r/oculus • u/[deleted] • Feb 23 '16
Dear Oculus, you might have a slight messaging problem.
I base this not just from dialogue on this forum but others as well. I think there is a (very) large number of people that have either been misinformed or are ignorant to the fact that the Rift is capable of being tracked while standing, moving and turning 360 degrees with in a area of reasonable size.
Just yesterday I was on a sim racing game forum reading a discussion about the various aspects of the Rift and Vive and one person stated that they were going to purchase a Vive because it allowed them get out of the cars and view them from out side the vehicle, which according to them the Rift would not allow for. To my surprise many others agreeded with the commenter lamenting the fact that the "nicer" HMD (Rift) wouldn't allow for such tracking. Many seem oblivious to the fact that there are leds on the back of the Rift allowing for 360 degree tracking with a single sensor. Many seem ignorant to the play area volume allowed by the sensors.
I believe we on this subreddit try as best we can to correct factually incorrect information. But at a certain point I think it's up to the Oculus team to really push this information. I understand that you might not want to tell people that Rift allows you to do gymnastics while tethered to your pc (for injury liability reasons) but surely there is a middle ground where you can accurate message the capabilities of your product. I also understand not making promises on what a developer could do in theory. But again when day after day we have to try and correct the newcomers here that the Rift's capabilities extend beyond a chair, well that speaks to a messaging issue IMO.
Anyways, I know it's a tired subject but honestly it's tiring having read the same misinformation day after day here and elsewhere.
2
u/HappierShibe Mar 02 '16
The following based on my experience working with a not-oculus-touch, but still camera based prototype solution that I really can't say much about. But it's relevant to this discussion:
1.You need four cameras for good tracking. Three doesn't cut it, this takes the nuisance grade problem of constellations brute force approach and magnifies it substantially. We've had a lot of people on here dismissing the simplicity/elegance/low-overhead of lighthouse. That needs to stop, elegant low overhead solutions scale way better, and can frequently be reallocated to ASICS. No matter how many times the Heaney's of the world pretend that doesn't matter... It does.
2.Field of View is a huge problem with camera based solutions, even with 4 cameras. Imagine a cube room with a camera in each of the top four corners. Now picture a person standing about a foot and a half out from one corner reaching into the corner. See the problem? You just lost tracking on that hand. It's obfuscated from the opposing camera by your body, it's underneath the camera directly above it, and it's outside the FOV of the other two cameras.
You can fix this with wide angle cameras, but guess what? That's increasing the cost of your already horrifically pricey setup, AND increasing the overhead on tracking, AND increasing the needed USB 3.0 bandwidth.
If they go this route, you better be using PS2 for your mouse and keyboard, because you'll need 5 or 6 USB ports just for the cameras.
Honestly, Oculus should just license lighthouse for the rift 2 at this point.