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Oculus Rift Pre-Orders to Open on January 6

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

#101

Post by TranquilMarmot »

haydenlee wrote: post #88
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…

As opposed to a screen that you keep in your pocket that will be obsolete in a year or two? When you boil down a product to simple terms its really easy to make it sound pointless.

That's a pretty good point; same price as a smartphone, and I upgrade that pretty frequently (although, less and less frequently as time goes on and no compelling new features are being added)

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

#102

Post by codingdave »

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 not enthused simply because there is no pricing info, and no ship date. Until those exist, this is just marketing.

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

#103

Post by 15charlimit »

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…

Waiting to see exactly how high above their original ~$350 target price the thing will go for before I decide whether this is interesting/exciting news or not.

Pricepoint determines market adoption. It could be the "best thing ever" at $1k and no normal consumer would buy one, leading to a drying up of interest and market adoption, resulting in a dead product. Given who's supporting it, granted, that's not a very likely outcome, but it's still something to keep in mind.

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

#104

Post by pkroll »

mkozlows wrote: post #80
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've played with a DK2. It was cool. But reasons not to be super-excited are: 1. Hardware requirements are steep (GTX 970 minimum), so plenty of hardware -- including plenty of hardware that's good for high-end gaming today -- won't be good enough for this. 2. Only Windows support. No compatibility with Linux, SteamOS, or even OSX means that the techie enthusiasts who'd play with it as a tech toy are going to be less…

Actually, Elder Scrolls Online on the DK2, using Vorpx, is a lot of fun. It's not perfect, but it's much cooler than the game without it, and I've not had any sickness in it.

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

#105

Post by TranquilMarmot »

dshankar wrote: post #32
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…

Both the Vive and the Rift have head tracking. Positional head tracking has been around since 2014. The Vive has "room-scale" tracking that lets you walk around a large room-sized space, and includes hand controllers that are also tracked in the world. The Rift should support "room-scale" with more cameras, but is not a main focus/supported use case yet for Oculus. The Oculus Touch is like the Vive's tracked hand con…

Thank you for clarifying the tracking differences, didn't realize the Rift had added so much. I'm interested in room-scale tracking, but my apartment is pretty tiny so I'm not sure I would actually get to use it (so maybe the Vive would be overkill)

Interesting to think about obsolescence of the headsets- I wonder if it will be tied to graphics cards getting more powerful and allowing for higher resolutions or more "breakthroughs" in the headset hardware itself, i.e. lenses and screens and eye tracking.

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

#106

Post by aresant »

vlunkr wrote: post #95
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…

Am I the only one that's still a little skeptical? I'm sure that it's a great technology and we will see interesting things come out of it, but statements like this > Oculus + 3D audio + input + eventual tactical is going to completely blur the lines of reality in ways we can't yet imagine. kind of just make me roll my eyes. We've been hearing things like that for decades. Is it really going to blur the lines of real…

I tried to illustrate why I'm excited for this being the FIRST.

Just to challenge your thinking about what comes next:

> kind of just make me roll my eyes. We've been hearing things like that for decades. Is it really going to blur the lines of reality?

Tricking your vision is HUGE to changing your reality. We perceive up to 80 per cent of all impressions by means of our sight.

(1) https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&e...

> You'll still be sitting a chair with a machine strapped to your face.

-=> Give the form factor a couple of years. Every sensor in there is being miniaturized by the day. Magic Leap (and others) are using tricks to project imagery directly onto your retina. Google's already filed

> People also think it will change video games forever, but I honestly don't see how. It improves immersion, but for me, immersion isn't even on the top 10 list of things that I care about in games.

-=> Ok I'll bite, on gaming - Go play Elite Dangerous + DK2 + Motion Sim and tell me that you don't believe you're flying in outer space. It's that good. More accessible, and I bet we see a lot of these, is VR coasters w/motion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcmQr2y5Z88 - another easy one to try is Assetto Corsa + DK2 + driving wheel.

Games are a popular idea about VR's application but doesn't scratch the service in terms of application - training, social interaction, SEX, therapy, etc, etc.

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

#107

Post by Synaesthesia »

Alupis wrote: post #33
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…

It's kind of funny to think about -- Oculus, first to "invent", (almost) last to market. Given all the hype and big names that joined the Oculus team, and even the sudden sell-out to Facebook (leaving most of their Kickstarter backers feeling used), Oculus has yet to produce a consumer product. At this pace, they're on track to be 3rd to market (well, "tied" if we count pre-orders being taken at CES), even though the…

The Sega Saturn also beat the PlayStation to market. Also Oculus had big improvements from one Dev kit to the next and said their last Dev model would be similar to their final model.

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

#108

Post by peter303 »

Having tried both the Oculus and Glass, I'd say the Oculus is more exciting. The Glass had about the least capacity a user could tolerate - slow with few pixels. The Oculus is about the most you cram into a wearable, even if you have to pay a lot for it.

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

#109

Post by seanzieapples »

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 excited to see the future of VR, but I'm ultimately looking at a $1200-$1500 investment at least for a new computer and an Oculus. I simply don't have the money for that right now especially in the early consumer stages of a product.

I will say that I have tried DK1 and I was extremely impressed with it. That being said, I'll probably jump on this bandwagon in the next 3-4 years.

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

#110

Post by irln »

Making predictions about the adoption of technology is always perilous. However, after using Google's cardboard camera to take a few pictures on vacation and reviewing those pictures afterward I'm a believer. There's something about the immersive nature of those images that provide a very emotional contextual experience. If one is able to experience this with albeit relatively crude technology when compared to offerings like Oculus, I think these products could be very impactful.
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