So we received our new batch of Oculus Rift DK2 kits. INCREDIBLE. The future is here. BUT. Development is slow due to the new SDK and 75hz limitation “cap”.. looong road a head.



Trying to develop true “future” generation content at 75hz, is near impossible. Most “next gen” consoles and “next gen” console titles can barely manage 60Hz at HD, let a lone 75hz at over 2K rendered in stereo …and we are not a fully fledged development studio with $100,000’s nor $1,000,000’s to dip into.

We are an indie studio in the truest sense of the word.

We’ve had lots of comments from people who have shown a huge amount of interest in what we are doing. I wanted to say a massive thank you for being as patient as you have been with us. We are doing our utmost to try and get some products developed. Because we are such a small development studio with such tight budgets, we rely heavily on other freelancers from all over the world to help us integrate cutting edge effects and shaders into Unity. This is very difficult to do. Time and money are a constant battle. We are winning! We’re getting closer and closer each day but it takes time.

Users have posted asking to see some screen shots of progress, so I wanted to share some new results. Slightly technical. We’ve been working hard on integrating hair, better skin and some other effects like HBAO and HDAO. AO = Ambient Occlusion.

UE4 already has AO built in, so we are trying to make sure that Unity can match UE4’s visuals, as this is the best real-time visual bar there is at the moment. Because Unity is much more open ended and can supported hybrid Forward and Deferred rendering, whilst UE4 cannot, this makes Unity more attractive. UE4 has some Screen Space SSS in the works but for the time being we are sticking with Unity. So the plan is to beef up Unity as much as we can.

UE4 HBAO

Unity HBAO

With HBAO and HDAO

Without HBAO and HDAO

HBAO and HDAO only

Comparison with and without

Ambient Occlusion is a subtle effect but it’s integral to ground objects into the world. Rather than baking in AO we now have dynamic AO, which will coincide with our real-time skin deformation research. We are trying to convert everything over to be Physically Based.

The hardest part so far has been the jump from DX9 to DX11 and trying to go fully deferred which just isn’t an option for real-time skin and hair. So we have to go hybrid.

The next hurdle we face is the self imposed limitation by Oculus of 75Hz.

Some experts on Reddit pointed this out: