Now that the commercial model of the Oculus Rift is showing up in consumers' hands, some of them might want to try their new Rift out in Second Life. After all, Oculus Rift for SL is promoted on the official homepage. Some Rift owners, however, report some not too great results:
First of all, the official viewer with Oculus Rift capabilities hasn’t been updated since 2014... What I didn’t realise was that yes, Second Life will work with an Oculus Rift using that viewer, BUT only if it is the DEVELOPMENT MODEL. My commercially released treasure is more powerful, and NONE of the viewers have been updated to support it. To say that this sucks balls is an understatement.
More ranting in a post cheekily titled "Oculus MIFFED". And indeed, clicking "Explore now with the Oculus Rift" on the SL homepage takes you to an official announcement from October 2014, which takes you to a download link of an SL viewer compatible with the DK2 development kit version of Oculus Rift.
Where's the updated viewer for the commercial version of the Rift? I've asked Linden Lab about this, and will update this post when/if I get a reply. Until then, if you're planning to use your new Rift with Second Life, caveat emptor. (Or however you say "downloader" in Latin.)
On the other hand, if you were to ask me, VR users shouldn't necessarily expect an update of the Rift for Second Life -- I believe Linden Lab executives have publicly acknowledged SL's frame rate and building proportions aren't suited for VR, and that's not quite something that can be updated along with the viewer. (Which is totally understandable, but maybe not promote it on the homepage, or at least add some heavy qualifiers to the download link?)
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Thanks for featuring my rant Hamlet, and for picking up on my point that they shouldn't be promoting this tech if they don't have the compatibility. It's so frustrating because the more I play with the Oculus Rift and explore the possibilities it has it just heightens my annoyance that, like you hint in your last paragraph, SL was never able to fully exploit what the rift can do.
Perhaps there's a saving grace, the indentations it leaves on the face would likely become permanent in my case, especially when you consider the amount of time I spend in-world. "Rift face" is not a good look..
In all seriousness though it's hard not to be disappointed. This had the potential to be amazing..
Posted by: Kitty Otoole | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 04:38 PM
Sadly, the Vatican's PARVVM VERBORVM NOVATORVM LÉXICVM (New Lexicon of Little Words?) doesn't show a term or phrase for "download". :(
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 05:41 PM
Um, that attempt at translation doesn't make much sense--why just little words? Maybe it's more like "Little Lexicon of New Words".
Posted by: Melissa Yeuxdoux | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 05:43 PM
LOL. What's "person who saves knowledge made of light" in Latin? (See what I did there?)
Posted by: Wagner J Au | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 05:47 PM
Ebbe reiterated at SL13B today exactly that, SL couldn't meet DK2's 75 FPS requirement and definitely can't the commercial version's 90 FPS requirement. At least not without some perfect mix of maybe a new 1080 GTX, and performant sim with performant avatars.
He said say there's a new project viewer in development though, but from the sounds of it nothing that changes the above reality.
Linden Lab should remove the Rift-compatibility promo, but they've never minded deceiving new users with the website. GeForce 9000s from 2008 are still listed as recommended system requirements for the viewer, so deceiving about Rift compatibility isn't unusual.
Posted by: Ezra | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 07:49 PM
Ugh. I warned Linden 3 months back that they were showing the Kickstarter concept art on their homepage and that it was an embaressment to anyone who actually knows about VR. They didn't do anything about it. The report is still sitting on their Jira.
It's gonna take the embaressment going viral before they fix it.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 08:19 PM
I use my Oculus everyday in Second life. Using VorpX and Firebird. No framerate is not that good but it is amazing to see our world in VR. And there are really so much to see. No other VR place is this big and full of wonder.
Not updating the viewer is just stupid.
Posted by: cyberserenity | Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 12:13 AM
You know I keep checking the darn loading page to see if they’ve changed it yet, because as we’ve established the OR has just no place sitting there front and center and at the time of writing this, newp, still there!
Seeing as it’s pay-day this week (HUZZAH!) me and the beloved are going to treat ourselves to VorpX. He’s got an absolute ton of games that he’ll be able to use the rift with via that software, and I will give SL a blast using it, just to see what might have been. I’ll probably weep into my cornflakes after..
Posted by: Kitty Otoole | Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 04:08 AM
Never underestimate Linden Lab's inability to keep its site timely. I sure trusted them at one time to support education, fool that I was.
As for a Latin proverb to describe how a paying customer should approach the company? Cicero put it well.
"Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare."
Posted by: Iggy | Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 05:30 AM
:)
Posted by: zz bottom | Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 07:56 AM
“Anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault.”
Sadly is LL motto i fear.
Posted by: zz bottom | Wednesday, June 22, 2016 at 07:57 AM
I used Second Life in VR with my Oculus Rift Devkit 2 for many months. The Project Ovulus Viewer 3.7 worked great, framerates on a smoothly running sim were sufficient for having a great experience.
Sadly the new version of the viewer (Project Oculus version 4.1) was released in a completely broken state. What's going on, Linden Lab?
Posted by: Rai Fargis | Tuesday, July 05, 2016 at 04:57 AM