I would like to know the reason Fresnel Lenses were used in the CV1.
The only reasons I am aware of are to reduce chromatic aberration away from the center of the lens and to improve focus away form the center. Are these the main reasons? Are there other reasons?
It seems to me there should be other reasons because after using the DK2 now for the last month or so at home and the CV1 at work I can say that I would rather have chromatic aberration and the worse focus away from the center of the lenses than putting up with god rays in games such as ED. God rays also make it a challenge for text which tends to have strong contrast (e.g. black on white). Without Fresnel lenses you can always look in the center of the lens which would have no god rays, no chromatic aberration, and good focus but with Fresnel lenses you can't avoid the god rays by looking in the center of the lens.
Fresnel lenses are a lot smaller and lighter than conventional lenses.
That's an interesting point but is that really a significant factor in the weight of the CV1? The PSVR HMD is heary than the CV1 but from what I hear more comfortable.
Well it is mainly due to the the reasons you mention. I think the problem is ED was not designed for the CV1 len's so the flaws are more obvious. I don't play ED and I rarely notice god rays because I'm playing games like Chronos, Damaged Core, Dragon Front, Eagle Flight etc that were all designed for VR from the ground up and design choices were made to reduce God Rays.
In Dragon Front for example there is a lot of text but I've never really noticed God Rays because they've designed well to avoid/minimise God Rays.
Well it is mainly due to the the reasons you mention.
I think the problem is ED was not designed for the CV1 len's so the flaws are more obvious. I don't play ED and I rarely notice god rays because I'm playing games like Chronos, Damaged Core, Dragon Front, Eagle Flight etc that were all designed for VR from the ground up and design choices were made to reduce God Rays.
In Dragon Front for example there is a lot of text but I've never really noticed God Rays because they've designed well to avoid/minimise God Rays.
Yeah what he said. A well designed game that has been built from the ground up for VR, avoids the high contrast flares and difficulties with text. Know your medium. I think we're on an upward curve.
I agree that developers can avoid god rays. I made the anoalogy with NTSC (aka never the same color) where you avoided strong reds because they bled. But these kind of adjustments come at a price (e.g. no strong reds with NTSC).
So that means there are some classes of games which can't be done right due to god rays. And I think not just games. Applications which need text I think are going to be difficult due to god rays. We will see when the Oculus browser Carmel comes out. I'm a bit skeptical.
yeah so in that very specific scenario god rays are obvious and makes the god days problem feel worse than dk2 lens. (I'm just going by what you're saying as I haven't tried ED.)
However I would argue that loosing quality in a small fraction of games to god rays(that can also be minimised by software/design) is better than loosing quality in all games to chromatic aberration and worse sweet spot.
In the end it was all about compromise and trade off's so someone was going to loose unfortunately. Hopefully one day someone will invent a far superior lens that has none of these problems and I'm sure Oculus will be the first to jump on it.
@Atmos73 I agree, I was thinking about what Magic Leap are apparently using as well which is meant to be the 'next step' but who knows when we will see anything real from them! 🙂
"All three major MR headsets rely on images that are projected edgeways onto a semitransparent material—usually glass with a coating of nanoscale ridges. The user sees the outside world through the glass, while the virtual elements are projected from a light source at the edge of the glass and then reflected into the user’s eyes by the beam-splitting nano-ridges. Magic Leap claims that its device is unique in the way it beams light into the eye, though the company declines to explain it further at this time."
As someone who persists with DK2 I don't find CA troublesome - in fact, it's hardly noticeable. Devs may learn to minimise lens-flare, but for video it's here to stay. I cannot believe Oculus will continue with Fresnel lenses unless it can be fixed.
