Alienware M18's serie & Oculus Rift: (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems, Games, etc) Discussion Thread

Hello folks,
first of all I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and my best wishes to all the Alienware's community, our big tech family here on the Internet.
I am opening this thread because I think that we need some point of meeting to find out all the information about VR's system working in our Alienware laptops.
I am planning to buy an Oculus Rift DK2 and before doing that I am gathering all the information available here and there to make sure the DK2 is compatible with Alienware's laptops.

I would like also to ask people from here to contribute with their knowledge about this (issues, workarounds, settings, and so on...) to this thread. I will organize all the information that we will manage to gather and I will try to make it as much easy to follow as I can.

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First here you have a short description about what Oculus rift is and the differents models availables nowadays.
"The Oculus Rift is a new virtual reality headset that lets players step inside their favorite games and virtual worlds."
Source: Oculus Rift Official homepage

For more information about the product (like ordering and shipping, etc...) I suggest to you to go to their support web page.

Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 Support web page

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Models available on the market ( DK stands for Development Kit):

DK1

This is the first model that showed up:
As far as I know it is no longer available to buy from an official source but you can still find it through second-hand market or even brand new here on ebay (not confirmed). Do not recommend to acquire this model as I consider this one to be completely outdated.

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DK2

This is the latest model you can get your hands on but still is not the consumer version that would be out there let's say some point next year or at least I hope so.



Most significant tech specs for the latest headset, the Development Kit 2:

• 1080p OLED screen running at 75 Hz
• 960-by-1080 pixels per eye
• 100 degree field of view
• Accelerometer
• Gyroscope
• Magnetometer
• HDMI and USB cable
• Weighs less than 0.5 Kg

Source: Everything you need to know about the Oculus Rift

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I found this comparison chart (the full one is linked here. There is more than just DK1 & DK2 models, so I made the image below to put together both DKs. You can click on it to enlarge.):

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Current supported games

List of games with Oculus Rift support

Other list

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Current supported games tested by forum users

I will fill this table as soon as I have users that report their experience with a certain app, demo or game.

I suggest the following contents for the table (still thinking about it so if you came up with better content list for the table just let me know and I will update it asap)

• App/demo/game
• User rig
• Drivers & DK software that are being used
• Oculus version
• Experience
• Issues
• Any suggestions?

App | Game | Demo	User	System	Oculus Rift Version	Report
Assetto Corsa v1.0.1	Nikos	Alienware M18X-R2 | 3920XM @ 4.5 | SLI680M	Oculus Rift DK 2	THIS IS AN EXAMPLE

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Drivers, SDK & more

This part contains the latest info about Oculus's SDK as well other drivers non developed by them like vorpX & TriDef 3D & Vireio Perception.

Official SDK:

Link to SDK's download page

Non-official Drivers

Vorpx

VorpX is a 3D-driver for virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift. Play many existing DirectX9, 10 and 11 games on your Oculus Rift in true stereoscopic 3D today. And vorpX is more than just a 3D-driver, many features are specifically tailored towards VR, ensuring the best possible experience when playing your games on a VR headset.
Web: Vorpx
Supported Games List
Price: 29.99 EUR - 36.53 US$



Non-official drivers comparison:

Tridef, VorpX, Vireio: the battle

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News and announcements

Sep 18, 2014 - NVIDIA VR Direct: Oculus Optimized & VR SLI

I am going crazy trying to confirm if those new features would be available not just in their latest 900 series. I hope this new feature is a driver upgrade and not a combination of driver and hardware. At the moment I could not find any news or forums clarifying that so we have to wait and have faith in NVIDIA. Hope they do not hold this back from old series owners.

Sep 18, 2014 - Anandtech | NVIDIA VR Direct: Oculus Optimized & VR SLI
This is not confirmed yet but Anandtech wrote "So while these features are very useful to have on GeForce hardware, they are not necessarily all ideas that NVIDIA has come up with or technologies that are limited to NVIDIA hardware (or even the Maxwell 2 architecture)." this could draw some light at the end of the tunnel about retro-compatibility for VR Direct and VR SLI.

NOTE: As soon as we prove or disprove this news I will take them out or move to other part of the thread. So feel free to write about what you find on the way.

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As I do not have any DK for the moment I can not write direct information to the thread but I hope that with your help we can make this thread really useful.
I hope you like my idea and if any moderators want to make some changes, you are very welcome.
That's all folks by now.

 

reserved

As Oculus Rift is a new matter to me, I would like some feedback about what would you add or remove? If I am missing something important or do not know whatever kind of info will be very appreciated.
Thank you

 

Well I can tell you that with my AW 18 setup it work. A bit better in single GPU mode but works. Have been playing around with it for about 2 months now.

It works but as it is a dev. kit it does not work all the time with the settings.

First steps to get it working is to turn the screen 90° as when you connect it for the first time it will be in "Portraid" mode.
A lot of ppl recommend using in extended desktop but for me some programs work in extended and some only in clone mode. Also some programs you have to start in "direct to oculus " (after installing you get extra option when right clicking on icons) and sometimes you just have to run it as admin. Also most programs will not show the image you see with the DK on the notebooks screen. It just show a blank screen (will have to look into that) might be driver issue. Demos however works just fine and you get the displayed double image on the notebooks screen aswell.

As for vorpx and DK2....it worked for a bit. Did a few tests with ARMA II. Game looked good but was laggy (on SLI ...was not able to test on single GPU). After the driver update for DK2 vorpx just crashes no matter what i try. Will have to look into that aswell. Also vorpx does not give you the full set the DK2 has to offer. Mostly DX9 only. Also to use headtracking i had to use thirdparty software to emulate the DK-2s movement so it would work as controller and i would be able to look around in the came and not have a fixed rounded image.

For now i can say that with a min spec CPU and 780m-s the DK2 works just OK. Bit laggy at some point but it might be a driver issue as FPS never drops under 60FPS for most demos i have tried out.
I also use the Oculus with Leap Motion hand tracking. Its fun but at the moment its more of a gimmick and have yet to make it work in non leap motion supported apps and games.

Also for the thread here is a link to games that can be played with the DK sets and it has instruction on how to get it working RiftEnabled Oculus Rift enabled list of games & demos

I will make a list of the apps and games i have tested on the weekend.

 

Thank you for your answer I will update the #1 asap with your findings.
To anyone else who is reading this thread, feel free to post whatever you want even if you do not think is important, the more the merrier.

 

So my update:
Drivers oculus: 0.44beta
nvidia 347.09

If you use Symantecs Norton products then just disable it for the time you are using the demos as norton will flag 95% of the exe-s as a threat. A must have if using USB mouse, headphones and keyboard then a USB HUB is a must have. The oculus DK 2 will take up 2. And for the AW 18 you will be left with just 2 USB. Some games work well with mouse and keyboard and some with a controller so yes extra USB ports are needed.....or you can use the BT and connect a PS3, PS4 or Xbox controller.

Demos i have tried and work :
Extended mod for oculus
1)360 Time Travel - Chapter 2
2)Atlantis Infinite Coaster
3)Beneath
4)Castle coaster
5)Dread Halls
6)Helix
7)The Apparition within 2

Direct HMD mode
1)A Chair in a room
2)Crystal Rift Alpha
3)Windlands
4)Dark Deception Demo

Demos that do not work for me:
I have tried all that i can come up with but still no luck. It will not display on the DK2 scree (only shown on notebook screen) or will make the LED flash blue/orange indicating a fault.
1)Night at the roculus
2)Big and spooky 1.06
3)Stage Harbor v2

Managed to get Vorpx running again. Yet again Norton was to blame.
With vorp x ihave managed to get working:
1)Skyrim - runs head tracking is not the best...well good in FPS view but third person....not the so good. Also you will need mod-s for the HUD and custom camera views.
2)Arma II - Runs good but for some reason single GPU. Sli will lag like hell. Best option with ARMA is that you can add a controller. I used opentrack to emulate head tracking.
3)Bioshock infinite - Runs good. Problem is with the HUD . Part of it is just missing and shooting is a pain....FPS is around 30 ....do get a bit of lag in fights.


Video to get what the FPS is like: Demo is Apparition Within. FPS is all over the place but no lag. AW18 I7-4700 no OC, 16gb @1600mhz ram, Sli 780m no OC