We covered the RiftUp! project in detail a little while ago. The project offers an in-place upgrade for the low resolution 1280×800 LCD panel and controller bringing the original developer kit (DK1) to a much more capable 1080p panel. The team launched their Indiegogo campaign on March 27th and quickly received enthusiastic backing from those wishing to update their Rifts with the team surpassing their original $10k goal eventually reaching a final tally of $25,113.
Units began shipping to backers recently but some of those backers have reported issues with their upgrades. The problems seem to centre around display artefacts caused by interference on some later DK1 units which later adopted slightly different internal wiring. Interference cause what the team describes as “Random dots and ghosting of the image”.
The RiftUp! replacement control board.
The good news though is that the RiftUp! team have been working hard to identify the cause of the issue and announced via their IndieGogo page that they’d succeeded in countering the problem:
DKs used in tests were all produced around the same time period. There has been some change in the cable parameters over time causing too much distortion to the RiftUP high frequency signal (FullHD bandwidth).
Daniel managed to design a new video signal shape, “smoother”, less vulnerable to interference. It’s achieved by new firmware and some tiny resistor components soldered to the base board connector.
Those backers who have already received units and report the noted issue will receive updated boards plus all subsequent units will receive the updated firmware and hardware mods.
Did you back the RiftUp! campaign and have you received your unit? If so, are you happy with the upgrade? We’d love to hear from you, drop your comments below.
There are few movies which managed to successfully capture the essence of what is both terrifying and incredibly cool about the prospects of virtual reality like 1999’sThe Matrix. Its directors, The mysterious Wachowski Brothers, threw in every element of pop culture they thought was cool, added a dash of greek mythology, generous helpings of slow motion, and a sprinkle of Greek mythology to realise one of the best sci-fi action films ever made.
Fast forward to 2014 and we have the Oculus Rift and a new demo from developer Tipatat Chennavasin which attempts to recreate the famous ‘construct introduction’ scene from the movie. In this scene, Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) is introduced to the ‘loading screen’ where the team can tool up before finally entering The Matrix.
The demo lifts audio direct from the movie and steps into Neo’s introduction to reality and just what that reality has been for him all his life. It’s a very early effort, and indeed doesn’t complete the scene, but it’s great fun to finally be able to immerse yourself in a small part of this iconic movie.
"The Virtual Last Supper" Courtesy of Cosmo Scharf's iPhone
I’ve been home for a week, but I am still riding the high from the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality Conference & Expo. There are so many wonderful experiences to talk about, so I invited a fellow attendee, Forest Gibson, to join me for a chat.
Oculus has released a new preview build (0.3.2) of the Oculus SDK, adding support for Mac and Linux, bringing the Unity integration to Mac, improving GL performance, and more, along with several bug fixes.
Infinadeck is a new entrant into the omnidirectional treadmill space for VR use. The device allows a user to walk completely naturally in any direction. Unlike other VR treadmills that have sprung up recently, the Infinadeck is an active, rather than passive, solution to the problem of VR locomotion.
With multiple consumer VR headsets now on the horizon, many users will soon be choosing to go with one over others. Will it be difficult for developers to support multiple VR headsets from a single application, rather than creating custom distributables for each individual headset?
“Cheetah Medicine” design by Mugwort for VR Fashion. Garment by Adam “Voodoofuzz” Williams
Virtual Reality Ventures, an Australian VR consulting firm, is working with a client to produce a VR fashion show which could put you at center stage. Their proof of concept demo for the Oculus Rift is now available for download.
Sam Gebhardt, developer of VR cinema app Go Show, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bolster the feature set of the app. Designed for Smartphone VR headsets, Gebhardt hopes to add custom theaters, streaming media support, and more to Go Show.
It looks as if all the posturing shown by both games publisher Zenimax and virtual reality startup Oculus VR over the last couple of weeks hasn’t resulted in an amicable agreement between the two companies. In a press release issued a couple of days ago, Zenimax media assert that they have now filed suit against Oculus VR for what it claims are the theft of it’s intellectual property.
The press release seems to have been removed from Zenimax’s site, but Google has it cached here for the moment (printed in full below this article). Zenimax’s claims are numerous, but they revolve around Carmack’s work back in 2012 when he enthusiastically championed an early Oculus Rift prototype at E3 that year.
Specifically though, Zenimax claim that Carmack’s not inconsiderable amounts of work to bring the infamous Oculus Rift enabled Doom 3: BFG, complete with early head tracking and pre-warping stereoscopic rendering, the show where it attracted enormous interest by all who tried and subsequently heard about it.
The dispute hinges on claims that Oculus VR violated an NDA signed by id software and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, an agreements signed to allow the two parties to collaborate on software to be used alongside the Oculus Rift. The NDA was pulled from recode.net’s story on the dispute quite recently, but interestingly Carmack is not implicated or in fact mentioned in the document. According to recode’s analysis of their copy of the document:
The NDA notes that both parties were under “no commitment” to invest in one another or “enter into any other business arrangements of any nature whatsoever.” ZeniMax said in a statement that it discussed taking equity in Oculus but that talks between the two companies fell through.
Carmack has refuted absolutely any assertion that any code owned by Zenimax was used by him or Oculus. He recently tweeted “Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to Zenimax.” Oculus VR too have been robust in their own defence recently, revealing that it was a failed equity deal that forced Oculus to go back on promises to their original Kickstarter campaign backers to include a copy of Doom 3: BFG along with their Developer Kit VR Headsets.
One excerpt in particular caught my eye when reading through the filing – namely Zenimax openly alluding to past in house R&D projects to try and frame their claim in a more favourable way:
For years, dating back to the 1990s, ZeniMax and its affiliates had conductedresearch into virtual reality technology and headsets (sometimes called “head mounted displays”or “HMDs”). For example, ZeniMax had developed prototype software for its major video game franchises, including “
The Elder Scrolls
,” designed to optimize the gaming experience in avirtual reality display device. ZeniMax’s subsidiary, id Software, also researched virtual realityand continued its efforts following its acquisition by ZeniMax. Carmack highlighted thoseefforts in public remarks at the E3 Convention in 2012
Oculus VR has responded to news of the filing. An Oculus representative stated succinctly:
“The lawsuit filed by ZeniMax has no merit whatsoever. As we have previously said, ZeniMax did not contribute to any Oculus technology. Oculus will defend these claims vigorously.”
The whole affair is somewhat depressing and brings home that Oculus, post Facebook acquisition, has now been thrown into the world of big business with all the pitfalls that entails. And as I’ve previously written, it pitches one of the worlds most important games publishers against virtual reality’s best hope for revival. Any such dispute and inevitable protracted animosity between the two can only be a bad thing for gamers and virtual reality, at least for the foreseeable future.
We’ll keep a close eye on how this on develops and will keep you up to date.
Zenimax Press Release in Full
ZENIMAX MEDIA INC. AND ID SOFTWARE LLC FILE SUIT AGAINST OCULUS VR, INC. AND ITS FOUNDER, PALMER LUCKEY
May 21, 2014 (Rockville, MD) — ZeniMax Media Inc. and its subsidiary, id Software LLC, filed suit today against Oculus VR, Inc. and its founder, Palmer Luckey, for illegally misappropriating ZeniMax trade secrets relating to virtual reality technology, and infringing ZeniMax copyrights and trademarks. ZeniMax is also asserting claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and unfair competition against the defendants. The suit was filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
The suit arises from the defendants’ unlawful exploitation of intellectual property, including trade secrets, copyrighted computer code, and technical know-how relating to virtual reality technology that was developed by ZeniMax after years of research and investment. ZeniMax provided this valuable intellectual property to defendants under a binding Non-Disclosure Agreement that specifies such intellectual property is owned exclusively by ZeniMax and cannot be used, disclosed, or transferred to third parties without ZeniMax’s approval. ZeniMax’s intellectual property has provided the fundamental technology driving the Oculus Rift since its inception. Nevertheless, the defendants refused all requests from ZeniMax for reasonable compensation and continue to use ZeniMax’s intellectual property without authorization.
All efforts by ZeniMax to resolve this matter amicably have been unsuccessful. Oculus has recently issued a public statement remarkably claiming that “ZeniMax has never contributed IP or technology to Oculus.” Meanwhile, Luckey has held himself out to the public as the visionary developer of virtual reality technology, when in fact the key technology Luckey used to establish Oculus was developed by ZeniMax.
“Intellectual property forms the foundation of our business,” said Robert Altman, Chairman & CEO of ZeniMax. “We cannot ignore the unlawful exploitation of intellectual property that we develop and own, nor will we allow misappropriation and infringement to go unaddressed.”
“ZeniMax and id Software take their intellectual property rights seriously,” said P. Anthony Sammi, a Partner of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP which represents ZeniMax and id in this matter. “We now look to the federal courts and will pursue all appropriate measures available under the law to rectify defendants’ egregious conduct,” he added.
White Lotus Interactive have released a new trailer for their Oculus Rift enabled adventure title Xing: The Land Beyond and it showcases the varied environments and some fairly stunning vistas waiting for backers of their Kickstarter campaign. The 3 member team based out of Orange, CA doubled their initial target
Recently, the team made the decision to move to the recently released Unreal Engine 4, extolling its virtues in a post explaining the reasoning for the move and how they went about making it happen. In their last post, they went into some detail explaining the processes involved in designing and building a scene in Xing. Take a look at the results below and check out that post here – it’s an interesting read.
At SVVR Conference & Expo, GameFace Labs shared with Road to VR info on a new prototype of the mobile head mounted display that the company intends to show off at E3 next month. The prototype features a brand new form-factor, front facing gesture camera, multiple ports, and custom lenses.
They have each individually done their part to fill your ears, minds, and souls with VR conversations and to help keep the enthusiasm for VR going. Now, at the 2014 SVVR Conference & Expo, Cris Miranda, Matt Carrell, Brian Bullard, and Reverend Kyle join up to give you the first ever UBERCAST! Oh, did I mention Palmer Luckey joined us too?
The final panel of the first Silicon Valley VR Conference and Expo 2014 is entitled “Creating the VR Metaverse”, and attempts to answer some of the key questions around what the future metaverse might look like:
One global metaverse or many?
Identity and privacy
Virtual World Governance: democracies, the greek god model, or benevolent dictators
Intellectual property and legal jurisdictions
Avatar portability and standards
We covered the RiftUp! project in detail a little while ago. The project offers an in-place upgrade for the low resolution 1280×800 LCD panel and controller bringing the original developer kit (DK1) to a much more capable 1080p panel. The team launched their Indiegogo campaign on March 27th and quickly received enthusiastic backing from those wishing to update their Rifts with the team surpassing their original $10k goal eventually reaching a final tally of $25,113.
