VR with Unity 5

Very interesting - even for SotA.

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2015/02/16/pollen-vr-developing-high-end-visuals-with-unity-5/

 

I was too shy to ask, but I admit I approached SotA with the faint hope I could play it one day in first person with my DK2.

 

Richard is a big fan of immersion and VR so maybe it will someday happen. The problem is handling UI and the actual game interface in VR.

 

This.

DK2 integration works like a charm already in Unity 4.6. It took me less than 2 minutes to integrate the DK2 into my Unity game. There are some glitches (e.g. billboards) but nothing substantial. The technical DK2 integration is not the problem. The problem is what enderandrew mentioned. VR demands for a new interface philosophy (e.g.: since you don't see your hands you can't really use any keyboards).

Therefore, given the already existing challenges ahead, I doubt that we will see a proper VR integration anytime soon.

 

Interesting to know.

Well, I'm aware of the challenge of a new interface paradigm. The debate on Oculus forum is always hot, and for good reason.

Still, there are ways to solve (or re-think) everything.

Personally, I can't see the keyboard, sure, but I can always feel it. My G13 has the typical reversed T ("WASD") keys molded with a concavity different from the others. F and J are the home keys and always have small studs to feel them. Or use Naga-like multibutton mice. They work wonders in MOBAs. Heck, some time ago I was looking to buy this: http://www.daskeyboard.com/model-s-ultimate/ - yes, it has NO keycap inscriptions, as I don't look at the keyboard anyhow. Just remap keys in reasonable places and you're set even without Leap Motion (or the new gadget bought out by Oculus VR, whose name I forgot).

Still, I believe we can find new ways to interact with the UI.

Unity integration is really awesome, I agree. Unreal Engine is damn close, too. I'm convinced that 3d frameworks will all offer some way to integrate with the tracker and headset by the end of 2015.

*Daydream*

 

Same day that they announce SotA will get Oculus Rift is the day I stop all payments on my accounts and sell all accounts ASAP! I'm far from alone to even get close to something that supports Oculus Rift with it's deceitful history, now Facebook backed hardware.

 

Uhm. May I dare ask why all this resentment toward Oculus? Deceitful history? Were you disappointed by DK2? I know it's trendy to hate Facebook, but... Why?

Besides, Unity3d supports OR since a very long time, and for Portalarium to "support" it, would mean flipping a bunch of switches, setting two viepoints instead of one and linking a couple more unity packages. I doubt some ubergeek in Austin with access to the source code didn't already try it. Probably he/she should deny it even under torture, but I refuse to believe they didn't tinker with it already.

 

I spend several thousands of dollars in the kickstarter project and what happened? The company sold their idea for 2 billion dollars to Facebook! Whar did we as that supported the kickstater get? NOTHING! Good thing is that Facebook will loose every cent they put in to Oculus Rift because there is no patents so you can buy "copy's" that have higher resolution without breaking any laws.

Also there is other project now that would be better to support. Project like Oculus and Morpheus still only have 90 degrees view, Samsung VR gear have 96 degrees and higher resolution that the other two and those 6 degrees make a huge difference. But there is project out there tat are working on 180 degrees view, it will take a while before they get on the market but it's first when we get 180 degrees view we get true VR.

 

I see.

You know that Samsung VR Gear is made by Oculus, right?

 

Nop they are not! There have been technical cooperation between Oculus ans Samsung but Samsun are producing their RV Gear. However it's possible that Samsung will be producing Oculus Rift in the future, Samsung have the factory capabilities already but we have to wait ans wee what's happens. I was heavy invested both in money and development time in Oculus before the they sold it to Facebook. Then I, and many others made loudly protests, and that ended up in some of us where invited to Samsung, witch is the reason why I now spend my spare time to develop software for VR Gear instead.

Not only have Samsung VR Gear larger screen but due to better optic they got a 96 degree view angle to Oculus 90 degree.
Samsung VR Gear have a Super Amoled 1280x1440p per eye compared to Oculus Oled 960x1080p
Samsung VR Gear will soon have connectivity to PC (beta at this stage) but it will be wireless.

 

As it stands the screen on an Oculus rift is literally a screen from a Samsung Note Phone. http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/31/5956589/new-oculus-dev-kit-uses-front-of-galaxy-note-3-for-display

 

Yea while Samsung RV Gear are a Note 4, there of the better resolution.

 

SoTa and VR would be pretty cool you have admit it.

It's a bit like holy grail

 

Here I read "powered by Oculus" all over the page: http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/wearable-tech/SM-R320NPWSXAR and the word "Oculus" is repeated ELEVEN times in the page.

Are you telling me that an ultracorp like Samsung would let a Facebook subsidiary have such a prominent visibility on their product pages if there was just "technical cooperation"? With a straight face, too?

DK1 and DK2 are Samsung phone screens - Oculus even left out the touchscreen logic on the Samsung board (*) - and their actual FOV is 110 and 100 degrees, not 90 (**). I really wouldn't imagine how a crowdfunded company born three years ago could produce a 2K or 2.5K LED screen in this timeframe without resorting to COTS. Of course "powered by" doesn't mean "built on a product manufactured in a fab owned by", because Oculus doesn't manufacture LED panels.

Still, Samsung physically built something based on a technology conceived, pioneered, developed and prototyped by Oculus. And this is my meaning of "made by".

The commercial history of the entity that you financed with your Kicstarter money is another matter altogether, and I'm sorry for you if you feel ripped by Luckey. I'm pretty sure nowhere in the Kickstarter campaign the pledgers were guaranteed to remain the exclusive owners of the company. Portalarium is still in time to sell itself to Activision or Electronic Arts.

But if you praise Samsung VR Gear, you are praising Oculus VR.
___
(*) - Enlightening read: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oculus+Rift+Development+Kit+2+Teardown/27613
(**) - Palmer on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2by9c3/oculus_confirms_dk2_fov_is_10_degrees_smaller/cjab3pr

 

Aren't they past the DK2 now anyways?

 

I haven't used it yet, but the general vibe I've been getting off the internet is that it's not quite ready for prime time.

I have no doubt VR is going to happen. I just don't think it's going to happen in 2015

 

Strange that you would sell your SotA account just because it might support the Rift in the future. You can still play the game on your monitor. And as a mentioned above the FOV of the Rift is not 90 degrees. The DK2 actually took a step back from DK1 but they've corrected that with Crescent Bay. The actual FOV for CV1 will be at least as high as DK1 if not higher, in addition to the rumored 4K display, as it will use the Note 5 panel which is also rumored to be 4K. Yeah, that means any CV1 user will have to have a pretty high end rig to render 4K @ 90hz, even beyond the 75hz of the DK2, but that's the price to pay for being an early adopter.

As much as I loved played Elite Dangerous on the DK2, I've switched back to playing using my monitor as the resolution and latency and fov was subpar. CV1 will address those issues, but I'll have to buy a new high end rig to make use of it. But I'll be playing ED in my monitor until then.

In any case, VR support for SotA isn't coming any time soon. Maybe for EP2. Maybe.

 

AS I said it's a technical cooperation but Samsung is the manufacturer! Facebook simply don't have the capability, the factories to to mass produce, Samsung have. Next gen Samsung VR won't Samsung use Oculus firmware any more and and Oculus brand will be removed from Samsung VR.

As I said above, deceitful crappy behaviour against the kickback supporters made be the Oculus owners made me walk away from a them before even tough I have huge amount of many spent on it and I will do the same thing to everything that support it.

Worth noticing with Oculus is they they do not have strong enough patent to defend their product and several company's have already started to mass produce "copies", Nextgen Samsun VR Gear will not use Oculus firmware so they will loose a partner there. Yes Consumer Version (CV1) of Oculus will have same resolution as Samsung VR Gear since they will use same display but Samsung have patent on the optics that make the 90 degree display 96 degrees and I highly doubt CV1 will have that dispute rumours about it. But in the end we wont get proper VR until we get 180 degrees witch will happen with the new displays that you can bend enough to get that and both Sony and Samsung already have prototypes, Oculus don't. Would not surprise me if we will get consumer release produced with 180 degrees displays before fall. Hopeful everyone will realize Oculus is dead in the water since they didn't protect themselves with patent and most of the community that supported them gone, worth noticing that a lot of the software and drivers was done be supporters that no longer supports the project.

Edit: I forgot: Samsung partnered up with Oculus to make a VR headgear for mobile platform only but after it was discovered that Oculus was missing patent protection for their device Samsung made the move to make their VR gear available for PC platform. So now you can use your Samsung VR Gear to any Oculus compatible game, guess Facebook didn't count on that when they bought Oculus.

 

No(t yet).

Their latest product is still DK2. CV1 is vaguely announced, but without a date. In the meanwhile, the showcased product on the homepage of OVR is the Samsung VR Gear: https://www.oculus.com/

DK2 is not there yet.

It's too dependent on system fine tuning and colossal raw performance, something the general public shouldn't be exposed to (*chuckle* more or less like SotA to Steam users *chuckle*), and the optic part is experimental at best. There are inherent problems with the whole "phone screen and high distortion lens" concept. And it needs a total rethinking of many HID principles - mostly like the touch interface on smartphone some years ago, which spawned a whole new way of designing games and programs.