Microsoft says Oculus Rift distorts world, grinds corrective lenses

Monday 29th June 2015 07:02 GMT Anonymous Coward

Cant deny

the MS lens looks far superior..

Did Mr Magoo do the vision testing for the Oculus??

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Monday 29th June 2015 07:18 GMT Khaptain

Comparison

The MSR lens appears to bring detail and a lot of pixilation...

The normal lens keeps everything blurry.

I am not sure that I would like either, but to be fair, one would really need to test these first hand... 2 small images on El Reg could only be considered as derisory...

I still wonder who will be buying into Oculus, will it just be the hard core gamers or are there other valid use cases ?

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1. Monday 29th June 2015 08:12 GMT Not That Andrew
  
  Re: Comparison
  
  Well I've heard of architects looking into using them for architectural visualisation, but I imagine that would require rose tinted lenses even fuzzier that the standard ones
  
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2. Monday 29th June 2015 09:10 GMT Lionel Baden
  
  Re: Comparison
  
  I was really excited about them when they were first announced, Then :
  
  all the little issues that they cant fix, and don't seem too interested in fixing either, I wonder if this has anything to do with being purchased by a money making machine which cares very little for the product.
  
  was also super excited about the hololens, but now truth creep about the limitations of either of the devices is putting me off.
  
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3. Monday 29th June 2015 11:26 GMT AbelSoul
  
  Re: hard core gamers or ...
  
  I certainly couldn't be considered anything of the sort but am strongly tempted by not just the Rift but the various other implementations of VR/AR.
  
  My other half has just taken ownership of a Note 4 so I may initially take the plunge with one of these beasties.
  
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4. Monday 29th June 2015 15:47 GMT Kanhef
  
  Re: Comparison
  
  Really depends on the display resolution. If you can see the pixels, it will detract from the overall experience. A slight defocusing could help blend the pixels together without causing distortion.
  
  The Oculus part looks disappointingly cheap. Single lens, rather than compound (which is probably why it has that chromatic aberration). The support ribs on the bayonet flanges suggest it's made of thin plastic, probably flexes if you squeeze the sides of it. Hard to tell what's holding the lens in place, looks like it could pop out fairly easily if you tried. In comparison, the Microsoft part looks more like my vintage telescope eyepieces.
  
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Monday 29th June 2015 11:56 GMT choleric

Who is really in view here?

How well do these lenses accommodate the reality distortion field surrounding M$'s arch-nemesis? Perhaps version 1.0 adjusts Facebook's Occulus Rift, but it will take 3.1 to tackle Apple: "You're not _holding_ it wrong, you're looking at it wrong."

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Monday 29th June 2015 23:57 GMT kyza

It doesn't tell us which model OR was the comparison made with, and while the MS lenses are clearer, what I'm seeing more than anything else is a ramping of the screen-door effect, which the OR lenses minimise by making things slightly blurrier

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Tuesday 30th June 2015 00:15 GMT Stevie

Bah!

Distortion corrected in software? Why? Did we forget the hard-won knowledge of how to grind lenses?

Another "benefit" of the digital age then.

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1. Tuesday 30th June 2015 05:13 GMT kyza
  
  Re: Bah!
  
  I'm sure you're being facetious, but here's an article on why VR HMD lenses distort the image, and why it is corrected by software
  
  http://rifty-business.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/understanding-oculus-rift-distortion.html
  
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