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Topics - Tbone

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1
News and Announcements / Meta Connect 2024
« on: September 25, 2024, 01:37:22 pm »
Meta Connect 2024 featured several major announcements across hardware, AI, and the metaverse. Here's a brief summary of the key reveals:

Hardware Announcements
Quest 3S VR Headset
Meta introduced the Quest 3S, a more affordable VR headset priced at $299.99. It shares many features with the pricier Quest 3 but lacks a depth sensor and has lower resolution displays.

Orion AR Glasses
Meta unveiled its Orion augmented reality glasses, which project images directly in front of the user's eyes using Micro LED technology and waveguides. These glasses are still in development and not yet available for purchase.

Ray-Ban Smart Glasses Updates
The Ray-Ban smart glasses received software updates, including a new Reminders feature and improvements to Meta AI responsiveness. New styles and transition lenses were also introduced.

AI Advancements
New Llama Model
Meta launched an updated Llama AI model with visual processing capabilities, allowing it to analyze images.

Meta AI Enhancements
Meta AI received upgrades, including the ability to generate content tailored to users' interests for Facebook and Instagram feeds.

Celebrity AI Chatbots
Meta introduced AI representations of celebrities on Meta AI, accessible through Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.

Meta Connect is still ongoing...

3
Support / Stability Issues with CPU/RAM/Mobo
« on: November 03, 2022, 08:50:24 pm »
Not sure who will see this who can help, but figured I'd post so that I can at least organize my thoughts.

Rig:

ASRock x570m Pro4
Ryzen 5 3600
Corsair LPX Vengeance 8x2 3000mhz DDR4 RAM
Nvidia 3080
MSI MPG A850GF Gaming Power Supply
Corsair 4000D Airflow Case

I upgraded the CPU, RAM, and Mobo back in 2019, the video card in 2020, and the PSU and case a few weeks ago.

After my first upgrade, I was stuck in a boot loop for a while. I e eventually solved this by manually setting some voltage for the RAM and CPU. I used the XMP profile to get 3000mhz at 1.35v. The CPU had to be manually set to 3600mhz at 1.3v. This allowed me to boot normally.

After upgrading to the 3080 and trying more intense games/apps, I would sometimes get crashes that seemed power related (no BSOD - just a sudden shut off and turn back on). I undervolted the GPU which seemed to help a bit but noticed I would still occasionally get these crashes.

Recently I did some more testing and found that it was actually my CPU that was likely causing the crash, as temps were quickly getting into the 90s and beyond when running something. I switched out my case and the power supply (as it was very very old), but ultimately it was lowering the voltage of the CPU that helped the most. I'm now running the CPU at 1.28v with a -.05 offset. Any lower and the computer resets itself.

It's been pretty stable since this change, with temps staying in the 70s in games like Cyberpunk. BUT I'm still running a higher than recommended voltage and I'm still having to throttle the frequency at 3600, so my temps are still higher than normal and performance could be a little better. I just don't know if this is something I can fix or if I should have RMA'd something back in 2019. Everything is up to date (bios, etc). I've heard the RAM can cause issues for some reason, but everything should be compatible and play nice with each other.

4
General / The Quest Pro
« on: October 12, 2022, 07:34:32 pm »
Meta has officially announced their newest headset, the Quest Pro. Perhaps you're here because you're curious about this new headset. It's a $1500 device that adds pancake lenses, face/eye tracking, and better screens with QLED and local dimming tech. Most of the upgrades, however, have gone into the passthrough feature. It's 4x the resolution of Quest 2's passthrough and adds color and depth. All of this is an attempt to add augmented reality to the device.

For VR gaming the general consensus is that this headset is a hard pass. The upgrades for VR are minimal. The screen resolution remains the same. There is better clarity via the pancake lenses, which offer a much larger sweet spot. The panels also provide mechanical ipd adjustment and better contrast. The headset is more comfortable due to the thinner optics.

The sides of the headset, however, are left open to help with AR. As a result there is extreme light leak. There are magnetic attachments that fix this on the sides, but you'll still get the light leak from the bottom. To fix this, you'll need to buy a $50 add on gasket, an insult after spending $1500. Even if you think the new features like face and eye tracking would improve your VR experience, they are locked to standalone only and don't work in PCVR. What about foveated rendering? Apparently a dead end since the processing to perform it costs about as much as you'd save by using it.

There's no direct PC connection still (and probably never will be). It does use wifi 6e, so theoretically you might get better Airlink from the device, though using a cable will still be a better experience.

Even if you are super excited about AR, first impressions say it's still not there yet. And even if you did find something compelling to do with the headset, it only has a 1-2 hour battery life if using all its features. This isn't even long enough to last half a work day of meetings or work sessions, which is the main purpose of the device.

The Quest 3 is rumored to be coming next year and should have a lot of the VR improvements that the Quest Pro has (pancake lenses and an even better chip) while cutting some of the useless new features (face tracking) to keep the price down. That device should be between $300-$500.

Wait for the Quest 3.

5
VR Gaming / Zenith (VR MMO)! Come join us!
« on: January 31, 2022, 07:22:13 pm »
We're on shard: Waverider_US_EAST

It's a classic WoW circa-2005 style MMO with pretty good VR mechanics for combat, climbing, flying/gliding, cooking, etc. We're playing nightly 9-11 p.m. EST. Make sure you hop in Discord when you jump in and make sure you get added to the guild in-game!

Join Zenith's Discord to learn more!

6
VR Gaming / Quest 2 Link Best Settings (Finally Better Than Rift S)
« on: December 15, 2021, 04:09:59 pm »
I've had a Quest 2 and Rift S for a long time, using the Rift S for PC gaming and Quest 2 for when I go out of town. I had tried Air Link to compare and the quality was horrible, so I stuck with Rift S. Well, there's been a few patches since then and I've finally sat down and tried to tweak the Quest 2 for PCVR. The Quest 2 has the better screen, so if you can get everything else out of the way, the Quest 2 can become one of the best PCVR headsets you can own. Getting there is a bit of a journey, but here's how...


  • Use a Link Cable, not Airlink
Yes, yes, I know. You want the freedom of wireless. You can do that, and you can THINK the quality is good enough, but be aware there are big tradeoffs. What we're attempting to do is crank up the bitrate to remove any and all artifacts, crank up the resolution to take advantage of Quest 2's pixels, and crank up the refresh rate to improve the overall experience. There's no way to do all three with Airlink, and certainly not at the threshold we need to meet. I got a cheap Link Cable for $16 and so far it's working great!

  • Oculus Device Advanced Settings
And so our balancing act begins. Let's get this out of the way. 120Hz refresh rate is great and can feel very smooth, but it's experimental for a reason. In my opinion the tradeoffs are NOT worth it. You'll have to lower the resolution to try to get a steady 120fps, and it actually drains the Quest 2's battery quicker (more on that later). I have a 3080 and still decided against 120Hz. As a result, my settings are:

Oculus Desktop Menu - Devices - Quest 2 and Touch - Advanced - Graphics Preferences

Refresh Rate (90Hz)
Render Resolution 1.5x (5408x2736)

You want to crank that resolution as high as your computer can stand. This is the best place to supersample, though you can push it further using OTT or ODT. 90Hz is a higher refresh rate and, therefore, an improvement over the Rift S, but you can lower it as a compromise if you have trouble getting the frames.

  • OTT or ODT Settings
Ok, here's where we're gonna get rid of the Link artifacts. You have two options. I recommend downloading Oculus Tray Tools but you can also browse to your Oculus installation and find the Support folder, Oculus Diagnostics folder, and use OculusDebugTool.

In OTT click "Quest Link" on the left menu. You'll find similar settings in ODT:

Distortion Curvature: Low (more detail in the peripherals)
Encode Resolution: 3970 3664
Bitrate: 480+
Link Sharpening: Enabled

Having the bitrate at 500 is important here. It gets rid of all streaming artifacts and achieves the same fidelity as if you were plugged into the graphics card itself. Any lower and you'll notice an annoying shimmering blockiness, especially on things in the distance. Even 400 will not cut it. Priority is to keep this at 500! You can paste in higher values. I currently have mine set to 800, but you can go as high as 960. The higher you go, the more likely you are to experience issues however.

In OTT go back to Game Settings. You can optionally set Default Super Sampling here if your graphics card can handle it. This will multiply with the resolution you set in the Oculus settings, so be very conservative here. I've set my default to 1.2, but for games such as HL: Alyx or Lone Echo 2, I'm leaving this at 1.0. If you click "View & Edit" under Profiles you can change the super sampling per game using OTT. This requires a bit of trial and error, but it allows you to really tweak the fidelity per game.

  • SteamVR Settings

The above settings will kill your performance in SteamVR as any attempt at supersampling from Steam's software will multiply what you've already done, tanking your performance instantly. Our goal here is to set the SteamVR settings as close to baseline as possible and let the Oculus software do all the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, it's a little counter-intuitive and took some trial and error and Googling on my part, but here's what you want:

SteamVR Settings - Video

Refresh Rate: 90 Hz (should be automatic)
Render Resolution: Custom
Resolution Per Eye: 62% (2556x2580)
Advanced Supersample Filtering - Off
Overlay Render Quality - Medium

Note: I've also heard 100% resolution per eye is the way to go here, so try both.

Your impulse is going to be to leave "resolution per eye" to 100%, but this is actually supersampling what you've already done. 62% is the closest real resolution to the Quest 2, and so you want to force that setting. I'm not certain what "Advanced Supersampling" does, but I'm just getting rid of any supersampling Steam is attempting. "Overlay Render" probably doesn't make a difference, but I'm just trying to avoid any hiccups when menu hopping.

You could stop right here and be good to go. Your settings may differ from mine, but I believe the priorities are:

Bitrate 500 > Render Resolution > Super Sampling > Refresh Rate

If you're sensitive to a lower refresh rate and really want that feeling of smooth presence, you may want to sacrifice super sampling before refresh rate - just remember 120Hz is currently a trap. There are also other ways to make the Quest 2 closer to feature parity with the Rift S...

  • Comfort
This is actually pretty important as the default headstrap for the Quest 2 is abysmal. I personally recommend a Halo style 3rd party strap for the Quest 2 to get it feeling like the Rift S, but I've also heard positive things about a simple head pad for the back of the strap as well. Some sort of counterweight on the back of the strap is also helpful, but this is where things get complicated. I had to 3D print an external battery mount that would be compatible with a Halo strap since the adjustment dial is directly on the back, but I believe there are now options of getting a Halo strap with battery holder already included.

Both the Rift S and Quest 2 lack headphones, and I recommend getting some Porta Pros and zip tying them to the sides of the strap (works for Halo - not so much of the OG strap of Quest 2). This improves the audio quite a bit! I also recommend feeding the Link cable to the back of the strap and attaching it there so that the weight of the cable pulls at the back of your head and not the side of your face. It's a lot of work, but the end result is a HUGE improvement in comfort!

  • Downsides
There are a few caveats to using the Quest 2 as your primary PCVR headset instead of getting an expensive one designed solely for that purpose. One major drawback was already mentioned - the amount of modding needed to make it comfortable and improve the audio. This, however, would be an issue even if you were using the Quest 2 as standalone, so it's something you'd want to deal with either way if you already have one.

The other glaring issue is the battery life. Despite the Quest 2 being plugged directly into the PC, it seems it still doesn't charge fast enough to stay at 100%. Your headset will still slowly drain while playing and plugging it into the PC takes up the charging port, so there's no way for you to have an all day marathon session. This is another reason to avoid 120Hz, as it drains even faster. I still need to do more testing to see how much it drains, but after 2.5 hours of watching a movie it was at 49%.

Finally the Link cable itself can be a bit of a crap shoot when looking for third party. This one has worked well for me so far, but they can be fickle and the official one is still a whopping $80. If you have trouble, try Google for a solution (I had to disable Air Link on the Quest 2 to get regular Link working).

7
News and Announcements / New Matrix Online? "Matrix Awakens" UE5 Demo
« on: December 10, 2021, 06:53:12 pm »
There's finally a new Matrix game! Well...a Matrix demo. And, well...not for PC. But man it looks good! Epic Game released a new demo for Unreal Engine 5, and it takes place within the Matrix! The city itself will be given away to developers to do with as they please, which makes me think that they won't actually turn it into the new MxO, but maybe someone else will! Check it out!

https://venturebeat.com/2021/12/09/epic-games-shows-off-unreal-engine-5-realism-with-stunning-the-matrix-awakens-demo/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU0gvPcc3jQ

8
Oculus Quest VR headsets will no longer require a Facebook account.

Quote from: Zuck
As we’ve focused more on work, and frankly as we’ve heard your feedback more broadly, we’re working on making it so you can log in into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account. We’re starting to test support for work accounts soon, and we’re working on making a broader shift here, within the next year.

It's still unclear exactly when the change will happen and what it will be replaced with, but you can assume you'll probably still need some sort of "Meta" account. You'll just no longer be required to tie the account to a social media account like Facebook.

If you already have an Oculus account, you can get a Quest headset without fear of eventually needing to link a Facebook account to it (2023 WAS the deadline). If you don't have an Oculus account, however, currently a Facebook account is still needed to create a new one. This will eventually change - we're just not sure when.

9
Today was the start of Oculus Facebook Meta Connect.

Most of it was talking about their dream for the Metaverse and how they plan to connect people in VR, AR, and a mix of both and create everything you think of when you think of the Metaverse. All of this is 5-10 years away, though they do have a few launched apps (their Horizon stuff) that is the initial building blocks. They're so dedicated to the cause of building the Metaverse that they are renaming their company to "Meta", so...there ya go. No more Oculus but also no Facebook branding either.

They did tease the launch of a new "high end" headset coming sometime next year, titled Project Cambria for the moment. All we know is it will have face and eye tracking, new optics using "pancake lenses", and additional sensors for a better passthrough that will be in color and allow for Mixed Reality. More details coming next year. They basically said this will be a separate product line that's more expensive that the Quest product line but will have more features.

No real announcements on the AR front other than to say they have a two pronged approach of seeing what they can fit into a glasses form factor now while working on features that they hope to get to a glasses form factor sometime in the future. Their only launched product are glasses that can take pictures and videos and play music (no screen).

The other thing to note is a VR port of GTA: San Andreas which will be coming, I believe, EXCLUSIVELY to the Quest 2 (similar to Resident Evil 4 which was just released). It seems if you want the best of what Oculus Facebook Meta has to offer, you'll eventually have to commit to their product line instead of depending on workarounds like ReVive.

10
General / "Matrix: Resurrections" Theories
« on: September 09, 2021, 02:19:59 pm »
Please base your theories off of officially released footage and, of course, MxO storylines! Don't post leaks or spoilers.

Ok, I just watched the first official trailer and the big thing that stood out to me is the color palate. As we all know, the Matrix was shown in a green tint and the real world in a blue tint. The trailer footage, however, was almost entirely yellow. So what's up with that? Well, when Neo gets close to and interacts with the Source, it's all in yellow code.

The yellow to me is a pretty clear indicator that Neo is not in the Matrix but in the Source. There's a clip at the very end of the trailer where Neo is talking to someone and he says "After all these years...to go back to where it started...back to the Matrix." This would heavily imply that they aren't currently IN the Matrix.

So Neo is being kept plugged into the Source and is living a successful life in some way (he seems to be in a nice bathtub). His subconscious is trying to wake him back up, however, and my guess is that he is subconsciously creating a part of his reality - young Morpheus, young Oracle, following the white rabbit - his subconscious is trying to recreate what woke him up the first time, so he's going through a lot of familiar steps and throwbacks.

As for Trinity, my initial guess would be of course that Neo is creating her from code as well, but we see a flash of a real life Trinity plugged in, so...it's possible the Machines kept her alive and deploy her as a means to keep Neo contained at the Source instead of trying to wake up again ("The only thing that matters to you is still here.") So even after Neo becomes aware, he isn't going to leave until he can also get Trinity out.

There's also shots of both Neo and Trinity seeing other versions of themselves. Neo looks in a mirror and his RSI is shifting around to completely different looks. Trinity actually screams and splits into different looking versions of herself. I don't know if this means they are programs like Agents where they are inhabiting others, or it's just different iterations of themselves/remembering past lives (we know that that The One has been reincarnated/created several times). Along those lines this could be the machines trying to re-assimilate The One back into the Matrix but he refuses to be "reborn" because of his attachment to Trinity. I think the film will play with the idea of identity and how we see ourselves. It also seems to have themes of dealing with mental illness, and I think a lot of the movie will be representative of Neo's internal struggle.

Of course it is possible that this is a newer or older version of the Matrix (we are watching the next iteration or a previous iteration), but the yellow code and the line about going back to the Matrix makes me think that this movie doesn't take place in the Matrix where all the remaining humans are plugged into but instead a private Matrix closer to the Source (maybe a Matrix still in beta testing lol).

I know MxO played with the idea that Neo and Trinity were still in the Matrix as sentient programs - reconstructed code. The fact that we see a RL Trinity plugged in makes me think we aren't seeing just the "code" version, though there could be "constructed" versions of many of the main characters (including Trinity and maybe even Neo) along with the real versions of our two main characters.

Overall I'm extremely excited for the movie! I like the idea of it being a smaller-in-scope script focusing on Neo's internal struggle. I am onboard for the fan service of possibly going through a lot of the same things that happened in the original Matrix as a means for Neo to "wake up" again and am interested to see how meta that gets (young Morpheus appears to be showing Neo footage of The Matrix movie inside of a theater). I'm very curious to see if this will be the definitive ending to the Matrix, the beginning of a new trilogy (a la Star Wars), or a soft reset to introduce new characters for potential spin off movies/shows. Either way, the trailer looks amazing!

11
VR Gaming / Population: One
« on: October 29, 2020, 06:23:39 pm »
We've been playing this nightly and are quickly getting hooked. It's a battle royale game for VR - cross platform with Steam, Oculus PC, and Quest/Quest 2. Join us on Discord. We are gaming most nights around 9 p.m. EST.

12
General / Nvidia 3070/3080/3090 Releasing this Month!
« on: September 06, 2020, 12:46:54 pm »
Maybe not worth a news post but at least a discussion. These cards leap frog over previous generations in terms of performance while keeping the price relatively low.

3070 > 2080 Ti at $499
3080 = TWO TIMES a 2080 at $699
3090 has no comparison at $1499

This should make VR gaming much smoother. I'm personally going to upgrade from my 980 Ti to the 3080!

13
If you'd like to take a trip down memory lane and see how The Furious Angels all began, DeaconBlue has released an episode of his podcast, Datanodeone, interviewing Tbone. Have a listen!

You can also find interviews with previous FA members Fuse and Manicvelocity!

Tbone interview: https://anchor.fm/datanodeone/episodes/Episode-11---Tbone-Interview-ed8d7f/a-a21d3e1

Other interviews: https://anchor.fm/datanodeone

14
You can now load the 48 GBs of Half-Life: Alyx! The game itself won't be available to play until this Monday at 1 p.m. / noon Central! If you're like me, you don't have anything else to do and are stuck at home anyway! You should be able to play the game on the Rift, Rift S, Quest+Link, Index, and probably a few other VR HMDs as well.

15
Trailer:



Half-Life 3 1.5 confirmed! It's predicted that this will be a major boost for VR in general.

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