Specifications

• Providing a much wider field of view than conventional displays

• Providing a different image to each eye

• Blocking out the real environment around you, which would otherwise serve as a

contradiction to the rendered environment.

On the Rift display, we can display frames that have been generated to conform to this wide

field of view and offer a distinct image to each eye.

Frame

Because developing for the Rift involves rendering multiple images, it’s important to have terminology

that makes it clear what image we might be talking about at a given moment. When we use the term

frame, we’re referring to the final image that ends up on a screen. In the case of a Rift application,

these frame images will be composed of two eye images, one each for the left and right eyes. Each

eye image will have been distorted specifically to account for the lens under which it will appear, and

then composited together during the final rendering step before they are displayed on the screen.

These specializations do not happen automatically. You can’t simply replace your monitor

with a Rift and expect to continue to use your computer in the same way. Only applications

that have been specifically written to read the Rift input and customize the output to conform

to the Rift’s display will provide a good experience.

To understand how an application running on the Rift is different, it is important to look at

how it is distinct from non-Rift applications.

CONVENTIONAL APPLICATIONS

All applications have input and output and most graphical applications invoke a loop that

conceptually looks something like Figure 1.15.

other simple mistakes. These will be cleaned up during production of the book by copyeditors and proofreaders.

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