Oculus will be on stage at with Engadget at CES

[EdZ]

As I respect your (as well as many other members of this forum) opinions, I would like to know what your thoughts are regarding the possible issues I mentioned with using dithering. Am I on the right track with thinking that it would not enhance the perceived colors but rather just introduce noise to the image given the low angular resolution?

Dithering is a perceptual effect, so it's hard to tell without a Rift in front of you whether the pixel size would be too great to avoid it just looking like chroma noise. A non-static dithering pattern would probably be unnoticeable except in overall very dark scenes. In this regard, on-board dithering from an 24-bit input and software dithering and a native 18-bit input would give similar results.
However, there's also FRC (or 'temporal dithering'), which is harder to effectively replicate in software (the colour change frequency is ideally several times of the panel refresh rate). In this case, providing an 24-bit input would produce superior results to providing a 18-bit input.

[MSat]

Dithering is a perceptual effect, so it's hard to tell without a Rift in front of you whether the pixel size would be too great to avoid it just looking like chroma noise. A non-static dithering pattern would probably be unnoticeable except in overall very dark scenes. In this regard, on-board dithering from an 24-bit input and software dithering and a native 18-bit input would give similar results.
However, there's also FRC (or 'temporal dithering'), which is harder to effectively replicate in software (the colour change frequency is ideally several times of the panel refresh rate). In this case, providing an 24-bit input would produce superior results to providing a 18-bit input.

I took a look at a bunch of panel specs on panelook.com, and found plenty of native 24-bit or 18-bit+FRC units, so I guess I'm making a moot point. I had jumped the gun because I was unaware of their existence.

[PalmerTech]

Locking the controls makes sense for a consumer version, since it can be calibrated perfectly. This is a developer kit, though, giving people as much control as possible makes a lot of sense.

On top of that, we currently have more pressing things to work on than getting a perfectly calibrated profile for this display. Even if we did do it, though, every computer is not the same. People often adjust gamma and brightness settings in the graphics output settings, and Windows, OSX, and Linux all have some variation in output.

[Libertine]

I think its good to be cautious with calibration. One calibration result i read about had the backlight all the way down. The "cinema" TV picture preset setting with the "warm 2" color profile as its sometimes called, is the closest preset to a calibrated TV result according to many of the 3DTV reviews i've read. In my opinion not only is that preset brown and ugly, its too dark and doesn't look at all realistic in daylight scenery and ruins any chance of a proper luminant value/feeling bright lights have amist a dark background.

[EdZ]

Locking the controls makes sense for a consumer version, since it can be calibrated perfectly. This is a developer kit, though, giving people as much control as possible makes a lot of sense.

Can I suggest including maybe a leaflet (or readme on the documentation CD or whatever) with the recommended settings (brightness etc)? Having some developers working to one setup and some to another would make it a pain in the behind to get everything looking the same for everyone (even if not 'correct' for everyone), and proper display calibration can be confusing and arcane even for the well informed.

The "cinema" TV picture preset setting with the "warm 2" color profile as its sometimes called, is the closest preset to a calibrated TV result according to many of the 3DTV reviews i've read. In my opinion not only is that preset brown and ugly, its too dark and doesn't look at all realistic in daylight scenery and ruins any chance of a proper luminant value/feeling bright lights have amist a dark background.

Try giving your eyes time to adjust. After using the proper settings (generally just the 'Cinema' preset, or 'THX' if available) for a while and then switching back to the 'showroom' defaults, they will appear very washed out, far too bright and far too blue.

[MSat]

Can I suggest including maybe a leaflet (or readme on the documentation CD or whatever) with the recommended settings (brightness etc)? Having some developers working to one setup and some to another would make it a pain in the behind to get everything looking the same for everyone (even if not 'correct' for everyone), and proper display calibration can be confusing and arcane even for the well informed.

I wonder if they would be able to implement this with the interface chip they'll be using. Based on the images we've seen of the control box, the levels are set using +/- buttons, so the values would have to be displayed via an OSD. I don't know how customizable this functionality is in the firmware, but I agree, it's a valid concern.

[Libertine]

Try giving your eyes time to adjust. After using the proper settings (generally just the 'Cinema' preset, or 'THX' if available) for a while and then switching back to the 'showroom' defaults, they will appear very washed out, far too bright and far too blue.

I do often let my eyes adjust when adjusting settings and try to keep in check any effect pre-conceived notions might have. Luckily my 3dtv has a neutral color setting, which i use since it is my computer monitor. When i switched to my 3DTV from my 3007wfp, i noticed the colors were essentially the same with this setting. Again, my main concern is backlight adjustment being available, not so much brightness or contrast. However, having convienent brightness/contrast adjustments might be nice to give extra control over the liquid crystals and help dim the display when using the Rift at night just before going to bed. I for example still use sunglasses at night with my 3dtv's backlight all the way down, which is largely due to its huge FOV due to viewing it at ~1 meter. Otherwise, i have little chance of feeling tired near my bedtime.

Heres some quick examples of scenery in games where i think having the backlight at maximum lends the most realistic look and feel. What i usually do is picture in my head, a similar real life setting i've experienced in real life and compare it.



Perhaps compare with: Hiking on a sunny day google search: https://www.google.com/search?q=hiking+ ... 8&bih=1007

For the sake of thoroughness [and what the hell...], i came across a good example of realistic daytime rendering vs. rendering shadows unrealisticly dark, which i mentioned before. I find brightness controls can help to a [small] degree in some games.
Realistic:

vs.

[EdZ]

Luckily my 3dtv has a neutral color setting, which i use since it is my computer monitor.

Ah-hah! You've hit on one of the weirdneses of video vs computers: they don't quite use the same colourspace (heck,SD and HD don't!), and define black and white points at different levels (0-255 for computers, 16-235 for video). What looks correct for a computer will look wrong for video, and vice-versa, with the same settings.

On my display, the 'pitch black' shadow is far from it (foliage within the shadow being discernable), but it is noticeable darker than the photo. However, the photo is overall much lighter than the screenshot, so it is not an 'apples to apples' comparison. There are so many other variables (e.g. exposure) that it is not a really valid comparison.

[Libertine]

I didn't actually create the tower comparison. I don't think its the best example they could have used i see much darker rendering in some games, but the BF3 shot did provide a decent example of the difference between the Crysis 2 photo above it, which i do think looks very representative of reality, yet not perfect either. In the BF3 photo, you can tell where the sun is from the shadow of the tower and the left sides of the gun should realistically be lighter than that i would think.

[Libertine]

oh, I didn't mean to cause offence. Reading it back I guess it was a bit blunt. Sorry about that.
Just trying to pass on information that some may find useful. Lift and gain are interrelated so increasing the gain causes the blacks to become grey which reduces the dynamic range.
I haven't tried Windows 8 programming yet but when I do I'll know my place

Oops, sorry, my post also contained more bite than i intended. I did find you post informative, thanks.

EDIT: oops, should have edited my last post, can't delete this though.