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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

#181
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/

Don't know what's wrong with my previous comment, but one can assume NV970 will be more or less main stream at the time the rift goes main stream. And since it's the recommended config (not _minimal_), most game will still be _enjoyable_ with maybe a 960.

No need for a Titan.

/* And since this is not reddit, please share your opinion if you downvote, it brings up debate and that's what makes HN interesting. */

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

#182
post #82
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Officially recommended graphics hardware is a GTX970, which are a much more palatable $3-400.

I've never dropped more than $150US on a video card, and that was before the Canadian dollar tanked.

I'm thinking I'm going to be waiting a bit before getting into this business.

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

#183
post #168
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, i'm not going to buy it... but only because I think the vive offers a better experience. I think VR in general is pretty promising, and a bit more than "niche"

What's the use case to justify the massive cash outlay these things require? I don't see it.

I mean, immersive gameplay is a pretty big use case. To me personally, as someone who loves FPS games, that's a huge win. It's worth it to me.

When it comes to making predictions, i'd remind you of this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863

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

#184
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 have no enthusiasm left for Oculus.

> 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!).

I bought a Rift DK2, because they said that they support linux. Their linux support was never complete and always pretty bad, especially mesa support was always buggy. So I haven't seen much in the DK2 until I sold it after oculus dropped linux support.

Enthusiasm for VR is still there, but for oculus? They didn't deliver what they promised for their DK2. The only good thing is that - unlike with the DK2 - linux users know for sure not to buy it now.

Maybe Valve will get it right with Steam OS.

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

#185
post #65
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worry is, as time goes on, it will become harder and harder to "bolt on" Linux (or OSX) support. Being cross-platform is a design decision, and it effects how you go about developing your platform (what technologies you use, etc...). So the fear is, they'll go down the Microsoft path and find it difficult to bring in other platforms down the road.

Well, with OS X, at least, there is no retail Mac that meets the minimum hardware requirements previously announced, except possibly the Mac Pro (though it looks like even that benches lower than the minimum for the Rift). Given that and that Mac graphics driver/OpenGL performance lags significantly behind Windows, there's not really any reason to waste resources on the platform. I don't know what the current state i…

The problem is that most AAA games that are benchmarked on Linux vs Windows are 3rd party ports for a tiny minority among the customers. They put as little resources as possible into the ports, that's just enough to deliver something that is well playable.

Once you can compare an engine/game that has been optimized for OpenGL with equal effort than for D3D, then you can make a fair comparison.

But it's true, OpenGL drivers are often worse. Not just on Linux. Look at what happened when RAGE came out. Presumably that's also only because drivers for D3D are optimized and hacked on much, much more because there are so many AAA games that use it.

That there are already cases where AAA games run at times better on Linux than on Windows, even through a wrapper, is a very, very good sign for the performance to come if only a little more effort is put into the drivers and ports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZYIa-6UooM

That said, Unity and Unreal are the engines that matter most for VR right now. Both have linux versions. Unity 5.3 was recently released and they have updated their OpenGL backend significantly. I've not seen benchmarks yet...

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

#186

Did they ever decide to care about Linux again? I returned my devkit because they said they didn't care about Linux a couple of weeks after I got mine. I won't send them more money unless they're going to support Linux.

You could... return it? I thought they were very clear it wasn't refundable and there were some discussions in the forums about it with some negative quotes from the customer support...

> I won't send them more money unless they're going to support Linux.

Careful, they already said they support linux with the dk2 and we know how that went. Don't rely on what they say they "are going to do". Only buy it when they demonstrate complete and fully working linux support, not earlier.

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

#187

VR is not comparable to 3D TV because it's not TV. It's fundamentally an interactive medium over which the user has complete narrative control, yet one that doesn't feel like you're interacting with something, so much as wearing a piece of clothing. 3D TV is burdensome for very little benefit . VR is freeing for significantly greater benefit. If you haven't tried it, you don't understand the difference between head t…

> If you haven't tried it, you just don't know what you're talking about. You have nothing in your life from which to draw a conclusion.

I wonder why people are circlejerking so hard about "You have to try it to understand it". After watching Carmack show his doom port on his prototype back then told me exactly what to expect. Sure, I didn't know what it would "feel" like, but I knew to expect immersion and when I bought a DK2, I got nothing unexpected. Well, the shitty linux support after they were bought for 2 billion dollars was unexpected, but the technology? No.

> VR is going to fulfill the promise of teleconferencing. If VR was a "flop" in the 90s, then teleconferencing definitely was, too. Talking to people face-to-face in VR is night-and-day better than using Skype or FaceTime. There is barely any comparison to be made. You forget you're using technology when having a f2f with a person in VR. And this isn't a prediction. This is available today.

But isn't "social" VR more of a charade when it is restricted to proprietary platforms and operating systems? Wake me up, when everyone can be connected by it.

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

#188
post #135
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…

> Zuck gets this to the degree that I suspect he believes Facebook & VR will be synonymous within a decade (1) The vast majority of Facebook users has neither consoles nor PCs nor any interest in ever purchasing a peripheral in the targeted price range (even if it drops to 100USD). I don't doubt that they can break even regarding development costs, but it won't be a cash cow.

The Big Kahuna is going to be standalone mobile VR headsets. Expect to see a self-contained headset from Oculus for the price of a mobile phone within 5 years.

Zuck knows he failed with Facebook Home. He has surveyed the landscape and he knows he'll never be more than the most-used app on someone else's phone. But he's still salivating to own a platform, so he's looking to the future.

Think about this: if you're sitting on the train, or waiting in the Doctor's office, would you rather wait in VR, or in a waiting room with your nose in a mobile phone?

And if you remove all of the bored killing-time-in-spaces-you'd-rather-not-be uses of mobile phones, how much use is really left in them?

Think too, how many phone calls will you make when you can run around a virtual dinosaur park, or sit under a virtual night sky with your friends and family?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but it does seem like VR could put quite a lot of pressure on what is now the dominant category of computing devices. And Zuck is better positioned than anyone to be the pack leader.

Also consider that phones are fundamentally disconnected from remote friends. You don't really want your sister scrolling through the news with you when you're on the train. But you might be totally happy to have her sitting next to you in a flowery meadow in VR while you both catch up on your news feed. Or maybe she is on the surface of Mars and you are in a flowery meadow but you both feel like you are together. Maybe she's fighting aliens in a forest while you are collecting mushrooms, bantering back and forth about what happened at work.

VR is fundamentally more amenable to social than flat screens are. Look no further than social console gaming to see the start of this. I think the merger of Facebook and Oculus is fascinating.

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

#189
post #28

Why do they have to be so secretive of their pricing?! Why can't I see the price now so I can consider if it's worth it or not?

This announcement is just a courtesy heads-up to people who are waiting so they can arrange their schedules. The actual announcement is Wednesday. They didn't announce the price because then people would write news articles about it and they want to be able to do their marketing pitch at the same time and convert the buzz into preorders.

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

#190
post #186

Did they ever decide to care about Linux again? I returned my devkit because they said they didn't care about Linux a couple of weeks after I got mine. I won't send them more money unless they're going to support Linux.

You could... return it? I thought they were very clear it wasn't refundable and there were some discussions in the forums about it with some negative quotes from the customer support... > I won't send them more money unless they're going to support Linux. Careful, they already said they support linux with the dk2 and we know how that went. Don't rely on what they say they "are going to do". Only buy it when they demo…

>You could... return it? I thought they were very clear it wasn't refundable and there were some discussions in the forums about it with some negative quotes from the customer support...

You're right, but I spoke with support and made my case and since it had been such a short time since I bought it, they went ahead and did the refund.

>Careful, they already said they support linux with the dk2 and we know how that went. Don't rely on what they say they "are going to do". Only buy it when they demonstrate complete and fully working linux support, not earlier.

Sorry about my wording. I'm not going to buy it until there is actual support that I can actually use at the moment I open the box.

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