General VR discussion thread

[Red Storm]

Got to try both the Rift and the Vive last night. The Vive is way better IMHO, the controllers make a huge difference, and being able to walk around was actually way cooler than I anticipated.

 

[Subyman]

Its like Oculus is actively trying to hurt itself. I don't get it. The tech and gamer crowd has some pretty hard and fast ways to make them completely turn on you, DRM and botched launches. They've managed to do both, plus lie (which tends to turn anyone against you.)

It is funny how in only 6 months Oculus has gone from singing kumbaya with the entire VR industry to building DRM into their walled garden store front. And they said the facebook acquisition wouldn't affect their core fundamentals. I can't see Palmer Luckey wanting to have taken this path.

Vive seems to be the standard now. Most websites are focusing their content toward the Vive because its more fun to watch and I think Steam provides a secondary 2D feed for easier viewing.

 

[HeXen]

Got to try both the Rift and the Vive last night. The Vive is way better IMHO, the controllers make a huge difference, and being able to walk around was actually way cooler than I anticipated.

Not one single store in my town that sell such has either one for me to test out.:\
Funny that both my local Gamestops act like they don't even exist. The one at the mall, I asked if they were going to get any Rifts in before July and he was like a Rift what? lol

 

[Sabrewings]

Its like Oculus is actively trying to hurt itself. I don't get it. The tech and gamer crowd has some pretty hard and fast ways to make them completely turn on you, DRM and botched launches. They've managed to do both, plus lie (which tends to turn anyone against you.)

It is funny how in only 6 months Oculus has gone from singing kumbaya with the entire VR industry to building DRM into their walled garden store front. And they said the facebook acquisition wouldn't affect their core fundamentals. I can't see Palmer Luckey wanting to have taken this path.

Vive seems to be the standard now. Most websites are focusing their content toward the Vive because its more fun to watch and I think Steam provides a secondary 2D feed for easier viewing.

It just keeps getting worse for them. Alan Yates has now confirmed that the reason the Vive and Rift are so feature parity is because Oculus copied the prototype Valve lent them just prior to the Facebook acquisition.

That's the nail in their coffin to me. Not a single likeable bone in that company's body and I will never give them a cent.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4klu94/oculus_becoming_bad_for_vr_industry/d3g6e6j?context=3

Fallout:
https://as.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4kp8wc/alan_yates_the_cv1_is_otherwise_a_direct_copy_of/
https://as.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4kpdg5/alan_yates_the_cv1_is_otherwise_a_direct_copy_of/

 

[SexyK]

It just keeps getting worse for them. Alan Yates has now confirmed that the reason the Vive and Rift are so feature parity is because Oculus copied the prototype Valve lent them just prior to the Facebook acquisition.

That's the nail in their coffin to me. Not a single likeable bone in that company's body and I will never give them a cent.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4klu94/oculus_becoming_bad_for_vr_industry/d3g6e6j?context=3

Fallout:
https://as.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4kp8wc/alan_yates_the_cv1_is_otherwise_a_direct_copy_of/
https://as.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/4kpdg5/alan_yates_the_cv1_is_otherwise_a_direct_copy_of/

Yikes, not a good look. Almost forgot to cancel my Rift order. Luckily my CC company declined the charge and I had time to cancel before they tried to charge again. So happy with the Vive and the SteamVR platform. I really can't see any reason to bother with a Rift at this point, as I suspect most content I care about will eventually be available on Steam (if it's not already).

 

[pm]

I got a chance to try the Rift yesterday, and I own a Vive.

I like the build quality of the Rift - the whole headset felt better and looked better - but for everything else definitely I like my Vive better overall (and the Rift owner reluctantly agreed after a few minutes playing around with the Vive).

As far as the DRM stuff... I'm taking a more moderate position on the whole situation. The problem is that you want content to make a hardware platform successful - not just VR, but any of the consoles or anything else. There's no way to sell a bunch of expensive hardware unless there's something compelling to do with that expensive hardware. So then you pay for content to be developed and once you have paid the content, you want it to remain a compelling reason to buy your hardware. The thing that really sucks about the DRM issue is the comments that Oculus made in the past that - it makes them look like hypocrites. But the underlying issue of tying content to hardware... I don't have a problem with that.

 

[ImpulsE69]

It really is the wrong way to approach it in the PC world though. Apparently they only planned on making money through software? That was a bad idea to begin with and anyone who is part of the PC community should have known this. I don't know who's decision it was to go this route but they should be fired, because they don't know anything about technology or how to sell it.

 

[Sabrewings]

I said this on Reddit when they announced they make no money on the HMD (lie) and plan to make their profits from selling software.

"So your business model is to sell the HMD at cost and then compete with Steam in a niche market."

 

[gorobei]

oculus going drm is pretty short sighted.

if you assume that in a year or two there will be probably half a dozen other headsets out there(ie starVR or some other oem), no one is going to tie themselves to one specific vendor.

if valve is true to their word and open license the lighthouse tech, then you may see a bunch of other phone makers jump into the headset business thus making the hardware more commodity than luxury item. at that point a software platform that allows any headset is the smarter play.

 

[zinfamous]

So how much did Suckerburg fork over for Oculus? 1-3 billion? awesome.

...though from what I understand it sounds like this is more of an issue of Zuckerburg's company getting involved in the first place that screwed the platform? I wonder if that is actually a good thing in the end, though?

When Facebook created that valuation for VR tech, everyone paid attention. Obviously Facebook screwed it because they really only know how to collect and sell personal information, but I imagine this helped to energize the real brains in the industry to get behind this tech and sew competition. Maybe Oculus had to suffer and Facebook had to take a kick to the nuts for VR to live?

granted, I'm probably taking a lot of liberties in assuming Facebook's actual input and control over Oculus development, but this latest information definitely seems very non-PC friendly for a company founded by old school PC types.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I found this comment, and I think it sums it up nicely:

This is like Steam telling people that they cannot play games from the steam store with an XBox controller, enforcing people to use the Steam controller. It is wrong! What is Oculus thinking!?

 

[Midwayman]

I canceled my order today as well. All this new on OVR has been really distasteful and I'd hate to see them win the market. Not even worth keeping to sell as the craigslist prices have already dropped to not much over msrp in my area.

 

[Aikouka]

As far as the DRM stuff... I'm taking a more moderate position on the whole situation. The problem is that you want content to make a hardware platform successful - not just VR, but any of the consoles or anything else. There's no way to sell a bunch of expensive hardware unless there's something compelling to do with that expensive hardware. So then you pay for content to be developed and once you have paid the content, you want it to remain a compelling reason to buy your hardware. The thing that really sucks about the DRM issue is the comments that Oculus made in the past that - it makes them look like hypocrites. But the underlying issue of tying content to hardware... I don't have a problem with that.

I agree that you want content to push your product, but I think VR is too new to focus on "in-fighting" rather than trying to "grow roots". Exclusives work well for consoles, because they're simply a commonplace item, but VR HMDs are simply not common enough. Sony might be able to pull off exclusives a bit more simply because the cost of entry being significantly lower, and the fact that the requirements are simple... one PS4 (+ camera and wand).

The thing is... if Oculus pays for a game's development, they still make money even if a Vive user buys the game. The problem is that Lucky's Tale is currently free on Oculus Home rather than giving Rift buyers a key to get it. So, if you own a Vive, you can get the game for free.

 

[Subyman]

Uhm, if oculus wanted to make money through software then they should open the store to as many units as possible.

 

[Sabrewings]

Good job, Oculus. More stuff like this and you might redeem yourself.

https://as.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4l4iqh/oculus_vroptimised_ue4_renderer_source_code/

 

[Kaido]

Samsung just showed off a 4K screen for VR:

http://uploadvr.com/samsung-showcases-4k-uhd-display-vr/

 

[TheUnk]

Samsung just showed off a 4K screen for VR:

http://uploadvr.com/samsung-showcases-4k-uhd-display-vr/

Getting the screens probably isn't going to be the problem. Getting the GPU power to run two 4k screens at 90fps is.

 

[gorobei]

Samsung just showed off a 4K screen for VR:

http://uploadvr.com/samsung-showcases-4k-uhd-display-vr/

Getting the screens probably isn't going to be the problem. Getting the GPU power to run two 4k screens at 90fps is.

you dont need 2x (3840 x 2160). each eye only sees a roughly circular field with the current split panels(1080x1200) in the rift and vive. you really only need 2160x2160 or something in a 4:3 or 5:4 AR for each eye plus some peripheral.

a single 4k panel is only for a gearVR or google daydream where you intend it for mobile.
it does bring up the question of how the old dk1 dk2 handled interpupillary distance adjustment. when the lenses were shifted, did the screen lose res on the outer edge as it shifted each render view for wider pupil users?

 

[ImpulsE69]

Good job, Oculus. More stuff like this and you might redeem yourself.

https://as.reddit.com/r/Vive/comments/4l4iqh/oculus_vroptimised_ue4_renderer_source_code/

Now this I like to see.

 

[HeXen]

Couldn't they use 4k panels and everyone just play at 1080p upscaled? I mean that would eliminate the screen door effect with the higher pixel count right?

 

[Kaido]

VR gaming backpack-style computers are apparently all the rage now:

http://liliputing.com/2016/05/guess-backpack-pcs-vr-gaming-thing-now-hp-one.html

Between Skylake & the 1080 GPU, I can see this working out pretty well...

 

[Midwayman]

VR gaming backpack-style computers are apparently all the rage now:

http://liliputing.com/2016/05/guess-backpack-pcs-vr-gaming-thing-now-hp-one.html

Between Skylake & the 1080 GPU, I can see this working out pretty well...

Cool idea. Though I assume they are on battery? Hard to imagine not needing a power cord with the level of CPU and GPU needed.

 

[zinfamous]

Cool idea. Though I assume they are on battery? Hard to imagine not needing a power cord with the level of CPU and GPU needed.

Bioenergy, bro. It feeds off of your body's natural essence.

 

[Kaido]

Cool idea. Though I assume they are on battery? Hard to imagine not needing a power cord with the level of CPU and GPU needed.

I'd hope so. They have GTX980 laptops that run off a battery now anyway, so it'd be trivial to triple the size of said battery, since carrying 10 pounds in a backpack isn't bad at all with a strap on each shoulder.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Is wireless HDMI and Wireless USB3 not fast enough? Granted there's always interference concerns, but...