2014 HMD Games & Theory Revelation 1: PS4 and Xbox One will bring VR and HMD usage to next gen consoles masses before OVR bring it to a PC minority+ Enabling 0 drift 0 Lag HMD head tracking on ALL Xbox ONE games + Cinemizer OLED, Oculus Rift and smd ST1080 gaming on PS4 and Xbox One ...

Welcome to 2014 where your next gen console gaming display can be around the size of your  PS4 and Xbox ONE joy pad ...On the outside that is ... for like the T.A.R.D.I.S they are bigger ..much bigger on the inside .....and like Doctor Who .. HMDs and VR have recently been dragged back into the zeitgeist from their death in the 80s by ...popular demand...or  Kickstarter demand..and in the case of one prominent example a very nice man from Netscape who is now $75 million poorer..now and perhaps billions richer later ..

I just spent a month looking at the actual reality of next gen display or  HMD gaming with next gen consoles .....yes consoles...


At a point in HMD evolution when everyone and your friendly local neighbourhood Rocket Scientist ( hey JC) are promising you VR, AR, MR and other futuristic abbreviation laden head mounted displays for anywhere from $300 to $3000.. with their fantastic media friends pinning rosettes on them after all of 4 minutes controlled tech show demo time.. it helps if you can separate the science from the science fiction .. even if those reporting on all things HMD and "VR" cannot ... often suffering from a self fulfilling delusional VR malaise known as Oculust* ...

*Oculust : defn : state of uncontrollable longing for a commercially viable functioning  Rift VR HMD ..Various forms of  TVRKRs,promoters,web,printed and broadcast media are known to financially exploit the phenomenon of Oculust in an audience captivated by dreams of a VR  "future" ...  and as long as it does not arrive ..they keep making money from the hype ... leading the Oculus Rift to be referred to by some as a Perpetual Promotion Engine "

Rift jokes aside we are going to take a serious look at the impact of next gen consoles on the HMD scene ..playing what you want to play now as opposed to what they tell you can play ..down the line ...(go JC)... introducing head tracking to ALL next gen games and combining it with other VR leaning controls ...on consoles .. now .. 

Delusions of VR are common at this early stage in HMD evolution here for instance this virtual Xbox One Call of Duty Ghosts astronaut actually thinks she can SEE YOU IN THE GAME .... 

Over the next decade core and casual video gaming will be influenced and dominated by the Xbox ONE and the PS4 .. SERVICES and not just physical hardware.. 

It follows then that these devices and those services will have a significant role to play  taking the HMD from   youtuber/tech site click generating kickstarter/angel funded promotional gimmick or niche retail device into a mass market .. just as iOS and Android will  ...

What? 

In this very long article for which I have spent around a month playing .. we will dare to consider and test the following Rift/VR/HMD heretical questions and hypotheses challenging current VR dogma and doctrines .. 

1. Dispelling the myths that next gen consoles are not powerful enough or of relevance to VR or HMD  developers and users : 

THEORY

• Xbox ONE and PS4 offer a STANDARD level of hardware NOW that benefits  developers both HMD hardware and software developers assuming you allow for  next gen console support in your HMD hardware or software "ecosystem"
• How PS4 and Xbox One will be more powerful than your  PC in 5 years time and what this means for HMD development 
• PS4 and Xbox One are set to become cross platform cloud  services with an exponential increase in usage .. any and all of which HMD users and developers will expect to access from one head mounted display
• The PC is not THE modal,ideal or ultimate platform for VR/HMD use  

2. Showing how Xbox One and PS4 are capable of combining multiple VR leaning controls now and will be as, if not more suited to VR as the PC in future:

PRACTICE  

• My road to next gen console VR
• A look back at 3D HMD gaming with multiple VR controls on PS3 and Xbox 360 : to demonstrate the feasibility of VR and HMD use and control on hardware that is far below what Oculus  claim is necessary ...including the Oculus Rift  
• Using EXISTING HMDS ...with the Xbox One and PS4 including the Cinemizer OLED, smd ST1080 and Oculus Rift
• Enabling 0 drift 0 lag  HMD head tracking in ALL Xbox One and PS4 games
• Combining this with Kinect 2.0 and PS4 Camera positional tracking, LOS head tracking and voice recognition now 

3.  Why and How  next generation consoles will influence the evolution of the Head Mounted Display, the obsolescence of VR and what this means for the Oculus Rift Perpetual  Promotion Engine :

REVELATIONS 

• Titan Fail
• Consumer VR and HMD use is coming to the expanding PlayStation 4 and Xbox One MASSES in ADVANCE of the Oculus Rift bringing it to a diminishing PC MINORITY
• Console VR and HMD use is going to cost significantly less than PC VR or HMD use .. even if they gift you the Rift.. 
• The Dominant use of head mounted displays across Android, iOS, PC/Mac, commercial sector and next gen consoles IS and will be 2D not 3D or  VR use...  
• AR and MR  are the new VR and a VR only HMD is an obsolete  scifi concept that the next gen of HMDs is set to leave behind 

1. Dispelling the Rift Myth that next gen consoles are not powerful enough for VR or HMD use: 

THEORY

• Xbox ONE and PS4 offer a STANDARD level of hardware NOW that benefits  developers both HMD hardware and software developers assuming you allow for  next gen console support in your HMD hardware or software "ecosystem"
• How PS4 and Xbox One will be more powerful than your  PC in 5 years time and what this means for HMD development 
• PS4 and Xbox One are set to become cross platform cloud  services with an exponential increase in usage .. any and all of which HMD users and developers will expect to access from one head mounted display
• The PC is not THE modal,ideal or ultimate platform for VR/HMD use  

Theory

• Xbox ONE and PS4 offer a STANDARD level of hardware NOW that benefits  developers both HMD hardware and software developers assuming you allow for  next gen console support in your HMD hardware or software "ecosystem"

To state you just envisaged hypothetical VR device X that is TOO powerful for such hardware or will require the creation of technology that has yet to come into existence ... is what we used to call, pre the Rift ... Science Fiction .... post the Rift now of course we call it the "future"  and will likely back it on Kickstarter ... 

But like I said, we have to learn to separate the science from the fiction when it comes to HMDs.. speaking of which ..

• PS4 and Xbox One will be more powerful than your  PC in 5 years time and what this means for HMD development 

The PS4 and Xbox One are MORE than just hardware .. they are set to evolve into full blown cloud services ..as I noted here  and this will have significant impact on HMD design and usage.. a HMD you can stream to without a PC or other device will simply rule.. with the caveat that it connects to your favourite content of course ..which includes PS4 and Xbox One

At a definite not imaginary future point in it's lifetime your console will be streaming a game in higher res and from hardware more "powerful"  than those "powerful" PCs  that in 5 years time will be necessary to make VR possible on PC for us so called L337 Rig gamers according to some quotes from OVR ..  

Through the cloud both the PS4 and Xbox One are thus MORE powerful than PCs for VR and able to access content from multiple "ecosystems" or even dare I say it anything you want without having to sit in anyone's walled garden.. 

This is what I refer to as asymmetric cloud gaming which as you can see I have been involved with across devices  here  

The idea that consoles will never be powerful enough to run the alleged 60 FPS , semi 1080p basic embryonic side by side optically magnified  and  geometrically transformed  faux wide field of view VR games , with hardware sapping calculations going on in parallel to correct for a drifting head tracker .. like those being shown with the latest "named" iteration of the Rift ..is nonsense .. propaganda ...fear .. fear of losing control .. of the VR/HMD conch .. that has so far rested firmly in the hands of OVR ..passing between Luckey, Carmack and Abrash ..some would say to their detriment ..

The the Xbox One and PS4 now form  the STANDARD level of hardware that ALL developers including HMD developers ( who need to make significant returns outside a Kickstarter run) will have to adhere to and will chose to build from but also consider  

• PS4 and Xbox One are set to become cross platform cloud  services with an exponential increase in usage .. any and all of which HMD users and developers will expect to access from one head mounted display

With the arrival of next gen consoles and their next gen cloud services .. for the first time consoles need not be rendered obsolete during their lifespan or fall behind PC technology ..

Indeed right now it is the PC platform that is behind consoles in cloud based gaming .. having lost GAIKAI to Sony ..and this trend is set to continue as it does .. the PC becomes less and less relevant for HMD and VR,AR , MR and all those other Rs.. 


Through the Cloud Consoles will not only have more power than needed for VR , but also be able to extend their ecosystems across multiple devices ..

Whilst the PCs influence dwindles.. 

Both PS4 and Xbox One dominant usage and revenue will evolve into PS Now and Xbox Sky Cloud(whatever they call it)  ..... services that will cross platforms within the next 5 years. As we know the PS4 is doing this NOW..

This represents an exponential growth in console/cloud console usage with multiple devices able to access a service like PlayStation Now  ..and if your  single HMD connects to all these devices... that is an exponential increase in HMD usage and an exponential increase for demand for such a multipurpose device ....  

VR and development for HMDS at this point will be driven by services running across platforms, i.e DRIVEN BY CONSOLES NOT PCs  .. that will be left sitting rendering youtube video for vloggers downloading torrents or confined to 3D printing the latest pirated Rift prototype design .....

The future of VR and mass HMD use is thus dependent more on PlayStation Now than Oculus Rift "When" 

.. a tangible demonstrable future (next time on thegameveda) where consoles and phones for that matter will stream and thus run more detailed content than the most powerful gaming Rig .. in the time frame OVR claim PCs will dominate ..which all statistics ...real not virtual show they won't..

This is also one of the reasons why I believe VR and mass HMD usage will come to console masses through Sony and others BEFORE OVR bring it to Chris Roberts, NASA and a PC Minority including me ... come on JC ... prove me wrong..

• The PC is not THE modal, ideal or ultimate platform for VR/HMD Use 

The PC has record  year on year diminishing sales, a subset niche of which OVR  are able to target with the Rift Ecosystem/Metaverse 

They hope to be doing this in ? years time ..when the Japanese, Chinese and or Koreans invent the necessary phone screen technology at the right price to plop into OVR's designed in California ski goggles...much like the OLED panel in the latest Crystal Cove prototype...something which DIY HMD enthusiasts  including Sony can do for themselves 

Hmmh...  all of this has happened before ...somewhere ? 

Any one targeting the PC for VR income is thus targeting a small subset ... enthusiasts ..who are part of a diminishing overall population.

Remember we the developers have to develop the ecosystem ... and it's not like there's only one out there ...which one are you going to risk your livelihood on ? 

VR ... What is it good For ... absolutely ...nothing?

Looking down at your feet aside or leaning into a semi 1080p res dial on a space ship ... WTF is  PC VR good for ? 

The modal usage for PC technology has changed .. unfortunately none of this modal use needs or require a VR headset.. or for us to be paying/buying  into a Virtual Reality ecosystem .. 

Immersion ..the big selling point of VR .. and VR itself are totally irrelevant a major proportion of  a future mass consumer HMD user base .. 

This is of course one of the first questions I asked of the Rift .. and VR... what is going to be for ? Sure you can jazz up your latest prototype with S&M studs  and a hip Intel like nomenclature  but was it for ?.. You or I do not need VR to type this, render video or play the most common PC games in PC Gamedom .. which are NOT FPS .. or 3D based any more ... 

I was lucky enough to meet the great FATAL1TY earlier last year and discuss the diminished relevance of FPS and twitch gaming in PC land .. What for instance does a StarCraft or League of Legends pro player do with a Rift? Why would they bother with a HMD that only does 3D and then causes detriment to their skills and gaming .. 

There exists however a vast non VR HMD market for LAN gamers and tournaments where players can carry their displays in their pockets, use head tracking to augment FPS aiming or the privacy of their own wearable display to plot their League Of Legends or StarCraft strategies ... but on 0 Nausea sub 180g devices which can be used as traditional 2D displays ...

A vast market  the modal use of PCs that a VR and 3D walled garden HMD cannot reach .... 

2. How the Xbox One and PS4 are capable of exploiting VR leaning controls now and will be as, if not more suited to VR as the PC in future:

Practice 

• My road to next gen console VR
• A look back at 3D HMD gaming on the last gen consoles : to demonstrate the feasibility of VR and HMD use on hardware that is far below what Oculus claim is necessary ...including the Oculus Rift  
• using EXISTING HMDS ...with the Xbox One and PS4 including the Rift, Cinemizer OLED and siliconmicrodisplay ST1080
• Enabling 0 drift 0 lag  HMD head tracking in ALL Xbox One and PS4 games
• Combining this with Kinect 2.0 and PS4 Camera positional tracking, los head tracking and voice recognition now 

• My road to next gen console VR

My personal Rift Shadow, who is paid by OVR to say so, would say  this is all my opinion, well yes it is but it is based now on 3 years of HMD experience , including at times being ahead of the game even ahead of the Founder himself ...as we know a  funny thing happened on  my way to the Oculus Rift Developers forum... a result of which over the last 13 months I have been in contact with 1000s of HMD fans in person with all their collective opinions and experiences of HMDs ..including the Rift to draw on.. that is what I am conveying here.

So fellow Riftmaniacs .. below is one such opportunity, a quest to find the PS4 at E3  2013 .. on my shoulder you will notice my day 1 backer Oculus Rift shirt.... freshly signed by Mr Luckey .. after meeting most of Team Oculus  ....their lawyer..their nanny .. and Steve..(hi Steve) 

This is a  condensed version  of my 6 month  PS4  journey from first contact with the console at E3 2013 in June to unboxing it thousands of miles away, getting round the wifi limit of 2.4hgz ..and connecting the first HMDs to the PS4... something I have been waiting to do every day of those 6 months ..I censored out the meeting the Xbox One to avoid trauma to PS4 fanbois..  but get this :the Xbox One out right now is THE most suited next gen console for HMD  and future VR gaming with multiple forms of head tracking , positional tracking and other VR leaning controls like voice recog in games YOU want to play right now .. and that is going to include Titan Fall ! Halo and any game of your choosing..

Disruptive Game Show Synergy: 

The most fascinating thing about being at a game/tech show for me is getting involved in discussions on the evolution of gaming with developers pro gamers outside the controlled official press keynotes....and the public as well as enjoying discerning  the psychological quirks of "press" .. if you thought Hollywood stars were divas ..wait till you meet some pro youtubers and legendary journos...well  they do say you should never meet your heroes..

Aside from massaging or not damaging delicate games press egos the standout problem at this and other shows  was there was never time to hook up and look for solutions to using HMDs with the PS4 and Xbox ONE ..The consoles were locked down and prototypes, the companies doing the shows have their message to get out. You yourself are busy ..busy ...busy ..usually fixing issues..  

But the magic happens when you as a gamer start to see synergistic links between all these technologies and games , realising you can hook up a HMD like the Cinemizer OLED to the Nvidia shield at E3 and asking Nvidia to do so .. creating a portable handheld PC game streaming and Android gaming system with a wearable  OLED display, or the Gamestick guys realising for themselves they can do the same meeting them again at Eurogamer months later ,  meeting DDD and testing Android 3D on an OLED HMD for the first time half a year in advance of OVR announcing an announcement to support Android in tomorrow tomorrow land ..or meeting Team Oculus , their lawyer and their nanny .. finally getting them to experience drift and lag free head tracking or the difference TriDef 3D makes over the native Rift solution .. on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 and showing Crytek,Microsoft and Sony the same. 

There is though, incredible frustration   I could for instance stand under a great statue of a Titan Fall Mech .. watch the game demo running at E3 or play the demo at Eurogamer .. but not  connect a HMD to them ..which is frustrating as usually I have two different kinds with me at all times.   Now I own both  next gen consoles I can get to the task .. especially since Sony have replaced my broken PS4. 

During the last 13 months or so I have been been fortunate enough to discuss the actual reality of HMD gaming  with 1000s of people, from gamers to developers ..and take note of what they expect..from a head mounted display.

• A look back at 3D HMD gaming on the last gen consoles : to demonstrate the feasibility of VR and HMD use on hardware that is far below what Oculus claim is necessary ...including the Oculus Rift  

Consoles have always been powerful enough for HMD , 3D and 2D use and allow MULTIPLE VR leaning controls to be combined .. even the last gen consoles the PS3 and Xbox 360 : 

As you can see from my articles here 

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED headtracker review pt VIII: Enabling Cinemizer OLED headtracking in all Xbox 360 games

Preparing for VR: Enabling Cinemizer OLED head tracking in all PS3 and Xbox 360 games XIM Edge method

Preparing for VR: Combining LEAP Motion+Cinemizer OLED headtracking+Kinect Voice Recog in PS3 and Xbox 360 games

As you can see from the dates on those articles I have been  researching and using drift and lag free head tracking with head mounted displays on console platforms for a very long time. 

So now that we have established theory and  practise that you can HMD game nausea free in both 2D and 3D , with lag, drift free head tracking, voice recognition,Leap Motion hand and finger recognition even with old gen consoles,like so let's get to testing the obvious   ..that the PS4 and Xbox One are easily capable of VR and HMD gaming .. and able to combine multiple forms of VR leaning control inputs without lag, drift or latency ..in many ways better suited to VR and HMD use than our PCs.. 

After all a HMD is not just for VR .. which is what I am going to look at next:

• using EXISTING HMDS ...with the Xbox One and PS4 including the Rift, Cinemizer OLED and siliconmicrodisplay ST1080

Method :  gaming ..pure unadulterated gaming .. every comment here and thought is arrived and derived from actually playing the games millions are playing right now ... on Xbox One and PS4 ..  ..I will be looking at the reality.. as usual ..of HMD gaming.. now as well as postulating, inventing and  hypothesising future advances in technology 

The only occasion you see visible pixels on the Cinemizer OLED is when a game like RESOGUN wants  you to see them 

Cinemizer OLED HMD + Cinemizer OLED head tracker 

The Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED Head Tracker   is THE coolest VR related piece of hardware in existence .. whilst your 2014 Crystal Cove Rift tracker throws a wobbly ..that Steve LaValle is working hard to eliminate (go Steve) .. the 2012 Zeiss head tracker does BOTH mouse emulation and DOF axes in hardware ...and has been doing so for me for around 13 months now ...  0 drift 0 lag perceptible ... on any hardware you connect it to.. this information was so threatening for some I had to fend off an Oculus Troll army when commenting on it as a Rift backer back in 2012 and have been assigned my own personal Oculus Rift Shadow .. who I learnt recently gets paid to discredit me .... as you can see above it was sweet to show Palmer, Steve and  Mr LAWYER  it working in action on PC,Xbox 360 and PS3 at E3.. even sweeter to show the 1000s of people I met over the last year.. And today there are people using the Zeiss head tracker with the Rift ... just I have been over the last year .. if you want to know why ..just ask them  .. I am too busy playing .. 

There are already  two available methods to enable 0 lag 0 drift Zeiss head tracking on the Xbox One .. 

And if Respawn do not delay I will be playing Titanfall  with lag and drift free head tracking on both LCOS and OLED HMDs as well as the Oculus Rift ..on Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC ... combining it with Kinect positional tracking and voice recog ... if Respawn add those features to the game!  

Zeiss head tracking will work even if a developer does not code for it...

And here's how it's done...

• Enabling 0 drift 0 lag  HMD head tracking in ALL Xbox One and PS4 games

Enabling Cinemizer OLED  HMD Head Tracking in all Xbox ONE Games 

On the Xbox ONE .. we can  enable lag free, drift free head tracking in ALL Xbox ONE games.. there are two methods available right now .. A third option the XIM 4 will become available early in 2014.  Actually probably by the time I post this ...

The two current methods are: 

1. Cinemizer OLED head tracker + CronusMax + Laptop Bridge 

Using this method also allows for other VR leaning controls to be combine with the head tracker...more on this in a following...shorter article

Enabling Cinemizer OLED  Head tracking in ALL  Xbox ONE  games method 2 : Cinemizer OLED head tracker + CronusMax + XIM Edge  .. NO PC Bridge required 

CALL OF DUTY GHOSTS 

As you can see using the Cinemizer OLED head tracker we can have 0 developer cost or console side GPU or CPU overhead cost lag and drift free head tracking ...on a next gen console ...any game you like ...   

And now for the first play of Call of Duty Ghosts and Battlefield 4 using Zeiss head tracking 

on the Xbox One

In the following videos we are using multiple VR  leaning controls to play  existing Xbox One  games I aim using Zeiss head tracking , turn on Kinect 2.0 and you have positional tracking ...for leaning .. and voice recognition .. in Battlefield 4 at least .. 

Call of Duty Ghosts Xbox One Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker test 1 

Call of Duty Ghosts  Xbox One Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker test 2

Battlefield 4 Xbox One Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker test 1 





Battlefield 4 Xbox One Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker test 2 

Cinemizer OLED HMD Head Tracking on  PlayStation 4 

With the Zeiss head tracker we can have drift free lag free head tracking in every game on PS4, currently the PS4 allows mouse and keyboard input to control the front end and in games like War Thunder ...

There are now at least two methods to enable head tracking on PlayStation 4 games :click on the headings below to check them out 

Method 1:

Preparing for VR : Enabling Cinemizer OLED Head Tracking in ALL PlayStation 4 games 

Method 2:

Preparing for VR : Augmenting Infamous Second Son : A Second method to enable Zeiss head tracking in all PS4 games ..allowing combination of multiple VR leaning controls+optimizing and accelerating head tracking 

You should note we can combine multiple forms of head tracking , Zeiss head tracking with the HMD ,plus Kinect line of sight body and motion tracking ..giving you the most detailed positional tracker in existence without resorting to the external camera or S&M studs peppering the the current Crystal Cove Rift Prototype ..

Developers thus have more options right now to add VR leaning controls - multiple layers of controls to their Xbox One and PS4  games than PC .. fascinating ...  

Next  these are some live camera captures through one of the OLED eye pieces zoomed 4x digitally ..

I see a crystal clear 40 inch OLED screen , you will see a zoomed 1 inch video ..  the Cinemizer like the ST1080 will allow 2D as well as 3D content, unlike the Rift ...

The aim of HMD gaming on consoles can be quite different to VR gaming on a PC ...we intend to do away with large displays and make the device portable ..when Sony release a HDMI output update for the PSVita ..or you use PSNow to stream to your Android iOS device ..you can now add a HMD to that device and take your console game with you ... in this scenario a 40 inch OLED screen or a 100 inch LCOS screen doesn't do too badly compared to a 4 inch phone or Vita screen...and you can use them as long as you would a large screen display

PS4 Flower on Cinemizer OLED

PS4 Killzone  Shadow Fall Cinemizer OLED

PS4 RESOGUN Cinemizer OLED 

PS4 support for devices like Cronus Max and with the announcement of XIM4 is due to happen  any time now .. as soon as it does I will have an update on how to use Zeiss head tracking with the PS4 ... at that point BOTH next gen consoles will work with lag free head tracking using the Cinemizer OLED head tracker .. 

Remember the Cinemizer OLED and head tracker are Retail devices.. not prototypes!

 




 

 

Siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 vs PlayStation 4

You can of course use the Zeiss head tracker with the smd ST1080 on Xbox One games ..but  time for a change of next gen console as next we will go sniping  in Shadow Fall on  the only true native 1080p transparent consumer HMD in existence .. the smd ST1080.....

a 1 inch true 1080p res LCOS display equal to a 100 inch true native 1080p res game of Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 which all too few of you will have experienced ...on a retail HMD that weighs <180g 

The ST1080 gives you a true native 1080p 100 inch screen, one that like the future Meta Pro can also be transparent or AR .. but with a resolution that even the $3K Meta Pro will not match,  the ST1080 remains the only true native 1080p consumer HMD in existence .. it can easily handle the 1080p 2D being thrown at it from the PS4 ..or Xbox One ... moving from the HMZT series to the smd ST1080 was a revelation for me .. no sweetspot issues and the clearest text of any hmd .. posting about it was the first time I came across my Rift Shadow...

For me this 100 inch size and 1080p native res is the ideal HMD screen size .. I do not believe in faux magni-ski-goggle VR .. or ecosystems for HMDs .. if you could see Final Fantasy XIII running at 1080p native on this you would understand. And there are people who naturally don't want you to see Final Fantasy XIII running in crystal clear 1080p on a 180g HMD that you power with a USB cable ..and can see through .. 

a totally useless but interesting shot of the ST1080 playing Resogun on the PS4 .. 

The ST1080 is THE simplest HMD to connect and set up to a HDMI source, smd had a 4K prototype, that is a true 4K res, almost  2 years ago and it is technology I would love to see updated. Remember this is a commercially available HMD, has been over almost two years now .. the amount of time I have been using mine.. 

The ST1080 also has the widest support of 3D formats of any HMD  a Rift is just locked to side by side ... you can find more about it on my blog ..

There is no way I can film the LCOS display as I see it but I did film me playing ..

The experience is completely nausea free .. and the sound is the finest of current HMDS 

and for Guerilla a lot more Killzone Shadow Fall

Currently there are no 3D games or options in current Xbox ONE or PS4 games ..but there will be . This does not matter much..because most usage of HMDs ..the modal usage of HMDs is using 2D input anyway..whether it is desktop working, browsing or console and PC gaming .. the majority of your media is 2D and as long as your HMD allows 2D content to be displayed .. you will get a lot more use out of it ..  

check out and or order your own siliconmicrodisplay ST1080  here 

Next up we see what happens when someone designs a 3D only VR ecosystem limited Metaverse HMD prototype .... 

Oculus Rift Prototype Dev Kit 1 meets PlayStation 4 

Many moons have passed now with the weight of my Oculus  Rift developer kit  (revision 1 of ?) heavy on my brow, sweat pouring from the patent pending faux ski mask foam vents.. long have I pondered , long before my first contact, with next gen consoles, Palmer Luckey and  Team Oculus (hi Steve..  ) ... of their impact on the HMD scene ...... ..


Our next gen console HMD adventures continue as we learn the rudimentary skills of Oculus Impressionist photography in the screen door ridden  Unreal 4 engine jungles of Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 on the Oculus Rift although we cannot actually play anything with any skill on the PS4 connected to the Oculus Rift ....  we can use PS4 content to further study the Rift design and take many pretty pictures : If you have a complaint about this state of affairs please direct your feedback to John Carmack and or Palmer Luckey ...which as you may have gathered is what I am doing right now .. and have been quite vociferously ..

In the Killzone Jungle ... the mighty Jungle .. on Oculus Rift ...

PAUSE:

 .. warning the following material may prove upsetting to sufferers of Riftmania.. If you fall into this category   please skip the following section to a point past "CONTINUE" and await the commercial release of the Oculus Rift ....Virtual Reality, World Peace... and Star Citizen

But Oculus VR said the Rift and VR are too sexy for consoles ? Actually as I have already discussed your old gen and your next consoles are too sexy for your Rift .. Why? How?

Well first VR is going to come to consoles through platform specific HMDs ..like Sony's , second the Rift has interesting design... quirks...that render it incompatible with consoles, choices that other HMD developers can learn from .. and I am talking flaws that can plague any future wide field of view hmd that is based on this FOV2GO derived  solution for VR  .. that the Rift itself stems from as well as the metaverse/ecosystem VR technobabble... just think someone gets paid making up all these terms..

Not long ago  Oculus VR ... were quoted ..actually Palmer Luckey was quoted saying (my) precious next gen consoles, that I and around 20 million of you will have purchased by the tentative Oculus Rift launch date..if it launches in 2014  are not powerful enough for VR ...that would be the OVR definition of VR ...which currently looks like this ...for 40000 or so Rifters...

A Resogun tower block used as a visual metaphor to represent the act of OVR showing the metaphorical middle finger to millions of console fans hoping the Rift works with their PS4 + this Rift picture displays the Screen door and vis pixel issue still present even in 1080p prototypes.. which as I will later postulate is a major cause of Rift Nausea 

So Are Oculus VR talking out of their Metaverse?

Translation : Following E3 2013 fund chasing runs the Rift was not purchased by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo ..  sought funding elsewhere ..  and now is evolving in a state that is INCOMPATIBLE with next gen and old gen consoles .. with Sony and Microsoft developing their own VR and HMD hardware .. if Sony do ...Microsoft does ..so no surprise to see OVR talking down console HMD use and talking up or some would say out of their Metaverse ...it never made sense that Sony or Microsoft would pay to use OVRs VR ecosystem.... particularly as neither the hardware or the ecosystem itself exists in a viable commercial form ...existing in a future parallel nausea and screen door free VR dimension that only tech show journalists, promoters, prominent youtubers  and Chris Roberts can see ...but then he is from the future  .. a future where my Star Citizen Combat module .. and mayhaps even Star Citizen itself has been released with day 1 Terrabyte Bug Patch..already applied... excellent.. 

The rest of us mere mortals and Star Citizen backers  see this when looking through the Rift :

this photo is a metaphor for Rift Nausea ..where the over use of derivatives of the word "magnify" create nausea in the reader just as the over use of magnification in Oculus Optics does in the Rift user ...NB the Rift design is able to create nausea in the user even with 2D content viewed with one eye..even using a 1080p AMOLED display  further suggesting that over use of magnification and cheap optics not just the display behind contribute to Rift Nausea ..

The PS3 and Xbox 360 were powerful enough to drive content to the Rift dev kit 1 as you can see here and here, what makes this particular HMD  incompatible with ALL consoles is the Oculus Rift single bisected display being locked to 3D side by side content ( ideally but not necessarily Rift Warped)  and OVRs rigid  dogma to create it's own separate VR ecosystem .. the PS4 and Xbox One hardware .. can easily push Rift content ..  my Intel HD3000 powered laptop can .. so can your phone or tablet .. the issue is will Sony or Microsoft let OVR do this ...or feel any need to do this .. and by content I mean 2D as well as 3D content...more on this later..

What you have to consider is major developers will spend 100s of millions on game franchises .. if you then run them through prototype hardware or commercial hardware that causes discomfort in your user base .. well that threatens to tarnish the good reputation of your AAA franchise .. in short whilst we can attempt to play console games on the Rift ... the developers having used the gear as long as some of us day 1 backers have come to a conclusion a long time ago the Rift was not viable.. This I know from speaking to them over the course of last year ..it's not only a risk not yet worth taking..it is actually not possible.. in the long run this may be a mission goal and a boon for OVR .. because if they can solve the Rifts design problems, create VR, create a VR sales ecosystem and a $300 HMD and PC sales decline charts suddenly reverse and go vertical, they will lead VR software development ...at least on the minority of PCs that are deemed powerful enough for VR .. and  I should say by OVR

Of course our hero JC is heading in house software development .. my advice get the old iD band line up back together .. both John's including Romero, ban the  use of imps jumping from concealed wall closets as a game design mechanic and avoid anything connected to DOOM..or a game involving looking at dials in a cockpit in one direction whilst hurtling forwards at Warp factor 9 in another with a moving 3D star field going in another whilst ships and missiles hurtle in yet another.. because that ... that is really going to help alleviate Rift Nausea ..right? 

Whilst pondering the issue of how to play 2D content on the Rift,  I did discover a new use for the Oculus Rift Developer Kit in relation to next gen consoles .... Impressionist  PS4 game photography :

This Oculus Rift Impressionist work is based on Flower for PS4 with the photographer showing a daring use of screen door, blur and visible pixels .. investors have been known to pay up to $75 million for the opportunity to view similar works using the Rift..  If for instance Mr Andreessen purchased this photo I could quite happily retire and finally play through some of my Steam archive ...before GabeN pulls the plug on my account .. 

One of the first things I did with my Rift was dispel this nonsense .. you can see here I eschewed the Rift Warp and took to using TriDef 3D, months before OVR and DDD would think of doing it combining it with the Zeiss head tracker ..allowing me to play non Rift content.. with Zeiss  head tracking in DX11 3D .. As for  PS3 and Xbox 360 games on the Rift .. the issue is not whether your machine is powerful enough for VR and or the Rift.. it is the Rift that is lacking in functionality ...basic functionality that the majority of HMD consumers will expect ( JC) ... alongside a nausea,lag, drift and blur free experience ...for their $300 ...or $499

It is not just a matter of being ahead of the game, for me it is vital that devices I buy and use on a daily basis to augment my reality are devices  that adapt to my needs and wants ... and a major need and want of any HMD owner is going to be that their HMD works with their next gen console(s)

On the Rift the most basic act of displaying a 2D desktop is verboten .. because perhaps OVR know the modal use of a large FOV HMD will shift to  2D gaming and desktop use across consoles, PCs and phones ..away from the planned OVR ecosystem ..and thus cannot be monetized .. but this is what users expect .. and will demand

The Perpetual Promotion Engine : 

The Rift is a victim of it's own promotional success, with an 80s VR dogma that ignores millions of potential customers seemingly locked into what I term as a perpetual promotion engine .. where every media junket looks forward to a glorious future point  that OVR are going to find it increasingly difficult to reach as the hype  outperforms the actual  reality ... 


One of the major reasons HMDs and VR have never gone mainstream is they are DOOMED to over promise and under deliver : But you don't need to take my word for it  ...recall  your own experience ..

In use  the Rift does not give a 110 degree clear FOV... the FOV will need to be decreased to kill issues like Nausea and accommodate smaller displays..though in the Rift design solution not even an OLED or AMOLED display can eliminate  nausea, blur, screen door and visible pixels in a 1080p 5 inch panel at this point in time and maybe be never in a high magnification low res, semi 1080p large tablet screen HMD design,  a res of semi 1080p in an age of 4K , 8K and 12 K does not create the illusion of VR..or hook people who are intending to prosper from hi res HMD work  or enter the holodeck that the end user is expecting after so many click seeking name media articles  ..the head tracker still suffers from drift and lag where others do not . I also know from the reactions of 1000s of people over 2013 from E3 to Eurogamer who tried the Rift ( non press) and their comments at shows over the last year .. how and where exactly it falls short of users expectations.. 

You cannot solve these issues through better hardware and software .. these are issues of design...

16 months on and I regularly see people with DIY HMDs that are more effective than the Rift ... of course they do not have the Angel funding or Angel promotion the Rift does .. 

I think I shall call this one Lilies of  the Field .. hmmmh.. 

None of the issues I discuss here can be eliminated by better panels or faster head trackers or chanting  John Carmack ... John Carmack ... John Carmack religiously ... I know .. because I tried ..

As I have said  before in far less clear but funnier terms Captain Carmack and Team Oculus have given themselves a Herculean task ..if it pays off .. they truly will be VR pioneers .. but VR pioneers it seems for a diminishing user base .. for VR is not the  modal HMD use .. 

Everyone expects the Rift and any other HMD to work with ALL their devices ...2D and 3D ... that it does not is a design choice,  like others I pointed out, I hope JC will wake up to ..

The arrival of Xbox One and PS4 are literally game changing for head mounted display design and usage. If you are a HMD developer you need your device to work out of the box with these two devices.. for  2D, 3D content and claimed VR content..  

Let us take a hands on look at how and why .. and don't be afraid Palmer .. I promise not to destroy the Internet in the process.. though if you feel the need ... feel free to hide behind the sofa.. it worked for generations of Dr Who fans...

these Resogun on Rift  human cage walls are a visual metaphor for the walled garden VR ecosystem that developers big and small (somebody stop me) find themselves trapped behind  in Rift Virtual Reality ..thanks to OVRs strict Rift design dogma ....which involves something they term the Metaverse...of course we could ALL just be making this up as we go a long .. 

Caveat: even with Rift Bisected 2D content viewed with one eye you get Rift nausea ..and this is fascinating ... suggesting the hardware of the Rift design contributes to Rift nausea ...not the software you are viewing... I had post Rift use nausea for around an hour after these sessions .. I have NONE using the ST1080 and Cinemizer OLED .. you don't need to take my word for it... just try one out for a few minutes 

RESOGUN 

FLOWER

Looking beyond  Crystal Cove : to the next Rift prototype Marshmallow Unicorn...and the next prototype..and the next pro...

What difference does a 1080p  AMOLED display make?

Testing  my own DIY 1080p Rift  with an AMOLED 5 inch 1080p Samsung S4 screen,like many will already have done,   viewing Rifted source video of games like Star Conflict for instance not only still produces screen door and visible pixels but also Rift Nausea ...

OVR are never going to be able to afford a screen of the equivalent of the S4s for the price point they have for a  2014 retail release.

Such displays have limited production runs and OVR could find themselves in the same situation they were in with the first Rift Prototype .. the 5 inch  one Jimmy Fallon TVRKD .. and the one we were originally promised as backers .. by the time they got round to manufacturing after the kickstarter those panels no longer existed ... in the quantities needed .. the same thing can happen when you place your order for your retail Rift .. which means there will have to be multiple hardware revisions and changes to optics and software as well as HMD design .. and every different  panel throws up different foibles when placed into the FOV2GO based housing of the Rift ..  And an OLED screen of this size around  5 inches paired with low res semi 1080p optical magnification and geometrical transformation field of view generation will never be totally free of blur, pixels, screen door or the potential consumer  Rift killer ..nausea .. mitigation is not elimination ...

These display issues cannot be solved with the current Rift design ..you cannee change  the laws of optical physics.. in short as I wrote a long time time ago OVR are reliant on random combinations of third party display technology. And success will depend heavily on where the phone market takes the 4 to 5 inch display .. One change in direction to different display technology that is unsuitable for Rifting (not that any so far has been suitable for Rifting) ..and NO more Oculus Rifts .. except our DIY ones ..and the phone screen industry changes in a flash ...you have to hope OVR  already placed their orders .. to make sure of an adequate supply ...this would mean a Rift retail announcement around E3 2014.. if they are late in buying those displays though ...there are few billion other customers waiting .. 

This one I call PS4 OVR Field of Dreams .. bumping the res of the panel even from this Dev Kit 1 to Crystal Coves 1080p or an AMOLED  panel cannot eliminate the screen door or vis pixels that are caused by hi magnification  of such a large display behind..and that's the size of it ..literally ...

Every unique display that JC is looking at this moment will come with it's own issues , the same for the accompanying optical FOV magnification solution .. 

NO wide field of view HMD exists at this point in time that does NOT throw up these issues or possibly cause it's users to throw up through  nausea  ..including the Crystal Cove ..

And randomly looking for a display solution uniquely suited to being placed behind a magnifying lens is irrelevant when the root of the issue lies in how our eyes and visual cortex interpret and react to looking through a magnifying glass at a fast moving low res moving 3D picture behind.. 

These issues cannot be eliminated by dropping in an OLED display , they are a function of the mechanism of magnification of the large display behind and more importantly the result of neurophysiological issues that remain unresolved in 4000 years of the science of neurophysiology that I am sorry I literally don't see Oculus VR solving in the space of 16 months .. off the back of a kickstarter campaign combining a ski mask with a phone display and two magnifying glasses.. though you cannot knock the promotion ..   


I find these issues are present in ALL wide field of view HMDS including the micro OLED displays of the HMZT series ..during and or after use .. you get that nausea .. 

We are after all even in an 1080p panel magnifying a very low resolution 960 by 1080 .. yes on a phone that may be OK on a 4 inch screen ..but blowing that up to a 70 to 90 degree field of view .. that messes with your mind.. and that requires some serious clinical study..

you can take the Blur out of the Rift ... but can you take the Rift user out of the Blur.. completely...?

For Oculus VR  to succeed even after solving hardware design and manufacture issues  EVERYONE has to abandon the way THEY develop or expect to view content from a digital source ... and in 2014 developers and users are moving to AR , MR and bypassing VR altogether ... with multipurpose HMDs that blur the lines of usage and not the images you are viewing...

When your multimillion dollar funded and promoted AAA console launch game is turned into the above .. before you  risk the jobs of your team adapting it testing it and offering a VR Redux version .. ..ignoring the nausea caused to your customers ..  who's income isn't related to  tech show journalism or TVRKing HMDs for money on Youtube.. you may come to a natural conclusion .. that the Rift from here to retail is not a viable HMD for next gen consoles ..

You may also be aware that your Sony and Microsoft bosses already have their own VR HMD hardware.. in mind ..after all if you or I can build  a better than Crystal Cove Rift like with our phones... what do you think the guys and gals who designed the displays that OVR  are using , the PlayStation, Xbox and ..the iPad can do? Or have been doing...

Speaking of which  it was easier for me to visit Apple's Cupertino HQ and talk HMDs than visit the Rift Cove HQ.. the birthplace of VR as you know it...

So   through testing not just the hardware but considering the design of the RIft HMD  we can see it  is not the Rift that is TOO powerful for next gen consoles ...it is the Rift conceptually that has inherent design decisions that render it useless outside a niche PC so called VR space ... the very platform OVR hope to nurture into rivalling Console , PC , Android gaming ... with our help...

These are just some of the reasons why console developers let the Rift go ...in 2013 

We have to create that VR ecosystem of games suited to the Rift hardware .. for it to succeed.. many  small indie developers hungry for recognition will try.. 

Exclusive Rift only true VR content is the goal but will the OVR ecosystem be any more successful than the current LEAP Motion ecosystem..?

Both revolutionary devices to me that I have been involved within since day 1, but both devices that do not give the masses what they expect .. instant plug and play with all their hardware and software.. 

And will creating a single platform VR only game for a market where multi platform releases are necessary to make money be something you are willing to bet your future on?

This is the reason for OVR developing in house...but that really starts to smack of what Nintendo and the late great Gunpei Yokoi did with the Virtual Boy and they had Mario  and cool spinning mirrors...will JC use  Commander Keen and Bubsy VR to launch the Rift ecosystem?

Actually I like this state of affairs, because it means development for the Rift will remain indie driven for some time ..this should ensure original VR content...though it may also mean the Rift is remembered as the HMD that launched a 1000 Valkyrie clones..

Perhaps OVR will reneg and release an Oculus Rift 2DS version just as Nintendo did..with their 3DS.. so the Rift becomes platform and source agnostic like other HMDs 

I am going to carry on looking for ways of getting the Rift working with 2D content like that from consoles , with the Zeiss head tracker we can already get head tracking in Xbox One games with the Rift and shortly using the same method with PS4 games .. 

A $300 HMD that you can use, nausea withstanding .. with your next gen console is not to be scoffed at .. so for now leave this with me as a work in progress... 

And another thing

Re Rift Nausea .. whilst taking my impressionist photos of Oculus Rift gaming, I was of course actually looking closer at the screen door and visible pixels that this HMD design throws up .. 

in the opening of Killzone Shadow Fall on PS4 on the Rift we can see pixels and screen door but why does this 2D display cause nausea?

zoom in 4 times and something interesting happens ...

zoomed 4 times in , this is where the Oculus Rift HMD design displays it's weaknesses .. that high magnification will always generate screen door even on a 1080p AMOLED panel.. and I just made  a discovery .. Listen up +John Carmack .. look at this picture maximised and you're eyes will constantly adjust to focus the foreground game image and separate it from the grid of inter pixel space.. the image seems to shift and has a haze . Now this is a static image .. When playing these pixels are updating at the frequency the gpu and display can handle .. the effect is amplified and a mild discomfort becomes a clinical malaise .. Rift nausea 

Look at this picture and it is like your brain and eyes are  resolving a visual puzzle

Now this is 2D,  a single image , imagine twice the images , slightly shifted for side by side 3D one for each eye  , with a warp applied .. moving at speed ..  that is a lot of transformation of visual stimuli .. and all these transformations whether mathematical or physical due to the Rift lens , your eye lens , the Rift display properties behind all contribute ..not forgetting the high magnification  

Theory : Cross Shifting image phenomena lead to and contribute  Rift Nausea?

The composition of this  image appears to shift when static , it is shifting in a direction NOT intended by the game developer , so your eyes are seeing more than one cross shifting moving image , first your brain is trying to resolve the game image say the camera moving right as you move your head , but the display is creating optical effects that shift random elements( random for now) in other directions ...

when  these two actions or reactions to them combine in our brains we the user get Rift nausea ... 

So in theory Rift nausea may in part be caused by this cross shifting multiple visual stimulation phenomenon ...

and yes we are making this up as we go along .. sometimes the best discoveries are made by chance .. over to you Oculus VR and JC

The very large size of display 5 or 7 inches at present in the Rift is a major contributing factor to this visual phenomena .   

This is going to a function of any large display Oculus use ...there's no magic or method or science .. it is just random testing of 4 to 5 inch display panels based on what is available... which reminds me I should check Alibaba.. to check out the current Graphene situation ..

This is not present in smaller display HMDS.. zoom in to the same level on the Cinemizer OLED and ST1080 1 inch panels and you cannot reproduce the same effect .. and those HMDS are nausea free .. 

Sticking a large faster OLED display into the Rift will not therefore solve optical issues like this .. the whole design of the Rift may have to be radically changed from this adherence to a single panel LCD or OLED panel .. when that happens everything goes back to the drawing board ..and it's time for another ...prototype...

Re the retail version .. For a 2014 release the final hardware has to have been locked down by now .. and we know the Crystal Cove produces less nausea .. but wait one .. what does that mean for Johny Casual buying the retail version ?

The only people who know the nausea,blur, screen door is less ... are people who own the prior dev kit and compare the experience ..  people like me .. or those comparing Rifts at a show .. this is not a selling point though:

When a customer picks one up at retail .... they will not know there has been any improvement ..as they have no baseline or prior experience  to compare .. to .. for them there is STILL nausea, screen door and blur... would they accept a  Sony or LG TV or PC Monitor or even phone that had these issues?

We the alpha testers however critical are still willing to throw money at testing .. but a retail customer ..?

Until the user experience of a Rift is one where ALL these issues are ELIMINATED  not lessened or mitigated...and they are ELIMINATED in other HMDs.. it is a nonsense to compare or talk of improvements ... as none of these will be relevant to first time retail customers .. quite apart from the fact that these issues will still be present in the hallowed "consumer version" 


Over to you JC ..

Get your Rift Dev Kit 1 or if your really Luckey .. Crystal Cove Dev Kit news from Oculus VR here 

CONTINUE:

3.  Why and How  next generation consoles will influence the evolution of the Head Mounted Display, the obsolescence of VR and what this means for the Oculus Rift Perpetual  Promotion Engine :

Revelations 

• Titan Fail...
• Consumer VR and HMD use is coming to the expanding PlayStation 4 MASSES in ADVANCE of the Oculus Rift bringing it to a diminishing PC MINORITY..
• Console VR and HMD use is going to cost significantly less than PC VR or HMD use .. even if they gift you the Rift.. 
• The Dominant use of head mounted displays across Android, iOS, PC/Mac, commercial sector and next gen consoles IS and will be 2D not 3D or  VR use... 

• Titan Fail...

Checking out the Titanfall Billionaire Collectors Edition at E3 2013 ..the shipping costs are indeed prohibitive but it's the import duty that gets you .. 

Kickass games like Titanfall are set to arrive on consoles in a big way but you will not be playing them in Rift O Vision ...on a console. or using the Rift's "drift prone" sensor fusion head tracking .. 

On PC you will be lucky to play Titanfall on a PC Rift without drift issues ..unless you play with Zeiss head tracking .. 

On Xbox One Respawn will be able to let you look round the cockpit and talk orders, via Kinect 2 .. even the abysmal Steel  Battalion Heavy Armor let you get up to  sorry attempt similar tricks on Xbox 360 with Kinect 

These are examples of how consoles are  AHEAD of PCs if you want to as a developer incorporate VR leaning controls .. because EVERY Xbox One and PS4 owner has access to standard retail  hardware ..the Kinect and Camera 

With the Zeiss head tracker I will be able to use 0 drift 0 lag head tracking aiming in Titan Fall and in the third person sections also .. on Xbox ONE and Xbox 360 .. in combination with voice recognition and line of sight head tracking and possibly positional tracking with Kinect .. at that same E3 event I could have showed you HALO AE in 3D on Xbox with 0 drift 0 latency head tracking combined with Kinect voice recognition and thrown in LEAP Motion hand recognition .. on an Xbox 360 game .. as I wrote to JC and Team Oculus  and co .. ain't no lag on this mate..

We could have shown Respawn at E3 last year and Eurogamer  if I had time..still the Mech was cool..

I also know from playing Battlefield 4 on the Xbox One that we  can also combine both Kinect camera based head tracking and HMD Zeiss head tracking .. giving you positional tracking in addition to DOF axes .. far more effectively than on a PC ..without resorting to sticking S&M style studs on your HMD .. currently Kinect 2.0s hardware .. canes .. as they say on the street .. other camera based tracking..  

On PC I will be playing Titanfall in full 1080p 3D .. of whatever format I find suits best .. frame packed, side by side or top bottom .. fine tuned from TriDef 3D .. with many benefits of seeing my display as a traditional display and none of the pains of VR .. nausea , blur or screen door .. and importantly 0 impact on the speed of the game .. these things matter in a seriously competitive game .. like ... Titanfall..  As I told Abrash a long time ago there are times when a completely visible traditional non VR  Field of View are advantageous to you as a gamer .. as I sat there testing Hawken alpha with head tracking ... long ..long ..ago .. 

So the Rift being unable to work with the Xbox One is an  issue for both developers and gamers .. Respawn/Infinty Ward  would be the first to tell you that it took consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3 to drive their then baby Call of Duty from wannabee Medal of Honor on PC clone to billion dollar franchise able to pique the interest of both Megan Fox and Robert Downey Jr's agents.. 

With Titan Fall Respawn needs to maximize sales from  it's driving lead platforms  the single next gen console it is locked to .. the Xbox One .. and let`s not forget the Xbox 360... 

With the Rift, specific code for the game will have to be written incurring costs .. and then only for the PC ..missing the lead platforms .. Xbox 360 and Xbox One where the majority of Respawn fans reside ..

What Oculus VR  need and fans want is a Rift compatible Xbox ONE version .. ..remembering we will not be playing with a commercial Rift in March 2014 ( nudge nudge JC)... 

What Respawn need is their major fan base residing on consoles to be able to play with augmented control systems like head tracking and on HMDs .. 

And Titanfall will work on console  with every HMD released apart from one ..

This is because the designers of those HMDs have been influenced from the start to get console technology working with their devices ... not sidelined establishing a VR ecosystem or hyping up crude 3D side by side warped versions of FPS games with lag and drift prone head tracking ( fix it Steve and I can stop typing this s***) ..as "Virtual Reality" 

Do you really think any of those youtubers TVRKING Rifts for clicks are really experiencing Virtual Reality ... 

I cannot only see how awesome it will be to play Titanfall with Zeiss head tracking , kinect head tracking and voice recognition I can show the developers of the game this working now..

Titanfall is just one of many console led games that will dominate this new next gen console era, none of them sadly will be running on your Rift ..  

And this then is a TitanFail ... for expectant HMD fans.. 

But that's not going to stop me trying ...that's after all how I ended up in LA in that picture standing under that Mech..


On PC .. although critically acclaimed TF goes against the momentum towards MOBA gaming and slow paced MMOs.. No mech based game has ever been able to reach a mass audience and sustain it online ..even though Hawken and Mech Warrior Online are excellent games .. more people are playing Plants Vs Zombies ...than this type of skilled game .. 

The console then is THE major driving platform for this game .. And a HMD that let's you play it on that console ... has the advantage..

Onto the next revelation ...

• Consumer VR and HMD use is coming to the expanding PlayStation 4 MASSES in ADVANCE of the Oculus Rift bringing it to a diminishing PC MINORITY..

The PlayStation 4 is closer to mass VR and HMD use than perhaps even a commercial Rift is .  We know that VR is coming to PS4 in the form of a VR headset, prototypes of which already have been demoed. This is fact ..  not a possible future.. when PC hardware and optics and LCD displays catch up to OVRs shopping list  ..this is now baby...

Sony already has in house 3D VR development on both the software i.e. games side as well as hardware...these guys brought 3D to an old gen console ... so bringing it to the next gen PS4 with all the cloud power at it's disposal in addition to physical hardware should bring interesting and original gaming content ..Sony is known for left field gaming.. from Wipeout and Parappa , Vib Ribbon to the likes of Flower and Journey  to of course Ico  can you imagine what these guys will come up with for HMD gaming? Or what legends like  Kojima san or Mizuguchi san could do with a Sony VR HMD .. ? It won't cost you a Kickstarter penny either .. unlike some ageing game coding Fagins I could mention ..

That understanding of gaming that Sony have as well as command of engineering .. is wha t makes me see HMD gaming and VR HMD gaming reaching it's first mass audience on console platforms , or even tablet platforms .. before it reaches a massive PC uptake ..  

In fact Japanese coders taking to console VR coding could boost their industry .. as well as quirky original content expect many VR Idol games, Gundam .. and of course Sword Art Online .. on a console before ... PC .. 

Game OVR?

Looking at OVRs choice of games .. from the original choice of Doom 3 which was never going to work with the Rift Dev Kit Rev 1 LCD .. they are heavily tech demo related .. belying perhaps JCs gaming lineage .. I was astonished at a show when the Rift Rep was showing the Roller Coaster demo to 1000s of attendees on a Rift that causes nausea .. think about it .. or that from E3s 1080p to CES 2014s Crystal Cove prototype we are still TVRKING Valkyrie .. the space combat sim .. one of my favourite game genres ...is a great demo for head tracking and positional tracking but even on PC .. simply does not carry any influence anymore .. I know I have been screaming for Freespace 3 for years .. hey .. JC .. how about it .. 

The killer VR app on console or PC ...will not be a standard FPS/sim .. it will be an original concept .. and you won't be holding that legacy Hydra in your hands ... cos that is not VR ..or sliding on a treadmill... 

Sony I would say will have original left field content you are not expecting .. not just the corridor Source/Unity/Unreal FPS fodder..that current youtubers are making money out of TVRKING with Rift dev kits .. with ecstatic expressions watching the ad rev tot up .. 

By next Christmas there will be around 20 million next gen console owners, major AAA releases will be driving next gen business .. this is the potential market for HMDs that target consoles ..and when Sony release their VR head set for PS4 even if it is at a later date than  the Oculus Rift .. the PS4 headset will release to an expanding mass market ..   an existing captive audience of 10s of millions wanting to play  VR Killzone , COD , Skyrim , Final Fantasy , Metal Gear ...(Halo on Xbox One!)  ... for Brendan .. Dark Souls VR ...and Armored Core, Virtual On or Speed Power Gunbike  VR (for me)   ... as PS4 VR exclusives ...   All of them able to exploit the PS4 camera for positional tracking head and voice recognition as well as the head sets own head tracking system.. did I mention you don't even need to download your game or install it ...with PlayStation Now?

The key to this heretical HMD revelation lies in the  Rift design .. the way OVR have to generate 3D and their version of 960  by 1080 per  bisected phone screen VR .. the way they have to use additional GPU and CPU power, with software and hardware overheads  to create that VR ..not to mention the way they have to correct for a constantly drifting head tracking solution ...and now do the math for depth and positional tracking ... 

The Rift then can be considered as a cuckoo or parasitic  display that connects to your hardware and uses it's power in addition to running content .. It makes your hardware WORK .. when most developers and gamers need a display that requires no extra work ... the majority of HMDs released and in development from now till Virtual Reality require NO extra work from your hardware

The Oculus VR Limiting Factor :

This is the VR limiting factor making console gaming incompatible and requiring a (future) PC that has enough horse power being able to drive those 60 FPS 960  by 1080 screen segments , some say the current prototype is having to push beyond 60 FPS to solve current Rift issues .. warping the view and correcting the head tracker+ positional tracker and running enough interference optimisation code in software to mitigate blur, screen door, visible pixels .. once the team has nailed the maths to do so .. for as we know a subset of PC enthusiasts themselves part of a diminishing number of PC owners .. year on year..

This is why Palmer Luckey talks of a future date where PC hardware will be able to do VR .. and where he claims consoles will NOT .. or cannot ..

The truth is ONLY the Rift will not be able to do VR or be used as a HMD on next gen consoles ..Every other HMD including VR HMDs will .... and some of them will  not require a patch or one single line of code by the developer to make it so .. 

The solution is designing a display that requires the source to do near 0 work .. and that is what Sony will need to do .. if they do not want VR to look like CGI from an  80s Dire Straits video... 

Oculus Virtual Reality then ..even on those uber machines will look far less detailed than the 8K  and 12K content the same PC enthusiasts will  be driving on PC ... immersion does not simply come from being IN your game .. how much you SEE in the game also matters .. 3 4K monitors sitting on your desktop for around 3K .. that's what the extreme PC gamer will be chasing by the end of 2014 ..you know who you are .. 

So you can use your 10K costing Rig to run a wobbly head tracker in 960 by 1080 warped nauseating 3D .. or you can play say Star Citizen in 12K ... using the same hardware ..

But PC tech is improving all the time ... yeah .. but  sales of PC tech is decreasing every year... as we no longer need or use PCs to do the things we do ..  

So we see the Oculus Rift  releasing to a diminishing subset of a diminishing platform ... with 0 AAA name games or franchises ...because it insists on PWNing it's own "ecosystem"

This is the folly of NOT supporting next gen consoles ...

Rest assured HMD fans .. you need not sell your consoles to go PC to play in VR ...

For it is more than likely  you and your friends will be experiencing HMD gaming en masse on your console ...with any number of HMDs including official branded ones from Sony and Microsoft.. 

Very soon there will come a time when we are PlayStation Nowing Metal Gear Solid V to our Vitas connected to our PS4 VR head sets ..wireless... portable .. 

...and also far cheaper than a PC Oculus Rift  setup :

• Cost: Console VR and HMD use is going to cost significantly less than PC VR or HMD use .. even if they gift you the Rift.. 

Sony's VR HMD even if it cost 1K, would let you experience VR for a third of the total cost of doing so on your PC and Rift (retail) set up . In actual fact I believe the Sony VR HMD will cost less than a retail Oculus Rift (when it arrives) .. Put this together with ease of use ..of the console platform and you have a VR HMD solution for the masses...with a uniform and well established (low cost) in house development environment from Sony..   

One that will ship with the PS4 ...in a bundle .. just like the Camera does .. now .. a natural progression..

Mass production also means cheaper RRP .. what if your VR headset and console cost $499 .. together .. whereas your PC VR set up .. costs 3.5 K .. yeah I don't care my next rig is going to cost 10K .. but that's me .. and 3 others .. in my country.. you hardly reach a mass audience going down this route  

So put all this together and we already know that not only are next gen consoles compatible with existing head mounted displays (like the old gen) but they are also going to be with at least one VR HMD ..from Sony ... so the argument they are not powerful enough ...is just that ...an argument ..an interesting concept .. that gets a few clicks for media...and pro Rift taggers.. 

Then we come to a most annoying VR heresy ... the fact that VR is not a necessary function of a HMD at all:

• Need: The Dominant use of head mounted displays across Android, iOS, PC/Mac, commercial sector and next gen consoles IS and will be 2D not 3D or  VR use... 

The Oculus Rift is not designed to work with next gen or even older gen consoles or for that matter Android or iOS devices. (without individually designed $500+ Rifts for each platform ) The Rift requires developers and hardware manufacturers to bend to it's foibles and requirements ...whereas other HMDs simply work out of the box ..now .. 

For the common gamer/user  a  HMD is a device that THEY expect will conveniently replace a TV or PC Display, whether it claims to be VR, AR, MR or a combination of all three ...the modal use will be 2D content ..as the majority of media we consume is in 2D ...  or at least the source will be 2D before we convert it to 3D .. 

So your HMD for this generation of consoles  must be able to do basic 2D display tasks ... like operating a console OS menu on the PS4 or Xbox ONE .. not just kick into gear when we play a 3D enabled game or film.. After all there are less than 10 3D games of note across the entire Xbox 360 and PS3 catalogue .. and how many people are actually playing them in 3D ...similarly on PC ..anything can be played in 3D ...but how many of  the 500 million or so PC desktops are running 3D content?

We also know that the Rift is the exception to the rule .. as almost ALL existing and soon to be released Head Mounted Displays ( and that is what these devices are to consumers )  will already work with both Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4 consoles ..  and for a significant number of gamers on these platforms that is going to be in 2D ..not 3D or VR ... and not least because of unsolved tolerance issues...

If VR is not needed by the vast majority of HMD users .. what abbreviations for Head Mounted Displays will replace it ..?

•  AR and MR  are the new VR and a VR only HMD is an obsolete  scifi concept that the next gen of HMDs is set to leave behind 

Augmented and Mediated Reality are the new HMD buzzwords .. the saga of the commercial Rift is only a small part of the movement to mass HMD usage .. and thank heavens it will be over by E3 2014 .. more on those in another article or I will keep typing this one till E3 2014 .. 


CONCLUSIONS : 

• I am very tired now ..
• Here I have just begun to touch on how over the next 5 to 10 years the PlayStation 4 and Xbox ONE are going to  dominate not only  video game development but eventually  HMD and VR gaming entertainment. You will not have one without the other..not on a mass scale ... .
• HMDs  are coming to the next gen consoles in a big way ...even if the enfant terrible the doyen of promoters the Rift refuses to sit at the same table ..(for now)
• Which is a situation I hope to change through many bad Rift jokes and my own brand of disruptive gamin tech synergy .. 

Happy New Year people ... 

And I really should go lie down now.. I am feeling that Rift Nausea again .. only joking Palmer .. I got HMD skillz... 

Next time on thegameveda  what happens when we display 5K content on your HMD ..

Epilogue and thanks:

1. I would like to thank Oculus VR for not releasing the E3 1080p prototype .. or I would not have had enough money to back CastAR .. or indeed time to save up for the Rift Developer Kit Revision 2 .. 

2. To JC .. think about the games .. think outside the VR FPS box .. 1 original App is all it takes.. 100 FPS games and you risk sending VR back to the 80s.. 

3. To Steve LaValle .. love the new chart .. you should send out laminated versions .. or use the office 3D Printer when Brendan's not looking.. 

4. To Sony and Microsoft .. console gamers expect.. this is a golden opportunity to skate on the heels of OVRs most excellent 16 month promotion of HMD gaming.. 


5. To Zeiss and siliconmicrodisplay .. time for updates .. I need to see that 4K LCOS and 1080p OLED HMD..

eVRyone's lost but me... 

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