Conclusio - Latest Driver-Infos

Today we updated our Oculus Rift Runtime to version 0.6-beta in the hope that the problems with juddering, fps-drops etc. are solved.
We tested the new driver with the game "Affected" which we think is a good reference.

These are our experiences:

NVIDIA Driver 344.75 and Oculus Runtime 0.6-beta:
Update had no positive effect and juddering is as bad as usual. FPS is also unstable and low (50).
The game Abandoned School (made for Oculus Runtime 0.4.4-beta) surprised us a bit, because of extraordinary performance and no juddering. We hope that this is the problem, that games are made for older Oculus Runtime versions (lower than 0.4.4-beta) and are not completely compatible, which ends in juddering.

NVIDIA Driver 352.86 and Oculus Runtime 0.6-beta:
The NVIDIA Driver-Update had no effect - same sad situation.

The settings and device we used for the test are specified >HERE<.


Recommendation:
Unfortunately we are not able to give you any good recommendation for the versions of Oculus Runtime an NVIDIA Driver which you should use for perfect performance.

If you use the Oculus Rift Runtime 0.4.2-beta and NVIDIA Driver 344.75 you have a good performance and no juddering, but newer games won't work.

If you want to play a newer game which is not supported by 0.4.2, you have to update your runtime. Install the newest version, because the performance of all runtimes higher than version 0.4.2-beta is exactly the same (juddering and lower fps).

We think that the best way would be, if it is possible to install two different runtimes (0.4.2-beta and newest) parallel at the same device, but unfortunately this isn't working.

In our opinion there is actual no way to play newer games on an notebook without juddering and hopefully the situation is better on a desktop pc, but we didn't check that.



We would appreciate if you send us comments of your experiences, especially if you have a different opinion and working setup :)

New Games (Direct to Rift)

Tuxracer        [DOWNLOAD]
We were happy to find the classic game Tuxracer for VR. I think everybody knows this game. It's easy to explain it: You are a penguin and have to slide downhill as fast as possible while collecting all fishes. Headtracking is used to control the penguin (left & right).
It's funny to play it for a few minutes, but afterwards it's getting boring, because there is no real VR-feeling. There is no huge difference to play it on the monitor or on the Oculus Rift.
We are a bit disappointed because Tuxracer would be a perfect VR game if it uses more VR-specials like first person.

Luge
This game doesn't support the newest Oculus Runtime (0.6 beta), so we weren't able to play it.

Abandoned school        [DOWNLOAD]
First impression was that the performance of this game is very good (no juddering). The graphics look very amazing and realistic. It is one of the best-looking VR-game and is on the same level as Affected.
You are in a horror house and you are walking around. After a few minutes of playing, you are waiting that something scaring happens - but there is nothing. It's annoying that you have to use mouse to move the torch and the keyboard for walking. A better idea would be to link the torch to the camera and support a controller (like XBox).
We think, it's a game in a beta-version, so maybe there are coming some new features, but the great horror atmosphere and the high quality graphics are a good base to build a brilliant horror-game. We are looking forward to see final version of this game.


Parkinson VR Experience
The idea of this game should be to fimiliarize the player with the feeling of someone who suffers from parkinson. We don't want to talk more about the game-content because we think that the developers didn't do a proper research. When you are developing such a game, you should include affected people to find a way to a respectful approach. This game is one of the most heartless games we've ever seen and is insulting.

We don't want to post a picture of the game and a download-link in our blog as a sign of our refusal.

Do not run        [DOWNLOAD]
You have to creep up on a polar bear to catch it. Watch the suspicion indicator in the game that the polar bear doesn't detect you.
The game principle is very simple, like a game called "Ochs am Berg" which is well known in Austria.
It's very funny to play, but it has many many bugs.

Dinosaur Land        [DOWNLOAD]
You are sitting in a duck (amphibious vehicle) and driving through a dinosaur-park. While looking around you can discover different dinosaurs and by aiming at one, details are displayed (height, weight,...). This game-concept could be a new and exciting way of learning and would perfectly fit into school-lessons. It should be a bit more interactive and it wouldn't hurt, if the graphics get improved. With the current Oculus Runtime the juddering is unbearable.

City Z        [DOWNLOAD]
In this game you really have to mention the special camera position, because you have a overview of everything but you are feeling like you are in the middle of the occurence. It's hard to describe - it's like the old topview of the game "GTA" perfectly optimized for VR.
The game itself is a survival game, where you have to kill zombies and try to stay alive.
The fun factor of the game is very high, you are not getting bored for a long time.

Fitness Workouts with Oculus Rift by Runtastic

Last week Micha and I were Runtastic in their office. They showed us their Prototype of the Workout-Application which is very nice.
You choose between 3 virtual areas where you can do your workout. A virtual trainer shows you, what you have to do (e.g. squats).



We also found out, that Runtastic has the same problems as we have: Some versions of NVIDIA Driver generate juddering. Runtastic also uses the Oculus Rift Runtime 0.4.2beta and NVIDIA Driver 347.52 to get the best quality which is possible.

Thanks Runtastic for inviting us! We hope that we will see some more fantastic projects soon :)

AntVR

The AntVr is another VR-glass and a kickstarter project. It's quality is not like the Oculus Rift DK2, but it has some features, which are very nice. The AntVR is connected via 1 HDMI- and 1 USB-Cable (like Oculus Rift). You don't have to install any software, only 2 drivers (controller + glass) are downloaded. Don't be scared if you only see chinese letters in the driver's name.

Functions

• Headtracking
  If you move your head, the cursor is also moved - it works like a mouse.
• Display-Modes
  There are 3 display-modes. One splits the screen and makes normal games 3D.
• Lens distance
  You are able to change the distance between the lensens on the top of the glass.
• Eyelet
  On the bottom of the glass you can open an eyelet. It's useful if you need your keyboard and can't see the keys.
• Controller
  USB-Controller which looks like a gun. You are also able to convert it to an normal controller.

On top the controller there are one HDMI-Input and one USB-Input. If you have the AntVR-Wireless-Transmitter, which you can connect on the front of the gun, you are able to play "wireless". The cables of the AntVR glass are connected to the controller.

Games
We found only two games, which are made for the AntVR:

• AntVR Brood v1.0.4 (horror-house)
• Z-Ground v1.0 (zoombie-shooter)

You can also play nearly every Oculus Rift game which supports mouse-controls.

Conclusion
The AntVR is a nice option to the Oculus Rift. The combination of headtracking with mouse and splitting the screen makes it possible, to play every "normal" game (e.g. shooters). The quality of the picture isn't the best - you are feeling sick if you played too long.
It's very funny to play Z-Ground with the gun-controller. But we wanted to aim with the gun and not with the head, which is a bit nasty. On the handle of the gun there is a little stick, where you should be able to move in the game, but we weren't able to bring it to work. Sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes you are moving in the wrong direction in the game.

So if you don't want to get sick after playing 30 minutes, the Ouclus Rift DK2 is the better glass. The quality is higher and it makes much more fun.

Feeling of immersion with VR Games: Mirror's Edge and Warthunder

Today were are testing the immersion effect of the Oculus Rift. At first we were looking for fitting games and thought that a flight game is of course a good choice, so we found Warthunder, which is on the hand a good flightsimulation and on the other hand there are enemies you have to challenge. We knew the game from the normal 3d view and we were very exiting to sit directly in the cockpit with the Oculus Rift. The second game we are going to play with the Oculus Rift is Mirror's Edge. Since we have the Oculus Rift we always said this game is a must have in our Oculus Rift gamecollection. Why? Because this parcour game is in normal 3d view such exciting, when you run and jump on the skylines that we thought we will freak out if you have to this with the Oculus Rift. So we think for testing the feeling of immersion we made a good choice so let's start our results:

Warthunder with Oculus Rift DK2:

Settings:

Setting up the game for the oculus was quiet simple, because Warthunder has an ingame support for the oculus and you only have to click oculus rift support in the game settings and restart the game. At this point the optimization is only for the Oculus Rift DK1 but it's working with DK2 too. The support is not perfect (like i will mention later) so we tried many different forum advices (to fix view and texture problems) but nothing really improved the result so we won't mention it yet. Warthunder directly support the DK so just wait a few month and they will fix it and improve it for DK2 too as they did it for the DK1.

Game support for Oculus DK2 & Feeling of immersion:

Ok lets play Warthunder with the DK2 and jump into the cockpit. At this point we highly recommend an joystick with throttle because this makes the controll easier and makes such much more fun. Ok lets start the engine. WOW! It's awsome to fly over the sky. You are really feeling like you sit in the cockpit. It's amazing when you turn the plane and role left or right. Everything feels very real. Nothing for people with fear of heights. Now let's try to put some enemies on the ground. Here comes the first problem, now you realise what the missing optimization for the DK2 means. You don't really get a good feeling of distances and also the textures of the enemies are not very smooth so its hard to hit other planes. It's hard to describe but if you try to fix an enemy (or a specific spot) with your eyes threw the Oculus then you feel like you are little bit crossed-eyed. So there is definitely a lot of work to do for the Warthunder team to optimize the game for the DK2. After the WOW effect at the beginning you also look sharper around and see that the whole view has to be improved because the distances to your instruments in the cockpit and you (pilot in the cockpit) is too less so after flying in the cockpit you feel like you fly in a small box. We tested the game a few weeks ago and we read that at this time the warthunder team had no DK2 to test it and improve it for it so it's clear that it's not working perfectly at this point. Never the less we high recommend every Oculus Rift owner to try this game because it's really an experience to fly with warthunder over the sky and make your first experiences as pilot in virtual reality. The feeling at first is just awsome and really a way in the right direction. So at this point playing this game for a few hours it's not possible because after few minutes you feel motionsick and it's really not possible to reach highscores in shooting enemies with this view and texture problems, BUT we are sure that in a view month this could be possible.

Here's a small video demonstrating a flight with Oculus Rift DK2 and Warthunder:

Mirror's Edge with Oculus Rift DK2:

Settings:

At first you need to download the tool perception vireio and install it like Juergen mentioned in his last post. Here is the like to his post, if you haven't read it already. [Perception Setup]

Mirror's Edge is supported for perception so just use their setup-files. This game is marked as "good"-support and not excellence so there are still some issues they are working on. We tried some other settings from different forum posts but the settings of perception it self worked much better so just use them. :) Like Juergen mentioned in his post you have to use perception vireio v213 and oculus 0.4.4.

Game support for Oculus DK2 & Feeling of immersion:

Ok let's try the game. When you start the game and you start at a skyline and stand on a roof of a building and everything looks awsome but when you move your head you feel again crossed-eyed. A solution for this is to press the NUM5 button to start the VRBoost of perception. There you have to quickly move around (like the ingame menu of the VRBoost tell you) and the driver will optimize the field of view. This will improve the whole view, distances and the headtracking. After this improvement the game feels way more realistic and makes it playable. Before we can start look straight with the oculus rift and press STR+Q to center the view. Now if you look around it really realistic and looks awsome. When you run over the top and jump around its pure rush of adrenalin. Especially the rails you have to manage is unbelievable real. This game is very fast and the view is cool because you see you feets and if you are climbing you see you hands like you are really conquering this different barriers. One good advice, don't look down if you are afraid of heights because when you are balancing on a small path it's really scaring to look down in the deepness of the skylines. The game is really fascinating also with "normal" 3d view but with the Oculus Rift it's an unbelievable experience. You just feel like you are really in the world of parcour now. Playing for a few minutes are really amazing but you can't play longer because there is a big problem with the field of view. As I mentioned before, by starting VRBoost, the view gets much better as it is without but it's working not perfectly. After a few minutes you realize that everything is just too near and so after view minutes you feel really really montionsick because of this effect. That's I guess the main problem of the game that this game is so fast that the view has to be perfectly optimized and it's not. I hope that the perception team can fix the field of view issues to find a way to setup the field of view that you can play this game for a few hours without feeling sick. If this issues get fixed this game would be a perfect game for the Oculus Rift. I love this game and we will definitely also try different settings the next time to find a way to play this game the whole day :). So if you want to get an adrenaline rush try this game out, no matter if its working perfect or not, because for a few minutes it's just amazing.

This is the coolest video we found on youtube to see how amazing the feeling of immersion with Mirror's Edge and Oculus Rift:

Well I hope you enjoyed our post and maybe you'll also try out this two games because of our posts then please write us a comment and maybe you found some better settings then we would appreciate if you tell us your experiences and advices.

In the next days we will try to find better settings for these two games and if we find some improvements we will tell you of course.

Stay tuned, greez micha

VR Games for Extended Mode (Windows)

The difference between the Extended Mode and the Direct-to-Rift mode is very simple, at the extended mode the oculus rift is like a second monitor which extends the main monitor and in direct-to-rift mode the games directly start in the oculus rift and you can also show the game on the mainmonitor at the same time. Juergen explaned the differences before, so if you don't know yet, read his article and hopefully you know then :). So the direct-to-rift is the best way to play VR games but unfortunately not every game supports this mode. If there is a gamename-direct-to-rift.exe file then you can use direct mode, if not you have to switch to extended mode at the oculus rift. The tutorial how to setup windows and the oculus you can find at Juergens post before.

I want to talk about the games we just tested with the extended mode and the gamesettings and which games worked fine and which not.

One really cool tool i have to advice is open broadcaster software (OBS x64 - we tested v 0.64 beta) because this tool makes it possible to stream the monitor of the oculus rift to the mainmonitor just like we are used from the direct-to-rift mode. It's perfect if you play with other friends, so they can't watch the game also, because it's very boring if you see someone playing with the oculus rift and talking about the cool game but you can't see what he is playing so guys just get this tool and watch Juergen's tutorial how to setup for gaming.

So today we tested the following games on extended mode:

Motorbike vr: [Download]

It is a very funny motorbike game, where you have to drive threw courses to reach the finishline of every level. This game is absolutely fantastic and has a huge level of addiction. You have to improve you bike skills and sometime you really have to think about how to succeed, because some levels are very tricky. We loved this game and couldn't stop. But then we had to stop, because the demo ended. But we are lucky, because we can buy a fullversion to get all levels and we are really thinking about it because the game really persuaded. One really interesting point of the game is the view of the player because you see the game from the side with the oculus, which is not the view you would expect but its something new and its cool! :) So i really can recommend this game to every one of you. It's real fun!


Don't let go: [Download]

3D-Driver "Vireio Perception" for Oculus Rift DK2 (Extended Mode, Windows)

The 3D-Driver Vireio Perception makes it possible to play some "normal" games (like Borderlands, Far Cry,...) on the Oculus Rift DK2 as well. It's only working in the Extended Mode. The driver is very easy to handle and has a very good manual. There is also a list of games which are supported and a instruction for each application, how to configure and use.

We made very good experiences with this driver. Configuration for a game you want to play takes 5 minutes maximum (first time).
The only disadvantage is, that you have to use the Oculus Rift Runtime 0.4.4-beta which makes troubles (Judder) with applications which are made for Oculus Rift (Direct to rift, Unity,...) - we told about this issue in a post in February. If you use an older version, head-tracking may not work (it also says in-game "HMD not detected").
By the way: Some users in VR-Communities told that the issue with Oculus Rift Runtime 0.4.4-beta only exists with Windows 8.


Run a game the first time with Vireio Perception

1. If you haven't installed yet, install Oculus Rift Runtime 0.4.4-beta (uninstall older version first)
2. Run Oculus Configuration Utility, use "Extend Desktop to the HMD" in Tools>Rift Display Mode... and uncheck "DK1 Legacy App Support"
3. Download and install Vireio Perception (we used V2.13)
4. Read the instructions for the game you want to play on the Oculus Rift DK2
5. Start the game (without Vireio Perception running) and do the settings, which are written in the manual (sometimes there are none) and set the resolution to 1920x1080.
6. Run the Vireio DLL Symlink Installer as administrator (VireioDLLInstaller.exe in Perception's bin-folder) and browse to your game-folder. Press 'OK' in every following dialog.
7. Exit the game and run Vireio Perception as administrator (Perception.exe in Perception's bin-folder). The settings should be right after startup, you can compare them with our's in the screenshot below.
8. Start the game
9. Follow Perception's instructions in the game and everything should be fine :)

Settings for Step 7

HINT: Use CTRL+R or SHIFT+L for calibrating/reset head-tracking. With CTRL+Q you are able to change the settings of Vireio Perception.

If you want to mirror the display of the Oculus Rift DK2 on your main desktop, try using the Open Broadcaster Software (described HERE).

We also recommend to set the Oculus Rift DK2 in Windows' "Screen Resolution"-Settings (right-click on desktop) as the left display:

Uninstall Vireio Perception from a game
If you have run the Vireio DLL Symlink Installer for a game, it's sometimes impossible to play the game without the Oculus Rift DK2 anymore (error-message). To remove the files, which created the Installer in the game folder, you have to do the same as for installing (see Step 6 above).



The settings and device we used for the test are specified >HERE<.