Oculus Rift 600$$ Ridiculous.

I played with Rift DK2. Wasn't terribly impressed. There's no way to access other gadgets in my current location.

 

I didn't mean that , but lot more about gaming isolated from the people around you playing Skyrim for example, you have your helmet so you are not available for people around you at all unlike a computer or a phone.
Some players will become too much dependant on the device to escape reality instead of facing it and improving themselves. WoW game had also a very negative impact on many players, with Occulus things can become worst.

I also didn't been impressed, the effect is cool, but it is less tiring to play on a flat 2D monitor than having to manage two images and perceiving the 3D effect. I got the same level of immersion playing without VR as i simply forget everything around and i am in the game also.

 

This will become widespread when porn figures out how to set up a camera array so a viewer can look from any vantage point.

 

It's historically true that the tech that supports porn tends to become successful :/

 

'49.95 an hour - real augmented reality sex - sow your wild oats tonight!' lmao haahah.

 

My Oculus project just.... umm... took a new direction... ahem.

 

hahaha

 

While porn is funny etc and so forth, it's actually a huge driving market force, allowing device penetration.

 

Its true right. Porn and making things to kill each other. The things that drive technology forward.

Edit, just noticed the joke.

 

Reminds me of the early 3d GPU world. Voodoo was THE king, but due to their incompetence they lost the market to likes of nVidia and ATi.

 

Rumour has it PSVR will have a similar price and I expect Vive to be the most expensive of all (since it comes with controllers and all).

 

I doubt it would be more expensive than the console itself, but I could be wrong. The fundamental difference between a console solution and a common marketplace is that there is no competition. The success of PSVR is paramount so loss leading makes sense.

Facebook cannot loss lead or sell cheaply to create the market because it directly benefits their competitors, while Sony isn't competing with anyone as console gamers usually aren't desktop gamers.

 

Maybe, and then again maybe not. Sony didn't loss-lead with the PS4. They sold it at close to cost, which is not in keeping with their past console strategies. They got burned too badly with the PS3, and weren't looking to put themselves in the same position.

They are also in a unique position with the PlayStation VR. Both of their major console competitors opted to stay out of VR for the time being. And with the Oculus priced at $600, and requiring a beefy computer to boot, this frees Sony up considerably. Pile on top of that the fact that the PS4 is still selling well and turning a profit.

Sony isn't desperate for funds in their console business. Games for them are booming at the moment, so they don't need anything to give their console business a shot in the arm. (which was the purpose of the Kinect and Move initiatives) And the lack of competition for mid-range VR solutions is going to free them up considerably. They can afford to sit back and take a slower approach to PlayStation VR. This could mean a higher price-tag for the hardware, and a more gradual ramp-up of development and promotion.

We may see the PlayStation VR coming out at $500, perhaps even closer to $600 USD. It may in fact be a peripheral that is more expensive than the console hardware itself. And it would still be cheaper than getting an Oculus + computer.

 

I consider sony's strategy long term for VR. This would be an introduction to consumers, so it might not necessarily make tonnes of sense this soon.

 

They are both sometimes. But for the majority of players that only play on consoles mainly, like you said there will be no competitors in a first time. And Sony VR will be the pionner leading the way and showing to Microsoft if VR will work or not (somewhat like the abandonned Kinect).
I remember Star Wars using Kinect , it was a real disaster on gameplay.

 

VR gameplay is really difficult. You need to adjust the controls considerably to reduce sickness.

 

These engineers need to get the goggles design out of their minds. If this stuff was more like the HoloDeck on the Enterprise I'd be interested in it. That should do away with the sickness too.

I probably won't ever see such tech affordable in mass market but perhaps the grandchildren of todays kids will take it for granted. "What do you mean you played holding a controller and staring at a screen or wearing some kind of special goggles? Is that when the streets were filled with horses and wagons?"

 

Ugh, holodeck episodes were almost the worst. I'd rather go for some kind of a brain interface system if we're going into sci-fi territory .

 

The Rift was a must buy for me, but at $600 I don't think so. Especially given the fact the first generation will likely be replaced quickly with generation 2 that is a lot better. Rift has some advantage of being around with devs for a long time with multiple iterations so maybe not but $600 is far too steep especially since they dropped out some hardware from the final package. I might still get one, but I'm really hesitant now.

 

They can't easily. Because the screen needs to be a specific distance from your eyes with current tech being used. Fixing that would probably double the cost which is already too high.

As for "beaming images" into people's heads, this is much more difficult with the recent findings that a lot of image recognition actually takes place in your eyes, not your brain. Pretty surprising.

 

Would you prefer a visor similar to what La Forge wears?

 

I'd like something more along the lines of a dedicated HoloDeck room in my house. It would need to be instanced environments of course where I walk along and am silently beamed back to the other side of the room at the same split second the environment is updated. Basically so I am "really" there.

 

I guess vive has that covered more than rift. We don't know the price of that yet, but judging by the internet's memes popping up I would imagine sub 600.

 

Reminds me of Clifford Simak's "Way Station".

 

I'm not sure they're ready to thrust themselves into this market yet at these prices.

 

Highly unlikely. Even earlier, I was assuming that the Vive would be $1,000 USD minimum for the base headset and controllers. And that's not even taking into account the PC necessary to run it.

 

I'd be surprised as it has more components, and if they're at the same level as the Rift's (i.e. not standard off-the-shelf) then I would expect it's going to be at the very least the same price if they (Valve) are willing to subsidize the first generation.

Personally I think the price is too much, but it's not all that surprising. Lots of people thought Facebook would subsidize it, but the delivery dates are such that they'll probably sell the entire year's inventory in a few weeks. Which is in itself kind of worrying, as it's already a known number of cap users - and quite a small cap compared to, say, any other platform. And how many CV1s are going to sit in the corner gathering dust as they don't meet expectations. Because even though VR *is* awesome when done right, it's literally stomach churning when done wrong, so VR buyers are going to probably be a lot more picky about what they purchase and play.

Sony have the opportunity here anyway. They're the only ones with both software and hardware knowledge (+success with hardware, sorry Valve) and an established store and userbase (nearly 36 million now?). And more importantly, no fragmentation. When Lucky Palmer says "You may not be able to play your games at Max settings" someone at Sony is laughing and making strapline notes for the Morpheus launch keynote.

Cardboard is rubbish. It's good technically, but it's not a consumer product. If mobile VR is going to go mass market it's not going to be looking at VR on your phone but your phone connecting to a VR HMD. But hey, everyone has an "old" smartphone.

Video and social media are what will save mobile VR. Games (meaning, decent games not novelty apps) will come when there's enough users - and nothing sports users like a successful social media app.

That's wot I think anyway

 

You know what Valve has going for them that Oculus does not? They have their own store platform. If they made using the Vive in a game require the game be sold on Steam they could sell at a loss and try to make it back through sales.

 

No, I would prefer VR contact lenses.

 

Anyway, I don't believe Vive will be much of a success either, even with a sane price. After all, to use it, you need a spare warehouse.

 

optional.

 

No, I'm pretty sure room tracking thing is mandatory.

 

Maybe I'm just too jaded to think this will happen given how the big budget gaming market looks like.
There are good reasons why "appealing to a broader audience" isn't seen as a good thing there.
But okay, assuming that it they can coexist, this would be the best option for obvious reasons.

Well, we better hope that @Ryiah will be right then.

 

@hippocoder I don't think it will be too much less than 600$ US. Look at the Oculus, right now the queue is until June . If they are sold out, I don't think they are worried to much about memes.

 

Facebook invested a considerable sum into Oculus. The initial sales won't come close to making it up.

 

I think that most people have a room.

 

@Ryiah I know that but again they are selling out and will likely continue to be sold out for the initial period. Then it becomes the case they have to consider who is more likely to buy lots of items through the Oculus store, someone one pre-orders at 600 or someone who pre-orders at 400$? But then again if they did drop the price you wouldn't hear me complain .

 

@Lockethane: Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the enthusiasts bought one of each. I've already seen some people mention they were planning to on /r/Oculus. It might come down to it if you play both PC and consoles.

 

Yeah I saw that too.

 

Anybody know if you can use the rift as a stereoscopic 3D monitor/tv? Basically play 3d movies/games without motion tracking at closer/bigger picture. If not, that's a big marketing opportunity missed.

 

While not official @MurDocINC VorpX is said to be pretty good VR program. I don't know the full extent of how it works though so it might not do what you want.

 

You can probably cook up this kind of app for the rift, but I think you'll lose quality. DKII wasn't as crisp as real world, meaning that in place where you with normal eyesight you'll see small details, in rift the whole area will be covered by one big pixel. Meaning if you display virtual 4k tv in vr headset, the picture you'll see will significantly lower resolution.

Experience with DKII was kinda comparable to walking in slightly dirty or misty glasses. Or, I don't know, wearing a gas mask with very cheap glass. Yeah, gas mask is probably the right idea.
Meaning shapes are all there, but small details that are present in the real world are not displayed and are blurred out. Or that's at least how I remembered it.

Not sure how release version improved compared to DKII, though.

 

I don't have first hand experience yet, but they've improved the video by delivering dual 1080x1200 screens (instead of one 1910x1080 screen), for a 25% base resolution improvement, and the dual screen will help deliver more actual pixels to the eye. Each generation has supposedly improved the SDE also. Still, we'll just need to wait and see how much it has actually improved.

 

That's not much, though.

Let's do some math here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_acuity

Basically, the article claims that maximum discernable detail for human is 0.02 .. 0.003 degrees.
Oculus rift offers 90 degree vision cone, IIRC.

So, let's assume square display. If we ignore that sensor is flat, and take bigger value, we'll need 90 degress/0.02 ... 4500 x 4500 display. For one eye. With 0.003 precision, there'll be need for 30000x30000 display per eye.

So, I think with just 1080x1200 it 'll still look misty and sorta blurred compared to real world.

 

Ah, no, it was nothing like that. That looks extremely uncomfortable for long periods of time. When I'd have those episodes invariably I would be lying on my back after much physical activity. Guess it's not so common as I thought.

 

Anyone remembers Lawnmoverman's device?


Something like that can actually be good if properly designed, but then it'll be half way between VR suit and powered exoskeleton. And it will cost a fortune.

 

I said screw 600. I just went to Walmart and got materials to make my own 3D Anaglyph glasses.
As my game looks like an old 1980s VCR, guess old school 3D works perfect anyways lol.

But gonna just get a 3D monitor as well, so I can include modern 3D into it as well.
Found a decent brand new one for a hundred something! Like 180. Passive 3D.

All I wanted the rift for was the 3D immersion, well screw that, I'll spend 180 to get some decent 3D lol.

 

@N1warhead: Have you seen the plastic/rubber equivalents to Google Cardboard? There's a number of them on Amazon for fairly cheap prices. You could pick up a quality phone and go that route.

 

Can it work with pc games? Eg - display the monitor on screen? I have option for side by side.