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SteamVR Hardware|OT| Lighthouse Tracking 2.0 and Beyond
- Thread starter Zalusithix
- Start date
Hoping the consumer version comes out soonish. Hard to pull the trigger on a Rift after seeing this.
If you want stuff that is compatible accross various vendors you really shouldn't buy into the Ocolus ecosystem.
I tried Jurassic Park VR at Dave and Busters. They're using the 15% lighter Vive, a thin VR cover, DAS, and 3-in-1 cable. Made me jealous of people who bought the later Vives.
I have a 6mm VR cover coming later today, so at least I'll get the wider field of view. And I'm hoping that, with the headset closer to my face, I should get a smidgen less weight shift when moving my head.
I have a 6mm VR cover coming later today, so at least I'll get the wider field of view. And I'm hoping that, with the headset closer to my face, I should get a smidgen less weight shift when moving my head.
The deluxe audio strap is a huge improvement if you haven't gotten it. Some people might be disappointed with the audio quality (it's substantially worse than the Sony MDR 7506s I was using), but the QoL from not having to fiddle with headphones and having a more secure, more comfortable, and easier to adjust strap with better weight balance is worth the audio downgrade.
The DAS is a big improvement in terms of convenience and stability and crown comfort, but my chronic issue has always been that my face hurts after an hour, because I wear it tight to eliminate wobble while quickly looking around.
I missed today's VR Cover delivery, so I took out the existing pad to at least see if having the HMD closer would make it feel snappier and therefore less necessary to tighten it so much. And it really does make a difference :)
Now I'm just hoping that when I get hold of the 6mm VR Cover tomorrow, that it's enough padding!
Got the 6mm VR Cover, and it did what I hoped- made the headset feel snappier when looking around. It brought the HMD so close that my eyelashes were touching the lenses, but I forgot I can move the HMD with the side knobs. I'll be focusing on face comfort next session.
I forget, are you the one who ordered the Vive replacement controller from Fry's? The one that was pictured blue. If so, was it a Vive 2.0 controller, or not?
Sorry if it's not you. But seeing your ID just triggered that thought and I've been curious about that.
Dang, good memory! For anyone else wondering, a listing for the Vive remote on B&H Photo had the SteamVR 2.0 remote pictured.
It wound up being the pre-2.0 remote, and they updated the listing. Wasn't pissed- I was going to buy it anyway as I'd been looking for a replacement at MSRP for months- but yeah, little disappointed!
What's the difference with the 2.0 wands? Better tracking? I remember reading Durante's impressions somewhere here about the new controllers being flimsier
They have slightly better tracking (in theory) if you're using Lighthouse 2.0. If you're pairing it with Lighthouse 1.0, they're the same.
Road to VR has an article up with knuckles EV2 impressions from the Cloudhead games Studio folks:
https://www.roadtovr.com/cloudhead-games-knuckles-ev2-predecessors-denny-unger/
https://www.roadtovr.com/cloudhead-games-knuckles-ev2-predecessors-denny-unger/
That product is the first one that looks legitimately polished out of the box. It would be amazing to see the full controllers release in the next few months.
I am very curious what an Oculus controller is gonna look like around the time knuckles comes out.
Touch at the moment imo is easily the better of the two.
Touch at the moment imo is easily the better of the two.
Easily, and I doubt they've just been sitting on their hands. The only problem is that Oculus is a closed ecosystem (Luckily we managed to keep the API fairly open for using Revive etc.) So they're not usable on other devices etc. That's why I ended up moving to Vive. It's a platform with amazing forwards compatibility and OS friendly. I'll likely have wireless, Kuckles and a Pimax soon. And that's just amazing.
I chose Rift because of Touch, price and how it felt on my face compared to the Vive. With that being said that doesn't mean ill stay with Oculus next gen if VIVE comes out with something clearly better for the same price.
I completely agree, and I've said it explicitly multiple times having owned Rift and Vive. Rift is a better package overall currently, better priced, better games (designed for it), better controllers which are HUGE for VR. I just couldn't pass up the Knuckles and Pimax.
I'm betting it's pretty close to something like the Knuckles mostly because that's also a pretty natural evolution of the Touch. Main differences I'd imagine is no touch pad and maybe keeping the second trigger. The second trigger would probably be redundant for the majority of things, but they might want to keep it for legacy stuff.
I am planning on getting into VR. I have a PC with 1080GTX and a 6700k, so that's not going to be a problem.
However, I am looking at Vive right now and thinking if it's really worth the premium price to go with Vive Pro? I would have to pay 2.5 times the price if I want the whole Pro kit.
One thing that is worrying me though is that I need to wear glasses, and I've been reading that the Vive Pro is much better in regards with that. Anyone with glasses that could chime in on that?
However, I am looking at Vive right now and thinking if it's really worth the premium price to go with Vive Pro? I would have to pay 2.5 times the price if I want the whole Pro kit.
One thing that is worrying me though is that I need to wear glasses, and I've been reading that the Vive Pro is much better in regards with that. Anyone with glasses that could chime in on that?
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I can't speak in regards to the Vive Pro, but I can't think of any problems with glasses on the regular Vive. Not for my pair, nor anybody else that wears glasses and has used it. Worst I can think of is smudging the lenses with the foam when putting it on or taking it off, and I don't see the Pro changing the possibility of that happening. (Tip: If you wear glasses, put the HMD up against your face first, and then pull the strap over back of your head. This will virtually eliminate the possibility of smudging compared to putting the strap over the back of your head and then pulling the face part down.)
As for whether the Pro is worth it... I'll leave that to somebody else that has experience with it, but my gut feeling is no. VR's a bit of a mess right now for people just getting into it. I'm tempted to recommend just waiting for the emergence of 2.0 sets and Knuckles, but the timelines are so vague. No matter which version you get, it'll be at least partially obsolete in the not too distant future, so you're probably better off cutting your losses with the old Vive. Keep in mind that with the original Vive, you're likely going to want the improved audio strap too, so that's an extra cost on top of the base unit.
Thanks for your input!
Yeah, I'm planning on getting the audio strap as well, if I'm going with the regular Vive.
I'm not really worried about these sets becoming obsolete within the next 2 years at least. I can't see a Vive with a wider FOV and new features coming out sooner than that after Vive Pro. Pimax 8k might be coming within 6-12 months, but even so. Getting games to run at 4k 120 Hz is not really something that is appealing to me at this point.
Knuckles will still be compatible with the 1.0 base stations, right? If not, then that certainly changes things.
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All 2.0 compatible devices work with 1.0 lighthouse based tracking, but 1.0 devices will not work with the second gen lighthouses. So yeah, Knuckles will work with any existing Vive setup, but the original Vive HMD or controllers wouldn't work if you bought the new 2.0 lighthouses.
Compatible? With the Rift? They use completely different tracking tech methods... Nothing to do with the ecosystem lol
Touch getting an upgrade equivalent to Knuckles is way less of a jump that Vives wands to Knuckles. They just need to add a back hand strap and capacitive handle. Thats it.
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And the scroll pad, and the force sensors... The capacitive handle alone with (approximated) analog individual finger tracking is a far bigger undertaking than something like the Touch's addition of a physical analog handle trigger. This isn't to say that a company like Oculus with Facebook's reserves isn't capable of such tech, but you're better off not dismissing exactly how much of a technological leap Knuckles represents over the all current VR controllers. Knuckles is at least as much of an evolution over the Touch as the Touch was over the Vive wands. It's hardly a "that's it" sort of upgrade that can be done with little effort.
Got an email from HTC about the Vive pro. I don't understand their pricing. Pro headset only is £799. Full kit is £1299. I could buy a full normal vive set and a vive pro headset for less than just the Vive pro full kit, and throw the vive headset in the trash. Makes no sense whatsoever.
Maybe the lighthouses are better, but still crazy.
Maybe the lighthouses are better, but still crazy.
Given that the lighthouse designs are opensource, and supposedly technologically simple (relatively), I'm kind of surprised there aren't any companies in China or similar creating third party models.
It won't track your hands very well when you aren't looking at them, regardless of the size of your play area.
They do not have IPD adjustment (except Samsung), so if your IPD is outside the average (64-66), don't buy them.
I have some questions. My Vive (it's amazing!) came in the mail yesterday. I set it up and I noticed that when I start STEAM VR, my monitor still displays my desktop. Because they both run off of the same videocard, doesn't that mean my desktop could potentially eating up frames that could be going towards whatever's running on the Vive?
I don't know if that's the case, but my monitor is as OLD as dirt. It's a DELL 2405fpw (from 2005) that's been running nearly 24hrs a day since I got it. I would like to replace it with either a 24" or a 27" monitor. Would going with a 4K monitor potentially bog down my video card even more while playing Vive games as opposed to the resolution of my current monitor (1920x1200)?
I don't know if that's the case, but my monitor is as OLD as dirt. It's a DELL 2405fpw (from 2005) that's been running nearly 24hrs a day since I got it. I would like to replace it with either a 24" or a 27" monitor. Would going with a 4K monitor potentially bog down my video card even more while playing Vive games as opposed to the resolution of my current monitor (1920x1200)?
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Rendering the desktop itself should have a negligible impact on GPU usage. If you were paranoid, you could always reduce the desktop resolution to 1080p and cap the refresh rate before starting a VR session. I'd be more concerned about what else might be running in the background personally. Many programs such as web browsers can eat up varying amounts of GPU cycles these days with hardware acceleration.
It's OT, but I'm only responding because it's a real pet-peave of mine. You can disable hardware rendering in Firefox and I recommend everyone do so. It's completely unnecessary and will constantly have your GPU switching to full voltage every time you load a new page/scroll. Just a pointless feature, IMO, being as software rendering doesn't tax the CPU at all.
https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/s...powerful-vr-headset-yet-and-you-cant-have-one
StarVR One VR has been announced with SteamVR technology. Its better than the Vive Pro on paper and has eye tracking, but require a minimum of gtx 1080, and is restricted to commercial market only.
StarVR One VR has been announced with SteamVR technology. Its better than the Vive Pro on paper and has eye tracking, but require a minimum of gtx 1080, and is restricted to commercial market only.
Doesn't make much sense to have higher Min GPU reqs if it has Eye Tracking. That should allow the rendering load to be lowered, unless fidelity is also increased in the target area.
Seems like a reasonable requirement for that FOV and resolution. I think even FOV, by itself, increases the load. Eye tracking is just an included tool. It doesn't automatically do anything. I would assume for foveated rendering with eye tracking, you might even need GPU driver support. You'd certainly need engine support. So while this is the future, it's not something that reduces overhead until the infrastructure is in place.
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So will we actually be able to buy this at some point in the next century? That's basically all I care about.