Oculus announces new prototype: Crescent Bay

[DrAviator]

Brendan Iribe has announced a new prototype which is "A large leap from DK2".

Among the new features are:

- 360 degree tracking with rear facing LEDs
- High-quality Integrated audio
- Real Space 3D Audio Specialisation
- Expanded positional tracking volume
- Dramatically improved weight and ergonomics
- Improved optics:
? Higher Refresh Rate
? Higher resolution
? Higher FOV

He has announced that they are now getting "closer to a consumer rift".

Does this mean a new DK3 before CV1?

http://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-connect-2014/

[FengShuiEngine]

Oculus are perfectionists, and I love that. They're always trying to improve, always trying to give the best possible experience, and they're not going to settle for "good enough". The Consumer Rift is going to be so vastly improved over the DK2, putting it on will feel like a new experience all over again. For VR to take-off, this thing has to be done right, meaning zero-motion sickness and the highest possible "presence". If any of the whiners on this board were in charge of making decisions at Oculus, VR would crash and burn.

[frankzappa]

About the headphones:

It doesn't matter if you have high end headphones they will probably suck for 3d audio. They can not be closed headphones, they have to be either open or in ear.

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPTa4_HrPhs

If you get great sound positioning from right to left but none from the front or behind (maybe everything sounds like it's coming behind you) your headphones are the wrong type.

If everything sounds like it should like in real life then it's all good.

[Robert]

The UE developers mentioned that the Crescent Bay demo had a render target of 90 fps. I would assume that the display in the CB prototype uses the same refresh rate of 90Hz. I didn't see any screen-door effect and it was difficult to even make out the pixels that in my impression were also non-rectangular. The resolution was obviously high enough in order to not think about resolution anymore.

Aside from the visual quality I felt no motion sickness whatsoever even in scenes that moved the avatar forward with bullets and debris flying by. I am super sensitive to motion sickness and CB basically solves that for me. An Oculus Sound Engineer said that the current headphones are just part of the prototype and that it is still open what kind of headphone will be used with the consumer version.

There were no words in what form or when it would become available. Since the CB prototype is "only" a huge leap forward in quality, but not functionality, I wouldn't expect it to become another developer kit like the DK2. CB is likely very close to what the consumer version will look like. It is hard to imagine how to make this "Consumer-Beta" any better.

Other have said this already, but the experience was unreal. The alien demo made it clear to me that in VR a character doesn't become real because it is rendered realistically, but because your own strong presence in VR implies that it too has presence. That was very unexpected. It was difficult to not wave back when the alien waved at me and it reminded me that my hands are still missing in VR. On top of the tower I really wanted to hold onto that rail that was there in VR, but of course not there really to hold onto.

With the CB prototype VR has truly arrived in my opinion.

[FengShuiEngine]

@Robert,

How was the FOV compared with the DK2?

[Anonymous]

Something coming out before chrismas >(

[gonk]

@Robert... So no motion sickness ? Was this because you were physically rotating your body yourself to change direction in YAW , instead of sitting there on a keyboard ?

Yawing while not moving makes most people ill. I see this in real flight simulators, just slew around a bit and you and anyone else with you, starts to feel a little green.

anyway thanks for the info.

more first hand...

http://www.roadtovr.com/hands-on-oculus-rift-crescent-bay-prototype/

Now they just need to convince apple/microsoft/linux to make a VR compatible desktop.

....and I wear my headphones for comfort over that of fidelity/3d audio. Every person likes a little customisation in their gear....

[MrMonkeybat]

"frankzappa" wrote:
About the headphones:

It doesn't matter if you have high end headphones they will probably suck for 3d audio. They can not be closed headphones, they have to be either open or in ear.

Here is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPTa4_HrPhs

If you get great sound positioning from right to left but none from the front or behind (maybe everything sounds like it's coming behind you) your headphones are the wrong type.

If everything sounds like it should like in real life then it's all good.

3d binaureal sound works with any pair of stereo headphones. I have listened to binaurel recordings before with closed headphones, it works.

The CB phones can be folded away or detached so audiophiles can relax in the knowledge they can use there magic headphones. I am sure carbon design will make them prettier also.

[Robert]

"FengShuiEngine" wrote:
@Robert,

How was the FOV compared with the DK2?

I would say better. At least I didn't notice my field of view to be cut into a box like with the DK2. To be honest it is difficult to report objectively on this particular experience because it was truly made to blow people's socks off and memory is not very reliable in such circumstances especially if you only got 9 minutes within the demo.

[MrMonkeybat]

Sounds like all the demos where static and relied entirely on the position tracking from the movement so it would be disappointing if anyone still got motion sick. That includes the bullet time one moving in the same direction without and acceleration/deceleration or turning should not induce any motion sickness either. Conventional 1st person games with mouse and keyboard or gamepad based movement will still likely cause motion sickness in at least some people unless everything else being so right helps distract people from noticing there inner ears.

[frankzappa]

"mrmonkeybat" wrote:


3d binaureal sound works with any pair of stereo headphones. I have listened to binaurel recordings before with closed headphones, it works.

The CB phones can be folded away or detached so audiophiles can relax in the knowledge they can use there magic headphones. I am sure carbon design will make them prettier also.

Yes it works but a low end in ear will work better than an ultra high end closed type. The reason why 3D binaural works is because you put microphones in a virtual head with virtual ears. It sounds a certain way when the sound bounces around in the cavity of the ear. The problem with closed type headphones is that the sound bounces around in another cavity before it enters your ear.

It will work somewhat but the best thing would be an in ear headphone.