Oculus Rift with 4K Display Will "Work for Everybody"

News
By Catherine Cai
published

The Oculus Rift display will eventually have a 4K display.

Though the Oculus Rift headset is indeed a technological marvel (and one step closer to realizing gamers' virtual reality fantasies), it isn't without its share of problems in its current state. The Oculus Rift headset only displays 1080p and combined with many games' use of motion sickness, causes nausea. 

According to Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, the consumer version of the headset (which still hasn't received an official release date) won't have such problems. Iribe explained that increasing the resolution of the display and decreasing the latency of motion in games will help with these issues, promising that "It is going to work. It's going to work for everybody."  

This means that the Rift will eventually come packed with a 4K display, resulting in alleviating any induced nausea as a result of the 1080p display.  

"You can't imagine what it's going to look like when it's 4K,” Iribe stated. "It's not now, but it's coming."

Catherine Cai
26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • clonazepam
    So no consumer version of the product until 4K resolution and reasonably low latency has been tackled and overcome?

    Do they need more money to get to the next hurdle? And then the next before something ships?

    It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. It'll be a relatively expensive and sensitive product in a small box (compared to a television of the same price point) and may not be handled with very much care. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

    Sorry to be so negative. I hope its awesome lol
    Reply
  • lpedraja2002
    I find this article a bit misleading since it basically states that the nausea is caused due to a lesser resolution than 4k? While all I've read indicates latency being the main issue.

    I hope they focus on pushing a very good nausea free 1080p version as 4k is just too freaking GPU intensive for the normal consumer right now.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    I can't imagine there not being different models at different resolutions to satisfy different price points.
    Reply
  • baracubra
    I guess the rift might be one of the few devices where up scaling might actually be beneficial. The problem with 1080p is that you can easily see the pixels at such a close distance. But if the same image were up scaled, of course it wouldn't be aaaaas pretty, but we could still enjoy 1080p details but without the pixelation...?
    Reply
  • shin0bi272
    wouldnt that nvidia g-sync help this nausea issue?
    Reply
  • Quarkzquarkz
    There is another prototype out there that was mentioned recently about laser light reflected off mirrors directly onto your retinas for even sharper resolution. It doesn't use a display for that screen-door effect, really interested in how this will pan out. I mean won't that burn out your eyes to begin with? Anyways... new competition on the horizon and I can't wait! ^^
    Reply
  • husker
    "You can't imagine what it's going to look like when it's 4K,” Iribe stated. "It's not now, but it's coming."

    Um, yes I can. I'm looking at the real world out of my eyes right now. Is he suggesting it is somehow better than that?
    Reply
  • Singesliph
    Image resolution and latency really have very little to do with motion sickness. Motion sickness is the result of a discrepancy between the motion you see with your eyes and the motion your body feels, especially with your inner ear. When the information going to you brain doesn't make sense, (your eyes see you are moving, but your body senses it is sitting still) one of the main symptoms is nausea. Some people have little or no problem with this, while others are greatly affected. Changing the resolution or latency won't make much, if any, difference. Your entire body would need to be in a motion simulator or actually be moving to match the motion seen by your eyes, but this usually cost prohibitive. While I think this is an interesting and exciting technology, some people will never be able to use it. It's just the way human physiology and perception systems work.
    Reply
  • mavikt
    This condensation of the original article changes the meaning a bit. The Oculus dev kit has 1280×800 resolution. In the original article the Oculus VR CEO states that "the combination of improving screen quality and decreasing latency..." should alleviate motion-sickness. The second news was that the Oculus Rift "will eventually have a 4K display"

    I also can't say that the pixel resolution will be a problem at 1080 resolution. I tried the Sony HMZ-T1 about a year ago or so and they have 720 res. No problem, just a nice image, I think they were running Harry potter as a demo.
    Reply
  • lhughey
    In before comment about pron being to view at 4k
    Reply