Rift Hardware requirements for Stereoscopic 3D

I have a laptop with an Ati X1400, which is probably slower and more limited in feature set.

The Unity demos work, and output both the side-by-side 3d and image warping correctly, but the framerate is in the region of 15-20 fps (with the tuscany demo) - obviously this implies that fundamentally my relatively weak hardware (in the laptop anyway; I have other computers) should be able to deal with output to a Rift headset, but I would have to write any programs I develop to keep in mind the performance I'm getting. (Eg, the tuscany demo is too complex for the hardware to cope with.)

The pre-compiled demos from the SDK itself don't run however (a dll is missing). But this appears to be because they're compiled against directX 10, which, for obvious reasons won't work on an XP based system.

What I take home from this, is that the minimum requirements for the SDK aren't really worth worrying about if you're making your own software (the laptop I'm talking about is 6 years old), but obviously if you expect to run anything made by others, the standard performance issues come up. (with the additional concern that you really need to be able to get to 60 fps at a minimum for comfortable use.)

I intend to test this laptop with an actual headset when I get mine, just to get a sense of what the consequences are of low framerates.
But Also what kind of graphical compromises I would need to get to 60+ fps, and if this actually makes it tolerable to use.

"studio3d" wrote:
Hi,

Are there any details on the PC hardware requirements for the rift? For example what king of minimum GPU is required to run the SDK? I got a Dell Latitude E6430 laptop w/ an NVIDIA NVS 5200m & was wondering if I could hook the SDK to this laptop. Any help or details on GPU/CPU ram details would be appreciated.

I heard that the GPU must have QUAD buffering for Stereo 3D which is not available in all GPUs.

Thanks

You don't need quad buffering for SBS 3d.

Hi fellow rift lovers I have a dumb question, can you play 3d games with the rift? Not rift optimized games with tracking and all that, just regular 3d games? Will they play in 3d?

"richfloors" wrote:
Hi fellow rift lovers I have a dumb question, can you play 3d games with the rift? Not rift optimized games with tracking and all that, just regular 3d games? Will they play in 3d?

If the kind of 3D game you're talking about requires a 3D monitor to see the stereo effect, then no. (But, there might be middleware that could help you out, I have no idea.)

If the kind of 3D game you're talking about renders side-by-side Rift-lens-corrected images with the right amount of separation and no toe-in, then yes. But, most people seem to violently object to playing a stereoscopic 3d game without headtracking as that's a fast track to nausea.

Hope this helps!

"richfloors" wrote:
Hi fellow rift lovers I have a dumb question, can you play 3d games with the rift? Not rift optimized games with tracking and all that, just regular 3d games? Will they play in 3d?

The game must be supported by the VorpX or the Vireio driver.

"sven" wrote:

"richfloors" wrote:
Hi fellow rift lovers I have a dumb question, can you play 3d games with the rift? Not rift optimized games with tracking and all that, just regular 3d games? Will they play in 3d?

The game must be supported by the VorpX or the Vireio driver.

The latest Deskope program also supports viewing SBS content on your desktop (including YouTube 3D videos).

I am in the process of adding my GMsphere PixelBall code into SDL, so that any SDL app will run on the Rift (with environmental head tracking). Then even DosBox can be used in the Rift! But for gamers, of course there is an SDL version of MAME.
:D

I just got done with a full source code build of SDL on my Raspberry Pi, and soon I will migrate my GMsphere code into it:
http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=17222

What the "PixelBall" environment provides is a huge wraparound display with head-tracking, so you can look in any direction. SDL will render content onto that display. You will still need your mouse and/or game controller to control the game, but this will allow tons of existing content to be used in the Rift with no hacks or DLL-injection, like Vireo and VorpX do, and of course it will be cross-platform too...
:D

"studio3d" wrote:
Hi,

Are there any details on the PC hardware requirements for the rift? For example what king of minimum GPU is required to run the SDK? I got a Dell Latitude E6430 laptop w/ an NVIDIA NVS 5200m & was wondering if I could hook the SDK to this laptop. Any help or details on GPU/CPU ram details would be appreciated.

I heard that the GPU must have QUAD buffering for Stereo 3D which is not available in all GPUs.

Thanks

So, did you manage to get the laptop working with the rift? I ask because I have the same laptop and I'm having problems. If you discovered any tricks, please post.

Tx.