a casual introduction to the Oculus Rift devkit

[opal]

When I started using the devkit, I spend a lot of time searching for info on how to use it for games and such from various places on the internet.

It was a problem to me that all the info was scattered around the world wide web, and not in one place.

 

So for those of you who are getting the devkit, or those who might be thinking of getting their hands on the devkit and are wanting to know a little more about what to expect, here is what little I've learned from the Oculus experience so far, all gathered in one post.  

 

 

 

 

First of all, the usb cable, and the hdmi cable included, are both a bit short. I used some of my own instead.

 

The devkit also comes with 3 different pair of lenses A B C. Trying out each pair to find just the right match for your eyes is essential.

 

Like any monitor, turn it off when it's not in use, and keep it away from direct sunlight. When you change lenses try to keep dust from falling inside the Rift.

 

The usb cable is for tracking. If it's not connected nothing will happen if you tilt your head wearing the Rift. The Rift is already notorious for having problems with some logitech driver/software. Big collision there.

 

The hdmi cable connects to your graphicscard. The Rift will be your second monitor.

 

To play games and video on the Rift you need to enter the screen resolution options menu and chose to duplicate screens. Some games can be played directly in 3D and some games require Vireio to work with the Rift.

 

I use a desktop resolution of 1920*1200 and if you also chose this high resolution for your games and Riftdemos, the Rift will downscale the image automaticly to it's native resolution. This can actually make your game/demo look a litle bit better in the Rift but at the expence of latency.

 

If you want to use the Rift to do work on your desktop, surfing the net or writing documents in Word or such trivial things, you need to set screens to extended. To view your desktop in Rift, you also need a program to make the desktop usable in stereoscopic 3D. That would be a program such as Deskope or Ibex.

 

The Rift has a low resolution. 1280*800, giving you 640*800 on each eye. That's not much to be honest. The consumer version will be better resolution, and will also feature positional tracking.

 

So what's it like playing games with this thing strapped on to your forehead, just a few mm in front of your eyes.

 

Close up to an object, the low resolution is barely noticeable.

 

Walk up to a npc in HL2 and stare into his/her eyes and in my experience, you won't notice the low resolution as much. Do the same in skyrim, walk up to a friendly willage dog and get real close to it and look deep into those eyes, and chances are you'll forget the low resolution for a moment.

 

Then look away at those Skyrim mountains and the low resolution becomes slightly more intrusive. To sum up, if you look at something at a distance, you'll be aware of the low resolution, if you look at somthing close to you, you are more likely to not notice the low resolution or forget all about it.

 

 

To start off, getting the Rift ready first time, it's a good idea to start chosing the correct lenses for your eyes. I suggest looking at one of the many usermade demos out there for the rift. Or use the configuration program that comes with the Oculus SDK which you should download from Oculusvr.com. Just try the different lenses til you find the ones that are most suited to your eyes. 

 

There are lot's of free demos out there for the Rift, and for the time being, more seems to be popping up every other day.

 

Right now I would recommend Titans of Space (an educational trip through our solarsystem) and Riftcoaster (a rollercoaster ride using the unreal engine, that's pretty cool, chances are, you will experience motion sickness first time though).

 

War Thunder has a free mode that supports the Rift. It's the best flying experience you can have with the Rift at the moment, though a more peaceful alternative would be Outerra (lets you fly across the entire planet).

For War Thunder, the cockpit view works best in my opinion, tried both third person and virtual cockpit view but they were IMO not so immersive.

 

HalfLife2 is cool in Rift mode. The Rift works pretty well with the HL2 episodes as well. You have to right click the game and add «-vr» in your steam list of games, and then you're all set.

 

Same goes for Team Fortess2. You can do some Rift calibrations in Team Fortress2 and add those to HL2.

 

DOOM3 BFG edition. Carmac did a great job getting Rift support to the game, but But for reasons only known to id/Bethesda, it's not turned on by default. So luckily a mod exists that turns it back on. Just download the mod and throw it into the game directory and use the new exe to start DOOM3 BFG and you're good to go. Unlike HalfLife2 you aim with your Rift, so just look at your enemy's head and pull the trigger. Very cool. Virtually everything is up close in this game, which helps making you forget about any concerns you might have had about the low resolution, almost from the getgo.

 

Also the old Quake1 is fun to play in VR ( http://phoboslab.org/log/2013/07/quake-for-oculus-rift ), start the game and enter R_oculusrift 1 into the console and it works like a charm. And Quake1 is at it's core, very low resolution, so it looks rather good when viewed through the Rift.

 

Time to talk about Skyrim and Oculus Rift.

To get Skyrim to work in 3d you need Vireio.

 

Start Skyrim Launcher and go to options advanced, and change shadow detail to low.

Reflections in the water might also get a litle weird sometimes so if you want you can uncheck those as well.

Chose 1280*800 as resolution.

 

So far so good. Time to deal with those pesky shadows.

 

You have to open SkyrimPrefs.ini and change

 

fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000 into

fInteriorShadowDistance=0.0000

 

fShadowDistance=2500.0000 into

fShadowDistance=0.0000

 

fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 into

fShadowLODStartFade=0.0000

 

If you want to stand a chance at using the inventory you have to open Skyrim.ini and add

 

[interface]

fSafeZoneX=300.0000

fSafeZoneY=150.0000

fSafeZoneXWide=300.0000

fSafeZoneYWide=150.0000

 

That last bit puts your inventory center screen so you can see it in Rift.

Looks like this

 

 

This, in my experience, won't go down well with UI mods. So unmodded UI seems to be the way to go for using Rift with Skyrim.

 

When playing, use the «fov 110» command to change your field of view to something more comfortable for use with the Rift.

 

If done right, Skyrim and Oculus Rift go well together, well apart from kill cam and special kill moves that throws you into 3^rd person perspective without warning, dull vanilla colors that look just as dull through the Rift, grand vistas that looks not quite so grand in low resolution.

 

Is it playable? Yes, it is.

Is it amazing in 3d? Yes it is.

When things are up close, then it's really breathtaking.

Looking at the ingame vanilla map through the rift is very interresting because of the 3D effect, as the added feeling of real depth to the map is great.

 

 

 

Dear Esther is another game that gan be enjoyed through the Rift using Vireio.

Start the game, go to keyboard/mouse options and activate Allow Developer Console.

When playing the game enter sv_cheats 1 into the console. And then enter fov_desired 110.

Play away.... it's a very very beautiful game to behold in the Rift but rather creepy and sinister.

 

Mirrors Edge. Works through Vireio. You want to add under the [Engine.PlayerInput] in the TdInput.ini file, the following

 

Bindings=(Name="NumPadZero",Command="FOV 0",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadOne",Command="FOV 32",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadTwo",Command="FOV 75",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadThree",Command="FOV 80",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadFour",Command="FOV 85",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadFive",Command="FOV 90",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadSix",Command="FOV 95",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadSeven",Command="FOV 100",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadEight",Command="FOV 105",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False)

Bindings=(Name="NumPadNine",Command="FOV 110",Control=False,Shift=False,Alt=False))

and then press 9 on your numpad when you're playing to get fov 110.

That's about it.

 

Dishonored. Needs Vireio to work.

Find DishonoredInput.ini

and add this under m_PCBindings=(Name="Zero",Command="GBA_Shortcut_9")

 

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadZero",Command="FOV 0")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadOne", Command="FOV 32")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadTwo", Command="FOV 75")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadThree", Command="FOV 80")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadFour", Command="FOV 85")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadFive", Command="FOV 90")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadSix", Command="FOV 95")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadSeven", Command="FOV 100")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadEight", Command="FOV 105")

m_PCBindings=(Name="NumPadNine", Command="FOV 110")

 

That's it.

 

 

 

So let's talk Vireio.

Right now there is an old version named PerceptionD3Dproxy to be found here: http://vire.io/

That version is the one I'm using.

 

 

 

There is a newer version here: http://www.vireio.com/ named Vireio Perception 1.1.0

What's the difference?

They are rewriting the program, so I suggest using the old one for Skyrim at least, until the new one is matured a little more.

 

When you use the Vireio to play a game, you start the software and then the game, and then you see if it works or not.

 

If it doesn't work at all, copy the .dll files from the Vireio folder and paste them at the apropriate place in the game directory.

 

When you run a game in Rift using Vireio, press ctrl + i This will start the calibration part. You'll see two red lines on screen, one is visible for each eye. Move the red lines using o p and k l until you get a result that does not hurt your eyes.

 

Other useful vireio keys :

F1 : Save Screenshot.

F2 / F3 : Adjust Separation.

SHIFT + F2 / F3 : Adjust Camera Offset.

F4 / F5 : Adjust Convergence.

F6 : Swap Eyes.

SHIFT + F6 : Reset Settings

F8 / F9 : Adjust Tracking Yaw.

SHIFT + F8 / F9 : Adjust Tracking Pitch.

CONTROL + F8 / F9 : Adjust Tracking Roll.

NumPad 0 : enable/disable stereo mode

 

 

If you don't get the calibration right, playing can be a bit of a pain.

 

There is a program in the making that promises to be the salvation for anyone who wants to play older games with the Rift such as Oblivion and Morrowind and Fallout3. The program is called Vorpx. Here's a preview http://www.roadtovr.com/2013/05/31/unlock-the-vr-in-your-game-library-with-vorpx-and-the-oculus-rift-5874

 

Watching movies using Rift is fully possible,

Programs like VR Player, Oculus Video, RiftMax_Theater, VR_Cinema3D, sView, are intended for such use. However the low resolution of the devkit is not ideal for showing movies. That doesn't mean we can't have a little fun though, so with a little help from a converter program like the IQmango 3D Converter you can turn most 2d movies into 3d, and play them in Oculus Rift.

 

I do a bit of modding for Oblivion so I wondered if using the TESConstructionSet was possible together with the Rift. And through using a program called Deskope which let you see the desktop in Rift, this is possible. Using deskope you can do whatever you normally can do on your desktop. Surf the internet, see a movie in your mmedia player, make a mod for Oblivion, it's all doable. You can even play Skyrim in windowed mode in deskope without using Vireio, although then it's kinda like playing on a virtual 2d screen rather than real VR. This trick should work with most games that you can play in windowed mode. Morrowind anyone?

 

Here's an oddity:

On the internet there is something called Oculus Google Street Viewer fot those interested in that sort of thing. http://oculusstreetview.eu.pn/

 

Time to address the issue of motion sickness. When I first started using the Rift, the dreaded motion sickness got to me right away. Could only play for few minutes at the time, at first. But using the Rift regularly, and then slowly increasing the time of each session allowed me to get over it, little by little.

 

Now I no longer get motion sick and it's great.. can play for hours.

 

Most people can enjoy stuff likeTitans of Space without discomfort, and Quake1 and Doom3 BFG also are rather easy on the head, so they are excellent to play just to get used to VR. As for HL2 and the rest of the games, well they take some more time to get used to (if you're prone to getting motion sickness that is).

 

Here's a nice tip from Wikipedia.org :

Tests conducted on the television shows Mythbusters and Food Detectives support the theory that ginger is an effective treatment for the nausea caused by motion sickness.

 

So there...

 

Here are some useful links for Oculus Rift owners

 

http://www.vorpx.com/ future program that will VR enable lots of older games

 

https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/ forums where a ton of links to Oculus Rift demos and games can be found.

 

http://www.roadtovr.com/ a news site where you can keep an eye on all of the cool stuff that is happening in the VR world.

 

 

Not a lot of content out there yet that combines the Rift and the Hydra, but there are some.

BuckExperimental, heli-island-oculus-hydra, and SixenseTuscany. There are a few more, Zombies on the Holodeck (which is really interesting), some cinema programs etc. I've played around with my Hydra controller in the SixenseTuscany demo and it's very intuitive and fun. If only games were like that. Hopefully when the consumer version of the Oculus and the new wireless Hydra comes out, there will be tons of games incorporating support for both devices.

 

 

Well that concludes this short introduction to the Oculus Rift devkit.

 

 

 

 

[donnato]

Very cool Opal. I`m pretty excited about this and wish I could afford it right now. Thanks for the info.

[opal]

Thanks donnato!

I really hope that the Consumer version will be announced soon and hopefully at a reasonable price. 300 $ for a low resolution devkit is not exactly cheap.

 

 

 

Here's an update on how to play games on the Oculus Rift.

 

Things are changing fast nowadays as people are exploring the possibilities of the new device. The introductions I posted here with info

on how to play various games in Rift, will probably be outdated within a month or two so it's hard to keep up with the changes. 

 

One of the things I really wanted to do was play Oblivion in VR. And now that I know how to do that I'm ecstatic.

 

Here's the how to use Deskope and Tridef together to play games on Oculus rift.

 

Tridef is a program that enables games and videos to play in 3d and is not Oculus Rift compatible. Plain 3d is not the same as VR, but with help from a brilliant program called Deskope, The power of the Tridef can now be harnessed and used for playing a huge number of games on the Oculus Rift.

 

Here is one way to play both Fallout3 and Oblivion in stereoscopic 3d VR style, right away.

 

You need an Oculus Rift.

 

You need Tridef. This is tested on the 14 days trial version. info found here http://www.tridef.com/

 

You need the game.

 

You need Deskope. This is tested on Deskope 1.1   info found here  https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1505

 

OK here's how to do Oblivion.

 

Install the game.

Open OblivionLauncher.exe, make sure game is running in you desktop resolution in windowed mode. My resolution is 1920*1200 btw.

 

If that works fine, quit game and start Deskope.

I used these settings:

 

 

 

Put on the Rift HMD (head mounted display) and while you explore your desktop through the Descope program using the Rift. start Oblivion.exe (not the launcher).

 

What you will see now is a 2d monitor hovering before your eyes, and you will be able to play Oblivion on this virtual monitor exactly like you would on you actual monitor.

This is just to test that everything is working so far.

 

Exit the game, do not exit Deskope however and start the Tridef program.

When you start the Tridef program you'll see this screen where you click on the gamepad.

 

This then leads you to this menu, showing you compatible games on your computer. The Tridef will have a shortcut to OblivionLauncher.exe so you will have to change it so the shortcut points to the Oblivion.exe instead.

 

 

 

Start Oblivion though Tridef.

 

 

Tridef does not like starting windowed games in Side By Side 3d mode so once you're in the game, playing, you want to change that by entering the Tridef ingame menu.

Press 0 to do so. Use the number keys on numpad to move around the menu. 8 =up 2 =down and 4, 6, will take you sideways. 5 = enter.

 

Chose Left/Right for your 3d output.

 

And in the 3d options you can adjust the field of view so that things looks right for you.

 

When you're done, exit menu. Use alt + tab, to return to the Deskope settings. Hold your head straight, and press recenter screen.

 

Afterwards, without moving your head out of position, alt + tab back into oblivion. Continue holding your head still, and press shift + alt + arrow up.

 

This will lock your head position in the game and now that you've done this, you are able to turn you head around inside oblivion and look at the game from a VR perspective.

 

And now you can play Oblivion in VR.

 

 

I use the same procedure for Fallout New Vegas.

Edited July 27, 2013 by opal

[WindmillTilter]

Nice info Opal, thanks for sharing. I'm really looking forward to this technology maturing, but it's exciting to see you can do so much with it already.

 

WT

[opal]

Thanks Windmill Tilter,

it's really interesting to see how things progress around VR and Oculus. New programs and opportunities presenting themselves every other week, some of them are gamechanging and some of them are groundbreaking, and the scene has progressed a lot only in the last few months. When the higher resolution consumer version hits the shelves, this is so going to be a must have product.

 

 I've successfully used the previously described procedure for playing games in VR on the Rift using Deskope+ Tridef,  to play Grand Theft Auto IV as well. Being 3rd person, it was very exciting to see how it would turn out. Worked really well, a joy to play. Didn't quite put me inside the game, felt more like watching a stereoscopic 3D movie, but I loved it. Only adjustments I had to make was disabling Deskope's mouse emulation and disabling shadows in GTA's graphic's settings, set resolution to 1280*800, and it worked. 

 

Now I also play ThiefGold using the Deskope/Tridef combo. It is so scary and cool!

 

Here's a potential gamechanger,

Months ago the Oculus company advanced the Tridef company for Rift support, but were met with a cold shoulder because Tridef are really putting most effort into ATI /  Amd  support.

Well, 2 days ago after months of ignoring the Rift's existence, Tridef decided to enter the VR scene.

They released Beta drivers that will allow games to play directly on the Rift though Tridef without having to go through Deskope.

info http://www.tridef.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=3907

 

These are the first games supported: 

 

- BioShock 2
- Crysis
- Fallout 3
- Half-Life 2
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Borderlands 2
- Metro: Last Light

 

This puts the pressure on the makers of VorpX and Vireio to do better.

Tridef has the potential of supporting  790 DirectX 9/10/11 pc games,  but they do not yet support OpenGl only games like Rage, Quake4, DOOM3. So Vorpx and Vireio might have en edge there, if they play their cards right.

Everything  is changing fast so a year from now, who knows? Maybe everything I've mentioned so far, will be utterly obsolete.