VR Helmets

[swaaye]

Ya know....one thing I've been sorta bummed about over the years is the failure of the crazy VR helmets that were around in the late '90s. Not the stupid stereo glasses so much as the sets like the Forte VFX-1 headgear that really immersed you with its full head movement sensing and LCD screens. I actually used a set at one of the also-demised Cyber Cafes around here. Played Mechwarrior 2 and Flight Unlimited on them. That experience was quite memorable.

To be honest, I'm really surprised that those things didn't go further. I mean, a 24" LCD is neat and really adds immersion. But, a head-tracking helmet that lets you look around in the 3D world is really on another level.

Have any of you guys tried any of the 3D glasses or headsets like the VFX-1? VFX-1 still sells for hundreds of $$ on eBay, when it does rarely show up.

I imagine today that it could be made either cheaper or just far better. One of the big problems back then was the limited LCD quality and resolution. Imagine what could be done now.

 

[TheChefO]

I'm with you on this one. Response time would be a no brainer that has improved drastically in the past decade and resolution and most important, price as well. If the rendering hardware is able to keep up with the headtracking and the lcds able to keep up with the renderer it should provide a great immersive experience. Does anyone know if thre have been any improvements in this field recently? I'd love to get a vr helmet if it was supported, reasonably priced and provided a no lag experience.

I still remember when Sega was going to introduce a vr helmet to the genesis

 

[Simon F]

One of the big problems back then was the limited LCD quality and resolution. Imagine what could be done now.

One of the limitations was that the brain automatically links focal depth to the convergence of the eyes and these are not correct with those old devices and so the stereo effect is not exactly convincing.

Kurt Akeley gave a talk at Graphics Hardware 2003 called "The Forgotten Cue" which described some experiments with a display that is less of a "head mounted display" and more of a "display mounted head". The image presented to each eye was constructed from 3 different sources at increasing distances that were summed (IIRC) using half-silvered mirrors.

I had a quick search but can't find any online notes but it may be in his 2004 thesis.

 

[_xxx_]

Stupid stereo glasses? I've yet to see anything better even remotely in the same price range. I LOVED these. I hate the IHV's for not offering a better driver support for these.

Playing DX or Q3 or MDK2 with stereo glasses was a real blast

 

[Simon F]

Stupid stereo glasses? I've yet to see anything better even remotely in the same price range. I LOVED these. I hate the IHV's for not offering a better driver support for these.

Better is certainly on the way. I saw a demo of Ocuity's stereo LCD technology which gives all the benefits without the glasses.

 

[_xxx_]

Better is certainly on the way. I saw a demo of Ocuity's stereo LCD technology which gives all the benefits without the glasses.

But I guess it will cost you an arm and leg for the years to come? The glasses are about $20 or so.

 

[Simon F]

But I guess it will cost you an arm and leg for the years to come? The glasses are about $20 or so.

I should imagine they are trying to get it incoporated into standard LCDs.

 

[_xxx_]

That would be really fantastic. I hope it'll fly with the mass market.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Stupid stereo glasses? I've yet to see anything better even remotely in the same price range. I LOVED these. I hate the IHV's for not offering a better driver support for these.

Playing DX or Q3 or MDK2 with stereo glasses was a real blast

I have such stereo glasses, pissed off that I can't get them to work with D3D games (using a ti4200, nvidia's stereo driver). else, it's great in glquake, barring the ghosting with high contrasts.
The glasses are still sold today under the e-dimensional brand but they haven't changed since the voodoo2 days.. maybe we could have faster and better LCD obturators and thus less ghosting. What killed those glasses is the demise of CRT (which were still making huge progress. 19" with good frequencies had become mainstream, had R&D continued we might have really great monitors ..)

 

[Guden Oden]

One of the big problems back then was the limited LCD quality and resolution.

I'd say a much bigger problem than that was the god-awful slow motion tracking those things had back then. Today, a couple match head-sized MEMS devices could probably provide a near flawless and almost lag-free tracking experience, but those old magnetic sensors were pure shit. It felt so fake when the screens could only update the view at something like 2-4FPS. Yes, I tried one on in the early 90s, driven by a half-million (if not more) SKR quad-CPU Silicon Graphics Onyx 3D workstation. Maybe it worked for 3D visualization, but the immersion was nearly non-existant.

 

[swaaye]

I'd say a much bigger problem than that was the god-awful slow motion tracking those things had back then. Today, a couple match head-sized MEMS devices could probably provide a near flawless and almost lag-free tracking experience, but those old magnetic sensors were pure shit. It felt so fake when the screens could only update the view at something like 2-4FPS. Yes, I tried one on in the early 90s, driven by a half-million (if not more) SKR quad-CPU Silicon Graphics Onyx 3D workstation. Maybe it worked for 3D visualization, but the immersion was nearly non-existant.

Hmmm. I can't remember how well the VFX-1 set worked. I just remember that it did. I wouldn't surprised at all if it was a very choppy, slow experience though. This was probably 1995 or so, with 486s or low-end Pentiums used and no 3D cards at all. VFX-1's interface card is ISA-based.

 

[Squeak]

Like Simon F says, you really need an infrared camera looking into the eyes of the user, to determine what he/she is looking at and what the focus of the lens is . Otherwise it will just look like the old "flat" 3d glasses stereoscopic view.
What's more, a lot of users very quickly develops eye fatigue (real physical pain) because their eyes will get confuse that they only have one focal plane for all depths.
So making a good VR headset is a bit more involved than just slapping a couple of cheap LCDs and a motion sensor on a helmet.