Oculus Rift Catch-All

2016 I think, or at least what you could put down as "not soon". They're still experimenting and hammering out what they need (new features like absolute positioning), developers have only in the last few months got hands on it.

...Space....Engine...Awesome.

You're out in space, amongst the stars.

It's really really real.

There's your ad campaign.

WizKid wrote:

Has anyone seen a planned release date/goal for the consumer model?

Scratched wrote:

2016 I think, or at least what you could put down as "not soon". They're still experimenting and hammering out what they need (new features like absolute positioning), developers have only in the last few months got hands on it.

Nobody knows. The closest thing to a release date we have is this leaked slide from a private presentation they did for Nvidia back in April.

IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/mrgreen72/Oculus20VR20Emerging20Companies20Summit_GTC20132028929_zps2ef57eb0.jpg)

When will then be now?

Soon.

If Dev Kit 2 is 1080P I may be sorely tempted to get one.

I might be too, just to get it sooner.

It may not be the intended purpose of this, but let's face it, I can't see a reality in which the porn industry isn't all over this thing when it finally comes out.

Porn aside, which is actually what got me thinking about it, but one thing I think could really benefit from the Rift would be all those 'first person' bits in games where you're knocked down or otherwise thrown off your feet and incapacitated in some way. It's kind of the difference between walking around a camera/gun turret and trying to get you to pretend your an actual human.

Any word on the PC specs you need to run these?

If they can get this to $300 for consumers, I am definitely in.

I'm so in on Dev kit 2.

Certis wrote:

If Dev Kit 2 is 1080P I may be sorely tempted to get one.

If there's a DK2, no doubt that it'll be 1080p, and have absolute positional tracking.

Chaz wrote:

I might be too, just to get it sooner.

It may not be the intended purpose of this, but let's face it, I can't see a reality in which the porn industry isn't all over this thing when it finally comes out.

They already are.

TempestBlayze wrote:

If they can get this to $300 for consumers, I am definitely in.

They've repeatedly said it would be $300, or cheaper. We'll see. I've paid up to 4 times as much for a stupid monitors. Trust me, at $300 this is a steal. Even for the one I have.

VR is here!

CONFORM!

Aren't they intending on piggybacking on phone/tablet screens? So as resolution/pixel density increases in mass manufactured panels there, they'll be able to bring the same to Rifts. Not sure about absolute positioning, but the gyros and accelerometers are fairly common parts too, lenses are reasonably generic moulded parts, so the Rift is really a novel combination of reasonably common parts so if they're doing things right the sum of the parts won't be too high.

Scratched wrote:

Aren't they intending on piggybacking on phone/tablet screens? So as resolution/pixel density increases in mass manufactured panels there, they'll be able to bring the same to Rifts. Not sure about absolute positioning, but the gyros and accelerometers are fairly common parts too, lenses are reasonably generic moulded parts, so the Rift is really a novel combination of reasonably common parts so if they're doing things right the sum of the parts won't be too high.

That's how I understand it. Also key is using low latency parts. I think they said the 1080p screen in the newer version taken to E3 wasn't final screen tech because it wasn't as responsive as they wanted.

Can it show 3D video and images? VR is awesome, but a more practical application might get even more interest. Could it like take a anaglyph image and convert it or show a jps file (which is a jpeg but the two images are side by side) or one of those 3D youtube videos or show a 3D bluray?

Mr.Green wrote:

He says it won't be wide field like the kinect, but I'm thinking, why the hell not?
I'm sure lots of devs will use the new Kinect coming out (I assume there will also be a pc version) and the new PS Eye.

It wouldn't surprise me if there's already a 3D viewer, essentially just using it as a display device.

As far as wide field, I think he's talking about something similar in capability to trackIR, where rather than really moving around a room or a few meters (essentially blindfolded mind you), you would be sitting and leaning from a sitting position or moving your neck and have that represented in-game so you lean around a wall or peek over/under something.

Scratched wrote:

Aren't they intending on piggybacking on phone/tablet screens? So as resolution/pixel density increases in mass manufactured panels there, they'll be able to bring the same to Rifts. Not sure about absolute positioning, but the gyros and accelerometers are fairly common parts too, lenses are reasonably generic moulded parts, so the Rift is really a novel combination of reasonably common parts so if they're doing things right the sum of the parts won't be too high.

Yes pretty much. Their head tracking board is custom built with a combination of accelerometers, gyros and magnetometers operating at 1000Hz using their own sensor fusion algorithms though. They're way too small to have display panels built for them, but the race to highest PPI in the smartphone market should do the trick for the forseable future.

RolandofGilead wrote:

Can it show 3D video and images? VR is awesome, but a more practical application might get even more interest.

There's already a virtual cinema that supports both 2D and 3D movies. I thought it was pretty pointless at first but after trying it I'm sold. It feels just like being there, it's crazy. Plus, it's a motion sickness free VR experience for everyone.

I kind of can't wait to be cooler than all the noise cancelling headphone people on planes with one of these babies...

(until they come try to stop my apparent seizures from all the crazy looking around...)

Very neat, call me when they start flying through obstacle courses.

So...got an email today that John Carmack (of id) has become CTO of the company... not sure if that means he has left id?

That's pretty massive news I didn't expect.

TheGameguru wrote:

So...got an email today that John Carmack (of id) has become CTO of the company... not sure if that means he has left id?

Yep: he left id. Honestly I think that's for the best for him.

Latest video from the Everquest Next team showed one of their guys donning the OR.

I wonder how long before Bethesda/Zenimax shut down id. They can't go on taking 5+ years to make each game.

It seems their best value now is in helping (?) other studios make stuff with their IP. I wonder how long they'll limp along though, because of the brand value.

Nope, Carmack's not leaving id Bethesda has confirmed. Eurogamer apparently didn't confirm that in order to "be first." I did read an article lately that Armadillo Aerospace is winding down so I guess this is what Carmack's replacing that with.

EDIT: Wait, now Oculus is saying that Carmack's full-time with them. Someone's lying here.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Nope, Carmack's not leaving id Bethesda has confirmed. Eurogamer apparently didn't confirm that in order to "be first." I did read an article lately that Armadillo Aerospace is winding down so I guess this is what Carmack's replacing that with.

EDIT: Wait, now Oculus is saying that Carmack's full-time with them. Someone's lying here.

Here's what the Verge has:

Carmack was a founding member of Id Software, but shortly after the announcement, Eurogamer reported that he had left his role at company. Since then, an Id spokesperson has told Polygon that he's not stepping down. "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project," he said. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at Id Software is unaffected."

Carmack just tweeted "My time division is now Oculus over id over Armadillo." Looks like he's reducing his role at id without leaving the place. I'm guessing he's going to stay on as leadership there but maybe not writing id Tech 6 either.

He (JC) seems far more comfortable developing technology these days than making games.. so I'm not surprised he is essentially going to stay on at id/Zenimax as a "tech adviser" of sorts... while also functioning as the CTO of a VR company. I can't imagine he has actively developed anything in years in terms of actual gameplay.

If I remember correctly, which I probably don't. Quake3 was the last time he was seriously involved in gameplay.