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Wearing glasses in the Rift

Litespeed
Heroic Explorer
A Question that's always coming up around here and in other forums is whether you can wear glasses in the Rift and how comfortable it is.
Depending who you ask the answers vary greatly from "no problem" to "doesn't work at all - Vive is your only option".

Of course it depends on the size and form factor of your glasses. Maybe also on the size and shape of your head.
I'm going to focus on the glasses here.

Because of the great variety of form factors glasses can have I think i'ts best to show some pictures.

Those are mine with dimensions:
7a6myzfoxqll.jpg
I can wear those without problems in the Rift. It doesn't even make a difference comfort wise. They do take away quite a bit of FOV on the bottom though. Also putting the Rift on and off is no hassle, they never got stuck inside the Rift.

This is how the fit in the Rift in roughly the same postion when having the Rift on my head:
0awymb6uvrym.jpg
The temples just about fit in without touching the facial interface (while not on my face). The edge of the foam of the facial inerface is the only place where there isn't any more room. Inside the Rift there is plenty room in all directions. 
You could push in the foam of the facial interface in a bit at the temples on either side which might allow for up to about 5mm (0.2 in) more width of the frame but that would probably get increasingly uncomfortable.
The glasses don't touch the Rift's lenses (a constant fear I'm having for scratching), nor do they touch the soft fabric around them anywhere.
4 REPLIES 4

inovator
Consultant
Hi as far as the fov do u believee the smaller the glasses the less fov loss or would it still be the same loss?

Chazmeister
Rising Star
My glasses are of a similar dimension, in fact they look almost identical to yours so this is good to know.

However I will have to say that after using my friends Vive a few times I soon found that I didn't need to wear my glasses. I'm short sighted, as in stuff at a distance looks blurred, but I found that whether I wore glasses or not made no real appreciable difference to the image quality.

To me this makes sense as the screens are very close to your face. However I kept reading that it's short sighted glasses wearers that will need to keep them on as your focal point is set as if your are looking at a distance. For me personally I have not found this to be the case. Whether I wear them or not makes no discernible difference to me.

I'm hoping that this will be the same with my Rift when it arrives (next week sometime with any luck), as no glasses is much more preferable, as I found with the Vive that when things got a bit hot and sweaty, that the glasses started to steam up a little at the edges. That really made you start to feel like you were wearing a diving helmet and took you out of the immersion factor a bit.

HeadRusch1
Protege
I'll throw in my .02 cents.  Frame-less / Rim-less glasses can be problematic in the Rift.
09ic6ui4odbj.jpg
(Generic Example of Potential Problem Child Above)

These are, frankly, a pain to wear when putting on the HMD.  The headset will mash these all over your face unless you get the angle just right so the edges of the flex-frames don't catch on the foam padding.  They will *always* come off with the headset, and when they don't you'll wonder what strange force prevented it.  When they move, they get smudged, and they move because they have no frames to weight them or resist movement against your head when you shift the OR around.  If they get smudged, you start the process over again.
The Scientific term is "PITA". 

Also, framed glasses don't usually introduce purple-fringing (Chromatic Aberration) if you look out of the lenses sideways with your eyes, which can happen if your lenses do not have frames.  This is the same effect the Fresnel lenses deliver inside the HMD, so if you can avoid another 'layer' of that happening, it's probably one less distraction for your eyes while Rifting.  I *believe* this is frame-related, and not strength-of-prescription related, but I am not 100% sure.  Just my experience, your mileage may vary. 

TwoHedWlf
Expert Trustee


inovator said:

Hi as far as the fov do u believee the smaller the glasses the less fov loss or would it still be the same loss?


I'd say the opposite,  smaller glasses=less of the FOV covered by the glasses so more useless blurry fov outside them.


However I will have to say that after using my friends Vive a few times I soon found that I didn't need to wear my glasses. I'm short sighted, as in stuff at a distance looks blurred, but I found that whether I wore glasses or not made no real appreciable difference to the image quality.


Sounds like you're only slightly near sighted,  if you can focus at about 1.5 meters then you don't need glasses for the Rift.

Unfortunately, I can only focus out to about 4 inches without my glasses.  So, actually I be better off if the Rift had no lenses, I think.