VR News

Occulus is making a new rift, wich has been dubbed the ‘santa cruz’. It will be fully wireless.

It also has all sensors on board. You don’t need to set up anything externally like you currently do.

It’s more making their own Gear VR rather than a Rift. That’s a mobile phone chipset on the back of that guy’s head. :slight_smile:

Rather than rely on Samsung and what happens to Android they’ll run their own OS/platform (a cut down Android with no cores doing phone stuff) on dedicated mobile hardware (Snapdragon etc). It will still leave Rift as the PC solution. This is more the Oculus’s own platform/console push. Wireless Rift PC VR is still a way away - so much bandwidth to throw over the air, and while PC’s are getting smaller they aren’t getting that small.

The Current Rift Runs a Mobile Phone Screen Interface… lol…

I think going wireless there is a pretty good idea because right now VR devices can have up to four cables attached to them IIRC (sound, microphone, two USB, right?)

Although… I wonder how they got it working without adding lag.
Anyway, I would probably still run it with one wire for power at least. Always did that with my wireless headphones, because I hate when they run out of batteries.

Well, it depends on the application…
Sure, for standing and moving VR games, I totally see the need for going wireless. But I can’t say the single lead out of the Rift bothers me, as I only use it for simulations, sitting down.

My DK1 has a lot of cables (including a power cable!) going to an interface box, and then one cable going to the headset. It’s only the headset you should be worried about.

Ah, that’s already solved well then. Thanks for the info!

Those of you with VR, let us know how it is.

…so I can hate you for it.

Totally AWESOME!!!
:wink:
No, sorry, I have no idea how you watch that in VR on the Rift…?
Is it possible?

Hmm. I guess I made the assumption but don’t actually don’t know if you can.

I know there are some viewer apps, but haven’t tried. Youtube has a “cardboard VR” option though.

Google Earth VR (Vive only for now)

Looks cool.

I actually watched it in VR by downloading the Google cardboard app and putting my phone into a cheap cardboard VRviewer thing my girlfriend bought a while ago.
It’s awesome! (though probably not as crisp and clear as in the Rift)

https://video.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t43.1792-2/15069248_702790839877731_3060129198711504896_n.mp4?efg=eyJybHIiOjE1MDAsInJsYSI6MTAyNCwidmVuY29kZV90YWciOiJzdmVfaGQifQ%3D%3D&rl=1500&vabr=571&oh=de3cd1c9041553df3752faf25eb72536&oe=582E8A59

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NSFW because of some language…

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Fun to go along with someone on their DCS VR flight…

https://youtu.be/VZmOEM7BGD4

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I’ll be interested to see if we ever reach a point where a VR headset could be used with something like a bike trainer to allow for this type of stuff:

Zwift is already a thing…but as far as I know, it is only on a 2D monitor in front of you. A VR headset would not be comfortable when you are riding a trainer and sweating…so it’d have to get much, much smaller (more like swim goggles or something…)

I don’t have a VR product right now, but I saw the Zwift video and had to pipe in;

Zwift, and all the VR cycling racing and riding products, suffer from two big issues that no one seems to want to address; CdA and an over-reliance on the pixelation of the Z plane, which leads to impossibly short and steep and frequent changes in slope over terrain that would honestly be much smoother, thanks to transportation engineers, civil engineers, and the like.

I’ve actually been asked for years to include Zwift-type racing in to my studio in Dallas, and I’ve done some pre-Zwift racing here and there, but IIRC, almost all rider CdA’s are still based on the mean of a 160lb white male, 5’10", in a 1980’s style Bell helmet. I think it’s like a .35m^2 range or something, so while the 200lb rider has a distinct advantage, the 5’2" female who is pretty fit with a high w/kg/min average, is at a handicap. This does change on slopes starting at 2%, but then there’s another problem, and that’s Rolling Resistance.

Most on-tire trainers need a rolling resistance in the 1.8 to 2.5 range in order to avoid slippage, and out in the real world, given today’s tire technology, we’ve gotten that down to roughly a 0.004, sometimes lower. So whereas it may take 30-40 watts to roll a wheel out in the real world, it will take up to 90 to get it rolling in my studio.

Finally, regarding the Z deltas on a 3-d plane. Most cycling Garmins have a built-in barometer that smooths out the % gradient, but the general shakiness of a bike ride doesn’t help. If you rely on an indoor ride that uses Google maps or other, well, it ends up so stochastic that it’s almost unrideable without smoothing. To smooth it, the manufacturers of the load generators basically set their algorithms to implement the load over time, and this actually detracts from the workout in some ways, because it doesn’t feel ‘real’.

So there’s the conundrum with VR in the cycling world; I don’t think we have as many issues with aircraft, partly because the modeling is so much further along. I’m not anti- Zwift or VR, but fixing the CdA, RR, and Zulu issues is going to be complex, and I don’t know if they have the $$ to do it or not.

Of course, Zwift just got $25m in funding, so maybe I’ll be out of business in the next year anyway.

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I put my visiting brother in the Rift last night to show him what it’s all about…his mind was blown (of course). In watching back the Oculus Dreamdeck Demo…I think they should make a whole game out of that mini-city they have…LOL…I’d fight fires and arrest criminals in VR…

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