SHOCKING NEWS: John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO

[Geosurface]

Hey, serious question about the Rift, btw...

I don't like 3D movies, they bug me. They hurt my eyes and they're stupid.

I'm really excited about the Rift because (so far) my understanding is that this is an entirely different method than that.

I've been hearing things here and there that make me worry I might be wrong on that though...

So can anyone help me totally clarify this once and for all?

With a 3D movie you're looking at ONE image which is created by combining TWO images which are then re-separated by the glasses you're wearing, traditionally one lens being blue tinted, one being red tented... I know that the modern 3D films are a little bit more advanced than that, and I know that with things like the Nintendo 3DS there is a method of creating that 3D effect without needing to wear glasses...

but isn't it true to say that when you put on the Oculus Rift, each image you're looking at is a normal non-funky, non-colorized, non-merged image just like you'd see on your monitor... and that the 3D effect, the feeling of being there, is created by factors like:

1.) It's proximity to your eye and the fact that you are ONLY seeing the image
2.) It's FOV
3.) The fact that each of your eyes is only seeing one half, and that these two images are nearly identical except for being offset from one another a bit, to mimic the distance between the human eyes... and that lenses and barriers are used to ensure that each eye is only seeing it's correct, corresponding image intended for that specific eye

As I was watching a Carmack video I did note that he talked about the lenses creating a fish eye issue and then using software to actually negate that... but the end result still sounded like a traditional, flat image.

At one point in the main Oculus website video they have up, they actually use the red/blue color scheme for a second and I believe they are only doing this to evoke a traditional understanding of 3D...

but that and a few other things I've seen people say, give me enough concern that I wanted to just get to the bottom of this.

I get headaches from 3D films in the theater, and more importantly I just find it an annoying, ugly gimmick.

I fully realize I may end up getting headaches from the Rift, but I plan to try to brute force my way into making my eyes/mind get used to it. My current belief is that the headaches the Rift would cause are going to be for entirely different reasons. Most notably, the disconnect your mind feels between what it's seeing and what it's not feeling which it normally would (in terms of bodily movement through space, etc)

 

[Mandres]

^ I'm unclear on exactly how the 3d works too, but I've read accounts that it's very realistic and superior to the way it's done currently in movies.

I've been trying to find someone local who has one of the dev kits to try it out. They say Half Life 2 is incredible on the rift, along with any of the flying/driving simulators.

 

[smackababy]

The movies use two images and polarized glasses to filter one I believe. I don't think the Oculus could do that, because it provides a separate image to each eye.

 

[Juddog]

The movies use two images and polarized glasses to filter one I believe. I don't think the Oculus could do that, because it provides a separate image to each eye.

If you see a movie at the IMAX, it will have two separate projectors, and the polarized glasses show one image per eye.

The 3d TV's work in a different manner, with shutter glasses, which shut off one eye while the other one is turned on. This is why the IMAX 3D experience looks a lot better than watching the same movie on a 3D LCD TV.

The Occulus unit projects a separate image into each eye; so it's a lot closer to watching the movie in an IMAX theater. The final device is supposed to be 1080p at 60 fps into each eye, which means it will look a lot more stable and realistic than what you'd currently see on a 3Dtv.

 

[gorobei]

the basics of OR vr:

Shutter glasses 3d works by showing alternating left eye/right eye images at half the refresh rate(so 30hz per eye for a 60hz display). So left eye sees a 1080 image of frame 001 for 16ms while the right eye sees a black frame. Then the right eye sees an 1080p image of frame 001 for 16ms while the left eye sees black. Then the system moves on to frame 002L, 002R, 003L, 003R, etc. The effective frame rate being sent out to hardware is 1080p at 60hz. Since that is split between each eye the perceived framerate is 30hz. The main thing to note is that each eye is seeing a wide aspect ratio image(1920x1080, or whatever res)

With Oculus Rift, the left image and right image are combined onto a single frame. so a 1920x1080 frame will have a 960x1080 left image and a 960x1080 right image on the same frame buffer. Because of this format you dont have to worry about synching shutter blocking or polarized lens angles. You can get a nice non nausea inducing 60hz so long as your gpu is powerful enough to render out two cameras in 16ms.

The reason for the fisheye lens effect is that the human eye actually has a relatively limited fov. But because you have 2 eyes that can swivel and scan the brain perceives a wider fov. Since the OR has only so much lcd space the image presented to each eye would be too cropped if you were looking at it directly(like looking through a cardboard tube). To make the image fill your fov they use lenses to distort the image into looking wider. The 960x1080 aspect ratio for each eye means you see more vertical image, which is closer to what each eye sees in real life.

The primary advantage of OR is that there is a precise calibration process for adjusting the virtual camera spacing to match the distance between your actual eyes. Once the calibration is correct, your eyes are free to scan all around like they normally do. This results in order of magnitudes greater immersion than shutter glasses.

The big problem right now with OR is that they need a few things before a consumer version can be released:
1) hi res ~7" lcd screens, (supposedly solved by the retina res tablet boom of late)
2) better head tracking. current dev kits only track the direction the headset is pointing and not lateral/vertical/depth movements. (should be easily solved, but it means adding additional hardware/software)
3) better response rates/bandwidth. the current usb(2 probably?) interface has a very high lag according to most reports. so head swiveling doesnt have an immediate response before the image changes. (could be solved with usb3 bandwidth)

 

[Aikouka]

The movies use two images and polarized glasses to filter one I believe. I don't think the Oculus could do that, because it provides a separate image to each eye.

The Oculus should just be able to display the left and right image naturally to the user. That's really the whole point of stereoscopic 3D... separation of the left and right eye to artificially create depth.

If you see a movie at the IMAX, it will have two separate projectors, and the polarized glasses show one image per eye.

Digital IMAX (commonly referred to as Lie-Max) setups always use two 4K projectors.

The 3d TV's work in a different manner, with shutter glasses, which shut off one eye while the other one is turned on. This is why the IMAX 3D experience looks a lot better than watching the same movie on a 3D LCD TV.

There's also passive technology for TVs, which is sort of similar to theaters. They use the same glasses as they are both polarized; however, TVs use a patterned frame retarder to reverse the polarity on each horizontal line. So, the odd lines represent one eye and the even lines represent the other.

The Occulus unit projects a separate image into each eye; so it's a lot closer to watching the movie in an IMAX theater. The final device is supposed to be 1080p at 60 fps into each eye, which means it will look a lot more stable and realistic than what you'd currently see on a 3Dtv.

Unfortunately, 3D TVs are limited by HDMI 1.4a. Consider that 3D over HDMI only supports 1080p at 30Hz. In 2D, you can do 1080p at 60Hz, but since 3D requires about double the data per frame, it's bandwidth limited to 30Hz.