Oculus RIFT Head Mounted Display 90 Degree FOV

  • Thread starter ibuycheap
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ibuycheap

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Some may already know about this but I thought it would be interesting for the sim racing crowd. Basically John Carmack is championing VR and is showing off a HMD designed by Palmer Luckey.

The big deal is that it has a 90 degree horizontal FOV and 110 degree vertical FOV. The resolution sucks but it operates using cell phone displays which are rapidly improving yet available at low cost due to the scale of production.

Palmer plans to have a kickstarter up on the 14th for a $500 kit. http://oculusvr.com/


While Sony HMD might have been disappointing for me but I think I'm interested in getting a kit.

Carmack Interviews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=NYa8kirsUfg Giant Bomb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5tUnZ9b_34&feature=plcp Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLcQc9hy5V4&feature=plcp Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcUDBrE_7oo&feature=plcp Part 3
 
IMO this isnt very good for sim racing... you cant see the wheel, the shifter, the button box... nothing, you only see the game.
 
tribolik
IMO this isnt very good for sim racing... you cant see the wheel, the shifter, the button box... nothing, you only see the game.
Click to expand...

How is that a bad thing? Do you not touch type?


In any case in the future there will be body tracking so you can see your virtual arm track what you are touching. Now for that to work right I guess your cockpit would also have to look like the car you were driving.
 
ibuycheap
How is that a bad thing? Do you not touch type?


In any case in the future there will be body tracking so you can see your virtual arm track what you are touching. Now for that to work right I guess your cockpit would also have to look like the car you were driving.
Click to expand...

I have to admit that sometimes I have trouble seing all the buttons on the wheel and shifter as it is :D
 
Bump.

It's now up to 110 degree FOV which I think is great. Only $300 for the dev kit version, I pre-ordered mine today. The final version is supposed to have a 1920x1080 screen while the dev version has 1280x800.

I'm excited! We should have them by March/April, I'd guesstimate Christmas 2013 for the final version.
 
Was just browsing the official forum. Will join tonight. I just discovered this device about 4 or 5 hours ago, so I'm very new to all of it. :)
 
So how long do you think it would take iRacing to set up Oculus support? That is all I would be interested in it for.
 
Well, the thing is, with the Nthusim HMD software (which is only if you pre-order now) will fix the screen warping. Tony Gardner replied to the thread we have going in the iR forums so hopefully it would go quickly. But all that would really be required is to create an API for the motion tracking and probably the 3D.

Also just a note, I haven't verified it personally, but I did see someone mention that Kunos (makers of Assetto Corsa) ordered a dev kit so I'm sure they'll have full support for it in AC.
 
Interesting device, not for me though...

Personally from a sim users perspective I would think using large triple screens and better, less laggy form of head-tracking than is currently available would be more immersive and as others point out you can see what your doing.

Afterall last thing I want to do is spill my coffee :)

Still this is likely to be a fun thing for some games, just not fully convinced and will await reviews.
 
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But with good head tracking there isn't any lag anyways. When I used to use TrackIR it followed my movements without delay in every situation. It was just so awkward because I had to move my head but keep my eyes centered on the screen.

I have no doubt that triple screens will have advantages for most people, which is why I'm not selling my setup yet. But just the potential at eliminating bezels without a huge triple projector setup and being able to simplify my whole setup makes it worth a try in my opinion.

The thing about waiting for reviews is that it's not really going to help you much. I had no idea if I would like the Sony HMZ-T1 until I tried it and I ended up hating it. But my main complaints were the FOV and the tiny 0.7" screens. This has 110 degree FOV and a 7" screen (2 3.5" images). So it should be MUCH better and less than 1/2 the price of the Sony. So you won't be able to really know if you are going to like it until you try it for yourself.
 
Just an fyi guys, this headset is unlike any other ever released. The fov is ridiculous. And the stereo is excellent. I've spoken to people who tried it at E3 and were blown away. It will likely have a camera so you can see the outside world. For driving games we'll have to see how it performs as far as ease of use and comfort. It will be incredible for FPS games and stuff like Hawken.
 
ibuycheap
How is that a bad thing? Do you not touch type?

In any case in the future there will be body tracking so you can see your virtual arm track what you are touching. Now for that to work right I guess your cockpit would also have to look like the car you were driving.
Click to expand...

The problem is everything you use a computer for (well, apart from sim racing) is teaching you to touch type, but for sim racing its not quite as easy. If you asked me to close my eyes and press the M key, I could probably do it first time (or get within one key of it), but ask me to press the third red button on my G27 shifter and I'll be hunting around a lot longer, which might result in a crash (let's say I'm in a race on LFS, I hit a wall and cause an obstruction and a group of cars are approaching so I need to hit 'reset to pit' almost immediately) or something.

I think the Rift is great and I intend to get one if it's cheap enough, but if I do I'll probably invest in something to add more buttons to my wheel if I do.
 
I'm very excited about it (I never really envisaged using it for racers personally). I was pretty gutted when they put the kickstarter dev kit launch back to spring (paid for kickstarter months ago) but it'll be worth the wait. I've been messing with Hawken beta to get the feel of it...gonna be great 👍
 
Oculus Rift, Voice attack and Leap. The possibilities will be the future of sim racing. Get ready for it because it is coming. You know the iRacing devs will be purchasing a kit. So if we make it past 12/21/2012 I would expect it to be implemented by spring 2014. Just around the corner!
 
I saw it mentioned that both Kunos (Assetto Corsa) and ISI (rFactor2) have purchased dev kits as well. Tony Gardner (iRacing CEO) showed interest in the product and said they were watching it closely, but I didn't see him mention buying one, although I'm hoping they will.

You mean Spring 2013 right? The dev kits are expected to ship in March of 2013.
 
superbike81
I saw it mentioned that both Kunos (Assetto Corsa) and ISI (rFactor2) have purchased dev kits as well. Tony Gardner (iRacing CEO) showed interest in the product and said they were watching it closely, but I didn't see him mention buying one, although I'm hoping they will.

You mean Spring 2013 right? The dev kits are expected to ship in March of 2013.
Click to expand...

No, I meant Spring 2014. After its been proven and by the time iRacing gets the features installed. I would realistically expect it to launch first quarter 2014. I can wait that long if its what it takes to make it right.
 
Well, we've got quite a few iRacers who have ordered the dev kit. The only thing we may not be able to get working within a couple months is 3D. The Nthusim HMD software will address any screen warping and the head tracking API will be quickly developed by a community member. I'd say within a few months after the dev kits are shipped we'll have it functioning at 90% on iRacing.

Now if you are talking about iRacing building native support into the sim, yes this may take some time. But luckily there are a few backers like Nthusim and community members who can develop very good solutions while waiting for games to update to native support.

This is all assuming it catches on, which it looks like it already is.
 
I saw this on the iRacing formums. Looks promising.

The only concern I have is the potential affect on driving performance from not being able to see my hands and wheel in my peripheral. It seems that some people don't think this is a factor, but I think it might be. Turning the virual wheel and hands on may help if there is no perceivable lag. Reaching out for a sequential or h-gate shifter could also be a problem. If this concerns are legitimate problems then three screens will still be king, but if not, this device massively increase immersion for a relatively low cost.

I hope it works out, for the sake of my wallet. :)
 
Virtual buttons to use via Leap as well. There is a crap load of potential with these new devices used in unison. iRacing forums have 2 threads going right now. One in Hardware and the other in Suggestions. Reading through both will help you get an idea of what is on the horizon. I am very excited with the chatter. .
 
Nastradamus87
I saw this on the iRacing formums. Looks promising.

The only concern I have is the potential affect on driving performance from not being able to see my hands and wheel in my peripheral. It seems that some people don't think this is a factor, but I think it might be. Turning the virual wheel and hands on may help if there is no perceivable lag. Reaching out for a sequential or h-gate shifter could also be a problem. If this concerns are legitimate problems then three screens will still be king, but if not, this device massively increase immersion for a relatively low cost.

I hope it works out, for the sake of my wallet. :)
Click to expand...

For people who are absolutely stuck on having a ton of peripherals, I don't think they will switch to the HMD. Think about this in real world terms, do you have to look down at your manual shifter each time you shift? You shouldn't. Muscle memory should kick in fairly quickly, even in a sim cockpit. I've already memorized the location of all of the buttons on both my GT and Formula wheels, it only took a little bit of practice, maybe a week to get them both down.

This thing is perfect for me since I'm going "minimalist" with my next setup, I'm eliminating my h-shifter and my sequential and just sticking with the paddles on the wheel. There will be a small button box attached to my CSW on the right side. But other than that no real peripherals.
 
People complained about the hassle/comfort factor with 3D glasses. The sickness, headaches etc. So for mainstream, this or any other headset I think will always be a limited market.

It may be good but with glasses free 3D technology advancing, 4K displays and 21:9 all possibilities on the horizon for future monitors TVs.

Will keep an interest but gotta say still not convinced. As for I-racing in 2014, how many apart from the ibum chums (lol) will still be playing it looking at the upcoming games arriving? Maybe it will have a massive graphical overhaul, it's going to need it...
 
Well, iRacing will survive because of the online system. No game on the horizon will ever get close to matching it, because they don't want to.

But back to the subject of the Rift, it will indeed be a pretty niche product but that's not to say it won't get a big enough following to get game developers to notice. Huge companies like Id, Epic, and Valve among others are backing the technology by offering native support with their games. For those games that don't natively support we've got companies like Nthusium offering their software to bring older games and those that don't offer native support into the technology.

Maybe I'm optimistic because I'm a 3D enthusiast, the glasses don't bother me, don't give me headaches, and don't make my eyes tired. I've done 8 hour 3D marathons with friends and had no problems whatsoever. These are also a little different because each eye is isolated and getting it's own picture and our brain does the rest putting it together into 3D, at least I think that's how it works.

I'm not without my skepticism of course, with the current low resolution of 640x800 per eye (1280x800 total) on a 3.5" image it's not going to be like playing on a 2560x1600 monitor of course. However I think it will be perfectly acceptable. Also the consumer version is likely going to have 960x1080 per eye (1920x1080 total screen resolution) which is significantly higher and on a 3.5" screen is still very good PPI.

I'm looking beyond the pure resolution numbers and looking at the immersion factor. I hated the Sony HMZ-T1 because the screen for each eye was 0.7" which made it feel like I was looking at a screen that was far away from me, even though it wasn't. But with a 3.5" screen for each eye in this, the immersion level should be absolutely amazing. Pretty much all of our frontal visual field should be taken up and with a 110 degree horizontal FOV it will match the visual field of many people with triple monitor setups. To me it's all about feeling like I'm in the game, not looking at a game. For me on my triple monitor setup the bezels are a constant reminder that I'm not "in the game." Combine this FOV with accurate head tracking and we are truly "in the game." If I need to look down to check my oil temp gauge I just move my head slightly down and actually look at the gauge. No more faking it with monitoring software running on a cell phone or little separate monitor.

I understand the potential negatives and there are a ton of mistakes that these guys can make that will kill this device. But I'm holding out hope that it will completely replace my triple monitor setup. If the 720p setup I get with the dev kit impresses me, I'll buy the 1080p consumer version as well.


Resolution is an issue that many people are worrying too much about IMO. Look at some of these guys with stupid 55" 1080p screens that they are sitting 3ft away from, that's 40 pixels per inch. The 3.5" 640x800 screen is 292 pixels per inch. Yet they are very pleased with their 40 pixels per inch. I think even though we'll be significantly closer to the screen, the 292 pixels per inch will look very good. Now think about the consumer version with 960x1080, that's 412 pixels per inch at 3.5", pretty good for 3.5" even being only a few inches away. Companies are already working on 2560x1600 versions of these 7" screens too.

So yes, it will be niche, but I think it will absolutely impress those willing to give it a chance.
 
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Hey nothing wrong with being an enthusiast at all.
Like I said interesting product, no doubt will offer a unique experience.
Btw just teasing with the iracing stuff.

Perhaps like good audio quality headphones advantages can be gained with the finalised product. Yet I wouldn't devote all my music listening to a closed in environment with just headphones neither.

Look forward to user comments in the future.
 
I think if this works out, I may even look into doing a D-Box style motion rig platform. Being fully immersed in the game and having your vision of your game room completely blocked out, I think the motion might finally feel somewhat natural.
 
I wonder if the combo of motion and head tracking would actually be a step backwards. Im having a hard time trying to figure out how to explain it.

With motion, your eyes are still staying focused on screen now add in the headtrackin picking up your body movements from the motion aspects and the camera may be giving very odd results.

If that made any sense^^
 
That I can understand. There would likely have to be filters to keep it from detecting small jerking movements and only detect the larger more obvious movements.
 

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