Cyber's DIY Stereo Driver [Work Log]

Post by **kalabalik** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 1:19 am

Oh nice!
Skyrim is my favorite game next to Morrowind; so to see those both make an appearance in the Rift would be completely mindblowing!
Hopefully it'll work with all the 150+ addons i have as well; specifically the shadow enhancers and such...

I'm so so going to pour money into the final retail version of your driver sets; as you seem to pick up my favorite games for adjustment

Post by **3dvison** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 3:45 pm

Hey cybereality,

Did you get the newest Deus Ex, Human Revolution, working ?

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 7:59 pm

3dvison wrote:Did you get the newest Deus Ex, Human Revolution, working ?

I have the game, but have not tried it with my driver yet. Its on the list, though.

Post by **Chriky** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:25 pm

If you run out of games, people could give you their Steam passwords as an easy way of sharing.

Post by **vvortex3** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 4:59 pm

Maybe this was already answered, but does it work with Unity?

Post by **cybereality** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:53 pm

vvortex3 wrote:Maybe this was already answered, but does it work with Unity?

I tried with Slenderman and was having some issues (this was made with Unity I believe). Will have to re-visit this as I'd like to get that game working. Not sure about other games, but I could probably do some testing this weekend.

Post by **mm0zct** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 5:52 pm

I've been following enthusiastically (for the Rift and just for more support for my interlaced zalman trimon). Do you have any sort of head tracking in Dirt2 yet? Headtracked cockpit view should be a lot of fun

(even if it will feel weird driving on the wrong side of that car... I usually use bonnet view for that reason).

Post by **cybereality** » Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:14 pm

No head-tracking in DiRT2 yet, but it should be possible. However I was having problems with the cockpit video in stereo. It works OK for 3rd person, or in total first person mode, but the inside of the car had problems. Will see if I can fix this, but I can't promise anything.

Post by **kalabalik** » Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:01 am

Isn't the game engine of Dirt 3 easier to work with regarding stereoscopic viewing?
I think I've seen 3D drivers for it, but can be mistaken..
Anyway any of these more simulation driven racers with cockpit view would be flippin' awesome to drive with full headtracking!

Project Cars is a very interesting racing game with great cockpit view adjustment settings and simulation physics.
They even have a view from inside the helmet, so in the peripheral you can see the fodder of the helmet as well as reflections in your visor.
Together with a buttkicker in a nice racing seat and a Fanatec wheel, the Rift could actually pull the racing experience a whole world closer to the real thing; and support for that game would surely be a great selling point for your driver!

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzpor2QpWiw[/youtube-hd]

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWFnWUJZkGs[/youtube-hd]

Even Race07 has a helmet cam that looks nice...

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESXX8_YDPk0[/youtube-hd]

The intense speed of top tier racing also make you even more into the game, making the low resolution of the dev kit irrelevant as you wouldn't be able to focus long enough on one place to see it; and with the help of the other peripherals we could come almost full circle in the immersion factor. The step after that would obviously be pneumatic driven seating for simulated G-force, and luckily those rigs are getting a little bit more affordable to DIY... But that's another story

Great work with this driver cyber, it's much appreciated and I really think you're catching the wave here just perfectly

Post by **mm0zct** » Tue Sep 11, 2012 9:13 pm

I just realised Dirt2 already supports trackir http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/03- ... irt-2.html 3 axes rotation and 3 position, perhaps adding rift head tracking won't be so hard

Post by **eqzitara1** » Wed Sep 12, 2012 6:36 pm

Whoops ment to PM. Sorrt

Post by **artox** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 12:57 am

Guys, maybe you could voice your support in favor of the Rift in the Witcher forums -
http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.ph ... ntry873870
Most people seem really negative about it and don't realize the potential. Perhaps you could make them change their mind.

Post by **Namielus** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 7:03 am

Trying to convince non believers with words, before december, is like peeing in the sea to make it yellow/taste like lemon.
Trust me, you are better off not arguing about it until you can physically put a Rift on their head.

Post by **android78** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:03 pm

I don't think the people on the witcher board are overly negative. They seem to be concerned with a lot of valid issues (no lateral movement tracking causing motion sickness, aiming with head, play-ability of third person game, etc). There are obviously the people (many of the first page of responses) who will dismiss any new technology out of hand. These are the same people who 20 years ago would have been arguing that B&W is better then colour because it's more artistic. They will probably also pick the technology to bits when/if they ever try it out, since they have stated their opinion and will not be willing to accept 'defeat' (as it would seem in their minds). So I tend to ignore these types.
The others seem ok and worth having a discussion with. Just avoid any comparison to Virtual Boy, as it is always brought out and is a pointless comparison.

Post by **artox** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:34 am

You are both right, of course, the easiest way to convince of something visual is simply to show it and yes, there are much worse commentators in the net, but the kickstarter showed them

Then again, the hobbit will be showing primarily in 24fps, contrary to the initial release info of 48fps, so it won't be easy to convert non-believers.

Post by **Laserschwert** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:48 am

With the recent release of Black Mesa: Source, it would be absolutely awesome if you manage to support it too.

It's a freeware remake of the first "Half Life", and I guess it lends itself perfectly for the RIFT, as you stay in first person mode all the way through the game, as well as in "cutscenes" (which technically aren't cutscenes, as they just play without taking player control away from you). It's using the Source engine (duh), so with your success on getting "Dear Esther" to run, this might not be that hard, right?

Post by **3dvison** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:47 pm

Hey, You OK?...Hows the work going Cyber ?

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:30 pm

Yeah, I'm OK. Just been busy with work and stuff. Definitely still reading the forum and keeping tabs on things.

Will have time this weekend to resume work on the driver. Last I left off I was making it more user friendly (right now there is a lot of manual work to "install" the driver on each game).

Post by **DolAtoR** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:45 am

I second Laserschwert's request for Black Mesa. It is a very sophisticated remake of Half-Life 1 and would be perfect in VR. I have even stopped playing it further since I consider to experience it in the Rift, bringing back the amazement that the original Half-Life gave me.

Post by **3dvison** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:49 pm

Not playing a game, because of current tech. I am like that also.
There are so many games I have not played over the years, just because I wanted the very first time I played them, to be on an HMD.

Post by **cybereality** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:29 pm

Most likely Black Mesa will work, every other Source Engine game I tried has been working nice. I will try this weekend and confirm.

Post by **Namielus** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 5:52 pm

I am really hoping you can get a driving game working that supports in-cockpit 6-dof head tracking. Its not important for me personally that the tracking is done with the rift, but I am really hoping for just one driving sim where people can sit in my racing seat rig and look around in the cockpit etc.

Post by **artox** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 6:40 am

Guys, I have a question. Since I got the Razer Hydra (thanks to forum members for the input), I am interested in how Oculus tracking will work with the Hydra when direct integration for the hydra is lacking, considering they both move the crosshair (aiming). Is there a way to separate head from aim tracking ala Arma, or will the Razer tracking become obsolete when headtracking is present?

Post by **3dvison** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:22 am

Can you hold a button down on the hydra that keeps the crosshair from moving until you let go ? Like lifting your mouse up off of a surface .
If so, it might work to also be able to have such a button for the RIFTs headtracker, that way you could go back and forth between the Hyda and RIFT Tracking.

Post by **cybereality** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 8:41 pm

You should be able to use both the Hydra and a head-tracker to move the camera/gun simultaneously.

Post by **artox** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 1:23 am

@3dvison
Yes, you can, it's called ratcheting. You can in fact even disable motion controls altogether, but in this case you're better off using a xbox360/dualshock 3 controller, at least they have rumble.

@cybereality
I suppose the perfect combination would be to use freelook with a big dead zone on the right controller for quick rotation (same as using the right stick on a xbox360 controller, like in the oculus demos) and the oculus headtracking instead of having mouselook on the hydra - sort of oculus-hydra hybrid control

Post by **android78** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 6:14 am

Another upcoming game that I think would be awesome with HMD in 3D is Aliens: colonial marines. I'm not sure about the "red ring engine" that they use.

Post by **kalabalik** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:43 am

Or Black Mesa!!!

I would LOVE to experience the utterly fantastic Half-Life again from Gordons eyes, and that game is kinda perfect for it as well, as the entire game is unfolded without leaving the FPV of Mr Freeman.

And it would sure be a strong selling point for the finished driver too!

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 5:34 pm

Ok, didn't get a chance to load up Black Mesa this weekend, but I'm on it.

Spent most of the weekend trying to get the driver to work automatically when games are started. The old way you had to copy DLLs into the program directory and it was a little annoying. Still not totally working yet, but I think I'm on the right track. Hopefully it won't take too much longer. I also started converting the config files from INI style plain text to XML, which should be easier to work with. Will keep you guys posted.

Post by **kalabalik** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:32 am

Very nice to hear cyber, rock on man!

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Sep 26, 2012 6:14 pm

Ok, so I managed to get the driver automatically intercepting DirectX without having to copy a proxy DLL into the game folder. So far seems to work the same, but will make things way easier for end users. Now you will just have to have my app open and then when you start a supported game it will be in 3D without having to copy files around. Still have to test this more to makes sure all the games are still working, but making progress.

Post by **kalabalik** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 4:46 am

That's definitely the way to go; but does this solution inject the headtracking into the games as well or how do you plan to add that to the games?

Post by **cybereality** » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:45 pm

Yes, head-tracking is working for a number of games. The yaw and pitch are done via mouse emulation and the roll is injected with the driver into DirectX. Right it only supports the Hillcrest Labs tracker (what Carmack used on Doom3) but I am hoping to support more stuff soon. Not sure if the Rift dev kits are using the Hillcrest or something else, but I will try to coordinate with Palmer so I can have things ready for the Rift launch. Probably throw in support for Vuzix headsets as well since I already wrote the code a little while ago.

Post by **jaybug** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:35 am

Any chance of Battlefield 3 getting support?

I would throw my wallet at you for the ability of flying a battlefield jet with the rift

Post by **cybereality** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:27 pm

BF3 is DirectX11 and I am only supporting Dx9 currently. Would like to eventually support this, but that will be down the road.

Post by **jaybug** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:49 am

Ok... then I downgrade my wishes to BF2 :p

Post by **rajveer** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:08 am

BF2 would work very nicely with BF2FreeLook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEnD0jitcII

Post by **android78** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:07 pm

BF2? How about BF3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4-BIr74Jv4

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:36 pm

I'd love to do BF3 but thats DirectX11 so its a whole other can of worms.

Post by **android78** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 8:54 pm

I added this, and it has been answered on the Rift thread, but here is probably an appropriate place to explore it:

android78 wrote:I just had an idea to eliminate (or reduce) the issues with regards to the end-to-end latency from the tracking sensors to the image render being displayed. I would think this would have most effect for the turning left and right, and thinking that you could have a pixel shift at the screen end, to compensate for the latency. If the screen used regular analog av signals, this would probably be easier to achieve by creating an artificial h-sync that would move the image a few pixels either way, but there must be a way to do this with digital.
I do wonder if maybe it would be possible to add a post render effect that would get the difference in the head rotation between when the scene was started rendering and when it was complete, and shift it to compensate. I know that it wouldn't be 100% correct since the actual viewpoint wouldn't be adjusted, but I think it would be close enough... or at least something worth considering. Maybe Cyber could comment on if this would be possible to implement?
...
What I mean is that, before rendering starts, it will have the head position at that time. The renderer will take some time to actually render the scene, by which time, your head rotation may have changed. To compensate for the change in rotation, you could shift the image post-rendering, by a few pixels, to compensate for the change since the rendering started. I think this could be incorporated in the rift driver that cyber is creating, since that is already altering the post-renderer to re-map the pixels.
cybereality wrote:@android78: Something like that may be technically possible, but I don't think it would help much. If anything it may look jarring and add nausea.
Do you think so? I don't imagine that it would change the resultant image very much (assuming the game is rendering at 60fps), it only has to account for the movement in the last 16ms, so the viewpoint shouldn't have changed much. I came up with this idea when thinking about why it's not a problem moving your head while playing a game on the TV, so I imagine it would be no more nauseating then that.
I think the main problem would be determining the 'average distance' of the image, so you know how far to move it. ie. if you have a wall that is rendered close to you, you wouldn't want the picture to move so much for a 1 degree as if the wall was in the distance. But it would be great if the driver could have an option to turn it on and you could have a very basic value for a multiplier (or divider) of the offset from the previous gyro value to the rendered image gyro value.
Given the work, I would think this pretty easy to test out.