I can't use the Rift S, and you won't be able to either

The eyes of this guy allow him to enjoy his Rift S. His friends can only envy him.

From the blog of Palmer Lucky , the inventor of the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet, one of the founders of Oculus VR.

Rift S [ Oculus Rift's next generation virtual reality helmet / approx. trans. ] - very cool stuff! He collects all the concepts that existed for many years, and for the first time implements them in a functional product. Yes, yes, I see people complaining that the Rift S is worse than CV1 in terms of audio quality, display characteristics and ergonomics - and some of these compromises are real, some are fictitious, and in general, people have to wait until it comes out, and then already draw your own conclusions. In any case, it will be a great virtual reality helmet (CVR).
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For about 70% of people.


The distribution of interpupillary distance based on measurements in 3976 subjects

My interpupillary distance (MR) is slightly less than 70 mm, and my pupils are slightly beveled to the right side of my face. One of my best friends has an MR equal to 59 mm. I don’t know what it is, but both of us were perfectly suited to the mechanism for adjusting the MP in the Rift CV1, which is an important part of our goal to achieve compatibility with 95% of users of both sexes. All people from the supported gap (from 58 to 72 mm) had perfect optical perception - the field curvature in the focal plane coincided, the geometric distortion was correctly compensated, the scale of the world was the right size, the variation of distortion during eye movements was more or less the same. Image clarity from one edge of the field of view to the other was normal. A small number of people with an out-of-range MR did not receive ideal perception, but at least approached it closely. MR varies in different directions depending on gender, race and age, but we managed to cover almost everyone, and were proud of it.

But in the case of the Rift S it is not. He, like Oculus Go, uses two lenses that are at a distance of about 64 mm from each other, which is suitable for the average person . Everyone who gets the Cinderella's shoe gets the perfect perception, everyone close to them will experience some visual stress problems that will affect their sense of virtual reality mainly at the subconscious level. Everyone else was unlucky, including me. It is difficult to bring the picture together, the details blur, the compensation of distortions does not work correctly, breaking the vestibulo-ocular reflex, and everything is not at that scale. “Programmatic adjustment of the MR” may slightly correct the last problem, but little else - it corrects one variable associated with the MR, but this does not compare with the real mechanism of MR adjustment. This is the main reason why I cannot use my Oculus Go, even after serious modifications on other fronts.


- single Fresnel lenses can give a fairly wide working space!
- digital adjustment MR solves all problems!
- most of the things we can solve with the help of software!
Signature: do not believe him lies (alteration of the frame from the movie " Remember ")

Does this mean that the Rift S needs to do a mechanical adjustment of the MP, like the CV1?

Not. This is the simplest conclusion, but it mistakenly concentrates on a specific solution to a broader problem. There are a lot of trade-offs in the development of ShVR, and finding the right balance is very difficult. More important than the MR itself will be the MR admission, a set of factors that determine your ability to use a certain CVR both at rest and during the movement, due to which it shifts a little on your head. To admission to the MR can be approached from different sides, and here are the most common techniques.

1. Mechanical adjustment MR

Old but good option. For decades, most ShVRs approached the MR admission in this way, mainly because of the architectures that used microdisplays with a small workspace (eyebox), which required their ideal location just to make it work. This approach allows a CVR developer to concentrate on other things, such as the field of view and field curvature. Binding the physical adjustment to the distance between the virtual cameras is a great way to ensure that the scale of the virtual world is correct, and one ShVR can be configured to be used by very different people. Option adds a little extra weight and acceptably increases brittleness. This approach was used in the Rift CV1, although we tied all the adjustments in such a way that it slightly affected the perception of people with asymmetrical persons, such as mine. Pretty good option!

2. Size range

My favorite option, and it will dominate the BP industry in the long run. Each ShVR adjustment adds weight, volume, complexity, cost, and fragility. If the helmet is right for the user from the very beginning, the need for adjustments can be minimized and sometimes completely eliminated! This principle applies to all wearable products, from shoes and clothes to watches and sunglasses - and therefore unisex overalls of universal size do not dominate in your wardrobe.

Given the small size of the BP market, it is difficult to justify the precise adjustment of each of the SHRs sold. Fortunately, you can achieve a lot even with a small number of options! I'm not a big fan of Magic Leap , but they did one thing right - they reached the tolerance for MP, making two versions of the ML1, one for the wide MP, and the other for the narrow. North's Focals smart glasses use a similar approach, but they have dozens of different sizes.

I will not find words. Rift S should have done according to this scheme. Logistic costs of processing different warehousing units, in which slightly different plastic parts would hold the lens at slightly different distances, would allow the Rift S to keep the cost low and expand the market without cutting off new and old customers.

3. Perfect collimation

Nothing is perfect, but it is possible to design optical systems with a very wide workspace and little need for physical tuning, but not without compromises. The Playstation VR is a good modern example that uses hard and heavy lenses with a relatively large focal length to create a wide enough working space for most users. The disadvantages of this option will be the weight, cost, size and efficiency of using the panel (and, consequently, the resolution), but it will be hard to argue with the results, especially in the case of CVR, which is sold for $ 199. The Rift DK2 had a fairly large workspace, which allowed it to be useful as a development tool, but there is a reason that some users have been independently modifying this SHVR by changing the distance between the lenses. We knew that it would be irresponsible to release DK2 as a consumer product, and it took us almost two years since DK2 was released, until we decided that it could suit everyone.

4. And so it will come down

One of the most common approaches to admission for MR, and one of the many reasons why BP has always failed. It is impossible to solve engineering problems in the marketing department, but this has never stopped PR professionals. If you do nothing and claim that everything is in order, it does not help users who refuse to perceive blurry images and suffer from headaches and eyestrain. For some people, such effects appear only with the active use of SchRR, since a larger percentage of people fit into the permissible parameters if they are standing still. But the same factors that allow to increase the tolerance for MR, allow you to play more actively.

The most obvious sign of the use of such a strategy in a company is when it refuses to acknowledge the presence of a certain tolerance under the IR, especially if in the past it has proudly boasted about this parameter. If the company issues a prime number, it will allow potential consumers to make an informed decision, and all the rest - to objectively calculate the number of potential consumers, and those who cannot use the product (or how badly the standard of acceptable quality has fallen). It is much easier to pretend that this is an unimportant, unsuccessful and inevitable tiny problem, which does not make any demographic differences.

Why are you hurt specifically Rift S? What about other examples of bad CVD?

Thanks for asking. Yes, there are many other helmets that do not support a large range of MR. Many of the early Windows MR helmets were prominent members of the And So Comes Club. The SteamVR ecosystem also has a lot of frankly slop helmets. I did not mention this for two reasons: first, I do not use them. Yes, I have almost everything ever manufactured by ShVR, and I track developments in this market, but I am tied to the Oculus platform. I buy games from the Oculus Store, run them through the Oculus UI, and develop applications for BP on the order of the military using the Oculus SDK. I am much more interested in Oculus, because I want to continue to do all of the above.

Secondly, and more importantly, the Rift S is the only way to use the Oculus PC ecosystem. This is the only option, replacing the no longer produced CV1. Anyone who cannot use Rift S is essentially cut off from the ecosystem, including people who have invested thousands of dollars in a content library. In cases with Windows MR and Steam VR, the helmets themselves are only part of a wider ecosystem, including helmets that support a wider range of MRs. I have no problem with the existence of cheap high-pressure water guns, suitable for 70-80% of the population, as long as they have alternatives that are suitable for everyone else. Oculus Quest is a great thing, but it is not for a PC - this is an option for people who want mobile BP, but cannot use Go.

Most of the time, while working on the Oculus, I spend on supporting helmets from other manufacturers, in particular in order to avoid similar problems. So far, I don’t like the ecosystem that I helped create most of my adult life. Honestly, Oculus made the announcement of the Rift S at GDC not without a plan to meet the needs of all those people who do not see themselves outside the Oculus ecosystem. If someone falls outside the range of the MP Rift S, I recommend that they stock up on the original Oculus Rift while it is still possible .


Eh ...

I love you, most Oculus users. Keep trying to release new tools for Rift S IPD + and Rift S IPD-. I hope that in the future there will be a version for MP in 70 mm with a slight mowing to the right.