So I haven't strapped the DK1 on me for probably 5 months, but tonight I decided to try it out and play some of my old favorite demos.... I sorta got surprised because I expected it to be much worse.
Sure, it's not 6-DOF, it's not low-persistence, nor a HD screen.... but the framerate seems to be alright and it's only really during head rotation the screen blurs. And the SDE doesn't bother me.
Also the headset is lighter and easier to wear than the DK2, and wow, the field of view is better in the DK1. The DK1 feels closer to my eyes, although comparing the devices and measuring it's roughly the same, maybe 5% difference.
There's something about the DK1 that just makes me feel more presence. I can't quite pinpoint it. Technically the specs say it's a worse headset. I guess it's a combination of many factors. Resolution or SDE isn't everything.
That's not to say the DK2 is bad, I'd only really show the DK2 to others.
But I don't think it matters a whole lot, since the Crescent Bay is due to arrive relatively soon'ish as a CV1 I expect. Oculus is quiet these days, so I imagine they're on lockdown.
If you're feeling more presence in the DK1 compared to DK2, I can only think of it as being the FOV + blur of resolution prevents your eyes from being able to tell things are fake. I'm on your boat with the CV1 and oculus quietness, though perhaps we are just hopeful.
I've never been able to feel presence with the DK2 the way I did in some demos/games with the DK1. The image in the DK2 is prettier, but for some reason, objects don't feel as "solid" in the DK2.
I'm not sure if it's because of the chromatic aberration (as a consequence of the way the screen is put together), but I think that may be part of it. You don't get those sharp, well defined lines, since it seems there's always a couple of red or blue pixels peeking out from behind - and it takes away from the immersion.
I'm really looking forward to CV1 - but at the same time I'm a bit worried, since I don't feel that Oculus have really addressed these issues properly, and assured us that they would be taken care of. I hope they will be.
This is just my opinion, but I think you may just have that nastolgia feeling you get when using something that had such a great impact on you. Its sorta like when I play an NES/SNES game compared to a brand new Nintendo Wii game and say.... Wow the old games just felt so much better, despite the horrible graphics, they just immersed me so much more.
If you take a fresh new rift user and have him/her try both, I am sure they will always choose the DK2 over the 1, because they never got to gain that nastolgia from the DK1.
I never tried DK1, but I have tried DK2 without low persistence, and with a still image, the extra brightness and vividness of colors really give me an extra sense of presence. I imagine if you had to that a bigger FOV it would be even better, so what you are saying makes total sense to me.
Conclusion: we need that extra FOV and an extra bright screen in CV1 to compensate for low persisntence.
"tranceology3" wrote: This is just my opinion, but I think you may just have that nastolgia feeling you get when using something that had such a great impact on you. Its sorta like when I play an NES/SNES game compared to a brand new Nintendo Wii game and say.... Wow the old games just felt so much better, despite the horrible graphics, they just immersed me so much more.
If you take a fresh new rift user and have him/her try both, I am sure they will always choose the DK2 over the 1, because they never got to gain that nastolgia from the DK1.
You may be right that it's nostalgia, at least to some level.
I have both headsets on my desk so I can compare them side by side. One thing for sure is that the DK1 has a wider field of view, more of my sight is in VR, but on the DK2 I get a narrower view. That's not nostalgia, that's just fact.
Also maybe the "sweet spot" on the lenses is more forgiving on the DK1? Not sure, need to check it again, but what I find on the DK2 is that I need to constantly adjust the headset, while the DK1 just straps on me and is more firm and I don't think as much about the sweet spot.
I think I like my DK1 w/ RiftUp! display slightly better than my DK2. If it weren't for the RiftUp! 1080p screen upgrade though I would absolutely prefer the DK2 over the DK1.
Still not a Rift owner here, but having used both the DK1 and DK2 on several occasions, I can attest to how nice the DK1's FOV is. Sure, it's still like putting on ski goggles, but DK2 feels more like looking at the world with black panels right on the sides of your eyes, which is pretty distracting. I haven't tried a lot of the really good demos on DK2 yet so it's hard for me fairly compare them, but my biggest hope for CV1 is a wider FOV, in fact if it was a choice of a 1080p CV1 with a 15-20 degree greater FOV vs the same FOV with a 1440p screen, I would choose the former. High FOV does so much to make you feel like you're in a world and not watching a screen through a viewfinder.
I love my Dk2 but it lost something along the way. I noticed it the minute I put it on, the feeling of being there is significantly reduced. Its not nostalgia its the reduction of FOV and its the lense design. With the DK1 I couldn't see the edges it filled my view, the DK2 feels like I am wearing goggles with the typical cartoon binocular outline.
