Hands On With Virtual Reality's Greatest Hope

adeelarshad82 writes "Oculus VR Rift is a one of the seventeen kickstarter projects to raise more than a million dollars in 2012 and a recently published hands-on shows exactly why it was so successful. Using Oculus VR Rift with the upcoming Infinity Blade and a modified version of Unreal Tournament 3, the analyst found that the 3D effect and head tracking provided a great sense of immersion. At one point while playing Infinity Blade, the analyst describes walking around the guards and watching their swords shift as he stepped, seeming like they were inches from cutting him. While he felt that the demo was impressive, he found that the software limitations made the whole experience a bit unrealistic. Needless to say that Oculus Rift is a long way from hitting stores but Oculus VR is getting ready to ship developer kits."

Still no eye tracking?

[Kenja]

Back in the 90s I worked a bit in VR & 3D video/movies. The big hope was always a way to track eye movement to vary the interocular distance based on what you where trying to focus on. There where some prototypes that where able to do this using infrared cameras to track your eyes and adjusting the software accordingly, but I have never seen a production system that did it. Until they get this working, VR will always feels forced because the software is deciding what you are looking at rather then your eyes.

Re:Still no eye tracking?

[Kenja]

You mean the 3D movies they had in the 50s and now again? They've not really changed that much, and people do get very tired of them, just like they do every decade. What's more, unlike a movie, in a VR game or environment you have control. The scene changes based on your actions, including tracking your head movement. No not change the focus based on what you are looking at makes it fairly unusable. In a game for example, you turn your head to look at an enemy, but its out of focus. You strain your eyes trying to focus on it, but it wont happen and you get a headache.

Re:Still no eye tracking?

[dpidcoe]

As a trackIR user, I can say that when using these sorts of devices it's helpful to think of your head as controlling a joystick that's moving your view, rather than being directly linked (most people set their trackIR profiles up to amplify movement on a curve, which also helps break that illusion). You don't get annoyed at having to move your hand a little bit to see something in an FPS when you could have just flicked your eyes instead because your brain understands that the mouse is a controller. It doesn't need to be any different for your head.

Also, one of the features of the rift that makes it different is that it has a wide FOV, so there's much less of the looking through a straw feeling that happens with current gen VR headsets.

Re:Still no eye tracking?

[Anonymous Coward]

This can lead to a very unsettling uncanny effect. I remember watching a video for a photorealism mod for GTA4, and feeling confused over everything being in focus.

Re:Until...

[bmo]

There is a kind of vertigo where your semi-circular canals get infected or otherwise screwed up. You basically can't walk and are bedridden until it clears up. A friend of mine suffered from this and it wasn't fun.

Any time you mess with a biological function like this, it's safer to go slow. Permanently mess up someone's inner ear and you'll condemn him to a hell that you would wish on anyone.

Animal testing. Lots and lots of animal testing are needed for this before it's considered safe.

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BMO