Huge DK2 Review -DK1 and HD Prototype Comparisons + Pub Demo

Figured I'd put this here since I've spent so much time with the DK1 (heavily used for a year) and more time than most with the HD prototype

Unboxing, First Impressions on Build Quality & Packaging

The cardboard box, albeit solid and well made is not as good as the nice plastic case that the original development kit (DK1) comes in, however that is where the disappointment ends, everything from the foam to the plastic bags was better quality, it was very well and tightly packaged but at the same time easy to repackage for carrying around.

The build quality of the headset itself is much better, the unit feels solid and well build more so than both the DK1 and the HD Prototype. Better and higher quality materials were used in it's construction and the unit feels about the same weight as the DK1.

Overall the materials used and build quality would easily stand up to years of wear and tear, it'd easily outlast the DK1.

Comfort
The comfort is much better than the DK1 and the HD prototype (that both use the same housing), due to the much larger lens size and wider housing the unit can be positioned away from the eyes meaning your eye lashes don't touch the lenses and there is a lot more room for your eyes to breath while still being able to see the whole field of view, this not only allows you to wear the device without discomfort for long periods of time but it also improves the immersion as now it's quite easy to forget you have the device on (more about this later).

Field of View, Screen Resolution and Low Persistence
First off the field of view as some people have unjustly complained about a lowered field of view in the DK2 compared to the DK1 (the HD Prototype had a much lower field of view than both). The DK2 has a visible horizontal field of view of exactly 106.09° where the DK1 had a field of view of about ~ 109° when you pushed the lenses into your eyeballs, otherwise it was usually around 90°. The HD Prototype has a much lower field of view than both although I never measured it so I cannot give an accurate number but I would guess it was around 75° - 85°. The field of view may be perceived as smaller if you have the lenses set really close to your eyes as they are physically larger in diameter and you can see the edges of the physical screen as a result. Set your DK2 diameter to as far out as it will go, not only does this start to feel like DK1 field of view again but it'll feel a lot more comfortable as you can no longer 'feel' the lenses on your eyes/eyelashes.

Now onto screen resolution and the controversial screen door effect, basically it is now really a none issue for development and could even pass as consumer grade with a light diffuser on. You really have to look hard for the pixel pitch pattern and I struggled to define what pattern the pixels were in as they are so closely packed and my eyes kept looking past the pattern and focusing on the environment. You can see much MUCH further off into the distance, more than I had expected and even more so than the HD Prototype. In the DK1 you couldn't really see much past about 4 - 5 meters as it turned into a muddy pixel mess. Text is easily readable now even from a medium distance and detail is a lot easier to pick out. You can see off into the far distance much clearer now as well, in Tuscany you can now see that the distant mountains are 2D and the low resolution textures used, looks like as developers we're going to need to step up our game as users are now going to see all our rendering tricks.

The "low persistence", no latency and no motion blur technology used on the display I believe is a first for any tech anywhere ever, this makes the scene VERY stable when you are moving your head around, infact it's so stable it now tricks your brain into thinking objects are actually really physically there, I've almost put a drink down on the virtual desk after spending some time there and almost dropped it before thinking 'wtf' and realizing that I can't put real drinks onto virtual surfaces (doh!), I also went to stand up and put my hand on the virtual desk to help me up and almost fell over as there wasn't a real counter part (doh!). In the newest Technolist Beta in the apartment at the end I found the Day of The Dead disk, sat down and watched the movie on the big TV, about half way through completely forgetting I had the rift on I went to stand up to get a drink, with the 1:1 positional tracking I stood up in VR as well and almost forgot I have the Rift on.

The colors on the display are absolutely amazing barring the chromatic aberration issue (which is easily corrected and countered in software). Colors in really dark areas really stand out more so than they ever could on a monitor or the DK1 and HD Prototypes. OLED is definitely the way to go for VR!

Presence
I felt like this needed it's own section since this seems to be how VR is measured now, for those who might not know (I'm linking to this thread from Facebook and less technical minded people may be reading this) is the feeling you get when you are physically in a place, like now you are most likely reading this on your computer you have the feeling of presence that you are in a room on your computer. Well the Oculus Rift is one of the first devices to give you a sense of presence that you are in the virtual environment.

If for the sake of simplicity in this review take the visual part of that presence feeling only, with 0 feeling no presence what so ever (what you feel when you play games on a monitor or phone) and 10 being that feeling of complete 100% immersion/presence. Older VR hardware that failed hard in the 80's and early 90's achieved exactly 0 on the presence scale, going to the iMax theater and watching a movie in 3D may give some people a 1 on the presence scale but most are not fooled. The Oculus Rift DK1 was the first device that offered a true sense of presence and depending on the person, offered a presence of 2 - 3. The HD Prototype again depending on person offered about the same 2 - 3 (maybe pushing a 4 if it was configured correctly which is never was at public demos) on the presence scale. Well the DK2 easily offers a 7 - 8 which is far in advance of anything available today at ANY cost. The low persistence, low latency, positional tracking and no lag is way way way way ahead of it's time and is what boosts the presence in the DK2 up so high.

Final thoughts
I can see the Oculus Rift (DK2 and any future versions) making a huge splash in the gaming world. I can also see a new emerging market for 'experiences' rather than games, where these could be experienced by even someone who's never used a computer and has no technical knowledge what so ever. I think the initial consumer version of the Oculus Rift will be turning several none-gaming industries completely on their heads such as military simulations, architectural visualizations and CAD engineering. Nothings beats being able to see the engine in full 360 degree 3D detail (right now they use billion dollar low resolution holographic displays with lots of limitations.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for virtual reality, I think we can all safely say we've all been secretly waiting for it since the days of The Lawnmower man and Tron

Oculus Rift DK2 demo event at the Meltdown e-sports & gaming bar, London on Saturday, 16th of August 2014!
For anyone in or around the London area or who is willing to travel to see the Oculus Rift DK2 first hand I am running a event with 'at least' 1 Oculus Rift DK2 (but hopefully more). The event is free to attend, open to the public and the Oculus Rift DK2(s) is/are free for anyone to try! (I'm doing this to spread VR awareness and kindness NOT for money) but it is for over 18's only I'm afraid as it is hosted in a gaming pub.

The event page and more info can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/events/1448967215387976

I'll be making a separate thread for the event the Monday before.

tl;dr: The DK2 is really awesome