Got my Oculus VR today

[pm]

I ordered in March and it arrived today. I have a particular application in mind - I didn't really just buy it to play games, I think it's going to be perfect for an idea that I've been working on for a decade (R/C model airplane, camera on 2-axis controls, downlinked wirelessly to a VR headset. I have a working prototype now, but it's not 3D, it's not anywhere near the resolution of a Oculus VR and I don't have head-tracking so I control the view with a joystick... the resolution and the head-tracking of an Oculus could really make the experience totally different.. It was a bit expensive, but I had made a bunch of money on Bitcoins and, like I said, I've been working on a project for years and the Oculus could be much better than my current solution.. anyway, I digress from PC Gaming).

So I fired it up and it's definitely a "wow" moment. It really really feels like you are there. I've never seen anything quite like it. There's a slight lag to things - very slight, but noticeable, and there's a weird sort of optical distortion caused by the lenses I think. But the effect of being there is uncanny and disconcerting and very, very cool.

While it's amazing, it's also a bit nausea inducing. I have never had any serious problems with motion sickness in my whole life... ever... not once, not ever. I don't get seasick, I don't get carsick, I think rollercoasters are fun and turbulence in an airplane doesn't bother me (except worrying about metal fatigue in the wings). But I put the Oculus on and I can feel my stomach get that weird butterfly thing that you get when you are on a rollercoaster or something. I'm not sick and I'm not nauseous, but I'm am feeling a bit weirded-out almost immediately and I'm noticeably woozy after about 15 minutes. Jumping in minecraft was a bad idea, walking backwards was even worse, and turning off the head-bobbing is a requirement.

I have only tried Minecraft, and there's no real support for Oculus in Minecraft so you have to hack it in. But it works - controls are a little kludgy, but they work.

There's a bit of lag to it - not a lot but noticeable. The resolution is 1280x800. The 3D effect works very well, although my eyes are not totally matched optically - I have a very mild astigimatism in my left eye - and it's not usually a problem (I don't wear contacts, I don't wear glasses and never have) but I find that my eyes don't look matched in the Oculus. One is noticeably blurrier than the other. But they work well enough.

Then there's vertigo... again, I'm not really afraid of heights (I rock climb for fun) but I think I have a fairly natural reaction to heights ("wow, that's a long way down") in real life and everything was fine in Minecraft until I climbed a tall mountain in the game and looked down and I had that same reaction that I'd get if I climbed to the top of a 6 story building, went to the edge and looked down. That same weird vertigo feeling. Combined with the vague nausea feeling and I think I want to go lay down for a while. And that was only 15 minutes.

But nausea and vertigo aside and mild lag aside, I have to say that it's really impressive. It really really feels like you are there. All of the details stand out and things look real - like I said, I got vertigo from looking down and that's not a problem that I have playing on the monitor. It looks really really real. It's really an amazing effect - you feel absolutely like you are inside the game. Although, so far, maybe too much.

On more practical notes, while the hardware seems reasonably solid, the setup feels a bit like a beta. There's no support for desktop mode, so when you have the headset on you have a hard time getting Windows to do anything. So I had to clone my main monitor and then lower the resolution from 2560x1440 to 1280x800 and then set everything up, make the app fullscreen, and then put on the headset. But it all works.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Your idea sounds more interesting than using this thing for games honestly.

 

[pm]

Your idea sounds more interesting than using this thing for games honestly.

Thanks. It actually is really cool even with the sort of weird way that I have things set up now. Usually I fly with a friend, I fly the plane (or he does) visually, like an R/C pilot, and then he uses another controller to move the camera around while looking through the glasses. It does work really well, there is absolutely no lag, the framerate is so fast that you don't notice... but the resolution is something like 320x160. The other problem that I have is video drop out - if I get too high, or the plane turns a certain way, the video will drop out and turn to gray. Initially, the limit was about 200 ft. But then I studied, took the test and I got my HAM radio license (if you are going to do a project for 10 years, you might as well do it right) and boosted the power (legally), and switched to more directional antennas and that moved the range to something closer to 1000 ft (in a semi-circular shape). I'd really like to make the cameras head-trackable from the headset, switch to HD cameras, and then switch from UHF analog to something digital. And if this all sounds expensive, well, it's a hobby and as far as I can tell, a pilots license and plane rental aren't cheap either.

As far as the Oculus, I've tried more apps now - I think Minecraft is particularly vertigo-inducing by virtue of the game itself. The other ones work better. I'm starting to like using the Oculus more.

 

[CottonRabbit]

I think the biggest problem is the screen refresh rate. Can't move or turn too fast or the nausea sets in. I don't even mind the low res that much. Also, most people seem to be interested in FPS style games, which I think is quite unnatural with just the Rift. I would be much more interested in seeing some real racing or space sims (Star Citizen) get support.

The heli island demo is the best example of the Rift's potential that I've played with so far. The third party enabled games like Skyrim or Mirror's Edge have all been a bit wonky. I think this is something that developers need to support natively.

 

[WiseUp216]

I'm jealous but holding out for the consumer version. Definitely going to buy one when the time comes.

 

[Red Storm]

Awesome! Your project sounds really cool too. :thumbsup:

 

[MSCoder610]

Half Life 2 is a lot of fun in the Rift, but the screen door effect + motion blur are a bit of a drag. The resolution isn't overall a big deal, but it's a bit annoying how hard it is to read text in the Rift right now. Overall though it's a lot of fun to play with (got mine last Friday, and was experimenting with it over the July 4th weekend).

 

[PowerYoga]

Just a note: you didn't get the production version, this is a low res developer's version. They're not shipping the HD versions yet AFAIK.

I played a bit wiht the one my friend got too too and I'll agree with you on the nausea thing. But I think its just the low resolution on the developer's version, when it's HD the nausea factor will be reduced dramatically I hope.

On the rollercoaster demo I actually got some vertigo, it was kinda cool.

 

[WiseUp216]

The 1080p consumer version sounds like a nice improvement. There was a demo at E3 and a lot of sites said the screen-door effect was nearly gone.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/11/hands-on-new-1080p-oculus-rift-with-unreal-engine-4

 

[BladeVenom]

For the nausea, get some candied ginger from Trader Joe's.

 

[PowerYoga]

For the nausea, get some candied ginger from Trader Joe's.

what if you hate ginger? :\

(I don't mean redheads :awe

 

[Aikouka]

I was reading an article about the Rift being used with cameras, and it made me wonder... why not design a setup that allows us to take 360 degree video and stream it to the Rift? Imagine being able to put on a pair of headphones along with the Rift and feel like you're really at some orchestra thousands of miles away... while in your pajamas! It brings a whole new meaning to live streams!

I'd love to try out the newer 1080p model.

 

[Canbacon]

Hey PM, have you seen or familiar with this project?

http://intuitiveaerial.com/

It seems they are working along the same lines of what you set out to do.

 

[JeffMD]

I was reading an article about the Rift being used with cameras, and it made me wonder... why not design a setup that allows us to take 360 degree video and stream it to the Rift?

I am truly hoping the rift will finally be the killer app for 3d content. Upgrading big screen TVs and costly LCD glasses proved to much for users and tv makers for just 3d movies, but with gamers and thrill seekers who are undoubtedly going to love the rift, it opens up a new and even better display method for 3d video content.

 

[BrightCandle]

The Rift is an interest advance on the headsets we saw back in the 80's. However the graphics pipeline is not setup for the reduction of latency necessary to really make this work well. Everyone is noticing the input latency of moving their head with this device because of the unfortunate design of the hardware and software in the graphics pipeline. That latency problem that causes the nausea is going to be impossible to beat without a lot of changes, in GPUs, in monitors interfaces and in software and the way games are written. Even then it may be extremely difficult to get the latency down below noticeable.

Its interesting, its novel but this one particular problem is forever going to plague it. The technology isn't there yet.

 

[mizzou]

what about eye fatigue? I'm concerned about abusing my eyesight with focusing on an object that is less then 1-inch away from my eyeball

 

[JeffMD]

bright, seriously? where have you seen any complaints on the latency? I have yet to see one... many people notice it, no one says its enough to be a turn off.

 

[Dankk]

As someone who had the opportunity to test out an Oculus Rift just the other day, I can confidently say that latency is the least of it's problems. The head-tracking is phenomenal... feels completely 1:1. Almost no perceivable latency whatsoever.

My problem with the Rift is the damn resolution. It's tiny. When I first placed the contraption on my head, it was way too blurry, and I tried adjusting it for several minutes until I finally realized that the number of pixels just sucked. Felt like I was looking through a shower drain. This surprised me because I rarely see anyone else who's used the Rift complain about this problem.

I played through the opening sequence of Half Life 2, and like I said, the head tracking and 3D depth of field were both fantastic. I felt like I was really in City 17. I felt like I could reach out and touch the chain link fence next to me as I lined up with my fellow denizens outside the dystopian train station.

I also felt like I had glaucoma and my eyes needed corrective surgery. They really, really need to up the resolution for the final consumer release, or else I've killed any desire to purchase this thing when it comes out because of that one factor.

I tried a couple of other demos with it as well: A roller-coaster simulation, and a space-flight simulation. Motion sickness was of zero concern. (Then again, I've never gotten motion-sick in my life, so I must be particularly immune to it or something. It probably depends on the person.)

 

[Aikouka]

I also felt like I had glaucoma and my eyes needed corrective surgery. They really, really need to up the resolution for the final consumer release, or else I've killed any desire to purchase this thing when it comes out because of that one factor.

They're already working on a 1080p version of it that will most likely be the consumer version if not a better variant of that 1080p model.

He also informed us that the retail version of the device will definitely be in HD, but that independent of hardware concerns, the company won't be going retail until there is a large enough library of games.

 

[JeffMD]

I don't think they ever intended 720p (or 800 as it looks) to be the release model.

 

[BrightCandle]

bright, seriously? where have you seen any complaints on the latency? I have yet to see one... many people notice it, no one says its enough to be a turn off.

Have you missed all the people telling us that they are throwing up their guts after using these? About every reviewer so far has mentioned the fact it makes them nauseous. The nausea comes from the view not matching what the brain expects, it thinks it has been poisoned.

The second reason people are getting sick is the lack of true 3D movement. This comes into play when you look at your feet, where you don't look directly down your eyes actually move forward in an arc in order to do it. The Rift doesn't have that third dimension, it only rotates vertically and horizontally, it doesn't simulate the way the eyes actually move.

Its for these two reasons the Rift is causing nausea. The latency and the lack of a third dimensional movement. The 3D problem can be fixed with sensors. The rift as far as I know wont be fixing this sensor issue although it is moving the state of the art with the speed of sensor response. The first problem, the latency in the graphics pipeline is much harder to fix. So many companies need to be involved in that, so many new standards its far from trivial. That is unless they have something magically up their sleeves we haven't seen yet.

So people are going to get sick. Question is whether people will train themselves not to or just give up on it after feeling unwell.

 

[PowerYoga]

As someone who had the opportunity to test out an Oculus Rift just the other day, I can confidently say that latency is the least of it's problems. The head-tracking is phenomenal... feels completely 1:1. Almost no perceivable latency whatsoever.

My problem with the Rift is the damn resolution. It's tiny. When I first placed the contraption on my head, it was way too blurry, and I tried adjusting it for several minutes until I finally realized that the number of pixels just sucked. Felt like I was looking through a shower drain. This surprised me because I rarely see anyone else who's used the Rift complain about this problem.

I played through the opening sequence of Half Life 2, and like I said, the head tracking and 3D depth of field were both fantastic. I felt like I was really in City 17. I felt like I could reach out and touch the chain link fence next to me as I lined up with my fellow denizens outside the dystopian train station.

I also felt like I had glaucoma and my eyes needed corrective surgery. They really, really need to up the resolution for the final consumer release, or else I've killed any desire to purchase this thing when it comes out because of that one factor.

I tried a couple of other demos with it as well: A roller-coaster simulation, and a space-flight simulation. Motion sickness was of zero concern. (Then again, I've never gotten motion-sick in my life, so I must be particularly immune to it or something. It probably depends on the person.)

Like I've said earlier, the only versions out now are the low res DEV versions. The consumer grade ones will be 1080p.

 

[fo0k]

Like I've said earlier, the only versions out now are the low res DEV versions. The consumer grade ones will be 1080p.

if it is as bad as he makes it sound, it doesnt seem like 1080p will suffice either.

 

[aigomorla]

HAHAHAHAHA PM... looks like u had fun with your toy...

 

[dighn]

if it is as bad as he makes it sound, it doesnt seem like 1080p will suffice either.

does anyone think higher res would make the nausea problem worse? because the visuals are more "convincing" to the brain, further increasing the sensory discrepancy.