Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6 • Hacker News Board

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#51

Post by aresant » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

I am truly surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on this thread.

The Oculus is the FIRST high-fidelity consumer VR experience.

And they've got the horsepower of Facebook's cash-machine as their bankroll.

Zuck gets this to the degree that I suspect he believes Facebook & VR will be synonymous within a decade (1)

Do I wish that Oculus was owned by some benevolent billionaire trickster like OASIS in Ready Player One? Sure, but come off it!

This release will mark the starting line of the change in how we interact with computers, how we capture memories, how we tell stories.

Oculus + 3D audio + input + eventual tactical is going to completely blur the lines of reality in ways we can't yet imagine.

Already in the DK2 I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

. . .

Really though, I have had some shocking experiences in the Oculus, starting with the DK1 going off the edge of a rollercoaster and feeling my stomach physically drop.

Yes this is a generation 1 product for early adopters.

Yes it's going to be expensive to buy, it won't be perfect.

But if you're browsing HN because you're a hacker / developer / dreamer you are crazy to discount how substantial this release is (especially if you haven't TRIED it yet!).

(1) http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/feee4a1e-63aa-11e5-a28b-50226...

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#52

Post by ramblerman » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:16 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #44

Probably the better link is to the announcement of the pre-orders itself: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-... I'm confused though; why do a pre-announcement for an announcement about pre-purchasing a product that's only two days away? They should have simply opened up pre-orders immediately. That being said I can't imagine they expect to sell much. It requires such a beefy PC (of which few…

> Until I can get one for at most $200 and use without a beefy PC I'll pass.

That's fair, but not really relevant.

There are more than enough people willing to pay to meet the early adopter 'exclusivity' target they are going for. And If they deliver it right (and the included games are half decent) word of mouth, and trying it at a friends house can create a snowball effect.

The question is if VR is ready for the mainstream and vice versa. That will be down to the ingenuity of developers and the capability of the hardware. I don't think cost or the current limitation to PC is at all relevant in that aspect. Of course these will spill over to consoles in time if it is successful, and of course they will become cheaper if mass demand follows.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#53

Post by strictnein » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #51

I am truly surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on this thread. The Oculus is the FIRST high-fidelity consumer VR experience. And they've got the horsepower of Facebook's cash-machine as their bankroll. Zuck gets this to the degree that I suspect he believes Facebook & VR will be synonymous within a decade (1) Do I wish that Oculus was owned by some benevolent billionaire trickster like OASIS in Ready Player One? Sure…

I'm super excited and will be preordering. I think a lot of the "meh" response is the pre-announcement of the announcement aspect of this. With almost no details.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#54

Post by pera » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #7

Now the real question- go with Facebook and buy an Oculus Rift or go with Valve/HTC and buy a Vive? The Vive has more features (like head tracking) but maybe it will be more expensive? There's been nothing but silence in terms of pricing of either of them... I do have a hard time justifying $500+ for a screen I'll strap to my head that will probably be obsolete in a year or two. I will say though, I recently bought a…

Linux support is a must-have for me at least.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#55

Post by ambiate » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:17 PM UTC

Here are my thoughts on the situation:

1) First generation devices are usually flops/riddled with bugs, but usually exploitable if you don't upgrade firmware/etc.

2) I would probably need to buy a 980TI ($600) or Titan X ($1k) to make up for my i7-2600k's failure. (I want a Titan X for deep convolution neural networks anyways).

3) Nvidia is on the verge of releasing their Pascal architecture. The Titan X was just recently released (Mar '15?). While it is a powerhouse, the pascal base Titan may come with 12-16GB of memory and a 10-20% speed increase.

4) Intel is near release on their broadwell-e platform which should be able to consume 40 pci-e lanes (like haswell-e). No word yet on if they plan on being able to use 40 pci-e lanes with skylake.

Summary: In 1 years time, there will be a base Pascal Titan that outperforms the Maxwell Titan X, a new ~$500 CPU that will be on par with the current $1000 CPU, and an assortment of VR options available. As much as it pains me, unless I see a Titan X for $600-800 on craigslist, I'm going to wait this one out.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#56

Post by wmeredith » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

aresant wrote: post #51

I am truly surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on this thread. The Oculus is the FIRST high-fidelity consumer VR experience. And they've got the horsepower of Facebook's cash-machine as their bankroll. Zuck gets this to the degree that I suspect he believes Facebook & VR will be synonymous within a decade (1) Do I wish that Oculus was owned by some benevolent billionaire trickster like OASIS in Ready Player One? Sure…

How do I try one without buying it? [serious]

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#57

Post by baby » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

Ah, between this and HTC Vive... After testing both the HTC Vive was just years better than the Oculus, but I haven't tried the new Oculus iteration with touch... So hard to choose.

Anyone want to discuss setups for both? I need to buy a new machine for that.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#58

Post by dang » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:20 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #44

Probably the better link is to the announcement of the pre-orders itself: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-... I'm confused though; why do a pre-announcement for an announcement about pre-purchasing a product that's only two days away? They should have simply opened up pre-orders immediately. That being said I can't imagine they expect to sell much. It requires such a beefy PC (of which few…

Thanks, we changed the URL from https://www.oculus.com/en-us/.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#59

Post by dshankar » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #29

TranquilMarmot wrote: post #7

Now the real question- go with Facebook and buy an Oculus Rift or go with Valve/HTC and buy a Vive? The Vive has more features (like head tracking) but maybe it will be more expensive? There's been nothing but silence in terms of pricing of either of them... I do have a hard time justifying $500+ for a screen I'll strap to my head that will probably be obsolete in a year or two. I will say though, I recently bought a…

I'm waiting for the Vive, or at least a bunch of a reviews of both platforms. I trust Valve a lot more than Facebook to deliver a gaming device that won't be caught up in strange legal requirements, social media promotion, lock-in, platform exclusives, and potential privacy exploitation. I also feel that the Valve team has been working on the non-sexy issues like controls, motion sickness, advanced eye tracking (rumo…

FYI, it doesn't require a $2,500 gaming machine. The recommended specifications require a PC that costs roughly $1,000. "Oculus Ready" certified PCs start at $950.

Not sure where you'd get the idea that Oculus isn't working on non-sexy problems, considering how many people Oculus has working on controls (Oculus Touch), motion sickness, and yes eye tracking too. Obviously Oculus is working on "head tracking" - that's been around since 2012.

Either way, you are correct: waiting to hear about the Vive is a good idea. VR in general (Vive, Rift, etc.) is very much an early adopter technology for the next couple years.

Minor note: AR is far from maturity. The FoV and resolution pales in comparison to VR. 30-degrees (like looking through a pinhole) versus 110-degrees is a massive difference that's hard to explain. AR and VR are like sister technologies that will one day converge.

AR approaching VR by improving FoV and resolution over the next decade, and VR approaching AR by improving real-world capture & scene reconstruction.

Re: Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

#60

Post by glynjackson » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 5:21 PM UTC

I'm more looking forward to seeing the Sony VR. It's rumoured to be around the $250-$350 price mark. Sony have a history of getting traction despite not having the best spec/product, for example, remember HD DVD vs Blu Ray?