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Multiple RIFT Views on same device?

LeeFuller
Honored Guest
Is it possible for more than one RIFT devices to view the same content on a PC?  I.e., if one is playing, can another be "watching" the content using another RIFT on the same device?
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Accepted Solutions

HiThere_
Superstar
It's not possible to have two rifts running off the same PC because Oculus VR software won't allow it (even if you have most of your CPU cores and three out of your four GTX Titan X GPUs idling in that PC).

But if you're using a HDMI spliter to display the single output on two separate display devices, you don't care about software limitations.

The better solution would be to have a VR dedicated GPU that is able to duplicate the VR content on a second display device at no lag cost for the headset.

Because seriously unless you're using a VR headset all by yourself, you do want a secondary display to give people around you something to interact with : Watching someone else in VR without any access to what he's seeing is so depressively boring it should be considered a rude offense to put someone in that position.

At least Playstation VR got that part right and their headset costs 399$ (and goes beyond simply duplicating a single display), so there's no financial or technical reason for a 599$ CV1 running on a ~1000$ PC getting it wrong.

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16 REPLIES 16

LZoltowski
Champion
Would that not make for a lot of extra motion sickness as your brain is not 'expecting' that movement. Might work in a 3rd person static spectator camera .... rather than being inside of someone else's head ... Invasion of the body snatchers 🙂
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Lucky_D
Heroic Explorer
I highly doubt any video card out there could support the rendering of two Oculus Rifts.  But I could be wrong, maybe a TITAN card could.

I would probably not try and connect two rifts to one PC but instead look into streaming your Rift feed to Youtube, Twitch, etc and have the other person view your feed. I believe you can stream in the native Stereoscopic view so another person using a rift can watch on Youtube or Twich and would see it in VR as well.

I have never tested any of this and I am only speaking in theory.  It should work, but perhaps others with more experience stream / recording Rift feeds might better answer this.

HiThere_
Superstar
I believe the idea here is to use a HDMI splitter, not to have the GPU render the same frame twice.

I'd use that myself to duplicate the CV1 content on a 2D monitor, for other people to watch.

A random cheap low end HDMI splitter would increase headset lag, so it's about finding a higher end one that won't (the amount of lag on the secondary display doesn't matter).

Lemming1970
Rising Star
Sure I read somewhere that this wasn't possible. One Rift to one P.C.
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HiThere_
Superstar
It's not possible to have two rifts running off the same PC because Oculus VR software won't allow it (even if you have most of your CPU cores and three out of your four GTX Titan X GPUs idling in that PC).

But if you're using a HDMI spliter to display the single output on two separate display devices, you don't care about software limitations.

The better solution would be to have a VR dedicated GPU that is able to duplicate the VR content on a second display device at no lag cost for the headset.

Because seriously unless you're using a VR headset all by yourself, you do want a secondary display to give people around you something to interact with : Watching someone else in VR without any access to what he's seeing is so depressively boring it should be considered a rude offense to put someone in that position.

At least Playstation VR got that part right and their headset costs 399$ (and goes beyond simply duplicating a single display), so there's no financial or technical reason for a 599$ CV1 running on a ~1000$ PC getting it wrong.

LeeFuller
Honored Guest
So to follow up on this question - If we were to have, say, 8 PCs with the same content/app on each - is there a way to simultaneously "start" all the experiences at one time? It isn't necessary for each person to "see" or "interact" with the others. Only that each of the 8 are seeing the experiences at the same time.  

HiThere_
Superstar
Well it's not what you want, but here's a video of someone sharing his
CV1 experience on a single PC with multiple family members through his
2D monitor : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNIQBuP_gdo

Which is
probably the right way to share a single VR experience with multiple
viewers, if you have a single PC/Rift and if you want to control what they are viewing, because when using a VR headset you don't want someone else
controlling the headset movements for you (which would result in motion
sickness), and also sharing the experience on a 2D monitor allows the 2D
viewers to interact directly with each other.

But as for sharing
a VR experience in VR mode, if you've got 8 PCs and 8 rifts, then all you
need is a multiplayer VR experience really. Then they can pop in and pop
out as they want (even from another location), and view what you're showing them from their own
angles instead of yours. So more like something like this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6eiFk4Ou_E




LeeFuller
Honored Guest
Thanks for that. But I think this is still unclear as to what I want to accomplish.

8 PCs - Each with a RIFT
Each PC has the same app/content on it.
Each user is viewing the content INDEPENDENTLY of each other
They are all sitting in the same room (2 rows of 4 people)
I want to start ALL of their experiences at the same time.
They do not need to interact with each other in any way.

Hope that clarifies.

KaBox
Explorer
I wish I've full dev for testing...