Rift, Vive, and Virtual Reality

The visual system comfort in virtual cinemas in VR should be a best case scenario (once the resolution becomes adequate.) There's a few big missing pieces in current VR - no accommodation support (resulting in vergence-accommodation conflict the closer something is), geometric/perspective distortion due to the unaccounted for translation of the eye relative to the screen. In a virtual cinema you're focused on a fixed, distant plane that tends to remain centered in your view, so once the resolution improves I suspect the cinema experience will be the most natural feeling/looking thing you can do in VR.

 

Configured Moonlight to capture and stream a mirror of the windows desktop of my VR system over the local network to the living room TV. Invited friends over and we lounged on the sofas, drank, and spectated the VR that was being done in the basement.

The spectator camera in Job Simulator is represented by a virtual camera that can be positioned or held by the player, so it basically turns the player into a one-man TV comedy show. Playing to the camera, playing with the camera, etc. An odd thing to watch your friend act out a Swedish Chef-style mock cooking show and cap it off by having your camera view shoved into a microwave and zapped. It's kind of surprising how much more entertaining watching VR is by seeing a third-person representation of them - all the personality comes across through the tracked gestures of head and hand motion, coupled by control over camera angles, etc. Pretty special.

 

I finally got my Rift. Apparently they had a lot of problems with Taiwanese regulations or something. I have to sign some documents (more than usual) to clear the custom.
I installed it on my home computer, which has a relatively slow video card (a Radeon 7850). Oculus constantly warns that the computer does not meet the minimal requirement. However, it's mostly fine running Lucky's Tale (which my nephew enjoys pretty much). EVE Valkyrie, on the other hand, apparently run in a greatly reduced resolution so it's less than ideal. I'll install it on my computer at my rental later, which has two 970.
The issues with glasses also don't seem to be that bad. At first I have trouble wearing it with my glasses so I tried it without my glasses, but my left eye is much worse than my right eye so it's not very comfortable. Then I tried to put the glasses into the rift before wearing it, and it fits better. The only problem is that it's much more difficult to take on/off the rift.

 

be careful a lot of people report that the glasses scratch the screen

 

Yeah one must be careful not to let them touch each other. AFAIK the lenses are made of plastic. My glasses are also plastic so it's not as dangerous but real glass glasses could be a serious problem.

 

Plastic prescription glasses usually have a hard coating applied. This is practically mandatory with polycarbonate, it scratches with only the wind blowing on it. PMMA and CR39 are only a little better.

If there is a flat contact between the glasses and the optics, the microscopic dirt will scratch both surfaces.

 

Everytime I show people one of those VR recorded documentaries using the Homido with my iPhone (6 plus) they are very impressed. I definitely think it will open up new potential just as a media. I reckon any of the digital Pixar like movies could be relatively easily reworked in order to allow a 360 degree experience of it and that could end up being pretty special. And of course being a big fan of motion controls already, new forms of interaction with the game world are definitely going to be a thing.

Mass acceptance will be a proper ratio between desired content and easy of setup. Eventually this will be how you'll want to watch sports too

And yes, it will benefit from a few more resolution upgrades.

 

A great example of this is the Lebron James video on GearVR. Seeing him do practice drills that involve cutting by and around the camera is surprisingly impressive, even for someone like myself that probably hasn't watched a game of basketball in 20 years. The sense of size, speed and power of an athlete like that really isn't done justice by watching it through a zoom lens on a TV screen or sitting in the nose bleed section in a stadium.

 

Most people seem to be using fades to/from black (of varying durations), both in VR videos and real time content rather than sharp cuts, although sharp cuts are not necessarily terrible - they just don't come across as very refined transitions. I suspect there'll be some amount of artistic room to play there - the only real hard rule seems to be to maintain responsive head tracking.

For interactive content there's been some exploration in how to most comfortably handle jumps and teleportation from place to place in order to make it more comfortable. Some use a virtual blink-style mechanic where a fast shutter effect is applied between position changes in order to hide it while mimicing the natural blink effect of the eyelid that the brain seems hardwired to ignore. The Foo Show instead uses a snapping mechanic for teleportation where you point, select, and you get snapped at very high velocity to your new location - I suspect the lack of any acceleration from standstill to movement to standstill is why it's still comfortable, and you get the added benefit of not being disoriented by losing the connective tissue that establishes where you are relative to where you were. I tried constantly snapping myself back and forth between a few spots to induce even the slightest bit of discomfort and I couldn't do it (although my VR legs at this point are probably better than average.)

 

iRacing just implemented CV1 support with their latest build. It seems to be a pretty good implementation with also changing perspective on the mirrors. Time to get the old wheel setup again (which I disconnected after trying the DK2 and thereafter dismounting the good old triple screens )....

 

The sensitivity seems off, the graphics look positively ancient, but already you can see how much better it is when you can just look into the corner.

 

The pixel density for VR racing still seems to be on the cusp of acceptability, but iRacing apparently is able to handle a higher sampling resolution* more comfortably than other racers. I have yet to hook my wheel up for VR... debating about. As much as I love cars and racing, the prospect of iRacing is a bit intimidating though. Seems more of a serious hobbyist commitment than games like Project Cars, Forza or Gran Turismo.

 

Yes, iRacing is very much focused on the simulation aspect of all areas of racing (not just the cars but going as far as to be sanctioned by actual real life organizations). There really isn't anything else in the same league as it with regards to driving simulation on race tracks. As Wikipedia mentions its main competitor is Simraceway, but I don't think their simulation of tracks and car physics is as good as iRacing.

Regards,
SB

 

Asseto Corsa has a really great driving feel and has supported VR already for a very long time. This would be the first racing game I would try with VR personally.

 

Interesting read: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/introducing-the-oculus-unreal-renderer/

 

Vr feels so close yet so far.

Btw playing driving game in VR with virtual hand that did not properly track your real hand. Does it feel weird?

 

iRacing has plenty of competition as a driving sim, just not as a multiplayer driving sim (outside of leagues).

 

More info coming in the fall. I am really scared this thing is going to be $200 bucks.

 

I am sure it will be this or more, matching the Vive with its controllers in price.