While I am excited about Oculus Rift and the competing Head Mounted Displays, it seems we may get them about the same time or even after they appear in other fields. Medical uses seem to an interesting use of the new technology. Atheer Labs (and they do use an ‘S” in their official name) is … Read more
A significant number of people in the forum ask how to run Second Life™ on a laptop that has ample memory and CPU power but lacks adequate GPU power. The answer is disappointing, your hardware is not gonna cut it. Now I find there is a way to add a PCI graphics card to a … Read more
This hands free controller is thought by many of us to be the answer to how to deal with hand movement while wearing a HMD (like an Oculus Rift). Jo Yardley has an article on the progress LEAP Motion is making with their VR effort. See: Leap motion announces VR related progress. She includes a video LEAP made (1:30 min) and a link to the source article at LEAP Motion’s site.
Oculus Rift – Image by: Franklin Heijnen – Flickr
Like many LEAP Motion controller owners, Jo does not use the controller often. Mine mostly sits in the box too. You can find LEAP controllers on eBay cheap. I am hoping that changes when the Oculus or another HMD unit go retail.
I have an update of this article: SpaceNavigator, Windows 10, and Second Life (9/2016). The information here has useful content. If you just want to get your SpaceNavigator working, jump to the newer article.
I found a deal on eBay for a SpaceNavigator, I bid and got it. It arrived. Yay! It works with everything BUT Second Life™. What a downer. Then I find out that 3D Connexion no longer supports Second Life. Eek!
But, people are using Spacenavigator (SN) with SL, so what is the deal and how does one get it to work? Torley has videos on how to use it… people are posting about using it in various places…
The SN Help Manual is of no use. It barely covers the basics.
Fortunately there is a page in the wiki that mostly explains how to get it working with SL and the latest SN software (3DxWare64_v10-1-4_r1818). It is not easy and there are gotchas in the wiki page. The page is titled: Flycam. Yeah, I would have thought of that for a title first thing…
SpaceNavigator NOT working (v10)
As you have probably Google’d for help before getting here you have likely seen posts about how to create a SN profile for Second Life. Those are pre-2013 as best I can tell and the software changed some time in 2013. I can’t find any way to create a profile via the 3DConnexion software v10. But, there are posts in the 3DConnexion site that help. I’ve used those to figure out how to get my SN working the way I want it to.
The DK2 (Developer’s Kit) is shipping and people are making videos of their experience with it. The increased resolution has them excited, as if it were possible to create more excitement than the DK1 did. [youtube TdkVkKsAqOM] The motion tracking is impressing. Being able to move forward and backward, leaning rather than moving, is apparently … Read more
Ben is pointing out that once the Oculus is near release or at release time, hardware makers will be releasing new hardware optimized for the Virtual Reality (VR) experience. Palmer Luck has been quoted as saying Oculus is working with hardware developers ‘…on all kinds of optimizations.’ He would say what those might be.
Ben tells us how Intel is looking at VR/Oculus. Randy Stude, of Intel, said, “The VR world can expect that engagement with Intel, from the top down, will be very deep.” Considering they make the CPU’s and HD graphics chips as well as the data controls chips (North and South bridge chips) their integration and optimization could be extensive.
Hypergrid mentions an article published by Wired regarding the Oculus Rift.
The article is interesting, giving insight into the creation of the Oculus Rift people and the technology. The article includes a video that to some extent I see as a separate article in its own. Consider the video an overview on Virtual Reality (VR).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o8vsU0Dw-4
There are some interesting bits of information within Wired’s article. For instance, the Oculus people have been bombarded by requests from the Hollywood crowd, the techies that make the media, for information and participation in projects. So many that Oculus hired a director of film and media.
This is for the techie peeps. It is a way to built a head set for US$25 to $50. And it appears to be no harder than building Revell model cars and plains.
This first video is the overview of how things work. Below the fold is the How-To video.
[youtube hC3-op5EnI4]
This head set uses a smart phone for a display screen, like a Samsung S3, 4, or 5. To avoid using your phone you can buy a screen. That adds $120 to $150 to the cost. It also adds to the complication of building this contraption and you have to be good with electronics.
Still, that is way less than the current cost of an Oculus DK1 or 2 and the estimated retail price of $350 for the planned retail version of the Oculus, which is now estimated to be released in 2015, not 2014 as many of us were thinking last year.
