Dave Rowe (Strachan Ofarrel in SL) has released an update to his experimental version of the CtrlAltStudio viewer with support for Oculus Rift (Windows only).

CtrlAltStudio version 1.1.7.34400, released on Wednesday December 18th, allows the user to turn their avatar with a simple turn of the head when seated and using Riftlook.

The capability has been developed in conjunction with Tom Willans at the Serious Games Institute of Coventry University, here in the UK, and the release notes for the new version, together with the blog post announcing the release, describe the function thus:

There are two ways to use this option:

Setting the slider to 0° makes the turning happen all the time. This enables you to look at something then if you continue looking at it, your view will gradually rotate so that the object lies straight ahead and you can thus walk towards it. Setting the slider to a value such as 45° makes turning start after you look left or right 45° or more. Turning then continues until you look straight ahead again. Depending on the value you set and how flexible your neck is, the effect can be like a gesture that initiates turning.

The new capability can be found in the Oculus Rift section of Preferences > Graphics > Display Output.

Strachan has invited those who have a headset to try the capability and to let him have their feedback. So if you do, please drop him a line on his blog.

This release also brings with it:

A change of the Rift prediction delta default value from 20ms to 35ms to improve typical perceived latency.

A fix mouselook not being able to turn more than +/-180°.

If you have been using previous versions of the 1.1 Alpha release of CtrlAltStudio, you should be able to install 1.1.7.34400 directly over it. However, if you have been using the 1.0 release (stereoscopic) version, a clean install is recommended.

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