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Oculus Rift is an HMD with an Immersive 90-degree FoV, to be funded by Kickstarter

post #1 of 27
5/30/12 at 12:55pm
Thread Starter 
Some smart guy from the MTBS3D forum has working prototypes of an HMD with a 90 degree field of view for immersive 3D gaming. He's hoping to crowd fund the project with Kickstarter to create an upgradeable HMD kit with a target price of around $500. What's even more interesting about this is that John Carmack of Id (Doom, Wolfenstien, etc.) fame has apparently taken great interest in the HMD (called the Oculus Rift) and has been testing it with Doom 3 BFG which is set to release later in the year. Carmack says that Doom 3 BFG will have full support for existing HMDs and for the Rift's high field of view.

The Verge ran a story earlier about it (link included in the story below), but it felt like it was missing a lot of backstory about the Oculus Rift itself so I went digging and here's everything that I found:

http://roadtovr.wordpress.com/2012/0...kstater-video/
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post #2 of 27
5/30/12 at 1:04pm
Now THAT's interesting! While HMDs from Sony and Silicon Micro Display are nice you can't call them a virtual reality headsets because of their 40-45 degree FOV. I was waiting for this.
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post #3 of 27
5/30/12 at 1:09pm
Thanks, benz.

"While the FoV is great, the Oculus Rift is still a very early prototype and has some issues, the biggest of which is a low resolution. The display is a single 1280×800 panel which devotes half of itself to each eye making the effective resolution 640×800 far behind the ST1080′s 1080p displays and the HMZ-T1′s 720p OLED displays."

I'm not a gamer, I'm a movie and TV watcher, but I can tell you that even if such a device were to upgrade to use Full HD, 1080x1920 panels, eventually, that's simply not enough pixels for a massive 90 FOV. It would be like looking at a giant image of individual dots.
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post #4 of 27
5/30/12 at 1:33pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by m. zillch View Post

Thanks, benz.

"While the FoV is great, the Oculus Rift is still a very early prototype and has some issues, the biggest of which is a low resolution. The display is a single 1280×800 panel which devotes half of itself to each eye making the effective resolution 640×800 far behind the ST1080′s 1080p displays and the HMZ-T1′s 720p OLED displays."

I'm not a gamer, I'm a movie and TV watcher, but I can tell you that even if such a device were to upgrade to use Full HD, 1080x1920 panels, eventually, that's simply not enough pixels for a massive 90 FOV. It would be like looking at a giant image of individual dots.

Yeah the resolution is certainly a concern. Carmack says from his testing that "The resolution is low for this large of an FOV; you can definitely see the pixels, and most people who have tried it on have commented about it relative to the HMZ-T1 that they had seen before. With such large pixels you want to take extra care to avoid aliasing - I wound up supersampling a fair amount in addition to using 4x MSAA for best results."

The issue, as I see from what I've read about this, is that the display they are using is the right size and there isn't a good mass produced alternative with a higher resolution. From what I gather, the Rift is using a single display panel (like what you'd find on a smartphone) rather than individual microdisplays like the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. If they could find a reasonably priced and appropriately size alternative, I'm sure they'll put it in. A 1920x1080 panel would mean effectively 960x1080, which would be pretty good.
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post #5 of 27
6/2/12 at 10:00am
That kind of resolution spread over that wide of a FOV is going to look horrible.

You need to think of it this way, that's 600x800 spread over twice the FOV of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. Now your pixels are going to be twice as large. You can't get twice the FOV with half the resolution and expect it to be anywhere near the quality of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. People will quickly berate the device once they've gotten over the FOV.

You'll be legally blind with this HMD. Like the HMDs in the 90's.
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post #6 of 27
6/3/12 at 4:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mellott124 View Post

That kind of resolution spread over that wide of a FOV is going to look horrible.

You need to think of it this way, that's 600x800 spread over twice the FOV of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. Now your pixels are going to be twice as large. You can't get twice the FOV with half the resolution and expect it to be anywhere near the quality of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. People will quickly berate the device once they've gotten over the FOV.

You'll be legally blind with this HMD. Like the HMDs in the 90's.

The target group for this hmd are gamers, not movie lovers. The pixel will be stretch horizontally by the lens more on the edges.
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post #7 of 27
6/3/12 at 4:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjyap View Post


The target group for this hmd are gamers, not movie lovers. The pixel will be stretch horizontally by the lens more on the edges.

Since when don't gamers care about resolution?
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post #8 of 27
6/4/12 at 12:18pm
The author is going in the right direction with these. I'm sure John Carmack does know a thing or two about 3D entertainment.
But I'm afraid this first model won't be perfect (have high enough resolution) simply because of insufficient financing. How well it goes afterwards depends solely on how it will be accepted and supported (financially) among consumers and representatives of industry (such as Carmack).
Just being Cpt.Obvious here.
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post #9 of 27
6/4/12 at 8:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by m. zillch View Post

I'm not a gamer, I'm a movie and TV watcher, but I can tell you that even if such a device were to upgrade to use Full HD, 1080x1920 panels, eventually, that's simply not enough pixels for a massive 90 FOV. It would be like looking at a giant image of individual dots.

The resolution is a huge negative, especially that resolution, but i currently play at 720p on a 46" 3dtv which gives me a FoV of about 82 degrees, which has less than half of the pixels of 1080p and its a greater experience than 2560x1600 on a 30" Dell in 2D. That said, since gaming at 1080p in 3D is not much more demanding than 720p, i'd try very very hard to find a manufacturer that would sell small 1080p LCDs, or even oleds, cheaply. 640x800 is kind of a step backward. I can already pull my monitor or 3DTV closer to get a 90 degree FoV.
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post #10 of 27
6/6/12 at 12:09pm
Thread Starter 
Some new details about the Oculus Rift including a target price of $500 for the kit!

http://roadtovr.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/early-oculus-rift-specifications-and-official-site-confirms-500-target/
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post #11 of 27
6/7/12 at 11:45pm
At 500$, this awesome piece of hardware is a must-have for an enthusiast gamer. Also, nice logo.
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post #12 of 27
6/8/12 at 8:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tory40 View Post


i currently play at 720p on a 46" 3dtv which gives me a FoV of about 82 degrees.
Out of curiosity, do you watch TV and movies at a 23" distance from your 46" display, as well? Or just games?
Edited by m. zillch - 6/8/12 at 9:06am
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post #13 of 27
6/8/12 at 5:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mellott124 View Post

That kind of resolution spread over that wide of a FOV is going to look horrible.


You need to think of it this way, that's 600x800 spread over twice the FOV of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. Now your pixels are going to be twice as large. You can't get twice the FOV with half the resolution and expect it to be anywhere near the quality of the HMZ-T1 or ST1080. People will quickly berate the device once they've gotten over the FOV.


You'll be legally blind with this HMD. Like the HMDs in the 90's.

It is actually not as bad as you think. The optics compress the image in a way that gives you more pixels in the center, and fewer in the periphery. Heck, you give a pretty good review on your own site to the MRG2.2, and the Rift has a pixel density several times greater than that, and weighs 90% less to boot! wink.gif

It is not meant to compete with the ST1080 or the HMZ-T1, those are both still great products with a ton of great qualities. I am biased, obviously, but I think the Rift is great for what it is: A high FOV, lightweight, easy to modify HMD kit for VR enthusiasts.
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post #14 of 27
6/9/12 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by m. zillch View Post

Out of curiosity, do you watch TV and movies at a 23" distance from your 46" display, as well? Or just games?
Lol, no, just games, and i increase the rendering field of view in the games settings as well. For movies, i'll watch in a window or back up and relax on my couch. In games, i can lean forward and the depth diminishes, but things look closer, which is sometimes a good thing.
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post #15 of 27
7/30/12 at 9:01pm
Thread Starter 
The Oculus Rift Kickstarter is going to be launching really soon! I just pulled together all the latest info here:

http://www.roadtovr.com/2012/07/30/oculus-rift-kickstarter-watch-prototype-and-other-updates/
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post #16 of 27
8/3/12 at 7:10am
Amazing response so far.

I've pledged $330 for the dev kit.
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post #17 of 27
8/3/12 at 8:49am
I hope the final version works good on HD movies besides over emphasizing on pc gaming.
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post #18 of 27
8/4/12 at 12:23am
Nobody has posted this yet?
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post #19 of 27
8/5/12 at 8:21am
The creator, Palmer had mentioned the initial version will only support games with pre-warp image built-in. The first game to support it would be DOOM3:BFG version. He even mentioned multiple times to discourage average consumer not to set that expectation that the unit can be use for 3D movie (unless you can use shader to warp the final image in SBS mode) or standard commercial game. If you are expecting a perfect HMD, then this is not for you.
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post #20 of 27
8/20/12 at 4:58am
Oculus Rift kickstarter - 11 days to go.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game?ref=live

Also, this thread's name has to be edited - Rift has a 110-degree FOV.
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post #21 of 27
9/4/12 at 12:20am
Kickstarter has ended with 9,522 backers. $2,437,430 pledged of $250,000 goal! There's no reason not to succeed with 10 times more funding than planned. Anyone on this forum expects a developer set?
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post #22 of 27
9/4/12 at 5:48am
Yep I'm in. Can't wait.
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post #23 of 27
9/7/12 at 2:07pm
Yup, I'm in too. Actually, I pledged for a headset on the first day - such was my excitement. Personally I think it has the potential to be the most significant step forward in interactive entertainment in my lifetime, or it could be a horrible disaster! wink.gif

Anyway, to channel my new obsession into something useful, I went and created my first ever website: www.riftvr.com

.. might be of interest to some of you. Or not.

Anyway, December cannot be here soon enough. Best. Xmas. Pressie. Ever! smile.gif
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post #24 of 27
9/11/12 at 6:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by muterobert View Post

Anyway, to channel my new obsession into something useful, I went and created my first ever website: www.riftvr.com
.. might be of interest to some of you. Or not.
Very nice smile.gif
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post #25 of 27
1/27/13 at 7:58pm
I preordered a dev kit!

https://www.oculusvr.com/pre-order/

My computer sucks, but I can run Valve games in stereo, that I know for sure. I might have a new PC by April anyway.

Oh, and they're going to show the Rift on Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night. He always reacts over the top with stuff so it'll be fun to see this one, since even the authentic reactions to the Rift have been pretty emotional!
Edited by cakefoo - 1/27/13 at 8:06pm
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post #26 of 27
1/28/13 at 6:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cakefoo View Post

I preordered a dev kit!
Quite a lot of people preordered it but we haven't seen any impressions yet.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cakefoo View Post

Oh, and they're going to show the Rift on Jimmy Fallon Wednesday night. He always reacts over the top with stuff so it'll be fun to see this one, since even the authentic reactions to the Rift have been pretty emotional!
Post a link for us afterwards, ok?
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post #27 of 27
2/4/13 at 12:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjyap View Post

The creator, Palmer had mentioned the initial version will only support games with pre-warp image built-in. The first game to support it would be DOOM3:BFG version. He even mentioned multiple times to discourage average consumer not to set that expectation that the unit can be use for 3D movie (unless you can use shader to warp the final image in SBS mode) or standard commercial game. If you are expecting a perfect HMD, then this is not for you.

And I'm glad he did...

I would have been in on this except for that fact.

I can handle low res, no biggie for me but I need the option to use it on a lot of content...

Shame and hopefully they resolve the resolution issue reasonably soon as I am in for one that supports a broad range of products even at 720p 90fov.
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