Oculus Rift Support??

[Roo]

The Occulus Rift does not have 3D position tracking (at least the developer version doesn't), so things like leaning forward or around to the side of the table won't really be possible.

Yeah, just turning your head left/right and up/down wouldn't get you much. What I really want someday is something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTtMQIO_5aU.

I'll settle for some basic cabinet support with portrait mode and the ability to move the DMD to an alternate monitor, though.

 

[JesseL]

I hope it at least works with Nvidia 3D Vision.

 

[lettuce]

The retail version of the Oculus Rift will have full head tracking support also, so you'll be able to position yourself to the right of the T2 machine for the cannon shot just like in real life!

 

[Pete]

support for the oculus rift would be epic and make the virtual pinball experience so much more captivating... it does not matter seeing virtual hands within the game, I would prefer NOT seeing any hands or anything, just the first person view is fine. trust me none of us have to look at the controller when we play a game we just hold it and know where the buttons are while we look at the screen.

 

[superballs]

I think I would prefer BAM support over anything. Minimal outlay and an amazing effect. All fs would need to do is have an camsra that is adjustable through its input

 

[DaPinballWizard]

Make it so.

 

[Pete]

oh yeah that headtracking stuff, i remember some guy showing it off on wii like 5 years ago saying how amazing it could be.

sadly i bet this guy doesn't get a single cent off this, they will just steal his idea and change it enough to not get sued

 

[cubemoss]

sadly i bet this guy doesn't get a single cent off this, they will just steal his idea and change it enough to not get sued

Actually, that guy got hired by Microsoft and was working with the Kinect team for a while... Not sure if he's still there.

 

[paulohotline]

Hey fellow pinheads, with the release of VorpX a few days ago, many games using DirectX are now playable in the Rift. One such game is PinballFX2! It looks and plays pretty good in the Rift so I see no reason why Pinball Arcade will not work either. Below is a screenshot taken in the Rift while playing a table!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183082556

 

[scstraus]

There are some problems with the ideas of using the Oculus Rift with physical pinball controls. The main thing is, when you're wearing the Rift, you can't see anything outside of it. So you're gonna be kind of fumbling around to get your hands on the controls at times.

This is compounded with the problems of depicting virtual arms and hands inside the Rift. Even if there are some generic arms and hands shown onscreen in the Rift, without additional arm and hand-tracking peripherals, they're not going to move as you move your real arms and hands. This is more than a trivial problem, as users of the Rift have described this kind of disconnect between what you're seeing and what you're expecting to see is extremely disorienting and confusing.

There will no doubt be solutions developed for these issues, but they'll be developed over the long haul... in the meantime, what would work well is just using the Rift and a regular game controller.

This is actually much less of a problem than you'd imagine. Most cockpit games such as Eliteangerous do a very good job of rendering your hands on the controls, to the point they start to feel like your hands, and being able to find the controls is not a problem at all. Of course, they have the advantage of knowing pretty well how far from those controls you are. It would be a bit harder with pinball but not that much. You could have a calibration mode where you put the rift at a specific location on the top of the controller and press both flippers and then it would know where the controllers are from that point on and would render your head relative to the controller correctly from that point on. That would make it pretty easy to find the controller because it would be in the same place it looks to you in the game (even if you wouldn't see your hands moving to it in the game).
I see this as a pretty minor problem.

 

[Robert Misner]

Hey fellow pinheads, with the release of VorpX a few days ago, many games using DirectX are now playable in the Rift. One such game is PinballFX2! It looks and plays pretty good in the Rift so I see no reason why Pinball Arcade will not work either. Below is a screenshot taken in the Rift while playing a table!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=183082556

love to see a video of that in action..are you able to set your height and zoom FOV?

 

[paulohotline]

Hey Robert, yes using head tracking with the Rift. An amazing Virtual Reality mod was created last year that worked great with the Oculus Rift that hooked into the app to provide a full VR experience when playing. I am pretty sure Farsight hired this guy to develop and code their VR version of TPA as he has been mum and released zero updates since posting his VR code. It worked great when it was released and gave you a great idea of the potential of VR with TPA.
Check it out the discussion here on pinside - https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-vrcade

Video of Pinball VRCade in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaB5Y4kxVJg&feature=youtu.be&autoplay=1&rel=0

"Pinball VRcade supports Oculus Rift DK2 positional tracking so that you can actually walk around the cabinet, lean over to examine the back playfield, and look up to watch things on the DMD. It's almost like being at a real table.
The patch works by hooking the graphics calls made by Pinball Arcade and inserting extra operations to take control of the camera and enable stereo support. The patch doesn't contain any code from Pinball Arcade itself - it simply intercepts graphics calls and re-translates them to a stereo render, similar to products like vorpx, but specifically tuned for Pinball Arcade. I've released the source code into the public domain, so feel free to hack on it!"

https://github.com/cbdillon/PinballVRcade/wiki

 

[nudnick]

"Pinball VRcade supports Oculus Rift DK2 positional tracking so that you can actually walk around the cabinet, lean over to examine the back playfield, and look up to watch things on the DMD. It's almost like being at a real table.
The patch works by hooking the graphics calls made by Pinball Arcade and inserting extra operations to take control of the camera and enable stereo support. The patch doesn't contain any code from Pinball Arcade itself - it simply intercepts graphics calls and re-translates them to a stereo render, similar to products like vorpx, but specifically tuned for Pinball Arcade. I've released the source code into the public domain, so feel free to hack on it!"

So I'll throw in something probably a few of you might be wondering at the moment.

I've recently purchased a google cardboard from Knoxlabs http://knoxlabs.com. I also installed "Intugame" on my PC http://intugame.com and ran TPA with Noex mod running. Of course head tracking does not work with TPA using these tools as the camera is locked. BUT ... if maybe NoEx could free the camera up so that your mouse is used as a "mouse look" so that when you move your mouse around, you stay where you are standing, but your able to look around the room.

That being said, the graphics are pretty bad and there is a delay with Intugame over wifi using google cardbaord. Maybe it could be run through USB connection like Trinus VR does (Trinus interface is horrible) so that there is no lag. There is definitely potential here ... its a low budget way of running VR as I only paid $23.95 for my Knoxlabs Google Cardboard VR Viewer.

NoEx if you read this ... Is it possible to configure the mod so that your mouse becomes "mouse look" and takes over all camera control so that when you move mouse, you look around the room like you would in 1st person shooters? That way with head tracking, you can just look up with google cardboard viewer to see back glass ...

 

[NoEx]

Something like that?

 

[Robert Misner]

GLORIOUS!

 

[paulohotline]

Hey NOEX thanks for your update, that looks crazy!. Do you think it would be possible to work with RavArcade the BAM developer as you guys seem headed in the same trajectory with the projects you are working on with respect to VR and the Oculus Rift. Check out his latest feedback on BAM with Oculus and TPA support here... I mentioned your mod at the start of the thread.

http://www.gopinball.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=86&t=6007

While I have been supporting and testing VR since the DK1 one came out, I really like what BAM did with Future Pinball with respect to 3D head tracking. Having BAM work with TPA would be amazing. The beauty of BAM is it does not require a 3D TV, VR goggles etc as it will work with your existing cab setup with the purchase of a BAM kit consisting of 2 modified PS3 eyes, IR glasses and a calibration board. Randr over at vpinball.com sells these kits for a very reasonable price Have you tried this yet in future pinball? Check out the video made by my buddy loaf:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF4Ccc4_G3g

 

[mpad]

Omg!

 

[nudnick]

Something like that?

Uh .... B I N G O !!!

Now just need a mouse look chekbox in the camera mod!

 

[danivempire]

Damn the price has been officially announced.
599 dollars or 699 euros.
I'm in Europe so 699 euros.

**** that, way too expensive...
I was thinking if it was like 450 euros I would maybe take one...
But nope...
699...
Nope...

 

[paulohotline]

Order is in for $915 Canadian shipped!. Oculus just updated their website, now shipping orders in May 2016...