Showroom My first ride with Oculus Rift DK2

Hi everybody,

I did see some topics about discussion of Screen setups and other options etc. and there for I thought I post a small video for you guys which I just made 2 days ago. I just got around 2 weeks ago my Oculus Rift DK2 and this is Hands down the best you can do right now to get reality in your seat. I realize Glasses are not an option for every user due to some reasons but for me this is IT! There is nothing which can give you more feeling of being actually inside a race car.

Aside of plain image you cant forget the new Motion Tracking Camera (works a little like Xbox Kinect) which tracks where you are in the room. This together with the motion of the seat and HD image make the DK2 the perfect device.

Once you sit in your car and hit the brakes the first time hard you know what I am talking about. You are going to naturally lean forward because your seat moves you forward and actually see the steering wheel in your face like you can bite it. you can lean out of the window, etc. which is complete new to me. Motion was great before but with the motion tracking together you get a whole new level of reality in your seat.

Additional the new OLED HD image is awesome. With my DK1 I got motion sick in minutes but with DK2 now I can drive forever without any problem and you see the track etc. perfectly. You can even read without a problem every single button, text etc. in your car.

Having said that all you need to decide if you get in now or wait for the final version of the Rift. From my point of view they are hot already right now and every penny worth. US$350 is pretty cheap for this level of reality you get out of it. But who has a great monitor setup in the moment should maybe wait just a couple of month more for the final version.

check out my short video. This was basically my 2-3 round driving with the DK2 kit. I apologize in advance for the slight off in timing between the screens, I did my best but wasn't working 100%. I dont have much experience in video editing I guess. But either way the video showcase a little bit the fun behind this setup.

Hi @noorbeast, thankx for your reply. I tried to capture it all together but I did a bad job in syncing it. I am going to try tonight again and focus more on actually actuator movement, DK2 and Race image. I have to sync this better so you can get a better idea.

Nice rig and demonstration! Sync could be useful, I was wondering about one moment you turned the head and no output at all on the screen. In opposite to your system I will try out my 3 big screens in combination with the nvidia 3d vision 2 glasses.

@Pit yes, I know this looks strange in my video. In fact there is no lack in image and your moments at all or so little that you could never say it.

The problem with 3 monitor solution and 3D glasses is that you need a lot of "real estate" plus you only get a climpse of 3D but you dont have the effect you really sit in the car because of the environment which you still see. You also cant look free around like behind you or out of the car window etc. which you get with Oculus Rift.

The plain image quality of 3 Monitor setup is defiantly better right now as Oculus Rift BUT having said that this does not play a big role in this because the allover VR sensation is 200% higher. It is a little bit like with Big screens in the living room or Cinema. I always prefer a huge screen over mega resolution. This means not you can have a bad big screen but if you use for example a 720p 80" screen against a 40" 1080 I prefer the bigger screen with lower resolution. (i hope you understand what I mean )

In the end you cant compare Oculus Rift with any Monitor Setup because it isnt the same thing we talk about. One is a VR device which INCLUDE a screen but does much more, the other is JUST the screen and their for pretty simple does not matter what you do. The key is basically that resolution need to improve still, plus some other flaws but there is no way around a full VR solution like the Rift to really get the feeling to be inside a car.

I promise I do a better video ASAP, I hope I find time today evening

Nice setup, unfortunately no 2d video can convey what you are actually seeing in VR. I must be fussy and didn't have a DK1, but still think the DK2 needs more resolution due to it being divided by two and distorted by the lenses across 100 degrees. But on saying that, I now prefer to use the rift then any monitor setup for the sim

Yes, this is what i meant with my reply before and I agree 100% @SeatTime . Of course the resolution can never be enough but without a doubt DK2 already has really good quality image to drive for hours with lots of fun and the VR feeling is massive better as any monitor setup. I did use Dk1 before but more because I was curious, I was never driving really with them because the VR feeling was there but you got fast motion sick and you barely was be able to see the track with this bad resolution. But DK2 is a whole new world, since I have them I drive only with them. And this with basically no game yet working except LFS.

For a VR sim experience I can recommend DCS, not a racing game, but it is a free download from Steam and supported by SimTools. The immersion is huge (note it needs to run with the Oculus service paused).

@SeatTime, thanks for your post. I did actually just yesterday download and install DCS but haven't played yet. I did see some people talking about it with the DK2. I check it out the weekend.

What did you mean with "service need to be paused" don't you need the driver to run to use your DK2?

Thx

Like 'Elite Dangerous' DCS does not fully support the DK2 'Oculus Service' at the moment, so you have to pause it. Everything including head tracking still works fine. - Obviously no 'Direct to Riff'.

Hi SeatTime,

How is tracking working for you in DCS?
For me it's very laggy, about 0.5 sec lag, tried lowering gfx settings but didn't help

CV1 should come with a higher resolution screen, hut I really hope it will have different lenses, with higher distortion (more pixels) applied to a smaller region in the center.
Human eye can only see a small portion of the field view clearly. (about the size of you thumb nail) so having lots of pixels in peripheral vision seems like a waste to me.

If lenses stays as they are and CV1 ships with 2560x1440 screen, the games will still look like a (little bit finer) crochet.

I have had no issue with tracking, but as there are so many different hardware/software combinations possible on a PC, who knows what your issue could be? Some people have fixed tracing issues by plugging in the HMDs power supply.
Will 2560 x 1440 resolution at 90Hz be enough for CV1? I won't know until I try it, although I'm more concerned of the hardware impact of these changes. Oculus are although trying to hire as many experts in these fields as they can, so hopefully it pays off.

2560*1440 resolution is available on phones today:

If you look at zoomed images you can judge for yourself in this advancement is enough.

Here is 1920*1080 screen:
http://cdn02.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/gallery-Full-HD-710x532.jpg
and here is 2560x1440 screen
http://cdn04.androidauthority.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Gallery-Quad-HD-710x532.jpg
full review:
http://www.androidauthority.com/quad-hd-vs-1080p-comparison-359430/

For me it's a little bit less crappy but you are still looking at crochet...

Thanks for the tip, I'll try plugging the power supply.

Is 2560*1440 enough? Still don't know until I try it in a real game as your eye is not looking at still images. Irrespective of your attached images it is still speculation until Oculus release their CV1, as who knows what hardware/software they will run with?

Do you find best to race with Occulus or with a big ass LED tv? Im thiking of purchasing the occulus, but im afraid to get dizzy :S
Daniel B

Depends, you'll prob. have better times on TV, but with Oculus you are actually in the race...
You really have to try it to see the difference.

That's the last we hear from noorbeast

Im not a huge racing fan but I've played LFS 10 mins here and there with the DK2 the past few weeks. Everything changed today when I sat in my static rig for the first time to see how solid it would be. I was shocked how great it felt with the DK2 and an hour passed before I exited out to reality. More motivated than ever to get the motion platform built!

The only problem is now I want traction loss!