Rift / Vive / VR General

[Dexter]

From CES 2020:

NVIDIA announced VRSS for their new drivers with over 20 games supporting it: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/nvidia-geforce-ces-2020-game-ready-driver/

Variable Rate Supersampling: Improve Image Quality In VR
Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS) is a new technique to improve image quality in VR games. It uses NVIDIA Variable Rate Shading (VRS), a key feature in NVIDIA’s Turing architecture, to dynamically apply up to 8x supersampling to the center of the VR headset display, where the eye is generally focused. It intelligently applies supersampling only when GPU headroom is available in order to maintain the VR headset’s fixed FPS and ensure a smooth VR experience.



Compared to alternative techniques that supersample the entire screen with large hits to frame rate, VRSS’s adaptive use of Variable Rate Shading boosts image quality while staying about the typical 90Hz fixed refresh rate of the VR headset. In the VR game Boneworks, VRSS keeps FPS above 90, whereas a fullscreen 4x supersample drops frame rates to unplayable levels.

Here's an upcoming one:


Dual-4K professional Headset revealed: https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/07/vrgineers-8k-vr-headset-nasa/

This massive 8K VR headset was built for NASA
It's also meant for military and employee training.

For years now, VRgineers has been making VR headsets for the professional and enterprise market, including for government institutions like NASA. This week at CES, however, the company has unveiled its latest model. It's still called the XTAL, but this time it comes with a whopping 8K resolution, which provides it with a "best-in-class" crystal-clear VR image.

It boasts other features too, such as foveated rendering capabilities, an AR mixed reality module and improved lenses, which give it a very immersive 180-degree field of view. I tried it on in a demo at a CES evening event, and I was blown away by how crisp and clear the images were. A VRgineer spokesperson told me that I was trying out a very basic version of a VR simulation designed for NASA astronauts. The controls in front of me were so sharp that I could actually see the tiny letters on the keyboard.

I didn't have a chance to try the controls, but it also has eye tracking, the ability to interact with virtual worlds with your gaze and voice commands, plus gesture controls. The gesture controls in particular are thanks to the two Leap Motion sensors embedded underneath the headset.

Starting at around $8,000, the XTAL headset isn't meant for you and me. As mentioned, it's intended for enterprise applications such as employee safety training. Older versions of the XTAL are already in use at the Department of Defense, the US Navy and NASA. Eight-thousand dollars is certainly a lot of money for consumers, but when it comes to training future soldiers and astronauts, that might not be such a bad deal.

Pimax also announced some new products like the "5K SUPER" and supposedly cheaper "Artisan" HMD: https://www.roadtovr.com/ces-2020-pimax-headset-specs/

And this Standalone (think Oculus Quest) Chinese HMD was announced: https://uploadvr.com/ces-2020-pico-neo-2-specs/

This is apparently a Prototype of a Low-FoV Micro OLED HMD for video viewing and similar:


https://www.provideocoalition.com/p...e-worlds-first-hdr-capable-uhd-vr-eyeglasses/

WTF Simfags?

 

[Dexter]

Free VR Game for the Next 2 weeks: https://store.steampowered.com/app/567730/Merry_Snowballs/

 

[Dexter]

Prototyping AR in VR:

 

[Dexter]

Releasing Thursday:



Talk bout Factions, C&C, some Survival mechanics and Nawlins:

 

[Venser]

9/10

 

[Dexter]

There's a VR Bundle on Humble Bundle with GORN, Budget Cuts, Superhot VR and Moss: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/vr-bundle

New SteamVR Interface coming soon, currently in Beta (they've been using a lot of "Big Picture" elements so far): https://www.roadtovr.com/valve-plans-to-release-steamvr-2-0-this-year/

Eric Chahi's Upcoming Game, kinda reminiscent of From Dust:





Kinda creepy:

 

[Venser]

 

[Venser]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/250820/announcements/detail/1706239057782315520

Introducing SteamVR Version 1.10
"The Dashboard Update" (1.10.20)

Update Highlights

Today’s update features an improved Dashboard that gets you into your games quickly.

The new dashboard is closer and curved for increased clarity, and presents a recent games list for jumping in right away. Desktop View now features individually resizable monitors, easier access to the keyboard, and a lights-off mode for enhanced contrast.

Full Update Notes


SteamVR Dashboard:

• All-new dashboard, including an updated quick launcher.
  
• Moved dashboard closer and added curvature.
  
• Convenience feature: Quickly change volume by dragging left/right on the dashboard volume button.
  
• Moved Dashboard Settings into Dashboard Page (advanced).
  
• Added Dashboard position control (advanced)
  
• Added Dashboard Settings to toggle UI elements.
  
• Dashboard is re-positioned when you put on the HMD.
  
• Refined keyboard appearance
  
• Added a three second countdown before resetting the seated tracking origin through the dashboard.
  
• Fixed face mouse on any headset using the generic_hmd controller type. (That is essentially every headset that doesn’t have a button, so Windows Mixed Reality and some others.).
  
• Fix dashboard overlay tabs still showing even if vr::VROverlayFlags_VisibleInDashboard is false.
  
• Fixed bug in IVROverlay::GetPrimaryDashboardDevice (returning the wrong thing when non-controller buttons brings up the dashboard for the first time ).
  
• Fixed long messages sent to IVROverlay::ShowMessageOverlay cutting off the text and pushing the buttons off the bottom of the overlay for very long messages.
  
• Fix list of overlays in “choose startup overlay apps” in the startup/shutdown settings.
  
• Hid base station and camera rendering while the dashboard is visible.
  
• Added Library welcome screen (when no games are installed).
  
• Performance improvements while dashboard is visible.
  
• Added haptic binding for Touch controllers in VR Dashboard.

SteamVR Desktop View:

• Split Desktop View into individual tabs for each system display.
  
• Desktop View remembers the most recently viewed desktop.
  
• Easier double clicking (laser mouse position is locked during clicks).
  
• Added per-desktop scale control.
  
• Added button to toggle keyboard.
  
• Added “lights-off” mode.
  
• Added support for swapped left/right primary mouse buttons.
  
• Automatically detects changes in monitor topology.
  
• Improved I-Beam cursor on high-DPI displays.
  
• Enabled desktop view for monitors attached to a non-HMD GPU.

SteamVR:

• Restore texture size round to multiple of 4 for WindowsMR HMDs in GetRecommendedRenderTargetSize.
  
• Settings UI supersample settings show the rounded resolution to match the internal behavior.
  
• Fix “do not disturb” setting for notifications not taking effect until restart.
  
• Fixed a bug where audio mirroring would not stay disabled after a SteamVR restart
  
• Smoothed editor app connections by letting them send connection details through vr_init.
  
• Lighthouse controllers and trackers can now go to the idle and standby states even if the HMD has not gone into standby. Fixed a bug where controllers could bounce between standby and active multiple times.
  
• Fix a case where SteamVR would “forget” that an Unreal game was running after about a minute of playtime.
  
• Added Overlay Render Quality Setting (Settings -> Video Advanced)
  
• Fixed a crash bug in Room Setup
  
• Fixed a crash bug in the Tutorial
  
• Added cosmos support to the Tutorial
  
• Updated some of the visuals and audio levels in the Tutorial
  
• The Tutorial will no longer automatically start for headsets that have their own runtimes and chaperone, including Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality. The Tutorial can still be started manually. Users with these headsets will instead see an overlay demonstrating how to access the SteamVR dashboard the first time they use SteamVR.
  
• Performance improvements.

SteamVR Home:

• Fixed voice chat.
  
• Fix for showing render models for generic tracked objects (e.g. Logitech Stylus).
  
• Fixed rendering issues with the glow selection effect.
  
• Fixed haptics triggered from scripts from being sent to all players.
  
• Fixed missing help strings in tools.
  
• Fixed some cases of unstable physics.
  
• Fixed Rift-only tools crash.
  
• Tools: Added option for map creators to bake lighting into textures.
  
• Tools: Enabled cubemap fog.
  
• Performance improvements.

SteamVR Input:

• Added “max zone” support to thumbsticks and trackpads. This is a region at the edge of the range that defines where 1.0 is.
  
• Added dead zone support for trackpads to match thumbsticks.
  
• Added “exponent” support for thumbsticks and trackpads. This lets a binding file control the curve of values between the deadzone and the max zone.
  
• Added support for keeping a button “pressed” until the user stops touching that button. This can be useful in cases where the button needs to be pressed for a long time and holding the physical button down would cause fatigue.
  
• Improved the performance of IVRInput::GetDigitalActionData and IVRInput::GetAnalogActionData.
  
• Added descriptive tool-tips to multiple items in the Binding UI.
  
• Added new Vive tracker roles for Knees and Elbows.
  
• Added debugger to help developers and controller binding authors diagnose input issues with applications. To enable this option, turn on input debugging in developer settings, and then click the “Input Debugger” button in the controller settings.
  
• Added Windows Mixed Reality controllers to the list of controller types that can be edited when the controller isn't physically present. This requires the Windows Mixed Reality driver to be installed, but does not require that any Windows Mixed Reality hardware be connected to the PC.
  
• Fixed tracker positions not working for trackers that were configured to anything other than left or right hand.
  
• Added ability to specify default legacy bindings via an action manifest via the boolean ‘legacy_binding_manifest’ node.
  
• Fix a crash when an application manifest is corrupt.
  
• Fixed applications failing to launch properly that were missing an ‘action_sets’ member in their action manifest.

Linux:

• Fixed a case where the dashboard would disappear.
  
• Fixed a vrwebhelper crash on shutdown.
  
• Fixed the 'Restart SteamVR' and other URL based shortcuts that are part of the new settings interface.

Index

• Max brightness extended to 160.

Oculus:

• Added headset icons for Oculus Quest.

 

[Venser]

 

[Dexter]

Releases a few days after Half Life: Alyx, not sure if that's the best move by the dev:

 

[Jenkem]

hello everyone didn't know there was a thread for us VR CHADS... Really getting tired of people shitting on VR and the Alyx thread here is typical dumbass views from people who never tried VR mixed with codex grognardian edginess

I can't take it anymore

 

[Venser]

This looks fun

 

[Venser]

Interesting co-op game from creators of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

 

[Dexter]

PSVR Excl000sive Dead Space clone coming to PC:

 

[Dexter]

Just released today along with "Down the Rabbit Hole":



https://store.steampowered.com/app/1271440/Next_Gen_HP_VR_Headset/

The next generation HP Virtual Reality HMD–developed in collaboration with Valve and Microsoft–delivers an immersive, comfortable and compatible VR experience. It’s the new standard in VR.

https://uploadvr.com/hp-reverb-g2-teased/

HP Is Building A ‘Next Generation’ SteamVR Headset With Microsoft & Valve
David Heaney
March 23, 2020
The current HP Reverb is the company’s second PC VR headset, with high resolution LCD panels and a focus on comfort. It’s priced at $599. Its first was a cheaper model back in 2017, not significantly modified from Microsoft’s reference design.

HP hasn’t released any details or specifications on the future headset yet. The company provided this short teaser video:


In the videos the words ‘THE NEXT GENERATION’ and ‘NO COMPROMISES’ are shown. This seemingly hints at HP Reverb G2 being the first headset in a new generation of Windows MR (Microsoft’s PC VR platform which all HP VR headsets have used so far).

Windows MR headsets are already compatible with SteamVR through Microsoft’s own driver, available on Steam. So why is Valve involved in this collaboration?

Microsoft worked with Valve to make the first generation WMR headsets work on SteamVR. While the company tried to make its Windows Store the place for VR apps, it seems to have now shifted to endorsing Steam, even putting its own apps on Valve’s store.

Brightening the headset from the video appears to show nearfield off-ear speakers, very similar to what the Valve Index has. This should enable high quality, accurately positioned audio in VR.

The image also shows what looks like two tracking cameras on the front. There may be extra cameras on the sides to allow for wide tracking volume, like on the design Samsung submitted to the Chinese patent office in January. If Samsung’s design becomes a product, it could be another entry in WMR’s new generation alongside Reverb G2.

This announcement hits just as Valve released its “flagship” VR game, Half-Life: Alyx, the first full entry in the series in over a decade. It’s designed to give a lot of VR fans exactly what they’ve been asking for; a full-length VR shooter with the same kind of production values you’d expect from a traditional videogame release. You can read more in our full review right here.

Valve knows that the majority of Alyx players won’t be using Index, both due to stock issues and the pricepoint of $1000. With the Reverb G2, the company may have at the very least be endorsing, or potentially even working on, a more accessible affordable. Even if it doesn’t take on Facebook’s Oculus Rift S directly at $400, it could offer a middle ground for PC gamers looking for a balance of quality and price.

We’ll bring you more information about this headset as soon as we have it.

 

[Jenkem]

GRIP received a new update for VR support and is currently on sale. Seems like it might interesting for fans of F-Zero or Wipeout. Grabbed it but haven't played it yet, it was on my wishlist before it got VR and that just pushed me over the edge (plus the sale)

 

[Dexter]

Free to Keep for this Weekend if you Add to Library:

 

[Venser]

 

[Dexter]

VR Mirror's Edge:

 

[Venser]

Playstation finger tracking tech

 

[Dexter]

The first game is 85% Off on Steam right now:

 

[Venser]

Iron Man demo out on PSVR

 

[Dexter]

Free game:

 

[Dexter]

Superhot VR sells 2 million copies, Resident Evil 7 VR apparently played by over 1.2 million people in VR on PSVR (why don't they release it on PC already?):

 

[Venser]

The second version of Reverb seems to fix all of its previous issues and offers the best visual clarity out of all headsets available. Also features improved tracking over the old Reverb, controllers and audio. Unfortunately the refresh rate is only 90Hz. Coming out this fall for $600.

• Windows Mixed Reality
• Exact same Index speakers
• Lenses designed by Valve (but not same as Index)
• Magnetic face gasket designed by Valve (but not same as Index)
• New controllers that are similar to Oculus Touch controllers
• Inside out tracking (4 cameras)
• physical IPD adjustment (60-68mm)
  
• 6 meter cable

"When I fired up Half-Life: Alyx, coming from Index, the G2 nearly felt like looking at the game with new eyes. I was drawn to details that never caught my attention before, like scratches in the shotgun’s metal, letters printed on the side of the pistol, and innocuous stickers covering a gutter pipe. I also quickly noticed that many of the game’s textures don’t quite hold up to G2’s resolution (too soon!)."

https://www.roadtovr.com/hp-reverb-g2-hands-on-preview/