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Oculus Rift

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Jontiways

Roller Poster
I know this isn't technically rollercoaster news, so if a moderator believes this would be suitable elsewhere please move this thread.

What do people think about the Oculus Rift?
Has anyone had a go with one or is there any interest on this forum at all? My uni has one and I myself am very interested in how immersive it actually is.
Right now I am in the planning stages of creating a dark ride- esk experience, for the oculus rift. This includes making 3D environments and other technical knowhow, I am tempted to keep this forum informed of what I get up to, but I would like to know if anyone would be interested.
 
Sorry I moved this earlier but no chance to comment. I love technology like this, but in a normal "gaming situation" it's impractical in my opinion. Though maybe for fine aiming or something.

With the full kit though, it's just like the virtuality machines I used to play on twenty years ago, which were good fun.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
 
Thats fine, I was expecting someone to move it to somewhere more suitable, in a gaming situation I find that there are many problems with it, but for this project that I am doing I am moving away from the gaming look on the product and looking for a more experience based piece.

What machines were these? as I need to do some research into this, and a look at those might come in handy.
 
Virtuality was essentially Oculus Rift only twenty+ years ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuality_%28gaming%29

I played a sit down at Trocadero in London around 1994 and a stand up at Blackpool Pleasure Beach probably around 2001.

I'd followed the technology from design to inception (I am a geek, or was at least) and it was massively exciting.

I think the most interesting thing is that it was initially being "sold" as a system to help improve aspects of lives and stuff. They demonstrated manipulating manufacturing processes, controlling robot arms for surgery, viewing and experiencing new cars or houses without the need for a physical object.

The gaming aspect I think was the commercial arm, where they could fund the company to develop stuff that could actually have a wider impact.

It suffered from a couple of issues. The headsets (due to using CRT technology), were massively bulky. They really cut you off from the world and immersed you incredibly. The headset came over your ears and had speakers in them. So you really were cut off. However, they were very heavy. On the sit down one, I was finding neck ache after a second gaming session (the games were arcade titles which lasted a few minutes).

Virtuality.gif

It... Hurts... So... Much...

It was also really low res stuff. It was advanced when it first happened, and the tech did improve, but certainly by the time I was playing the (lighter headset version) stand up game in 2001, the graphics were well behind both arcade and home console.
virtual2.jpeg

Yes, you looked like a twat playing it too

Part of that was the computational requirements to track all the movements. The stand up one had a gun and the system tracked your body position in the "pod", the gun position and angle and your head movements. It looked like Hard Drivin'
racedrivg.png

Yes retro gamers, I did cheat and use a Race Drivin' image

and lagged badly when you moved fast. In a world with Quake Arena and Unreal Tournament - it was pants.

It's quite sad really. You could see right from the start that they wanted something that could help improve the world, they wanted to believe that the technology was a real game changer and could be something more than a toy.

However, it was always clearly too poor quality in terms of fidelity to have a serious application. It was used as a gimmick and then just as an out of date arcade system. I don't think it was a lack of application, it was just simply an idea that was way ahead of what technology could comfortably back.

More information on what happened in the end here (the company stil lexists, but is gonig bust as we speak):
http://www.arcadianvr.com/APPLICATIONS_Training.htm

Obviously Oculus Rift has the backing of modern technology. We're at a point now where essentially there is enough redundant, cheap, CPU power to run this stuff. Now it the right time, but... Is it the right product? For gamers I'm really not sure, but has the boat gone on serious commercial applications, ruined by Virtuality? I honestly don't know, so please, I'll be interested in what you find out :)
 
Thanks for all that information, it'l be great for some solid research. :) Ill keep the work informed on here, to me I felt the same, I hadnt seen much tracking software, and virtual reality stuff before this, but I was pretty sure some existed.
I dont think the rift will have cracked virtual reality, as right now it is littered with concerns and problems. However the fact that it is so publicised at the moment anyone is going to want to give it a go.
I have a blog which I will be updating for all of this (and has my previous uni work on)

www.jontiways.wordpress.com

I did a project last year with some video goggles and a gyro mouse tracker to give the same sort of effect, except its was quite bad in terms of the set up for it, but the turn out was actually somewhat effective.
 
I think OR will fly because it has the backing and interest of geeks and people who want it to work - gamers.

They have a reason to support the product and to work with OR in improving it. If you get tech heads behind you and make your product/company open to suggestions and input - you'll get far. It's what drove Linux, drives Android, etc, etc, etc.
 
So considering I am aiming to create something that is close to a rollercoaster of sorts, what sorts of ideas, concepts or anything else do you think i should add in? I'v had a good number of ideas myself, but does anyone else have any?
 
I think it needs lots of scenery, stuff to look at (as that's kind of the point of the system). So make it less of a rollercoaster and perhaps more of a "dark ride"?

There has to be real reason to make use of the ability to move your head and have it tracked.
 
I thought about this one, and the idea of it being more a dark ride with rollercoaster like elements would work, I beleive the scenery though will be the most important part of it. Lucky I know enough of maya to model such stuff!
 
I hate to double post here/ bump this thread, (if you suggest I start a new one do say!)
But my project has developed since I last posted, and as you can see I have a working environment working with the rift.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foGpVW0Ei5c&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
 
That's pretty cool and really yells to my inner geek :lol:

It's a good starting point.

BTW, don't worry about double or even triple posting in this topic. I know the number of people interested are probably limited, and they may not always respond - that doesn't mean they're not interested in updates.

There's a world of difference between a decent update and spamming, and you're not spamming :)
 
I present the train you will be riding in for this ride.
Modeled, textured, rigged and animated by yours truly.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfEeGu-wzd4[/youtube]
 
I meant in real terms - it's your fantasy, make it as cool as possible :)
 
Its been a week or two since I have posted anything about this. So just to touch base, all of the track and animation for the layout has been finished. Its not perfect, but its damn good for what it is and what I have been doing.

Next I need to theme this whole ride and pimp it out with some ice and firey theming. If you have any ideas at all post them, and Ill see if I get them into the ride.


I shall post a pov of my progress so far soon.
 
I doubt many people have many ideas to be honest :lol:

I'm still following with interest though.

where are you at uni by the way? It's a cool setup for a uni to have.
 
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