ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

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love2scoot
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ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by love2scoot »

Finally! Arrival, unboxing, and use of my first HMD, the ST1080. I wanted to provide a couple of thoughts and gather some feedback regarding FOV, immersion, and productivity. What better place than the mtbs3d community?

Although this is my first HMD, I’ve always gravitated toward an immersive experience for film and gaming. In theatres I’m oftentimes in the front 1/3 of the theatre. I enjoy a selection of 3d films, but only ones where I’m not getting a stick in the eye. At home, I’ve built a “driving” cockpit (Gran Turismo 5) from an Ikea POÄNG chair with a steering wheel mount and I sit at ~6 ft from a 108” screen to maximize FOV. Although the wide FOV is enveloping, with the in-game gauges clustered toward the center, my eyes seldom stray from the middle of the screen.

On the other hand, I spend many, many hours a week working with a dual 24” monitor (16:10) setup at work. There is clearly a sweet spot for productivity based interactions and I find it to be about 22.5” from the monitor. At this distance I find that I need minimal head movement to view content on the primary monitor. When viewing content on the secondary monitor, I swivel my head to about 1/3 into view and let my eyes do the rest.

Taking these two use cases and doing some simple trig, I can put some real numbers around how I use displays. For productivity based work, I seem to top out at approximately 48.6 degrees horizontal FOV. For gaming, I enjoy a higher FOV (66 deg+), although information critical to the game (HUD, gauges, etc) should remain within the same FOV as my productivity setup.

Let me throw one more bit of data into the mix, I happen to live close to an IMAX dome theatre. These theatres provide an approximate 180deg viewing angle. For content designed for IMAX screens, the effect is enveloping. The “focus” of many shots does not stray out of the middle (let’s say) 90 deg FOV allowing the rest of the frame to envelop the viewer. On films shot for more conventional presentation (the 2005 film Robots comes to mind) the effect can be just the opposite. With the “focus” straying outside of the center of the frame, I find a need to move my head to focus on these objects, which is actually more detrimental to the suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, some IMAX presentations require subtitles with the picture. In these shots, the text is limited to ~50deg or less (my estimate) for ease of reading.

Based on these points I’d like to make the following assertions (in the context of HMDs):
· The greater the FOV, the higher the potential for an immersive experience
· There exists a maximum FOV beyond which the effort of ocular focus reduces the overall immersion and/or comfort.
· This FOV is related to the FOV of a monitor used for productivity based scenarios.

Now, looking at this subject in the context of the video game industry, we find that most games are currently designed to be rendered fully within this “productivity” FOV. Critical game information is oftentimes pushed to the edges of the screen, but in many non-HMD setups this still falls within the productivity FOV. As we move forward into the greater FOV capabilities of HMDs, critical game information should remain allocated to the edges of the productivity FOV, and should scale according to the total FOV capability of the viewing device. Regrettably this is a chicken and egg problem, but with the progress recently reported by John Carmack, we’re hopefully approaching an inflection point.

Now, how does this relate to the ST1080? At this point, I think the ST1080 is approaching the sweet spot on FOV *given the current state of the gaming industry*. If the FOV were much larger, playing the majority of current titles might actually reduce overall immersion. The same goes for enjoying film on the ST1080, if the FOV were much larger it may give the viewer an experience akin to the front row at a theatre. Based on the current mainstream content available, I think the ST1080 is a good choice in regard to FOV for a HMD.

I’d love to hear community input on this subject. The more discussion is focused on purpose built devices AND content the easier it will be to objectively discuss FOV in HMDs.
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cybereality
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by cybereality »

Interesting comments. Thanks.

Also, would you say general computing can be done on the ST1080. For example, browsing the web or this forum?
space123321
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by space123321 »

How do you find the quality of the image on the st1080 that you received... there seems to be a few negative initial reviews goign around. I just need one or 2 positives from here and I am good to go with my order (however I believe I will be now waiting until end of June to receive... :(
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brantlew
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by brantlew »

Congrats on your ST1080. I like the subject, but please give us some details about the HMD also. ;)

For productivity, I think you are right. As long as you have a fixed viewpoint of the screen there is a maximum useable size. However if you incorporate head-tracking then that opens up the possibility of virtual screens. Rendering a hemispherical virtual screen and being able to look directly at every part of it would be amazing and then I think the only limit on the FOV is the limit of your eyeball. Same goes for gaming. Head tracking and rendering to the limit of your FOV is the ultimate goal.
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love2scoot
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by love2scoot »

I didn’t want to post any follow ups until I had spent a little more quality time with the ST1080. Now that I have a few more hours under my belt, I have a few thoughts to share:

Fit & Focus:
As covered by other reviewers, I also seem to have focus issues with the image. This manifests itself as a general blurring of the top of the image, most prominently at the corners although I also have limited blurring at the bottom corners as well. I’ve tried several different configurations for fit to compensate for this focus and have had some success. First, I made sure that the flicker adjust and IPD were setup correctly, this required a bit of experimentation, but I attribute some of this to my relative inexperience with HMDs. Using a Windows 7 desktop at 1080p and standard dpi, I then tried different angles of viewing by seating the arms higher up on my temples. The optimal setting I found was to move the arms as high up on my temples as was possible before the bottom of the display was obscured. Next I tried the different nose pads and found that the best quality was when using no pad at all. This actually brings the displays *slightly* closer to your eyes, which was recently confirmed by SMD as providing a better viewing configuration; I agree. The downside, is the the glasses tend to pinch your nose a bit and don’t stay in place as readily as when using the supplied nose pads. To compensate for the latter, I tried the support strap, but found it to be poorly designed. The strap can be affixed to the HMD using two rubber gathers that “seat” inside a grooved area about an inch or so from the end of the arms. Tension is maintained with a simple draw mechanism on the band itself, but when I drew it tight enough to relieve the nose support, the rubber gathers were pulled out of the grooves. This is clearly the first item that could be modified, and as brantlew linked to in another thread, is indeed an early mod. After having dialed in these settings, I found the top of the image to be more focused, but by no means clear. For example, if I have Chrome open with several tabs, I can read the ones in the middle of the screen but cannot read any text in the top left / top right of the image on those tabs. If I tip the HMD to the point where I cannot see the bottom of the screen, the top becomes clear, but this obviously does not work. As a result, I cannot see myself using the HMD for productivity purposes at 1080p, there is simply too much blurring. If I scale the resolution down to the 720p, the image is clear enough that I could using it for web browsing and reading without any problems. The two scenarios that I did not test were 1080p with overscan reduction (which could reduce the image sufficiently to stay outside of the blurred corners, without incurring the real estate loss by dropping to 720p) and dpi changes to the Windows GUI, which would make things easier to read with larger fonts and icons. In the original post that I started this thread with, I suggested that the ST1080 was approaching the optimal FOV. I’d say now that it’s still a *little* small compared with the FOV of a typical 24” monitor, which when combined with the focus issues I mentioned above does not make it an ideal product to use as a monitor replacement for productivity.

Black Levels:
As other users have reported, black levels are not great, but this clearly doesn’t bother me as much as it does others. My first projector was a Panasonic AE700 and had black levels similar to what I see with the ST1080.

Color:
Color seemed fine, and although not *quite* as vibrant as my desktop display, it was still quite good IMHO.

Control Box:
I’m not sure if other users are storing their controller box on top of a space heater or what, but after hours of using the ST1080 it’s warm to the touch but I had no discomfort holding it in my hand. I don’t have exact numbers, but could probably get some if need be.

Android Tablet:
I’ve tried the ST1080 with a XOOM Wifi using the microHDMI port, and it works great. There was no problem here, but I’m looking forward to the 720p scaling firmware so that it gives me full screen for NetFlix streaming.

PS3:
Netflix streaming in HD looks GREAT. The one or two 2D games I tried also looked great. I did not test Blu-Ray playback yet (and I don’t own any 3D Blu-Rays yet and Netflix does not rent them). 3D gaming was a mixed bag, but not for the reasons you would think. As I mentioned in the first post, I have a driving chair setup and so the first 3D game I tried was Gran Turismo 5. Since I’m used to a much larger FOV, the display was smaller and I therefore found driving more difficult. The REAL problem was that with the HMD I found myself unconsciously turning my head to look through the turns. Without head tracking (I don’t have a PS camera) I ended up in all kinds of weird positions where my head was facing one way and my hands were oriented another. So the HMD + 3D was both very immersive and very disorienting at the same time. Next I tried Wipeout HD with very similar results, but more-so since the track is not tied to gravity as much as GT5. Finally, I tested Super Stardust HD. This game was AWESOME in 3D. In fact, I found the 3D helpful as it was much easier to judge the proximity and speed of the objects wrapping around the planet toward the ship. Since all these games are 720p frame packed, I did not need to mess with the control box at all, which was nice. Aside from content, navigating the 10ft GUI was easier than the Win7 desktop. I attribute this to the 10ft GUI design that the XMB is built around.

PC:
BIOS post shows up on the screen just fine btw.
A few days before the ST1080 arrived, I had scoured YouTube for a sample playlist of 3D content. With the playlist ready, I viewed a variety of videos, and found these two videos to be the best of the group:
[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKkyqpluhXA[/youtube-hd]
[youtube-hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYJ1YBL39lo[/youtube-hd]
For these, a simple switch to manual SBS mode was required, but they looked quite good.

Finally, I wanted to try some FPS gaming in 3D. I downloaded a 14-day trial of TriDef’s software and set it up. After a little difficulty with specifying the screen type, I settled on (I think) Stereo3D 60Hz. The software automatically found Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, creating shortcuts right out of the box. I started them up and was very disappointed with the framerate. After playing with all the display settings, using different resolutions, etc. I found that if you disable the vsync, the games will run at framerates almost identical to 2D mode with all the same video settings. Let me tell you, 1080P60Hz SBS is AMAZING. In L4D2, I turned off the crosshairs and I was IN the game. I’ve played this title plenty, but I felt a different level of desperation when a horde appeared. Portal 2 was equally as impressive. The 3D really gives the proper perspective for objects and distances and there is very much a feeling of vertigo when you jump off a ledge headed for a portal. It was LOTS of fun.

Brief summary:
Although it appears that the display panels themselves are quite good, there are some optical issues with the unit that prevent all the pixels from being viewed without blurring simultaneously. I’m not sure if this is a common problem for all ST1080s or if this is just my unit. As a result, this unit is not the monitor replacement I was hoping that it would be. That said, gaming and video consumption was fun with the 3D adding a very immersive feel. The ST1080 is not all that I was hoping it would be, but after a few days of testing I show no signs of buyers remorse. If I could clearly see all those pixels, I would be in heaven.
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brantlew
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by brantlew »

Thanks so much for the review. It's nice to hear an encouraging review after many days of negative feedback. Still waiting on my shipping confirm (should have happened this week), but I suspect that they may have a delay in production while they work out some QC issues. You didn't mention the edge brightness "haze" that so many have complained about. Is it not really present on your unit, or is it simply a non-issue once you are immersed in the content? I have noticed that the reviews that focus on the "usage experience" instead of just the technical aspects seem to complain a lot less about the display.
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cybereality
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by cybereality »

Be sure to check out this LG demo video, probably the best 3D I've seen on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_dzmWg0q4
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love2scoot
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by love2scoot »

Brantlew:
You're quite welcome. The edge lighting is there but is definitely affected by IPD adjustment. On my unit it's much more pronounced when the IPD is on one extreme, by progressively backing out you can find a happy medium with minimal edge bleed and optimal clarity. Brightness is also a factor; I'm at minimum brightness which definitely minimizes the bleed. At 1/3 the display is already too bright and at 100% I can smell my eyeballs cooking. That said, as soon as I started playing, all that drained away.

CR:
Thanks for the link- I will check it out.
corppor
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by corppor »

can you copy your review concerning blurring issues to the SMD`s forum please, it looks like they are listening to us and trying to do something)
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by CyberVillain »

SBS 1080 is actually lower res than the HMZ 720p@60, and since it sounds like it has the same problems as the Sony (Except for the comfort) I'm glad I choose the HMZ.

But It's nice we have options out there, I really hope more companies join the rally!
yann
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by yann »

CyberVillain wrote:SBS 1080 is actually lower res than the HMZ 720p@60
No it isn't. It's 1036800 pixels vs 921600 pixels. It is however lower horisontal resolution at 960 vs 1280; but you can select top and bottom to switch that to vertical. And there's the scaling update in the works, anyway. There are reasons to choose an HMZ-T1 over an ST1080 (and vice versa), no need to make more up.
That said, there's some software out there that makes either setup look like crap. I am very disappointed in AC:R's rendering on Xbox 360.
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Re: ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity

Post by tomin »

love2scoot wrote:I didn’t want to post any follow ups until I had spent a little more quality time with the ST1080. Now that I have a few more hours under my belt, I have a few thoughts to share:
Thanks for your thoughts on the ST1080. I am on the edge of ordering this or the HMZ-T1. Do you think you can post a video similar to this one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsjqcXOAiYA, to help someone new to the world of HMDs compare the two units?

Thanks
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