Experience NVIDIA's 3D Vision through a "mobile-as-screen" DIY HMD device
Due to recent events (namely NVIDIA's announcement and execution to discontinue 3D Vision for Geforce) I decided to step out of my passive forums reading state and throw in my two cents about what the future of S3D/VR gaming might be... This probably should go into the "Future of 3D Vision Support (Official announcement from NVIDIA)" mega-thread but alone the size of that thread is intimidating, so I apologize in advance for creating this new thread and by all means if the mods feel like it should be moved into the mega-thread please go ahead doing so. I strongly encourage especially people without any S3D and/or VR experience to drop questions about it here, resulting in hopefully interesting discussions. My personal experience with S3D/VR so far (condensed in cues originally posted back in 2016) [quote]- Been a stereoscopic 3D Games enthusiast for the past 2 decades - Completely missed the first "VR Boom" in the 90s - Got really interested in the second "VR Boom" sparked by Luckey/Carmack, expecting VR to take the stereoscopic 3D Gaming Experience to the next level of immersion - Being busy with custom projects I decided to wait for "Consumer Ready" Version Releases of the new VR devices before considering to buy myself in - The claims that VR needs to run at 90 FPS, on low persistence Displays, at high resolutions, allowing only certain gametypes and ways to play VR games (slow and mostly first person perspective only), ultra fast head & positional tracking, ideally with VR controllers, started to worry me about truly limiting the artistic freedom on the projects I had in mind to create with VR - VR Prerequisites/Conditions postulated by hardware and software VR developers intimidated me and ultimately made me loose interest in that form of VR - Then recently regained interest in VR as a DIY S3D/VR HMD device strapped to the head, worked with my Samsung S5 OLED display mobile which sparked further interest to investigate what can be done with a DIY VR solution, displaying S3D content in the classical way with mouse & keyboard controls - Quickly created a Home Made DIY kit out of some old shoe cardboard, double sided tape, farsighted glasses and my mobile, sparking enough further interest to order a "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" with a head-strap - After setting the "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" up I expected the worst case scenario with lots of VR sickness and puking, pushing me to the limits with hours and hours of stereoscopic 3D VR gameplay (Quake 3D VR, Google 3d VR Cardboard Apps and 3D VR 360° videos) - Surprised that after days of testing none of the side effects hit me (no puking, no VR Sickness, not even the slightest dizziness) - Low FPS, Mouse and keyboard controls, fps/tps/isometric ingame view switching, phone gyroscope head tracking were all non problematic scenarios for me - Question to myself: Did years of too close up to the TV/Monitor 3DS gaming eventually melt all potentially VR sickness inducing synapses in my brain away, making me sort of immune to VR Sickness ? - Mobile VR was initially interesting but technically 20 years in the past and performance decreases when temps of the mobile device rise, so after all those positive experiences I thought about the next logical step (namely outsourcing the computational power of a modern gaming PC and displaying/streaming the resulting S3D/VR feed onto the mobile OLED Screen). - I was curious whether the expected potential latency introduction due to the streaming would finally fuck me and my brain up and induce VR Sickness ? - To my surprise a delay was barely ever noticeable (if at all) and so I prepared streaming the footage of a few games and custom projects in a SBS (side by side) Stereoscopic 3D format to the mobile - Streaming SBS S3D/VR content worked surprisingly well for me at low latency still without inducing VR sickness of any kind at 1080p over a 70 Mbit/s wifi connection. Plus I now totally got rid of any cables to my DIY VR headset, making it even more comfortable to wear while reducing the weight at the same time. - Even disabling headtracking and the lack of positional tracking are not VR sickness inducing for me and something I noticed early on while using the S3D/VR headset in classic PVE games like Quake VR was, that PVE Gameplay though looking really cool with headtracking, if used in combination with a controller (or mouse and keyboard) for hours during gameplay, can become tiring to the neck muscles and spine because if you sit in a comfortable couch/chair you need to frequently re-adjust your head neck position (I guess that's why Oculus targets a "swivel chair" as their ideal platform to experience Oculus Rift on). Disabling headtracking made me become "competitive" again, playing the games the way I am used to from my desktop 3D gaming experience and my neck-spine and muscles don't get strained/fatigued since I can relax my neck/head in a comfortable position for hours long gameplay. - People are "lazy creatures" by nature and if just hours long Headtracking gets me tired over time, I don't dare to imagine how much more effort it would be to play PVE Games on the Vive with Room Scaled VR and Vive controllers. Having to do "Jumping Jacks" for hours after work just for entertainment is not exactly my definition of free-time-fun. - And so having found a way for me to use all my existing projects and 3D games with a DIY S3D/VR headset replacing my classic 3D Vision Monitor/TV setup I instantly wonder: If a DIY Kit with an old S5 mobile OLED Screen is already so much fun, how much better would this work on DIY S3D/VR headset method with high end gear ? [/quote] [b]2019 Update Remarks: In the past 3 years this hybrid approach method of playing 3D fixed games has become my primary way of playing games in Stereoscopic 3D / VR Vision. Not only did it conveniently solve my chronic problem of not being able to get my hands on new 3D TVs/Monitors (by 2019 the market for 3D TVs/Monitors has completely died, with only a few very very expensive models left), but it also clearly offers the superior 3D Experience. An OLED based HMD display offers superior PixelRepsonse times, Contrast/Black Levels and is 100% Ghosting free. No 3D TV model that I own can compare to that crystal clear visual S3D/VR fidelty, that I am able to achieve with this DIY solution. And now with the discontinuation of NVIDIA's 3D Vision support I think it is time to transform from a silent participant to an active member that could give the community something back. It came to my attention that valued members of the 3D Vision community ("DarkStarSword" and "bo3b") are thinking about how to continue the legacy of 3D Gaming and are also working on paving the way for custom S3D / VR display solutions and so I would gladly like to contribute my part in case it is wanted/needed. A big shout goes out to all the amazing past and currently active community shader modders: Helix, DHR, MasterOtaku, Losti, Necropants, Helifax, bo3b, mike_ar69, Flugan, DarkStarSword, 4everAwake, 3d4dd and many more... ***Update***[/b] Since I had to recreate my account migrating to the "new" NVIDIA forums I don't have yet all posting permissions so let me link to the original [url=http://idtechforums.fuzzylogicinc.com/index.php?topic=421.0]THREAD[/url] instead with more illustrations of my DIY S3D/VR approach...
Due to recent events (namely NVIDIA's announcement and execution to discontinue 3D Vision for Geforce) I decided to step out of my passive forums reading state and throw in my two cents about what the future of S3D/VR gaming might be...

This probably should go into the "Future of 3D Vision Support (Official announcement from NVIDIA)" mega-thread but alone the size of that thread is intimidating, so I apologize in advance for creating this new thread and by all means if the mods feel like it should be moved into the mega-thread please go ahead doing so.

I strongly encourage especially people without any S3D and/or VR experience to drop questions about it here, resulting in hopefully interesting discussions.

My personal experience with S3D/VR so far (condensed in cues originally posted back in 2016)

- Been a stereoscopic 3D Games enthusiast for the past 2 decades

- Completely missed the first "VR Boom" in the 90s

- Got really interested in the second "VR Boom" sparked by Luckey/Carmack, expecting VR to take the stereoscopic 3D Gaming Experience to the next level of immersion

- Being busy with custom projects I decided to wait for "Consumer Ready" Version Releases of the new VR devices before considering to buy myself in

- The claims that VR needs to run at 90 FPS, on low persistence Displays, at high resolutions, allowing only certain gametypes and ways to play VR games (slow and mostly first person perspective only), ultra fast head & positional tracking, ideally with VR controllers, started to worry me about truly limiting the artistic freedom on the projects I had in mind to create with VR

- VR Prerequisites/Conditions postulated by hardware and software VR developers intimidated me and ultimately made me loose interest in that form of VR

- Then recently regained interest in VR as a DIY S3D/VR HMD device strapped to the head, worked with my Samsung S5 OLED display mobile which sparked further interest to investigate what can be done with a DIY VR solution, displaying S3D content in the classical way with mouse & keyboard controls

- Quickly created a Home Made DIY kit out of some old shoe cardboard, double sided tape, farsighted glasses and my mobile, sparking enough further interest to order a "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" with a head-strap

- After setting the "Google Cardboard 2.0 Plus" up I expected the worst case scenario with lots of VR sickness and puking, pushing me to the limits with hours and hours of stereoscopic 3D VR gameplay (Quake 3D VR, Google 3d VR Cardboard Apps and 3D VR 360° videos)

- Surprised that after days of testing none of the side effects hit me (no puking, no VR Sickness, not even the slightest dizziness)

- Low FPS, Mouse and keyboard controls, fps/tps/isometric ingame view switching, phone gyroscope head tracking were all non problematic scenarios for me

- Question to myself: Did years of too close up to the TV/Monitor 3DS gaming eventually melt all potentially VR sickness inducing synapses in my brain away, making me sort of immune to VR Sickness ?

- Mobile VR was initially interesting but technically 20 years in the past and performance decreases when temps of the mobile device rise, so after all those positive experiences I thought about the next logical step (namely outsourcing the computational power of a modern gaming PC and displaying/streaming the resulting S3D/VR feed onto the mobile OLED Screen).

- I was curious whether the expected potential latency introduction due to the streaming would finally fuck me and my brain up and induce VR Sickness ?

- To my surprise a delay was barely ever noticeable (if at all) and so I prepared streaming the footage of a few games and custom projects in a SBS (side by side) Stereoscopic 3D format to the mobile

- Streaming SBS S3D/VR content worked surprisingly well for me at low latency still without inducing VR sickness of any kind at 1080p over a 70 Mbit/s wifi connection. Plus I now totally got rid of any cables to my DIY VR headset, making it even more comfortable to wear while reducing the weight at the same time.

- Even disabling headtracking and the lack of positional tracking are not VR sickness inducing for me and something I noticed early on while using the S3D/VR headset in classic PVE games like Quake VR was, that PVE Gameplay though looking really cool with headtracking, if used in combination with a controller (or mouse and keyboard) for hours during gameplay, can become tiring to the neck muscles and spine because if you sit in a comfortable couch/chair you need to frequently re-adjust your head neck position (I guess that's why Oculus targets a "swivel chair" as their ideal platform to experience Oculus Rift on). Disabling headtracking made me become "competitive" again, playing the games the way I am used to from my desktop 3D gaming experience and my neck-spine and muscles don't get strained/fatigued since I can relax my neck/head in a comfortable position for hours long gameplay.

- People are "lazy creatures" by nature and if just hours long Headtracking gets me tired over time, I don't dare to imagine how much more effort it would be to play PVE Games on the Vive with Room Scaled VR and Vive controllers. Having to do "Jumping Jacks" for hours after work just for entertainment is not exactly my definition of free-time-fun.

- And so having found a way for me to use all my existing projects and 3D games with a DIY S3D/VR headset replacing my classic 3D Vision Monitor/TV setup I instantly wonder: If a DIY Kit with an old S5 mobile OLED Screen is already so much fun, how much better would this work on DIY S3D/VR headset method with high end gear ?

2019 Update Remarks: In the past 3 years this hybrid approach method of playing 3D fixed games has become my primary way of playing games in Stereoscopic 3D / VR Vision. Not only did it conveniently solve my chronic problem of not being able to get my hands on new 3D TVs/Monitors (by 2019 the market for 3D TVs/Monitors has completely died, with only a few very very expensive models left), but it also clearly offers the superior 3D Experience. An OLED based HMD display offers superior PixelRepsonse times, Contrast/Black Levels and is 100% Ghosting free. No 3D TV model that I own can compare to that crystal clear visual S3D/VR fidelty, that I am able to achieve with this DIY solution. And now with the discontinuation of NVIDIA's 3D Vision support I think it is time to transform from a silent participant to an active member that could give the community something back.

It came to my attention that valued members of the 3D Vision community ("DarkStarSword" and "bo3b") are thinking about how to continue the legacy of 3D Gaming and are also working on paving the way for custom S3D / VR display solutions and so I would gladly like to contribute my part in case it is wanted/needed.

A big shout goes out to all the amazing past and currently active community shader modders:

Helix, DHR, MasterOtaku, Losti, Necropants, Helifax, bo3b, mike_ar69, Flugan, DarkStarSword, 4everAwake, 3d4dd and many more...

***Update***


Since I had to recreate my account migrating to the "new" NVIDIA forums I don't have yet all posting permissions so let me link to the original THREAD instead with more illustrations of my DIY S3D/VR approach...

#1
Posted 05/19/2019 10:14 PM   
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