Created a simplistic method to compare the calibration/veil conditions on my CV1. Is a follow-up to my older forum thread (Two and a Half problems with my CV1). Like my god rays compare method (CV1 vs DK2) a few weeks back. It's an easy and quick way to see yourself how it looks on your CV1 (no need to take photos).
No Blender rendered 360 video created this time B) Just a quick and dirty constructed RGB gradient image used in Oculus 360 Photos app. Serves its purpose, and is easily reproduced in the future. Material and more thoughts further down. How it looked on my CV1:
Here are left and right photos shown together. You can start to see some of the differences:
A zoom/crop of the center makes it more obvious:
In the process of taking photos I found it possible to lock focus at a point visualizing some of the edge effects of the fresnel lenses. The zoom/crop photos below are NOT from photos above. These ridges are NOT visible under normal viewing. But it might have something to do with my veil/coarseness problem:
All photos have been taken under identical conditions and locked manual settings. Matches my previous illustration attempts and what I see myself alternating between closing left/right eyes. Though, as I've said before. The calibration/veil problem is not prevalent in most cases. Perception of it as a problem will also vary from person to person. But for me, when it's there, it destroys my immersion 😐
Thoughts on photos:
Reason for these photos is to illustrate and try to understand my biggest gripe with my CV1. In certain situations with large uniform light/dark sections. I get a visual effect of having a static dirty overlay veil between me and my VR world. Plastic protection on both lenses have been taken off, and have checked for possible residue.
Here is how I observe the differences in photos above. There is a red tint on right screen. They have different brightness/calibration levels. A veil/grain/coarseness overlay difference exists between them. Best illustrated on photos 4 and 5. I think this last issue is what contributes most to my problem. Those streaks on left eye photos are not motion effect.
After having taken these photos. Looking back on the problem and previous photos. I'm starting to wonder if the veil I'm seeing is the result of my fresnel lenses having markedly different finish.
One effect not visualized especially good in these new photos are the 'sprinkled stars' I can see on left eye with totally black background. It was touched on in my older thread with this photo:
Again. Starting to think these stars are light effects from ridges on fresnel lenses having different finish.
Just my layman non-pro take on it. Call it like I observe it. Not long before I go the support ticket route. Bracing myself for the support impact B)
Material to check yourself:
Those interested in checking yourself can download .zip file attached to post (VRCalibVeilTestPhoto360.zip). It contains a '_info.txt' that explains how to use Oculus 360 Photos. And a .png 4096x2048 image file that looks like this:
It is not a correctly formatted 360 environment image. A quickly constructed RGB gradient alternating between RGB values #30/48 and #0/0. The lines/bars looks ok in a 360 VR viewer because they are in the middle of the image.
I did create a video version of this pattern that rotated the RGB gradients horizontally around. Problem is that with 1080p recording I was not able to have enough resolution to capture the effects. So had to fall back to still photos.
Method used to take photos:
Taped my headset on the end of my table. Removed the facial foam insert. Is the closest I can get to CV1 lenses with my iPhone SE. While still getting 100% still photos, 90° and parallel to both left and right lens. Would have liked to be closer like I do if only capturing on right eye. Maybe try to get a good small camera module sensor solution in the future. The lego/camera contraption Doc-Ok uses is a brilliant engineering solution.
Prepared my iPhone SE with the Manual app. Locked everything I could: 5000K, focus-lock infinity, ISO500, 1/5s (fresnel focus photos in 4/5 had focus-lock set to 4th 'dot' from the right in the Manual app).
Got test image ready in CV1 through Oculus 360 Photos. Blanket over my head, and partly headset, to keep light out. Position iPhone left lens, take photo, right lens, take photo.
Equipment / Software:
Oculus Rift CV1, Win 8.1 x64, NVidia 980 Ti (361.91), Oculus Runtime 1.7.0.
Got my replacement CV1 a week back. Now I have left/right screens that match my previous CV1 right screen. Better aligned. More fine-grained veil all over, which I think is the norm. Photos below for replacement CV1 (NVidia driver now at 376.33).
Zoom/crop:
IMPORTANT: Photos 17 and 18 below DO NOT represent standard CV1 operations! Corrections (spud) has been turned off through a DEBUG registry entry!
Zoom/crop:
Unrelated bonus photo. Wanted to make sure all tracking LEDs worked on CV1/Touch. IR filter on most new cameras. Have an old GEN II night vision monocular:
Kinda gets you in the Xmas spirit 🙂
gamefan101 said:
Yeah, I get a cloth-like, veil effect in certain lighting conditions. I noticed it the first time I put the CV1 on. I put it down to OLED limitations. Vive referred to a "moire" and say they have corrected it..
Agreed, noticed in right away on darker backgrounds - looks like a rectangular veil of cloth..not quite even like squares or a screen effect. I presumed (due to the near perfect rectangular shape of it) that it was part of the device/lens and everyone had it.
Unrelated bonus photo. Wanted to make sure all tracking LEDs worked on CV1/Touch. IR filter on most new cameras. Have an old GEN II night vision monocular:
Kinda gets you in the Xmas spirit 🙂
Any way to observe/ tell if LED are firing, without using night vision?
But still a major black level jump problem.
The test picture should look like this:
The test picture should look like this:
@Hollywood: Can be tricky. You need a camera without, or not too heavy IR filter. Most smartphone cameras do not look to work. Think I read somewhere that front cameras on smartphones often have lighter IR block. Best way to try is to just take photos. Put a sticker on CV1 head sensor, forcing tracking LEDs to be active. Then, if you manage to get tracking LEDs visible in photo, go for the Touch controllers. Press some buttons on it, and LEDs gets activated. But they go to sleep fast without movement, 15sec'ish. One trick is to use long exposure on a camera with not too heavy IR filter. My Nikon D700 DSLR works like this. Here is a 1sec exposure of the Touch:
@Lemny: Oh I agree. Still do not understand the big jump to black at center. That is something Oculus looks to have purposely chosen. Reason I'm happy is that my replaced CV1 has less/better veil and much more aligned left/right screens. Now I at least can enjoy and experiment with Touch content. Still hoping for future user options to adjust/tune screens individually. Like @OMEGA420 mentioned above.
voidxno said:
@Hollywood: Can be tricky. You need a camera without, or not too heavy IR filter. Most smartphone cameras do not look to work. Think I read somewhere that front cameras on smartphones often have lighter IR block. Best way to try is to just take photos. Put a sticker on CV1 head sensor, forcing tracking LEDs to be active. Then, if you manage to get tracking LEDs visible in photo, go for the Touch controllers. Press some buttons on it, and LEDs gets activated. But they go to sleep fast without movement, 15sec'ish. One trick is to use long exposure on a camera with not too heavy IR filter. My Nikon D700 DSLR works like this. Here is a 1sec exposure of the Touch:
@Lemny: Oh I agree. Still do not understand the big jump to black at center. That is something Oculus looks to have purposely chosen. Reason I'm happy is that my replaced CV1 has less/better veil and much more aligned left/right screens. Now I at least can enjoy and experiment with Touch content. Still hoping for future user options to adjust/tune screens individually. Like @OMEGA420 mentioned above.
