Meant to be Seen

Bretspot wrote:Does it make sense to have some sort of 3d or 2d overlay instead of the black portion of the "unseen" part of the rift display?

I'm confused by this. Are you comparing the flat screen photos and saying that you'd like to render content in the black corners? By your use of quotation, it seems like you don't believe this area is unseen. Those corners are literally outside of the field of vision, you can't use it.

brantlew wrote:

Bretspot wrote:Does it make sense to have some sort of 3d or 2d overlay instead of the black portion of the "unseen" part of the rift display? Sort of like the edges of a diving mask or something else. (I keep imagining Samus's helmet in Metroid). Maybe even make it sort of blury

I don't understand what you mean. It already is like a diving mask but the dark that you see is not LCD - it's plastic.

Something like this:



Would your perif. vision see that at all? Even if you cant put actual graphics there, maybe you can put a color or shapes so that you "feel" more like your wearing a helmet and its close to your face.

If the orange portion is totally unseen, maybe you can make the transition between the border of the warped area fade to black instead of having a stark transition.
Like this:

I wish all these gaming sites making long youtube videos of someone playing several minutes with the Rift, would film through the lens for a few seconds I know it's not possible to give a good impression of what it feels like but it's still very interesting, like these guys from SaudiGamerTube did with the original prototype in August (I actually thought that this looked really good even without the sterero 3D, like a little portal into another world ) :

(starts at 3:00 min)
[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVNOMCMj ... age#t=180s[/youtube-hd]

For those of you speculating about magnetometer drift, how could it be drifting? The Earth's magnetic north moves "at rate of 0.05° to 0.1° per year." Magnetic north can fluctuate with geography, but you have to move a large distance to notice. The Rift is operating in a stable environment which should have no changes in the local magnetic field. Even if there were a local disturbance from speakers or a monitor, the disturbance would be stable (would not cause drifting) as long as the head stays in the same general position, but local disturbances should be corrected for by calibration. It could drift if temperature and voltage change, but those should be stable after the Rift has been powered on and warmed up to its normal operating temperature. Voltage should not be changing if the circuit has sufficient power and proper filtering. I have never seen magnetometer drift with the 9DOF IMU I own, and I doubt the Rift's rotational tracker drifts.

I wonder if the person drifted.
For instance, if he is in a rotating chair, and is involved in the game, and his body position drifts over and he doesn't notice, it would seem like the rift drifted positions.

@Bretspot: Those orange regions aren't visible at all so you might as well leave them orange and it wouldn't really matter (beyond the general ambient light level within the device)

Just to clarify Brantlew, would this be an accurate statement?:
With the 7" screen, you cannot see the edges of the display panel, you cannot see the edges of the displayed image, but your field of view is limited by the physical sides of the eyecups themselves.

Bretspot wrote:If the orange portion is totally unseen, maybe you can make the transition between the border of the warped area fade to black instead of having a stark transition.

The orange area literally cannot be seen. You definitely don't want a fade-to-black border either. It would look like an annoying shadow is following you.

EdZ wrote:Just to clarify Brantlew, would this be an accurate statement?:
With the 7" screen, you cannot see the edges of the display panel, you cannot see the edges of the displayed image, but your field of view is limited by the physical sides of the eyecups themselves.

By my understanding, yes, that is exactly what's he's saying.

Then it will be interesting to see when we get our dev kits. Obviously there were several people in attendance who said that the edges WERE visible.

Er... OR they were just seeing the edge of what the optics could stretch to... Hmmmm...

Pingles wrote:Then it will be interesting to see when we get our dev kits. Obviously there were several people in attendance who said that the edges WERE visible.

Er... OR they were just seeing the edge of what the optics could stretch to... Hmmmm...

Yep, I was one of those people at CES that could see the black edges clearly. The two other people I was with didn't have the same issue though. I asked about it. According to Nate, everyone is different. This has to do with how far in your eyes are set and the shape of your head. He also mentioned that the 7" display should fix that, but now that there is talk of going back to a 5" display for the consumer version, I hope this is something that is taken into account.

It might not be a bad idea to change the color of the boarder to something that blends a little better for those of us with deep set eyes. Something worth testing for sure.

Anyways, this will be the exact kind of input Oculus is looking to get from us developers once we have a chance to test with our kits.

Good thinking! =)

you can always implement your own warping algorithm similar to this one:

Could you make that blacked out part of the screen white to add more light to the screen or have it flash red when you get hurt in-game or blue when you are underwater? or would it not be visible at all in your peripheral vision

VoodooPuppy wrote:
Anyways, this will be the exact kind of input Oculus is looking to get from us developers

Exactly. A lot on these boards need to adjust their expectations and remember this is a per-consumer dev kit.

Most companies do all this trial/error behind closed doors etc. We are the test group. Expect imperfections. Appreciate the opportunity to take part in helping the cause.

It doesn't seem like it would take all that much power to just extend the graphics to full screen.

Brantlew said they were seeing the plastic sides that borders the screen, not the edges of the screen. Not a good analogy, but think of a picture frame where part of the picture goes under the frame. They're seeing the frame, not the edge of the picture.

Try searching Twitter for Oculus Rift (now while the GDC demos are happening). Most people are coming away from the demos impressed. Except one guy who hates it.

Hoping to have the dev kit in my hands next week!

Hard to say if some of the less enthusiastic responses out there are due to the 7" screen or if Oculus has moved the bar and now people are expecting more. Maybe people also expect more from a polished looking dev kit than the duct-taped 5.6" prototypes.

Once the dev kits are delivered, everyone on the forums can starting whining about "when are the 1080p dev kit coming"

Regardless, the VR ball is rolling and it ain't gonna stop.

Pingles wrote:Then it will be interesting to see when we get our dev kits. Obviously there were several people in attendance who said that the edges WERE visible.

Er... OR they were just seeing the edge of what the optics could stretch to... Hmmmm...

That's what I believe. They are describing a physical obstruction as a screen edge.

FYI: I'm in Austin, so this as much here-say for me as it is for the rest of you.

Any one of you should feel free to stop by the Nordic Games booth, check out Krillbite Studios Among The Sleep.

They are at GDC sporting a DIY Rift built by me to advertize the future potential of playing a 2 year old in a horror game in VR. (With the consumer rift in mind)

They are using Hillcrest as a tracker, but I am not sure if they are still using it as a generic HID or if they have added roll by now, still should be an interesting experience seeing the world from that low perspective and narrow ipd/camera separation.

Just a reminder here - the FOV has always been advertised as ~110 diagonal and ~90 horizontal so it should be no surprise that there is an edge to the viewable content since human FOV approaches something like 180 degrees.

http://twitter.com/chrisluck/status/317055807319572480

@chrisluck : Waited an hour and a half to demo the Oculus Rift, got interviewed by ABC news afterwards while totally dazed.

I wonder if this means we're gonna start seeing main stream media talking about it! :O

DrZimmerman wrote:I wish all these gaming sites making long youtube videos of someone playing several minutes with the Rift, would film through the lens for a few seconds I know it's not possible to give a good impression of what it feels like but it's still very interesting...

Sadly, this is overexposed. But they spend a great deal of time with the Oculus as full-screen video.

[youtube-hd]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STUIuKP ... e=youtu.be[/youtube-hd]

What was interesting to me was that, by chance, I was watching this in complete darkness in bed on my Amazon Kindle Fire (7" display). Guess what I did? I put the video in full-screen landscape mode and I brought it up to my face. It wasn't a pure replicate of the Oculus, but it more than was close enough to the concept. I really got it. Really immersive wide-vision 3D. It was compelling.

What I missed the most while I was doing that was the head tracking, since I was a slave to the person's head movements who recorded the video. You know what? I don't think it is going to be possible to achieve the hardware/developer mix that the Oculus Rift is going to have, but if someone sells some aftermarket headgear that clamps on a Kindle Fire or an Apple iPad mini, the experience could be quite comparable.

If someone isn't already chasing down a head-mounted adapter for tablets, it would make for a very neat project right now.

Here is a good GDC demo video with a great Riftarding/Oculust moment @2:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMydTD ... e=youtu.be

Is there any coverage of the talk from this afternoon?

rmcclelland wrote:

oculust.jpg

This reminds me. I know who might make a great Oculus spokesman. Paging Matt Frewer to the discussion.

rmcclelland wrote:Except one guy who hates it.

I was wondering what that vrealities guy was up to these days.

I love how at the end of the video the guy feels a hand shake isn't enough and asks if he can give a hug instead!

rmcclelland wrote:Here is a good GDC demo video with a great Riftarding/Oculust moment @2:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMydTD ... e=youtu.be

oculust.jpg

I have a gif of and old video in the lens of Doom3 in the old 5 inch Rift, but it's apparently too big to upload. But the feeling of looking into another world in that video probably sold me on the future of it.

Here's a good review w/ video:
http://www.gamesradar.com/oculus-rift-hands-demo/

rmcclelland wrote:Here is a good GDC demo video with a great Riftarding/Oculust moment @2:20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMydTD ... e=youtu.be

oculust.jpg

What I love about this most is that Nate has probably given a few hundred demos by now, yet he remains enthusiastic each time. You can tell the folks at Oculus are passionate about what they are doing and what the promise of the technology truly is.

Good on you Oculus!

Bishop51 wrote:What I love about this most is that Nate has probably given a few hundred demos by now, yet he remains enthusiastic each time. You can tell the folks at Oculus are passionate about what they are doing and what the promise of the technology truly is.

Good on you Oculus!

Giving demos to the general public is really fun because the reaction is near universal awe - especially from the the completely unprepared. I think after all the repetitious press demos it's probably a breath of fresh air to go do the public ones. I've dragged damn-near perfect strangers into the Rift just to get that reaction - often with the only preparation being "close your eyes...now open them". All of you guys are going to be grinning like Nate when you show off your new toy to your wife/girlfriend/dad/friends/etc...

I will repeat once more, that I will be a really happy camper if just one of you guys can report that you made it to the Nordic Booth and tried Among The Sleep @ GDC.
Seriously recommended.

brantlew wrote:

Bishop51 wrote:What I love about this most is that Nate has probably given a few hundred demos by now, yet he remains enthusiastic each time. You can tell the folks at Oculus are passionate about what they are doing and what the promise of the technology truly is.

Good on you Oculus!

Giving demos to the general public is really fun because the reaction is near universal awe - especially from the the completely unprepared. I think after all the repetitious press demos it's probably a breath of fresh air to go do the public ones. I've dragged damn-near perfect strangers into the Rift just to get that reaction - often with the only preparation being "close your eyes...now open them". All of you guys are going to be grinning like Nate when you show off your new toy to your wife/girlfriend/dad/friends/etc...

That's so good to hear We're throwing a Rift arrival gathering for family and a few friends. Can't wait to be sitting in Nate's chair grinning ear to ear

Namielus wrote:I will repeat once more, that I will be a really happy camper if just one of you guys can report that you made it to the Nordic Booth and tried Among The Sleep @ GDC.
Seriously recommended.

Will it be Oculus Rift ready ?

3dvison wrote: Will it be Oculus Rift ready ?

Well, they do have my DIY Rift running at the booth so you can try it yourself.

Bishop51 wrote:We're throwing a Rift arrival gathering for family and a few friends. Can't wait to be sitting in Nate's chair grinning ear to ear

That's so cool! It must have been like this back when color TVs came out. I bet people were holding "color TV arrival gatherings" for family and friends

Lark wrote:Is there any coverage of the talk from this afternoon?

I'm wondering the same. I sooooo want to see it

No panel discussion, but here are some fresh GDC 2013 videos I have not seen before:

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jZhYp3CbmY[/youtube-hd]

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMydTDv5c[/youtube-hd]

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSAphn359fg[/youtube-hd]

This one starts talking about the Rift at about 17:42 (the "TRUTH" about the Oculus Rift):

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjcterqHPZk[/youtube-hd]
Here is a direct link to the Oculus Rift portion of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjcterqHPZk&t=17m42s

brantlew wrote:

Bishop51 wrote:What I love about this most is that Nate has probably given a few hundred demos by now, yet he remains enthusiastic each time. You can tell the folks at Oculus are passionate about what they are doing and what the promise of the technology truly is.

Good on you Oculus!

Giving demos to the general public is really fun because the reaction is near universal awe - especially from the the completely unprepared. I think after all the repetitious press demos it's probably a breath of fresh air to go do the public ones. I've dragged damn-near perfect strangers into the Rift just to get that reaction - often with the only preparation being "close your eyes...now open them". All of you guys are going to be grinning like Nate when you show off your new toy to your wife/girlfriend/dad/friends/etc...

I have to second that, in all the years of operating the Virtuality systems the majority of responses were positive by a huge margin and also the majority of those were not gamers so I can assure everyone of almost universal positive responses.

Yes there are always people who don't see the point or enjoy the experience but they are the exceptionin my experience.

[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4nQ2PTA6ww[/youtube-hd]

V8Griff wrote:I have to second that, in all the years of operating the Virtuality systems the majority of responses were positive by a huge margin and also the majority of those were not gamers so I can assure everyone of almost universal positive responses.

Yes there are always people who don't see the point or enjoy the experience but they are the exception in my experience.

I didn't have a positive experience with the Virtuality system (playing Dactyl Nightmare) when I was a child, I guess it's because I took off my glasses to use it and could hardly see anything. It didn't discourage me though. I still loved the concept of it.

Most people who played it played like it was a computer game, but I remember there was one woman there who really got into it, crouching behind the polygon things, and all that. I was impressed.