This alpha release of the CtrlAltStudio Viewer updates to Rift SDK 0.4.3 and adds the following Rift display options:

Dynamic prediction — Adjust prediction based on latency feedback.

Timewarp — Reproject scene during distortion rendering.

Timewarp waits — Wait until the last moment to do timewarp.

V Sync — Wait for and swap buffers at monitor vertical sync.

Low persistence — Display low persistence images.

Pixel overdrive — Over-drive brightness transitions to reduce artefacts.

All these options are enabled by default. Changes take effect immediately (no viewer restart required) so you can easily experiment with them.

The “Timewarp waits” option shouldn’t really be made visible to the user, but in my testing I found that it seemed to help to be able to turn it off if rendering at significantly less than the frame rate the DK2 is set at. The variability of the frame-to-frame timing in Second Life may well be why.

The optimum settings depend on what frame rate you’re achieving and your personal preferences and sensitivities to different display behaviour: if you’re achieving the ideal of 75Hz including while turning your head then the default of all options enabled is best; otherwise you will probably want to try disabling one or more, consider configuring your Rift display to 60Hz, and possibly try enabling triple buffering in your display driver.

Other changes this version:

Updated GPU table. This now includes NIVIDIA GTX 970 and 980 graphics cards.

Fixed Riftllook mouse hover target and context menu locations for in-world objects.

Fixed Rift positioning in third person orbit camera view.

Please note that this alpha still does not work with direct mode, and Advanced Lighting Model needs to be turned on. It is built using the 0.4.3 Rift SDK and if you haven’t done so already you should update to the 0.4.3 Oculus runtime.

Viewer download:

Windows installer: 1.2.2.41214 Alpha 4, 2 Nov 2014.

Mac OSX installer: Sorry, no Mac OSX installer.

Release Notes.