Ever wanted a virtual desktop via VR (Oculus Rift or HTC Vive)?

[tynopik]

If you watched the video and dont see the point of it I really don't know what to tell you mate, you might be broken in some way.

the only 'regular' use I saw was the ability to have more desktop space available, basically a huge virtual monitor so you can have everyone open at once

if you're not doing 3d modelling or gaming, it doesn't seem to have a lot of value

 

[clamum]

I thought the part where he was watching Netflix in the theater setting was pretty cool. I bet it would be awesome if you were actually wearing the VR headset.

 

[Kaido]

Huh, will have to get on that.

Any more advice for Samsung VR?

I have a Gear VR & a Note 5. Awesome setup. It basically lets you clip in your phone & use that as a screen & CPU. This is bleeding-edge stuff, so the tech isn't perfect & there's not a lot of content out yet, but it's still super fun to play with. It only works with Android phones (Galaxy S6/Edge & Note 5, plus I think the new S7); if you want to use an iPhone, you'll want to get a Google Cardboard-compatible unit like the Viewmaster (vastly different system than the Gear VR tho...it's a beginner's VR kit, whereas the Gear VR is inbetween that & an Oculus/Vive setup). Lots of news & info here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gearvr

I'd recommending getting a controller: ($25)

https://www.reddit.com/r/GearVR/com...download_do_before_my_gear_vr_arrives/czcrhcj

Most people get one of those cheap padded camera bags or backpacks off Amazon to store all of their stuff in. I have a battery brick too ($35 for 22,000mAh); there's a charging port on the bottom of the headset that passes through to the phone, so you can stay juiced up:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FDK2G2C

Also snag a small microfiber cleaning cloth (to clean the phone, inside lenses, and outer lenses, they get dusty). If you want to go nuts, pick up a cheap drummer's chair too - it lets you spin around in 360 (a basic office chair works too, just a bit more fun without arms on the sides). If you don't have headphones, get some basic Sennheiser HD-202's: (I don't like sharing my earbuds when I show it off to people, haha)

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-202-Professional-Headphones-Black/dp/B003LPTAYI

Adventure Time with a gamepad controller is awesome (pity it's only 2 levels! about 30 minutes to play through). VERY immersive. I feel like the Gear VR was worth getting just to have fun in that game. The Night Cafe (Van Gogh) is also crazy awesome, you literally walk into the painting and can look around, very surreal. Oculus Movie Theater is pretty neat, you can watch a movie in an empty theater or on the moon. Netflix is cool, but the resolution of the phones vs. a magnifying glass kind of bothers me...it's clear, but the background details are lacking due to the screen-door effect...reminds me of a portable DVD player with the way it looks). The underwater stuff like Blue & Ocean Rift are fun, and the 360 photos like the ones from Egypt are amazing. I bring it to work almost daily to show off to people at lunch or if I'm working on their computer for awhile & they have time to kill, it's a lot of fun if you're a social person - it's always fun seeing people's reactions to it!

Oh, also snag MilkVR & watch the Interrogation (language warning!), Sonar, the Assassin's Creed 3D trailer. Typically videos in 360 are kind of low-res, the photos are much better (remember that it's a mobile device pushing a left & right video feed). Oh yeah, also get Dread Halls if you like scary games. Wear headphones! :awe: There's some other fun stuff you can do, like SideloadVR. You can play Quake & also stream some other stuff from your desktop if you don't mind doing some tinkering. One other one is the VRSE app from NYT, they have some really cool videos like Take Flight. Lots of stuff to play around with!

 

[Kaido]

I thought the part where he was watching Netflix in the theater setting was pretty cool. I bet it would be awesome if you were actually wearing the VR headset.

It is pretty awesome because you can make it a 50" screen, a 120" theater, or a 100-foot IMAX. There's some space video with some NASA clips where you're sitting above earth in orbit & they're playing some old liftoff video clips on what looks like a giant IMAX screen. Really cool! The only problem is that the resolution is not great due to the screen-door effect. Right now, you can see the pixels, even on a Note 5. No biggie for games or 360 photos, but for 2D movies, like Netflix streaming, I get tired of watching it because of the pixels, even though it is a clear image.

One of the VR developers said we need to get to 8K screens in order to get eyesight-equivalent VR. Sony already has a smartphone with a 4K screen out, so we're probably at least a year or two (or three) away from getting there, but it will be awesome when we do get there!

 

[Kaido]

I don't get the vr craze I really don't.

Have you tried it? If not, don't knock it til you've tried it. And by try it I mean either a Gear VR, Oculus Rift, or HTC Vive. I haven't been too excited by anything in tech for like years now...ultra-wide monitors, curved gaming screens, curved TV's, 4K TV's, 3D TV's...meh. VR? Awesome. Love it. Sign me up for more! :thumbsup:

 

[ioni]

What exactly were you expecting from a virtual desktop app?

Exactly. It's pretty basic. There doesn't seem to be anything new here. It's just a virtual desktop. Linux has had that for free forever. Windows has had free virtual desktop utilities you can install for a long, long time. The only reason this looks "cool" is because the guy has a space skybox setup.

 

[mnewsham]

the only 'regular' use I saw was the ability to have more desktop space available, basically a huge virtual monitor so you can have everyone open at once

if you're not doing 3d modelling or gaming, it doesn't seem to have a lot of value

Any sort of media consumption is going to be more immersive, whether or not you want the immersion is another more personal issue.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Man, that really makes me eager to see an OS with fully integrated VR functionality. Why have monitors at all when you need is unlimited virtual desktops in 3D space?

This.

Also, the question that I have, not directly related to VR desktop (but then again, maybe) but related to VR is, when are we going to use VR to telecommute? That is to say, we put our VR equipment on, and we're then sitting at our virtual office. Boss can come up to our desk, and see what we're doing, just as the boss could do at a physical workplace (i.e. it could be set up so that you can only access work information in the VR desktop that's common to all, so that the boss can check on you).

 

[mnewsham]

This.

Also, the question that I have, not directly related to VR desktop (but then again, maybe) but related to VR is, when are we going to use VR to telecommute? That is to say, we put our VR equipment on, and we're then sitting at our virtual office. Boss can come up to our desk, and see what we're doing, just as the boss could do at a physical workplace (i.e. it could be set up so that you can only access work information in the VR desktop that's common to all, so that the boss can check on you).

Give it 5-10 years for the tech to mature and gain acceptance, I can see virtual meetings or virtual commuting becoming a thing.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Give it 5-10 years for the tech to mature and gain acceptance, I can see virtual meetings or virtual commuting becoming a thing.

What if it could be combined with Facerig or something equivalent so that it tightens up on the ability to have meaningful facial expressions in the virtual environment?

Not necessarily using the fox avatar, of course...

 

[Crusty]

Exactly. It's pretty basic. There doesn't seem to be anything new here. It's just a virtual desktop. Linux has had that for free forever. Windows has had free virtual desktop utilities you can install for a long, long time. The only reason this looks "cool" is because the guy has a space skybox setup.

What? Did you even watch the video? The video has nothing to do with Linux's support for 'virtual desktops'. This is about virtual reality...

 

[mnewsham]

What if it could be combined with Facerig or something equivalent so that it tightens up on the ability to have meaningful facial expressions in the virtual environment?

Not necessarily using the fox avatar, of course...

If you haven't seen it yet.

This uses just a regular Logitech C910/920 webcam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

If you haven't seen it yet.

This uses just a regular Logitech C910/920 webcam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmajJTcpNk

Ah yes...what about the VR apparatus though? Would block eyebrow and eye expressions at the least.

By the way, I can definitely see some interactions becoming virtual, like company to company. But as far as advancing telecommuting in general, customers would have to get on board too. If you guys were going to visit an office, whether that's an insurance agent, your attorney, accountant, whatever, could you see yourself doing it via VR or would you still prefer to go in person? Because if customers still insist on going in person, the office professionals still have to go too.

 

[Markbnj]

Man, that really makes me eager to see an OS with fully integrated VR functionality. Why have monitors at all when you need is unlimited virtual desktops in 3D space?

And why did he say "If you have a multi-monitor setup...?" If you have this app, then you have a multi-monitor setup, don't you? Or do headsets not have dedicated GPUs?

 

[shabby]

This looks so cool, but its so useless now with the blurry dvd quality resolution on vr.

 

[mnewsham]

And why did he say "If you have a multi-monitor setup...?" If you have this app, then you have a multi-monitor setup, don't you? Or do headsets not have dedicated GPUs?

From my understanding the program has problems generating it's own extra desktops, so if you have multiple monitors, you can use them in VR, but microsoft needs to add support in the OS for generating more virtual desktops without there needing to be a corresponding monitor.

 

[SAWYER]

How is the sense of scale when watching video in theater mode? Does it really seem like it is a big screen? I can't wait to see where vr is a few years down the road.

 

[Markbnj]

From my understanding the program has problems generating it's own extra desktops, so if you have multiple monitors, you can use them in VR, but microsoft needs to add support in the OS for generating more virtual desktops without there needing to be a corresponding monitor.

Interesting. My first guess was that they would support UPNP and just show up as however many displays you configure for. But the headset would need to have it's own multimonitor-capable GPU. I guess it's possible they are just capturing the data stream sent to the monitors, which would explain their not having enough control over how many displays the system appears to have.

 

[John Connor]

Just going to leave this here. Watch the video.

NSFW (due to context, no babes)

http://www.techspot.com/news/64205-...-adult-entertainment-provider-offer-free.html

LOL!

 

[John Connor]

:thumbsup:

 

[Linux23]

Have you tried it? If not, don't knock it til you've tried it. And by try it I mean either a Gear VR, Oculus Rift, or HTC Vive. I haven't been too excited by anything in tech for like years now...ultra-wide monitors, curved gaming screens, curved TV's, 4K TV's, 3D TV's...meh. VR? Awesome. Love it. Sign me up for more! :thumbsup:

It looks cool but I wouldn't even know where to start to get a feel for VR.

Isn't it just faster to interact with your PC by using a keyboard and mouse? How do you control things in the VR world?

 

[Kaido]

It looks cool but I wouldn't even know where to start to get a feel for VR.

Isn't it just faster to interact with your PC by using a keyboard and mouse? How do you control things in the VR world?

Right now, there's not really enough resolution to use it as a monitor replacement. It's more for entertainment consumption (imagine being IN the game, instead of just staring at it on a TV set or computer monitor). It does best for 360 photos & games, imo. 360 & 360-3D movies are starting to get better, but they still need to figure that stuff out better. As far as controls, there are a few ways to do it:

1. Gaze tracking: You stare at something, it can register as a click. So if you look at a menu item for 3 seconds, a circle can appear around it and click for you. Or like in the Land's End game, you use your gaze dot to piece together puzzles to open doors & stuff. So basically it tracks the tilt of the headset & lets you look around in 360, and then has a cursor in the center of your vision for pointing.

2. Headset buttons: Google Cardboard (like the Viewmaster) uses a single button for interaction. The Gear VR has a D-pad touchpad, plus a back button, so you get tap, swipe, and push. So you hold your arm up & press a button on the headset itself to register a click. It's actually not as bad as it sounds.

3. Gamepad controllers: The Oculus Rift comes with an Xbox One gamepad. I have a knockoff Bluetooth version from iPega for my Gear VR. For stuff like Adventure Time, which is a top-angled view game like Mario 64, it works great. Oculus has touch controllers coming out later this year, and HTC Vive has their own coming with their headset. There's also controllers for stuff like flight sims & racing games with joysticks, wheels, pedals, etc.

4. Lighthouse beacons: This is more for an enhancement of tracking. Right now, only the HTC Vive uses these for super-accurate tracking (down to less than a millimeter). The Vive is getting great reviews because of how accurate the tracking is, apparently it adds to immersion quite a bit. That, and the good headsets use 90hz refresh rates for more realism. Anyway, the Lighthouse system is pretty neat, check it out here:

http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-valve-s-amazing-lighthouse-tracking-technol-1705356768

5. Motion controllers: This creates an invisible field & tracks your fingers. Leap Motion has a pretty neat setup that straps onto the Oculus headset, check out the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnlCGw-0R8g

6. Machine sensors: This is stuff like the bird-flight simulators, omni-treadmills, exercise bikes, etc. I have a VirZoom coming next month, which is a portable exercise bike that ties into VR video games. So like in an F1 racing game, the faster you pedal, the faster your car goes:

http://virzoom.com/

The Virtuix has special shoes & a slippery bowl surface with a seatbelt system that lets you run around in games, like 3D shooters or Minecraft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI

The thing to remember is that this is bleeding-edge stuff. Everyone getting into it right now is an early adopter: the technology isn't there 100%, it's expensive, there's a limited supply of quality games & other content, but it's really, really cool. Eventually we'll figure out the right combination of hardware, the technology will catch up for ultra-high-res miniature screens, more quality content will become available, they'll figure out the best way to do immersive movies in it, and the price will go down to more affordable territory. For now, if you get the chance, try out either a Gear VR, Oculus Rift, or HTC Vive to see what all the fuss is about. Google Cardboard is a pretty good intro, but even the Gear VR is in a whole different league in terms of immersion, so don't judge VR just based off that system. Basically, just get a solid half-hour on a quality VR setup & then make a judgement call...you might be surprised

 

[Linux23]

OK thanks Kaido. I appreciate you providing me with more detailed info. I have a few thousand dollars that I stashed in an account I forgot about and was itching to order the Vive sight unseen but decided not to until I do some homework on VR in general.

I'd have to upgrade my gtx960 to a 970 or 980 which is another $350 - $500 bucks so that's another expense I need to consider.

 

[Kaido]

Interesting. My first guess was that they would support UPNP and just show up as however many displays you configure for. But the headset would need to have it's own multimonitor-capable GPU. I guess it's possible they are just capturing the data stream sent to the monitors, which would explain their not having enough control over how many displays the system appears to have.

So VR headsets are typically a single physical screen, split into a left eye & right eye by the software (and the good ones operate at a 90hz refresh rate). With onboard motion tracking, you basically get a 360-degree video sphere to look around in, which in 3D translates out to "being inside a VR world", whether that's a room or a desert or the moon or a spaceship. Basically, imagine being inside a Holodeck - it's like being inside of a Google Sketchup project.

So with the 3D screen display that room, you now need a computer feeding the data in to provide that visual information. On Google Cardboard & the Gear VR, that computer is your smartphone. On the Oculus Rift & HTC Vive, that computer is your desktop computer with a high-power GPU. Basically, all the CPU is doing is sending left & right eye data to your headset's screen. From there, it's all dependent on the software for doing multi-display trickery.

For example, in Windows, you can open up as many RDP sessions to as many computers as you want. At work, I typically have a dozen RDP sessions going to different servers & workstations at any given time. But per-computer, with stuff like Windows 7 Ultimate edition, you could now use multiple monitors in an RDP session (so if you have 2 screens at work, you can use both screens at home if you have dual monitors there too), and with stuff like AMD Eyefinity technology, you could run 6 monitors off a single video card. By default, Remote Desktop Multimon restricts you to a maximum of 16 monitors per session, with a maximum resolution of 4096x2048 per monitor, although that is configurable too:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/rds/2009/07/01/using-multiple-monitors-in-remote-desktop-session/

What will be interesting is to see how this plays out in the future. For starters, remote desktop performance is typically limited to how good your network is, i.e. it's better on Ethernet than on your average wireless connection. But there are some interesting technologies coming out that do compression pretty well...Netflix can stream 4K now, OnLive did game streaming for awhile there, and companies like Teradici are creating video compression cards that enable long-distance video streaming for CAD, video, gaming, etc. Here's an older video demonstrating a long-distance connection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaMZa_MqIOw

Newer video demoing some neat aspects of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz5VZ30xsec

Plus there's Citrix HDX, HP RGS, etc. etc. etc. So at some point, you'll be able to sit down in your Lazy Boy with a wireless keyboard & mosue, put on your headset, and pull up triple 4K virtual displays to remote into work. We need to improve the headset screen quality first (devs say we need 8K headset screens), and also make HD streaming compression technology cheaper & easier, but we're getting pretty close! And if you're content with a 2D display (rather than an immersion 3D gaming experience), you can do some of that stuff now with say a Samsung Gear VR & sideload apps like Stream Theater: (requires an NVIDIA GTX660 or better)

http://sideloadvr.com/detail.php?id=14

Stream video games from your desktop, or use Plex to stream movies into a virtual home theater, fun stuff like that. Here's somebody playing Tomb Raider on a giant 2D screen in a virtual theater room:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR8Sa5vhiQg

Eventually we'll have headsets with 8K screens, fast wireless, and good batteries in a lightweight package, so you can either buy a gaming PC to stream from locally, or use kind of a VPS service that provides gaming GPU's for a monthly rental fee over the Internet (gaming cloud services). Playstation has their own VR headset coming out later this year as well. So there's a lot of cool stuff in the works for virtual 2D screens (VR monitors, televisions, projection screens, etc.) & 3D immersion, plus local & online streaming tools.

 

[Kaido]

OK thanks Kaido. I appreciate you providing me with more detailed info. I have a few thousand dollars that I stashed in an account I forgot about and was itching to order the Vive sight unseen but decided not to until I do some homework on VR in general.

I'd have to upgrade my gtx960 to a 970 or 980 which is another $350 - $500 bucks so that's another expense I need to consider.

I would try to get a hands-on before you bite. If you just want to dip your toes in, pick up a Google Cardboard (GC) compatible system that you can use with your smartphone. That's the most basic VR setup you can buy ($20 is the typical price for a headset). It's not nearly as immersive as the big boys are, but the entry price is really super cheap:

https://www.google.com/get/cardboard/get-cardboard/

I started out with a Viewmaster (GC-compatible, specifically fitted for iPhones), then got a Gear VR with a Note 5 & an iPega Xbox-style Bluetooth gamepad. BIG step up. If you have a Galaxy 6 or 7, or Note 5, then definitely pick up a Gear VR ($99). From there, the two competing PC-based units are the Oculus & Vive. The Oculus has a lot more momentum (i.e. probably going to be a lot more games supported, at least initially), but the Vive comes with the headset, two motion controllers, and two motion trackers, and reviewers seem to like the accuracy a lot better. But you also need a $1,000 computer to run it (GTX760 + desktop i5 minimum), so the cost really adds up. I'd definitely suggest trying out at least the GC to get a feel for it first.