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Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

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Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#331

Post by lacksconfidence »

tristor wrote: post #329

I've been wanting to use PCVR for a long time, especially for virtual desktop scenarios, not even just for gaming. But the reality is I will never buy anything that puts money in Facebook's pocket. End of story. I really appreciate the work the developer did on this, but philosophically I see things like this that attempt to break the walled garden as a net-benefit to a bad actor (Facebook) rather than a net-benefit…

Lucky for you, FB doesn't care about PCVR either. They are clearly all-in on untethered consumer devices. PCVR will remain for the enthusiests with various smaller companies providing more impressive headsets than FB.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#332

Post by yummypaint »

dabber21 wrote: post #304
cardanome wrote: post #303

Facebook should have never been allowed to buy them. It is really annoying because there is basically no alternative to it if you want a stand alone VR headset.

There are rumours that Valve will enter the game

They make possibly the best overall VR system on the market currently, and it has been the best on the market for almost 2 years now. I've used the quest also, and there is no substitute for the processing power of an actual computer, not to mention ease of future upgrades via the pc.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#333

Post by loulouxiv »

makeitdouble wrote: post #253
zucker42 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a good guy in the space already it's Valve. The Index was good, and there are rumors that they are developing their own standalone VR headset (search "Deckard") which would theoretically compete directly with Quest 2.

I agree with Valve's position as an alternative...but the Index is priced 10k+ so targeted a completely different public, and Deckard is only rumored as far as I know. We have no idea if/when/how it will be released, or if they'll be able to reach a competitive price. I wish them to succeed, but wouldn't count on it until we have actual release info. It actually reminds me that Sony is rumored to release a Playstatio…

The rumors say that it will launch with Half-Life 3 pre-installed

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#334

Post by ahupp »

LegitShady wrote: post #67

Just a reminder Oculus is a company founded on taking tech from other companies and getting away with it. Don't give them money, don't buy their devices. Getting acquired by facebook and turning the VR sets into spyware and facebook funnels just makes them worse. If you want to be ethical get an HMD from someone other than Oculus/Facebook. I wouldn't give them a dime. Sources: alan yates (posting as vk2zay on reddit)…

> Oculus has their own CV-based tracking implementation and frensel lens design but the CV1 is otherwise a direct copy

Tracking and lenses are what make headset. I'm struggling to think of what non-trivial decisions are even left if you exclude those. Panel choice and illumination strategy I guess?

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#335

Post by soylentnewsorg »

charcircuit wrote: post #257
soylentnewsorg wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what else is "garbage?" - games. Because no one plays games on their phone, since a $3k gaming tower in their home is much better. I also never eat at Burger King - because their food is not as good as a 5 star restaurant. In fact, games without top of the notch 600W GPU graphics are not played by anyone. If you play solitaire, it needs to run at 120FPS and use raytracing. This is also why Walmart went out o…

I don't play on my phone and my computer did cost $3k if you include my vr equipment. I don't eat at burger king. I've played solitaire at 120 fps, but not with ray tracing. I also don't shop at walmart.

I do understand that people who are afraid of social contact order everything online and never leave their computer. I highly recommend going to a doctor - they have pills for extreme cases of social anxiety now which will after many years of therapy allow you to function as part of society. There's nothing to be afraid of little one. You can be normal, with a lot of time and a lot of help from qualified medical professionals.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#336

Post by Guillaume86 »

tristor wrote: post #329

I've been wanting to use PCVR for a long time, especially for virtual desktop scenarios, not even just for gaming. But the reality is I will never buy anything that puts money in Facebook's pocket. End of story. I really appreciate the work the developer did on this, but philosophically I see things like this that attempt to break the walled garden as a net-benefit to a bad actor (Facebook) rather than a net-benefit…

Why do you think it's a net benefit for facebook? They probably make a loss if you buy a headset, don't buy anything on the store and un-facebook it.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#337

Post by [deleted] »

narism wrote: post #222
gear54rus wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pretty much agree but what do you mean stolen tech?

They are probably talking about ZeniMax v. Oculus. ZeniMax owned the company where John Carmack worked. While the original Oculus Rift was being prototyped and later crowdfunded, Carmack was interested in VR and worked on the code/headset to get Doom 3 running on it. He later left to become the Oculus CTO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_v._Oculus

[deleted]

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#338

Post by wly_cdgr »

LegitShady wrote: post #321
narism wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are probably talking about ZeniMax v. Oculus. ZeniMax owned the company where John Carmack worked. While the original Oculus Rift was being prototyped and later crowdfunded, Carmack was interested in VR and worked on the code/headset to get Doom 3 running on it. He later left to become the Oculus CTO. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeniMax_v._Oculus

also see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28871907 Carmack's actions in light of the pattern of Oculus acquiring tech from valve in shady ways can't be seen as anything other than just another guy betraying his former employer for oculus. A giant stain on his reputation for anyone who can see just how oculus was built.

I read that thread and it has insider reports about how Valve chose to give its tech away to Oculus. How is that Oculus' fault?

Also don't see the issue with Carmack. Code you write ethically belongs to you, no matter what the law or your employment contract says

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#339

Post by HWR_14 »

LegitShady wrote: post #136
HWR_14 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with the explanation that hardware is just so worthless anyway compared to online software sales, there was no other choice. This is especially strange since Apple makes tons of money off online software sales tied to their hardware. I believe several other companies (like all the console manufacturers in the game space that Valve is in) do to. It's fundamentally a very bad call.

valve is very differently structured and has had a very tough time pivoting to hardware. We can see this obviously with steam machines where they just didn't want to get involved. Then the steam controller, steam link, and now steam deck... they're getting there but they're not exactly there yet. I think oculus taking their research tech and turning it into a $2b acquisition and a threat to steam because of its close…

Right, they had reasons for their bad call. But it definitely was a bad one.

Re: Oculess – Removes account requirements and telemetry from Oculus Quest devices

#340

Post by jeroenhd »

jmac01 wrote: post #326
archontes wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. This: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22699914/valve-deckard-st...

But that'll be like $899 if we lucky. Occulus Quest is like $300

Facebook also sells the Oculus Quest 2 for business. You need to activate it with a workplace.com account, but the headset no longer requires a personal Facebook account to work.

Incidentally, the business version is also twice as expensive and comes with a yearly $180 support subscription. The price of privacy, I suppose.

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