VMD-L Mailing List

From: Prof. Eddie (eackad_at_siue.edu)
Date: Wed Oct 11 2017 - 13:08:38 CDT

Pardon my ignorance, but does a prototypical implementation mean if I
purchase a VR computer with a oculus rift or vibe I can get it to visualize
in 3d?
Sorry for the simple question and thanks!
Eddie

On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 3:37 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
> I have prototypical implementations of interactive VR rendering
> in VMD already, but they are based on interactive ray tracing and
> they only work with the OpenHMD toolkit thus far.
>
> Up to now I have been waiting for a bit of cross-platform
> cross-HMD-vendor standardization to occur, but it has been slow in
> arriving.
> At Siggraph last month I met with members of the nascent OpenXR VR
> standardization effort, and I'm hoping to be able to join the
> OpenXR advisory panel which would let me get early access to the
> in-development standard and early test implementations thereof.
> I expect to use OpenXR as the basis for the more general implementation
> of VR HMD support in VMD going forward, which will alleviate the
> considerable
> development costs that would be associated with having to write different
> implementations for the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and various other existing
> and forthcoming HMDs. It is clear that this is the right way to go when
> you see some of the upcoming HMD designs that are quite different from
> the existing ones, needing APIs that are a bit broader and more general.
>
> As a hedge, if OpenXR ends up taking too long to become available to the
> community, I might consider doing some kind of light weight implementation,
> again using either OpenHMD or perhaps using the "OpenVR" code by Valve,
> but I'm really hoping to only have to write the code once, and to base it
> on OpenXR if things go the way I hope they do.
>
> Best regards,
> John Stone
> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>
> On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 04:29:49PM +0000, Christopher Neale wrote:
> > Dear all:
> > I am excited about the VMD developments that permit interaction with
> the
> > Occulus Rift (or similar VR tech), but the only text that I can find
> > (copied below) is vague enough that I don't really understand the
> breadth
> > of what can be done with VMD and the rift.
> > the site: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/minitutorials/vrmovies/
> > has the text: One of the advanced features provided by VMD versions
> 1.9.3
> > and later is the ability to render omnidirectional stereoscopic 3-D
> images
> > and movies, useful to create so-called "VR" movies on YouTube and for
> VR
> > HMD movie players on devices such as GearVR, Oculus Rift, and others.
> > Am I right to understand that one has to first "render" an interactive
> > world that can then later be interacted with via the rift (rotating
> and
> > zooming the viewpoint interactively)? Or is this simply a stereoscipic
> > movie?
> > Can the rift be used at all without extensive pre-rendering? If so,
> is it
> > simply a passive steroscopic viewer or can it be more immersive?
> > Finally, since a stereoscopic view has two views, do I need two video
> > cards, or just one?
> > Thanks for the help,
> > Chris.
>
> --
> NIH Center for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ Phone: 217-244-3349
> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/
>
> 

-- 
_________________________________________________________
Edward Ackad, Ph.D <http://www.siue.edu/%7Eeackad>
Assistant Professor of Physics
Computational Nanophotonics
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
(618) 650-2390