3D Vision Blog

We’ve had various Head Mounted Display (HMD) consumer oriented devices some with 3D support as well for years already and they still haven’t become a popular and widespread solution for Virtual Reality applications and gaming in particular. Aside from the fact that these devices have been updated in terms of resolution by using newer display technology and getting somewhat more affordable prices nothing much has been improved to making them a more suitable solution for VR applications and making them more attractive to consumers. Or at least that was the situation before the Oculus Rift has been announced and now, just a few more days before the first developer units of the Rift start shipping it is time to take a look at what other alternatives are currently available at the moment and what they offer in terms of basic specifications and features as well as how they differ from the Rift.

Oculus Rift Developer Version:
- Resolution: 1280×800 (640×800 per eye)
- Panel Type: LCD
- Video Input: DVI/HDMI
- 3D Input Type: Side by Side with optical distortion
- Field of View: 110 degrees diagonal (adjustable)
- Horizontal FOV: 90 degrees
- Weight: 220 grams
- Head Tracking: Available
- Price: $300 USD for the dev kit
- Official Website

Sony HMZ-T1 / HMZ-T2:
- Resolution: 1280×720 per eye
- Panel Type: OLED
- Video Input: HDMI
- 3D Input Type: HDMI 1.4 frame packaging
- Field of View: 51 degrees diagonal
- Horizontal FOV: 45 degrees
- Weight: 420 grams (330 grams for the T2)
- Head Tracking: Not available
- Price: $799.99 USD
- Official Website

Silicon MicroDisplay ST1080:
- Resolution: 1920×1080 per eye
- Panel Type: LCoS
- Video Input: HDMI
- 3D Input Type: HDMI 1.4 frame packaging
- Field of View: 45 degrees diagonal
- Horizontal FOV: ?
- Weight: 180 grams
- Head Tracking: Not available
- Price: $799 USD
- Official Website

Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED:
- Resolution: 870×500 per eye
- Panel Type: OLED
- Video Input: HDMI
- 3D Input Type: HDMI 1.4 frame packaging
- Field of View: 30(?) degrees diagonal
- Horizontal FOV: 30 degrees
- Weight: 120 grams
- Head Tracking: Available (optional)
- Price: $749 USD
- Official Website

Vuzix Wrap 1200VR:
- Resolution: 852×480 per eye
- Panel Type: LCD
- Video Input: VGA
- 3D Input Type: Side by Side
- Field of View: 35 degrees diagonal
- Horizontal FOV: ?
- Weight: 85 grams
- Head Tracking: Available
- Price: $499 USD
- Official Website

As you can see there are quite a few different approaches, offering different features and with different specifications. What is common for most of these devices, apart from the Rift is that they all offer much lower FOV and that makes it very hard to achieve a good sense of immersion. With the implementation of the Rift for achieving a much larger FOV we see that what others needed was to change their approach, something that hasn’t been done for years in the segment of HMD devices. The side effect is that you get a device that needs a special kind of input, so you just cannot connect it to a PC and start using, something that you can do with all other devices mentioned here. And while this lack of universal support might be a bit of problem at first it also ensures that getting official support in an application or a game for the Rift can ensure great experiences and immersion, even though the resolution is lower than on some other competitive products. For example Sony HMZ-T1 and HMZ-T2, Silicon MicroDisplay ST1080 and the Carl Zeiss Cinemizer OLED all use HDMI 1.4 and rely on frame packaging for stereo 3D image support and the Vuzix Wrap 1200VR offers Side by Side support. This makes it very easy to use these devices for gaming with the help of already available software solutions such as Nvidia’s 3DTV Play or DDD’s TriDef 3D software, but what you get might not be very immersive as something that you’d expect form such a HMD, in a sense it will be much close to using a normal 3D monitor placed at a larger distance than you normally would use it from. There are other things that can be considered, but in the end it should be all about the experience you are getting, right?

Some good news for everyone that is expecting their Oculus Rift developer kit like me. The team at Oculus has shared some interesting information about final units and their production and has confirmed that they have finished the first pilot run at the factory for 40 complete units and are on track for starting the mass production by plan and have Oculus Rit dev kits start shipping in March. Hopefully there will be no extra delays caused by the upcoming Chinese New Year that starts in a few days. The delay that has moved the initially announced November/December 2012 release to March this year caused by the need to change the display used in the Rift has apparently also allowed the team at Oclulus to implement some new and interesting features in the final dev kits of the device and now that is is already finalized and in production they have shared more details about these as well.

One of the more serious concerns about the device was that it may not be suitable for people wearing contact lenses or prescription glasses, something that has been a bit of a problem for pretty much all consumer-oriented HMD devices we’ve seen so far becoming available on the market. It is not an easy task to properly block the external light and allow for the use of glasses and compromising with any of these can lead to compromises with the experience and when you are designing a device intended for better immersion such compromises are not a good idea. It is a fact that our eyes are not able to focus properly at objects very close to them, so that is why HMD devices have to use optics to allow our eyes to be able to properly focus on the displays inside them. And if you are having problems with your vision as many of us do nowadays you need to wear contact lenses or prescription glasses in order to be able to properly see the image produced by an HMD device such as the Rift.

The initial prototype of the Oculus Rift did not directly address the needs of people that wear contact lenses or prescription glasses, but the extra time that the team at Oclulus had due to the screen delay has allowed them to work on that issue. So the final dev kits will come with three pairs of removable eyecups, instead of just a single, permanent set. The different eyecups should allow to switch the focal distance of the developer kit between three predefined settings, so if you are nearsighted and your vision isn’t too bad, you may be able to use the developer kit without glasses or contacts.

Here is how the interchangeable eyecups will work:
- If you have normal vision (20/20 or 6/6 vision) or you wear contacts, your vision inside the Rift will match your vision in real life. You’ll have to use eyecup set A.
- If you’re farsighted, you’ll have no visual problems in the Rift because the optics are focused at infinity (which makes your brain think it’s looking at something far away). You’ll also have to use set A.
- If you’re nearsighted, the additional eyecups, B and C, should allow you to see inside the Rift as if you were wearing glasses. Again, this is because the lens cups change the focal distance. If you’re moderately nearsighted, you’ll have to use set B. If you’re very nearsighted, you’ll have to use set C.

Unfortunately there is no word yet what diopter ranges are the sets B and C going to cover, so it is hard to know if these will work for you or not and even if they work how well will they do. And while this solution is not perfect, it is better than nothing. The interchangeable eye cups with different lenses will be suitable only for nearsighted people, if you have other issues with your eyes such as astigmatism these will not help you. There however is another thing that may allow you to use the device with the standard eyecup set and your prescription glasses, this is the Adjustable Assembly solution – a geared mechanism that should allow you to extend and retract the assembly that holds the screen and the eyecups to position it comfortably. This means that you will be able to extend the assembly to provide extra clearance for glasses or a larger brow, though the size of the prescription glasses would probably matter much and you will be able to fit only smaller ones, though this could also lead to reduction of the FOV you get. If however you don’t need to wear glasses or need extra space you should be able to retract the assembly, bringing the lenses closer to your eyes, and thus increasing the field of view you will be getting.

If you have missed to join the effort in Kickstarter, you are still able to pre-order the Oculus Rift developer kit at the official website for $300 USD with estimated shipping date currently set for April 2013. Have in mind that this is for the same dev kit that everyone else will receive in March. The consumer version is apparently being worked on, but we are probably not going to be seeing it anytime this year, as developers will also need some time to implement support for the Rift in various games and applications, as currently there are only a few already announced.

- For some more details about the currently ongoing production of the Oculus Rift dev kits…

Here is how the latest working prototypes of the development kits of the Oculus Rift 3D-capable HMD device currently look like and the Oculus team expects that this is how the final Dev Kits will most likely look like as well, maybe with some minor changes. Probably won’t win any design awards, but with the development kits of the device the functionality is far more important and when the consumer version of the Rift becomes available then they can focus on more appealing design. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait around four more months before we’ll be able to actually get the first Dev Kits of the Oculus Rift, meanwhile there should be more information about the device becoming available soon from Palmer Luckey and the Oculus team…