Episode 294 – The Virtual Minute – 3/26/2015

15 thoughts on “Episode 294 – The Virtual Minute – 3/26/2015”

1. Do you think we will see VR games that try to do the same movement system of early CD based games like Myst, Starship Titanic? so you can look around each “scene” and then use the controller to take a “step” forward? I’m thinking it could be interesting for that style of puzzle game, so you become the fine look, and the controller is the macro look.

   Another thing that I’m assuming they will do by the consumer end (although maybe they don’t know) is variable focus lenses and alignment for each eye like binoculars have. I think that a lot of the sickness might come from the fact that people are struggling to keep both eyes focused. Its really tiring, and in general life, we see things at different ranges often enough that its seamless, but anyone who has tried to use binos for more than a few minutes knows that when you restrict your eyes to one focal plane, if they are not even, it can get really bad. Maybe its already a part of it and no one has mentioned it that I’ve noticed.

   I think that a lot of the texture and transparency stuff is just going to come down to algorithm rather than pure power or higher resolution base files, I just don’t see how you will be able to get close detail, without doing some interesting fractaly kind of stuff.

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2. The thing you guys talked about with “walking in arches” is generally called redirected walking. Apparently if you have a circle approx 50m in diameter you can create an infinite space within in using redirected walking. So as a user you would not be able to tell that you are not walking in a straight line, or turning 90 degree corners.

   Something like that isn’t very useful for home use. But it could be fun for bigger tests in say a school gym.

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3. To the guy requesting sites on hiking gear and such; I’m hiking through California for 4 weeks as well this summer and found these really useful;

   http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/

   http://www.trailspace.com/

   http://www.gearinstitute.com/

   I’m personally going on the PCT for which there is a Reddit; http://www.reddit.com/r/PacificCrestTrail

   Honestly, I know it’s the easy, shitty answer, but; Google. There’s TONS of stuff to find. Google “blabla vs blabla”, read product reviews on REI, Amazon, etc. Also, as Will and Norm said; you just have to try stuff. Clearly I’m from a generation that buys as much as possible online, but I have really enjoyed going to the two outdoor stores in my city, ask as much as possible, and then I’ll gladly spend some extra cash buying it locally, those people know a lot and the help is great. I bought my backpack there; based on reviews I probably would not have bought it (it’s a Gregory, and the internet seems to be equally divided between Gregory and Osprey for the category I’m looking at, and Osprey is just cheaper so I would have gone for that), but having tried all the options this was clearly the most comfortable and best option for me.

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4. Some board houses offer a prototype service I have used http://www.pcbtrain.co.uk they even supply SMD stencils at sensible prices I’m sure there are similar services in the USA

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5. Tested is pretty much becoming the go-to site for VR news. Example, one of my local news providers posted a video about Oculus Rift being used for safety train for our local mining company. At the beginning of the video, they used a clip of Will Smith with OR on his head. I’d wager that they came across this video through a simple Google query, and chose one of, if not the top result that came up.

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6. $EME What is included in the prototyping services? I’ve noticed board houses offering stencils, but for someone starting out I think leave the surface mount stuff alone. I make my own stencils with a Silhouette Cameo by the way — super handy and cheap.

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7. Typically you don’t pay artwork charges, your also limited to the set defaults so you can’t get custom screen print colour or solder resist colours also you might find your limited on substrate thickness.

   I had never done any surface mount before and was a little scared at the thought of it but the devices i needed to use were only available in that form factor so had to learn quick. Its not actually that bad. I built a vacuum pick up tool from a converted fish pump.

   I did buy a reflow oven which was a major purchase as i was planning on doing my own production but there are plenty of tutorials for toaster oven conversions and i have actually had pretty good success with a hot air gun

   i ordered up an economy stencil from the board house which was actually a lot better than i was expecting, it was laser cut stainless.

   

   here is the first hand built SMD board i had ever made

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8. Relevant: Last week’s Film Sack Live Read of the X-Files FPS episode. Really funny – http://filmsack.com/2015/03/1494/

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9. With regards to motion within a VR environment, there was this work done earlier last year with regards to “Motion Compression”:

   http://hackaday.com/2014/05/07/motion-compression-with-oculus-rift/

   It distorts the view as you move around to trick you into thinking you’re walking straight, but are really walking a slight curve.

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10. As a kid we (me and siblings) had to keep all our Lego on a quilt, it was on the floor off to one side of the lounge. It works reasonably well for sorting because you have a lot of space to just move it around. This only really makes sense if you have a lot of Lego, and don’t keep the sets assembled on shelves.

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11. mechanical ergonomic keyboard sounds interesting. But all the one you mentioned and a similar project are really just split keyboards, which are better but lack the curve that ergonomic keyboards have. It quickly becomes obvious that it would be a total nightmare to get the switches pointed in the right direction, and connect them all up.

    If you used the switches designed for mounting in a metal base plate, you might be able to make a curved base plate you can mount them on. The curve really complicates wiring up the switches. Wire wrap is probably the only reasonable cost method here, it is totally dependant on the switches having wire wrapable leads which isn’t a certainty. It would be worth testing if it is feasible, I’m just making this up as I go… Adam might be able to come up with an idea or two for how to make a base plate.

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12. Never Dry clean a sleeping bag. Fumes coming off of it aren’t conducive to people sleeping inside of it.

    For Camping stoves I’ve never been happier than with my Trangia alcohol stove.

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13. I’ve been exploring the ErgoDox as well. Waiting on ErgoDox to put it up again. Thinking about upgrading my PrintrBot so I can print case myself. Requires 8″x8″

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14. I don’t recall the exact moment but there was a not so subtle dig at Leo Laporte this week (“he who shall not be named owns the rights to ‘this week in’ “ or something similar.) and I was just curious as to what the beef is. I’m a semi regular listener to TWiT, I know friend of Tested Patrick Norton is an occasional guest on the show and I’ve always found Leo to be an affable kind of a guy. Am I missing something?

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15. Norm’s completely right about the nose thing. We all grow up with noses and our noses are the only things that connect us to the world around us. It is the one thing that is always in our periphery and is the thing that grounds us to the things we’re looking at. It would only make sense for us to get motion sickness with virtual reality that looses that grounding to ourselves and reality.

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