View an image on the Fakespace HMD

[roman_suvorov]

Hello, not sure if this is the place to ask this, but here goes ..
I'm suspecting that there's a problem with our Fakespace Labs' HMD: it seems to not display enough of the peripheral area. I created a simple 1600 x 1200 px. image (1600 x 1200 is the HMD's max resolution) to test it out:

Now in Vizard this "magic" line of code splits the output into 4 images so that when viewed on the HMD one can take advantage of the wide view angle:

import fakespace
...
fakespace.wide5(ipd = 0.06, yaw = 11.25, pitchN = 10.0, pitchW = 5.0)

I was wondering if there is a way to load the image above into Vizard or something to really be sure there's a problem with our HMD (i.e., only lines 3-17 will be visible)? If there a way to do this without Vizard that will do too.
I tried simply viewing the image full-screen when the HMD is connected through a DVI splitter (essentialy like the 'mirrored' mode when you connect an external display), no luck, only a part of the image is seen.

[farshizzo]

Are you using the correct yaw/pitch offsets that were specified in the user manual for your particular HMD model? These offset values can vary between different models.

Here is some code that will fill the entire window with a texture:

import viz
viz.go()

quad = viz.addTexQuad(parent=viz.ORTHO)
quad.alignment(viz.TEXT_LEFT_BOTTOM)
viz.link(viz.WindowSize,quad,mask=viz.LINK_SCALE)

texture = viz.add('image.jpg')
quad.texture(texture)

[roman_suvorov]

Hi farshizzo,
I just tested out that piece of code.. Well, when using this 800 x 600 image:

What appears on the monitor screen looks like this:

(Vizard notifies us that it's "Scaling image 'hmdTest1.bmp' from (800,600) to (1024,512)")

With this 1600 x 1200 image:

The output on the monitor screen looks almost the same as in the previous case (three quarters of the screen are blank):

Again, Vizard says that it's "Scaling image 'hmdTest2.bmp' from (1600,1200) to (2048,1024)")

In both cases the HMD itself shows garbage: no lines, a mess of white and black dots instead.

Two questions:
1) Is there a way to prevent Vizard from scaling the image?
2) Even though the results are at least strange, one can see that the image displayed in top-left quadrant appears shifted. Does that tell us right away that I wasn't using correct yaw/pitch offsets in fakespace.wide5 function call?

[farshizzo]

Did you use the code exactly as I posted? You should not be using the fakespace module, since your image is simulating the final output.

[roman_suvorov]

Thanks farshizzo, I get it now. Your code works although the image is still definitely "shifted" in the same way as before (see thumbnail below). One thing I do not understand is why this shift is present now when I don't even set up the HMD's yaw/pitch offsets? How can I center the image properly?

[farshizzo]

The code I posted will display the entire image on the screen. If you ran the exact code I posted and it doesn't work, then there might be an issue with your graphics card or driver. Are you using the correct drivers for your card?

[roman_suvorov]

Hi farshizzo, the computer I'm running this on is brand-new so it's unlikely there's a problem with the GPU itself.
I just updated the GPU drivers for my NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT to v. 6.14.11.7516 (released 02/05/2008, digitally signed, latest version according to NVIDIA website). The problem persists: the computer monitor shows the image "shifted", HMD shows not all of the lines, right side is blurred and all messed up. At this point I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with the HMD itself. It also gets insanely hot within minutes..

[farshizzo]

If you completely disconnect the HMD from your system and run this script, does the image show up fine on your monitor?

[roman_suvorov]

Just tried it; no, the problem persists.

[farshizzo]

Well, that rules out the HMD. Can you try using the texture crosshair.png with the above sample code? Does the crosshair fill up the screen? Your entire script should look like this:

import viz
viz.go()

quad = viz.addTexQuad(parent=viz.ORTHO)
quad.alignment(viz.TEXT_LEFT_BOTTOM)
viz.link(viz.WindowSize,quad,mask=viz.LINK_SCALE)

texture = viz.add('crosshair.png')
quad.texture(texture)

And the output should look like the attached image.

[roman_suvorov]

Yeah, this works, although the crosshair doesn't fill up the whole screen, it's shown in a window like this (see attached image).
Don't you have to use

viz.go(viz.FULLSCREEN)

instead to get the full-screen output? When I do that the image is shown full-screen properly.

[farshizzo]

You don't need to go fullscreen, I just want to make sure the graphics window displays the correct image. So when you replace the crosshair texture with your own pattern, the pattern doesn't fill up the entire graphics window? Have you tried reducing the size of your pattern texture to 1024x1024? Your card might not support larger textures. Other than that, I don't know what else could be wrong with your system.

[roman_suvorov]

Tried resizing the texture image to 1024 x 1024 and to 2048 x 1024. In both cases the problem persists (with the HMD completely disconnected).
The problem is apparent only in Vizard, this "shift" doesn't seem to show up anywhere.

[roman_suvorov]

OK, this is getting confusing. The same 1600 x 1200 image

looks just fine when I convert it to JPG format first (all the previous tests were with BMP's, I probably should've mentioned it ).
It seems that not all BMPs exhibit the problem. I tried a hi-res version of The Dark Side of the Moon album cover (it'd easy to see if its image is shifted), 1600 x 1200 (see attached). Both the JPG and the BMp work just fine.
I'm confused.

[farshizzo]

Can you post the bmp version of the image that does not work correctly? I'd like to check which format it is in.

[roman_suvorov]

Sure, neither of these 4 are displayed correctly (see attached).

[roman_suvorov]

This might be at least part of the issue: I double-checked with NVIDIA control panel v. 1.5.2400.10, and it shows that the HMD's resolution is set to 1024 x 768 as opposed to its native 1600 x 1200. There are no options apart from 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 and it wouldn't accept a custom setting of 1600 x 1200. Should I revert back to my old GPU driver?