Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#11

Post by Kroniker »

djsumdog wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I was super excited to preorder an Oculus on the first day... until I saw the price. At a more reasonable price point, this is probably going to get me started on VR, finally. I know it won't be the "best" quality, but the market's too fluid to invest heavily in the high end immediately.

Same with the Google Glass. At the time I was living in a place where $1k USD was way more than I wanted to pay. Looks like it was a good thing I didn't either. MS is probably selling this at a development loss (probably not a raw materials loss; betting the parts are I have a hard time believing the augmentation is as clear as they portray it to be, and you can't really tell without the product either (like trying t…

Just to touch on the augmentation- I got to try one of these a few days ago, and you're totally right.

The viewing angle can't be more than 1/2 a steradian, and everything has this washed-out and prototype-y feel. I would never buy one of these in their current state.

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#12

Post by sammydavis »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #6
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. I have phone-based VR and a beefy PC. The pricey headsets, limited content and exclusives for headsets have kept me out of the higher end. A friend (also a dev) and I were just chatting yesterday that we'd get hololens and attempt to write apps with it - were it not for the insane price (especially after I wasted almost 2K on Google's Glass debacle). A lower price point and wide availability across vendors…

Yeah. For $299, I can buy a headset with the knowledge I'm gonna replace it soon. But if I buy an $800 headset, it has to do EVERYTHING. I did Glass too, and again, HoloLens outpriced my acceptable "stupid expense to be on the leading edge" budget. :D

Buying nextstep on intel (I think it was os 3.3, it cost like $800) was the last big thing I invested in that turned out to be a big mistake, but I'm lucky :-) I happened to think google glass would never go anywhere but that was lucky too. Probably most developers never have been nextstep running (except on a mac ;-)).

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#14

Post by CoolGuySteve »

XzetaU8 wrote: post #5
BatFastard wrote: post #4

Does anyone have a link to the demo video? This video refers to the first, but doesn't have much useful info in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXo7pKJGtU

Man was that ever boring. I was expecting some Direct3D or XBox integration, like a Forza game or something.

Between the stale demo, the lack of technical details, and no release date, I wouldn't be surprised if the headset doesn't actually work all that well yet.

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#15

Post by monk_e_boy »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #6
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. I have phone-based VR and a beefy PC. The pricey headsets, limited content and exclusives for headsets have kept me out of the higher end. A friend (also a dev) and I were just chatting yesterday that we'd get hololens and attempt to write apps with it - were it not for the insane price (especially after I wasted almost 2K on Google's Glass debacle). A lower price point and wide availability across vendors…

Yeah. For $299, I can buy a headset with the knowledge I'm gonna replace it soon. But if I buy an $800 headset, it has to do EVERYTHING. I did Glass too, and again, HoloLens outpriced my acceptable "stupid expense to be on the leading edge" budget. :D

If you are not developing for VR then wait. We all know that version 1 is always a bit rubbish. Version 2 is better, version 3 is better and hits the right price point.

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#18

Post by helthanatos »

djsumdog wrote: post #8
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I was super excited to preorder an Oculus on the first day... until I saw the price. At a more reasonable price point, this is probably going to get me started on VR, finally. I know it won't be the "best" quality, but the market's too fluid to invest heavily in the high end immediately.

Same with the Google Glass. At the time I was living in a place where $1k USD was way more than I wanted to pay. Looks like it was a good thing I didn't either. MS is probably selling this at a development loss (probably not a raw materials loss; betting the parts are I have a hard time believing the augmentation is as clear as they portray it to be, and you can't really tell without the product either (like trying t…

Instead of having a headset, I'd rather have a room with projectors and sensors that can make it more immersive... Besides clothes - guess you'd have to physically change those unless you had some small glasses to augment certain real things.

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#19

Post by gonehome »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #3
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #2

I was super excited to preorder an Oculus on the first day... until I saw the price. At a more reasonable price point, this is probably going to get me started on VR, finally. I know it won't be the "best" quality, but the market's too fluid to invest heavily in the high end immediately.

Likewise. I have phone-based VR and a beefy PC. The pricey headsets, limited content and exclusives for headsets have kept me out of the higher end. A friend (also a dev) and I were just chatting yesterday that we'd get hololens and attempt to write apps with it - were it not for the insane price (especially after I wasted almost 2K on Google's Glass debacle). A lower price point and wide availability across vendors…

I bought a fancy PC, a Vive and the Rift to play with them and see how the tech is shaping up.

The Rift may be better now given Zuckerberg's demo and the shipping touch controls, but I ended up selling it. Playing with an Xbox One controller was a pretty bad experience (with the one exception being the space game) and it was overall pretty disappointing compared to the Vive.

The Vive with room scale is something different - it's really impressive. The touch controllers work well and the movement feels natural. The content right now though is pretty limited and Oculus has tied up a lot with software exclusives.

Maybe Oculus will do well with the social stuff they're working on (demo was cool) and GearVR might save them, but the Vive is a much better product right now and worth playing with if you can.

Re: Microsoft announces new VR headsets for Windows 10, starting at $299

#20

Post by mxfh »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #6
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likewise. I have phone-based VR and a beefy PC. The pricey headsets, limited content and exclusives for headsets have kept me out of the higher end. A friend (also a dev) and I were just chatting yesterday that we'd get hololens and attempt to write apps with it - were it not for the insane price (especially after I wasted almost 2K on Google's Glass debacle). A lower price point and wide availability across vendors…

Yeah. For $299, I can buy a headset with the knowledge I'm gonna replace it soon. But if I buy an $800 headset, it has to do EVERYTHING. I did Glass too, and again, HoloLens outpriced my acceptable "stupid expense to be on the leading edge" budget. :D

Unless Lighthouses are super-seeded by inside-out tracking in all kinds of common household light settings at comparable precision, for the VIVE the thing that needs an upgrade the headset (with a flip up style option for casual use), which will also result in a new non-HDMI connector box, you could still keep the controllers plus the lighthouses.

Also shipping the headset only, should be less pricey than it was on that comparably huge VIVE box set.

I'm quite confident there will be room-scale enabled (foveated) 4k resolution class headsets in the next two years for $500 or less.

Although the money saved will then still have to go towards a more capable GPU than something currently available in the $200 price range.

Post reply on HN