Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/10149/hands-on-with-the-retail-oculus-rift
Hands On With the Retail Oculus Rift: Countdown to Launch
by Ryan Smith on March 16, 2016 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Oculus Rift
- VR
- Oculus
- GDC16
By far the dominant theme at GDC 2016 has been virtual reality. If you’re not a hardware vendor directly creating VR products, then you’re explaining how your products are a good match for VR or make for a better VR experience. And if you’re a software developer, then you’re at a minimum toying with VR, if not outright designing games for it. If nothing else, it’s the session attendance figures that demonstrate just how important VR is at GDC: after Monday’s overflowing attendance of VR sessions as part of the show-within-a-show VRDC, GDC had to move all of the VRDC Tuesday sessions to double sized rooms to accommodate the crowds.
This madness is not without good reason. For both software and hardware vendors, VR represents new opportunities in an already strong gaming market. Software developers get to experiment with new gaming paradigms on the cutting edge of tech, and hardware vendors can look forward to selling the more powerful hardware needed to drive a smooth VR experience. Today VR is a wild frontier, full of risk and rewards, and after this week’s GDC that frontier will be getting a little more civilized as the first consumer VR headsets begin shipping.
VR is not a new idea – as our readers who were gaming in the 90s can recall with mixed feeling – but Oculus deserves the bulk of attention for bringing it back to the forefront and kicking off this wave of interest in and development of VR. Since their 2012 kickstarter they have developed the industry’s blueprint for VR hardware, combining fast refreshing OLED displays with modern sensors that can both quickly and accurately track headset movement. Oculus has iterated on headsets several times now, continually refining the display, optics, head tracking, and more, as they work to bring a retail quality headset to market. And now later this month those efforts will begin to pay off as they ship their first retail headsets to eager backers and first-time buyers.
This brings us to today’s article, my hands-on session with the final, retail version of the Oculus Rift. As part of their GDC festivities, Oculus held a lengthy press demo to give us a chance to try out the retail hardware with a number of games being prepared for the headset, to demonstrate not only the hardware but the games and experiences that it will be driving. A full review of the Rift will be coming later, but for today I wanted to discuss my impressions of the retail hardware and the various titles I had a chance to try.
The Oculus Rift Hardware
The fundamentals of the Rift have not significantly changed even as far back as the DK1 and DK2 – it’s still at its core a screen and sensor package strapped to your face – but having used all four generations of the headset in one form or another, there has been a clear degree of improvement in each and every generation. Oculus has of course continued to upgrade the screen, cutting down on pixel response times while improving pixel density. But they’ve also been working on positional tracking, the optics, the fit, audio, and more. The end result has been an increasingly refined product that is as fun to use as it ever was, but with the rough edges and early technical issues reduced and/or resolved.
To get right to what I expect will be the big question, based on my time with the Rift at Oculus’s press demo I don’t believe that this is the perfect headset. At some point in the future there will undoubtedly be a second Rift, and it will be faster, cheaper, and better. In particular, we’re not yet to the point where pixel density is high enough to avoid seeing the edges of individual pixels (the screen door effect) on a VR headset. But that said, the Rift doesn’t need to be perfect to offer a technically solid and very enjoyable experience; it delivers on the fundamentals of the VR experience that Oculus has long promoted.
Oculus Rift Specifications | |||
Display | 2x OLED | ||
Resolution | 2160x1200 (combined) 1080x1200 (per eye) |
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Refresh Rate | 90 Hz | ||
FOV | 100° - 110° | ||
Sensors | 6 degrees of freedom tracking 3-axis rotational tracking 3-axis positional tracking |
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Position Tracking | Constellation system based on infrared sensors | ||
Audio | Supra-Aural Headphones, Built-In | ||
Controls | Xbox One Wireless (included) Oculus Touch motion controls (sold seperately, release date TBD) |
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Launch Date | 03/28/16 | ||
Launch Price | $599 |
Starting with the screen then, as is well-known since last year, the Rift ships with a pair of OLED displays, one for each eye at a resolution of 1080x1200. From a technical perspective OLED works well here given its inherently low pixel response times, which has also allowed Oculus to run the displays at 90Hz. This not only improves the framerate, but also improves on what Oculus calls the motion-to-photon latency as well since a new frame is dispatched more frequently. I don’t believe Oculus has officially commented on the matter yet – and we’ll want to confirm this in our full review – but I believe the panels are using a pentile layout, which means the resolution isn’t quite as cut and dry as the official numbers.
Consequently the screen door effect is definitely present, though to what degree depends on the game. Games that are heavy in fine details like Project CARS are the worst, as even anti-aliasing can’t accommodate for what’s functionally such a low pixel density for how close the displays are to your eyes. On the other hand games that are lighter on the finer details and more abstract overall better hide this effect. Even in the case of Project CARS it’s never annoying to the point of being distracting, but it is there. It goes without saying that future iterations of the Rift will ship with higher resolution displays, and that PC video card makers are already preparing for this.
When it comes to head tracking and overall latency however I feel that Oculus has absolutely nailed it. At no point did I feel like the headset was lagging the real world – what latency is present was low enough that I couldn’t perceive it. This comes from a combination of advancements with the graphics technology and the position sensing technology, with the latter being fast enough and accurate enough that I never felt a disconnect between how my head was oriented and how the rendered world was presented. I can’t say that this means that the Rift will be a motion sickness-free experience – it’s going to depend on the content as well as an individual’s reaction times and sensitivity – but certainly after using it for a couple of hours I was no closer to being sick. Though while I’m on the subject, although the Rift doesn’t induce sickness, there’s a definite readjustment period after using it for a long while, as it takes some time to get reacquainted to depth perception and focusing in the real world.
Audio on the other hand is a mixed bag, though I feel like part of that is because I need more time with controlled testing to get a good feel for it. The Rift’s built-in supra-aural headphones are extremely convenient, making the entire Rift experience contained within a single device. However supra-aural headphones are by their nature not isolating – and with your vision already isolated this may not be a bad thing – and overall you’re looking at a limited driver side. The outstanding question then is whether a set of full headphones would deliver a better experience. At the same time controlled testing of 3D audio positioning in a few games would also be helpful; it’s a solved problem, but 3D audio implementations within games have historically varied wildly.
Next to the screen, the other area where I feel the various iterations of the Rift have made the most progress is with the fit. With the first devices admittedly being little more than quickly built harnesses to hold a screen in front of your eyes, the progression to retail has resulted in much better fitting devices. The fitting mechanism on the retail unit is not wildly different from the previous Crescent Bay developer kit, utilizing two side straps and a top strap. However the overall flexibility/stretchability of the retail design is far better, and as a result it can accommodate large heads without too much effort. On a personal note this was always a problem I had with the previous units (ed: he has a big head in at least one sense of the word) and as a good fit is necessary to get the optics to align correctly, this has made it so even I can use the Rift without problem for a large period of time.
Oculus has not published an official specification for the weight of the headset, however in my experience with the fit now solved, the weight of the headset is not an issue. Even with the weight being front-loaded, the straps provide more than enough support, and the weight is low enough that it hasn’t affected my comfort. Most likely the least comfortable aspect will be that it can get hot wearing the headset, and the resulting fogging of the lenses. Though on that note, the front of the headset pushing against your face for an extended period of time will leave a temporary mark on the face for most people. And of course you will look dorky wearing the Rift – it’s a black box strapped to your face – but as the editor-in-chief for a technology website, wearing a Rift isn’t even the dorkiest thing I’ve done today.
When it ships on the 28th, the Rift will be only be available in its initial gamepad control configuration, and to this end includes an Xbox One wireless controller. Oculus also has a separate motion controller system called Touch that is in development, and while it is being demonstrated it will not be available until sometime in the second-half of the year.
Having used both input methods – albeit never both methods on a single game – the controls work about as you expect. Playing with the Xbox One controller is like playing a traditional console game with a VR headset, whereas using the Touch controller is not too far removed from playing a Wii game with a VR headset. So what works best will depend on the game, and I find that both are comfortable and sensible for games that are a good fit respectively. Though with this being the first time I’ve used the Touch controller, I will say that I was a bit surprised by just how natural it ended up feeling after I had gotten used to it. Manipulating objects in Fantastic Contraption in VR worked very well, as squeezing the controller with your middle finger is a good analog to holding something in your hand.
Upcoming Software
The other half the Oculus Rift experience is of course the software, and indeed this was really the primary focus of Oculus’s GDC event, as they wanted to show off what their partners had been developing. More than just having games to play on the Rift, Oculus’s partners will help shape the future of the headset for better and for worse, as it takes careful consideration of how to use a VR environment to do something memorable with it while not inadvertently disorienting the user. The Rift is being launched in VR’s still experimental phase, but though Oculus would like every game to at least offer a good VR experience, even if perhaps the underlying gameplay isn’t as good.
Overall there’s nothing I’ve seen running on the Rift that couldn’t be done with a traditional 2D display, and to be honest I’m not sure if a game/experience that truly only works in VR will ever exist. That said, the purpose of VR is to add depth and immersion, which everything I’ve tried does to some degree or another. For their event Oculus ended up showing off 41 games, 30 of which will be launching with the Rift, so there is a pretty deep variety of games beyond the half-dozen I had a chance to play with.
Altogether the majority of the games I sampled were Touch-based. Though this appears to be the luck of the draw for scheduling, as other journalists ended up at the other end of the spectrum playing almost entirely controller-based games. The Touch controller games are obviously still a work in development, as the Touch controller itself is not shipping yet, which gives developers some time to further polish their games.
Of the Touch based games I tried, my favorite ended up being the aptly named Job Simulator, which surprised even me. For the Oculus demo they were showcasing the short order cook job module, which puts the player in the position of trying/fumbling around a kitchen cooking up orders. This is a game where if nothing else it wouldn’t play nearly the same without motion controls, as the imprecision adds a mix of challenge and charm.
This is not a graphically intensive game (and it will be coming to the PS4 VR, along with the HTC Vive as a pack-in title), so it’s more about gameplay than it is graphics. The thoroughly tongue-in-cheek writing (it’s 2050 and robots have taken over all jobs) helps to sell the manic and completely unserious nature of the game. But perhaps most of all it’s amusing to see what you (and others) do when playing the game; for example I caught myself always closing a refrigerator door entirely out of habit, even though it had no bearing on the gameplay to speak of.
Fantastic Contraption on the other hand isn’t as structured or as silly, but the physics puzzle game was the most natural of the motion control experiences. As I discussed a bit earlier in the hardware section, the use of motion controls feels extremely natural here; squeezing both controllers while moving your hands in and out to stretch or shrink a wooden stick quickly comes as second nature. After a short period of time I simply took for granted that I was building devices in 3D space using my hands. This is another graphically simple game, though conversely the Rift’s screen door effect was the least pronounced here.
Also showing off their wares at the Oculus event was Harmonix, with Rock Band VR. This stand alone title isn’t related to their current efforts to publish Rock Band 4 on the PC (Oculus will be publishing the VR game), though it’s very much the Rock Band experience. Right now Harmonix only has the classic game up and running in VR – so you’re looking around at the other band members and the audience in first-person while playing a guitar – which by their own admission isn’t the most exciting use of VR here, since your attention will primarily be on the note highway. They have a second game mode in development that will be a departure from the classic format in order to better fit VR, and that will be shown off at a later date. In the meantime they are making use of motion controls in a very interesting way: a Touch controller is mounted to the end of the guitar, allowing them to track the position of the guitar in real-time in order to show it to the user.
Another motion controlled game where the name essentially says it all is Sanzaru Games’s VR Sports. For the Oculus event they had basketball and football ready for demonstration, offering modes such as dunking basketballs and playing a slightly dumbed down football game as both the quarterback and the receiver. Overall the game lives up to its name, though as a smorgasbord experience it never goes too deep.
The final motion controlled game during my time at the Oculus event was I Expect You to Die by Schell Games, which besides being a terrible thing to see on one’s official schedule, is a combination adventure/puzzle/escape game, that asks the player to figure out how to escape various deadly situations. Like some of the other motion control games, this one has an intentionally lighthearted and campy tone, using the 60s super-spy theme as its backdrop. From a technical perspective it’s not pushing the envelope on graphics, as the focus is more on the motion controls and the puzzles. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot of dying involved, and indeed finding ways to die may be more entertaining than actually escaping.
Finally, at the other end of both the control and image quality spectrum, I had a chance to try out the VR version of Project CARS. CARS is already a well-regarded game, and even though VR is an add-on you will scarcely know it. In order to hit the necessary resolution and framerate requirements, the developers have turned down the image quality some, but it still retains most of the game’s stunning visuals and every last bit of its realism. On more than one occasion I caught myself looking off to the side at the environment as opposed to watching where I was driving, which was a good idea right up until I sideswiped a guardrail.
Project CARS in a sense encompasses both some of the best and worst aspects of the current generation Rift. As a realistically rendered game, putting you behind the wheel of a car driving through varied locations is very immersive; it’s a true stunner. On the other hand the fine detail also highlights the limited pixel density of the Rift, and even with anti-aliasing you still get pop-in and jaggies as a result. It’s never unplayable (I would have happily done another track or two if I had the time), but it is the game that makes it clear why no one will be stopping with current pixel densities.
Closing Thoughts
Wrapping things up, Oculus and the various development editions of the Rift have served as a pathfinder to the overall explosion of development of VR in the last few years. And while Oculus is no longer alone in what’s now a very busy field, they will be the first to get their vision out the door. To that end the current pre-order list is already backed up to July – 4 months past when the first units will ship – so I’m not sure they need any more publicity or pre-orders at this time, but I expect that the retail Rift is going to continue to set the tone for the VR industry as a whole.
As I’ve stated earlier, overall the hardware is not perfect: pixel density is plenty workable, but clearly there is room for improvement. However perhaps more importantly, in my hands-on time with the Rift I feel that Oculus has nailed the head tracking and latency aspects. There’s no disconnect that I could feel between my motions and what was rendered, and that makes the entire experience very convincing and enjoyable, not to mention motion sickness-free. Similarly, for their retail product Oculus has finally come up with a fitting mechanism that is suitable for even my big head, which makes me confident that it should fit almost any head. The overall usability of a VR headset is poor without a good fit, so the importance of finally having so much flexibility in fitting can’t be overstated.
Overall then I’m looking forward to seeing how well the Rift does in the market and what game developers can do with virtual reality. VR as a market is not a surefire thing – after all it already failed once – but this time around Oculus looks to have solved the most important technical aspects of the VR experience. And once we can get our hands on a retail unit for a full review, I’m looking forward to better analyzing just what they’ve done under the hood in order to make all of this happen.