Category: Oculus Rift DK2

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Steam Survey: HTC Vive Neck and Neck with Oculus Rift After Repeated Gains

Valve’s monthly Steam hardware and software survey is out again, and it appears HTC Vive is holding firm ground on the platform after Oculus Rift took majority market share in March as the most popular VR headset on Steam.

After a posting strong numbers in April, Rift is now only ahead of Vive, its major competitor, by less than a percentage point. Meanwhile, Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets are still a minority, but are gaining ground on the platform, and Oculus Rift DK2 slowly fades at about the same rate.

Each month, Valve runs the survey among Steam users to determine some baseline statistics about what kind of hardware and software is used by the user population, and to see how things are changing over time; that includes which VR headsets are connected to users’ computers. Participation in the survey is optional.

VR headsets on the platform now make up 0.33%, a third of a percentage point of overall users connecting to Steam. Virtual reality usership on the platform is up 0.03% since last month.

Image courtesy Valve

As for Vive’s pushback, it could be attributed to HTC Vive Pro, the company’s premium VR headset, which is mostly being purchased by professional users at $800 just for the headset; it doesn’t include controllers or SteamVR tracking basestations, an add-on that will cost you $300 if you’re looking to upgrade to the new SteamVR 2.0 tracking standard. As an expensive headset targeted at prosumers, it was bound to have some effect on the overall numbers, but we’re not surprised to see just how little the needle has moved.

Confounding numbers: it’s also possible less Oculus Rift users connected to SteamVR content last month, instead playing games and experiences purchased through the Oculus Store.

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That said, Oculus Rift’s $400 all-in price tag, which includes controllers, sensors, and the headset, still represents a better deal over HTC Vive’s $500 all-in price, which includes everything, but still contains the uncomfortable elastic headstrap and no integrated audio—something you can remedy for $100 more with the Deluxe Audio Strap.

Windows “Mixed Reality” VR headsets are seeing an uptick too, which is likely due to competitive pricing among the handful of partner manufacturers. All except the Samsung Odyssey pack in the same specs: two 2.89″, 1,440 x 1,440 resolution LCDs. Samsung’s headset boasts the same resolution (and panel) as Vive Pro, featuring dual 1,440 × 1,600 resolution AMOLEDs. Windows VR headsets can now be had for as low as $200, and have support for many games on the SteamVR platform.

There’s still a contingent of diehard Oculus DK2 owners still playing through Steam. The DK2, which launched in 2014, still holds 1.48% of the total share of VR headsets in use on Steam, a marked decrease from the reported 1.95% earlier this year.

The post Steam Survey: HTC Vive Neck and Neck with Oculus Rift After Repeated Gains appeared first on Road to VR.

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Update Your Oculus DK1 and DK2 Demos, Win $10,000

There were dozens upon dozens of virtual reality (VR) experience and videogame demos available for Oculus Rift Dev Kit 1 and Dev Kit 2, and the fact is that many of them have been lost to time now. Indie developers, one-man teams and those simply tinkering about out of interest created so much content for the early Dev Kits, and the fact is that most of these demos are no longer playable on more modern head-mounted displays (HMDs).

Well WEARVR are apparently sick of not being able to play the demos and experiences of yesteryear on modern retail devices, and as such are offering a bounty of $10,000 for a high quality update to one of your older VR demos.

WEARVR is a site that was founded thanks to the wealth of interesting demos available for early VR HMDs, and they don’t want to lose all of the content that was created; “These early demos are what compelled us to launch WEARVR and give the experiences the dedicated audience they deserved,” says WEARVR COO, Andrew Douthwaite. “Having tried and tested nearly every DK1 and DK2 demo out there, it’s sad to see that some of them haven’t made it to the consumer headsets. However, it’s understandable when you consider that these were largely created by new, or one-person teams.”

What they’re called the WEARVR Remastered Competition, the challenge sees VR developers enhancing and updating their old Dev Kit content and making it fully functional with the latest HMDs.

Douthwaite doesn’t want to lose the legacy of how VR started and became mainstream; “What we’re trying to do with REMASTERED is give new VR users an opportunity to try these short experiences that helped the new VR industry grow so fast, as well as creating a bit of nostalgia for the VR veterans.”

“There are many developers who, perhaps, created a demo with no intention of selling it. This gives them an opportunity to monetize their demos, through WEARVR, whilst having the added bonus of prize money for best in class,” concludes Douthwaite.

If you want to enter your own VR software for consideration, you can do so on the WEARVR website. The closing date is May 1st 2018, so get in fast.

It’s a good opportunity for early VR devs to revisit their earliest projects, and hopefully get paid for them too, if they win or decide to update the software to a saleable point. For all of the latest on VR demos and money making opportunities for you developers out there, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.

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Oculus Open-sources Rift DK2: Schematics, Firmware, and More All Freely Available

Following the open-sourcing of the Rift DK1 plans back in 2014, Oculus today released the recipe for the Rift DK2, the company’s second development kit headset released in 2014. Under an open-source license, anyone can now freely download the blueprints of the company’s second VR headset and even manufacture their own.

On the company’s developer blog today, Oculus open-sourced the Rift DK2 plans under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license which permits the following:

You are free to: 

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

The company published the files on GitHub.

The Rift DK2 was the first Oculus headset to incorporate positional tracking thanks to an IR LED array hidden under the headset’s shell, and a companion camera which would detect it to calculate movements. The headset also used a fast OLED panel which enabled the use of low-persistence (a display technique that reduces image blur during head movement) which has become a staple of VR headsets today.

The Rift DK2 mainboard | Image courtesy Oculus

Because timing is important for calculating accurate tracking, the flashing of the IR LED array needed to be synced with the camera. Oculus’ Nirav Patel writes that a careful view of the open-sourced Rift DK2 files reveals the company was working on a wireless sync system via an IR receiver, but ended up sticking with a tethered solution.

Interestingly, Patel says that the DK2’s cable was one of the most complex aspects of the headset:

The headset cable in Cable/Electrical and Cable/Mechanical is actually one of the most complex parts of the product. Electrically it needed to handle high speed signals over long distances without EMI issues. Mechanically it needed to be removable, have Y-splits on both ends, and be robust to repeated use. It also needed to feel flexible. The design work on the cable is probably one of the most directly valuable areas of knowledge we carried on to the Rift.

An exploded view of the Rift DK2 camera sensor | Image courtesy Oculus

The company also notes that some of the parts specified in the design are “challenging or impossible to source today, so it may not be possible for an individual to build a full headset from the provided files,” however the hope is that the knowledge contained within the plans will provided a strong foundation for future works.

Patel credits the following with building the Rift DK2:

  • Headset Electrical: Lyle Bainbridge, Ryan Brown, Matt DeVoe
  • Sensor Electrical: John Robertson
  • Headset Firmware: Nirav Patel
  • Mechanical: Julian Hammerstein, Matt Thomas, Kam Chin
  • Optical: Youngshik Yoon
  • Automation: Simon Hallam, Anusha Balan, Brant Lewis
  • Operations: Rita Chen, Licia Angino, Jack McCauley, David Dykes
  • Factory: Allen Qin, Victor Zhang, Ivan Chow, Mark Zhang
  • Misc: Palmer Luckey, Chris Dycus, Jonathan Shine
  • Artwork: Matt Ford, Jon Malkemus

As well as Matt Appleby, Kelly Lowenberg, and John Tsai for preparing the open-source files.

Some 119,000 Rift DK2 units were sold across 137 countries. According to the September 2017 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, the Rift DK2 still makes up 3% of the headsets in use on the platform.

The post Oculus Open-sources Rift DK2: Schematics, Firmware, and More All Freely Available appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Oculus Open-sources Rift DK2: Schematics, Firmware, and More All Freely Available

Following the open-sourcing of the Rift DK1 plans back in 2014, Oculus today released the recipe for the Rift DK2, the company’s second development kit headset released in 2014. Under an open-source license, anyone can now freely download the blueprints of the company’s second VR headset and even manufacture their own.

On the company’s developer blog today, Oculus open-sourced the Rift DK2 plans under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license which permits the following:

You are free to: 

Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material
for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

The company published the files on GitHub.

The Rift DK2 was the first Oculus headset to incorporate positional tracking thanks to an IR LED array hidden under the headset’s shell, and a companion camera which would detect it to calculate movements. The headset also used a fast OLED panel which enabled the use of low-persistence (a display technique that reduces image blur during head movement) which has become a staple of VR headsets today.

The Rift DK2 mainboard | Image courtesy Oculus

Because timing is important for calculating accurate tracking, the flashing of the IR LED array needed to be synced with the camera. Oculus’ Nirav Patel writes that a careful view of the open-sourced Rift DK2 files reveals the company was working on a wireless sync system via an IR receiver, but ended up sticking with a tethered solution.

Interestingly, Patel says that the DK2’s cable was one of the most complex aspects of the headset:

The headset cable in Cable/Electrical and Cable/Mechanical is actually one of the most complex parts of the product. Electrically it needed to handle high speed signals over long distances without EMI issues. Mechanically it needed to be removable, have Y-splits on both ends, and be robust to repeated use. It also needed to feel flexible. The design work on the cable is probably one of the most directly valuable areas of knowledge we carried on to the Rift.

An exploded view of the Rift DK2 camera sensor | Image courtesy Oculus

The company also notes that some of the parts specified in the design are “challenging or impossible to source today, so it may not be possible for an individual to build a full headset from the provided files,” however the hope is that the knowledge contained within the plans will provided a strong foundation for future works.

Patel credits the following with building the Rift DK2:

  • Headset Electrical: Lyle Bainbridge, Ryan Brown, Matt DeVoe
  • Sensor Electrical: John Robertson
  • Headset Firmware: Nirav Patel
  • Mechanical: Julian Hammerstein, Matt Thomas, Kam Chin
  • Optical: Youngshik Yoon
  • Automation: Simon Hallam, Anusha Balan, Brant Lewis
  • Operations: Rita Chen, Licia Angino, Jack McCauley, David Dykes
  • Factory: Allen Qin, Victor Zhang, Ivan Chow, Mark Zhang
  • Misc: Palmer Luckey, Chris Dycus, Jonathan Shine
  • Artwork: Matt Ford, Jon Malkemus

As well as Matt Appleby, Kelly Lowenberg, and John Tsai for preparing the open-source files.

Some 119,000 Rift DK2 units were sold across 137 countries. According to the September 2017 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, the Rift DK2 still makes up 3% of the headsets in use on the platform.

The post Oculus Open-sources Rift DK2: Schematics, Firmware, and More All Freely Available appeared first on Road to VR.

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How to Re-enable VR in Alien: Isolation

Did you love Alien: Isolation? Do you like screaming for mercy and hiding in dark corners like you’re really there? In virtual reality (VR)? Well then you’re in the right place, as VRFocus has put together a guide to help dive you back into the world of Alien.

If you haven’t heard already, Nibre has created a VR mod, MotherVr Alpha, to enable VR support in Alien: Isolation. Now available to download via Github, MotherVr Alpha is compatible with the Steam version of Alien: Isolation. At present, you can play the videogame on the Oculus Rift CV1 (the current consumer version) or the second edition of the Oculus Rift development kit (aka DK2), and since 26th August 2017, the latest edition of the MotherVr Alpha mod (0.3.0) also supports the HTC Vive.

 

The modified version of Alien: Isolation does not have any roomscale functionality at present and is designed to play seated. It requires an Xbox One controller or keyboard and mouse, though Nibre is working on Touch and Vive controller support at some point.

 

Follow the instructions below to enable VR in Alien: Isolation:

 

  1. You have to own or buy Alien: Isolation in Steam.Link here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/214490/Alien_Isolation/

  2. Go to this Github link: https://github.com/Nibre/MotherVR/releases

  3. Download MotherVR.0.3.01.zip

  4. Unzip the .zip MotherVR file in your Download files and extract with a program like 7-zip or winzip

  5. Copy and paste the ‘.dll’ files and paste into Alien: Isolation videogame folder

  6. Usually this is: This PC > C: Drive > Program files (x86) > Steam > Steam Apps > Common> Alien Isolation and paste ‘.dll’ files into this folder. It may be somewhere else if you have your Steam games installed in other folders.

  7. Launch Steam and add ‘steamvr’ to your launch options in steam.

  8. Play the Alien: Isolation.

You can watch the video below for a more visual guide, and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest details on Alien: Isolation‘s VR compatibility.