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Article on Rift and it's tracking.

Mr_Creepy
Rising Star
With all the Vive articles and reviews being posted lately i feel like chiming in with a very positive article on the rift and it's tracking capabilities.

http://www.gizmag.com/oculus-rift-revie ... gdc/42311/
54 REPLIES 54

christopherbarn
Adventurer
"Atmos73" wrote:
Did you notice he was using TWO tracking cameras about 2 feet away from each other. The Oculus pack only comes with ONE camera so his opinions on how well the tracking is are invalid.



<sigh> The Touch comes with the second camera...
So I guess that makes your opinion invalid ?

jademan
Heroic Explorer
Won't Touch, which he is using, include the second camera?

Mr_Creepy
Rising Star
"Atmos73" wrote:
Did you notice he was using TWO tracking cameras about 2 feet away from each other. The Oculus pack only comes with ONE camera so his opinions on how well the tracking is are invalid.


As has already been mentioned, Touch uses two cameras and that's what he is using so your comment is invalid.

Mr_Creepy
Rising Star
"Atmos73" wrote:
The Touch pack might well include a second camera but look at how its used. They're set up 2 feet away not at 180 degrees. The reviewers demonstrating Room-scale (360) but admits its set up for 180. So the only thing you can conclude from the review is you need 2 cameras for a 180 experience?

He doesn't even mention occlusion once. :roll:

He mentions trying to break the tracking and not succeding. He doesn't mention occlusion propably because he did not experience it. Both the Vive and Rift controller can get occluded, the difference in likelyhood of occlusion is propably not much.

Anonymous
Not applicable
"Mr.Creepy" wrote:
"Atmos73" wrote:
The Touch pack might well include a second camera but look at how its used. They're set up 2 feet away not at 180 degrees. The reviewers demonstrating Room-scale (360) but admits its set up for 180. So the only thing you can conclude from the review is you need 2 cameras for a 180 experience?

He doesn't even mention occlusion once. :roll:

He mentions trying to break the tracking and not succeding. He doesn't mention occlusion propably because he did not experience it. Both the Vive and Rift controller can get occluded, the difference in likelyhood of occlusion is propably not much.


Without two cameras in opposite walls it is impossible to avoid occlusion, with two cameras in the same wall you will have only 180° experience, for example: you cannot play Space Pirates with this setup.

Mr_Creepy
Rising Star
"Rigel80" wrote:
Without two cameras in opposite walls it is impossible to avoid occlusion, with two cameras in the same wall you will have only 180° experience, for example: you cannot play Space Pirates with this setup.

You're right, but in that case you just places the cameras on opposite sides of your playing area. He did say that he turned every direction and didn't experience problems, which you of course would in certain situations but he didn't here. This article puts the worries i had about tracking pretty much to rest as i was a bit worried about precision or noticable lag, which he reports he didn't notice, even while trying to break tracking.

Mr_Creepy
Rising Star
"Atmos73" wrote:
So why 2 cameras 2 feet apart?

Because it limits occlusion issues while playing in the 180 degree tracked area. You can also put them in opposite sites but that just means that there are more ways that you can occlude a controller.

Zoomie
Expert Trustee
"Atmos73" wrote:
Exactly, why do you need two cameras if they are only 2 feet apart in such a small setup? The review shows one camera can't do 180 room-scale alone.

What Oculus don't want you to know - You might need 4 cameras for 360 degrees. 😮

Surely you're kidding here - but just in case:
DK1 could do more than 180 degrees with a single camera. My DK2 can do all but maybe a 20-40 degree blind spot, simply because it doesn't have LEDs on the back of the headset. Even the development kits could do more than 180 degrees with a single camera.

The CV1 HMD will do 360 with high precision with one camera.
Full stop. No question.

Touch controllers are why both the Rift and Vive need a second camera (or Lighthouse). The second camera is there to ensure you retain line of sight from the Touch controllers to at least one camera in cases where the other one is blocked by your body. People setting them up 2 feet apart have completely missed the point of having two cameras. It's not there to allow more precise tracking, it's there to ensure there's always a line from the emitters to at least one sensor. It's not required with a HMD-only setup because it's highly unlikely you'll occlude the headset with your body. 😉

Now, if they're clever they'll also use data from both sensors to do error correction which would have the added benefit of more precision. But that's not the primary role of the second camera.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C Clarke

JakemanOculus
Heroic Explorer
"Atmos73" wrote:
The Touch pack might well include a second camera but look at how its used. They're set up 2 feet away not at 180 degrees. The reviewers demonstrating Room-scale (360) but admits its set up for 180. So the only thing you can conclude from the review is you need 2 cameras for a 180 experience?

He doesn't even mention occlusion once. :roll:


Occlusion is really a different topic. This reviewer was clearly testing the tracking fidelity not occlusion. Occlusion doesn't really need to be tested. It is a very simple reality which affects any tracking system.

Some one correct me if I am wrong... but I believe that the Oculus Touch actually recommends the camera configuration shown in this review. It's not like the reviewer misplaced the dual cameras. Rather that configuration is recommended by Oculus to minimize occlusion for most of the use cases they are pushing. As the reviewer noted, Oculus is pushing 180 experiences while HTC is pushing 360. In the absolute mathematical sense, a dual camera 180 configuration will have less occlusion than a dual lighthouse 360 configuration.

If you desire to compare the Rift and Vive in terms of occlusion then you need identical configurations, but there is really nothing to test. I can state for a fact that a dual camera dual touch 360 configuration will have identical occlusion to a dual lighthouse dual wand 360 configuration. There will be slight differences when the controllers are close together given that the touch and wand have different shapes, but on a macro level the occlusion will be identical. It is mathematics and has nothing to do with tracking technology or fidelity.

So I guess you want the reviewer to demonstrate the math by testing the cameras in a 360 configuration? I guess that is valid, but the results should already be known without having to test it. The more interesting review is one that tests tracking fidelity like this person did, and his judgment is that the Rift's dual cameras (with Touch) have excellent fidelity:

"zero tracking errors"
"synced perfectly"
"not the slightest glitch, misplacement or judder"