For those of you who have yet to try the Daydream, its mostly a really nice Cardboard with a higher spec phone for better rendering and head-tracking.  (I talk about this in my previous post)  But what is really different, and IMOP better, is the controller. Its not the design of the controller is all that great, its the fact that its there! Having this sense of presence both from the haptics of my hand as well as my head movement greatly improves immersion and enjoyment.  The presence of a controller my not seem like a big deal, but it is.

What is really great about the Google Daydream is the commitment of a controller.  When you buy a headset, it comes with one.  Thus app devs can always rely on the fact a controller will be there. This certainty is what we are missing today.  And Samsung and other other headset makers can take cue and make it a requirement for their systems as well.  Unfortunately, as I understand it the Daydream controller will NOT work on other systems, but look for others to fill this market.

Also coming is the mobile stand-alone headset.  I do not expect to see anything beyond POC at CES2017, but I fully expect that towards the end of 2017, we should see a few come out.  These devices will have controllers as well, allowing devs to leverage previous work on the Daydream and GearVR systems into the new stand alone systems.

Also watch for 6DOF controllers as well..  This will be a bit harder to crack.  

When I first tried the Daydream I had the same response most people had.  It was small, attractive and felt great. I really like the tactile feel of it, better then the hard plastic GearVR.  My only complaint was the field of view.  However, now that I have spent a good deal of time in it, my opinion has changed somewhat. When I first tried it the strap was VERY tight, however, that kept light bleed to a min and I never really felt the weight.  However, the next time I tried it, the tight strap started to really bother me, so I loosed it. That made it far more comfortable, but then light bleed was pretty substantial.  The fit also felt a little less complete and instead felt a bit top-heavy.  Once you get into the task you are doing, a game for example, the light bleed ‘sometimes’ goes away.  What I mean here is when I’m deep into doing something in the game, I do not noticed, but at transition or other points in the game where I’m not deeply focused, the light bleed comes back to my attention. Same with the fit.  When I’m in the middle of something, I do not notice, but at transition, I cannot help but feel like the headset it resting on my forehead and not comfortably across the face.

Now to the phone.  The head tracking at the beginning feels just as good as the gear. I have to really pay attention to notice any lag. However, for whatever reason, the phone heats up very quickly. The hotter the phone gets, the slower the system becomes.  Then you can feel the head tracking slow down just a bit.  Enough that if you are standing, you can start to get motion sick.

Now here is where the Daydream is great, and its nothing to do with the headset or the phone. It’s the hand controller.  The hand controller is a simple 3DOF motion tracked device but what this does is greatly enhance immersion because you can ‘see’ you hand movements in the environment and allow you to interact with object more naturally.  So far I have not seen an amazing implementation, but give it time.  This simple controller works very well, yes it drifts but centering is not a big deal.  I really wish the GearVR came with one. I fully expect someone at sometime is going to write a driver to allow the Daydream controller to work on the GearVR if Samsung or Oculus does not make one themselves. As simple as this is, the knowledge that ALL Daydream devices will have this controller gives developers confidence to design their apps with this support.

An issue with Daydream, which I also have with the Gear is drift.  As the phone heats up it tends to drift, typically to the left.  Seems like this is just a limitation of the internal compass for now.  I’m sure they will fix it in the future.

So my final assessment:  I would buy the Daydream for a casual user, but stick with the GearVR for anyone else. A key point however is that the daydream does not need to compete with the GearVR, its needs to be a friendly, accessible device that anyone can use.  And for Google, this seem like exactly the market they are after, so despite my complaints, I think Google nailed this one spot on.

So this year will be just as good with even cooler prizes. Samsung is giving away a GearVR HMD WITH THE PHONE!! That’s right, win this category and you are set.  Of course, your team will have to figure out who actually gets the device, but that’s your problem.

Unless you have been living under a rock (and given the property values in the Bay Area that just might not be a bad idea), VR is the new hotness and everyone is in the game: Google, Samsung, Facebook (yes, Facebook!) Sony, HTC, etc…  The HMDs are more powerful, cheaper and better than before.  Tools make it easy to create PC or mobile VR games and apps.  Content from 3D video to full worlds is starting to be created.  We are still in the beginning, so VC money is still flowing to start ups that can find their nitch, and this is the time to get a team and try a hack.

Plus, it’s just plain fun.  

Go here to check out the details and get signed up.  There are lots of categories so plenty of ways to win a hack.  And VC’s love hack winners. Oh, and the VR Hackathon is offering free demo space on Friday nighty for anyone in the community who wants to show off their stuff!

A final note about the Gear VR and the lenses fogging up.  Every time I put this one the lens fog up on me.  To fix this I went to a sky shoppe and bought defogging liquid for the lens.  It works great for one use, but once it drys, then you are back to where you started.  This is a first try at a VR HMD for Samsung and they made it clear this is a developers version, so I’ll give it a pass for now.

Oh and use earplugs.  Worth it.  Many of these demos lose something when playing sound through a speaker.

Unlike other sites, I will put the list down here first, then I will create a page per app because each one make the list for a different reason.

10.   Playhead

I was really on the fence with Playhead because it did not appeal to me, but I appreciate the effort and the imagination that went into this effort.   I’m sure this would be higher on other peoples lists.

9.  DarkNet

8. Titans Of Space

7.  Vanguard V  :  Nightitme Terror  : Lunsee

6.  Dreadhalls

5.  Anshar Wars

4  Herobound: First Steps

3. Matterport VR : Gyeonju VR Museum

2.  Esper

1.   360 Video’s .  BTW the NBA videos look good but still wish the video was a bit more HD.  In a few weeks we are suppose to be able to watch the All Stars game.  Not sure if we get to see the whole game, or highlights or what.

Temple VR did not make it because they violate a basic rule in VR, do not move a users point of view too fast.  When you dodge from one side to another you will get VR sickness pretty fast.

First off I’m going to focus on VR and not include AR because although many people like to mix these two systems, immersive AR is VERY hard while simple HUD level AR is already available in your car.  So lets see what we need for a good VR system, which is basically the same thing that Ivan Sutherland created in 1968 (that’s 46 years ago kittens). His head-mounted three dimensional display contained most of the basic elements we consider needed for VR.  A head mounted stereo display, motion tracking, orientation tracking, high speed image rendering, HCI input.  Missing was 3 things from the ’68 system. Easy content creation, user comfort and finally the Internet.  But to be fair, the Internet did not exist back then, but I bet if it did Ivan would have pulled the content over the wire just to be cool.  Oh and one more thing that was missing.  Not everyone could afford to build one of these things.  As such, not much happened with VR in a non military theater for awhile although research continued on.   Then two things happened.  The mid 80’s and mid 90’s.

In the early 80′ Graphic workstations were cheap enough and powerful enough that professionals could buy them.  This allowed the general public to have its first taste of 3D generated images that were at the time limited to Hollywood movies like Looker and the landmark Tron.  These workstation were still pretty expensive but as each year passed, they got more powerful such that you could render over 15 frames a second and create the illusion of motion.

As we drifted from the 80’s to the 90’s workstations were getting more and more powerful and cheaper because of Moore’s law.  This allowed more and more people to play around with high pipeline graphic computing, so much so, you could actually render a textured scene over 15 frames a second!  3D became not something only done on very powerful and expensive powerhouse workstations, but on a workstation you could by in the 10’s of thousands of dollars.  Now 3D graphics and effects were all over television instead of just high end movies.  It was only a matter of time before young hackers starting putting the output of these workstations onto two small screens on a headset.  Using various approaches to head tracking, and suddenly VR seemed very real with store fronts allowing users to enter a pod, don a 3D headset and play 3D games. Siggraph got more and more interesting every year and each year seem to surpass the previous.

By now VR really took off in the public imagination. Films like Tron and later Lawnmower Man that introduced 3D and VR to a game called Dactyl Nightmare by company called Virtuality that when hit the Press made everyone go nuts. Seemed like VR was really here!  Now everyone was writing about it and people wringing their hands that this would be the end of our humanity.  But this was just the beginning, Moore’s law and more accessible 3D creation tools like VRToolKit and 3D editing tools kept the hype expanding… and I was there.

Back in 1994 I was doing research on VR through a service called Gopher then later using something very new and cool called the worldwideweb which you accessed through a browser called Mosaic (we are going way back kiddies) I started researching 2D cad, 3D cad, and finally VR while studying Architecture at UC California, Berkeley … Even in my own lab in Berkeley, I had a VFX1 HMD running on a PC.  A PC!  The leaps and bounds of computer power seemed limitless.  And with each new CPU came faster and faster framerates.  Memory was going down too, so putting textures on objects was not only a real possibility and broke real time ceiling that was limiting 3D with only phone shading.  Further the gaming industry had its first big break through. Quake! (we can argue duke nukem another time)  In fact, I found Quake was faster then any of the 3d rendering engines from any school at the time.  I did my masters thesis using modified maps with Quake and the VFX1 HMD.

And then… All went quite.  Was it over hype? Tech bobble burst? Wasted dollars on projects that never made sense in the first place?  Yes.

Fast forward to 2014.

So here we are.  The Oculus rift which was a geeky kickstarter project exploded and then got bought by Facebook.  It finally seemed that perhaps VR for the masses could be possible.  Then shoe No.2 dropped. At Google I/O a cool little project was presented called Google cardboard, which basically gave you a simple VR headset made out of cardboard using your phone as the display and computer.  Didn’t take long for a number of higher material devices to be created on the same concept including Samsung’s Gear VR using the Note4.  Suddenly we had the basic building blocks of Cheap VR for the masses.  We also have more content.  3D video is part of the VR offering making VR not just the real of playing video games.  Speaking of games, Unity now comes with an Oculus publishing option.  We also have broadband.. well most of us do.  So is this?  Will it really happen this time???

Ummm.. Not sure..  There still are some problems.

First, there is not THAT much content.  I see a number of videos coming out but they are all proof of concepts and many of them are not that good of quality. Games?  Yes there are a few games made especially for the VR experience but most are demos.  There is still more money focusing on the PC or console gamer.   VR sickness?  Its getting better with faster frame-rates and better tracking, but many VR designers still do not understand just how close to the edge the user is before they get sick of orientation disruption is is taken too far.  That being said…

I think there is a good chance we have hit the tipping point where VR can become a nitch consumer industry.  Right now I’m waiting with baited breath for the NBA All Stars 360 Video to come out for the Gear VR.  I’m really hoping they are taking the extra time to make it look nice and feel immersive. Speaking of the Gear, I love the fact that I can put the headset in the car or backpack and with my note 4, access VR anywhere, anytime.  THIS IS NEW and this is big.  With a bluetooth controller, I pretty much have all I need for a sit down VR experience.  This is something we have not had from the beginning.  In time I expect the HMD to shrink to glasses size again using the phone for computing power.  Its this freedom and flexibility that is what will keep VR from busting again.

Post:  Its March already and I’m doing a quick edit and posting this before I forget again.  In the time between first wriring this and today we have seen a number of new HMD’s come out as well as Microsoft’s amazing HoloLens.  Its the HoloLens I’m most excited about.  The usecase for AR displays in the home and work is mind bending.  I have not seen it in person, but believe me, the moment I do, I will be posting!!!

So my bet on VR/AR?   I do not think we have seen the full potential yes, or anything close, but I do not expect to see a bust like we did at the beginning of 2000.  With low cost hardware, better software and access to high speed internet, the VR industry will only grow from here…. Slowly.

VR and AR is finally coming of age.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnqFdSa5p7w

I reasoned that what we need to is a ‘pod’ where the floor base was made of small wheels and the waist was restricted by a harness.  This will allow the subject to simulate walking and turning thus allow more of the bodies haptic feedback loops to agree with what was being seen in the HMD.  Although VOR gain adaption would still be needed, the adaption time would be greatly reduced, and the in VR sustainability time extended, as I discovered with my work on the chair and allowing free walking. However, I never could build such a device because of cost.   But now, someone has figured it out.

Originally starting out as a kickstarter project, the ‘Omni‘ is an improved version of what I designed back in the 90’s.  Instead of using rollers, a grooved curved plastic bowl is used with sensors. (older version uses an xbox sensor)  These sensors can translate movement and direction to the game. Paired with the new lightweight Oculus, the user walks normally and turns normally.  Admittedly it does take a little bit to adjust to your feet slipping instead of the force feedback with normal translational movement, but the connection between body mechanics and spatial perception is synced enough that adaption happens quickly. The rig itself is $499, quite affordable for most serious gamers. What is exciting about this we might be seeing the beginning of the next level of maturity around VR that was stunted in the 90’s. With inexpensive but capable HMDs and now inexpensive VR motion platforms, we can make that next leap in immersive gaming.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUkjaNQlZO8

______________

Excerpt for my Master Thesis: Spatial Perception in Virtual Environments:
Visual Cognition Gain with Head Mounted Displays (images removed)

VOR

Despite the commonality of simulator sickness, little is known about it.  The most common source of simulator sickness is Vestibulo-ocular Reflex (VOR); The vestibular apparatus is a small structure that exists in the bony labyrinth of the inner ear, whose function is to sense and signal movements of the head. This function is extremely important because it contributes to the coordination of motor responses for the body.  VOR is the fundamental eye-movement reflex that functions to keep images stabilized on the retina during movement of the head, thus helping to perform a very basic but important function, to allow sight during movement. The disagreement between what is seen by the body and what the vestibular apparatus senses can cause confusion, providing disagreeing signals to the brain and thus inducing sickness.  VOR can adapt its signal to the brain when the environment demands it, but not everyone has the same VOR adaptation ability.  This inability to resolve vestibular and ocular discrepancy is a major contribution to simulator sickness.  The greater lag time between screen position updates and vestibular sensation can accelerate simulator sickness even more.

The panel we were using in our prototype was a 5.6” LCD with a resolution of 1280×800. This screen is a great size for a VR headset and it has an impressive pixel density for the year it was produced. Nevertheless, it has flaws: it isn’t particularly bright, the contrast ratio is low, and the color accuracy is abysmal. The two biggest issues, though, are its poor fill factor and high switching times.

Pixel Fill Factor

Fill factor is a combination of several things, but it boils down to this: there are displays that have very little space between the pixel elements and others that have a meaningful amount of black space between pixel elements. DLP projectors are an example of a display type that generally has a very high fill factor with negligible space between pixels; LCDs, on the other hand, often suffer from a low fill factor where a large portion of the panel is occupied by the black space around the pixel elements. On very large screens, this makes it seem as if the image has a fine black grid overlaid on it, often referred to as the “screen door effect”.

On our original 5.6” panel, the screen door effect was easy to see under magnification of the Rift’s optics. You don’t notice it as much when you’re playing, but it’s still an unfortunate artifact. Luckily, the new 7” display has a much higher fill factor! This means that the screen door effect is significantly reduced, resulting in a better looking image.

Pixel Switching Time

The second major flaw was the switching time, the amount of time required for a pixel to switch from one color to another. Our old panel begins switching colors very quickly, which was good, since it reduced the latency between movement and the image responding. However, it’s weakness was that it took a very long time to fully switch colors. This sometimes resulted in motion-blur effect as the frames switched, especially during quick movements of the head.

Our new 7” panel has a switching time that is about twice as fast! This makes a big difference in the perceived responsiveness of the system and helps alleviate the undesired motion-blur.

Other Benefits of the 7” Display

There are several other minor enhancements: the contrast ratio is greatly improved, which can especially help with games like DOOM 3: BFG Edition where you have bright lights in dark environments; the color accuracy is better as well (though it can be hard to tell if you don’t have both panels side by side to compare); and the total light output of the new display is higher, resulting in more vibrant bright scenes.

We’ve also changed our drive electronics! The control box is attached to the headset with a thin and durable cable carrying video, USB, and power. The box contains a custom control board that we designed to minimize video latency. It has easily accessible buttons for contrast and brightness adjustment and it’s much smaller than the control boxes we’ve been showing with our prototypes.

Being forced to switch panels was certainly a challenge, but in the end it should result in an improved Oculus Rift developer kit and a better VR experience overall.

Check out the Vid towards the bottom.  They spend too much time talking about how cool it is, but still worth watching.  Also, watch the names and faces all familiar to us in the gaming world saying they are behind it!

You can get in at $300.

Pledge $300 or more

EARLY RIFT DEVELOPER KIT + DOOM 3 BFG: Try the Rift for yourself now! You’ll receive a developer kit, perfect for the established or indie game developer interested in working with the Rift immediately. This also includes a copy of Doom 3 BFG and full access to our Developer Center for our SDK, docs, samples, and engine integrations! (Please add $30 for international shipping)

Est. Delivery: Dec 2012

Here is more from the site.

Even though the consumer version of the Rift is still a ways down the road, the early developer kit’s hardware design is cutting edge, with technical specifications above and beyond other consumer headset available today.

Technical specs of the Dev Kit (subject to change)
Head tracking: 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) ultra low latency
Field of view: 110 degrees diagonal / 90 degrees horizontal
Resolution: 1280×800 (640×800 per eye)
Inputs: DVI/HDMI and USB
Platforms: PC and mobile
Weight: ~0.22 kilograms

And we’re confident we can make the consumer version even more impressive, all without increasing price or sacrificing an ounce of quality.

The SDK makes integration easy.

We’re already hard at work on a robust Oculus SDK that developers can use to integrate the Rift with their new and existing games. Our team has built great SDKs before and we’re excited to do it again.

All of the Rift dev kits include access to the Oculus Developer Center, which provides the SDK, technical support, and serves as a community for Oculus developers.

The SDK will include clean well-documented code, samples, and tutorials to make integration with any 3D game or application as easy as possible. We’re also working on out-of-the-box engine integrations for Unreal Engine and Unity, so that anyone interested in working with the Rift, including indie developers, can get started right away!