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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

#31

Post by strictnein »

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…

3D graphics didn't really "work" originally either. 1920x1080 and 2560x1440 used to seem like insane resolutions. Gotta start somewhere.

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

#32

Post by dshankar »

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 controllers.

They are far more similar to each other than most people realize.

It is unlikely to be obsolete in 1 year. The update/release cycle for VR headsets (at least for Oculus) is expected to be somewhere between consoles (6-8 years) and smartphones (1 year).

Pricing will be announced on Jan 6 morning and should help you decide.

Note: I work full-time developing VR software and own every VR headset.

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

#33

Post by Alupis »

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 they were "leading the way" just a short time ago.

In addition, from a consumer perspective, their "finished" product looks almost identical to the "developer" previews they shipped years back...

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

#34

Post by strictnein »

xiaoma wrote: post #14

The thing that worries me about this is that I don't see anything mentioned about different sizes. Hats aren't all one size. Glasses aren't all one size. I have an unfortunately large skull and "one size fits all" hats never fit me. Does this mean that there won't be an Oculus for me?

I have a fairly big head as well (I can't really wear an adjustable baseball cap for instance, unless I cut my hair short), but the DK2 worked for me, with a little room to spare. It also worked for my 4 and 7 year old kids.

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

#35

Post by ZenoArrow »

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 would wait until after CES 2016 to make a decision, HTC is meant to have a big announcement:

http://www.techradar.com/news/wearables/major-htc-vive-break...

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

#36

Post by Alupis »

freehunter wrote: post #30
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #18

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.

Did they say they didn't care, or did they say they needed to focus development? There is a big difference between the two. If they were making a game in Unity and didn't release a Linux version, that's one thing. If they're making a brand new specialized piece of hardware and have had numerous delays and just need to get a product out the door... well it's a little more understandable that they would focus on one pl…

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.

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

#37

Post by dshankar »

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…

"3rd to market"?

The first consumer VR hardware on the market was the GearVR, made by Samsung AND Oculus.

The second consumer VR hardware on the market is likely to be the Oculus Rift (Q1 Jan-Mar shipping) and the Vive is likely to be the third to market (est. April shipping)

This is nothing like the developer previews from years ago. You should read up on the major differences from the DK1->DK2->CV1. Each was a massive leap forward in capability.

Note: I've been developing VR for 1+ years and own every VR headset.

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

#38

Post by potatolicious »

cs0 wrote: 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?

Presumably because they want to be able to justify the pricing by telling you all about the new stuff they put into the thing, and they want to time details of the product with a big unveiling and marketing push.

Just announcing the price without details of what you're getting for it is just going to make a bunch of forums and subreddits very angry in the way only gaming communities can get really angry.

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

#40

Post by corysama »

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,…

Exactly. Half Life 2 worked when hardware was 10x slower than today. Lots of 3D games worked even before that. They just didn't look like Star Wars Battlefront.
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