So the Santa Cruz

Are you all looking forward to the supposed Q1 release of the Oculus Santa Cruz?
I've only just recently heard about it, but it seems like a step in the right direction, if only it will be at least - somewhat affordable.

From what I've read, it will be a complete self-contained VR system that will do everything the Rift can do, but better, without any sensors whatsoever around you.

Of course, this is just what i've read, it seems pretty hush hush on extreme details at the moment.
But I can say I am definitely excited for it, if what I've read is correct.

 

Ehhhnnn... not really? I mean, the resolution isn't that far off of the Rift 1 and I'm still not really sure what content is going to be available for the thing.

 

From what I read, the resolution is practically classified, so what you might have read might have been speculation.
[Of course not literally classified], but underwraps.. But I've only read about it a few times (The SC). But everything I have read says there's not really much to be known about it still, and this was just a couple weeks ago when I read the articles.

EDIT: They were a couple weeks old articles.

 

The fact that details are so scarce is one of the things that worry me, honestly. Oculus isn't Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, or Apple. They're positively tiny and this sort of behaviour just makes it so the general public doesn't know what the product is at best and they have no idea it even exists at worst.

 

Well I wouldn't nessessarily say they are tiny now sense Facebook owns it now. But I do get what you mean though.
I really am surprised at how many details are missing from it. But perhaps it will be worth it here in a few months. Only time will tell I suppose.

I wonder if Foveated Rendering will be part of it.

 

It's a mobile device so you can't expect too much from it. It won't beat the Rift in terms of tracking, content quality and performance. There are not much details about it as it's not even yet been "officially" introduced to all devs. OC5 is just a couple weeks from now where the non private dev kit is supposed to be announced for all content creators.

 

Oculus is in the top probably right after Sony. They have a pretty huge marketing budget due Facebook and Oculus Go for example mass marketed already so Santa Cruz will probably follow.

 

Only in the VR space.

As far as actual big names that can pull this kid of sway are concerned though...

 

Facebook is a big name too. Even bigger than some of the others and the retail package has their tagline. However for some that is also a negative thing but for the every day bro masses more known thing.

 

Agreed. My own searches left me with the impression that this is basically just a fancy Oculus Go. I don't know if it's smart to release this now when they've already released the Go. We need a good affordable headset but if the price is within $50 of the Go it'll drive it off the market and if it's within $50 of the Rift it might not sell.

 

The key thing is that its 6DoF which makes big a difference in terms content and nausea. Can't do Beat Saber for Go as a popular game example. Rift is not a mass market product to them yet so doubt it matters to them even if they share the same price range. However not sure how many will pay for a high price Santa Cruz either unless there is a lot of magical content.

 

It's important to know that the fact Facebook owns Oculus isn't really a super known thing outside of tech circles. Facebook absolutely isn't the brand association people make when people think Oculus.

 

Expensive toys.

 

it will probably be a kinect like environement sensor duct tape with a mobile vd headset, like a diet microsoft Hololens, with less power, no ar, no fancy light field grass. They need to go below 200 anyway, and have a killer app, which is the missing link of vr.

 

From what I've read, the current Oculus Go uses low end mobile hardware. But the speculation I've read, which is that - speculation. It will be using the very high end mobile hardware. And from that speculation, they were saying we'd be able to get some really decent graphics from it...

I don't know much the difference between low and high end mobile, but the part they kept emphasizing was that if you really look at it, from the terms of the GO, the reason the GO can make at least some decent looking games is simply because it doesn't have to run all that extra stuff that phones do, so I could only imagine what high end mobile hardware would look like.. Yeah perhaps the normal Standard shader may or may not work, but I'm quite sure we could make some seriously impressive looking games for it.

I do want to get an Oculus Go, and probably will. It seems at the moment the best market to reach for with a potential audience that can't afford the beast computers.

Now if the Santa Cruz is like Rift price, then I may not get it unless it can produce some quite amazing content in terms of graphics.... I mean I don't mind low poly graphics and such, in a way I prefer them more. However, I know quality graphics can make or break a VR game as it can make or break the immersion for it. And I'm quite sure I know where most of the audience would lean towards: more realistic graphics to get a more full immersion into the game.

But this is just my own speculation I suppose, I hate to do speculation. But gah, I want to know all the details now hahaah.

 

The Oculus Go uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 which is a 4C/4T CPU with Adreno 530 GPU. The Oculus Santa Cruz will use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 which is a 8C/8T CPU with Adreno 630 GPU.

The Adreno 530 GPU scores a 32,824 in 3DMark Ice Storm while the 630 scores an 80,383.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Adreno-530.156189.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Adreno-630-GPU.299832.0.html

 

Yeah, which is why I mentioned the retail packages which almost all now say at least "From Facebook". In the stores it was also written in big fonts on the stand cover. However there are some regional differences on the store/street advertising for some reason.