Interesting Head Tracking/VR development

[Vulcan]

I meant optical correction of course!

The new ones don't seem much different definition wise. 640x480 is somewhat primitive.  What do films look like through them btw?  One suspects they have a 'CAM' look i.e blurry.

To clarify the tracking ... does trackir require the use of GlovePIE to make it work? Reason I ask is that Vusix sent me this :-

"The GlovePIE and the VR920 software will work together, the TrackIR software just isn't compatible."

Meanwhile, they also tell me the "the AV310WS and AV230XL support 3D as does the AV920 but none of these will support head tracking". So, maybe, one could leave TIR to do the 6DOH tracking if it works.

Sorry to hammer you with all this stuff but you seem to be the only expert on this in AH.

Optical correction, yeah dunno, some of the more expensive headsets do that. My old VFX-1 did, but current stuff doesn't seem to at the low end. I don't play many films through mine to be honest, just the Stereo 3D HD ones which look stunning.

Glovepie is a program written to let you write your own joystick code from various input devices. It can generate output for games that emulates trackir outputs. For example I take the 3 axis on my Z800 and map through to emulated trackir axis, because my z800 has crappy drivers with virtually no game support, but heaps of games support trackir.

The VR920 has a lot of native tracking games, plus you could use trackir emulation, or you could not track at all and use a real trackir. What put me off trackir was it's narrow tracking range, but the model seems to have fixed that.


TAC: that looks awesome for 'hands free' web and picture browsing

[jimson]

Vulcan

Re the standard VR920, could you answer a few questions for a novice?

1. Do you require the Nvidia 3D drivers for 3D using the 920?  I assume you must,  but Nvidia do not have Aces High on their list of compatible games. I have read that you see 3 dots with an icon instead of one for instance.

2. Putting aside 3D, can you switch off head tracking on the VR and use TrackIr 5 with it?

3. Are their any photos around that mimic the resolution of Aces High on the 920?

4. My monitor has 60hz refresh rate. I would want much higher on the VR. Can it be set as a second monitor with it's own refresh rate?

Thanks

1. No, Aces High 2 is supported by the Vuzix drivers, works with any video card.
2. Yes, you can disable both the head tracking, and 3d with a couple of keystrokes.

Don't know about the rest.

[glacey]

Thanks for the info.

As the AV310WS and AV230XL have eye correction inbuilt, the same resolution but no tracking then it would seem one of those with the TIR would be my solution. My TIR 5 with trackclip pro works great but I still haven't got the settings as I really want them. The software is a pain. It would be hugely improved if you could simply enter a 'degrees of movement' figure for each axis rather than have to fiddle with graphs and speed. This would instantly prevent 'overshoots' and wobble.

[Vulcan]

glacey all I can see on those is IOD (eye seperation adjustment), not what I'd call 'eye correction' - which I would consider individual focus. Plus the AV series only seem to have AV inputs, not VGA. I don't think think that is a good way to go as the video signal will be quite degraded and I'm unsure how stereo 3d works on AV inputs.

[glacey]

glacey all I can see on those is IOD (eye seperation adjustment), not what I'd call 'eye correction' - which I would consider individual focus. Plus the AV series only seem to have AV inputs, not VGA. I don't think think that is a good way to go as the video signal will be quite degraded and I'm unsure how stereo 3d works on AV inputs.

This is getting really confusing! Looking at the AV230XL specs it says :-
Worn like regular glasses, the AV230 XL includes separate focus adjustments for each eye
Laptop computers with S-Video output
Independent +2 to -5 diopter focus adjustment

I suppose the question is just what the S-video socket on my graphics card puts out and whether the smaller virtual screen 44" takes care of the definition.

[Vulcan]

Ah so it does have diopter adjustment, my bad, didn't see that. S-Video is fairly poor quality,you're gonna find txt and instruments hard to read - and I'm not sure how it will do stereo 3d.

[jimson]

The resolution of the original VR920 just doesn't impress me.

It's subjective of course, alot of folks think it is fine and rivals the Z800. (I doubt it) The new AV model doesn't look like it's going to be an improvement on that end.

There are a lot of conditions that affect this.

If I had the time to mess with it and get the optimum position of the glasses in relation to my eyes It might improve somewhat.

Also, blocking any outside light helps tremendously.

What I plan to do is fabricate a helmet with the glasses (earpieces removed) mounted in a flip up visor so that if I need to use the keyboard or look at maps, instruments etc, I can flip the glasses out of the way and look at a monitor.

Of course to make it readable I will have to temporarily disable 3d because there is no way to simultaneously have a non 3d image and a 3d image on two cloned video devices and also since the position of the glasses themselves control the tracking I will also have to disable that when I flip them out of the way, or simply use helmet mounted Trackir instead.

Others may have no problems reading text with the glasses depending on their vision, but being blocked from the keyboard would still be an issue with the original VR920.

[jimson]

The eye level camera option, if it was either split screen or view switch has some real possibilities to bridge the gap between VR and real life.

If you could set the tracking to switch to camera view when you look at your keyboards or controls, that with better resolution would be the ultimate VR experience.

[Vulcan]

The eye level camera option, if it was either split screen or view switch has some real possibilities to bridge the gap between VR and real life.

If you could set the tracking to switch to camera view when you look at your keyboards or controls, that with better resolution would be the ultimate VR experience.

Read Spook Country, by William Gibson... augmented reality's gonna be the next big thing.

[glacey]

OK. After all your kind help I've decided not to buy one, largely because of the resolution. I have become so used to HD that going back is not an option.  I'll buy a big monitor.