Oculus Medium Under the Hood: Developing the Move Tool | Hacker News Reader

Oculus Medium Under the Hood: Developing the Move Tool

developer.oculus.com

117 pointsmynameised23 comments

Voxels are so cool. Level sets and distance fields are a very different way of thinking about 3D compared to the "mainstream" triangle-based rendering.

DreamWorks Animation offers a powerful open source library called OpenVDB for storing and manipulating this kind of data:

http://www.openvdb.org

This could be awesome, being able to inspect and make changes to your 3D models as if standing right next to them.

I mean, it would even have applications for sculptors. Actual materials to sculpt with are not cheap as far as I know, and it could streamline the training process.

If you're not familiar, you should also check out Google Blocks: https://vr.google.com/blocks/

Training for most fine art is a surprising amount of mechanical/physical knowledge about the various materials & tools. For example, creating a bronze cast is like a 18-step process[0], of which one step is 'make it look like the thing you want'.

> Actual materials to sculpt with are not cheap as far as I know

You learn how to sculpt with clay, which is pretty affordable. Some computer 3D models are sculpted in clay first, and 3D scanned for cleanup![1]

0: http://www.laurencebroderick.co.uk/casting_1.html 1: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Models

Oh! I see DrRacket is open in that screen recording.

Is there any public information on using Racket with oculus yet?

Neat, but I don't think this is going to help them sell more hardware.

I recognize that sales for VR headsets have been underwhelming, but why wouldn't great software help sell more hardware?

With risk of derailing this thread: As somebody in the industry I don't think the sales have been underwhelming. I'd say they are almost spot on with what people in the know were expecting, and higher than expected on mobile. People that were expecting CV1 to be the iPhone of VR were irrational.

I've tried the Sony VR and it was very underwhelming, really pixelated graphics and unappealing gameplay (shoot incoming spaceships). One would probably need a factor ~16 increase in pixeldensity to get something photorealistic and even then I think I would prefer computer games on a display, because in VR inconsistencies feel much more out of place to me

PSVR is one of the weakest headsets. Try the Vive or the Rift (in particular the Rift) to have an almost pixel free experience

The new Microsoft VR displays are even clearer. Higher pixel count. Also slightly narrower FOV, which is a double-edged sword. But I've definitely appreciated the greater readability of text. I have the HP version. It's also very comfortable, and the easiest to setup of any of the PC headsets.

The comment was about underwhelming _sales_ of VR, not the opinion of current VR as an experience. To that point, I completely agree that PSVR is underwhelming and a complete vomit comet. Spend a few hours with the Rift or Vive playing quality content and based on my experience theres a high chance you'll change your mind. I show VR to a lot of new people, gamers and non-gamers alike, and very rarely do people come away with anything but utter awe. Its not uncommon to show somebody an experience like Tilt Brush have them spend 30 mins+ exploring it.

There's an uncanny valley in VR - less realistic and more stylised apps can in many cases be much more immersive than flawed attempts at photorealism.

Resolution is a "nice to have" but it's less critical than you would think. A high refresh rate is the most important factor.

The biggest weakness with the current generation of headsets is probably field of view. Second I would place comfort.

The resolution really doesn't bother me any more. If the content is compelling enough you tend to "look past" the pixels.

Photorealism is the wrong goal

That has a lot to do with the PS4 being horrendously underpowered compared to a gaming PC. It just isn't powerful enough to run high quality graphics at the resolutions and framerates necessary for VR to work well.

Using PSVR to judge VR is like using a Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT86/Scion FR-S to judge what it's like to drive a sports car. I mean, it isn't bad, and you can have some fun, but you're not REALLY experiencing the full potential.

Do you have numbers?

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/5/15719382/playstation-vr-so...

Let's compare the 1 million units sold for the PSVR, by far the best-selling headset (Samsung's Gear VR was given away for free with phones, so those numbers are effectively worthless) with the Xbox Kinect, which sold 8 million units within the first 60 days. And we all know how well that played out.

VR is not doing well.

I think solid professional and creative applications are more likely to support the slow, steady growth of VR and avoid everyone judging it's success or failure purely on the whims and unusual economics of the games industry.

This and TiltBrush are the only reasons I'm considering a headset at all, tried 3D sculpting unsuccessfully in 2D so would love to try it in 3D.

Medium looks excellent but yeah not amazing enough to outweigh being owned by FB. Still pretty disappointed VR tech innovations are just being locked up into proprietary camps.

Medium runs fine on a Vive via ReVive: https://github.com/LibreVR/Revive

There's also plenty of alternative apps for 3D content creation in VR. I started to tabulate them (plus some where you create the content outside of VR) here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xwqLF3CpYWxZ6kipzWGH...

The list is a little out of date and I haven't got around to filling out most of the columns but it's probably of some use to someone.

I'd recommend adding MasterpieceVR to that list

Another addition: A-Painter (https://blog.mozvr.com/a-painter/)

I have both systems at work and purchase every 3d sculpting app that comes out. Medium is still the best.

Interesting! What would you say makes it better than the others? I'm working on something similar but as-yet-unannounced and I'd love to know if we're tackling the right problems...

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