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Why Is DK2 a nightmare to set up compared to DK1?

Godselite2
Honored Guest
After reading through the threads for a week before I received my DK2 I have seen thread after thread of problems, headaches and errors people are having with their DK2 ' S. Thankful there are also threads about how great it Is for those lucky or skilled enough to get it working.

I received my DK2 and have been trying to get it working with my Macbook Pro for hours upon hours last night. (I know, I am in the process of locking down specs to build my own PC for DK2/CV1 PC)

But seriously, not even one email or thread from Oculus letting Mac users know Mac wouldn't be supported?

Oh well, I guess ill just wait until I shell out another $1,200-$1,500 on a PC that will run the DK2, and even then, with all the bugs and problems I am worried that whatever processor or video card I select will somehow give me error telling me they are not compatible with my DK2 for some weird, technical reason.

Why Is DK2 littered with thousands of more problems than the DK1? This is supposed to be version 2. But It feels like a step backwards aa far as software and support.
20 REPLIES 20

andyr123
Honored Guest
It wont work on any mac yet though - the SDK isnt available, correct ?

PC only at the moment.

Not that i can get mine to work on a PC either. The oculus device driver seems to conflict with my graphics driver.

lightningr1
Honored Guest
Why not just bootcamp your mac?

Flyinpiranha
Honored Guest
I would imagine because it's a lot more complicated. Most of the "Extended" modes seem to work fine for a majority of people (from what I gather this is how most DK1 videos were ran - dunno, didn't have one) and the "Direct" mode (which is brand new) is the main culprit.

I imagine because it's brand new that we will see many issues being ironed it. It's been literally days since it was released into the wild. If this is still a problem in a month, or near CV1 launch ... then yeah, I would be worried. But they added an entire layer of complexity including a requirement for better specs just needed to run the current resolution so there are going to be software AND hardware requirement issues all over.

I also believe it's because A LOT of the people are consumer-level that don't like to tinker/mess with things that have received it due to hype from DK1. I'm one of the "beta testers" as I haven't started delving into development but I understand that this is a HUGE step from DK1, software and hardware wise so I'm waiting patiently on fixes from the community and the devs as this gets ironed out.

Well, maybe not entirely patiently 😃
i5-3570k | R9 290 Windforce OC | 16GB 1600 RAM | SSD | Windows 8.1 64bit

Knutsi
Protege
I found it very easy to set up on my PC. The demo scene and OculusWorld demo worked much better than any DK1 content ever did. It was so easy that this could be like CV1 (plus maybe a first-run wizard) and people would manage.

(The point is that software made for SDK 0.4 is very user friendly due to the lack of extended/mirrored desktop, while all other software struggles because it was made for previous iterations of the SDK)

Flyinpiranha
Honored Guest
"knutsi" wrote:

(The point is that software made for SDK 0.4 is very user friendly due to the lack of extended/mirrored desktop, while all other software struggles because it was made for previous iterations of the SDK)


True to a point. The main issue is that many aren't able to use the "Direct" launcher even though various demos have been created for it.
i5-3570k | R9 290 Windforce OC | 16GB 1600 RAM | SSD | Windows 8.1 64bit

Scofthe7seas
Honored Guest
I think a lot of the problems are just because it's so new. A lot of people have forgotten that DK1 didn't actually have the smoothest take-off 😛
I think most people (myself included) were hoping that we would just be able to check out the older demos just with lower latency and higher resolution. But there seems to be a bit of refactoring involved to get it going. It'll get there, just give it a little while 🙂
The thing that irks me the most though, is that Epic isn't supporting DK2 on UDK. They have been very subtly suggesting that people should just switch to UE4. 😕

owenwp
Expert Protege
I think you are not remembering the old days correctly.

At first with the DK1 you had to set up your monitors so that the Rift was the primary display, which was a gigantic pain unless you used desktop mirroring, which added latency. Those few games that worked with it at all usually had menus that were not usable inside the Rift. The magnetic calibration had to be done with every game launch and was very error prone. Each game had to have its own IPD slider, and most didnt bother.

0.4 has plenty of bugs, because it is a beta, but when it works all you do is plug in the Rift and launch the app. No other setup required, no fiddling with display settings, no setting the correct resolution, its all automatic.

snappahead
Expert Protege
"Flyinpiranha" wrote:
"knutsi" wrote:

(The point is that software made for SDK 0.4 is very user friendly due to the lack of extended/mirrored desktop, while all other software struggles because it was made for previous iterations of the SDK)


True to a point. The main issue is that many aren't able to use the "Direct" launcher even though various demos have been created for it.

This has been my experience so far. Studder on everything but Tuscany and the demo scene.
i7 3820 16 gigs of Ram GTX 780ti

Chaoss
Expert Protege
The 2 main real issues are the fact that there are bugs with the Unity integration of SDK 0.4.x preventing it from sending an image to the rift for most people and the second issue is the fact that you have to flip (Landscape Flipped) the screen for the DK2 in extended mode.

There are perceived issues as well, for example SDK 0.2.x and SDK 0.3.x software either flat out doesn't work or takes a lot of poking about to get working.

The Direct-to-Rift mode itself actually works for a majority of people on both AMD and NVidia GPU's (basically the demo scene in the config utility) it's just the engine integrations aren't working hence the SDK 0.4x is seen as being buggy.

Not to say it isn't buggy as there are some bugs for isolated cases along with incorrect chromatic aberration issues which I'm sure are being worked on as I type this. I believe that Oculus are currently in talks with Unity devs trying to figure out a solution. The Unreal Engine 4 integration hasn't been plugged into the engine yet so we cannot comment on that.

Best thing to do for now is to enjoy the demos people are releasing, develop and wait for the new and fixed SDK.

edit: There are other bugs with the head rotational tracking that were originally designed to reduce lag/latency (that's why some demos look amazingly stable and rock solid!) however if conditions are not optimal you can get several different types of juddering...

The first is caused by either not having vsync turned on and/or not getting the required 75fps, the second is caused by Timewarp, when turning quickly timewarp is supposed to 'move' the image as a 2D object regardless of the fps in the 3d scene preventing stuttering when fps dips below 75. In theory this would be the "better of 2 evils" when it comes to juddering however the current implementation doesn't work properly and only serves to improve image stability at 75fps.

Timewarp will cause some very minor juddering when running under 75fps under ideal conditions while running under 75fps, not enough to cause discomfort but just enough to notice. This is caused by the 3D scene updating to the 2D 'plains' which are rendering at 75fps where the neck/neck model mismatch so the view appears to snap. I think there are other tricks they can apply to avoid the 'snapping' effect. The other issue is if the 2D plains that render the 3d image itself dip below 75fps you begin to get problems as well.

The whole thing (Timewarp, syncing and low persistance all used in unison with head tracking) has never been done before ever anywhere and so the first few iterations will be riddled with bugs and issues while they iron out the kinks and possible bugs on different hardware.

Oculus were under great pressure to both ship the DK2's and ship the new firmware, SDK and runtimes so there would be corners cut and tired eyes may have missed bugs in the code, as developers ourselves though we should all understand that this comes with the territory of working with prototype hardware especially when said prototype hardware has just been released.
"In the future we will be designing dreams, worlds & experiences rather than games."