VIVE Cosmos 1.0.5 - Release Notes

[stvnxu]

Hi all,

Our latest update is out now to improve your overall Cosmos experience! Open your VIVE Console, and you'll automatically see a "Software Update" button if you're not on this latest version. 

VIVE Cosmos 1.0.5 – Release Notes 

1.  Room setup performance improved for low light environments.

2. Resolved a USB audio driver compatibility issue where audio would not play on certain system configurations.

3. Updated multiple languages strings throughout the out of box setup, Vive Console, and Origin.

- Support for multiple languages on “Learn more page” in controller pairing (Arabic, Chinese (Traditional/Simplified), Czech, Denmark, Dutch, Finish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Spanish-US, Swedish)

- Fixed Russian string overlap issues in Vive Console

- Fixed Japanese missing character in Origin

- Support Czech language in Origin

 

Next Update (Late October Beta)

We have seen the community feedback and are continuing to work to improve tracking overall.

Our next update targeted for beta at the end of October will work to improve the following scenarios:

 

HMD:

1. Improved low light tracking, with better prediction during fast movements
2. Reduced tracking jitter
3. Compatibility for Vive Wireless Adapter

 

Controllers:

1. Low light tracking stability – we will be continuously improving tracking accuracy in low light conditions
2. High brightness tracking stability – we will be improving tracking accuracy in high brightness environment
3. Overall improvement for prediction models when a controller exits the headset’s FOV
4. Faster and more accurate positional recovery when returning into the headset’s FOV
5. Improved near HMD tracking, which should improve archery mechanics in games
6. Improved slow movement occlusion tracking prediction

 

We will have more optimizations and improvements not mentioned here that we will detail closer to release.

[Phr00t]

Thank you for the update and timetable. My return window is early November, so I should be able to evaluate these changes. I will be optimistic that "optimizations and improvements not mentioned here" refer to the field of view issues, which I'm looking forward to just as much as tracking improvements.

[TomCgcmfc]

34 minutes ago, Phr00t said:

Thank you for the update and timetable. My return window is early November, so I should be able to evaluate these changes. I will be optimistic that "optimizations and improvements not mentioned here" refer to the field of view issues, which I'm looking forward to just as much as tracking improvements.

I realise that this this FOV issue is important to you but I feel the tracking issues and controller compatibility are much more important to most.  Personally I think the FOV is fine.  It is at least as good, maybe even a little better than my Oculus Rift cv1.  I had a friend who has a Rift S over the other day and he thought it was better than his.  From my very basic understanding the potential problem with trying to squeeze every last micro bit of border coverage is that you may end up with a rainbow edge effect.  Probably not worth it for a couple of degrees higher FOV.  In any case I'm confident that Vive will review this, just in case it can make a significant difference.

[Phr00t]

24 minutes ago, TomCgcmfc said:

I realise that this this FOV issue is important to you but I feel the tracking issues and controller compatibility are much more important to most.  Personally I think the FOV is fine.  It is at least as good, maybe even a little better than my Oculus Rift cv1.  I had a friend who has a Rift S over the other day and he thought it was better than his.  From my very basic understanding the potential problem with trying to squeeze every last micro bit of border coverage is that you may end up with a rainbow edge effect.  Probably not worth it for a couple of degrees higher FOV.  In any case I'm confident that Vive will review this, just in case it can make a significant difference.

It is clear by the status update above that tracking issues are being worked on, so I wouldn't be worried that is being overlooked.

As I said in the other thread, you need to actually measure the field of view with a tool instead of relying on subjective "looks fine to me" sentiments. Oculus headsets are not known for impressive fields of view, so subjectively comparing to those isn't saying much.

This "rainbow edge" you are concerned about is visible in the passthrough side of the screenshot I provided (seen here). It is clear the rainbow effect is extremely minor, and considering it is just on your far periphery, it will be almost impossible to notice let alone be bothered by it. However, significant encroaching blackness on your periphery is noticeable and leads to that well known binocular effect.

At the very least, it should be an option to increase the field of view (by removing the vignette to the passthrough borders), because otherwise it is very noticeable comparing to my Odyssey+ (both subjectively and measured).

[TomCgcmfc]

5 hours ago, Phr00t said:

It is clear by the status update above that tracking issues are being worked on, so I wouldn't be worried that is being overlooked.

As I said in the other thread, you need to actually measure the field of view with a tool instead of relying on subjective "looks fine to me" sentiments. Oculus headsets are not known for impressive fields of view, so subjectively comparing to those isn't saying much.

This "rainbow edge" you are concerned about is visible in the passthrough side of the screenshot I provided (seen here). It is clear the rainbow effect is extremely minor, and considering it is just on your far periphery, it will be almost impossible to notice let alone be bothered by it. However, significant encroaching blackness on your periphery is noticeable and leads to that well known binocular effect.

At the very least, it should be an option to increase the field of view (by removing the vignette to the passthrough borders), because otherwise it is very noticeable comparing to my Odyssey+ (both subjectively and measured).

Sorry mate but your so-called tool (using java 8 and steamVR resources) looks like something you created ~4 years ago and you seem to be the only one using it.  I wonder why?  Maybe you are being a bit trollish?  Hopefully not.  Nor does it appear you have gotten any positive response to this on any other forum (like Steam) you have posted this on. 

I also do not have much faith in your passthrough vs headset border views conclusions.  Slightly increasing the FOV in the outermost part of the lens where the image is already well out of its sweet spot, and hence already blurry, does not sound like this is going to improve overall immersion imho.   Still, might be something in it, but I doubt it.

Also, I believe that the published FOV for all VR headsets is diagonal, not horiz/vert.  Plus, there are so many individual factors that ultimately effect each person's perceived FOV such as ipd, eye/lens distance, face shape, glasses wearer, just to name a few.  So, ultimately I guess it is pretty subjective, and always will be for VR headset consumers.  Given the similar sizes of all major PCVR headsets lens and geometry it is unlikely that FOV is going to vary significantly right now, and will likely remain subjective for some time to come.  The Index (which is still  a Valve experiment right now imho) uses a combination of adjustable eye relief (Rift S also does this) and 5 deg canted lens to potentially provide 130 deg (diagonal) FOV.  Unfortunately, not all software has been modified yet to support their non-parallel (canted) lens.

Look mate, this is an open forum so please feel free to beat your little drum on it.  Just don't expect everyone (including developers) to jump in and march to its beat, lol!

[Phr00t]

13 hours ago, TomCgcmfc said:

Sorry mate but your so-called tool (using java 8 and steamVR resources) looks like something you created ~4 years ago and you seem to be the only one using it.  I wonder why?  Maybe you are being a bit trollish?  Hopefully not.  Nor does it appear you have gotten any positive response to this on any other forum (like Steam) you have posted this on. 

I also do not have much faith in your passthrough vs headset border views conclusions.  Slightly increasing the FOV in the outermost part of the lens where the image is already well out of its sweet spot, and hence already blurry, does not sound like this is going to improve overall immersion imho.   Still, might be something in it, but I doubt it.

Also, I believe that the published FOV for all VR headsets is diagonal, not horiz/vert.  Plus, there are so many individual factors that ultimately effect each person's perceived FOV such as ipd, eye/lens distance, face shape, glasses wearer, just to name a few.  So, ultimately I guess it is pretty subjective, and always will be for VR headset consumers.  Given the similar sizes of all major PCVR headsets lens and geometry it is unlikely that FOV is going to vary significantly right now, and will likely remain subjective for some time to come.  The Index (which is still  a Valve experiment right now imho) uses a combination of adjustable eye relief (Rift S also does this) and 5 deg canted lens to potentially provide 130 deg (diagonal) FOV.  Unfortunately, not all software has been modified yet to support their non-parallel (canted) lens.

Look mate, this is an open forum so please feel free to beat your little drum on it.  Just don't expect everyone (including developers) to jump in and march to its beat, lol!

If you want to read more about the tool and its reception years ago, see the reddit announcement of it. People did their best to nitpick it, but it was also well defended. It is really just a simple tool, and there are other old ones that would probably give similar results (like this one).

If you want to read more about increasing the field of view by adding to the outermost areas, see how Microsoft researchers did just that and reduced motion sickness.

Many factors go into field of view, yes. However, the Vive Cosmos could remove one of those significant limitations (LCD utilization) to their field of view with a software tweak or option here.

I don't expect developers to march along, but I also didn't expect being called a troll for bringing up, documenting and demonstrating this issue.

[TomCgcmfc]

6 hours ago, Phr00t said:

If you want to read more about the tool and its reception years ago, see the reddit announcement of it. People did their best to nitpick it, but it was also well defended. It is really just a simple tool, and there are other old ones that would probably give similar results (like this one).

If you want to read more about increasing the field of view by adding to the outermost areas, see how Microsoft researchers did just that and reduced motion sickness.

Many factors go into field of view, yes. However, the Vive Cosmos could remove one of those significant limitations (LCD utilization) to their field of view with a software tweak or option here.

I don't expect developers to march along, but I also didn't expect being called a troll for bringing up, documenting and demonstrating this issue.

So, 3 years ago someone with a DK1 agreed with you.  I'm sure your mother is very proud, lol!  As far as I can see (no pun intended) none are currently using this tool and none are marching to your drum.  Sorry but if there were an Ignore option with this forum you would be first on my list.  However, please do not expect me to reply to any of your posts from this time on.  Hopefully this will suit you as well.  Maybe in 3 years time you can post this all over again, just like groundhog day lol!

[DoubtlessOne]

TomCgcmfc, I want BOTH the tracking improvements and the FOV improvements. I don't know why you are against community work at improving FOV. Furthermore, all his posts on this topic are more scientific than any of yours. If you have no contribution to the effort, then like you said, please refrain from replying these posts.

Of course, tracking improvements are more important for me and for most people, but that doesn't mean FOV issues should not be looked into by HTC.

[TomCgcmfc]

Ya, sorry to be such a cranky old fart, lol!  Of course we would like it all.