New to VR but have an idea

[Hooves]

Hey all, I have been looking at these video's and VR setups and I must say I am very impressed by some of the solutions I have been seeing to some very interesting problems presented in the VR concept.


I have most of the pieces of what will be my VR rig, minus the HMD (trying to decide between the VR 1200 and the SONY HMZ-T1)

Id like to put some of these ideas out to the community to get some feed back.

First off, the head tracking, and weapon would be your standard, PS move, coupled with either the WII for head tracking (sony setup) or using the VR 1200's default head tracking.

This, how ever is where my design would take a turn.

I notice how everyone uses the Thumb sticks on the controllers to control forward,back and lateral movement. But they are always just standing still.

My idea, uses a gamepad, similar to a dance dance revolution gamepad. This way you are still standing in one place but you are actually using your feet to control your foot movement in game (who woulda thunk lol)

My conundrum is this. Obviously a 360 degree rig would have to talk to the game pad to tell it which direction I am facing which is constantly changing. Is this something I can solve with glovepie?

Expanding on the idea would include:

- A seperate generic rifle with its own accelerometer for independent tracking of the weapon in 3d space. ( This is for future apps, when gaming supports a stand alone object in virtual space)
- Another accelerometer to measure the players stance as it relates to the virtual position of the avatar in game. This would allow for real positioning recognition in the virtual world(no more standing, crouch or prone).


Pls let me know what you think, ill keep my build updated! TY

[brantlew]

I guess it depends on where your "mat's" sensors are located. If the sensors are located in very discrete locations (3x3) then as you turn, your feet are going to be hitting different pad combinations (often multiple pads at once) which could be a little tricky if you are trying to determine movement direction. If you are just testing for foot rhythm then that would be easy, but if you are looking for specific foot placements then the system is going to need to be sophisticated (and flexible) to handle variations in the pad signals. In fact, since your head orientation is not tied to your torso orientation, it may be near impossible to really determine direction of motion just with the pad signals. Let's say that the north-east and south-west pad are signaling. This could be interpreted as facing north with your right leg in front of your left OR it could be interpreted as facing north-west with your legs side by side. How can you tell the difference?

- Another accelerometer to measure the players stance as it relates to the virtual position of the avatar in game. This would allow for real positioning recognition in the virtual world(no more standing, crouch or prone).

Good idea for a custom VR engine, but unfortunately no game supports variable height. They all use discrete positions.

[WiredEarp]

This would be easier done by using a vertically mounted kinect looking down at the user.
The kinect could then detect the users feet when he pushes his foot forward (ie, pushing the 'forward' pad that doesn't exist) and move forward. The direction of the 'foot' would give the direction of the movement.

Generally speaking however, I don't see it will be any better than using a thumbstick. Neither will provide any sort of real realism, you will have to remap your normal walking behaviour to using either the stick or the pad, so I dont really see its going to add significantly to the immersion.

[Hooves]

Ah Wired thats a great idea. That solves a couple of issues. I just hope I can build a cord that long. I haven't researched much kinect information are there many mods for it yet?

Brantlew, Those torso tracker ideas were for a game that would be made specificaly for a VR setup, yes very for off I know. I have a friend that builds games and I have been talking with him to just build a proof of concept 3d space that would take the inputs from the specific gyro's. Then I could take that to a game dev and see what they could do with the idea.

Im a little surprised to see that not alot of people have been using ARMA as a test bed for separate head tracking and weapon (mouse) tracking setups. It is by far the most receptive game to the whole VR concept. If anyone out there has this setup can you take some vids in ARMA? Id love to see what it could do.

[brantlew]

I have most of the pieces of what will be my VR rig, minus the HMD (trying to decide between the VR 1200 and the SONY HMZ-T1)

These days it seems those units are not even in the same category. The integrated head tracker on the Vuzix is a nice little bonus that can simplify your setup, but other than that the Vuzix doesn't have much going for it. What you really should be comparing are the ST1080 and HMZ-T1. That's a much harder decision.

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13899

Edit: If you are interested in the Vuzix route however, I would suggest the Wrap 920VR instead. For $300 you can get a perfectly decent HMD + headtracker without breaking the bank.

[Hooves]

I have most of the pieces of what will be my VR rig, minus the HMD (trying to decide between the VR 1200 and the SONY HMZ-T1)

These days it seems those units are not even in the same category. The integrated head tracker on the Vuzix is a nice little bonus that can simplify your setup, but other than that the Vuzix doesn't have much going for it. What you really should be comparing are the ST1080 and HMZ-T1. That's a much harder decision.

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13899

Edit: If you are interested in the Vuzix route however, I would suggest the Wrap 920VR instead. For $300 you can get a perfectly decent HMD + headtracker without breaking the bank.

Ah yeah I see the difference in the specs, good call. I actually already own a VR920 that I have converted in a pair of Motocross goggles. But the res and FOV are just terrible. But it will work as a stand in until I can get a newer updated one.

Another Idea I have been working on is a HMD that uses a PICO projector to display a much larger FOV on a screen placed out in front of the viewer, while it is a slightly larger design, all the weight is on top of the helmet, and there is no resting on the bridge of the nose. Using a pair of reading glasses to lessen strain of focusing on a close object. There are several Pico projectors I have been looking at as possible solutions.
the SHOWWX:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW8voYMvOhc
Also the AAXA KP400-01 P3 Pico Pocket Projector :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfqxZmXFDsE


This one is a bit bigger, fitting this one on an HMD setup would be a challenge But its specs are great
Vivitek Qumi 1600 x 1200 (resized) DLP projector - HD 720p - 300 ANSI lumens:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvwbiuzZ_6A

i havent seen any HMD solutions like this, but i think this will work


What do you think of that idea?

[brantlew]

A lot of people bring up PICO projectors as possible design solutions (usually projected onto concave mirror glasses). You can find lots of discussion of that in these forums. In fact I think just last week someone brought up almost your exact idea.

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=14521

[cybereality]

I actually used a Dance Dance Revolution pad in one of my early garage VR setups. I didn't even have an HMD at the time, so facing forward look at a screen worked fine (with 3D glasses of course, and a P5 glove for good measure). This was back when GTA3 had just come out on the PC, and I had a lot of fun playing that. I basically mapped the DDR pad to the WASD keys on the keyboard, and used the P5 glove fore mouse emulation. It actually was pretty fun all things considered.

But to do that with a 360 degree freedom setup would require special custom software. I guess you might be able to hack it together with GlovePIE (provided you don't use any Vuzix product), but I'm not sure. Im certainly interested in exploring this further. However I was thinking about modding a DDR pad and extracting the buttons and then putting those into special cyber-shoes. Then all you would have to do is make the button press (or button release) map to the forward key (usually W) and the use whatever tracker you have to control the mouse. Would making walking backwards or strafing difficult (or impossible) but maybe you can combine this with traditional control pads somehow. Seems interesting.

Also, don't bother with 1200VR, the new HMDs like HMZ-T1 and ST1080 should be much better.

[Hooves]

well I actually thought of taking the DDR pad, removing the sensors and placing them into a more VR friendly foot pad. The software problem is definetly one that needs solving but Im sure that there is an answer out there.

I like the idea of a foot pad that all you have to do is take one step for forward and back etc etc. It makes VR immersive and you dont look like you are walking in place. This can also help for gaming longevity (for more than an hour).

Thanks for that link to the pico HMD. I really thing this is the way to go. Imagine a 60 -70 degree or more FOV for the same resolution as a quality HMD. You guys have my creative juices flowing I cant wait to bounce more ideas off this forum!

[brantlew]

Welcome Hooves. There are a lot of serious minds around here working on these problems and its good to have another one in the mix. Looking forward to your ideas. BTW - there's a guy on the forum that specifically works on wide FOV HMD's. If you haven't stumbled onto his projects, you should check them out...

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13745
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13775
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13741

Also if you want to see a really exhaustive set of ideas about VR motion systems, you should check out this thread...
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=13784