Oculus Rift Discussion

[noiseredux]

just got an email from Fedex saying that my OSVR Hacker kit has been delivered. I'll let you guys know how it goes tonight!

[noiseredux]

alright, so my OSVR HDK did show up. After unboxing, connecting everything, installing all the software and drivers I then spent nearly two hours trying to get it to work right. Let me explain: OSVR can render in two ways. There's direct and extend modes. In direct the headset is black until you fire up VR content. This is because it is literally going direct from the GPU to the device. This is actually kind of ideal, but it only works with stuff made explicitly for OSVR as far as I can understand. So really the extended mode is better for accessing all other content. In this mode Windows treats the HDK as another monitor. Here's where my headaches set in.

I spent a lot of time dicking around with this. The tl;dr version is that in extend mode the HDK would output all content upside-down. And if I just cloned the displays it worked right, but it would only assign the HDK as my primary monitor, so I couldn't *see* what I was trying to do on my main monitor. There were other issues like this, and it went on long enough that I could feel myself getting frustrated. I eventually was able to set it so that Windows stopped treating the HDK as primary, and it outputted the content right-side-up on the HDK via deeper display options in my Nvidia control center program.

The first thing I fired up was a little demo thing called OSVR Tracker. Basically this is just a thing that'll confirm that the IR camera is receiving your head movements. Worked.

Next I tried an OSVR demo called Palace. This is a Unity demo where you're in some kind of castle. Oddly, no matter what I did I could not get the keyboard or a controller to be recognized. There was a key config in the launcher, but I don't know. The launcher is nice though - you pick resolution, pick inputs, and pick which monitor to load it to which is a nice touch to make this easier in extended mode. So basically all I could was stand in the middle of the room and look around. But having said that, this really did look good. It was definitely immersive. And your brain really does start to feel "tricked" by the environment.

I also tried to get a demo called Dreadeye working. Another Unity demo. This one however had no launcher I could see. Instead it just started the demo in fullscreen on my desktop. So I had to window it and then move it over to the HDK. But it didn't seem to be formatted for VR. I was confused, but I had had enough for the night.

So my initial impression I guess isn't even fully formed yet as I spent so much time just trying to get things set up. As SonicR (and other sources) have mentioned, the HDK is literally a hacker dev kit... this isn't a retail product yet and as such it requires plenty of tinkering. There's also not a ton of info out there for troubleshooting and so on. There is an OSVR forum, but it's still small. There's a nice Reddit thread that attempts to compile a lot of info as well. But that's about it.

I'm pretty sure I'll still have more screwing around to do before getting SteamVR stuff to work on here successfully.

The build of the HDK is solid. It feels expensive, haha. Even the packaging and manual is really really nice for a dev kit. It's not super heavy or uncomfortable to wear either. I've been opting to take my glasses off and adjust the lenses accordingly. A side note, the lenses feel really close to you in the headset. Like, if I were to wear my glasses, I think they'd be touching the lenses. It's weird. I also feel like the lenses were fogging/smudging fairly easily. Maybe I'm not quite wearing the HDK right - too loose or too tight or lowered down too much so that it's taking in some of the exhale from my nose? Not sure.

Also, maybe related to "not wearing it right?" is that I noticed that some of my head movements made the screen "bounce" around... so again I'm thinking maybe it's too loose on my head or something? It doesn't feel like the headset is bouncing, but the screen is. Maybe the motion sensor itself is too loose on the HDK?

I didn't notice any motion sickness or anything, although I wasn't actually *inside* the VR all that long. I did notice a sensation after using it like my balance had to adjust to IRL again or something. Almost like a slight vertigo as my brain realized "oh ok, we're not in VR anymore." I sometimes get a similar sensation after being on the treadmill for a half hour though and then adjusting to just standing still, so maybe it's just my own equilibrium.

[isiolia]

If you haven't run through the setup for SteamVR, you may want to do that - or try anyway. That'd at least let things that are written for that (possibly) work. It requires that initial setup process to register/calibrate things before it'll be available.

Wearing glasses with the Rift does feel like the lenses would touch, but there's enough clearance there. Can't adjust to compensate either way, so there's not much choice. Not sure on your headset.

Motion sickness tends to be less of a problem if you're not moving in VR. I think that's part of the ratings that Oculus gives things for comfort. Standing in one place and looking around is pretty tolerable. Start zipping around and it's a different story.

[noiseredux]

given that this has pretty much just turned into "VR: The Thread," I'll continue posting here...

Because getting the OSVR HDK set up and working properly has been so time consuming, I really haven't had a chance to mess with it in a while. Over this past weekend I spent several hours trying to finally rectify that. The end result was me packing it back up with a nasty look on my face.

The bottom line is that I'm able to get the HDK working, basically. I can run the OSVR "Palace" demo for instance. But it seems like if I try to run other things I have to tweak things that will mess up OTHER things. If that makes sense. To try to elaborate, I get the Palace demo working and then I try to run another OSVR flight demo that's out there. This one for some reason reverses the lenses, so that the left screen shows up in the right eye, and the right in the left. Ugh. I try to fix that and then the Palace demo gives me a white screen. It just seems like every change to fix one thing breaks another.

My bigger issue has been SteamVR, though. Basically if I could get SteamVR working I'd be happy. It would give me a lot of stuff to play. But OMG I just can't get it to work! I spent HOURS trying various guides to set it up. Nothing works. I tried beta builds. I installed numerous versions of drives. Updated firmwares. But all I did was waste time.

So yeah, I'm strongly considering giving up on this thing. As much as I enjoy tinkering, I just don't have the time for this. It's not rewarding enough a project. I am apparently, not a "hacker" haha. The sad truth is, I was hoping this would be a cheap entry to VR. Well the HDK is a solidly built kit, but I'm just not smart enough for it I guess! I just really wish that a consumer kit like the Rift or Vive were, I don't know... half the price that they are. :\

[noiseredux]

I've reached out for help on my OSVR HDK on the official forums, so I'm still hopeful I can get this up and running. New plan is to uninstall EVERYTHING related to OSVR and start from scratch. Maybe fresh installs/new drivers will fix things. Not sure when I'll have time, but fingers crossed. I really want to play House Of The Dying Sun and Lucky's Tale in VR.

[noiseredux]

so I finally admitted to myself that I needed a new phone and that it was time to stop buying cheap ones every 6-12 months. So I bit the bullet and went for a Galaxy S7. I got a crazy good deal which unbeknownst to me also included a $100 gift card... which meant I got a "free" Gear VR.

I have to say I am utterly impressed with what this headset can do with an Android phone. Wow. I sat in awe just loading up the Netflix app. Haha.

[TSTR]

Gear VR is fuckin sick; I wish I had a smartphone.

[noiseredux]

I'm not sure if I should just start a dedicated GearVR (or mobile VR in general) thread instead of continuing to post here?

Anyway, I ordered a BT controller for my GearVR because I discovered this:




Oculus Arcade is a virtual arcade you walk around in and play various retro games. I guess they are on free play for like 20 and then you can decide if you want to buy them for your arcade.

Game list is really interesting...

Bandai Namco

Pacman (1980)
Galaga (1981)

Midway

APB (1987)
Defender (1981)
Joust (1982)
Gauntlet (1985)
Gauntlet II (1986)
Rampage (1986)
Root Beer Tapper (1983)
Spy Hunter (1983)

Sega

Altered Beast (1988)
Golden Axe (1989)
Phantasy Star II (1989)
Shinobi III (1993)
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992)
Sonic Spinball (1993)
Streets of Rage (1991)
Streets of Rage 2 (1992)
Virtua Fighter 2 (1994)
Ecco the Dolphin (1992)

[noiseredux]

I was never able to get House Of The Dying Sun nor Lucky's Tale to work w/ my OSVR HDK. Just too much work. I realized via the GearVR that I'd much much rather have a consumer device than a dev kit. So, the OSVR is now on eBay.

Hopefully I'll get lucky and find an Oculus Rift (consumer version) at a discount in the future. I guess I'll have to play House Of The Dying Sun w/o VR for now anyway.

I did try this app that actually lets you play PC games streamed to the GearVR. While I must say it felt incredible to be magically transported off to Skyrim and be able to look around from inside a world that felt so familiar - I started to get really queezy really quickly. Not sure if it was the settings, or the choppy frame rate or more likely - that my brain just couldn't understand the disconnect between the kb/m and my own head being able to move around.

[noiseredux]

isiolia, you've had yours for a while now. What's your thoughts after having more time to play with it? What games have you played? What has impressed you most? How often do you find yourself actually using it?