Quakecon 2012 has come and gone ...and this year Virtual Reality was the new buzzword (again)...sitting through the main keynote a shocking revelation woke me from the deep trance I had placed my mind and body in to endeavour to persevere through the geeknote sorry keynote. At the point which Mr Carmack was talking along the lines of "my other gyro is fibre optic and sits in a rocket....dude..." I had an epiphany....
John Carmack is Beaker from the Muppets ... why has nobody noticed this before?
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our hero and Quakecon Keynote presenter John Carmack |
and Beaker sometime associate of Bunsen
Why am I risking the wrath of Henson, Zenimax, Bethesda and iD ? Well firstly since John Romero left iD I have no fear of iD or their games, the old imp jumping from a concealed closet wall trick stopped doing it for me a long time ago ...
And secondly whilst I saved several hundred dollars/pounds in the Quakecon Steam sale,this year I ended up spending several hundred more thanks to John Carmack`s endorsement of the Oculus Rift . And so I find my self backing the latest attempt to get the consumer HMD right.
Not exactly because the tech is awesome but because this is the way I believe the HMD as a mass consumer device has to be developed ,the only way it can be developed and the best way it can be developed. So taking part in that process by funding the kick starter run is well worth the $335 or so that I just pledged.
For if there was any device whose pre production and perfection was crying out for developer and enthusiast led beta testing it is the head mounted display. Yes we know Google is on the job with project Glass ready to push those dwindling ad revenues via augmented reality whilst we jump out of planes but for gamers the dream is virtual reality. Well it is according to game developers at the moment. But let's not get too cocky here kid, celebrity enthusiastic backing , millions of dollars from you and I and a pair of $335 ski goggles with head tracking gyros and 2 640 by 800 screens do not mean the Oculus Rift has solved the head mounted display design conundrum , or given you clairvoyance enough to find the location of... ok back from the 70s ...
So far in the evolution of consumer hmds looking at the most recent generation of these devices we know Sony have a nice cinema viewer in the HMZT-1 that has gorgeous blacks but is totally impractical for every day use and is to all intents and purposes as comfortable as attaching a toilet to your head and we have the 1080p transparent and highly versatile smd ST1080 with a 180 g weight and true portability. The tech in the ST1080 far surpasses the Oculus Rift and it was fascinating that J C so apparently clued up on HMDs missed out the ST1080 altogether in the keynote sticking largely to the international renowned sport of Sony HMZT1 bashing ..... If you want a consumer HMD right now the ST1080 is the one to go for, but you will have to get in line because the other thing we know about HMDs is that demand is incredibly high.
The new kid in town the Oculus Rift is promises to bring low latency head tracking to add to the virtual reality experience. I say it is way cooler to have full head and body tracking outside the HMD and there exist many ways to achieve this already and eliminate the latency issue altogether take the iPad for instance hooked up to a ST1080 you can use the iPads gyros to control games like Skygamblers and even ids own Rage HD and through Apple TV completely wireless.
On PC Kinect is evolving past the simple console version and you will see head tracking software and hardware exploiting faster cpus, gpus and cameras.Even on consoles I can exploit head ,body and hand tracking in Child of Eden when using the ST1080 hmd and go all Minority Report in Ghost Recon Future Soldier's Gun Smith. On the PS3 I can use use Move for precise control in FPS games and again a wonderful 3D version of Child of Eden that will blow your mind when using a HMD like the ST1080. These experiences involve devices that enhance game play as well as immersion, to work they need a light high res display like the ST1080. Try moving your head in a game whilst wearing the HMZT1 and its not only the picture that breaks...
Speaking of Kinect and Move the games and peripherals have hardly set the gaming world alight, with neither of these peripherals managing to move core gamers off their sofas or find themselves being essential to any core game of note. So why would lazy gamers want to move their heads when they have joypads and keyboards? With the Rift relying on you using your head as a mouse, 4 hour FPS gaming sessions are going to hurt, RTS gaming is going to make your head explode .. imagine a session of Diablo III for instance all that incessant mouse clicking around the screen is going to be added to by incessant head jerking as you move the cursor around to attack loot attack heal attack loot. I fear especially for the lives of South Korean pro Starcraft players..
There will thus have to be limits on the incorporation and freedom of head tracking virtual reality in games . The majority of PC gamers right now are not playing the old iD staple FPS, so what use will the Oculus Rift be to that majority. At its current res it will not be able to throw up a Windows 8 Metro ..sorry we cannot use that word any more ...I meant Windows 8 UI or even open an App ...so it will not be of any use for productivity. By the time it launches there will be 4k rivals from smd , Google will have Project Glass out the door as easily as it had the Nexus 7 launch this year, Sony may have taken some feedback after incinerating its mountain of returned hmzt1s.. and produced a 3D Watchman the size of a pair of shades...
Aiming your HMD at FPS gamers is not a bad idea though, you can see from my reviews of the HMZT-1 and the ST1080 that FPS games really come alive on HMDs. But at present I use mouse or joypad control, precise control with fast twitch movements, also ducking in and out of cover in third person games, in these games how is head tracking going to work ? And having such a large fov will mean you have to turn to look for enemies you are used to taking out without moving, this is why the fov on many HMDs is limited it is not a design flaw or shortcoming it is a design choice. And Mr Carmack's personal preference for a larger VR leaning fov is a personal preference not a revolutionary achievement. Nor is his choice of game to launch it Doom 3 ? Really? The most awesome Virtual Reality Hyped hardware ever and to demo it we are going to have an imp jump out of a concealed closet behind you which you can turn your head round to see...
I use both the Sony HMZT1 and siliconmicrodisplay ST1080 on a daily basis and granted whilst I (blissfully) haven't the foggiest what our rocket launching, graphics engine pioneering hero Senior Carmack is going on about most of the time I can totally dig where he's coming from when he talks of no one nailing the virtual reality thing.
But looking at HMDS from a users point of view, I have to take umbrage with much of negative vibes vs existing HMDs and the promises, promises re the Oculus Rift.
Virtual reality is not going to happen with any hmd in the near future, including the Oculus Rift, the HMD is still locked in the Logie Baird stage with cognoscenti like Carmack debating which valve or cathode ray tube or gasket to go with. It is not going to happen because our media , games films, operating systems the things we look at on our PCs and consoles are not designed for virtual reality interfaces or displays..
This new HMD promises a far larger field of view than existing HMDs, but comes with a far lower res than core gamers need.What have I learnt from actually using the ST1080 and HMZT1 since their release?
With a HMD you want the highest res clearest picture and one which maintains that clarity across a limited field of view in order to keep your movie, work or game entirely in your field of view. The Rift seems to be going against this grain. The only way I can see it being beneficial is if it came with a 4K res, let you place things like open windows, browsers , games on a giant field of view ..yes like Minority Report or even that kids room in Gamer...
Fov is irrelevant, HMD viewing is subjective some people see toilet role tubes, some people vomit ,some read and type text across a flat 100 inch screen, the optics used and my head nose eye size mean for me I see a perfectly flat screen using the ST1080, which I can move my eyes around, without the feeling Mr Carmack described as looking at the work through toilet roll tubes, which is the feeling you get when using the HMZT1 .
The irrelevance of fov becomes clear when you own more than one hmd. Now complex maths or simple maths for some show the HMZT1 should have a larger image than the ST1080. In actual use it does not, the higher resolution of the ST1080 means the picture that fills the 100 inch display is far more detailed than the 720p res of the HMZT1, or the sub 720p res of the Oculus Rift. So playing Crysis 2 in 1080p 3D on the ST1080 even though it has a quoted lower fov just feels bigger than the higher fov HMZT1 because there is discernible difference in on screen detail and fx. Just like when you go up from a 720p tv to 1080p or a 1080p resolution to a 2500 by 1600 resolution on the same 30 inch monitor. There is simply more world visible on the same screen at a higher res. Don't believe me ? Get hold of these HMDs and try for yourself..
Using a HMD is dependent on fitting ,eye position, strength, near vision,head size, how is the Oculus VR handling this ? The HMZT1 is impractical to use as designers spent most of their time extolling the virtues of OLED displays and fast refresh rates. Far less time and budget was devoted to how it would actually be fitted to individuals and how long they could tolerate it.
Strapping a Ski Goggle style display to Mr Carmacks head may work for him but it could be a total fail for the head,eye,nose and face shape of a significant amount of would be customers. All HMDs face this problem post launch, no one has found a way of tailoring the design and fitting on a personal basis ..e.g. scanning head ,eye ,nose and face details for each user and tailoring a fit to them. To do so would take a military style budget..
Further one of the joys of using the ST1080 is I can look down to my keyboard or surroundings, or look through the transparent display to them.I am still connected to my surroundings, I am not entombed in my gaming world and can reach down for my drink or mouse see it and then switch my eyes back to the display. You may think that not having light blockers and a completely closed off display effects your experience , but in actual use once your eyes are focused on a 1080p 3D game or image you will forget that the real world is still there in your peripheral vision and when you need to reach for something you just look down and out of the viewer , reach for the keyboard , your phone , tea or pass port to hand to the nice Air hostess who just asked for it .
Portability is thus one of the most awesome things to look for in a HMD , the Oculus Rift does not look at all portable and with a lack of transparency you will not be able to see the air hostess coming or leaving down the aisle on your plane journey ... but then again you probably don't get out much if you are still playing Doom 3...
Resolution is paramount when reading text,working and playing. At this stage in the HMDs evolution you should not even go near a device without a minimum 1080p res. And all this talk of 3D being limited to 720p is nonsense, it is on consoles but the ST1080 scales that 720p 3D to the 1080p sized view it gives and this looks far sharper than the 720p HMZT1 I can tell you. Also on PC you are not limited to 720p 3D , you can go beyond to true 1080p side by side, frame packed or over under all you need is the gpu, cpu and ram to do it and most gaming laptops already can. Crysis 2 ultra high res textures in 1080p 3D on your HMD right now...or Doom 3 side by side at sub console resolutions..
I know the benefit of high res from comparing the st1080 to hmzt1 over the last 4 months, l also know that all this talk of hz and lag are largely irrelevant when playing today's 5 or 6 console games that are 3d enabled and worth playing, further whatever your monitor refresh rate bluray 3d is locked at 24 hz and a HMD like the st1080 gives you comfortable and impressive ghost free 3d gaming on PC without the need for special software , or even AMD HD3D or nvidia 3D Vision, wait till you pump your old games through Tridef 3D!
The sweetspot issue : HMDs particularly low resolution ones have sweet spot problems ,so quoting fovs ,boasting about large screen sizes or immersion is frankly misleading. When you actually use a hmd what matters is how much of that cinema sized large fov screen you can see with crystal clarity. This is where the ST1080 bests the HMZT1,I can see a crystal clear 100 inch image read all the text in a game or whilst working.The Oculus Rift claims to have a virtual reality sized fov and screen size ,now I just do not see how image clarity and coherence can be maintained across the quoted distance when a similar resolution smaller fov HMZT1 has a tiny sweetspot in which the 3d illusion and picture clarity is maintained.
The relevance of high resolution. Once you solve the sweet spot issue and assuming you can produce a clear image from corner pixel to corner pixel across the virtual reality HMD that you claim is different to all the others your users are going to notice that low res , especially if you are aiming it at the gaming crowd.
On paper looking at rival HMDs the Oculus Rift could be woefully under powered even on release.
As an exercise in advancing the consumer HMD this is an awesome project to back,but it will be superseded before launching by rivals. Head and body tracking will have advanced in both console and PC arenas and cost will have come down by the next and third major generation of consumer HMDs.
I would recommend senior Carmack to get a hold the ST1080 ,for me the ultimate HMD will be the 4k res version of the ST1080 or ST4K .Right now the finest HMD experience is the ST1080. Simply because it has hundreds of usage scenarios and is portable, unlike the HMZT1 and the Rift which look like one use products that cannot go outside your room.
What the developers of the Oculus Rift have to realise is that we expect to use a HMD for much more than Doom 3 or 4, limiting such a device to just games has the developers heading down the old Gunpei Yokei Virtual Boy route.
Currently I love the ability to be away from my monster LCD displays and bring up a 1080 p 100 inch display which weighs 180g , is transparent or opaque depending on the scenery behind me and my preference for that scenery ... and is powered by USB! How cool is that ..very actually this is where HMDs need to go this is where they already are with devices like the smd ST1080.
With all these doubts why am I backing the Oculus Rift ? Well I can remember back in the day when the likes of iD and Epic were kickstarting a fledgling gpu market supporting Voodoo and a little company called Nvidia that to this day is kept on its toes by a little company once called simply ATI...
When we have the same level of competition in the hmd field then people we will finally literally see virtual reality before our very eyes. If anything the interest in the Oculus Rift should spur on rivals to improve and better their products .
Right I am off to try Doom 3 and all those iD games I just bought on the Quakecon Steam sale with tridef 3d on the ST1080 ...100 inch 3D ghost free transparent Wolfenstein 3D Spear of Destiny... more to follow...
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