Day One With the Brand New Oculus Rift DK2: the Good, the Ugly and the Games

muterobert (2927951) writes Paul James goes hands on with one of the first next-gen Oculus Rifts in the wild: "After much hacking (and some kind developer linkage) I stepped into a DK2 enabled version of Technolust and lost myself utterly! The stunning attention to detail, neon on black really lets the OLED panel shine here. In fact, this experience was the closest I think I've ever some to presence in virtual reality thus far. Leaning in to check the myriad retro objects, gawking at the lighting and just generally being blown away by the experience. This game was fabulous on the DK1, it's utterly compelling now."

What about...

[Anonymous Coward]

hypnosis adventures?

Why does it have to be games? Wouldn't it be fun to use hypnosis in order to have a 3D adventure?

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[Cryacin]

Yeah, "motion tracking" and "ducking and leaning forward" has a whole new meaning.

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[Sockatume]

I have a PSVita I use for an hour each day, which has a screen that's several years behind the technology going into the Oculus. It hasn't noticable degraded after a year.

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[DrGamez]

Adding on a second PS Vita mention, does it use a different kind of OLED? I use my for at least an hour or two a day (since day 1 release) and still haven't noticed anything out of the norm with the screens vibrance?

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[MindPrison]

An OLED display ensures that you'll be buying a replacement every two years as your colours turn to crap. They should have stuck with LCD.

That statement is not true at all!

I was one of the early adopters of items with an OLED display, my HTC Legend (A cellphone with OLED display). I use it every day, surf with it all the time - and it's now 4 years old, and colors as brilliant as it was new, the Red, Green and Blue is absolutely perfect (to my eyes anyway, and I'm a graphics artist for whatever it's worth).

And besides... how often will you use some headgear VR equipment? It's not like you'll use it 8 hours a day, not even the most hardc

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[wonkey_monkey]

You're either full of shit or your eyes are crap. I have a media player with an OLED display

I don't suppose it occurred to you that, perhaps, not all OLED displays are created equally?

Try engaging your brain before spouting invective next time.

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[Half-pint HAL]

I thought OLED's biggest problem was UV stimulating chemical decomposition. If so, surely the laws of physics say an OLED display in a black box with two small eyeholes is going to last much longer than a mobile phone display that is often used in direct sunlight...?

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[Half-pint HAL]

How long is anyone realistically going to be using a VR headset for daily?

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[Detonia]

With Facebook integration: some people I know would be on it all day.

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[Sockatume]

It's not physics, it's chemistry; the current generation of blue OLED materials have an order of magnitude better lifespan.

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[Detonia]

What was the reason for the switch to OLED? Surely they knew the downsides to it (unless of course they want you to buy one every two years... hmm...)?

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[Sockatume]

A far faster response time than LCD, which means far less blurring. One of the outcomes of Oculus Rift testing is that motion blur causes a lot of motion sickness.

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[renoX]

> An OLED display ensures that you'll be buying a replacement every two years as your colours turn to crap.

Depends on the OLED: a WOLED shouldn't have this problem..

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[Anonymous Coward]

Were you wearing an Oculus Rift DK2 when you tried to click? It's an exclusive link.

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[Half-pint HAL]

It's a direct quote - you don't copyedit errors out of direct quotes.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You might use "[sic]" then. At least it gets rid of people complaining about spelling ;)

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[ArcadeMan]

The editors don't even see the errors anymore. All they see now is blonde, brunette, redhead...

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[Kjella]

The reason to use [sic] is to indicate that you didn't introduce a typo, it made sense for scribes, typewriters and citing dead tree sources but when you're copy-pasting another electronic source perfect reproduction is the norm and pointing out spelling mistakes is typically mocking, like you're making a point that the one you're quoting can't even spell properly. So I wouldn't use it and if people complain, well then they don't understand the concept of quoting. You don't change someone else's words and i

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[Sockatume]

They've switched to a higher-resolution display with a much better response time and you think that causes "graininess and blur"?

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[Ingo Ruhnke]

The motion sickness on the first Rift was in large part caused by the lack of position tracking that resulted in mismatches between what you saw and where your head was, that's now fixed. The DK2 has IR markers and a tracking camera that will track your head position. The DK2 also has a low persistence display that removes a lot of the motion blur that happened with the first Rift. For most people the DK2 seems to eliminate motion sickness almost completely. There might still be issues when the game itself

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[Draugo]

You're just wrong (and also an asshole). They're trying to attract developers for their API, not the specific unit.

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[DrGamez]

I'm not sure you understand what a DevKit is and is not supposed to be. This is not a Release Candidate.

DK2

[zacherynuk]

Had my notification of shipping last week - hoping will be here soon.

If you have the DK1 and want something new to try with it, and have the $$ - this is the daddy of FPV remote controlled fun - I've been loving it for a good long while now. : http://emrlabs.com/index.php?p... [emrlabs.com]

They made it seem so simple...

[issicus]

These guys need to hurry up and release this thing ... I need my face closer to my computer screen.

What an idiot.

[RivenAleem]

He decries the lack of games. Does he not understand the purpose of Developer Kits? The whole point, as I understand it, is that Games Developers should get a DK2 and Make Their Game Compatible With It.

You shouldn't be a gamer buying a DK2 and then pouting that there are currently no games supporting it. You wouldn't do the same if you had your hands on a Developer version of a next gen console.