Teema 1 - Noppeid IT ajaloost

     The world of IT software and hardware is quickly developing. Some ideas develop into full-fledged projects, others - into monuments of IT history. One of new fascinating fields for IT giants to try their best is "Virtual Reality" or more simple - VR.

    And here we are to discuss some interesting VR projects that deserve more attention than they got.

 

1. OSVR - Razer and Sensics.

     OSVR is one of the first VR platforms. Its history begins in 2014 by Razer and Sensics. Main idea of OSVR was in fully open-source system, so that any user of this system could take any different devices (e.g. Xbox Kinect, PS move cameras, etc), put it together, work a bit over the code, and get their own VR platform, supported in many games and game worlds.

    Before OSVR Razer did not have any experience in making VR headsets or systems, but Sensics had. Sensics were creating different headset for business owners, NASA and regular armies. So it was a combination of Razer fund and Sensics experience.

    First OSVR-based headset was released in 2016, after two years of development. It was called "Hacker Developer Kit 1" or shortly - HDK1, and got the price of 299$. The headset was extremely similar with Oculus Development Kit 2 (Oculus is one of the most popular choices in consumer VR nowadays), which means not that bad quality for lower price (Oculus DK2 price was about 499$ those days). After one more year, HDK2 was released. Better screens, positional tracking and official support of different periphery, such as Razer Hydra controllers, Wii-mote from Nintendo Wii, Xbox Kinect etc.

    Quality of headsets and their price made OSVR very competitive on the market, but it still was more like a product for geeks, who want to spend lot of time and efforts on hardware compatibility. Product was feeling good enough and things seemed to be promising.

 

    But then it has changed and things went very wrong.

     

    Valve Corporation has released their technology "Open VR" which supported all of the current headsets, systems, and that was fatal. Due to Open VR comfort and larger size of Valve Company, most of OSVR developers left their platform. Razer has stopped talking about their headsets from March 2017, and Sensics was the only company to stay with their technology. For about a year they were trying to keep OSVR alive, but suddenly stopped updating, posting news and company just dissapeared,

     For now, situation is following:

1. Github project has no updates since 2018.

2. OSVR website has no updates since 2016.

3. Razer has sold out all HDK with huge discount and doesn't plan to return on VR hardware market.

4. Sensics has just dissapeared.

5. Side projects based on OSVR choosed to change their main system.

    Unfortunately, fully open-source VR device is now dead.

 

 

2. Windows Mixed Reality - Microsoft, Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus, Acer.

     Windows Mixed Reality (or shortly - WMR) is mainly powered by Microsoft. Its history begins in 2015, when Microsoft has announced their Microsoft HoloLens - device similar to Google Glass.

     Though WMR was supposed to be a system for AR glasses (such as Microsoft HoloLens, Google Glass, etc), there were many different VR headsets made by side companies on base of WMR. How it worked - Microsoft made definite schemes and charts "how WMR must work and what must be included", and other companies made lot of their own VR headsets based on Microsoft designs.

    WMR suggested new system of tracking, that was not implemented before, and... Basically, that's all.

    The main feature of WMR-powered headsets was new system of positional tracking, called "inside-out", which means that you don't need any external sensors in your room, you have two cameras on your headset and that's enough.

    The main problems of WMR headsets were following - low quality of build, tracking system was not working correctly and had many issues, price were on the same level with more quality and interesting VR systems, almost all headsets were extremely similar (2 cameras, no speaker or headphones inside, 2 standart Microsoft controllers for WMR), etc.

    Later, new problems arrived - Oculus with Lenovo together released Oculus Rift S, which was on the same price level, but better, more pleasant, with 5 cameras for inside-out tracking (what solved almost every issue with positional tracking). At the same time, Microsoft unoficially stopped support of WMR, no new updates, no new headsets.

    For now, no one produces WMR headsets on base of old Microsoft charts, but things are not that hopeless as in case with OSVR. For couple of months ago, HP has suddenly announced their new WMR headset - HP Reverb G2, which get new better controllers, 4 cameras for tracking, screens with resolution next to human eyes, but a bit more expensive. Will it revive WMR or will it be a final chord in its history?

    The time will show.

3.  aGlass - module for eye-tracking in VR.

    The idea of module for eye-tracking in VR is very popular today, but now there are not so many options to choose from. aGlass became one of them, but from the very beginning this model was not a good option.

    Developers promised native support via NVIDIA drivers in all games - just setup module into your headset and job's done.

    Unfortunately, that was a lie. There were no any support from NVIDIA, drivers for module were not available or outdated, and moreover, even the games shown in official trailer didn't actually support this technology. On top of that, there were lot of technical problems.

    For now, there are no news from aGlass developers for about 2 years and project seems to be dead.