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

[Mel]

Personally I really like the wide-screen aspect ratios and think the odd 4:5 aspect may be claustrophobic. I can understand why they did this, but I am not sure that is 100% optimal for all content. For example, if I want to watch a 3D movie on the Rift (which can range from 16:9 or even wider like 21:9) what do you do? Watch it in a small letterbox? Crop a good portion of the image? Not sure any of those options are great. And a lot of modern games are designed for wide-screens.

Now, its not the end of the world. I'm sure it will still look great and be super immersive. I just wonder if there are other ways to make an HMD like this, for example with 2 smaller smart-phone screens or something like that. Or, even better, a 7" 3D screen with built in 3D glasses. Would be great to retain the full aspect ratio and also the full resolution. I know this has been discussed before, but I'm just adding my 2 cents.

I really like the idea of a 7" 3D panel with appropriate polarizers in front of, or behind the lenses. My DIY Rift does produce feelings of claustrophobia and I think a wider FOV might help. And I think my small IPD might offer a slight advantage with such a screen.

[Kazioo]

Notch was blown away by Oculus Rift and is excited about getting a dev kit:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/11/29/notch ... mputing/3/

[tmek]

Will the flexible oled displays (when they become practical) help solve the HMD problem?

I don't have a firm grasp of the optic challenges in HMDs but I wondered if curved display surface will eventually solve certain problems.



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... DuP8PtDJbE[/youtube]

[2EyeGuy]

If you don't like having so much vertical FOV, you could add an option in your driver to render it letterboxed.

Watch it in a small letterbox?

It's not a small letterbox, it's a really huge letterbox. That's what people forget. You're not getting less width or less height than any other display. You are just optionally getting extra free bonus height when you want it, that you don't have to use if you don't want.
For example, when Vuzix went to "widescreen" aspect ratio, they actually went to a lower FOV, which means the "widescreen" wasn't any wider than their 4:3 display, it just had some of the height taken away.
Granted, with the Rift you are getting less resolution, but that's been discussed a lot already.

Crop a good portion of the image?

You can use head tracking, so it's not the same as normal cropping. You could still see all parts of the movie, just not at the same time.

And a lot of modern games are designed for wide-screens.

It is a very wide screen. It's just also very tall. Games being designed for wide-screen is good, because the Rift needs games to be rendering a very wide horizontal FOV.

[Okta]

If you don't like having so much vertical FOV, you could add an option in your driver to render it letterboxed.

Watch it in a small letterbox?

It's not a small letterbox, it's a really huge letterbox. That's what people forget. You're not getting less width or less height than any other display. You are just optionally getting extra free bonus height when you want it, that you don't have to use if you don't want.
For example, when Vuzix went to "widescreen" aspect ratio, they actually went to a lower FOV, which means the "widescreen" wasn't any wider than their 4:3 display, it just had some of the height taken away.
Granted, with the Rift you are getting less resolution, but that's been discussed a lot already.

Crop a good portion of the image?

You can use head tracking, so it's not the same as normal cropping. You could still see all parts of the movie, just not at the same time.

And a lot of modern games are designed for wide-screens.

It is a very wide screen. It's just also very tall. Games being designed for wide-screen is good, because the Rift needs games to be rendering a very wide horizontal FOV.

Bizzaro world.

[Randomoneh]

Will the flexible oled displays (when they become practical) help solve the HMD problem? I don't have a firm grasp of the optic challenges in HMDs but I wondered if curved display surface will eventually solve certain problems.

Usually, they would solve this: flat display can't occupy 180 or more degrees of viewer's FOV. Curved display could, at least in one direction (most likely horizontally). However, with this type of HMD, you have a lens in front of your eyes so FOV area covered by display(s) is limited by size of the lens. This design doesn't allow for additional displays that would extend viewer FOV past 180 degrees.

Personally I really like the wide-screen aspect ratios and think the odd 4:5 aspect may be claustrophobic. I can understand why they did this, but I am not sure that is 100% optimal for all content. For example, if I want to watch a 3D movie on the Rift (which can range from 16:9 or even wider like 21:9) what do you do? Watch it in a small letterbox? Crop a good portion of the image? Not sure any of those options are great. And a lot of modern games are designed for wide-screens.

Now, its not the end of the world. I'm sure it will still look great and be super immersive. I just wonder if there are other ways to make an HMD like this, for example with 2 smaller smart-phone screens or something like that. Or, even better, a 7" 3D screen with built in 3D glasses. Would be great to retain the full aspect ratio and also the full resolution. I know this has been discussed before, but I'm just adding my 2 cents.

Movies are filmed with this in mind: image will not occupy huge portion of your FOV. Therefore, you'll most likely want to watch movies in "little letterbox", how you put it - probably something up to 50 degrees horizontally. I guess 50 deg. horiz. image would cover ~300 pixels horizontally. Distortion probably isn't really much noticeable inside those 50 degrees so pixels outside shouldn't be noticeably larger than those in center.

[coresnake]

This design doesn't allow for additional displays that would extend viewer FOV past 180 degrees.

That doesn't even make sense, if you have an OLED screen which wraps around your entire view you don't NEED any more 'extensions'.

[Randomoneh]

This design doesn't allow for additional displays that would extend viewer FOV past 180 degrees.

That doesn't even make sense, if you have an OLED screen which wraps around your entire view you don't NEED any more 'extensions'.

If you haven't noticed, current design relies on lenses that are positioned in front of your eyes.

[Okta]

7inch display. Those stereo centres are way wider than our eye centres.

You're assuming the lenses have been moved to have a wider IPD. If they stay in the same place, then the expanded display simply has more FoV at the upper, lower and outer sides, and each eye-image is no longer symmetrical.

No longer symmetrical is a whole other can of worms. Can they correct for that in the warping shader? If so that further limits the Rifts use to supported products only and kills 3rd party legacy support like DDD.

That kind of stuff will be handled by the SDK. It won't be difficult, no worries. Yes, we can correct for it.
And less third-party stuff? Naw, the SDK is free. Anybody can use it.

Dycus, did you just confirm my suspicion that there is no longer 100% stereo overlap?

[Endothermic]

You should of known there was no point asking that as you know his response will be "I'd love to talk, but I'm not allowed to say"

[Dycus]

You should of known there was no point asking that as you know his response will be "I'd love to talk, but I'm not allowed to say"

Yeah, pretty much. Maybe there will be a later update that discusses the screen more. I don't know.

[3dvison]

You should of known there was no point asking that as you know his response will be "I'd love to talk, but I'm not allowed to say"

Yeah, pretty much. Maybe there will be a later update that discusses the screen more. I don't know.

There is a sadness in your post now Dycus..What have they done to you...

[Okta]

Palmer said in a few days there will be an update about the screen but Dycus let the cat out of the bag already

[3dvison]

Someone asked an Oculus employe "Cat got your tongue" and the employe answered loudly, Hellz No...and you can have your empty bag back..
Now I wonder who that employe was...LOL...

[Endothermic]

Dycus seems so sad not being able to talk

How about you just PM me everything you can't say so you feel better and i'll promise not to let slip anything to anyone

[Dycus]

Palmer said in a few days there will be an update about the screen but Dycus let the cat out of the bag already

I never told anybody about other updates, I said maybe. But if Palmer says there'll be an update, then I'm allowed to tell you there is. If nobody else has said anything, then I can't either.

Someone asked an Oculus employe "Cat got your tongue" and the employe answered loudly, Hellz No...and you can have your empty bag back..
Now I wonder who that employe was...LOL...

That actually wasn't me. Where'd you hear that?

Dycus seems so sad not being able to talk

How about you just PM me everything you can't say so you feel better and i'll promise not to let slip anything to anyone

It's an office joke now that I'm gonna leak everything to MTBS, all just because I said there'd be an update a couple days before it came out. It's all in good fun, but yeah, I really can't say anything.
I'd also love to speculate with you guys, but I also can't do that because I'm an employee, so you're all gonna assume what I'm speculating is true...

[zacherynuk]

Hey Dycus;

How's the SDK ? - will this be released according to the old schedule ?

Edit: Sorry, no pressure I understand if you can't say just yet... I'm just worried that people will be buying 7" panels expecting to use them in the traditional 5.6" way...
Also, I would really like an SDK with an adjustable injector that does partial overlap as I have SO MUCH here I could play with ... erm, not that partial overlap has been officially confirmed... of course.

[Dycus]

Sorry, no pressure I understand if you can't say just yet...

Pretty much that, sorry.

[3dvison]

Hey Dycus,
If you were to give us answers, using sentences made up of nothing but emoticons, I don't think they can fire you...Well try it, and we'll find out...

[crespo80]

@ Dycus

I hope you can answer this safe question
I was wondering if the supplied custom cable will support some twisting. Are you testing it to see how many 360° turns it can stand before starting to degrade the signal or come off?

[Dycus]

Hey Dycus,
If you were to give us answers, using sentences made up of nothing but emoticons, I don't think they can fire you...Well try it, and we'll find out...

@ Dycus

I hope you can answer this safe question
I was wondering if the supplied custom cable will support some twisting. Are you testing it to see how many 360° turns it can stand before starting to degrade the signal or come off?

No idea. It basically like any other cable. We've yet to receive a prototype of it yet, so we haven't done any testing.
If you're talking about spinning in a chair, you're gonna have problems anyway because the control box will be on your desk, unless you mount it above you.

[Mel]

Not sure what thread to put this under, so here is as good as any, I guess:

This looks promising:

http://m.joystiq.com/2012/12/02/garrys- ... latest_art

I watched a video or two on YouTube and lag appeared to be almost acceptable (unless it was just done with some deceptive editing:-) ).

[alekki]

Hey Dycus,
If you were to give us answers, using sentences made up of nothing but emoticons, I don't think they can fire you...Well try it, and we'll find out...

@ Dycus

I hope you can answer this safe question
I was wondering if the supplied custom cable will support some twisting. Are you testing it to see how many 360° turns it can stand before starting to degrade the signal or come off?

No idea. It basically like any other cable. We've yet to receive a prototype of it yet, so we haven't done any testing.
If you're talking about spinning in a chair, you're gonna have problems anyway because the control box will be on your desk, unless you mount it above you.

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

[tmek]

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

Can't tell for sure but from the pics it almost looks like the cable is permanently attached to the headset (like you would have with a pair of headphones).

[alekki]

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

Can't tell for sure but from the pics it almost looks like the cable is permanently attached to the headset (like you would have with a pair of headphones).

That's the cable running from the headset to the control box, not the one(s) from the control box to the pc.

[tmek]

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

Can't tell for sure but from the pics it almost looks like the cable is permanently attached to the headset (like you would have with a pair of headphones).

That's the cable running from the headset to the control box, not the one(s) from the control box to the pc.

Ah sorry i was thinking of an early post. The most recent update does say this about the controller box.. "This little guy combines the video, USB, and power lines into the single, custom cable running to the headset."

So it would seem that between the PC and the control box they are just using standard (thereby replaceable) cables.

Another speculative pic because I like playing detective


-Tmek

[MrSmiley]

Hmm... that DC power input. How much power does this need? My first impressions where that the entire rift was powerd by USB, but since it uses its own power supply, will european kickstarters revice a 120v or 220v transfomer? Do I need to buy a converter for this?

[tmek]

Hmm... that DC power input. How much power does this need? My first impressions where that the entire rift was powerd by USB, but since it uses its own power supply, will european kickstarters revice a 120v or 220v transfomer? Do I need to buy a converter for this?

I should restate this is just all speculation on my part based on the pictures and what they've said in the update.

But whether or not you need to get a transformer is a very good question! I imagine Dycus could answer that one without giving anything away.

My *guess* would be that it's 120v and that you would need a converter.

Also, I'm pretty certain the logo eye has a blue led in it like the head unit, hard to tell from the pic but i was bored so...

connections.png

[mahler]

Also, I'm pretty certain the logo eye has a blue led in it like the head unit, hard to tell from the pic but i was bored so...

Hmm, I don't know. Looks more like a camera to me.

[BOLL]

Also, I'm pretty certain the logo eye has a blue led in it like the head unit, hard to tell from the pic but i was bored so...

Hmm, I don't know. Looks more like a camera to me.

That was a joke right? Because I thought it was funny! :D Hahaha! (with all the debacle of the LED on the headset itself)

[EdZ]

Almost every SMPSU manufactured in the last 5-10 years (except for the really-cheapest-of-the-cheap-might-catch-fire-after-five-minutes models) will accept 110-230v at 50 or 60Hz. It's not too much more difficult to manufacture, and means a single power supply, with the appropriate plug, will work from any AC mains supply on the planet.
Basically, the only adapter you would need would be for your plug socket, if the power supply does not already have a standard figure-8/cloverleaf or IEC socket to allow you to supply your own standard lead you likely have lying around.

[mahler]

Hmm, I don't know. Looks more like a camera to me.

That was a joke right? Because I thought it was funny! Hahaha! (with all the debacle of the LED on the headset itself)

[PalmerTech]

We are shipping with a universal 110-230v switching power supply and several plug adapters so it can be used anywhere in the world. The control box needs a 5v input. Most computers would be able to run it off USB power, but at ~800ma, we are out of USB spec, so we included the power supply to be safe.

[MSat]

I really hope the cable that goes from the control box to the Rift is replaceable without too much of a hassle (read: not soldered to the board, and replacements are available from Oculus).

[Dycus]

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

Oh yes, definitely.

[Laserschwert]

With some people asking for a wireless solution, wouldn't it make sense to just offer a wireless control-box later on? "Wireless" doesn't necessarily have to mean without ANY wires, but just without a cable connection between the control box and the PC. After all the control box can easily be tucked in your pocket. And another version of the control box would surely be more economically sensible than offering a completly new RIFT just to be wireless.

[Metathias]

Ultimately you dont want your headset wired to anything. Least of all a large control box. In the near term we might see some wireless methods used do just what you mention, but breaking the HMD itself away from any wires will be the goal. Dont expect that for a little while. Maybe when we get Wigig that will have sufficient throughput for the image and tracking information to be transmitted. This will of course be highly dependent on its latency (really more to do with protocols and layers than the fundamental capability of the hardware). Barring any major design flaws on the software/protocol/layer end it should work great.

[Cromfel]

I really hope the cable that goes from the control box to the Rift is replaceable without too much of a hassle (read: not soldered to the board, and replacements are available from Oculus).

The cable between the box and the HMD is not extendable, the signal degrades as the cable gets longer. What you could do, though, is wear the control box on your belt and run a long HDMI and power tether to that. Another solution would be to use something like the Asus WiCast and a battery pack for wireless operation. -Palmer

I hope there would be proper place to hook the HDMI/Power cable so that belt equiped they Wont detach. Like spot for cable tie or something...

The cable between the rift / cbox is very very short for any kind of proper VR use. Having battery attached to the control box with HDMI as only cable running would be OK to me (Custom retrofit). But ideally getting some 5 meters between the control box and rift would have been awesome. I thought it would end up being signal carriage problem.

[Alkapwn]

Are the cables between the control box and the pc replaceable? I was thinking about attaching the control box to a belt and running the cables from the box through a ceiling mount to the pc. If they're replaceable, it wouldn't matter that much if the twisting would deteroriate the cables over time.

Oh yes, definitely.

Can you confirm which type of USB connector is on the back of the control box without getting into trouble? I was talking to a Slip ring manufacturer a while back and they needed a list of cables that would need to be combined into the one slip ring, in order to make a custom one. Now that we have "final specs" I'd like to resume talks with them.

[Dycus]

More likely than not, either MicroUSB or MiniUSB, I'm not sure which. You can find micro > mini adapters and vice-versa very cheaply. I'd go for micro, just because those cables are more popular these days and easier to find.