Oculus Rift | FerrariChat

Oculus Rift

Discussion in 'Technology' started by bobzdar, Aug 13, 2013.

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  1. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    Does anyone here have one of these yet? I've been looking at previews of this for the last few weeks and it looks absolutely awesome. With native support for iRacing recently implemented, I went ahead and ordered the dev kit to give it a try. I would have waited for the consumer version but it's not going to be out until sometime next year at the earliest and I wanted to give it a try. It says it should ship in Sept., and if I'm lucky they'll have the 1080p screen that they've recently been demoing, but I'm not holding my breath. Since I can't drive my real car until mid October at the earliest, it might help get ready for some track action in the winter or spring. Do a youtube search for it if you haven't heard of it, it looks to be the next big thing in gaming/simulation.
     
  2. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

    Jul 11, 2005
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    Yeap, it looks interesting but there is a big issue that you need to develop a game to use it. So that practically rules out most peoples library of games. There are some big developers behind it but only a handful of games currently support it.

    I'm not sure how the market is going to go with this one, besides the hardcore gamers that don't mind spending $$$ on their rigs.

    Anyway keep us posted on your dev version :)
     
  3. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    The list of games that have support is already quite long and iRacing has native support, which is pretty much THE pc sim. As I've done some experimentation with 3d glasses and my dlp projector succesfully already and basically any game that supports trackIR (read: almost every racing sim made in the last 10 years) will work with it's head tracking, it should be workable in almost every racing sim I have. At this point, the iz3d and tridef drivers work with it, so between those 2, vireio and vorpx, most older games will work in some way or another. Now the HUD may be a bit screwed up in some games and some shaders might not work without a lot of finagling, but that's no biggie as I dealt with the same with the 3d glasses. Obviously, it won't be a plug and play deal for games without native support, but that's why it's a dev kit, and I went though the same thing successfully with the 3d dlp glasses so I'm not too worried.

    At $300 for the dev kit and the consumer version projected to be the same or less, I don't think this would be for hard core gamers only...At least that's not what their goal is, but we'll see. The more people get their hands on them, the more games that get some level of support. I already know Project Cars, race07, rfactor and rfactor 2 have been gotten working with it, but I plan to get Grand Prix Legends and GT Legends working as well. At least one of the F1 games (2011 I think) is working with it, so that would cover pretty much any racing series out there. It'll probably be 3 weeks to a month before they ship to me, so we'll see where they stand at that point and how hard it is to get them working.
     
  4. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

    Jul 11, 2005
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    Racing sims on PC = hardcore gamer ;)

    Plus it's not going to replace your monitor? All the demos I have seen are people using them for 5mins. Lets see how comfortable using these things for 2-3hrs at a time.

    I remember using the VR glasses back in the early 90's at Segaworld and thought they were cool but I'm sure people that used 3d glasses in the 50's thought the same thing ;)

    3D market isn't really working out that well because of the need for glasses and this might have the same issue.

    Unless they get these into the console market I still think it's a niche market for now...

    Look at all the motion devices out there, they are fun for awhile but get boring real quick because most people don't want to jump around in doors to unwind lol

    The trackIR system you mention I only know one person to have ever bought one.




    I'm only referring to the consumer model, you might have the best experience ever as an earlier adopter but it's the consumers that decide if it becomes a standard in the industry. :eek:
     
  5. Auraraptor

    Auraraptor F1 World Champ
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    Sep 25, 2002
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    Looks neat, but I never am able to tell what is the field of view that is achievable with these?
     
  6. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

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    Did you get it yet? some locals here have got theirs this week. They said it's the 720p version
     
  7. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    Not yet, should be first or second week of September.

    This is different than other VR stuff as the view moves with your head, so you're not just looking at a static 3d screen like with a tv with glasses etc. You can turn your head in a complete 360 and see the whole world in 360 degrees. The computing power just wasn't there to convincingly do VR with anything other than crappy vector graphics previous to now.

    As to my personal intended use, yeah niche market, but it's also really good for first person shooters, any other type of sim, visualizing any type of 3d model (architecture, etc.) and many other 'niche' markets that when taken together encompass most of the video game and 3d visualization market.

    FOV is around 110 degrees, or similar to your fov when wearing a helmet, ski goggles, etc. But, you can just turn your head and see an entire 360 degree view, so it's not as limited as say a monitor. The devs have pretty much said 720p until the consumer version as the resolution doesn't limit developing anything, so it doesn't make financial sense to release a higher res dev kit. Consumer version is supposed to be 1080p or better, but they are trying to make sure it doesn't require too much computer horsepower to put it back into that 'niche' market which much over 1080p would cause. I think 1080p will be fine if they use a screen with low inter pixel gap to mitigate the screen door effect.
     
  8. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    Wanted to bring this back up after a couple of weeks playing with the OR. All I have to say is that this is the future, but you can get a pretty good taste now. The resolution is somewhat low, but it is not distractingly so. In every other way it is incredible, especially in iRacing. I'm just now starting to experiment with getting it working in other (older) racing sims, but a lot has been done and is working with f1 2011 and 2012 (not 2013 completely yet).

    It actually looks like you are sitting in a car and you can look all around you, even behind you. Motion sickness is not an issue for the most part, though the OR in it's current state does not track your position (ie standing vs. sitting or leaning forward and back), just rotation, so if you start moving around in real life you will start to get sick as the view doesn't move with you. For example, sitting in the Lotus 49 in iRacing, if you try to lean out the side and look down you won't feel too well. If I just get in and race I can run for an hour or two without issue. It's incredibly immersive, much more so than a 2d screen. My normal setup is a 100" projector screen and it can't compare to feeling like you're actually in a car.
     
  9. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

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    I been reading that they are working on a 4k version which will remove the motion sickness some people are getting after 30mins~ of play.
     
  10. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    The resolution has nothing to do with the motion sickness, it's the motion tracking. If there's latency (due to low frame rate or game engine issues) or if you move up/down or forward/back in real life, you will get sick. In those instances, I can get nauseous in as little as 30 seconds. But, in iRacing where you're sitting fairly stationary and just looking around, I can play for hours without any motion sickness. Most of the demos are good but there are a few that have high latency (each movement you make has a delay before the game registers it) or some games that are poorly optimized and have low framerates, that are completely unplayable. The are fixing the positional tracking for the consumer version and the latency is already pretty low if properly implemented, so they're on the right track.

    The big issue will be that if people get a 4k version, they will need a computer with enough horsepower to run at 4k res with 3d enabled, which will not be a run of the mill computer. I have a fairly powerful PC and I know there's no way it'd keep up at 4k resolution without turning off a lot of the effects. So, you'd have to run newer games at a lower res and let the headset scale to 4k unless you have a monster of a PC. Honestly, the low res is not that big a deal, within a few minutes you forget about it for the most part. A high res screen would be nice but is really not as big a deal as the positional tracking.
     
  11. Vinny Bourne

    Vinny Bourne Formula Junior

    Nov 25, 2011
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    bought by FB this morning
     
  12. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

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    Well they finally announced the consumer version @ $US600 with a delivery date of May...

    https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

    You can also order a custom asus/alienware/dell PC on the site for another $1k to run it.

    I think the price point is too high for the average gamer but I'm sure it will be popular with the early adopters crowd who have no issue spending $$$ on crap they don't need.



    bobzdar: Do you still use yours regularly?
     
  13. SPEEDCORE

    SPEEDCORE Four Time F1 World Champ

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    Some interesting points.

    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAwXhbYM-UE[/ame]
     
  14. singletrack

    singletrack F1 Veteran

    Mar 16, 2011
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    I use the dev kit to train in iracing. Pre-ordered the consumer version...wish it were coming sooner.
     
  15. TheBigEasy

    TheBigEasy F1 World Champ
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    Jun 21, 2005
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    I tried an Oculus Rift at a virtual reality conference.

    It will be VERY interesting to see the world of V/R and A/R develop... I can imagine a ton of possibilities.

    Stuff like even this I think is really cool:
    BigScreen Beta on Steam
     
  16. piratepress

    piratepress Formula Junior

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    It will probably be the next generation of graphics cards (Nvidia GTX 1180?) before there's a VR-Ready single-card solution. This VR demo here required not one, but three, brand-new GTX 1080s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUL610qR6WM
     
  17. HotShoe

    HotShoe F1 Veteran
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    Still haven't give up on this.

    Just found out the Rift is coming to various Best Buys. As a matter of fact certain Best Buys are having demo days where you can check it out.
     
  18. singletrack

    singletrack F1 Veteran

    Mar 16, 2011
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    Got the consumer version. It's amazing. A must have IMHO. Also had a former Indy Lights driver and current imsa prototype lites driver on it and they were both blown away.
     
  19. HotShoe

    HotShoe F1 Veteran
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    Great to hear.

    I've been waiting to get my hands on one before I buy. Might just wait to see how Sonys version compares when they release it in Novermber.

    I'd love to her more about your rift experience. Any negatives?
     
  20. ryalex

    ryalex Two Time F1 World Champ
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    I was very interested in getting either Rift, Vive or PSVR... but it seems that none of them have that "killer app" yet.

    Where's their Halo?
     
  21. Innovativethinker

    Innovativethinker F1 Veteran
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    Aug 8, 2009
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    I have a rift, and just bought DJI for my new drone. They are ok. 30 minutes max for me, it does funny things to your head.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  22. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    If you're a car guy, there are 3 killer apps - iRacing, Assetto Corsa and Project Cars 2. iRacing if you want to race seriously, Assetto Corsa if you want to play with tons of cars (and lots of Ferraris/Lambos etc.) and pCars if you're just after a fun race here and there.

    As to other stuff, one of the most fun I've tried is Thrill of the Fight. It's a boxing 'sim', and is a real workout. I can make it around 4 rounds before my arms are too tired to hold up any more, but it's incredibly well done. Doom, Skyrim, Fallout and LA Noir are coming in the next few weeks which should be pretty good. I'm not too big into regular video games anymore, mostly racing sims and some of the other fun stuff.
     
  23. peterp

    peterp F1 Veteran

    Aug 31, 2002
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    My son is still having issues with Rift on iRacing. He returned the original Oculus set and got a replacement and is having the same problems in iRacing. He finally tried some other Rift apps and it seems to work fine on other those, but in iRacing it will work for maybe a quarter of a lap and then the viewpoint changes to some random location (I was looking at the pedals when I drove it and it stopped tracking). He's kind of given up and is running single projector monitor for now. I guess the fact that it works on other Rift apps means he should open a case with iRacing (Oculus support said they couldn't help because iRacing one of their officially supported apps).
     
  24. bobzdar

    bobzdar F1 Veteran

    Sep 22, 2008
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    I occasionally had this issue if my sensors moved at all after calibration. Solution was to hard mount them, haven't had a single tracking issue since.
     

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