Testing the Waters: the Oculus Rift
Zavaro
Tucson, Arizona Join Date: 2005-02-14 Member: 41174Members, Super Administrators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Tucson, Arizona Join Date: 2005-02-14 Member: 41174Members, Super Administrators, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver, Subnautica Playtester, NS2 Community Developer, Pistachionauts
Some pretext: This is entirely unsupported by Unknown Worlds. Software used could possibly damage your computer or get you banned from by VAC. I also swear a lot.
I had been drinking. Drinking always gets the ideas flowing, and I had one too many shots in a pub following our match vs. Mimic (gg guys). Running on a miniscule three hours of sleep and several long hours of work, I managed to convince myself that some friends would like to see me stream the game using the Oculus Rift. I had run a demo briefly a few weeks back, and that really put the awe in nausea. It was great, although a little difficult to aim.
I streamed it. First it was a couple friends, and within thirty I had 35 people watching for nearly two hours. Not a hint of nausea, no headache. Wonderful. I played like crap, but received questions, comments, and a few requests to link it on the forums. It was saved, but not the quality I wanted. I needed to have a second take.
Tonight I traveled to Tram, Refinery, and Summit on Gib's Gorge Hut donning the unwieldy mask. This is that take.
NOTE: I swear like a sailor, so if your boss doesn't like it, why the hell are you on the NS2 forums at work?!
The first five minutes are me troubleshooting, so, feel free to skip that. Streaming with the Rift can have some weird bugs.
Some things to consider:
The Rift has a maximum resolution of 1280x800, with a low pixel density. It looks really clear, though.
There is no noticeable performance hit from using it on my "all-low with AA" settings.
The software I utilized is called Tri-Def Ignition and it using a generic game profile.
Unfortunately, I can't exit out of Steam Overlay if it ever becomes opened, and sometimes the vision zooms in for short periods.
Headtracking works, and works astoundingly well.
I say "dude" a lot when I'm drinking.
Viewmodels do not work well, and anything beyond the middle 50% area of the screen is not technically not visible to me, that includes health, ammo, map, kills, etc.
The game would work a lot better with the rift if the crosshair was not locked to the center of the screen (like TF2 on the Rift), or aiming in Red Orchestra.
You still have yours, right UWE? Try it out. It's a blast.
I had been drinking. Drinking always gets the ideas flowing, and I had one too many shots in a pub following our match vs. Mimic (gg guys). Running on a miniscule three hours of sleep and several long hours of work, I managed to convince myself that some friends would like to see me stream the game using the Oculus Rift. I had run a demo briefly a few weeks back, and that really put the awe in nausea. It was great, although a little difficult to aim.
I streamed it. First it was a couple friends, and within thirty I had 35 people watching for nearly two hours. Not a hint of nausea, no headache. Wonderful. I played like crap, but received questions, comments, and a few requests to link it on the forums. It was saved, but not the quality I wanted. I needed to have a second take.
Tonight I traveled to Tram, Refinery, and Summit on Gib's Gorge Hut donning the unwieldy mask. This is that take.
NOTE: I swear like a sailor, so if your boss doesn't like it, why the hell are you on the NS2 forums at work?!
The first five minutes are me troubleshooting, so, feel free to skip that. Streaming with the Rift can have some weird bugs.
Some things to consider:
The Rift has a maximum resolution of 1280x800, with a low pixel density. It looks really clear, though.
There is no noticeable performance hit from using it on my "all-low with AA" settings.
The software I utilized is called Tri-Def Ignition and it using a generic game profile.
Unfortunately, I can't exit out of Steam Overlay if it ever becomes opened, and sometimes the vision zooms in for short periods.
Headtracking works, and works astoundingly well.
I say "dude" a lot when I'm drinking.
Viewmodels do not work well, and anything beyond the middle 50% area of the screen is not technically not visible to me, that includes health, ammo, map, kills, etc.
The game would work a lot better with the rift if the crosshair was not locked to the center of the screen (like TF2 on the Rift), or aiming in Red Orchestra.
You still have yours, right UWE? Try it out. It's a blast.
Comments
Since my head turning mimicked mouse movements I felt like I could track jumping marines okayish. I just looked at the direction where the marine disappeared and there he was again.
I was worried that I would feel ill if I played lerk with oculus, but it turned out to be great fun. Too bad that I couldn't see my hp/armor or energy. There's a button that let's you see whole screen, but you can't really use that in the middle of a fight. Still, I somehow managed to stay alive and even get some kills. Flying is the way it's meant to be played!
I stopped using oculus after one 30 minute match since moving view both with mouse and by turning head messed with my brain a bit. I didn't feel nauseous. Just a little bit...weird. It took maybe 10-15 mins until I felt normal again.
I should try VR NS2 again, soon...
PS: VR Onos is huuuuuuge. And so is gorge, if you play a skulk
Anyawy,
HOLY AHASASBSAOJ NASONG OCCULUS RIFT ERMAGHERD!
well, this begs the question, eta proper oculus support?!
It must get disorienting playing as a lerk though.
Edit: @IeptBarakat: A true work of art.
The screen is not fisheye for person wearing the device. It's focused through a lens to create the illusion of having a complete field of view, unfortunately, the HUD gets pushed to the corners, which are beyond my peripheral vision.
I'm curious on this as well. Even with third-party drivers, it works very well. Polish a little bit, release some support, and it will stir up the starved Oculus community as well as the press: more customers and more money.
The stream looks fine if you mash your nose to your pc screen.
I've been rooting for it since day 1 and if they pull it off right it's gonna hit the gaming scene like a MEGATON OF SUPER MEGA HEAVY BRICKS!
Oooooooooooh, how BORED I am watching a square freakin' window. It's ABOUT TIME for this.
Only a few years, though! It's gonna be good!!!