Testing the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2: Game Demos

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We have the Oculus VR Development Kit in the office (two of them!) and have been testing them for over a week. We sit down to discuss the new hardware, compare it to our first development kit, and then run through as many game demos as we can get working. That includes revisiting some classics as well as multiplayer with Couch Knights and Elite: Dangerous using a HOTAS setup!
Thanks to iFixit for the Oculus IR footage. Check out their full teardown here: www.ifixit.com...

[@tested]

Enjoy tech? Check out Projections, our series about AR and VR: bit.ly/2ufaYr2

[@Spookysart]

watching this on my Oculus Quest 2, i just love how much we have come

[@codyallison1114]

watching this in 2019 working on building my own cameras for tracking. Using joy cons and leds for controls

[@Bierce88]

yea i still have faith in oculus even after the whole facebook thing i think this is the most exciting techknowledgey of this decade

[@telefon72]

What?! Technologi?

[@FoodOfTheGods666]

"techknowledgey " lol

[@MonkeDLoopy]

You've gotta love that spelling :D -Peace

[@nathangek]

I really don't know why people are worried that Mark Zuckerberg is going to fuck this up.. He is smart, he just wants to supply money so they can develop the product and then when it goes into production of the consumer version he's going to make a buttload of money... It's not like it's going to be a facebook headset or anything... that's what retarded people think.

[@samuelkung7736]

bought it tried it... its not there yet.. the image quality is very blurry.. was very disappointing!

[@joolsstoo3085]

"Twist it." Points camera up. "Will is being difficult." Huh.

[@KazyEXE]

Things can twist in multiple axes.

[@thepetsaver]

So many people will suffer accidents in the middle of multiplayer combat! Can't wait!

[@noose1987]

Love that they use the Manfrotto 055XPROB as a stand for IR camera

[@ZombieFreak85]

It has a focus lens so you can adjust the display to your particular preference to a certain extent.

[@RoughTake]

That desk is before version 1 of the Oculus SDK. The DK1 and DK2 were still compatible with Mac OS back than, before they gave it the ax to focus on pc only.

[@MysticJhn]

Couch Knights looks like a lot of fun. If there was a way to do it so that you moved the characters through your actual living room, I could play that for hours. Throw in a custom knight feature and I'm sold. That space game makes me think this VR technology would be awesome for some kind of Zoids, Battletech, Gundam combat style game. Perhaps not those exact franchises, but something along those lines.

[@ProxCyde]

Should be possible if they add 2 cameras in front of your eye positions. Not sure how well that would transfer in real-time and multiplayer though

[@MysticJhn]

I guess it would be impossible for the Occulus to know which object on camera was a hard surface to jump up on and differenciate it from the floor or something that might get knocked over. Maybe in a full version include a custom living room maker along with custom knights. Find furniture close to your real furniture and create your room. You could even go further and download other people's rooms or room packs for online multiplayer. They could even release theme rooms like Santa's factory or Obi Wan's hut from A New Hope or the Ninja Turtle's sewer lair. Just think of all the free rooms that could get released as part of movie or videogame promos.

[@ProxCyde]

Maybe it would work using the same setup as most AR apps. Put some type of pattern on the surface you want your character to collide with. However, dunno how that would apply to a larger area.

[@Alt]

Norm and Will, on issue of fogging. Take the Silica gel packets you got in the box and lightly tape one of them on the inside edge. It helps.

[@seandudley5664]

Noticed you were having the "Out of Range" problem. When that happens, try pressing the "R" key while looking straight ahead. Works in most demos to reset where you are in relation to the camera and stops the problem.

[@Neceros]

I think couchwars could be a lot of fun if they made the controls very nice, included a ton of customizing your avatar (better spells, weapons, & looks) and including cool, strange 'living rooms' to play in. I'd buy that.

[@Spaztiq]

Started laughing out loud when Will bumped his head..... and then Norm did the same thing. That was awesome. :)

[@hugojacquelin1039]

Radial G works with full head tracking and positionnal tracking here

[@SoujiroNagi]

Translation: Wait for PlayStation 4 VR Headset, Project Morpheus.

[@stevegroft2124]

***** its a lot more expansive though.

[@MadJackChurchill1312]

We’ve come a looooooong way, baby.

[@Hoverbot1TV]

No fog ski goggle spray helps reduce fogging on Fatshark headsets.

[@MacoveiVlad]

I've heard the racing sim Live For Speed has Rift support. I don't have a Rift but people on the forum say it is really good. At one point the game was in 3rd place on the Oculus exchange site... or something like that.

[@VolkaynoDaking]

i cant wait until this vr stuff is polished and ready for all racing, flying, and shooter games...

[@fredlohrman6497]

Reason why you didn't see any particles and the water fountain was off in the Tuscany demo is because you opened the one in the "ovr_sdk_win_0.4.2" folder instead of the "ovr_unity_0.4.2_demo_win" folder.

[@kje5000]

Make sure you guys have the 1.3 version of Radial-G. The positional tracking does work and it works GREAT. Makes the demo much more enjoyable.

[@JoeBlow-jt4me]

There's something a little off about Norm and I cant seem to put my finger on it. Its almost like he's not real? I really dont know but its bothering me. Something about his eyes? The way he moves? I dont know.

[@JoeBlow-jt4me]

I'm not really sure exactly, like I said, but its something thats always there. Not just this particular video.

[@Duncan_Idaho_Potato]

He's animatronic. Adam and Jamie built him in the shop. You didn't know this? I thought everyone knew this. Kidding aside, I don't see what you mean. Maybe he's not totally relaxed in front of the camera or something and you're picking up on that and I'm not. But I honestly don't see it. Seems like a regular guy to me.

[@JoeBlow-jt4me]

Thats probably it, maybe he seems tense and his movements not very fluid?

[@Fortstorm]

Jameson Grilley See? Android.

[@JoeBlow-jt4me]

Hes only half asian?

[@RCmies]

I wish they had something like some little sensors for your fingers and your elbow and wrist I guess, so you could see your hands in the game when you move them.

[@lednerg]

I wonder if they tried the opposite implementation of IR, which would be to have a fisheye IR camera on the Oculus Rift and then a separate device which projects IR dots (or an IR grid) around the room. That way, you wouldn't have to deal with being out of camera range. You could even walk around like you're in a holodeck.

[@peanuttherat]

"Or a Titan" I heard that and naturally paid attention...I love having my Titan.

[@Gdlen1]

I seriously hope the rift consumer comes out with a 4k screen, you need 2k x 2k per eye to make it worthwhile, I'd buy it in an instant

[@therealarien]

Palmer Luckey has explained that it's about more than simply increasing the res. Optics play a huge part, Hz, low persistance etc. They haven't reveled the res of the crescent bay prototype but gizmodo said they could only see pixels if they "really tried". 4K at 60Hz is currently the limit of even HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.2 can handle it right now at least. But the DK2 runs at 75Hz, possibly even 120Hz for the latest prototype or the CV1. Still just playing the waiting game :P

[@stingray1231]

What a brilliant couple. "Will is being difficult". No shit haha.

[@boorch]

i think tested is the most geeky review series ever, and i like it a lot. i love to learn about all the tech details of hardware i'm interested in.

[@Nauct]

PLEASE BE AWESOME.... PLEASE BE AWESOME

[@RaydeusMX]

Norm, you need to put googly eyes on your DK1, it's the law. Edit > Elite Dangerous with HOTAS and proper ControlVR support will be so good. Edit 2 > And let's not forget VoiceAttack or some sort of voice recognition software like it to make managing your ship even better.

[@Fireytoad]

VoiceAttack adds an extra level of immersion to the game, especially with its TTS feature having your ship 'talk' back to you. I never have to take my hands of my X52 Pro now.

[@BenKuroshin]

Firey Toad The X52 pro has enough buttons to bind everything without Voice Attack and with the Rift using Voice attack is very limited as you canot use it to access the menus anymore(well you can, but it would be vomit inducing). I did try Voice Attack, but I don't think it adds much for me.

[@Trison34]

DCS World works with it too. Nothing like flying around in an A-10C

[@simonwilczynski5863]

You know those hidden image picture that can be seen when you cross youre eyes. Well you can do that when the dual image of the occulus is shown on the screen.

[@InkubusGames]

Elite Dangerous is like a Privateer... How ironic! Elite Dangerous is 4th installment of Elite and Privateer is based on previous Elite games. For the record, original Elite (1) was released back in 1984 and it is the very first space simulation game with trade etc...

[@TechIlliterate]

Awesome test guys! BTW the port on the front is not for audio, its a sync port.

[@harveymushmann1927]

they need to bring back the power glove to track hand movement

[@WirlWind494]

I think I remember reading about some software that was able to turn pictures into 3d environments digitally. I want couch knights to implement something like that so you could panoramic your living room and actually get it in-game. I suppose that sort of game is far more appropriate for AR than VR until you can do something that awesome.

[@musikdoktor]

45:38 No animals were harmed in the making of this video.. LOL!

[@EctoSage]

CV 1 needs to be 4k.

[@PhilipZeplinDK]

Not really. Good luck running 4k games at 70+ FPS in the Rift anyway.

[@EctoSage]

Philip Zeplin You don't think the next generation of graphics cards will be able to run 4k games with a reasonable FPS?

[@EctoSage]

Kendall Fiore I thought the 20nm were projected to come out mid 2015. Early 800 series later this year, but they would still have the 28nm structure... so yeah, very next cards, but ones "shortly" after them.

[@PhilipZeplinDK]

***** Even if they are, it's not a smart idea to seriously ramp up both production time and manufacturing costs, if only a very small subset of your fanbase can actually use the feature. The Rift (according to Oculus, when they at E3 stated "If it's not out in a year, that's a problem") will likely come out in Q1 or Q2 of 2015. By then, very few people will have the computers to run games at 4k and 70+ FPS. I think it's more appropriate for CV2, which I would assume would be out Late 2016 or early 2017, if the Rift is a success.

[@zeratu1000]

***** at 1000$+ maybe

[@rossearles4333]

If you every played much Flight Simulator on Microsofts platform and used something called TrackIR then you know what this stuff is like, this is just putting you in the environment instead of in front of a screen. Good stuff!

[@NikolaosTsarmpopoulos]

While the commercial version may feature higher resolution, a VR headset will always appear having a much lower resolution than a monitor. This is due to the fact the resolution of the headset is distributed over a much wider field of view. Assuming a headset could feature higher resolution (e.g. 4K), we wouldn't have a graphics card that is fast enough to feed that resolution with 2x90 frames per second, with minimal latency. We can expect to experience much better image clarity when graphics cards and screens are tuned to the 8K (ie 16x1080p) resolution. Probably in about 5+ years. In all cases, I think that VR will find myriads of applications and fans.

[@AUlex1165]

Imagine playing YU-GI-OH with awesome graphics based on the game of 26:30. It gives you the feel of presence!

[@ThomasWinders]

You played the wrong .exe for the Tuscany Demo: that's the one without the bells and whistles (audio, animations, particles, butterflies, foliage, fire inside the fireplace, candle's flame and so on). There are two executables, located in different folders - you guys picked the wrong one ;) - I'm testing the DK2 right those days, and I'm having some problems configuring my video output to run things like Vireio - implementing the "DirectToOculus" mode should be the way to go, but the executables should be patched properly to do so. It would be a great thing if software houses using different engines could release updates to patch their executables, adding support for VR - and why not, a convenient built-in quick calibration procedure...

[@Chuck_Huckler]

Still looks fucking amazing, but desperately needs something like a pair of wiimote nunchucks with a button for all five fingers and individual motion tracking, so you can use it as a controller to move around, move your arms, and even grasp objects in virtual space. I'd like to see a version with headphone mounts and perhaps a counter-weight for the back. It'd also be really cool if you could use it wirelessly over wifi or even with just a backpack mount and battery pack. Battery pack could fit in the counterweight slot, actually. If you could use it wirelessly, you could take your laptop with you to the park, or just play in the yard assuming you had enough space. But then there's the issue of running into objects, so it would also be nice if you had an alarm that warned you if you're about to run into an object in the real world, like a tree or wall.

[@NikoKun]

I think they must have setup Radial-G wrong, it's supposed to have head-tracking and it's a pretty good game when done right.. I don't think he should have disabled the service for that game. :( Also it's a 10ft cable.. and I think Will was sitting just barely too far from the camera somtimes? might explain his totoro problems.. :/

[@dcpunk4]

Yeah, radial-g does have head tracking and it's awesome. It's really too bad they didn't have it working

[@NGELO9657]

Decided to buy the DK2 from oculus, even though consumer version coming out in a few months.. Why? Because I'm fucking impatient.

[@mansonatyify]

+NGELO9657 lololol

[@NGELO9657]

***** I'll be honest.. I ordered it.. and like a week later I get an email saying that it was cancelled because it can't be shipped to a freight forwarding shop... AKA, it can't be shipped to a UPS store for pickup due to their policies. Damn it. I guess I'll just wait for Q1 2016.

[@eurekafilmsNz]

+NGELO9657 I like your style

[@blobzee5438]

It's also lower resolution so it should be easier to run games than cv1, hardware wise

[@JaredNorton]

Head Tracking works outstandingly well in Radial G on the DK2 for me. You guys must've set something up wrong.

[@nathangek]

I guess I'm not a regular human being because even though 350 is a lot for me, I haven't regretted buying this thing to this date, it's amazing.

[@EctoSage]

I get the sneaking suspicion that most work on DK2 stopped not long after the Facebook acquisition. That's not really so much of a bad thing, I think it's more that once they realized they had a larger budget, they started to dream bigger, and instead of completely re-working the DK2, they just got it to a good point & shipped it. DK3, or CV1 I suspect will be a much larger leap forward than DK1 -> DK2

[@Smarglenargle]

it'll be good to invest in that joystick thing, gunna be a ton of sim games coming soon.

[@GoldenPidgeon]

Are they working on integrating your body movements? So for example, the spaceship Norm flies at around 30:00 would be easier to run if it didn't have menus controlled by the joysticks, but if you could actually press buttons, turn knobs and adjust levers by gesturing your hands in realistic motions. Surely this could be done with a kinect added on? But as well as actual joysticks and throttles for the more common controls.

[@_hyzer]

if you've never gone through that back and forth ''hey is that you'' with a friend then you haven't truly played videogames.

[@Crisperdad]

Wow I can't wait for this thing to come into the market so we can all buy it!

[@MrHazardousMC]

ayyy good times amiright!? VR's come a long way!

[@TheUKRifter]

Nice to see you raising awareness of VR

[@prnfl]

Putting aside that this is a DEVELOPER KIT and they shouldn't even be reviewing it, why are they saying "don't buy it because only a few games work?" do they not realise that by the time you actually RECEIVE the thing it will be october? there will be a ton of games by then.

[@cappie2000]

The station entrance is always at the counter-clockwise rotating side...

[@hueyfreeman1603]

Will buy it when: -It is perfected -Sword Art game is released

[@ShallowDepression]

This has the screen from a Galaxy Note 3, the Note 4 is released next month with a rumoured 2560 x 1440 QHD screen. I'm wondering if the consumer version will have this screen & resolution, fingers crossed.

[@lolligerjoj1]

You gotta add each other as friends first, otherwise you won't end up in the same instance in the station.

[@lopan9748]

All I can say... Elite:Dangerous on the DK2 is AMAZING.

[@gudenau]

I like what you did with the capture.

[@CashFuelzCFXstudio]

Wonderful info guys, but dang all those cameras and this video's resolution maxes @ 480p...

[@w0mbatina]

Wait, maybe i wasnt paying atention for the entire video (i definetly wasnt), but does the dk2 still have the gyros and accelerometers? Since if it only has the IR camera thing, its basicly TrackIR?

[@after_midnight9592]

It's always funny when mainstream discovers in 2014 you can look around and the view follows. Welcome to the world of flight sims, flying with TIR5 since 2009.

[@prezzeruk4054]

I can see the potential of oculus...but in fast paced shooters where u gotta whip ur head around to locate the enemy I can see alot of whiplash and other neck problems.

[@MrGambitttt]

This is going to be so awesome to play with. It's going to change games sooo much.

[@ZOMBIESHARKGOD]

Can't wait to get my hands on this

[@NathanaelNewton]

hey guys, great video, but If you reduced the size of the picture in picture we could use the crosseye method to view 3d and get a much better idea of what you are seeing.. Just a suggestion :)

[@poladise6396]

'it came over a year ago" "you mean more than" "yeah more than a year ago" lol what?

[@3beltwesty]

7:45 is the virtual image one sees at infinity? Or is it say one meter like a pro dslr camera's screen, or maybe at 18" like using a laptop. Actually one can measure this "distance" by placing a slr/dslr 's lens where the human eyes is and focusing on the virtual image, and reading the lenses scale on the camera. I wonder what the virtual image is since I am an optics guy. The diopter accommodation range of the eye poops out like mad above 40 years, but most Oculus rift users are younger! :)

[@supremebuffalo6322]

Imagine when the technology is able to imitate the whole lightspeed/time relationship.

[@voidedgoat]

I don't know if y'all read comments... If you use shaving cream to buff the lenses they will not fog over (works with glasses also).

[@tomaspelliccione]

Imagine what VR will be like in ten years!!

[@KazyEXE]

Two years to go.

[@Cooe.]

Quest 3 and Vision Pro were the answer lol.

[@mohammadfelafal8437]

Out of Camera Range....? Maybe its because you have the camera aligned to your moobs instead of the HMD? positioning it higher should fix that issue for the most part

[@kiba3x]

If they implement this in FPS military shooters will be awesome!

[@denisgabriel4645]

Oh fuck that!!!....I mean this is my personal opinion: But I'm already tired of war games like COD and Battlefield,I would prefer Action/Adventure and Exploration games...HUGE open-worlds and to explore other fictional planets,that's what I want...If I could feel that I'm inside a virtual universe the last place where I would want to be is in a real world military zone,what would be the point of being in a common "Real Life" battlefield?...For me the cool and interesting thing would be to visit fictional fantasy worlds and planets with weird creatures,airships,spaceships...Worlds like in Star Wars,Final Fantasy,Harry Potter and stuff like that...Cool places that don't exist in the real world!!

[@kiba3x]

If they implement this to ARMA 3, so you can look only with your head, but move with keyboard i will be happiest keyboard warriior on the earth :)

[@denisgabriel4645]

kiba BG I haven't played 'ARMA'...Is it good and better than the typical war games?

[@kiba3x]

Much better than Battlefield and CoD. Also you have there independent moving of your head, you can turn your head left right, up and down like in real world.

[@mr_selfdestrukt]

Darth Gabriel Arma 3 is as close to a real life war simulator that you can get. Fun game, not to mention it's moddable. The map size alone (Atlis) is over 270 kilometers in size.

[@sigra4867]

Star Citizen Arena Commander also supports the Oculus Rift.

[@spinnetti]

To me, until wireless and gyro/compass/accel based head tracking, it ain't done yet... looking forward to it tho

[@Mr-R.R.]

hahaha Norm, it is not called 'Hot-ass' its called Hotas

[@samramdebest]

Silence will fall when the question is asked

[@saerain]

That's not informative of the pronunciation.

[@Mr-R.R.]

Kyle Rybski I didn't say you pronounce it 'Hotas'. I said it's CALLED Hotas and not Hot-ass.

[@MrGibbonici]

I dunno man, I'm definitely calling my HOTAS a hot-ass from now on.

[@Mr-R.R.]

Steve Wilds haha, you know what I'm joining the Hot-ass club as well !

[@jakeabel2548]

Will I think when you moved your head and said "shit something is there" I was thinking you hit the tower of paper in the game. Too funny.

[@JohnKerrashVirgo]

I am so glad you demoed Elite: Dangerous, thank you it is awesome :)

[@orko4185]

There is one master server in elite. But with instancing and a peer to peer setup. You where on the same server but in different instances of the station. You have to put the ppl you want to meet in the same instance s on a friend list to make it very likely to land in the same instance. Didn't play the beta yet only the alpha not sure if the friend list is in game yet.

[@orko4185]

HaB22 that's the peer to peer part

[@karambiatos]

tested should try out DCS:world, apparently it has good rift support

[@dangerrangerlstc]

What controller stick is Norm using? That looks like a pretty neat set-up. That space flight sim looks really cool. Kinda can't wait for that to get more development.

[@Bluesteel34]

something to think about when it comes to this.Remember the 2009 movie Surrogates,that is all i will say about this.

[@Spacemonkeymojo]

People who bash the OR have no clue, this is going to be huge for gaming when the consumer version is released.

[@Rdasboss]

I love that you have to turn your head for this. This is how i live, i cannot move my eyes left or right. This is a Me simulator.

[@Cooe.]

Do your eyes even do convergence when you look at something up close? O_o (Aka, do your eyes cross to keep the incoming object clear, or do they keep pointing forward and objects just get blurry if you bring them too close to your eyes?)

[@kristinaplays2924]

How many years do you think this is from being released to the public? I can't wait O.o

[@CaptButtonMash]

Looking forward to a VR Far Cry game some day. Eventually game companies will se a huge opportunity to re-release from their back catalogue.

[@fictionmyth]

I wonder what you guys would think about them adding two front facing cameras for traditional video? So that you can switch back and forth if you need to see things around you, without breaking the effect of the VR by taking the headset on and off, as well as not having to keep taking it on and off to find your coke and rubbing your forehead raw and having to readjust the straps. Plus, it would allow for augmented reality.

[@chaosblur]

One thing I am curious about the oculus rift is what if the player needs glasses? Can somepony with astigmatism still play as well as somepony with 20/20? particularly someone with a strong prescription for glasses

[@Crovea]

Chris Roberts Star Citizen has Oculus support, you just need to press numpad enter to enable it with an oculus connected. A quick yoututbe search will show plenty of results :)

[@Armitage431]

Little dissapointed that Will really had no clue what he was doing in Elite.

[@konigalfonsderviertelvorzw1490]

Thank you for this Vid guys, looking forward 4 more Oculus R. stuff!

[@buznee17]

You guys need to try DCS World. It is compatible with DK2 and is free!

[@jnperez01]

Some group should make a study about the long term health effects of this, if any.

[@Duncan_Idaho_Potato]

There's definitely people who experience motion sickness, but that's kind of to be expected. I've also heard reports of headaches and nausea, particularly with the DK1. If the game you're playing isn't running at least 60 fps it can cause those problems. And the lower resolution of the DK1 can probably cause eyestrain. I suspect the VR addiction all those old cyberpunk films and books warned us about may turn into a real thing in the near future, as well.

[@ecash00]

If you guys are able to talk to the OR people..Can I suggest something to make it easier? There is a affect with combining 2 lenses for a focal point..Its variable. Adjustable..

[@Edward135i]

I'm so glad I don't need glasses, I imagine that when they launch the Oculus that you will be able to order the lenses to what ever prescription you need, and if not somebody will make it.

[@makedonii]

16:10 MAN I LAUGHT SO HARD! :D

[@ADYDASNZ]

iRacing.com motorsport, AC also support the DK2