How to demo for the people

I don't have a whole lot of demoing experience yet, but there's probably nothing worse than someone trying it and saying to you "oh this makes me dizzy, this isn't for me", and then you'll always wonder if it's because you didn't set up that person's IPD correctly. :(

Same goes for eyecups and the lens-eye distance adjustment, though... I honestly don't know how to methodically "get it right" before that first big moment where they see Rift VR for the first time, especially when you're under pressure to get it set up quickly.

I'm hoping that in the consumer version it will be easier to adjust the distance of lenses to the display (instead of swapping eyecups), and then Oculus could perhaps expand their configuration utility to allow a user to do a quick check of which lens-display distance works best for them by going dark in one eye and showing a nice patterned image in the other eye (patterned because hopefully there won't always be a screendoor effect to focus on). Then doing the same for the other eye, much like you have binoculars that allows your left eye to focus on a distance object and then another dial to fine-tune the focus for the right eye.

When there really isn't time to do calibration for each person, we generally set the IPD to about 64mm and hope. Typically that means they'll only be in there for two minutes, which is usually short enough that most people won't get ill. But some people inevitably still do. Though whether those people would get ill even with the correct IPD measurement is a good question.

One thing you can do if you're enthusiastic is buy an optician's IPD meter (called a "pupilometer") and have someone testing the next person in the queue while the current person is inside the Rift. They do cost about $200 though. Ideally you also want them to enter their height and sex into the configuration tool as well - we use those to generate the default eye height and soon we'll use it for setting up the neck model.

"tomf" wrote:
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Ideally you also want them to enter their height and sex into the configuration tool as well - we use those to generate the default eye height and soon we'll use it for setting up the neck model.

A bit off-topic. But what is the reason for entering your sex into the configuration tool? Shouldn't IPD and height suffice?

Height is not the same as eye height. LibOVR calculates eye height by taking the set height and subtracting an amount calculated using skull size (which varies slightly between the two sexes) to determine the eye height.

If I have the time I would find the right lenses but not measure the IPD - most people don't get sick from a wrong IPD in two or three minutes. After a short demo I would measure it in case they want longer demos and we have the time. But why start with a long and boring measurement for a short demo? I wrote down a few additional experiences from our >800 demos during the gamescom last week: http://renderingpipeline.com/2013/08/experiences-with-oculus-rift-demos/.

TL;DR : A cups and 64mm IPD are good for most and < 1% gets sick during a 3 minute demo so don't waste your time with "making it perfect". If you have time, invest in choosing the right lenses.

100% agree with renderingpipeline

First Minimun Viable Product should not be perfect.