The rift on my next 24 hour train ride (coach).

[blazespinnaker]

So, for laughs, I took a train ride on the Coast Starlight to San Jose. It was 22 hours and change. It saved me $100 plain ticket versus $250 ticket I would have had to pay (short term booking) and I was looking to get away from the internet for a bit and other distractions to get some real work done. I figured good headphones + power outlets + laptop + limited options of movement in a new setting would be an interesting experiment to get work done.

However, what I didn't do, was bring my rift. I really wanted to, but there are various realities that made this impossible. The issues were:

- No camera means I couldn't scope out my surroundings and make sure everything was fine. (Perhaps I can link my Rift to my smartphone?)
- Cable and Component mania. Right now I need rift + control box + laptop + laptop power + rift cable to control + control cable to power + control cable to computer. That would have been an interesting site.
- Poor resolution so I couldn't do any work actually in my Rift.
- Desktop isn't stereoscopic, so switching between apps is awkward. (I need to investigate my options here.)

Hopefully the next time I try this (I got a lot of work done!) some of these problems will be solved.

[zalo]

Nthusim and Ibex should allow stereoscopic desktops.

You could try taping your control box to the backside of your laptop monitor, with cables just long enough to go to the HDMI and USB interfaces. For the power cable, you'd use some sort of cable management tube to combine your laptop and rift power (I doubt your laptop's USB can power the rift, unless they're USB 3.0 ports; In which case, do the power hack). You can also mount your rift to the laptop with this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:74779 I found that this particular mount works particularly well. Shapeways ought to have you covered if you don't have access to a 3D printer.

People sleep in planes and trains (with headphones) all the time. What's the difference wearing a rift? You actually have your hands on all your valuable electronics.

Resolution is the biggest problem I see. I know nthusim can zoom in and use head tracking, but then you have to rely on head tracking (see my response to your other post). Maybe later they'll add support for mouse based "look around". An HMZ/ST1080 is more suited to doing work though...

...Actually, why in the world would you want to do "work" on a low budget virtual reality developer kit. HMZ/ST1080 was made for that poop, yo!

[blazespinnaker]

Nthusim and Ibex should allow stereoscopic desktops.

You could try taping your control box to the backside of your laptop monitor, with cables just long enough to go to the HDMI and USB interfaces. For the power cable, you'd use some sort of cable management tube to combine your laptop and rift power (I doubt your laptop's USB can power the rift, unless they're USB 3.0 ports; In which case, do the power hack). You can also mount your rift to the laptop with this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:74779 I found that this particular mount works particularly well. Shapeways ought to have you covered if you don't have access to a 3D printer.

People sleep in planes and trains (with headphones) all the time. What's the difference wearing a rift? You actually have your hands on all your valuable electronics.

Resolution is the biggest problem I see. I know nthusim can zoom in and use head tracking, but then you have to rely on head tracking (see my response to your other post). Maybe later they'll add support for mouse based "look around". An HMZ/ST1080 is more suited to doing work though...

...Actually, why in the world would you want to do "work" on a low budget virtual reality developer kit. HMZ/ST1080 was made for that poop, yo!

Cause I have a rift and not an HMZ?

Do you have those? Do you find the FOV competitive to what the Rift offers?

And, yes, it's true people do sleep. Still, it'd be nice to have a camera, just to see what's going on. Coach on a train is a bit different than on a plane, safety wise.

[Kra]

Well it's a good thing you didn't take your Rift, because then it would of been a complete waste of time.

IMU- Inertial Measurement Unit. It measures inertia. When you are sitting perfectly still you are accelerating towards the earth (inertia from gravity). In a moving vehicle (unless it is moving at a perfect constant rate, that is a perfectly flat, straight line, with no rises and dips and no changes of velocity) there is noise coming from almost all directions in the way of directional force. Noise well beyond what any algorithm can compensate for.

Try playing any accelerometer based game on your phone in a moving vehicle. It just doesn't work. You'd need a separate sensor anchored to the vehicle to be able to compensate for the inertia introduced by the vehicle itself.

I was going to highlight this problem awhile ago, but then I thought this would of been already well obvious. The only non-obvious aspect of this is that because of the similar reasons, the Rift wouldn't work in space (as it is, needs custom sensor fusion).

[blazespinnaker]

" (unless it is moving at a perfect constant rate, that is a perfectly flat, straight line, with no rises and dips and no changes of velocity)"

This is pretty much what planes and trains do, the vast majority of the time they're moving. This is why they have parlor cars, serve hot drinks, yada yada yada.

Little bit of extra movement here and there isn't going to cause any UX nightmares. Not sure why people are gettin' so excited about it.

Anyways, I look forward to trying this out even if I have to turn off the head tracking and use a mouse.

[kalabalik]

I don't know what future you live in, but a train bumps and turns way way more than you imagine.

Perhaps if you travel across some salt plains you'll get a perfectly steady motion without turns. But in many countries or states there are a lot of things to get out the way for. Villages, mountains, lakes, roads, swamps, cities, you name it.

A train might not turn 90 degrees from a crossroad, but they do turn a lot of the time they travel. And often you'll not feel it as the carts also turn at an angle, minimising the perceived gforces. So you got bumps from elevation differences and angles from the entire train cart leaning into the turns you say is non-existent.

I don't know where you find a perfectly steady, non-turning train. Must be some floating monorail built above the ground to be able to ignore geography.

And planes bump a lot more than you imagine.

[blazespinnaker]

I don't know what future you live in, but a train bumps and turns way way more than you imagine.

Nah. I just spent 22 hours on one - Coast Starlight. Feel free to google it. It's pretty straight. Are you going to correct for a bit of drift ever 30 minutes or so? Suuure. But I have to do that already with TF2 just in my office.

Remember the use case - you're sitting in a seat that doesn't swivel. So you're already controlling your perspective via mouse/controller.

Anyways, any bumping is going impact your body as well. No seat belts on a train, ya know.

I never had any trouble looking at a computer screen, even though it was bumping /vibrating too. Neither did the 300 or so other passengers that seemed to have their own devices.

And planes bump a lot more than you imagine

Nope. I imagine just fine, but thanks for your concern.

[kalabalik]

Well then, if you found a train ride that turns once every thirty minutes; we can safely say that you're in a minority in the world having such smooth train rides. And I congratulate you for that. But as you said yourself, this was your first long ride, and you were talking as if every train on the planet is a extremely smooth as the one ride you had... That's what I protested against.

But if its that smooth for you; great. But again, just because you experience one thing on one ride, it's not a fact for the entire world.

[Kra]

You don't seem to be fully grasping the concept, a little movement is too much movement. When you're riding a train, you're riding the suspension system, your point in space is moving with incredible changes in force.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be able to explain it, you'll be able to see in practice soon enough for yourself.

[blazespinnaker]

Annnnnywaaaaays.

I'm excited, can't wait to try this! Thanks for those who provided helpful suggestions.

[kalabalik]

If you want to use the desktop on the Rift, I'd suggest using Deskope.

[MSat]

Make sure to post back with your experiences.

[bobv5]

I have velcro stuck to my laptop monitor, that way I can stick stuff on there to keep it out of the way, and rip it off if I need it for something else. Very convienient.

[blazespinnaker]

I have velcro stuck to my laptop monitor, that way I can stick stuff on there to keep it out of the way, and rip it off if I need it for something else. Very convienient.

Good idea, have to pick up a bunch of that stuff. Very useful.