Hardware

[infernovia]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/22/sams ... _truncated

Samsung is known for its ubiquitous Galaxy smartphones and tablets, popular smart televisions and, most recently, smartwatches. The Korean consumer electronics giant is about to enter another major new category: virtual reality headsets. We're told by sources close to Samsung that a virtual reality headset is not only in the works at the company's mobile division, but it's set to be announced this year. The urgency is said to be a measure of beating Facebook's Oculus Rift and Sony's Project Morpheus to market. Some developers already have early versions of the headset, which -- at least in the development stages -- is powered by flagship Galaxy devices (think: Note 3, Galaxy S5). The consumer model, however, is said to require the power of next-gen, unannounced Galaxy phones and tablets.

First things first, what are we talking about here specifically? A peripheral. We're talking about a virtual reality headset -- along the lines of Oculus Rift, but more akin to the Android-powered GameFace Labs prototype (seen below) -- created by Samsung, powered by Samsung products. This is not the rumored "Galaxy Glass" project.

We're told it has an OLED screen, as good or better than in the second Rift dev kit; it's not clear how the headset connects to your phone/tablet, but we're guessing it's a wired connection rather than wireless. Given VR's reliance on immediacy, a wired setup is a requirement (any lag introduced breaks the immersion, and often makes people sick). It's also not clear how, or if, Samsung's VR headset tracks head movement depth-wise. In the case of both Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift, separate cameras face the player and track depth by reading sensors on the respective headsets.

Beyond beating the competition to market, Samsung's said to be targeting a lower price tier with its headset. Don't expect anything too low -- we're still talking about a VR headset -- but the idea again is to undercut Oculus and Sony. Unlike Galaxy Gear smartwatches, we're told that Samsung's in-house OS, Tizen, doesn't play a part in the VR headset.

[infernovia]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/30/sams ... rtnership/

Last week we told you about Samsung's unannounced virtual reality headset: a peripheral that enables VR interaction for flagship phones from the world's largest phone manufacturer. This week we've got far more details. First things first, Samsung's headset is the fruit of a collaboration with Oculus VR, the Facebook-owned virtual reality startup that both literally and figuratively kickstarted the current wave of VR products.

Oculus is handling the software side of the product, while Samsung handles the hardware. The deal is a swap: Oculus gives Samsung early access to its mobile software development kit and helps develop user interface software, while Samsung gives Oculus early access to its next-gen OLED screens. And yes, Oculus is still making its own, gaming-focused, PC-based virtual reality headset; that's why it needs next-gen, high-pixel-density OLED screens from Samsung. Join us below for new details about the device itself, as well as more on the unlikely partnership between two tech giants.


THE PARTNERSHIP

Samsung wants to be first to market with a virtual reality headset, but it doesn't want to invest the time and money that Oculus and Sony are. Oculus VR wants to create a high-quality virtual reality headset specifically for gaming, and it doesn't want to rush one out. And thus, a convenient partnership is born between the two companies: Samsung makes the OLED screens that Oculus needs for its final product; Oculus makes the software that Samsung needs for its upcoming headset.

The partnership comes with both risks and rewards. On one hand, Samsung is a consumer electronics giant, and a company of that size investing in marketing and producing its own VR headset massively grows the medium. On the other hand, if it's a bad product, it has the potential to poison the well -- that is, it could be another Virtual Boy, thus making consumers even more apprehensive about VR as a medium.

We're told by sources close to both companies that Samsung's using an early form of Oculus' mobile SDK -- an exclusive use as part of the deal -- developed in part by John Carmack. We were also told that the OLED screens that Oculus is getting as part of the deal are of higher resolution than 1080p, and that the screens will also be used in at least some of Samsung's next flagship phones. And this is where things get weird.


HARDWARE DIFFERENCES

Rather than having its own screen, Samsung's VR headset uses your phone directly. It plugs in using an existing port on your phone (think: micro-USB) and becomes the screen. The headset itself has built-in sensors -- an accelerometer at the very least -- so any motion-tracking functionality is offloaded from your phone's processor.

The folks we spoke with who have dev kits are still running the headset on Galaxy S4 phones, and we're told it's a shockingly good experience. That said, the consumer device will run either a new version of the GS5 or potentially its successor -- either way, it'll be tweaked for optimal VR performance. The headset can be used with a paired game controller or as a standalone media device, navigated solely through motion and voice (we'll discuss that more below).

Wait! Before you write it off forever as "one of those headsets that straps your phone to your face," we're told there are some pretty great benefits to using a mobile device. For one, the rear-facing camera allows for video passthrough. That's to say, "You can see through the phone using the rear camera, which shows a video feed of the outside world to your eyes." Pretty intense sounding, but a smart addition for making long-term use more realistic. While the latency is too great to make augmented reality applications possible, it's a convenient way to pause whatever you're doing and, say, have a sip of a tasty beverage.

There are also buttons on the unit itself. There are standard Android buttons -- Home, Back, Recent Apps -- as well as some extra stuff. It's not clear what the other buttons are, but we're told that none of them are used for interactivity. That could, of course, change by the final unit; all of this could, potentially, but this is the current state.


SOFTWARE

The dev kit runs a basic UI. You're in an empty virtual 3D space, and you interact with various demos (floating objects) by nodding at them. Nod to select, basically. Don't expect that form of interactivity to make it into the final product, though. We're told that nodding isn't a strong contender for the final software; voice, touch (tapping on the headset spikes the accelerometer, which can be used as a "click") and just outright using a gamepad are all on the table.

At this stage, the UI/OS is still very early. Heck, Oculus' mobile SDK is still very early, so the software it's able to build isn't close to a finished product. We were told about two different demos, neither of which involved interactivity. In one, you're at the beach with jamming hippies. In another, you dive from a plane (which is said to be, "pretty fucking nerve-wracking"). In both instances, our sources say they were impressed with the device.


IT'S ALSO A MEDIA DEVICE

Finally, expect Samsung to tout this device as a media player as well. "But Ben," you say, "There are very few media experiences for virtual reality headsets." That's a fact! Samsung's apparently looking at its VR device as a head-mounted display as well (like Sony's HMZ line). Gaming experiences are said to be pared down, and there's no guarantee it'll ship with a gamepad. This means that, while it's a gaming device, and there are VR games in the works right now for Samsung's headset, it's intended for a much larger market than just the early adopters who'll take a chance on VR. Both Samsung and Oculus are taking an interesting risk in partnering on this headset, and we're looking forward to hearing more. Perhaps you've got one and want to tell us all about it? Please feel free to get in touch.

Oculus VR and Samsung declined to comment for this story.

[infernovia]

Samsung announced Gear VR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6T4M4VMuk

Here are some impressions from a developer: http://www.darknetgame.com/#!Launching- ... D8EEFF9426

Moments ago, Samsung announced Gear VR, a mobile VR headset built in collaboration with Oculus, which uses a Galaxy Note 4 for its screen and processor. This means that I can finally make an announcement:

Darknet will be released as a launch title for Gear VR!

Whew! I had been holding that back for a long time. I’ll talk more about my specific plans for Darknet later, but for now, I’ll focus on my experience with the Gear VR hardware. (I won’t claim to be an impartial third party; I’ve been developing on Oculus platforms since the VR Jam last summer, and I’ve been an enthusiastic supporter from the start. Still, I try to stay realistic, and since I’ve been playing around with a Gear VR dev kit for a while, I figured that others might appreciate a developer’s perspective.)

The bottom line: it’s good. Resolution is high, latency is low, and it’s a remarkably smooth experience overall. Efficiency and performance will be a challenge, but the platform is solid, and it’s definitely possible to build truly fantastic VR games on it. More details:

Resolution

The Note 4 has a resolution of 2560x1440, a bump up from the 1080p resolution of the Oculus Rift DK2. It’s a big improvement, although it’s not as noticeable a difference as the jump from the DK1 to the DK2. You can still see pixels if you try, and more distant objects still seem a little blurry. Still, it’s the best resolution I’ve ever experienced in VR, and it’s extremely useful for games that contain a lot of text or graphical detail.

Performance & Battery

The Note 4 is incredibly powerful for something that fits in your pocket, but performance is still a concern. It’s a mobile device, after all, and most games built for PCs will require a lot of optimization before they’ll run well. Developers will also need to keep temperature and battery life in mind; VR consumes a lot of power, and anything that makes the game run faster will help save battery. No optimization is ever wasted.

Low Persistence

The Gear VR screen uses an OLED panel with a low-persistence mode, which essentially removes the motion blur that is associated with LCD panels. It’s just as effective as the screen on the DK2, which has the same capability. Before I saw the difference, low persistence didn’t sound like a big deal to me. Now that I’ve experienced it, I find it painful to go back to an LCD screen. I’m glad that I won’t have to.

Latency

Through some miracle (read: John Carmack), Oculus and Samsung have created a VR experience that feels even smoother than the DK2. Latency is incredibly low. I don’t have the greatest grasp of the technology (so hopefully Oculus will start bragging in detail soon), but my understanding is that Gear VR’s advantage comes from a thing called “asynchronous time warp”. This is a process by which the display is updated at 60 frames per second while adjusting the graphics based on head rotation, regardless of the performance of the actual game. In-game animations will still appear to run at the game’s rendering rate, so performance is still a priority, but there’s almost no latency when simply looking around, and a dropped frame won’t cause a nauseating lurch. It’s even possible to target 30fps for some games, letting the time warp keep the experience smooth while saving a ton of battery life. This feature makes a big, big difference.

Passthrough Camera

Gear VR allows the user to turn on the Note 4’s camera, bringing up a small view of the outside world within the headset. This is a convenient feature, and it does a lot to reduce the feeling of isolation that sometimes comes with VR. (In my nerd fantasy, I like to imagine sitting in an airplane, watching a movie on my own personal IMAX screen, and turning on the passthrough camera to pick up a drink from the flight attendant. It feels very sci-fi.)

Positional Tracking

One of the Oculus Rift’s big improvements in the DK2 was the addition of a stationary external camera for positional tracking (i.e. non-rotational head movement). With no external camera, Gear VR can’t do positional tracking. It’s the one feature that I really miss, but it’s ultimately no worse than the DK1 in that respect. There’s a head-and-neck model to compensate, and that’s good enough for now.

Comfort

The shape and fit of the dev kits has changed over time, and by the latest version, it was comfortable to wear for long stretches of time. I imagine that the final hardware is nicer still. More importantly, there aren’t any wires to wrestle with; I can spin around in my swivel chair as much as I want and never get tangled up. After working with a DK2 in a cramped office, this feels like an enormous luxury.


Ultimately, I’ve been very happy with the Gear VR hardware, despite the fact that I’ve only seen the early dev versions. It’s not going to be as great as the eventual PC-based Oculus Rift CV1, naturally, but it’s pretty amazing all the same. You’d think that using a mobile device for VR would involve greater sacrifices than this. Instead, Samsung and Oculus have made a strong entry into consumer VR. Now, it’s up to the software devs to complete the picture.