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Oculus Rift

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Unread postby jeffrobot494 » 26 Mar 2014 08:19

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments ... ure_of_vr/

Palmer Luckey made a post in the Oculus subreddit trying to calm people who are angry about Facebook's acquisition. His second sentence sounds like one of your main points, Icy.

Palmer Luckey wrote:I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just possible, it was almost ready to move into the mainstream. All it needed was the right push.

We started Oculus VR with the vision of making virtual reality affordable and accessible, to allow everyone to experience the impossible. With the help of an incredible community, we’ve received orders for over 75,000 development kits from game developers, content creators, and artists around the world. When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical. As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark, the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone. Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place. Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.

Facebook is run in an open way that’s aligned with Oculus’ culture. Over the last decade, Mark and Facebook have been champions of open software and hardware, pushing the envelope of innovation for the entire tech industry. As Facebook has grown, they’ve continued to invest in efforts like with the Open Compute Project, their initiative that aims to drive innovation and reduce the cost of computing infrastructure across the industry. This is a team that’s used to making bold bets on the future.

In the end, I kept coming back to a question we always ask ourselves every day at Oculus: what’s best for the future of virtual reality? Partnering with Mark and the Facebook team is a unique and powerful opportunity. The partnership accelerates our vision, allows us to execute on some of our most creative ideas and take risks that were otherwise impossible. Most importantly, it means a better Oculus Rift with fewer compromises even faster than we anticipated.

Very little changes day-to-day at Oculus, although we’ll have substantially more resources to build the right team. If you want to come work on these hard problems in computer vision, graphics, input, and audio, please apply!

This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever.

I’m obsessed with VR. I spend every day pushing further, and every night dreaming of where we are going. Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined we’d come so far so fast.

I’m proud to be a member of this community — thank you all for carrying virtual reality and gaming forward and trusting in us to deliver. We won’t let you down.


In the comments he makes a great point against the myth of independence:

Soranma wrote:What we fear is not that Oculus will be partnering with Facebook, but that you are selling out the company to Facebook and no longer retain control over Oculus. I can say that I, personally, support Oculus because I believed in the goals and visions that you had.


Palmer Luckey wrote:This acquisition/partnership gives us more control of our destiny, not less! We don't have to compromise on anything, and can afford to make decisions that are right for the future of virtual reality, not our current revenue.
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Unread postby infernovia » 26 Mar 2014 17:00

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments ... vr/cgbyo14

is that 75-100 million dollars of VC not enough to bring the CV1 to market?


It it enough to bring a consumer product to market, but not the consumer product we really wish we could ship. This deal is going to immediately accelerate a lot of plans that were languishing on our wishlist, and the resulting hardware will be better AND cheaper. We have the resources to create custom hardware now, not just rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. There is a lot of good news on the way that is not yet public, so believe me, things will become a lot more clear over time.


So this is good news, the more resources devoted to VR the better. But I really have to question the partnership.

I feel like Oculus might have cornered themselves in the name of "freedom" by joining a company that is irrelevant to their main goals. If they had gone with MS, they might have better integration with OS plus a huge resource pool of developers and a lot of connections to gaming studios. I also think they would be more likely to invest in a big game that really kicks the platform along (like they did with Halo). Google has a lot of software development resources and hardware connections. Samsung would allow them access to high quality screen development. But Facebook? Is 400 million enough to get a big studio interested in making a compelling experience?

For all the talk of focusing on the "indie scene" the only compelling game that came out of it was Lunar Flight. And that's still not as engrossing as I would like it to be due to the limited resources of the developer.
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Unread postby icycalm » 26 Mar 2014 18:54

Can I join Facebook too? I could use a couple billions.
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Mar 2014 02:31

I bet Zuckerberg decided to buy them out because he couldn't wait until July to get his hands on his DK2 preorder.
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Unread postby icycalm » 29 Mar 2014 23:51

http://www.oculusvr.com/

Site Is Under Maintenance

We're performing a scheduled maintenance at the moment. Site will be back up shortly.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Oculus VR


It has begun.
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Unread postby infernovia » 03 Aug 2014 17:12

Teardown: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Oculus+ ... down/27613

Well, got my DK2. Finally set it up too.

Resolution: Substantial improvement. Here is an example: did you know there were seagulls flying in the sea in the Tuscany demo? I sure didn't. Wearing the DK1 makes you feel like you can only see 5 feet in front of you, this is more like 12 feet. The headset will be amazing with 2x the pixel density, so a 1440p panel or two 1080p displays. Still, this is much better than before.

Low Persistence: Substantial improvement. You cannot over-emphasize how important this is. Everything looks much better, the text is sharper, and the world feels less blurry.

FOV: It's lower. For some reason, I don't feel as engrossed in the game... I will have to play around with this after more demos start adding DK2 support. It could be simply because I need to constantly worry about interface problems or maybe because programs aren't distorting the image properly.

Positional tracking: Good, but has a lot of interface issues. Example:
  • Positional tracking requires you to be 5 feet away to get good tracking area, most keyboards are wired and people will not have options that far away on a regular desk.
  • There are no buttons on the Oculus to easily recenter yourself, even if you use the KB to just launch the game, you need to position yourself before the game starts up. Needless to say, it's annoying.

Display Quality: Fairly solid. The "screendoor" effect is still there, but feels better. It is bothersome when watching movies in a simulated theater or when you are trying to pinpoint small objects far away. It still has a long way to go, but still a step above the DK1. The most annoying thing about the screen is the chromatic aberration. Splits off the white bar into a rainbows when you are looking to the side. Plus there is a black smear as the OLED doesn't seem to flip quickly between dark and light. Oculus is saying that they can fix a lot of it through software so we will see. http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments ... he/cj86rnf

Interface: Not there at all. They really need to make an Oculus marketplace/appstore where you can explore/start games with just the headset for the consumer release. Adding a button to the side of the headset would really help with that (holding the button should recenter your position). They have made significant progress by adding a "direct to rift mode" which essentially forces the computer to stop recognizing it as a form of display and uses a service to send specific applications to the Rift. But there aren't enough demos that support this yet and it's kind of buggy.

Instead I have to mess around with extended mode where the DK2 becomes a regular monitor. This is much more annoying than with the DK1. You have to make the DK2 the primary display so it vsyncs properly and the games launch in the DK2 instead of my regular monitor (Windows vsyncs to the frame rate of the primary display, and DK2 sits at a weird 75fps). Of course, this sends the taskbar and my desktop icons to the DK2 instead of my regular monitor. So I have to bring the taskbar over to my main display by guessing each time I turn on the DK2, along with all the regular programs like Chrome/Notepad/whatever. Really annoying with system messages/windows/errors because you can't just use the windows key+left key to move them.

DK1 also had the advantage of being a horizontal 1200x800 monitor. I could easily duplicate the monitor even if it meant a little bit more lag. DK2 comes with a 1080x1920 monitor (instead of the regular 1920x1080), duplicating it instead forces a weird 1024x768 resolution and I have no options to force another.

So it's the early days, very ugly right now. Bluescreened twice already, but I hear it's getting fixed. The hardware is nice and hopefully things start looking better as the bugs get ironed out in the software and more developers start transitioning to the new "direct to rift" mode.
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Unread postby El Chaos » 31 Aug 2014 18:24

Hands-on with Oculus Rift DK2, the second-gen developer kit under the microscope: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digit ... s-rift-dk2
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Unread postby icycalm » 22 Sep 2014 05:11

http://www.pcper.com/news/General-Tech/ ... -Prototype

Scott Michaud wrote:Oculus Announces Crescent Bay (Prototype)

As they progress toward a consumer product, Oculus announced another prototype at their Oculus Connect developer conference. Dubbed Crescent Bay, the headset contains a new display, with a higher refresh rate and higher resolution, better optics, and 360-degree head tracking. It is also lighter and includes built-in speakers.

oculus-crescent-bay-prototype.png
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Of course, these features were not quantified with hard specifications.

Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus, stressed that this is not the consumer product yet. He claims that this is an increase over DK2 that is equivalent to the increase DK2 saw over the original Oculus Rift. It is not all about hardware, though. This company is engaged in hardware and software, video and audio. This should make sense considering their early acquisition of John Carmack and hundreds of other engineers. They, rightly, see themselves as a platform and, while they see game engines as necessary for VR, due to the ability to reposition the camera in milliseconds of notice, compared to film's never, they are not limiting themselves to just "games" (but yes they consider it a big part of it).

oculus-crescent-bay-prototype2.png
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Honestly, months ago, I was sitting at my desk with its five monitors, each with bits of news posts, chats, reference material, and maybe a StarCraft tournament live stream, and Oculus was being discussed. I started to wonder if monitors, especially multiple displays, are just an approximation -- our current best effort -- of how to receive video cues from a PC. I could see a VR platform take on entertainment and even productivity with its infinite, virtual environments.

Currently, there is not even a hint about pricing and availability (as far as I found).

Source: Oculus
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Unread postby infernovia » 21 Nov 2014 00:01

http://www.vrcircle.com/post/2560-x-144 ... resolution

While only those at Oculus truly know what the Oculus consumer version (CV1) may look like. We can get a pretty good idea of the likely specification by looking at what the suppliers of the DK2 are doing.

The Oculus Rift DK2 uses a Spectra VR7100 chip which reduces size and weight of HDMI copper interconnects which results in the HDMI cable being much thinner. Spectra announced the release of their VR7200 chip with the following announcement:

“With Spectra7’s new VR7200 chip which features the Company’s patented high-speed, active signal processing and power delivery technology, dual screen VR HMDs with a single super-thin cable and ultra-compact connector are now possible. Next generation VR interconnects built with Spectra7’s VR7200 are capable of dual 2560 x 1440 Wide Quad High Definition (WQHD) display resolution with 4:4:4 Chromaat up to 80 FPS perscreen without any image degradation as a result of Luma and/or Chroma subsampling and do not require a separate external HMD power connection”

In addition to this. The company announced a very large order of over 500k devices from a large OEM manufacture of VR devices.

"Spectra7 Microsystems Inc. ("Spectra7" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SEV), today announced that it has received a significant multi-product order for its new virtual reality ("VR") devices from an industry-leading consumer original equipment manufacturer ("OEM"). The order calls for delivery of over 500,000 devices "

What can be concluded from this?
CV1 may very well have a 2560 x 1440 resolution with a refresh rate of 80 Hz.
To me, this makes sense. Any resolution higher than this and/or refresh rate higher will just be too tough for the vast majority of PCs to drive. For VR to become mainstream it should not require 2 high end PC graphic cards to drive.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Nov 2014 00:15

lol there's no graphics card on the market or even the horizon that can handle this shit at a level anywhere near the cutting edge of graphics tech today. A dream scenario for Nvidia and ATI, and probably even Intel.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Nov 2014 00:16

The Rift's gonna totally flatten whatever efforts Sony and MS come up with.

IF it ever releases of course, before all of us are dead from old age, which seems less and less likely by the year.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Nov 2014 00:19

This looks like snowboarding goggles lol:

OculusRiftCV1.jpg
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At least with snowsports or mountain biking games the player will feel right at home.
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Unread postby jeffrobot494 » 28 Nov 2014 18:47

Oculus Rift "TV Spot": http://vimeo.com/74025061

Oculus Screengrab.png
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Unread postby slayer » 13 Dec 2014 09:58

http://www.vg247.com/2014/12/12/oculus- ... h-company/

Oculus Rift’s virtual reality empire has grown thanks to the acquisition of Nimble VR.

Nimble VR, formerly known as 3Gear Systems, is behind a very promising piece of skeletal hand tracking tech. In conjunction with a VR headset, this tech could power some very cool effects – like gestural controls. Imagine reaching out to turn a lever in the game world, for example. (This would be especially cool with Bristol University’s new VR haptic feedback system, so you could feel the lever, too.)

The acquisition of Nimble VR was one of three announcements Oculus Rift made today. It has also purchased 13th lab, which is working on a 3D reconstruction framework. This could be leveraged to efficiently recreate real world spaces and objects, taking some of the effort out of environmental design.

Finally, leading motion capture expert Chris Bregler has joined Oculus Rift. I don’t know whether his expertise will be leveraged to help capture performances for use as assets in projects, or in improving how VR devices track user movements, but both are exciting prospects.
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Unread postby earthboundtrev » 07 May 2015 00:08

http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2015/05/ocu ... oming.html

Oculus Rift consumer VR headset coming first quarter of 2016

1430914552-1-oculus-rift-2016.jpg

1430914552-2-oculus-rift-2016.jpg


First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016

Since the earliest days of the Oculus Kickstarter, the Rift has been shaped by gamers, backers, developers, and enthusiasts around the world. Today, we’re incredibly excited to announce that the Oculus Rift will be shipping to consumers in Q1 2016, with pre-orders later this year.

The Rift delivers on the dream of consumer VR with compelling content, a full ecosystem, and a fully-integrated hardware/software tech stack designed specifically for virtual reality. It’s a system designed by a team of extremely passionate gamers, developers, and engineers to reimagine what gaming can be.

The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as a highly refined industrial design, and updated ergonomics for a more natural fit.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift. Next week, we’ll share more of the technical specifications here on the Oculus blog.

Virtual reality is going to transform gaming, film, entertainment, communication, and much more. If you’re interested in building a next-generation VR game or application, everything you need to start developing for the Rift is available at the Oculus Developer Center.

E3 is just around the corner — this is only the beginning.

– The Oculus Team

oculus.com
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Unread postby infernovia » 15 May 2015 18:58

rift.png
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https://www.oculus.com/blog/powering-the-rift/

On the raw rendering costs: a traditional 1080p game at 60Hz requires 124 million shaded pixels per second. In contrast, the Rift runs at 2160×1200 at 90Hz split over dual displays, consuming 233 million pixels per second. At the default eye-target scale, the Rift’s rendering requirements go much higher: around 400 million shaded pixels per second. This means that by raw rendering costs alone, a VR game will require approximately 3x the GPU power of 1080p rendering.


https://www.oculus.com/blog/the-rifts-r ... am-voting/

For the full Rift experience, we recommend the following system:
  • NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
  • Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
  • 8GB+ RAM
  • Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
  • 2x USB 3.0 ports
  • Windows 7 SP1 or newer
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Unread postby infernovia » 09 Jan 2016 18:39

You can preorder the rift: https://www.oculus.com/en-us/

http://uploadvr.com/rift-is-599-launch- ... ers-start/

After years of preparation Oculus began offering the Rift for pre-order at $599.

The wired PC-powered VR headset is expected to ship to the first buyers on March 28 with Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey suggesting those who aren’t able to get it in the first shipments will still get Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie bundled with the Rift for free at a later date. Pre-ordering the Rift also reserves a spot in line to order Oculus Touch controllers when they launch late this year.

The shipment includes a small media remote controller called Oculus Remote along with an Xbox One controller, the Rift and a sensor to track the headset. The remote allows people to “browse the Oculus store, explore 360 video content in Oculus Video, or experience a wide range of VR games and entertainment. It is the easiest way to introduce non-gamers to VR.”


Luckey responds to pricing complaints: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ ... ?context=3

To be perfectly clear, we don’t make money on the Rift. The Xbox controller costs us almost nothing to bundle, and people can easily resell it for profit. A lot of people wish we would sell a bundle without “useless extras” like high-end audio, a carrying case, the bundled games, etc, but those just don’t significantly impact the cost. The core technology in the Rift is the main driver - two built-for-VR OLED displays with very high refresh rate and pixel density, a very precise tracking system, mechanical adjustment systems that must be lightweight, durable, and precise, and cutting-edge optics that are more complex to manufacture than many high end DSLR lenses. It is expensive, but for the $599 you spend, you get a lot more than spending $599 on pretty much any other consumer electronics devices - phones that cost $599 cost a fraction of that to make, same with mid-range TVs that cost $599. There are a lot of mainstream devices in that price-range, so as you have said, our failing was in communication, not just price.
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Unread postby infernovia » 19 Mar 2016 18:20

Introducing the Games Coming to Oculus! trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN6YCFlS8nU
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Unread postby Joshua » 05 Jan 2017 04:56

The Oculus Touch controllers were released earlier this month.

Oculus-Touch-7.jpg
Oculus Touch controllers


http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/5/13811 ... ler-review

OCULUS TOUCH REVIEW: THE OCULUS RIFT IS FINALLY COMPLETE

When the Oculus Rift reawakened our fascination with virtual reality in 2012, it was largely a visual medium. People imagined their average VR experience as a more exciting and immersive version of a traditional game or movie, something that gave the same familiar interactions a whole new feel. So controllers that mimicked movable virtual hands, like the Razer Hydra, just seemed like a fascinating but even geekier sub-field of an already geeky technology. But a few years later, motion controls have reinvented VR, and Oculus’ new Touch controllers are turning the Rift into the system it was always meant to be.

Touch, which ships to preorder customers December 6th, is Oculus playing catch-up. The HTC Vive put motion controls front and center in early 2015, transforming how people thought about VR. Suddenly, holding a gamepad paled next to painting, shooting, making sandwiches, or catching cute animals with your own two hands. Motion controls turned out to be one of the best arguments for calling virtual reality a new medium, not just a new kind of screen.

Oculus unveiled Touch a few months after the Vive appeared, but it wasn’t ready to ship with the Rift. Instead, Oculus included an Xbox One gamepad. It was everything the company had originally promised, but by then, that didn’t feel like enough. Although I loved the Rift’s hardware design, it was relegated to second-class status at some point after the Vive’s official consumer release, and third-class once PlayStation VR came out with a strong slate of both gamepad and motion-control titles.

This week, that could change. The $199 Oculus Touch package, which includes two controllers and an additional tracking camera, is a pricey addition to the $599 Rift. But it’s exactly what the Rift needs to retake its place as one of the most interesting and innovative VR headsets.


Oculus Touch launch title trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJWzngJ_DjE
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