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

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

#151

Post by Alupis » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:16 PM UTC

endergen wrote: post #142

Alupis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first Oculus dev kit shipped We're talking about consumer items, not dev kits. In reality, Google Cardboard was the first (modern) VR kit released.

Is Cardboard a consumer item? It's been pretty straight to dev expect marketing promotions and Google IO handouts.

I think it's not a real "serious" product; more of a "gag", if anything.

I think it was Google's way at having fun with all the VR hype around last year's I/O conference (and to show it's not anything really groundbreaking).

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

#152

Post by Ded7xSEoPKYNsDd » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:20 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #15

mgo wrote: post #6

I just get the feeling VR technology simply will not work because the resolution isn't high enough, and even the most top-end monster PCs cannot handle standard resolution VR, let alone 4K or even 8K in the future. Graphics cards really need a huge performance jump to make VR work, and given both Nvidia and AMD seem to be happy releasing a new set each year with only modest 20-30% performance gains then what does thi…

Eh. VR "worked" quite well enough for presence on the now-ancient Rift devkit 2. And my machine is hardly top of the line. A many gens old Intel proc with modest RAM and a GTX970. Worst case? It means that details are scaled back in the name of framerate. Presence still works in a world that doesn't seem perfectly lifelike, so as long as the player is in another world, that's the single most important thing. Less AA,…

> Worst case? It means that details are scaled back in the name of framerate.

No, the worst case is that using them makes people sick.

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

#153

Post by Raphmedia » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:24 PM UTC

haydenlee wrote: post #77

fla wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DK2 works fine on middle-line GPUs. I'm certain this one will too. Edit: I meant "worked"

Recommended GPU is an NVidia 970. https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/powering-the-rift/

Yes, but that's also true for 4k gaming. It's not an issue at all for PC gamers to get a 970.

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

#154

Post by Arelius » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:28 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #145

mkozlows wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The hardware requirements are a marketing gimmick. They aren't "requirements". What works in AAA games to make "good" looking graphics often fundamentally breaks down in VR anyway. It's no different of an equation than we've ever had: set your polygon budget and stick to it. Compelling experiences will be had on lesser hardware. There is a lot more to the world than Call of Halo 15. Or not. Give it a year and it won'…

The hardware requirements are based on the 90 FPS requirement for good feeling VR. That extra 5ms of savings is quite difficult in a lot of experiences. And even without all the "good" looking graphics requires quite a serious amount of rendering hardware to get consistent, which is very important.

You're not going to get the standard AAA experience level graphics in VR, you're talking about a ~20ms difference in render time, with twice the amount of view to render (In polygon processing at least) But good VR is very sensitive to hardware performance.

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

#155

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:32 PM UTC

Arelius wrote: post #154

moron4hire wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hardware requirements are a marketing gimmick. They aren't "requirements". What works in AAA games to make "good" looking graphics often fundamentally breaks down in VR anyway. It's no different of an equation than we've ever had: set your polygon budget and stick to it. Compelling experiences will be had on lesser hardware. There is a lot more to the world than Call of Halo 15. Or not. Give it a year and it won'…

The hardware requirements are based on the 90 FPS requirement for good feeling VR. That extra 5ms of savings is quite difficult in a lot of experiences. And even without all the "good" looking graphics requires quite a serious amount of rendering hardware to get consistent, which is very important. You're not going to get the standard AAA experience level graphics in VR, you're talking about a ~20ms difference in ren…

[deleted]

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

#156

Post by Arelius » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:33 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #72

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 tried both and the HTC Vive was just years ahead. I haven't tried the new oculus touch but the simple fact that they won't ship it included tells me it's nowhere near HTC Vive.

I agree, the new oculus touch controllers have very nice ergonomics in comparison. But otherwise won't be coming with. I didn't notice a huge difference in visual fidelity. And the Lighthouse tracking system is just so much better. Not only can it do room scale trivially, but it has a very wide field of view so works better in tight spaces. And is much, much better about loosing tracking.

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

#157

Post by lfowles » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:41 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #79

yathern wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a good source - unfortunately down at the moment for me: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

Thanks I'll check it out when it comes back online later. It's been a while since I looked at the steam survey; I wonder how indicative it is compared with the PC gaming industry as a whole. I mean they practically have a monopoly so I would imagine it's at least good statistically but I don't know how many go through the survey (I'm assuming it's still opt-in like it was when I last used it which could skew the numb…

It pops up every few months to a year for me when I first open Steam, so not necessarily opt-in (but very easy to opt-out). About the only thing you have to fill out as well is your connection speed, so it's pretty painless.

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

#158

Post by Arelius » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:45 PM UTC

seanwilson wrote: post #134

I don't understand why there isn't more emphasis on non-realistic graphics for VR to keep the specs down. If you try to make a VR game that looks as good as current high-end games, it's always going to require massive horsepower because it must run at 60+ FPS at a high resolution so everyone but hardcore gamers are going to be left out. Mobile gaming became hugely popular without high-end graphics because of the easy…

There is a lot of emphasis on non-realistic graphics. But the consensus is that it must run at 90FPS+ with two views so that bumps the specs back up again. Especially considering that most contemporary game engines aren't build with those sort of latencies in mind.

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

#159

Post by haydenlee » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:47 PM UTC

fla wrote: post #94

Pxtl wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? My understanding was that VR required extremely high framerates to provide a satisfying experience to the user.

If I recall correctly, the DK2 tops at 75Hz, wich is not so extreme.

yup and CV1 is 90HZ

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

#160

Post by HeXetic » Mon, Jan 04, 2016, 7:49 PM UTC

mkozlows wrote: post #118

aresant wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1) Yep. But not bad for a first generation product. Already plenty of guides about building a VR ready computer for 2) Only windows. Agreed. But I'm glad they did so they could get one platform dialed in instead of chasing multiple rabbits. For now. 3) Games - copying part of this - do yourself a favor and try with Elite Dangerous or Assetto Corsa. And gaming doesn't scratch the service in terms of application - trai…

So part of what I'm saying is that 1 & 2 cancel themselves out. The people who would drop $1500 ($1K computer plus maybe $500 VR headset) on a first-gen thing are more likely to be the early-adopter types who are less interested in a Windows-only device. As for 3: I played Elite for a bit. And then quit when I got motion-sick. I'm not particularly motion-sensitive, but DK2 got me there pretty quickly. Maybe the retai…

> The people who would drop $1500 ... on a first-gen thing are more likely to be the early-adopter types who are less interested in a Windows-only device.

I feel pretty confident in saying that the people who spend big bucks on computer gaming are mostly not giving two shits about Linux while they do it. SteamOS and general Linux gaming is pretty decent these days but still... if you are a hardcore gamer, odds are overwhelming that you are running Windows.