Official VR Headset discussion

[SIrPauly]

Because their department appointed to find potential profitable investments think is fair? Or perhaps seeing Sony being serious about VR made them realize VR add a future?
Who knows, all in all i'm not very happy with this news, because now we have a VR solution exclusive for PS4, and another for PC (for now) that is backed by one of the companies i don't trust at all. Has a PC gamer that is not good news at all.

Lets wait and see what comes out of it, but i must say i will only buy a Occulus Rift after seeing if Facebook didn't meddle in anything, and if some new competitor comes that supports the PC then i will consider it strongly.

What IP is there or patents to warrant such an investment?

[Jimby]

Well if this isn't the biggest slap in the face ever. Glad I wasn't part of the kickstarter, but I was so looking forward to this tech. I am dissapoint.

[RicH(SAD)]

So many doomsayers.

[SIrPauly]

The positive is Oculus doesn't have a financial funding problem!

[RicH(SAD)]

The positive is Oculus doesn't have a financial funding problem!

Pretty much. I'm sure Facebook has big plans for VR, but that doesn't mean that those plans will necessarily interfere with the Rift as a gaming device.

Oculus has virtually unlimited resources now and this can only be a good thing. There is no reason to panic just yet.

[bill dennison]

they should have cut out the front man and just sold it directly to the NSA

so now we can have banner ads with our spying

[shadow001]

I was surprised to find out that 75 000 units of DK2 have already been ordered, and it only launched a couple of weeks ago....At 350$ a pop, that's a decent chunk of change....2.6 billion in fact.

[bill dennison]

I was surprised to find out that 75 000 units of DK2 have already been ordered, and it only launched a couple of weeks ago....At 350$ a pop, that's a decent chunk of change....2.6 billion in fact.

to many zeros, it's 26.2 million

still does not sound like they had to sell, they just wanted a big payday

I bet most will take the money and run as soon as they can

[jolle]

They are probably not free to manufacture though, so it´s not a flat 350 profit per kit.
But yeah, I dont think they were in dire straights and were forced to sell or go bankrupt.
Actually the head guy there put a post on redit and he probably would have used that as an excuse if he could, since that´d sound a whole lot better the PR sounding speech he put up.

[NIGELG]

This is lame.One more thing to make you look like a total dork bag.Just like 3d glasses.

[jolle]

This is lame.One more thing to make you look like a total dork bag.Just like 3d glasses.

Yeah appearances is everything when gaming.
You dont want everyone watching you play your video games thinking you´re some sort of a dork.
That´s not why you invited them to your home to watch you play in the first place.

[NIGELG]

Yeah appearances is everything when gaming.
You dont want everyone watching you play your video games thinking you´re some sort of a dork.
That´s not why you invited them to your home to watch you play in the first place.

Not only will I look silly....I will FEEL silly...

[jolle]

Not only will I look silly....I will FEEL silly...

To each his own I guess, however I´ve tried the DK1 set and with all its flaw and limitations it was pretty damn cool, in the very limited and primitive demoes I tried it.
So Im excited about it.

If people can walk around in fedoras in public without shame I can wear VR glasses in the privacy of my own home.

[demo]

Haters gonna hate

[SIrPauly]

Not only will I look silly....I will FEEL silly...

Oh my!

[NIGELG]

To each his own.Whoever likes the Rift will hopefully enjoy it....but I like my gaming simple.

I wonder what Facebook will do to it....

[SIrPauly]

Try to create more immersive Internet experiences through FaceBook:

After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences," said Zuckerberg in a post announcing the purchase. "Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.

"This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/gaming-gadgets/oculus-vr-explainer/

[bill dennison]

To each his own.Whoever likes the Rift will hopefully enjoy it....but I like my gaming simple.

I wonder what Facebook will do to it....

the hardware not much

now the software & drivers .......... epic spyware probably even check your colon

[noko]

Try to create more immersive Internet experiences through FaceBook:



http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/26/tech/g...-vr-explainer/

That quote sounds quite delusional.

[jolle]

I like this bit:

Future technology could potentially allow two Oculus wearers to interact with each other in a virtual world -- like Skype on steroids.

This is basically any game ever with multiplayer.
Granted older games didnt have it´s own Voice support, but there is always ventrilo, mumble or teamspeak.

Sure a VR chat in wacky worlds sounds all well and good, but dont pretend it´s a new thing.
The new thing is seeing it in VR basically, everything else is done and tried.
So you gotta wonder if Facebook is looking to become the new Second Life?


Btw on a unrelated topic, they annouced the Kinect "2" for Windows a while ago.
Could possibly use that to get decent hand tracking, to get your actual hands into the game, no idea how accurate that thing is other then better then the original, which was fairly useless for most things gamerelated.
But since you cant acctually touch anything, maybe it´s a pointless endevour anyway.

[Progression]

So where is the Oculus manufactured (USA, China?)? I kinda wanna get the DK2 but the country I am at charges ridiculous import taxes for certain countries.

[jolle]

Teardown of DK2
Apparently there is an entire frontend of a Galaxy Note 3 in there now.
with the 1080p display running at 75hz instead of 60.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oculus+Rift+Development+Kit+2+Teardown/27613

[_TiTaNiuM]

Teardown of DK2
Apparently there is an entire frontend of a Galaxy Note 3 in there now.
with the 1080p display running at 75hz instead of 60.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Ocul...Teardown/27613

I had a feeling they'd be using a note display.

[jolle]

I just tried out this demo on DK2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMm9ZPpgbX8

Oh my god, it basically felt just like sitting on one of those rides WITHOUT BEING STRAPPED IN..
I had to take the set off several times.

Tried another one where you were on a rail in almost Portal like enviroments, that you could control the speed by leaning forward to speed up.
With green segments of rail where it ran at a pre-set speed, usually really fast.
It feels very real, the sense of speed and vertigo and lurching motions etc.

I really cant wait to try something I can control more myself, like EVE Valkyrie or whatever.
Though as everyone already raported even the DK2 set is very noticably pixelated, maybe Cascaded Displays can help remedy this without skyrocketing the system requirements.

[OzzieBloke]

My friend Dave is going to puke watching this on the Rift.

[AllexxisF1]

I'm debating if I should pick up the DK2 or wait for CV1. Since we are still without an official announcement I am leaning on the DK2. Does anyone know if I picked up a DK2, how long would it be before it showed up on my door?

[jolle]

I'm debating if I should pick up the DK2 or wait for CV1. Since we are still without an official announcement I am leaning on the DK2. Does anyone know if I picked up a DK2, how long would it be before it showed up on my door?

On their shipping page it currently sais "New orders are expected to begin shipping in September 2014."
But I dunno, I´d probably wait for the consumer version.
There is still some real heavy screendoor effect even at 1080p with this set for example, and it´s very apparent when you use it, illustration of that here:

http://rifting.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/DK1-DK2IndianaCompare.png

Even so the experience is still pretty damn convincing.
And I dont think they have the backlight strobing for low persistance in yet.

At any rate if you want to get one to play around with, you should probably assume you´ll want to replace it with the consumer version when it comes out.

[bill dennison]

Palmer Luckey briefly spoke about the consumer version unit, expected to go on-sale early 2015


He confirmed that the final unit will be “a lot smaller, lot lighter, lot sleeker”, and feature a higher resolution display than the Developer Kit 2 (DK2), which ships July to those that have pre-ordered the next iteration of the Rift headset. Interestingly, he also mentioned that the unit will feature a wider field of view, improving the sense of immersion even more than the DK1 and DK2 headsets

http://www.theriftarcade.com/palmer-luckey-talks-oculus-rift-cv1-at-e3-2014/

i'll wait to see what facebook does to it now

[shadow001]

Seems they shipped 10 000 units last month, and that the total amount of DK2's ordered was 45 000, but I ordered mine back in march a few days after the DK2 launch, and it seems there's still a lack of inventory for the remaining 35 000 orders...At least that's what it says when I check the status of my order.

So they're building these things at a snails pace basically....

[shadow001]

Looks like i'll have to eat my words on the previous post, as I've just received notification that I need to pay the remaining cost of the unit itself(355$) so they can ship it to me....Seems mine is ready for delivery...

[AllexxisF1]

So if I bought the DK2 today odds are I would not get it for at least another three months.

Then I might as well wait. Besides it may be better to use those funds to add an additional Nvidia 780 for my rig to get it better prepared.

[shadow001]

So if I bought the DK2 today odds are I would not get it for at least another three months.

Then I might as well wait. Besides it may be better to use those funds to add an additional Nvidia 780 for my rig to get it better prepared.

Seems that everything that has been pre ordered will be delivered by late September, so you might not have to wait much more than a month to get yours...

[AllexxisF1]

Hmmmmmmm decisions, decisions.

[jjjayb]

This looks really really sweet. Get past the first couple minutes and it gets awesome.

[yt]-RehCTRrWM0[/yt]

[bill dennison]

if they get this up to at lest 2560x1440 and a galaxy note 4 may have that or a screen something like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LIff4UWU64

and it has no facebook crap that can't be uninstalled I could see buying one

[Progression]

So what games are actually playable from beginning to end right now for the DK2?

[jolle]

So what games are actually playable from beginning to end right now for the DK2?

Warthunder (Free to Play Flight game on Steam) is the only one I know of right now, I have not dug very deep so there are likely more.
Seen people play Elite for example, so that likely works.

I was only looking for native support briefly, so who knows about the third party tool stuff.

[Progression]

Warthunder (Free to Play Flight game on Steam) is the only one I know of right now, I have not dug very deep so there are likely more.
Seen people play Elite for example, so that likely works.

I was only looking for native support briefly, so who knows about the third party tool stuff.

So warthunder and Elite Dangerous basically? I wish there were more games supported already.

[AllexxisF1]

if they get this up to at lest 2560x1440 and a galaxy note 4 may have that or a screen something like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LIff4UWU64

and it has no facebook crap that can't be uninstalled I could see buying one

It is an amazing thing that VR is inexorably tied to mobile cell phone displays.

I believe that is probably the single most factor that is delaying the Oculus to market. However that new screen is probably right around the corner.

[jolle]

So warthunder and Elite Dangerous basically? I wish there were more games supported already.

Well like I said I havent really been digging around, those were the 2 I knew about.
Here´s some list google gave me:

http://www.theriftarcade.com/oculus-rift-dk2-supported-games/