Oculus rift screendoor effect and fields of vision

[robbyrob]

Hi there, iam new here. Well i just tried to put the Screendoor effect into a .jpg for anyone without the oculus to watch. Also did also draw fields of vision.

I used this Screenshot from the HAWKEN Beta:

HawkenGame-Win32.jpg

Explanation:
Everything inside the red line is visible to my eyes, degrading in sharpness getting close to the red line.
Everything between the yellow and the red line is only visible when looking straight, as a glimpse of light and shadow.
Everything outside the yellow line is not visible at all.

OculusRift_screen_small.jpg

It somewhat shows the screendoor effect inside the oculus, due to its low resolution and wide spaced lcd-crystal placing. You can download the full resolution of this image here (23.9 mb). The image appears as colorful in the oculus rift just as in the screenshot because it got a very bright lcd buit in, i could not get this working in my image.

I also tried to create the chromatic aberration effect, but since it is possible to correct most of it with a shader, i didnt finished.

[ElectroPulse]

Wow... That's a lot of unused screen real-estate. I hadn't realized there was that much not visible.

So is the screendoor effect really that visible? If so, that's a little disappointing... Still looking forward to it, though!

[nateight]

robbyrob, you're being unscientific about this. Please include the full optical chain and you'll actually be saying something - what eyecups were used, how far the screen was adjusted out from the housing, camera settings such as f-stop and distance from the lenses, etc. "This is how it looked for me under these very specific conditions" is not the same as "This is the visual information all Rifts present to all people regardless of configuration".

[norgoth]

Wow... That's a lot of unused screen real-estate. I hadn't realized there was that much not visible.

So is the screendoor effect really that visible? If so, that's a little disappointing... Still looking forward to it, though!

Funny , for me , i have so heard about that screen door effect that this picture reassure me

[MrGreen]

Wow... That's a lot of unused screen real-estate. I hadn't realized there was that much not visible.

So is the screendoor effect really that visible? If so, that's a little disappointing... Still looking forward to it, though!

Funny , for me , i have so heard about that screen door effect that this picture reassure me

Same here.

Surely you can see more of the image by moving your eyes (not you head) though right?

[cerulianbaloo]

If that's accurate, wow, that's a lot smaller FOV than I was expecting, but as nateeight pointed out, not really telling us much without which size eyecups used etc. I suppose if this is fairly accurate then that would coincide with some others impressions that it's like looking through binoculars. I really hope it feels larger than that, but if not I'm sure it will still be leagues more wowee than anything I've used before.

[the_wretched]

Surely you can see more of the image by moving your eyes (not you head) though right?

No, the optics work so that as soon as you try to look to the sides with your eyes, you actually see less of the scene. You get the best FOV when looking straight ahead (yellow circles). I can confirm as much.

Still, the size of the visible area will change depending on many factors, including the eyecups used and adjustment of the screen distance. It isn't going to change the visible area dramatically though. Fact is you will only be looking at a tiny part of the screen and most of the 640x800px is simply not visible...

[cerulianbaloo]

Surely you can see more of the image by moving your eyes (not you head) though right?

Fact is you will only be looking at a tiny part of the screen and most of the 640x800px is simply not visible...

Is there a way to correct this without having to make significant hardware and shell/casing changes? If there's really that much screen you're sacrificing it seems like such a waste. I'd be willing to DIY tinker with my DK once it arrives if it means being able to see more of the screen.

[PalmerTech]

That is a very abnormal result. Are you using the A cups?

[remosito]

That is a very abnormal result. Are you using the A cups?

If I may be so bold.... where would you put the circles for a normal result in your experience?

[Pingles]

Maybe someone can make a 3D object with numbered rings that would make it easier to measure.

Make it a fixed distance away.

[robbyrob]

robbyrob, you're being unscientific about this. Please include the full optical chain and you'll actually be saying something - what eyecups were used, how far the screen was adjusted out from the housing, camera settings such as f-stop and distance from the lenses, etc. "This is how it looked for me under these very specific conditions" is not the same as "This is the visual information all Rifts present to all people regardless of configuration".

Hi nateight, this is indeed not scientific and it is not possible for me to be here.
of course the fields will vary dramatictly at position on how you place your eyes into the rift. for me the size of fileds dont change at all. only if i push my oculus rift againt my eyes so much that i can feel the lenses on my cornea, the yellow line becomes the red one and i can see almost to the edges of the rift.

also, the housing of the rift, pulled in or out, dont change much for me either.

I did not use any camera for the picture, its done in photoshop. so its just a simulation. for creating the fields of view (inspired by Cymatic Bruce) i simply opend the screenshot in photoshop running fullscreen (no sidebars whatsover) and just painted the edges of my view looking straight and to the sides.
nothing scientic about that just praktical.

Wow... That's a lot of unused screen real-estate. I hadn't realized there was that much not visible.

So is the screendoor effect really that visible? If so, that's a little disappointing... Still looking forward to it, though!

Dont be dissapointed! the FOV doesnt change with that only the resolution is getting lower. You still have the feeling of seeing everything like wearing a hooded jacket with the hood put on.

No, as i mentioned - the black lines are less visible because of the bright light in the back of the lcd. and this is the developer version, so everybody knows the display is not the best possible. this comes with the consumer version.

Also as an option you can replace the cups with better suited ones like geekmaster is trying here and be shure to get more of the screen. This is called development and its fascinating.

Surely you can see more of the image by moving your eyes (not you head) though right?

Yes, thats right. But to do that i have to hold my rift with both hands and wobbling around to see corners etc. Not praktical for gaming i think

If that's accurate, wow, that's a lot smaller FOV than I was expecting, but as nateeight pointed out, not really telling us much without which size eyecups used etc. I suppose if this is fairly accurate then that would coincide with some others impressions that it's like looking through binoculars. I really hope it feels larger than that, but if not I'm sure it will still be leagues more wowee than anything I've used before.

iam using a-cups, tested the other cups but they make me headache and i could not see more of the screen. please remember your eyes are completely covered by the red area. you dont see anything other than big pixels in front of you

it absolutley feels larger than that, in fact it feels like its promoted - 110° FOV and really low resolution

That is a very abnormal result. Are you using the A cups?

Yes and btw the one and biggest issue i really had with oculus rift wasn't that small screen area, its really that i turned it on the first time and could see defect lcd-pixels (4 dead pixels till now). i wished the display was more robust than that... well, its for development

[cerulianbaloo]

Well that's a relief, thank you for clarifying the FOV. If you've got dead pixels already I'd definitely contact oculus and see if you can't get a replacement panel or kit, I've seen them mention elsewhere their willingness to help with certain defects, you never know they may be willing to swap. Wouldn't blame you for just dealing though if it takes that much longer.

[digitaljohn]

Interesting, this is not how it appears to me at all.

I use the A cups, and I like the lenses very close to my eyes so they are dialed as close as possible with a relatively tight headstrap.

If I look hard I can see the left and right edges of the screen.

Personally I was quite relieved when I first looked through the Rift. The resolution is low, yes, but I think this whole resolution / screen door effect issue has need over hyped.


John

[MrGreen]

Yes, thats right. But to do that i have to hold my rift with both hands and wobbling around to see corners etc. Not praktical for gaming i think

[robbyrob]

Interesting, this is not how it appears to me at all.

I use the A cups, and I like the lenses very close to my eyes so they are dialed as close as possible with a relatively tight headstrap.

If I look hard I can see the left and right edges of the screen.

Personally I was quite relieved when I first looked through the Rift. The resolution is low, yes, but I think this whole resolution / screen door effect issue has need over hyped.


John

Tried this too, but my eyeslashes rubb against the lenses with every blinking which feels anoying to me. The resolution thingy is nothing of surprise, but a good reason for consumers to wait for the consumer version.

Well that's a relief, thank you for clarifying the FOV. If you've got dead pixels already I'd definitely contact oculus and see if you can't get a replacement panel or kit, I've seen them mention elsewhere their willingness to help with certain defects, you never know they may be willing to swap. Wouldn't blame you for just dealing though if it takes that much longer.

waiting another few months again? can't tell you about my heart attack reading UPS's successful delivery status on the wrong address, phoning them 3 times and wating another 5 hours for the driver to pick it up again and bringing it to me... no, i will deal with those dead pixels fine for now

maybe it will be possible to exchange the display completely by middle 2014, when other displays get good quality and price with equal dimensions.

[gray]

Like others on this thread, that isn't how it looks to me at all. I don't think you have setup your Rift correctly

For me the red circles fill the full picture top to bottom then the yellow extend off left to right (I can actually see the top and bottom of the Rift LCD but not left and right).

(Very!) Roughly;



Edit: Fixed stretching, not to scale to illustrate only.

[geekmaster]

Round lenses give a round FoV, limited by the edges of the lenses, so that image showing elliptical FoV is just wrong. The Rift DK does not have anamorphic lenses to stretch those ellipses out into circles.

The lenses also have symmetrically radial distortion, which stretches the image out much more than you can see in a "screen capture".

Your FoV depends on which direction you are looking. When looking straight ahead (with my eyes close enough to the lenses that my eyelashes brush them), I can see both the left a right borders a little in my peripheral vision. But if I rotate my eyes toward them they are not visible. Rotating my eyes vertically also reduces my FoV in the direction of my gaze (due to eye rotation). Max FoV is achieved only while looking straight forward.

Your FoV very much depends on how far your eyes are from the lenses. Wearing eyeglasses, or following the setup guidelines recommended for TF2, will both severely reduce your FoV. I chose maximum FoV even though I cannot focus well on the screen, so I may get contact lenses (or custom prescription Rift lenses) for Rift use, so I can have good focus along with my maximum FoV.

Any images like that one that do not take into account both eye rotation differences (looking forward, and again looking at the borders), and also take into account lens distant differences (eyes near the lenses, and again with eyes far from the lenses like Valve suggests), do not provide an accurate evaluation of FoV.

Also, I was only really aware of screendoor effect while using the shortest C cups, which magnified the pixels to about twice the size (four times the surface area) of the longest A cups (with my eyes close to the lenses). The extra magnification not only made screendoor more noticeable (but still acceptable), but it also severely reduced my FoV (which is why I chose to sacrifice focus and switch back to the A cups).

[robbyrob]

Like others on this thread, that isn't how it looks to me at all. I don't think you have setup your Rift correctly

i think your setup is much more interesting, any picture possible?

[Machinima]

I find these threads fascinating, there is so much subjective and contradictory information floating around that its hard to know what to think. I've heard pretty much every combination of the following factors being good/ok or bad: FOV, ghosting, pixel size, screen door effect, resolution, tracking latency... literally I've seen each one one of those factors been decried as "much worse" than the other factors.

I'm guess its mostly subjective and mostly down to what people's expectations were and what aspects they weren't prepared for or swallowed too much hype about.

[DaveNagy]

It would be fantastic if someone with a paint program could whip up a "test pattern", and post it here so people could more easily quantify what they see in their Rifts.

It seems like two multicolored "bullseyes", labeled and placed appropriately, would be all that we'd need. Perhaps a few pixels of garishly colored "frame" around the outside perimeter of the two screen-halves would also be helpful.

[Endothermic]

Well what I can see while better then the OP is still less then what alot of others can.

Using A cups with screen as close as it can be so that my eyelashes touch this is roughly what I see head and eyes pointed at the bottom left corner of the painting on the stairs.(yes only 1 side cbf doing the other )


full size http://s13.postimg.org/4el2t1cdj/rift.jpg

If i close my left eye I can make out the edge of the screen to the left of my right eye just barely. Didn't bother with what was in good focus just what my total FOV was, everything within the circle I could see with my periphery, couldn't make out what exactly the things that were there are but could tell that something was there.

The red marks such as the beams up top, the window to the right, the right half of that painting, the light coloured tiles, I definately could not see at all.

The scree indoor is quite prominent and even the subpixels are easily noticable to me in certain scenes however I must say I don't think it's that big a deal like some ppl make out, yes I can easily see both even when not looking for them but they don't bother me that much.

[Machinima]

Now... whos going to be the first to trim their eyelashes?

[TheHolyChicken]

Now... whos going to be the first to trim their eyelashes?

Is anyone else thinking that's not such a bad idea.....?

[Endothermic]

I like using it 2 notches in, eye lashes don't touch (can still feel the lenses touching you) but also when it's as close as you can have it you can notice the edge of the screens on both eyes which wouldn't be a problem if it was just noticing the edge but for me at least in tuscany while looking around it's like there's blueish light flicking along that edge

Could be edge bleeding from the backlight, it's rather distracting either way so I find the slight loss of FOV 2 notches in more than worth it.

[remosito]

Now... whos going to be the first to trim their eyelashes?

If they get in the way because they are to long, they'll get trimmed. Simple as that!

[amermahdy70]

off topic:Now everyone is trying to enhance the FOV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGGMv9RnJIA

[TheHolyChicken]

off topic:Now everyone is trying to enhance the FOV

Was there method to your madness, or did you just pick whichever thread you saw first and shoved the video in?

[weisgarb]

When I ran Mirror's Edge with the Vireio driver I was surprised at the amount of real estate that I simply couldn't see. When Valve released the early images of Team Fortress within the Rift people flipped out over the amount of unused black space; after seeing the Rift in action, I understand why, as anything outside portion they are rendering probably won't be visible to most people.

I was using A-cups with the screen as close to my eyes as I could get without having it touch my eyelashes. I believe I was 3 notches away from being all the way in. At the menu screen, only the lower portion of "Mirror's" was visible. The copyright line at the bottom was barely within my FOV but was so blurry it was unreadable.

johncarmack_mirrorsedge.jpg

I also found that only the area in the very center of the screen was in focus, with everything else becoming more and more blurry towards the edges. I went through the TF2 calibration process and tried moving the screen around a bit on my face, and any other position resulted in blurriness across the entire image. One interesting tidbit: although the majority of the screen was blurry, it was only apparent in text. As long as I was looking at geometry I didn't notice the blurriness, presumably because the resolution is so low to begin with. I don't wear glasses so I did not try either of the other lenses.

Digital Foundry wrote a good hands-on article about the Rift last week, and they discuss actual viewing area and "effective" resolution versus the 800x640 that is rendered.

[3dcoffee]

Digital Foundry wrote a good hands-on article about the Rift last week, and they discuss actual viewing area and "effective" resolution versus the 800x640 that is rendered.

Interesting article. I am reading it now, and thanks for sharing.

[Randomoneh]

It is actually possible to extend a FOV at one side by looking at the opposite direction. I know it may sound weird but eyeballs are physically moving therefore it should not be hard to understand why this is the case.

Of course, "extended" FOV is located in the deep peripheral vision.

I can't help but feel that Rift optics will change dramatically in the next few years. If Oculus won't, someone else will. That's the way it goes.

[mrklaw]

I've heard people say that if you look to the left/right, things that were noticable in your peripheral vision disappear, due to how the lenses work. Does that mean for instance, that if you had a car dashboard view,that you can't glance across to your rear view or wing mirrors, and have to move your head instead?

[Endothermic]

I would say so. If you look at my screenshot above, if I look at the painting to the right that I can only see a little over half of then I can no longer even see that little arch thingy to the left of it. Or the rafters above the big painting next to the window on the left, if I look to them with my eyes the 2nd one from the left in the green circle gets just out of view.

I don't see it affecting racing sims much though, I dunno about you but when I glance at the rear vision mirror while driving I turn my head towards to, i've tried just turning my eyes to it and can do it but it just feels more natural and comfortable to turn my head.

[mattyeatsmatts]

I bet the screendoor effect wouldnt bother Kanye

[Okta]

So whats the verdict? This argument has been going on since before those tf2 screen shots were shown. Some are saying they can see the edge of the screen and others saying they are looking through small tubes? Why such a huge difference?

[geekmaster]

So whats the verdict? This argument has been going on since before those tf2 screen shots were shown. Some are saying they can see the edge of the screen and others saying they are looking through small tubes? Why such a huge difference?

I depends on which eyecups you use and how close your eyes are to them.

[3dcoffee]

talks about screendoor effect are vastly exagerrated—it is not a problem at all. i was also worried, but after 5 minutes i stopped paying attention to it. field of view is ginormous. the rift is much better than i had hoped. it is truly a start of something remarkable.

[Endothermic]

So whats the verdict? This argument has been going on since before those tf2 screen shots were shown. Some are saying they can see the edge of the screen and others saying they are looking through small tubes? Why such a huge difference?

Just because you're not seeing all the screen doesn't mean you can't see "a" edge

If I look perfectly straight ahead and close the other eye then I can see the inner edge of the screen in the middle where the divider is, but only if I close the other eye since with that eye open the brain just blends the two images so that edge disappears replaced by image from the other eye.

You do seem to see alot less of the screen than the image being rendered on a monitor as indicated by my screenshot above. That was with the A lenses on the closest setting so I expect is as large as it can get.

Never the less the FOV is big and largely immersive, it's just a shame you're losing out on that resolution.

Yes the screen door effect is easily visible but like above I don't think it really detracts from the experience, the large pixels has more of an affect then the screen does.

Also I still see comments about the motion blur which I must say I find startling. Imo it's 1/10th as bad as the screen door effect so it's practically non existant, hell it hardly looks any worse than my monitor ( yes my monitor is quite old and the switching time isn't great and I still can't see a real problem with the blurring that it has ) so all the people complaining about how terrible the motion blur is I guess must still be using crt's or have protyope oled monitor, unless they endlessly complain about how bad their monitors are as well.

p.s. I find it funny that a forum on this site would flag "immersive" as a typing error