ST1080- FOV, Immersion, and Productivity
Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 5:27 pm
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.
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.