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Actual visual experience vs. the Oculus Store demo

Captain3dog
Honored Guest
Disclosure - I am new to VR and wear tri-focal glasses. Is anyone getting anything close to the clarity and resolution depicted in the store's demo of the apps?  Some apps are better than others but I have not found any yet that any better than, say an old projection tv's resolution.  I have been using my Go for about a week everyday and found some of the experiences fascinating and don't want to give the impression that I don't think it is a good value but the demos should depict actual resolution, in my opinion.  Example - There is a free skydiving video where the guy is landing in a stadium. I can't make out any detailed view of the fans but still got the feeling of what it may be like to skydive into a stadium.  Not going to by any app until this is changed.
19 REPLIES 19

You mention that you wear tri-focal glasses, are you wearing these while using the Go?

If so, that's probably the problem. The focal distance of the screens is the same for the whole of the screen, regardless of whether you're looking at the upper, central or lower areas.

The reason the store domo may have looked better is possibly because that demo had you focusing your attention (and therefore your eyes) at predominantly the central area of the screen. And the skydiving video now has you looking at all areas of the screen equally, so the lower areas where the crowds are have you looking through the lower lens of your glasses.

So the answer is that you must use single focal glasses that enable you to focus comfortably at roughly 1.5m - 2m.

h.r.gargi
Heroic Explorer
Hmmmmm... Details in higher distances are mostly not crisp. It may depend on the Cams, they are using. I got a 360 Nikon and the focus is not adjustable. So near objects are detailed, further ones not very. And the first time in VR in this demo the impressions are overwhelming. Later on you will notice more negative things you haven't seen before. I enjoy these experiences very much and I am exploring more and more things you can do with this device. 
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Captain3dog
Honored Guest


You mention that you wear tri-focal glasses, are you wearing these while using the Go?

If so, that's probably the problem. The focal distance of the screens is the same for the whole of the screen, regardless of whether you're looking at the upper, central or lower areas.

The reason the store domo may have looked better is possibly because that demo had you focusing your attention (and therefore your eyes) at predominantly the central area of the screen. And the skydiving video now has you looking at all areas of the screen equally, so the lower areas where the crowds are have you looking through the lower lens of your glasses.

So the answer is that you must use single focal glasses that enable you to focus comfortably at roughly 1.5m - 2m.



I did try a pair of glasses with single lenses set up for reading sheet music at about 6 ft. No difference. So are you saying that you see , using the Go, close to the resolution depicted  by the demo videos and the casting on the phone?

reading sheet music at 6ft is quite a distance, when I played piano & French horn, I don’t think the music was ever more than 3ft away, are you sure those were 6ft focas and for your eyes? I think whatever glasses you try, tri focal and bi-focal will definitely not work in a VR headset because of the principal that the screens are single focal length for the whole of the screen. My advise is check with your optician and ask him/her what they recommend for you, including a new eye test if you haven’t had one recently.

Captain3dog
Honored Guest
After doing more research it looks like the issue has been named the screen door effect. I feel the demos should include the screen door effect so they don’t misrepresent their product.  Apparently wether you wear glasses or not you are still going to see this effect. Even when casted to my phone the screen door effect is not shown. The Go is still a great value  I am hoping Apple will do it right at a decent price in the future. There doesn’t seem to be any quality control at the store to stop misrepresenting developer’s product. This will prevent me from investing any more into the Oculus environment as what you see is not what you get. I did see one demo that did show the screen door effect so is possible to capture. This was a YouTube video discussing the SDE. 

The screen door effect or SDE describes the ability to see the lattice that makes up the individual pixels of the screens.

On the Rift, the resolution is high enough and the gap between pixels is small enough that the SDE is easily ignored. The Go has a much higher resolution, so the SDE is even less. I've not come across anyone who has an issue with the SDE of the Go.

Are you sure your problem is the SDE? You said your wear tri-foal glasses using the Go and that definitely would cause problems. As would reading music 6 ft away!

The SDE is the same for all apps because it's related to the hardware, not the app, and is the same whether you're demo is in a store or at home.

This thread is increasing confusing.


Edit: are you sure you're not confusing the SDE of the Go with the resolution of what you're watching? The resolution of a video for example can change hugely depending on how the source material was created, the resolution of the recording equipment, the amount of compression used when encoding the video etc.

This is down to the video provider, Oculus have very little control over source material video quality, just as you'll find youtube videos with vastly different resolutions and compressions leading to huge variations in quality. If that's the cause, you just need to check the video details before downloading and viewing them and avoid the poor quality ones if they're causing you to get dissatisfied.

Perhaps other users can recommend some good quality material.

Captain3dog
Honored Guest

I've not come across anyone who has an issue with the SDE of the Go.


You have now and there are several YouTube videos discussing this regarding the Go. 

Wether it is the SDE, glasses or whatever, are you saying that what you see is as sharp and clear as is what is portrayed in video demo of apps and even what is casted to the phone?

What do you mean by video demo?

Are you saying you watched a video of the Go and you're counting that as a demo?

Or are you saying you've had a demo of the Go hardware and watched a video on that demo Go?

If you're saying you've just watched a video then I'd say that isn't a demo. I wouldn't take any notice of a demo of a TV for example if it was just a video of that TV being played on another TV cos that would be a demo of that other TV.

The only demo that counts is a demo of the hardware particularly when the device in question relies so heavily on the individual's eyesight and perceptions, as VR equipment does. Everyone has different perceptions and expectations, not just with the screens but with FOV, comfort, compatibility with glasses etc.

I'm definitely saying that a demo of the hardware would have shown you exactly how clear the picture is for you, even if you chose not to wear single vision glasses.

As far as what is cast to a phone, I think we're getting to a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology. A phone may have similar screen resolution and similar screen size but is usually held 2 or 3 ft away and therefore only spreads across about little more than 1 degree of your vision.

The screen in a VR headset may have the same number of pixels but those pixels are being spread across 100 degrees of your vision or there abouts, so resolution per degree of vision is obviously going to be 100 times less... or more. The technology to achieve pixel per degree resolution as high as a phone in your hand wont exist for many many years.

I'm also definitely saying that different content will have varying levels of clarity which is up to you to chose which to view and why I've suggested other people can no doubt point you to some good content.

Captain3dog
Honored Guest
Here is a screen shot of a demo video off the Oculus site. Go to it and watch the demo  When I view it in my Go it is ok but nothing close to what is being represented .  This one is free but if it wasn’t I personally would not purchase if I knew the demo was misrepresenting the actual experience  The exception would be if I watched the demo using the Go and liked it   Crow is 360 and awesome even with SDE  j3dncnz5b4th.png