cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

LCD Hacking Trick Could Make Virtual Reality More Real

r2umam
Honored Guest
14 REPLIES 14

Oceanos
Honored Guest
Here's the video link from that page, interesting stuff


mptp
Explorer
This is so awesome :')

I'd be interested to know whether you save on GPU load though. Is it faster to render two 1080p screens, or one 4k screen? I don't really know much about low-level stuff like that, but if it does turn out to be faster, then I think that this technique should be seriously looked at, since it seems relatively straightforward, and produces really good results.
One other thing that just occurred to me is that if you offset the vertical and horizontal position of one of the screens by half a pixel, you would completely eliminate the screen-door effect.

Although, since the DK2 is OLED now I doubt that Oculus will be all that interested in any fancy new LCD techniques...
Melbourne-based creative technologist. I flit between experimental AR/VR experiences, audiovisual electronics and full-stack web development. http://www.lachansleight.io

aiwaldmeister
Honored Guest
"mptp" wrote:
This is so awesome :')

I'd be interested to know whether you save on GPU load though. Is it faster to render two 1080p screens, or one 4k screen?


Pixel-wise, a 4k screen is like 4 1080p screens. So 2x1080p is half the pixels of 4k.
But for render-time it´s a bit more complicated than just counting pixels.

achachi
Honored Guest
I imagine the major stumbling block is the cost of the screens. By doubling the number of screens in any device head mounted or otherwise you double the cost of screens.

This would obviously also have an impact on the weight and comfort of a HMD. Therefore while the benefits are clear in terms of image quality weight and cost are going to be limiting factors.

Where this could be used effectively is in an old DK1 that has had a "RIft Up" upgrade as that already relies on LCD technology and according to users already offers a better fidelity than the current DK2 model the uses OLED screens. By manually adding the extra screen to a Rift Up device image quality will be massively improved. However, as mentioned earlier it may be that rendering to two screens rather than one, may have a negative impact on performance that leads to juddering and artefacts.

In conclusion, I think it's an excellent idea and could bring major benefits to those who like to tinker and hack their own devices, but is probably out of realm of possibility in large scale manufacturing due to the difficulties and cost of sourcing so many displays..

Alci
Honored Guest
screens are "cheap". This tries to be one step ahead of current technology (in any given time). It might work. Although it doesn't make 4k display. It doesn't affect real resolution at all. It might help SDE and it make the image more detailed so it looks like it has more resolution at the price of contrast and colors.

Might work for oled as well.

achachi
Honored Guest
Actually on further consideration of the facts mentioned above with regards to performance, It could be possible to drop the image quality to 720p rendered on both screens rather than 1080p and still get an improvement in fidelity over a single 1080p image. Obviously those with more powerful rigs could take advantage of 2x1080p images to have an excellent image quality but will suffer from a drop in frame rate. However this may not be noticeable due to the improvement of fluidity mentioned in the video despite the lower frame rate.

Basically, colour me very impressed with the technology and thinking behind the paper.

achachi
Honored Guest
"Alci" wrote:
screens are "cheap". This tries to be one step ahead of current technology (in any given time). It might work. Although it doesn't make 4k display. It doesn't affect real resolution at all. It might help SDE and it make the image more detailed so it looks like it has more resolution at the price of contrast and colours.

Might work for oled as well.


Yes relatively speaking they are cheap, but it does mean having to source twice the number of screens which would limit the production runs even more than now. Meaning there would be even more people moaning about late arrival.

Anonymous
Not applicable
"achachi" wrote:
"Alci" wrote:
screens are "cheap". This tries to be one step ahead of current technology (in any given time). It might work. Although it doesn't make 4k display. It doesn't affect real resolution at all. It might help SDE and it make the image more detailed so it looks like it has more resolution at the price of contrast and colours.

Might work for oled as well.


Yes relatively speaking they are cheap, but it does mean having to source twice the number of screens which would limit the production runs even more than now. Meaning there would be even more people moaning about late arrival.

Not really. You have to remember DK2 wasn't a customer product so they wont be making a super large number of these. The idea was to just make enough for who wants them and store some incase someone breaks theirs.

CV1 will have a larger production run as well as a life run (2years vs the 1 year with the DK). So they could increase the number of layers found in the screen. Now, I don't think they are cheap enough to stack two though, and adding another layer would add some more weight back in. Not sure if they really would want to go into that direction, but it could be another way they could go.

As for performance, I think you all are taking the wrong idea? All you would have to do it is keep the newer frame up while the next frame draws to the other screen. Then switch screens for the next frame. This way the benefit would be at free of cost other than having to have a bit more hardware.

MrMonkeybat
Explorer
This sounds similar to the woblification technology used to make some early DLP projectors more HD. There PDF mentions projectors a bit.

Presumably the LCD can only be vertically cascaded so the color filters still line up? :? cant reduce screen door on LCDs by stacking them that just puts more opaque screendoors ontop of each other. I would think transparent OLEDs would be much more suited to this as they work by adding light instead of subtracting it with filters. Another way to make a cascaded display instead of stacking them would be to use a 45 degree semi translucent mirror to super impose them optically.