I love the concept of Oculus Rift but there is a fatal flaw on it.

You cannot see anything else but the game itself. So far so good... 100000% immersion. But having your eyes totally closed to the "outside world" you must take off the device so you can answer a phone, drink something, etc.

For a FPS game this is not a major problem.
But for racing games where you may spend more than 1 hour straight driving a stint/race Oculus Rift is just not appropriate. For sprint races and stuff yeah... it will work.

Still, I can't wait for this.

Right, the DevKit forces you to take of your device for viewing the surroundings.
But already the next DevKit#2 is rumored to have integrated stereo cameras. Then it is only a press of a button and you could see the images of the cameras, which are positioned where your eyes are. Love the concept of having IR-cams, which let you see in darkness. Then you would not even have to turn on the light if you want to interact with the space around you (eating, drinking, using the keyboard, etc.).

Keep in mind, that this is the first DevKit and many more improvements will be made!

Regards!

Edit: someone already tries to get Vireio (open source Rift driver) working with LFS
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/vi ... f=141&t=16457#p124907

Quote from OTone :

I love the concept of Oculus Rift but there is a fatal flaw on it.

You cannot see anything else but the game itself. So far so good... 100000% immersion. But having your eyes totally closed to the "outside world" you must take off the device so you can answer a phone, drink something, etc.

For a FPS game this is not a major problem.
But for racing games where you may spend more than 1 hour straight driving a stint/race Oculus Rift is just not appropriate. For sprint races and stuff yeah... it will work.

Still, I can't wait for this.

That issue may concern a very very small % of players. It is hardly a fatal flaw and IMO there are way around. If you worry about being dehydrated you can use a camelbak .

I'd imagine many will have a conventional screen setup on top of the OR , so if it implemented with a split PoV, you can lift the OR and keep driving.

the 'fatal flaw' for me is that I can't see my own steering wheel (I have ingame wheel disabled)

That's a hard issue to fix if you must see the wheel. It's a trade off. More immersion vs practicality.

Time will tell if this is an real issue, or it's something you can get comfortable with. Personally I don't think it would be an issue ( used an OR yet), but everyone different.

Quote from CodeLyoko1 :

the 'fatal flaw' for me is that I can't see my own steering wheel (I have ingame wheel disabled)

Then why not turn it on again?
Not fatal if easy to solve.
Or any other reason why you have to turn it off?

Regards!

Quote from CodeLyoko1 :

the 'fatal flaw' for me is that I can't see my own steering wheel (I have ingame wheel disabled)

1. Go to options
2. Enable it
3. Put Oculus on
4. ????
5. PROFIT

Quote from mr.uu :

Then why not turn it on again?
Not fatal if easy to solve.
Or any other reason why you have to turn it off?

Regards!

because I always drove like that. If I am going to turn on the wheel in game I will not have the hand coordonation I used to have, so it will make me drive like a retard

Quote from CodeLyoko1 :

because I always drove like that. If I am going to turn on the wheel in game I will not have the hand coordonation I used to have, so it will make me drive like a retard

lol

Believe me, you will drive better, because of enhanced, almost natural feeling of visual depht.
The coordination is only influenced, if you need to look at your hands while driving. I think you are too experienced in driving as that you still need to look at your hands to see where they are...

Quote from mr.uu :

lol

Believe me, you will drive better, because of enhanced, almost natural feeling of visual depht.
The coordination is only influenced, if you need to look at your hands while driving. I think you are too experienced in driving as that you still need to look at your hands to see where they are...

it's not that I look at my hands, it's just even though I don't look at my hands I can still see them. I don't focus on them, but your brain automaticly processes that blurry bit it still sees combined with the blurry bit of your steering wheel it sees. That's combined with what you feel makes your coordination the best.

Now with the rift you can't see that bit. So it puts you in disadvantage(in the beginning). It will give you tremendous advantage when you are used to it and only need the feeling (that only experience with driving with the Rift can give).

I got the chance of testing out the devkit yesterday. I played a few of the demos that come with the SDK. Its incredible! my mind is blown. Please please please integrate this into LFS. The perceived G-forces is extremely real. Everyone that tried the rollercoaster demo got up dizzy with sea legs.

It is weird looking at the ground and not seeing your own feet, but I think having the wheel turned back on would do the trick.

Nice. Was there any driving type demos? Where did you test it?

Quote from Macfox :

Nice. Was there any driving type demos? Where did you test it?

There was a crude car demo where you hit loop ramps which was pretty cool.

One of my co-workers invested in the kickstart last year and got the SDK as they promised. He's an ammature 3d game developer so he's going to have a go with making something for the rift.

You can buy the developer SDK for $300 and get the prototype googles sent out. They are lower resolution than the consumer ones will be but still awesome. If LFS gives the word that they'll support it, I'll order them in a heatbeat.

Were you bothered by the pixel grid of the screen? Haven't had the possibility of trying Rift myself yet, but apparently it looks like this.

Will wait for a Rift with a 1440p screen before jumping in, even though it's very tempting to pull the trigger on a dev kit.

Oculus Rift cofounder and lead engineer killed... Truly sad... On the verge of making a massive impact in the industry only to be taken out by some idiot.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1079 ... 3-killed-by-speeding-car/

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/st ... nge_county&id=9122999

Blergh, ****ing idiots everywhere..
Hopefully this does not have an too big impact on the development of Occulus Rift (alltho it's a personal tragedy no doubt).

This sounds almost unreal. Sad indeed

Got a kit yesterday
I 'm very impressed by it. The resolution is not really an issue. Much much better than what I was expecting. It is a bit laggy though (I have tried only the demo provided with the SDK).

I can't wait to try it in a racing or flying sim

About not seeing your hands:

I don't think that's a deal-breaker for most of the driving. But can someone come up with a temporary solution for pressing buttons? It's almost impossible to hit the right buttons in time without seeing them.

Quote from Keling :

About not seeing your hands:

I don't think that's a deal-breaker for most of the driving. But can someone come up with a temporary solution for pressing buttons? It's almost impossible to hit the right buttons in time without seeing them.

Using the keyboard is very hard indeed. For me at least. What you need should be set on your controller and you should avoid the keyboard as much as possible.

I was playing half life 2 yesterday (mind blowing really) and I was playing with one hand on my x-box joypad and the other on the mouse ( the target reticle can move independently of the head movement in a small box.

What is the cheapest way of tracking arm movements you guys can think of? We can re-render arms in the VR world if arm tracking is available. Finger-level tracking would be better but not compulsory.

　

Quote from Maelstrom :

Using the keyboard is very hard indeed. For me at least. What you need should be set on your controller and you should avoid the keyboard as much as possible.

I was playing half life 2 yesterday (mind blowing really) and I was playing with one hand on my x-box joypad and the other on the mouse ( the target reticle can move independently of the head movement in a small box.

Gears, brake bias, keys to leave the game, keys to adjust pitstop parameters, keys to chat. You need to be able to 'see' your keyboard. Maybe a virtual keyboard can be shown that is in the same UVWXYZ position, so you see it, but not your hands. It magic position sensing gloves.

For some games, seeing reality won't be an issue. For others it's a game breaker.

Quote from Keling :

What is the cheapest way of tracking arm movements you guys can think of? We can re-render arms in the VR world if arm tracking is available. Finger-level tracking would be better but not compulsory.

The Leap Motion is pretty amazing for this.

I think that THE FUTURE® of commercial simulation is some kind of VR a la Oculus + real time reading of your entire body with something like the Leap Motion.

With such technologies combined, it would be pretty simple to recreate, very accurately, any kind of virtual cockpit.

Even combining real dials/buttons with virtual ones.

The future gonna be amazing, folks.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Gears, brake bias, keys to leave the game, keys to adjust pitstop parameters, keys to chat. You need to be able to 'see' your keyboard. Maybe a virtual keyboard can be shown that is in the same UVWXYZ position, so you see it, but not your hands. It magic position sensing gloves.

For some games, seeing reality won't be an issue. For others it's a game breaker.

It has some drawbacks, for sure, but the leap you get in immersion is, in my opinion, worth it. It depends on what equipment you have at hand but even know you could et around most of the issues. If I was in need of button I would probably use my hotas warthog where the buton are quite easier to find than on a keyboard.

A virtual keyboard is indeed another solution and rather easy to implement.