We’ve been watching Ibex, a virtual reality desktop environmental for Oculus Rift, closely over the last few months. The latest beta features full head tracking, video playback, and is now available for Windows and Mac.
Ibex is a virtual reality desktop environment (let’s call it a VRDE for short), currently configured for the Oculus Rift. The idea is to surround yourself in a virtual space where you could have any number of virtual monitors around you. This would allow you to have a huge virtual workspace even if confined to a tiny physical space.
We first wrote about Ibex back in September of 2012. Hesham Wahba, a developer based in New York, has been developing the VRDE since long before the Rift began shipping. After getting his Rift on March 29th (his was a pre-Kickstarter order!), he quickly fixed up Ibex with proper stereo and warping.
“Turns out that rendering in SBS stereo is different than rendering in 3D for a monitor. Oddly, because everything is focused at infinity, you don’t need to shift the rendered images to adjust for the IPD but rather just adjust the IPD purely in the camera translation,” Wahba wrote at his Ibex development blog.
Since then, Wahba has added head tracking on Windows and Mac versions, preliminary Razer Hydra support (for navigation with the thumb sticks), and stereo video playback with a basic interface (video sound may not yet work correctly).
Prior to having the Oculus Rift, it was unclear whether or not Ibex would actually be usable with the VR headset’s 1280×800 (640×800 effective) resolution. Fortunately, Wahba writes, “Surprisingly I found that the desktop was completely usable comfortably at 1280×800 on the actual virtualized desktop and you can use it to browse the web or get work done. The best part is that as the Rift gets better this will only get sharper and better as well!”
Wahba is working on implementing further Hydra support, the Bullet Physics Engine, and is also considering Leap Motion support — stay tuned to his dev blog to keep up to date.
Ibex is still rough around the edges, but if you’re the kind that likes to play with unpolished work, Wahba has made installable beta versions available for both Windows and Mac:
Download Ibex Beta (Windows) Download Ibex Beta (Mac)bullet
Note: Windows users will need the x86 (32-bit) VC++ 2012 Redistributable
See this thread to share feedback on Ibex.
Launch (only works on Mac)
Default simple renderer: ./ibex
Fancy Irrlicht renderer with Quake 3 level: ./ibex -i
Simple Ogre3D renderer demo: ./ibex -o
Disable SBS rendering: -m (for mono view not stereo)
Controls
Toggle Control Desktop/Move Around World: CTRL+SHIFT+G (Windows) / CTRL+SHIFT+Y (Linux) / Fn+Shift+F1 (Mac)
Look: Move Mouse
Move Forward: W
Move Backwards: S
Walk Sideways Left (Strafe Left): A/Q
Walk Sideways Right (Strafe Right): D/E
Jump: SPACE (irrlicht renderer only)
Show FPS and Information Dialog: / (Mac Only)
Choose movies: Show info dialog with ‘/‘ then press 1 or 2 for regular or stereo movies, then navigate using arrow keys and enter to select a movie
Adjust IPD for Rift Stereo: -/+
Toggle Barrel Lens Distort: B
Toggle Ground Layer: G
