VR discussion: Oculus Rift, Vive, Morpheus and more! (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

Yeah, the Vive clearly looks like the better forward-looking option but the Kotaku review highlighted a couple issues, primarily that the transmitter boxes can be lost by the headset and cause issues in games where suddenly your hand disappears or the image goes funky.

It looks like the Oculus provides a nearly perfect limited experience, while the Vive provides a very good open-er experience.

But nothing has been mind blowing to read about and I'm not throwing $1500-2000 down just to play Lucky's Tale or Fantastic Contraption. I'm happy waiting until October for PS VR.

 

[Sam Posten]

Oculus face is real!

Oculus face by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

REALLY enjoying Lucky's Tale and Adr1ft and Eve Valkyrie.

The lag is completely gone, should be zero sickness for folks. The screen door effect and blur from the fresnel lenses remain so it remains definitely an enthusiast thing, I can't see this version going mass market but I personally really dig it.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The screen door effect is from the resolution of the screen and the magnification of the lenses being high. If the pixels were more dense then you wouldn't see them. I don't think this really has anything to do with the fresnel lenses. I've read that the PS VR has pretty much no SDE because it used OLED RGB pixels for the screen, which sort of simulates a higher resolution than it is and creates fewer black spaces between pixels.

 

[Sam Posten]

Both Vive and Rift use OLED.

 

[Sam Posten]

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Yeah, I meant the PS VR uses an RGB setup (1920xRGBx1080) which makes the screen look denser than it really is. Resolution-wise, it's a 1080p display. But you don't really see the blank space between pixels like you saw in Oculus.

What's interesting is that I've read a bunch of reviews of Oculus, Vive, and PS VR and the consensus seems to be that Oculus offers the "worst" (very very very relative term) experience. It doesn't have motion controllers, emphasizes games that have you sitting, has the least comfortable screen, worst screen-door-effect, but at least it has those attached headphones. Don't get me wrong, the reviews for it have been amazing and everyone who used it absolutely loved it, but the Vive is going for that slightly-higher-priced market with an extensive gain in value motion controllers and room-scale VR) while the PS VR is much cheaper and offers more comfort and an extremely polished experience (plus includes motion controllers). Granted, by the time the PS VR is out, the Oculus will have already improved a bunch, but it just seems like they were in a rush to be first to market for a reason and will probably be crowded out before the competition.

 

[Sam Posten]

You're going to have to be more detailed than that because it doesn't make any sense at all technologically to me.

 

[Sam Posten]

Oh are you talking about subpixel layout? PenTile vs Stripe? Yeah that's not going to matter as much as you think. It doesn't change the native resolution any. It may account for a minor bit less difference between individual pixels but nothing you are going to be able to see without a microscope.
http://www.tested.com/tech/smartphones/1868-pentile-vs-real-stripe-amoled-displays-whats-different/

 

[Morgan Jolley]

The screen door effect is literally you seeing the black space between pixels. Everything I've read suggests the PS VR doesn't have SDE, or is at least way less noticeable than on the Rift. And when you're using optics to blow up a 5-6" screen that's right in front of your face...that's akin to using a microscope. (You'd be amazed at how small a magnification you'd need to really see the spacing.)

As an optical engineer, someone whose job is to literally design and test optics, I have absolutely no idea why fresnel lenses would create a screen door effect. A fresnel lens is designed to give the impact of a much larger optic in a much smaller space. The ones used in the Rift are pretty neat but they're also, frankly, too complicated and costly for the application. (Which is partially why the thing is so expensive AND there are delays due to supply constraints on the optics. Real shocker there.)

Supposedly, if you've set the focus just right then you shouldn't be able to see the SDE on the Rift. The lenses are supposed to be slightly out of focus so you can still see the image clearly but can't see the subpixel spacing. I was talking with a friend at work about the Rift and he also mentioned that if you're wearing it properly then you shouldn't have "Oculus face," either. So maybe you're wearing it too tightly and that's producing both the SDE and the marks on your face?

 

[Sam Posten]

Big VR release from Crytek today, The climb. I didnt want to eat $50 but bought it, downloading now. While waiting for that to install tho I ran through Episode 0 of The Foo Show. Holy crap, is that a game changer. You got to interact in the CampoSanto Firewatch hut in VR. AMAZING. They missed the panties under the bed tho, I spotted them right away!

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/28/11526150/crytek-the-climb-vr-oculus-rift-review

 

[Sam Posten]

Eve GUNJACK is HIGHLY recommended. The Climb is very cool but wait for the price to come down.

The Henry VR short is very cool for free.

 

[Sam Posten]

BAD ASS!

 

[Sam Posten]

My Vive has shipped!!!!

 

[Sam Posten]

My vive arrived today. Setup was pretty easy.

Vive arrive by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

(CopyNPaste from /r/vive discussion post)
I'm using 2 light stands to hold up the lighthouses or I'd have been screwed tho. I really don't wanna poke holes in the wall of my office as I'm pretty certain it's not a great setup for anything but seated VR.

I've been using an Oculus for the last month and it's PERFECT for seated VR so I was kinda curious how well the Vive would translate in this environment. Basically I'm seated behind a u-shaped desk and have about 4 feet of runway behind me. It's NOT a good setup for Room Scale. Bummer. I can definitely see I am going to want a second PC for the Vive for my living room, and will keep the Oculus in my office for sitting VR. Hopefully the 1070VR gets shipped soon. If there was a lightweight box like an Alienware x51 with a 1070 it would be perfect for me as a HTPC and Vive for Living Room and portable to go.

Is there a list of Vive games that support standing/sitting well?

Couple of immediate issues:
- Swapping the sound back and forth to the Vive via control panel is a pain in the ass. Is there no way to have it go both to my main speakers and the Vive headset?

-Not really sold on the earbuds after the awesomeness of the Oculus integrated headphones. Hope they do real cans for gen 2.

-I tried the Lab. It is no go for my use case. Too much moving around necessary. Setting it up for standing mode in Steam has it look like I'm 2 feet off the floor cause I used my desk as the floor as instructed.

-The sweet spot of focus is a lot more finicky on the Vive. The Oculus I can nail into the middle of my eyeballs by tugging it up and down a fraction of an inch on my face, but no matter what I do with the Vive it seems the sweet spot is is at the bottom of my site line. Weird.

-The intraocular setup sucks. There is no focus test? It just overlays a shitty sign telling you what the distance is without helping to you set it right.

-The controllers are fing AWESOME. Best part of it by far. And I own a Steam Controller and hate it. I want non VR games to support them =)

-I had no idea there were physical motors that produce a hum when in use in the lighthouses. There's no on off button? Do I need to pull the plug on them when not in use or will they sleep?

More to follow

 

[Sam Posten]

Imma leave this right here:

VR by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

VR was a big hit at our party this weekend!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Take him to your leader!

 

[Sam Posten]

10th generation Nvidia mobile chips are all VR ready. Pretty sweet!
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/08/nvidia-pascal-laptop-specs-gtx-1080/

They are all within a few percentage points of their desktop equivalent

I'm noodling getting this one for mobile VR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234297

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Suddenly in the past week or so, I'm seeing plastic Google Cardboard-esque VR helmets to clip your phone to in a bunch of stores for $15-$20. Tempting.

 

[Scott-S]

Sam, I am glad you liked the controllers. I work for a company that Designed a certain part on it. I personally tested these parts.
(I am not sure what I am alowed to say on an open forum)

We have two Vive set ups here at work and it has been fun to "test" (play) and get paid.

 

[Sam Posten]

Very cool Scott, anything more you care to share via PM stays with me!

I am more a fan of stationary VR than room scale but the controllers make me wanna moooove