would be possible. Not sure I can have Wiimote support by launch, but you could use my driver for just the roll and then another software (GlovePIE, FreePIE) to handle the Wiimote.

Post by **cybereality** » Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:22 pm

L4D_RedCyan.jpg

I've added a number of new display modes for the driver: anaglyph and all the major frame-compatible modes.

So what is supported now:

Side-by-Side w/ Warping (RIFT)
Side-by-Side
Over-Under
Horizontal Interleave
Vertical Interleave
Checkerboard
Anaglyph - Red/Cyan
Anaglyph - Red/Cyan - Grayscale
Anaglyph - Yellow/Blue
Anaglyph - Yellow/Blue - Grayscale
Anaglyph - Green/Magenta
Anaglyph - Green/Magenta - Grayscale

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:30 pm

Been working on Bioshock this whole weekend. Got something about 80% working.

Bioshock.jpg

The main thing broken is smoke effects and stuff like that. They only render in one eye. Otherwise it looks OK.

Post by **android78** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 6:38 pm

Awesome work there, but it seems out of proportion - stretched vertically. Do you think you'll have to turn the smoke effects off, or will they be fixable?

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:56 pm

android78 wrote:Awesome work there, but it seems out of proportion - stretched vertically. Do you think you'll have to turn the smoke effects off, or will they be fixable?

Well the Bioshock image is from a SBS mode that would work on an HDTV, its supposed to be squished. This is not the Rift mode, I am just using it for testing.

I am hoping the smoke stuff can be fixed, will need to spend more time with it.

Post by **android78** » Sun Aug 19, 2012 8:20 pm

Sorry, all cool then.

For some reason I thought you were doing these for the rift.

Post by **divide** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 3:25 pm

Please add support for Crysis/Crysis 2 ! (Crysis 2 may be easier since they already have builtin stereo code).

Post by **android78** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:24 pm

divide wrote:Please add support for Crysis/Crysis 2 ! (Crysis 2 may be easier since they already have builtin stereo code).

I'm not sure about crysis 2 being easier because they have inbuilt stereo code. If the PC version is like the xbox or ps3 version, then they are using some tricks to generate the second view that would be more restrictive then helpful. If the PC version does use this, then I think you'd probably have to throw it all out and use the full custom driver for the entire thing. At least, they should be rendering effects at the correct depth though, I guess.

Post by **cybereality** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:58 pm

Yes, Crysis 1+2 are on my list of games I want to get supported.

If only because when the inevitable question arises about the Rift: "But does it run Crysis", we can say "Yes!".

Post by **brantlew** » Mon Aug 20, 2012 11:59 pm

Since you've already added roll, have you considered adding head translation offsets? This would be distinct from moving the character's body position. It would essentially be a limited radius around the central character position (the hips) that you could adjust the camera position. So a 6DOF device could be used for subtle head motions and leaning or bending.

Post by **Chriky** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 1:10 am

I think it has that brantlew, its how the stereoscopic effect works. In one of the early videos it shows the camera moving sideways away from the gun which stays at the player location.

Post by **artox** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 3:09 am

Cyber, as long as we can install the driver after a hardware upgrade or os re-install and license it locally I'm all for that price point

The idiotic licensing scheme that DDD have is the only thing stopping me from getting their driver. If you buy something you should own it.