Oculus Rift

chef-borjan · 9 Nov 2015 at 13:13

ci_newman said:
Final hardware requirements for the consumer release kits haven't been shared yet, so hang on

Supposedly the 970 should support the CV1 though.

Hmmm 'support' versus max out and make everything look gorgeous though...

Haha, thanks I will wait a bit longer!

Btw.. will there be options to run games at different graphical settings to improve FPS? I presume so...

FlukeRogi · 9 Nov 2015 at 13:33

ci_newman said:
Final hardware requirements for the consumer release kits haven't been shared yet, so hang on

Supposedly the 970 should support the CV1 though.

Requirements for the Rift were released a while back:

Video Card NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
CPU Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
Memory 8GB+ RAM
Video Output Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
USB Ports 2x USB 3.0 ports
OS Windows 7 SP1 or newer

It seems that software will need to hit the 90fps requirement on those specs to make it on the Oculus store (at least for the lifetime of the CV1), though that obviously won't apply to anything that isn't curated by Oculus and is published elsewhere.

ci_newman · 10 Nov 2015 at 14:06

Minimum requirements are not the same as what you actually need for a satisfying VR experience though. As I said, the 970 should be supported but you won't have all of the bells and whistles.

FlukeRogi · 11 Nov 2015 at 16:59

ci_newman said:
Minimum requirements are not the same as what you actually need for a satisfying VR experience though. As I said, the 970 should be supported but you won't have all of the bells and whistles.

The point of those specs is that it should offer a satisfying experience - you should be guaranteed of getting a solid full framerate, which is pretty much the most important thing in VR.

Sure, if you have better hardware you'll be able to turn up the AA/detail/whatever is available, but that will always be the case, VR or not. Having those specs ensures you'll be able to run the content from the Oculus store without having to worry if you'll be able to hit the framerate. Compared to most normal PC games where minimum specs for any given title will generally end up with woeful perfomance, guaranteeing you'll at least hit full framerate is a good step.

kration · 11 Nov 2015 at 17:34

The only bit of the minimum specs that worry me is the CPU.

I'm happy to upgrade my graphics card to to get a decent VR experience, but if I have to rebuild my whole rig from the mboard/cpu upwards it would be a major hassle.

Seanspeed · 11 Nov 2015 at 17:54

kration said:
The only bit of the minimum specs that worry me is the CPU.

I'm happy to upgrade my graphics card to to get a decent VR experience, but if I have to rebuild my whole rig from the mboard/cpu upwards it would be a major hassle.

CPU recommendations are often overblown.

Oculus recommends a Haswell, non-overclockable i5. In reality, an overclocked Sandy Bridge i5 will probably do just as well, if not better. Perhaps even non-overclocked.

Basically, I think if you've got a 4 core i5 processor, especially an overclockable one, you'll probably be alright. No guarantees, especially at 90fps, but I wouldn't worry too much if you've got at least that. If you dont, then yea, maybe worry.

mid_gen · 17 Nov 2015 at 12:42

Got a Vive in the office today, going to go give it a try this afternoon. Be interesting to see how it compares to my DK2.

NeilF · 17 Nov 2015 at 12:58

mid_gen said:
Got a Vive in the office today, going to go give it a try this afternoon. Be interesting to see how it compares to my DK2.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

FlukeRogi · 17 Nov 2015 at 13:13

Seanspeed said:
CPU recommendations are often overblown.

Oculus recommends a Haswell, non-overclockable i5. In reality, an overclocked Sandy Bridge i5 will probably do just as well, if not better. Perhaps even non-overclocked.

I guess with their recommended specs, they're going with a processor range that you can still buy off the shelf. I totally agree that a Sandybridge i5 or i7 will be fine.

mid_gen · 17 Nov 2015 at 15:22

NeilFawcett said:
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

It's no great leap from the DK2, not at all. If that's the state of the first consumer release of VR consider me disappointed.

The area laid out was pretty big and I needed someone to help me get the gear on and and off. I was never that keen on the idea of walking about in VR and I'm even more sure of it now. Waving your arms around with your mates on a Wii is fun, waving your arms around in VR is downright unnerving, especially with expensive bits of someone else's kit arranged on stands around you.

The screen is better but it's still very pixellated. The motion tracking was OK but still pretty juddery and the Flight Control demo was annoyingly inaccurate.

Glad I shifted my DK2 a few weeks ago now. I'm going to stick to what I said a while back....wait for 4k+ displays and the GPU horsepower to do it justice.

Diagro · 17 Nov 2015 at 15:46

Can you play a game like Dark souls on these VR headsets?

mid_gen · 17 Nov 2015 at 15:51

Not really the kind of game that lends itself to it....but I believe you can play DS2 with one of the 3rd party display drivers on VR.

Guest2 · 17 Nov 2015 at 20:55

Can CV1 not be pre ordered? On the Oculus site it shows q1 2016 but there is no pre order option available, nor any info on specs or price. There's basically a few pics and some marketing guff

Edit - just read an article on roadtovr.

“…the Rift runs at 2160×1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second.”

Specs state it work with a GTX 970. Games will 100% not work at that res at 90hz+ Maybe specifically made for oculus games will but certainly games like Alien Isolation wont. I doubt even a GTX 980 Ti could run it 100% over 90fps

mid_gen · 18 Nov 2015 at 08:52

No price released yet, so no pre-orders.

Correct, you won't be running graphically intensive games acceptably on anything less than bleeding edge hardware, any dip below the target FPS causes juddering on VR. Although Alien Isolation is one of the few PC titles that runs buttery smooth without a lot of messing about, it'll probably be ok with some details turned down.

You want the beefiest possible single GPU you can get for VR. Crossfire/SLI introduces too much latency.

Diagro · 18 Nov 2015 at 09:08

What connections does the Occulus accept?

mid_gen · 18 Nov 2015 at 09:17

DK2 was HDMI, I guess the CV1 will take displayport or HDMI 1.4

Seanspeed · 18 Nov 2015 at 12:12

HDMI 1.3 will be fine for CV1. Shouldn't be any worries there.

One important note is that you need two USB3.0 ports, though. Or three of them if you want add Touch controllers and an extra camera later on.

Seanspeed · 18 Nov 2015 at 12:20

Guest2 said:
Edit - just read an article on roadtovr.

“…the Rift runs at 2160×1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second.”

Specs state it work with a GTX 970. Games will 100% not work at that res at 90hz+ Maybe specifically made for oculus games will but certainly games like Alien Isolation wont. I doubt even a GTX 980 Ti could run it 100% over 90fps

I could run Alien Isolation at like 1600p with a locked 60fps on a GTX670, so that game shouldn't be any problem.

With others, it'll depend. Most VR games will be designed with VR in mind, meaning they aren't going to go crazy on the graphics in the first place. VR 'supported' games(existing games that add VR support) will probably just rely on scalability through graphics settings.

It's all quite do-able. GTX970 is a pretty powerful card and we've got an almost certain 40%+ leap with the new 16nm cards coming out next year, too. 980Ti-like power will probably become quite affordable. Also, Oculus are going to be selective over what they put on their Store(in terms of performance), so people can have plenty of sure-fire experiences using their more curated ecosystem.

Uncle Petey · 18 Nov 2015 at 12:24

I can run Alien Isolation @3840x2160 DSR and it's generally in the 75-90+fps range, so I also think it wouldn't be a problem.

Chevens · 18 Nov 2015 at 23:17

mid_gen said:
It's no great leap from the DK2, not at all. If that's the state of the first consumer release of VR consider me disappointed.

The area laid out was pretty big and I needed someone to help me get the gear on and and off. I was never that keen on the idea of walking about in VR and I'm even more sure of it now. Waving your arms around with your mates on a Wii is fun, waving your arms around in VR is downright unnerving, especially with expensive bits of someone else's kit arranged on stands around you.

The screen is better but it's still very pixellated. The motion tracking was OK but still pretty juddery and the Flight Control demo was annoyingly inaccurate.

Glad I shifted my DK2 a few weeks ago now. I'm going to stick to what I said a while back....wait for 4k+ displays and the GPU horsepower to do it justice.

Really surprised by your findings, most hands on vive reviews I've read/watched (and there have been many) give the impression the tracking is flawless and the screens are good enough to invoke 'presence' - I wonder if you got stuck with a faulty install or had hardware issues. I'm holding onto the dream the vive is a true VR solution ☺