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andywhiteley
Up and Coming
August 23, 2014

Oculus Lens Improvements

Received the Oculus DK2 this week and have been absolutely blown away by it.
The best experience has been with Elite: Dangerous and Half Life2, the immersion is spot on.
Motion sickness is a problem at first but I slowly introduced myself into it. First 5 then 10 and 20 minutes etc

There are 3 very noticeable shortfalls however to the DK2.
1. The chromatic aberration round the outside of the lenses, where you see red, green and blue separation and blur.
2. The screen door effect where you can see pixels.
3. The juddering effect even at a refresh rate of 75.

I found that the B lenses are best for me with less chromatic aberration.
I was wondering what type and quality of lenses are in the Oculus?
SLR cameras obviously take a much better picture with high quality lenses.
Higher quality lenses would get rid of the chromatic aberration seen on the current Oculus.
If it comes down to consumer costing, an upgraded high quality lens package could be offered to hardcore users.

Let me know your thoughts.
Andy.

    29 replies

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    andywhiteleyAuthor
    Up and Coming
    August 23, 2014
    Ah right, thanks for the explanation.
    melts
    Participant
    August 24, 2014
    The chromatic aberration problems are primarily a software issue that can be fixed. Take a look at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=11190 .
    bolle
    Participant
    August 24, 2014
    "andywhiteley" wrote:
    Just thinking where I could get hold of a pair of better quality lenses to mod the Oculus, binoculars maybe?
    Could then create lens cups in 3D and print them out on a 3D Printer.


    or in any lensmakers catalogue, you just need to know focal length and diameter basically, right? I'll keep my eyes open if someone has these specs.
    If you haven't tried it out already - get Elite!
    andywhiteleyAuthor
    Up and Coming
    August 25, 2014
    The chromatic aberration problems are primarily a software issue that can be fixed. Take a look at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=11190


    Chromatic aberration is caused mostly by sub par quality lenses.
    bolle
    Participant
    August 25, 2014
    "andywhiteley" wrote:
    Chromatic aberration is caused mostly by sub par quality lenses.


    I wouldn't call it sub par. Any lens (or other optical part) which is made from only one material will show chromatic abberation as it treats blue light differently than red light. You can cancel the effect out with multilayer lenses, called achromats.

    Further reading on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achromatic_lens
    If you haven't tried it out already - get Elite!
    andywhiteleyAuthor
    Up and Coming
    August 26, 2014
    Ah yes, achromat lenses sound to be spot on. Definitely the way to go.
    andywhiteleyAuthor
    Up and Coming
    August 26, 2014
    It doesn't help the chromatic aberrations when Elite: Dangerous seems to have a colour separation effect applied to the menu UI's.
    orcinus
    Participant
    September 10, 2014
    I'm afraid you're all missing the point here.

    The whole REASON behind Rift's existence is using CHEAP lenses.
    That's what made it possible and that's the basis it started of off.

    Before the age of high powered GPUs and pixel shaders, HMDs had to have expensive optics and tiny, extremely high density, very pricey displays. Then GPU scene exploded and all the things that used to be done in hardware suddenly became a software correctable issue - chromatic aberration and distortion taking the no.1 place.

    Rift came to be from this simple idea - that you can use cheap, off the shelf hardware (a BIG phone or tablet screen and a single, cheap, plastic lens per eye) and correct any issues such approach might entail in software.

    So asking for expensive lenses NOW is a bit like buying an economy compact car and then, a year later, complaining you'd like it to have a stronger engine and more space. I'm afraid it just doesn't work that way. Cheap lenses are an integral part of the concept, otherwise the prices would go back to what they were in the pre-Oculus era.
    SBAM
    Participant
    September 10, 2014
    You can indeed correct chromatic abberation with software, and Oculus's SDK does an amazing job at it. However you can't get around blurred edges.

    I asked a friend optician here in France to measure lense characteristics and see if any manufacturer like Essilor/Nikon/etc... produces similar lenses. I'll let you know ;)
    AntDX316
    Up and Coming
    September 10, 2014
    I find if the eye is directly where it should be on the goggles everything is clear and sharp and readable
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