Oculus Rift DK2

[Martha Stewart]

Odd that there is no discussion on the Display forum for the DK2. It seems like the ultimate display, and although its in beta I would assume some [H]'s display whores would have them by now?(my has now shipped can't wait till next week!)


anyone have one yet?

 

[Sancus]

I have one. I dunno about the ultimate display, but eventually I think something like this will be the ultimate gaming display, yeah.

At the moment, there are tons of caveats. Native game support is pretty uncommon, there are some big exceptions to this(Valve games, Elite: Dangerous, etc) but in general playing most games involves installing a third party driver and dealing with lots of weirdness.

As far as the display itself goes, it's a 1080p OLED, I think the same panel used in the Galaxy Note 3. It's not bad, but you are looking at a 1080p phone screen a couple inches away from your eyes through magnifying lenses. That means that there's substantial screen door effect. There's also some issues with chromatic abberration at the edges of the display right now(supposedly fixable in software), and you have to configure the whole thing very carefully to avoid blurriness/etc.

I honestly dunno how anyone used the DK1, I think this 1080p DK2 is about the minimum resolution I would accept for a display that's used so close to my eyes.

Of course, when you DO get everything working perfectly, the full VR experience is pretty awesome, there's no two ways about it. But it's definitely a prototype device, this still needs a lot of work to be usable for the average person.

 

[sharknice]

I don't own it but I was able to try it out a while. The low persistence was awesome, but there was a major screen door effect for me. They mostly just need to bump up the resolution to fix that.

 

[XoR]

Galaxy S3 screen is pentile display which is nowhere near optimal for Oculus Rift imho. Hope they will use RGB display in final version, and preferably something like 2560x1440 or more.

Still even with pentile and just 1080p DK2 sounds like a win compared to DK1.

 

[Church]

Whatever state Occulus is now, i still wish this project very best. As, damn, it's about time. There been many VR headset attempts before, none really took off for normal customers. This looks like it might.

 

[Sancus]

Galaxy S3 screen is pentile display which is nowhere near optimal for Oculus Rift imho. Hope they will use RGB display in final version, and preferably something like 2560x1440 or more.

Does anyone even m ake a 2560x1440 RGB OLED display in the ~5.5-6 inch size? I'm not aware of anyone other than Samsung, and they stick to Pentile mostly. It's unlikely Oculus would switch back to LCD because OLED has far better response times.and that's the most critical attribute that a VR display needs.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if the consumer version upgrades to a 1440p pentile OLED or even a 4K one if that becomes available by the time they release CV1. They do have Facebook money now as well, so it is possible they have enough funding to actually commission a custom-built OLED panel. But, I'm sure that there is a technical production reason that Samsung has stuck to building Pentile OLED displays and not RGB. If building an RGB OLED display substantially increases the cost to the end user, I doubt Oculus would go for it. They need the CV1 to be affordable. The best way to keep it affordable is to use a display that's already manufactured in the millions for an upcoming phone.

 

[nintari]

I have one. I dunno about the ultimate display, but eventually I think something like this will be the ultimate gaming display, yeah.

At the moment, there are tons of caveats. Native game support is pretty uncommon, there are some big exceptions to this(Valve games, Elite: Dangerous, etc) but in general playing most games involves installing a third party driver and dealing with lots of weirdness.

As far as the display itself goes, it's a 1080p OLED, I think the same panel used in the Galaxy Note 3. It's not bad, but you are looking at a 1080p phone screen a couple inches away from your eyes through magnifying lenses. That means that there's substantial screen door effect. There's also some issues with chromatic abberration at the edges of the display right now(supposedly fixable in software), and you have to configure the whole thing very carefully to avoid blurriness/etc.

I honestly dunno how anyone used the DK1, I think this 1080p DK2 is about the minimum resolution I would accept for a display that's used so close to my eyes.

Of course, when you DO get everything working perfectly, the full VR experience is pretty awesome, there's no two ways about it. But it's definitely a prototype device, this still needs a lot of work to be usable for the average person.

Agree!

I bought one within minutes of the pre-orders going up just to try.

Resolution wise yes it is 1920x1080, but... you are putting half that to each eye, AND even less in your immediate in focus view. So when you do go to play something like Half-Life 2 it feels like all the detail is lost and you are playing at 640x480.

The chromatic aberration issue is more so due to the software not correcting for the lenses properly... so it could be fixed software wise.

Another issue is smearing. This is very evident on the Tuscany demo, look at the stairs and move your head back and forth and you will see that shadows smear as you move. Now that you know what to look for you will see it everywhere lol

With all of that though I will strongly say this. It still is a game changer. The sense of presence is astounding. Being able to freely look around while in game was a great experience. Perfect example was in Half-Life 2 episode 2 toward the beginning when you and Alex are walking toward the abandoned town and the hunters are hopping all around you. I heard one to my left and quickly turned my head to see one go across a rooftop and dive down out of sight. And it felt natural.

 

[samborarocks]

Has anyone tried this in the DK2? I only have a DK1 and I'm waiting for my DK2 so I don't 'spoil the experience' in 'low res'.... It looks awesome!!.. If you tried it, how was the immersion factor?

https://share.oculusvr.com/app/star-wars-the-battle-of-endor

 

[CHANG3D]

New competitor to the Rift, Totem. 1080p RGB OLED!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2091603040/totem-the-premium-full-featured-virtual-reality-he

I hope Oculus Rift (Facebook) would add that internal focus lenses on the consumer edition.

 

[Church]

Even if competitors will release better specced products, imho occulus rift's main role of livening up said VR niche will still stay same. It's even better for end customers, if there are more competitors, as products will become better sooner and so will drop their prices. .. Unless vendors will make lame decision on making not-inter-compatible lock-in products/solutions, thus fragmenting niche, turning into many not compatible small segments of very few compatible products & software in each, killing yet another attempt of VR-for-masses.

 

[USMCGrunt]

I grabbed the DK2 and I gotta say, I think that some people have had too much of the koolaid or I have exceptionally sensitive vision. Anything that deals with distance viewing isn't possible....Or at least isn't easy. Trying to prepare for a corner in a racing sim gets me crossed up and my eyes blur between focusing on the pixels and focusing on the image. While Elite Dangerous is a pretty game, dumping it on the DK2 erases a lot of the prettiness and and again, long range shooting is a lot more difficult. Unfortunately, because of SDE, I haven't experienced any sense of presence. There wasn't any moment inside the Rift that I felt lost in the game, I was completely aware that I was wearing a screen on my face and the only sensation I felt in my body was a very slight amount of simulator sickness.

That said, given a screen with high enough resolution and games being built with VR in mind, I could see this taking off.