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Oculus Rift tracking and Motion Simulation

Discussion in 'DIY Motion Simulator Building Q&A / FAQ' started by noorbeast, Nov 19, 2014.

  1. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    I have to agree @AceOfSpies, there is nothing quite like the immersion factor of the Rift, despite the various limitations at this stage of its development.

    Just a brief summary of possible Rift tracking set up options with motion thus far. You can mount the Rift tracking camera to the rig and develop a smooth motion profile, which is why I have consistently said that there are advantages flight sims have over racing sims (washout is your friend). You can concentrate on the fidelity of motion rather than gross movement for a race sim and that gives a reasonable outcome with a Rift camera mounted to a motion rig. But we build powerful rigs. Once you get into movement that can throw the rig itself around, like @SilentChill has built, then you need to start to consider alternatives as mechanical dampening becomes real problematic.

    In many respects motion cancelling for extreme movement is actually pretty trivial, we already precisely track and know the position of the rig and Rift, so subtrackting one from the other is simple enough.
    • Agree Agree x 3
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2014
  2. SilentChill

    SilentChill Problem Maker

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    @AceOfSpies I am with you 100% its pretty damn amazing I still get goose bumps at times racing around.

    If you havn't tried it yet Asseto Corsa is well worth a go, it is my favourite by a mile. Also if you have Prepar3D I would give that a go with the DCOC DK2 support.

    And if you want to be scared shitless you wanna try Alien Isolation its terryifying lol
    • Agree Agree x 1
  3. AceOfSpies

    AceOfSpies Living the Dream!

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    hi @SilentChill, sounds good to all of that. I'm still finding my way with the Rift.

    Mike :thumbs
  4. SilentChill

    SilentChill Problem Maker

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    As I said I would here is a little video to show how hopeless attaching the camera to the rig is. A lot of people said it was simple and it would work but it doesnt.

    Enjoy :)

    • Like Like x 2
    • Agree Agree x 2
  5. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    As I had pointed out in my previous post that once we have motion simulation like @SilentChill is demonstrating then there is a need to look at the technical and practical issues associated with motion cancelling. That is a dialog for both those who have an interest in the Rift and those who have SimTool technical expertise.

    VectionVR obviously sees a place for additional sensor hardware. However a rig is already precisely tracked within SimTools, plus a games have to be patched for motion anyway, so an integrated approach may well be a viable option. I would be interested in the views of those with SimTools/plugin expertise regarding the possible technical and practical issues associated with motion cancelling.
    • Like Like x 1
  6. raidho36

    raidho36 Member

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    @SilentChill thanks. Although this does not includes the footage from the IR tracking camera itself, which would've been extremely handy for diagnosing the problem, that still provides some useful insights.

    To start with, I think there could be occlusion problem specifically when you turn the wheel far enough - ray between the camera and the Rift seems to be obstructed with your arms and the wheel itself when the rig jerks up and down. I would suggest mounting the camera few inches higher, but yet again that's just a hunch and will probably not solve anything but I suppose it worth a shot. Shame I couldn't really help with anything besides giving out theoretical suggestions because I don't own a DK2 (I own DK1 but I decided to skip on DK2 straight to CV1).

    @noorbeast SimTools doesn't track the actual rig state so it might be highly off target values, and then the rig may not be directly driven by the axes output of the software so it could be pretty much anywhere it wants. The motor controller, however, would know this data and you can loop it back to Arduino (or whichever controller is used), which in turn can loop it back to PC. SimTools wouldn't read that of course (unless you write a special plugin that reads those and re-interfaces them as additional axes), so you will probably need an intermediate program that will channel data back and forth with the Arduino, piping to it data from SimTools (it would be receiving them via NET interface) and to the modified Rift Tracking Service, also over UDP or via memory sharing - since both are (should be) manually written, there is no limitations about it.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  7. jem45472

    jem45472 Active Member

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    My rift will be here in a couple days. Anyone that needs to mount the camera off the rig only needs to visit the nearest music shop. A microphone boom stand will get the job done nicely and cheaply. You can place the camera anywhere needed then.
    • Informative Informative x 1
  8. MikeG

    MikeG Member

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    I think I am getting an Oculus for a gift in February. :D
    I keep seeing vids with the split screen on the monitor for others to watch,bit of a pain without optics for each eye. Can this be set to a normal non 3d view, or even better, different view points from the game . Would be good to have the external screen showing something like what we see from the TV coverage of an event.
    • Like Like x 1
  9. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    Its a bit complicated at the moment @MikeG but here is the most common method:

    1) Install OBS
    2) Extended mode> turn off Oculus service (Bilago's tool)> Start game (verify head tracking is on).
    3) Start OBS
    4) If a "Scene" does not exist, create one (right click in "Scenes" > add Scene, name it anything.
    5) Add a "Source" Right click under "Sources" > add Game Capture
    6) Select game (client)
    7) Click "Stretch image to screen"
    8) Choice "Capture mouse cursor" (allows you to navigate menu's without having rift on)
    9) Hit "ok"
    10) Hit "Preview Stream"
    11) Click the icon of the game/demo running in the taskbar
    12) If preview is choppy, increase bitrate/fps on OBS, but it will impact game performance based on cpu. Default is 15fps.
    13) If you would like to record only one of the two images from the Rift then put OBS into fullscreen preview mode and use Xsplit to do a partial screen capture of the full screen preview of OBS.
    • Informative Informative x 1
  10. MikeG

    MikeG Member

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    Thanks beast
    A bit complex as you say but at least it is doable :)
    I will have some fun terrorizing the boss with that thing :grin
    She thinks she is a super woman but in reality she is a ball of fairy floss. Can't wait to see her scream her box off on the roller coaster.
  11. noorbeast

    noorbeast VR Tassie Devil Staff Member Moderator Race Director

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    [​IMG] Super stamp for the Boss

    All jokes aside it is best to do a captivating yet gentle introduction to the Rift at first, perhaps something like Retro Arcade: http://digitalcybercherries.com/

    Once someone has a bit of time on a Rift normally they will acclimatize and be far less prone to VR sickness. Then you hit them with the rollercoaster or RBR!
  12. BADAIR

    BADAIR New Member

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    Oculus Rift
    I understand that a lot of work especially to the software is going on with the rift and that soon a new perfected version will be released to the general public. Having played with the old version I think that when it gets perfected and the problems your talking about have been sorted it could replace screens as the answer to simulation.