Oculus Rift Consumer unit 1 on schedule ( Announced on Twitter )

[Euskotracks]

How much of a separate effort will be required by ISI to implement each brand of VR? I mean will there be much commonality between them so that ISI doesn't get burdened down as several VR brands dribble into the market? They claim that they will tackle Occulus when it finally goes commercial but what of the others?

VR is just emerging. It will eventually reach a standard which I see it happening soon. In the end it is nothing different from rendering a scene from two very close viewpoints and sendingthe composed image to a regular display.

IMO where there should be more advances is in the rendering engines theirself which will help improving performance. A much required thing. For example:

Being able to create faster rendering due to the fact that both independent images are very similar (mpg compression concept

Also the possibility to use different resolution/quality in the perpheria compared to the center of each eyescreen.

We'll see....

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[Comante]

I think you are making things a bit oversemplified. Each system will have their proprietary optics, and from what I understood, the image each lenses will capture need to be deformed accordingly to be perceived by your eye correctly. Unless this step is done by the hardware itself, then each developer must take into account the specific of each product to deliver and image with the right characteristics.

 

[Euskotracks]

I would understand that the optical transformation should be done by the graphical engine and not by the hardware. Otherwise I would expect that some distortion and quality loss would occur considering the pixelated input The pixelation should be the last step I would think. The stereoscopic FOV to be displayed needs to be defined as well and it is very likely different to a regular rectangular monitor. I would expect it not "rectangular".

But apart of that, I would expect that the optical transformation to be a relatively simple thing to do in terms of computation and very similar in concept independently from the optics. Someone may correct me.

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[Kokomo]

I've heard that sort of thing from a number of people, even with triples.

I've ordered one anyway. April, it reckons.

And you will not be disappointed, I've tried the CV1 Rift already. Thanks to everyone supporting VR this early, we need to not only spread the word, but let people try our systems to convince them it's worth the price, or at least something worth having when the price is lower

 

[Markj]

Just going back to Woodee's comment a few pages back. How have people that are using the rift coping with not being able to see hands, keyboard etc? It's my big concern for example setting pit menu and finding headlight button etc.

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[DrR1pper]

Just going back to Woodee's comment a few pages back. How have people that are using the rift coping with not being able to see hands, keyboard etc? It's my big concern for example setting pit menu and finding headlight button etc.

Sent from my Sony Z3 using Tapatalk

When i had the dk2 and was using it in live4speed, i had no problems pressing the correct button on my wheel as i was driving. In the same/similar way that i need not look at my 360 controller when using it. I know my wheel, i know where all the buttons and switches are located that i don't need to look. If you have a separate button box however, i can imagine it being genuinely tricky.

 

[Markj]

When i had the dk2 and was using it in live4speed, i had no problems pressing the correct button on my wheel as i was driving. In the same/similar way that i need not look at my 360 controller when using it.

Do you really need the buttons on the wheel then? Thinking about it wouldn't need the look left and look right buttons so that's two wheel buttons saved ;-)

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[DrR1pper]

Do you really need the buttons on the wheel then? Thinking about it wouldn't need the look left and look right buttons so that's two wheel buttons saved ;-)

Indeed, look left and right were/are obsolete. But i'd still want/need buttons for pit limiter, brake bias, horn, lights, vote yes/no, etc.

 

[Guimengo]

GP Bikes is already compliant to the software for CV1... though a lot of the rest of the game is still missing

 

[Woodee]

Indeed, look left and right were/are obsolete. But i'd still want/need buttons for pit limiter, brake bias, horn, lights, vote yes/no, etc.

I guess the only other way to do it would be voice recognition.

 

[gkz]

if u want to see ur button take the vive

 

[nipzon]

If you don't want voice control, buttons on the steering will have to do. Feel sorry for the sim dash, gaming monitor and button box guys as they will become obsolete until OR gets the same type of external camera like the vive, or you buy the vive instead of OR.

Looking forward to the day all games are VR compatible which means by that time my sim would have changed as well. Not sure at the moment what to do with all the extra bits and what it will look like in the end.

 

[Euskotracks]

It is not only about buttons when driving. I own a dk2 and the disconnection to the outside is total. You can't interact with your PC with the keyboard. The fact of not including a front camera has disappointed me a lot. For me it is a big point in favor of HTC Vive.

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[Ozzy]

Some of the problems could be tackled from the software side with clickable cockpits and overlays/HUDs. You only have to know where your mouse is...

 

[Saabjock]

It'd be really nice to have a mini camera mapped to a wheel button, which gave a momentary picture-in-picture view of the stuff in front....wheel, desk etc....

 

[Euskotracks]

Regarding front cameras:

Considering that these are VR devices, I would also have expected not only one camera, but two cameras!!! One per eye of course. It would be the best way to combine VR with AR. The possibility to recreate a 3D environment requires it. It would make of the VR helmet also a 3D scan.

I wouldn't be surprised if the so important technology advance mentioned by HTC to justify the delay in their device has something to do with this.

On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if Oculus announces a new more advanced CV2 version around mid year once the deliveries of the enthusiasts are complete. Many of them will probably buy the CV2 as well. They didn't have the patience to wait, compare and decide for the best option. They will realize that this CV1 will become obsolete comparatively in quite a short time.

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[djbob]

Regarding front cameras:

Considering that these are VR devices, I would also have expected not only one camera, but two cameras!!! One per eye of course. It would be the best way to combine VR with AR. The possibility to recreate a 3D environment requires it. It would make of the VR helmet also a 3D scan.

That's a really good point

 

[gkz]

Regarding front cameras:

Considering that these are VR devices, I would also have expected not only one camera, but two cameras!!! One per eye of course. It would be the best way to combine VR with AR. The possibility to recreate a 3D environment requires it. It would make of the VR helmet also a 3D scan.

I wouldn't be surprised if the so important technology advance mentioned by HTC to justify the delay in their device has something to do with this.

On the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if Oculus announces a new more advanced CV2 version around mid year once the deliveries of the enthusiasts are complete. Many of them will probably buy the CV2 as well. They didn't have the patience to wait, compare and decide for the best option. They will realize that this CV1 will become obsolete comparatively in quite a short time.

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cv2 mid year ?? What did u smoke ?

 

[Euskotracks]

cv2 mid year ?? What did u smoke ?

Well, they might call it CV1+ or CV1S...
Implementing a external camera does not seem a bit issue. Besides from announcement to availability some time is required for sure. Remember when was CV1 announced and when it will be finally available. From prototype to production it takes time.

Be sure in any case that if HTC wins the first battle, Oculus will strike back. And I am sure they will not wait one whole year. I do not think CV1 will be Oculus big bet for next Christmas (most likely VR big boom). So if Oculus needs to hold Vive's sells they will need to announce something better.

In any case the technology race that has started has already surpassed the `no return point`. Some will survive and some will die in it.



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[gkz]

That is dreaming not reality. Oculus needs the full year 2016 to !MAYBE! get a global release of there cv 1 headset. So the only thing they try to do is get enough cv1 to the world and be ready with the touch. The rift is allready on the max. price they don t do any light changes like "cv1+" do add a front camara etc. We are on 741 euro = 807 dollar in Germany. A Change of the cv 1 will be to expensiv and would make no sense for the manufacture process with is allready 100 % overload to get enough pieces.

It don t see a cv 2 before 2018.

 

[metalnwood]

My experience with using kb/mouse/wheel etc is not too bad.

The keyboard is useless and can't be used unless it is something that requires kb/mouse, then once you have your fingers on the asdw keys it's fine. No good at all when you need to occasionally reach for the f2, e, whatever and still need to concentrate on the game.

I use the mouse a lot for flying games and muscle memory always finds the mouse and navigating a 3d cockpit seems fine, just like using it on a desktop so it doesnt seem too different than using it on a monitor, not seeing the mouse isnt a problem for me.

Shifters are not a problem at all. I think you can see quite a few videos on youtube of people reaching for their shifter and never missing a beat. If you have some special requirement that only allows you to mount it in s stupid position then it might not be so easy.

I have a wheel with two buttons each side on top, 2 buttons and rotary each side down bottom. No issues using them in rift, accessing the right ones in good time, with the rotaries that the equiv of 14 buttons that are no problem after getting used to the positions. I couldnt say how difficult it would be with a lot more buttons.

One thing that could be OK on vr wheels would be a modifier switch so in different modes the buttons did something else, then you have 28 buttons on my wheel that are easy to access without looking. Obviously would have to be arranged so you are not switching mode all the time while racing but could be a good option to drive menus, votes etc.

Then voice activation.. I have not used it on RF but its great on iracing for pitstops etc. I understand voice doesnt feel right for some things, like DRS, seat of your pants stuff while racing. yuck, voice is just not right for that being able to talk to your pits and say 'splash, all tires' is very good and saves a lot of mucking about in an unrealistic way with buttons that get tied up. If I ran out of buttons then I could live with voice for stuff like wipers.

It doesnt seem like vive will be the answer to seeing your devices in a detailed way. They have taken the approach of the tron like view to not jar you with a view of the real world so that seems to be a decision on how they think that should work in VR. If you could see the outline of your KB I doubt you could identify the individual keys easily but I dont know for sure. As mentioned they dont have a 3d view with the camera and one of the reviewers mentioned that the scale of objects was wrong as the camera/software can only show the outline of where it is outside the vive but not put it in the correct 3d space inside the vive.

 

[maniac618]

just made an account to add to this. i bought rfactor 2 quite a while ago because my league switched to it. directly before the switch eventually happened the rift dk2 preorders opened and i was one of the first to jump in and buy one. at that time i thought isi would actually be on time with their support and was looking forward to league racing in my dk2.

once the rift arrived the only sim that supported the dk2 was live for speed. and man did i play the hell out of this just hotlapping in my dk2. after 5-10 minutes i was completely sure that i NEVER can go back to my monitor setup. nomatter what. i would rather drive in my vr headset alone then to spend the time in rfactor 2 without the rift.
i told the people in my league that they would have to understand that i signed off for only one season in hope they would support the rift soon enough for the season after. didnt happen. i looked back in to the forum from time to time but it didnt seem like there was progress. they said in more then 1 thread that the consumer version will be supported and actually closed some or at least one of those threads (as far as i remember). i was disappointed at how isi handled vr, but to be fair we are talking about development kits. so i can at least somewhat understand that it is a hassle to support ever changing runtimes.

in the end i switched to iracing and played about 175 races from november 2014 to december 2015. i havent looked back since. even if the community in a proper racing league is miles ahead of iracing i have to admit that the joy i got out of my dk2 in the countless "public" iracing races were more fun then i had in any league race. the buildup to a race in a league is different and all that surrounds it is better, but racing on a monitor compared to racing inside the rift is freaking night and day.

i never lost hope that they will be ready for cv1 and support it out of the box. but i am not so sure anymore. i would love to go back to my league and drive rf2 with my people. but for me it doesnt feel like isi has love vr somehow. i cant explain and cant understand but we here next to nothing from them.


edit: i should add that i of course tested the hacked together community mod support. but that wasnt a good enough experience compared to native support.

I haven't posted on these forums for ages, but just logged in to reply.

I agree with you 100%, I have a DK2 and pestered and hoped ISI would support it, but nope, not even when the competition were straight on it.

It's hard to explain to someone that hasn't tried it, but I now almost exclusively play Assetto Corsa because they implemented support for the DK2. Once you try VR sim racing, you never want to go back to any sort of screen set up, ever.

ISI, I beg you, please have support for Oculus Rift CV1. It is out in April. Good luck.

 

[Narrowbackwing]

Isi have said the will look into it , give them time to see how it works in house first , why would they say there going to support it now if they don't even know there engine will work with it ---- AC support was crap IMO , it was only good for hot lapping .

Don't get me wrong rf2 is the one game I miss most on VR but Tim gets very pissed off when people keep asking will you support VR ---- he has answered this already below vvvvvvv.

----------------------
For those that do care, we'll be taking another look once the hardware is in the hands of the public. That's the same answer we've given for a long time. Time does not change anything except your perception.

 

[nipzon]

Ok.well the public should start receiving their rifts from March onwards so here is hoping to see support soon.

 

[WhiteShadow]

Indeed, look left and right were/are obsolete. But i'd still want/need buttons for pit limiter, brake bias, horn, lights, vote yes/no, etc.

+1
If you are racing endurance races and get minor damage which don`t cost you any time lost on the track and you don't want to repair this damage you simply can not edit pit menu not to repair damage before you enter to pit and it going to cost you lot of extra time in the pit lane. I own DK2 and Nvidia 3D vision>trackir>triple screens is much better suited to sim racing and it has better picture quality.
There are older technologies which rFactor 2 does`not support, first things first, I hope that ISI is not spending any to this unreleased and unemployed technology.

 

[Ozzy]

+1
If you are racing endurance races and get minor damage which don`t cost you any time lost on the track and you don't want to repair this damage you simply can not edit pit menu not to repair damage before you enter to pit and it going to cost you lot of extra time in the pit lane. I own DK2 and Nvidia 3D vision>trackir>triple screens is much better suited to sim racing and it has better picture quality.
There are older technologies which rFactor 2 does`not support, first things first, I hope that ISI is not spending any to this unreleased and unemployed technology.
[emoji14]

You have to request a pit stop and wait for pit crew to be ready in order to make your changes before entering the pit.

 

[gkz]

+1
If you are racing endurance races and get minor damage which don`t cost you any time lost on the track and you don't want to repair this damage you simply can not edit pit menu not to repair damage before you enter to pit and it going to cost you lot of extra time in the pit lane. I own DK2 and Nvidia 3D vision>trackir>triple screens is much better suited to sim racing and it has better picture quality.
There are older technologies which rFactor 2 does`not support, first things first, I hope that ISI is not spending any to this unreleased and unemployed technology.

Thats ur opinion. My opinion is that u talk complete bull**** and ur triple screen is waste of money. i would never go back from dk 2 allready and why should i ? i mean vr is the future and triple screens with trackir is just a worst option than vr. Makes no sense at all what ur talking.

 

[PaulG]

I'm not really following the pitstop issues being discussed. Aren't all of these addressable with Voice Attack? It's not like it's unrealistic either. These are all things you'd be communicating via voice in real life anyways.

Ok.well the public should start receiving their rifts from March onwards so here is hoping to see support soon.

How? If Oculus holds steady to CV1 only working with the latest SDK, it's not going to support anything but Windows and DX11+. Only hope for DX9 support is if Tim can get one of those 7000+ Vive headsets that HTC claims they're going to start sending out to developers (assuming VR is of any interest to him at this point).

 

[WhiteShadow]

Thats ur opinion. My opinion is that u talk complete bull**** and ur triple screen is waste of money. i would never go back from dk 2 allready and why should i ? i mean vr is the future and triple screens with trackir is just a worst option than vr. Makes no sense at all what ur talking.

Makes no sense to you, how come?

 

[WhiteShadow]

You have to request a pit stop and wait for pit crew to be ready in order to make your changes before entering the pit.

Yes and how do you edit pit menu to not repair damage, wing, tire pressures, speed limiter etc. when you can not see bottoms or switches .

 

[PaulG]

Yes and how do you edit pit menu to not repair damage, wing, tire pressures, speed limiter etc. when you can not see bottoms or switches .

Voice attack. Tell your pit what you want.

 

[Ozzy]

Voice attack. Tell your pit what you want.

That would be "down", "left" because there is no extra button for not repair. Not so cool[emoji12] .
Obviously you cannot play the game without memorizing the position of your buttons. A shift function would be quite handy, so you can map many different actions to the same set of buttons.

 

[PaulG]

But you can make "down", "left" as part of your macro that's being triggered by your voice command. I don't think there's any real limit on how many button presses you want to include in an order. You can even set the time delay between each button "press" that's being entered.

Obviously this requires setting up macros that address particular circumstances, but it's not something that's limitless in potential issues.

 

[Tuttle]

Thats ur opinion. My opinion is that u talk complete bull**** and ur triple screen is waste of money. i would never go back from dk 2 allready and why should i ?

I remember 5 or 6 years ago, people telling me same things....that I was going to drop my heavy, expensive and obsolete PC/Workstations, in few months because they were dead tech already, because of the upcoming touch/pad era.

Today, after 6 years, a top touch pad can't manage 1/10 of what I still need to do with a Workstation. No way.

I wouldn't never drop my rims, shifters and button units to go blind. It's just a matter of what you need, really.

Maybe could be fun for some hotlapping... but really, racing without being able to access buttons, rotary and switches...and shifters... that's a no way for serious simracing. Pretty sure multiscreen and projections are still (and will be for a while) the way to go for pro simulators too.

 

[PaulG]

I never bought into those ipad/iphone predictions, but to be fair, on a global scale, they're true. The vast majority of people don't need a workstation/PC. And it's the reason PC sales keep setting records for biggest sales drops. I personally hate typing on tablets/phones, but for the masses, PC are for dinosaurs.

It probably helps that hipster desktops/laptops like Macs have keyboards that are beyond worthless. If typing is going to suck on your computer, it can suck just as well on a tablet.

 

[gkz]

I remember 5 or 6 years ago, people telling me same things....that I was going to drop my heavy, expensive and obsolete PC/Workstations, in few months because they were dead tech already, because of the upcoming touch/pad era.

Today, after 6 years, a top touch pad can't manage 1/10 of what I still need to do with a Workstation. No way.

I wouldn't never drop my rims, shifters and button units to go blind. It's just a matter of what you need, really.

Maybe could be fun for some hotlapping... but really, racing without being able to access buttons, rotary and switches...and shifters... that's a no way for serious simracing. Pretty sure multiscreen and projections are still (and will be for a while) the way to go for pro simulators too.

There are ways in future to see ur buttons with a cam. I mean htc allready have one in its just a matter of time how vr will improv things like this. But how many people will in the next years miss vr because of his buttons ? there not many..... I have a bodnar gt 3 wheel and use the buttons in vr without any problems. If u are in a race u have to use it blind anyway. Even if i would play on monitor i don t need to look at this. Its like esport to fast to look at ur buttons. But even with that would be a problem is this a reason to not change to vr. If ur happy with normal monitors in the future its ok. But fact is that most ppl want vr for racing. For me if we take phyiscs out vr is the biggest part for simracing to take it to another level, why should i miss this because of buttons ? Makes no sens at all.

 

[WhiteShadow]

There are ways in future to see ur buttons with a cam. I mean htc allready have one in its just a matter of time how vr will improv things like this. But how many people will in the next years miss vr because of his buttons ? there not many..... I have a bodnar gt 3 wheel and use the buttons in vr without any problems. If u are in a race u have to use it blind anyway. Even if i would play on monitor i don t need to look at this. Its like esport to fast to look at ur buttons. But even with that would be a problem is this a reason to not change to vr. If ur happy with normal monitors in the future its ok. But fact is that most ppl want vr for racing. For me if we take phyiscs out vr is the biggest part for simracing to take it to another level, why should i miss this because of buttons ? Makes no sens at all.

Did you know that it is possible to buy land from Mars. Should you miss this opportunity because there is no live out there at the moment? Makes no sense.
Go for it mate: https://www.moonestates.com/product/buy-land-on-mars/

 

[Guineapiggy]

But fact is that most ppl want vr for racing.

At best that's a dubious statement. Honestly for a number of the same reasons, (as well as a host of other new ones) it seems unlikely that VR will ever be anything other than a niche tool for enthusiasts. That's not a bad thing, the technology has significant merit in a lot of senses but its laundry list of drawbacks and limitations can't be ignored. Aside from anything else I'd guess the launch price of the rift says that the producers know that too.

 

[Tuttle]

For me if we take phyiscs out vr is the biggest part for simracing to take it to another level, why should i miss this because of buttons ? Makes no sens at all.

Because this is how I drive my real car; I watch the road flowing through my windshield and I use my hands to do manual operations.

Not sure why you want to convince people your opinions are facts and everything different from this make no sense. Told you, VR will be lot of fun for gaming but don't tell me it make no sense to not move on it. There'll be people who don't want to drop a full functional Formula wheel, a full functional handbrake, a H shifter, a sequential, a button set, rotaries for brake balance, switches for setups, Neutral button, Kers, DRS, PL, PIT, mapping buttons, wheel display function browsing etc etc.

You need just 1 single person, like me or anyone else, not moving on VR for these reasons to prove you're wrong.

For me, this still make a lot of sense.

 

[WhiteShadow]

Because this is how I drive my real car; I watch the road flowing through my windshield and I use my hands to do manual operations.

Not sure why you want to convince people your opinions are facts and everything different from this make no sense. Told you, VR will be lot of fun for gaming but don't tell me it make no sense to not move on it. There'll be people who don't want to drop a full functional Formula wheel, a full functional handbrake, a H shifter, a sequential, a button set, rotaries for brake balance, switches for setups, Neutral button, Kers, DRS, PL, PIT, mapping buttons, wheel display function browsing etc etc.

You need just 1 single person, like me or anyone else, not moving on VR for these reasons to prove you're wrong.

For me, this still make a lot of sense.

+100