Supporting virtual reality displays in Linux

Posted Mar 13, 2018 14:33 UTC (Tue) by JFlorian (guest, #49650)
Parent article: Supporting virtual reality displays in Linux

Great article! I love reading about how processes become more "formalized", as with the device leasing here. Nothing seems as profound to me as what USB did to RS-232/422/485.

Note to Keith, you're not the last person in the universe; I still don't have a VR display nor have I even ever used one. I wear glasses, primarily for astigmatism so going w/o isn't an option for me (that I know of). I'm still utterly baffled how anybody can focus on something so close to their eyes. Anyone with pointers to interesting reading about how this works would be most welcome.

Oh and for some hi-tech nostalgia, I still have a 20" Hitachi CRT that can do 1600x1200 @ 85 Hz. I had to author my own modelines for the first 3~5 years. It's stunning for what it is, why is why I can't let it go, though it's wasted in my micro-datacenter for KVM use. I'd never even considered that anyone (e.g., gamers) might covet such a thing. I'd hate to see the bill for shipping it though!

Supporting virtual reality displays in Linux

Posted Mar 14, 2018 1:35 UTC (Wed) by excors (subscriber, #95769) [Link]

The lenses in the headset are set up so the displays appear to be roughly 1 meter away, so it should be about the same as focusing on a regular monitor. You can wear the headset on top of regular glasses too (though you might need to move it slightly away from your face, which reduces FOV).

(I get minor problems if I pick up a virtual object and hold it close to my face (like <20cm), because the parallax is telling my brain that the object is close and so my eyes should focus nearer, but then the displays are still at effectively ~1m and are no longer in focus. If I close one eye then it removes the conflicting signals and I can focus fine again.)