Oculus Rift Catch-All

Orphu wrote:

* @Bottle: It didn't seem like it was actual XB1 integration. It has a mode where you can stream XB1 games to a virtual theater screen on your PC. I honestly don't understand who this feature is for. Someone with an XB1 but no TV? XB1 and a crappy TV? Plus a PC beefy enough to run VR? What?

Definitely the most awkward part of the presentation. They showed the weird 10 second clip of a lady playing some car game which cut off at the end. There's virtually no reaction from the crowd and the guy comes back up on stage 'What, did she crash?'

No, friend, you did.

Orphu wrote:

* @Bottle: It didn't seem like it was actual XB1 integration. It has a mode where you can stream XB1 games to a virtual theater screen on your PC. I honestly don't understand who this feature is for. Someone with an XB1 but no TV? XB1 and a crappy TV? Plus a PC beefy enough to run VR? What?

That's what I took away as well. As someone who shares the living room with a massive tv hog spouse, that seems like something I'll actually use from time to time.

My favorite awkward moment was when they pulled out the consumer model, held it up like Simba in the Lion King for what felt like 10 seconds with no crowd reaction at all. It was like they were waiting for the grunts in the audience to do what Apple's paid plants do.

Also, really hoping there is a controller-less version. I don't need another one.

I am trying to figure out what I can wager Cobble, as I am pretty confident that VR HMDs will follow an adoption curve very similar to smartphones or maybe tablets, and that they will be very mainstream within 10 years and not just for games but for movies/sports/social/education you name it.

With that being said, Valve and lighthouse still seems sexier right now, but....

I think Occulus beats them on price. I would guess the Rift will come in at 300 bucks, while I think the Vive will be at least 500 and maybe 600.

I also don't think you can discount the SDK head-start that Occulus has. Yes, they will now potentially splitting things with the dual controller tracks but all the geewiazadry low persistence stuff will likely be superior on the Rift, though, I guess the question will Vive be good enough.

polypusher wrote:
Orphu wrote:

* @Bottle: It didn't seem like it was actual XB1 integration. It has a mode where you can stream XB1 games to a virtual theater screen on your PC. I honestly don't understand who this feature is for. Someone with an XB1 but no TV? XB1 and a crappy TV? Plus a PC beefy enough to run VR? What?

Definitely the most awkward part of the presentation. They showed the weird 10 second clip of a lady playing some car game which cut off at the end. There's virtually no reaction from the crowd and the guy comes back up on stage 'What, did she crash?'

No, friend, you did.

Yeah, that was kinda awful. I can see it as a feature on the side, but for an on-stage reveal, "you can play Xbox games on a flat screen in a virtual room" is pretty much a waste of everyone's time.

It feels like something they came up with to say, "you can use Oculus with the Xbox".

I love IGN's video title: This is what Forza looks like on Oculus. Yeah OK.

I figured it out!

They also said the CV1 was built to accommodate eyewear. So, put on your anaglyph red/blue shades and get ready for some old school 3D in VR!

The Microsoft relationship is completely half baked. Microsoft is supporting PC gaming by limiting the Xbox One wireleas dongle to only Windows 10, integrating the controllers into Oculus so that you can stream relatively low resolution, low frame rate games to your headset from the Xbox One. Sounds like a winner /sarcasm

The thing I don't like about the Oculus Touch is that Palmer Luckey doesn't engage me as a presenter.

Otherwise, I'm fully on board with Oculus, assuming the cost of everything (including upping my rig) isn't too high. I'll even use those half moon things.

He's not the most charismatic nerd, but he is personally responsible for this, so I respect him doing the talking rather than some PR derp.

While anxiously awaiting Tested's take, the first hands on with Touch are starting to come in.

Tested's E3 Oculus video is up. Interviews for roughly their first 28 minutes, with will demoing in the background and then their impressions.

I'm very excited, plus I'm hoping this will provide some relief for my wife, should she need to continue her dialysis, especially if her treatment can be home based.

Eldon_of_Azure got me Drunken Robot Pornography! I kinda forgot what the game was about, but the title is full of things that I like!

Great video. I hope they bring it to PAX. I'd love to try it.

Even really good developers aren't immune to Old Man That Doesn't Like New Stuff Syndrome.

Grazen wrote:

The Microsoft relationship is completely half baked. Microsoft is supporting PC gaming by limiting the Xbox One wireleas dongle to only Windows 10, integrating the controllers into Oculus so that you can stream relatively low resolution, low frame rate games to your headset from the Xbox One. Sounds like a winner /sarcasm

I think its a good idea, entirely because it provides a uniform controller that devs can count on. A controller is just easier to navigate than a keyboard and mouse... especially when you can't look at your hands!

I don't think any one thinks the "stream xbone games to a virtual cinema" is a real selling point, except maybe Phil Spencer.

Several questions, I guess I'll just have to run them all together:

Does anyone else expect the Oculus to Launch with a couple full games included? Just like new video cards launch with full games to show off your new tech, it seems like a VR headset would be in the same position. I know the launch audience is the crazy hard core and Oculus wants to get as much money out of them as possible, but still, seems like the price of the hardware will be easier to swallow if you know you're getting a quality gaming experience as well. Maybe any 2 free games from the Oculus store or something? At any rate we should probably expect playable demos for just about any game they've got right? Every developer is going to want to show off their new VR creation to compete with all the others.

Seems to me like the chances of the Valve headset really launching this year are pretty low and getting lower with every passing day that they don't talk about it. Does anyone still think it'll actually launch this year? Oculus is in full on PR mode already and Valve hasn't even started.

Shouldn't even VR games be scalable such that you can get a reasonably good experience with a gpu somewhere below the recommended 270's or 980's? I understand that the refresh rate is non-negotiable but I'd imagine you could drop the polygon count, lower the texture resolution, and reduce/remove shadows and particles and still get a convincing sense of presence.

Will the launch of Oculus make a large enough splash that gpu manufacturers have some special deals for folks looking to upgrade? Will we see "Oculus Ready" gpu advertisements? Will their be free VR games packaged with new gpu's if not with the headset itself?

Questengine wrote:

Several questions, I guess I'll just have to run them all together:

Does anyone else expect the Oculus to Launch with a couple full games included? Just like new video cards launch with full games to show off your new tech, it seems like a VR headset would be in the same position. I know the launch audience is the crazy hard core and Oculus wants to get as much money out of them as possible, but still, seems like the price of the hardware will be easier to swallow if you know you're getting a quality gaming experience as well. Maybe any 2 free games from the Oculus store or something? At any rate we should probably expect playable demos for just about any game they've got right? Every developer is going to want to show off their new VR creation to compete with all the others.

Seems to me like the chances of the Valve headset really launching this year are pretty low and getting lower with every passing day that they don't talk about it. Does anyone still think it'll actually launch this year? Oculus is in full on PR mode already and Valve hasn't even started.

I don't anticipate there to be much more than tech demos for the Oculus by the time it launches. I also don't anticipate it to be casually affordable. They'll do the usual launch dance and put out a second version at the same time as a title enhanced by user feedback. Whether it's boxed in or not, no idea. Probably not.

Questengine wrote:

Shouldn't even VR games be scalable such that you can get a reasonably good experience with a gpu somewhere below the recommended 270's or 980's? I understand that the refresh rate is non-negotiable but I'd imagine you could drop the polygon count, lower the texture resolution, and reduce/remove shadows and particles and still get a convincing sense of presence.

I'm sure they'll figure that out in testing just like with any other game. The second screen and motion tracking is going to have a footprint, yes, but if you compare PC and console versions of games, PC versions only get more resources to use at point of launch whereas console versions are locked. I wouldn't be surprised to see some "VR" versions of FPS games where you have your mouselook mapped to headtilt but I'm not sure how much benefit that'd create: most FPS games are so tightly shot these days there's not a whole lot to look at other than what you're "supposed" to look at.

As for how convincing the effect is going to be? Well, yes, I suppose you could scale it up or down, just like any other game. Only thing is in 10 or 20 years, games we consider beautiful today are going to look like crap. Maybe less like "crap" than we consider games from 10 or 20 years ago but still.

Questengine wrote:

Will the launch of Oculus make a large enough splash that gpu manufacturers have some special deals for folks looking to upgrade? Will we see "Oculus Ready" gpu advertisements? Will their be free VR games packaged with new gpu's if not with the headset itself?

Anything they can throw on the box to push more units. I'm sure you'll see plenty of VR-ready bullet points. Even if they don't tie it to a specific architecture on the GPU board. A big enough deal to encourage manufacturers to offer special deals for upgrades, well, that's really a matter of interpretation. One never really has to pay full price for a new graphics card these days given the prevalence of sales and discount sites, but the card companies have always sold users on more power. Plus VR is going to be the new shiny for a while. I imagine it'll take the same curve as the dedicated VR hardware, which is pretty common for new-functionality hardware in general.

Also, hey, welcome to GWJ.

LobsterMobster wrote:

I don't anticipate there to be much more than tech demos for the Oculus by the time it launches.

Not sure I'm reading this right, but there are plenty of released games that already support the Rift sufficiently well to be good experiences for everyday play. Not that I would expect a game like Elite to be a bundle pack sort of game, but it doesn't seem accurate to suggest there will be no games around the Rift's release that could conceivably be bundle pack-ins.

*Legion* wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

I don't anticipate there to be much more than tech demos for the Oculus by the time it launches.

Not sure I'm reading this right, but there are plenty of released games that already support the Rift sufficiently well to be good experiences for everyday play. Not that I would expect a game like Elite to be a bundle pack sort of game, but it doesn't seem accurate to suggest there will be no games around the Rift's release that could conceivably be bundle pack-ins.

OK, that's fair, but are any of them going to move hardware? Do any of them make the case that you NEED VR?

*Legion* wrote:

Not that I would expect a game like Elite to be a bundle pack sort of game

I don't see why not. It is on sale today for $40. It's only going to get cheaper by next year. Of course, there will be a new shiny by then.

I can't wait, myself. I'm seeing lots of driving/flying games in my future. I'm really hoping that the FPS-style games work out as well - even Minecraft will be transformed, IMHO.

Well, Elite would need to support Oculus much better than it does today. Which would be great! But Frontier and Oculus haven't exactly shown a lot of cooperation so far.

I think Oculus is very much onto the idea that they must have content at launch beyond just demos. They have been saying exactly that for months, and there were quite a few full games shown at the press event. I'd be shocked if there weren't some titles available.

I could easily see Valkyrie or Edge of Nowhere being bundled for launch of the device.

Plus Vive will have been out for a few months by the time Oculus CV1 is available. There there will be a market to sell to.

I find it weird that this commercial exists.

Oculus Connect keynote going on now. There's some suspicion that there will be a release date, specs and price at some point.

http://www.twitch.tv/oculus/

Doh, I posted about 2 minutes before the end of Abrash's speech about research and the future of VR and a break for lunch. No such news yet (though plenty of other things earlier. I'll link to a recap post when someone makes one.

I'm really curious what the final consumer model's price will be. I'm very interested.

SteamVR rather than Oculus but stuff like this just blows my mind. Make sure you watch until the third "location."

Farscry wrote:

I'm really curious what the final consumer model's price will be. I'm very interested.

Oculus Rift will cost over $350 so there are “no compromises,” says founder

tanstaafl wrote:
Farscry wrote:

I'm really curious what the final consumer model's price will be. I'm very interested.

Oculus Rift will cost over $350 so there are “no compromises,” says founder

Sony also recently stated that the pricing on their VR headset will comparable to a "new console" so I don't think Occulus isn't going to be over/underpriced relative to the competition (excluding Gear VR where you have to provide a smartphone). However, I think when Occulus originally said the price would be "affordable" people were expecting a much lower price, especially after the FB buyout.

Pricing the hardware in the new high-end graphics card/console bracket pretty much guarantees VR isn't going to have widespread adoption for a few years.

That's cool seeing the pricing, but I'd love for them to come out with projected hardware stats to run the thing.

I'm already thinking it's going to be around the upper-mid market GPU, like a 970 or better, and the VR wave is the single biggest reason I've held off on upgrading the GPU in my 3 year old gaming PC. Well, that and money. And the fact that my 660 TI is still running strong with brand new games...

I like to blame VR headsets as the reason why I haven't upgraded my GPU yet

McIrishJihad wrote:

That's cool seeing the pricing, but I'd love for them to hardware stats to run the thing.

I'm already thinking it's going to be around the upper-mid market GPU, like a 970 or better, and the VR wave is the single biggest reason I've held off on upgrading the GPU in my 3 year old gaming PC. Well, that and money. And the fact that my 660 TI is still running strong with brand new games...

I like to blame VR headsets as the reason why I haven't upgraded my GPU yet ;)

The recommended specs are actually out. Recommended GPU is indeed a 970.

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/po...

All-in, someone who currently has no PC is looking at about $1500-2000 entry cost for VR. That's a lot less than other successful high-end electronics have historically cost at launch, like big screen TVs.

And that's also a small percentage of users, since the CV1 is mainly aimed at PC gamers who already have a rig that is adequate or could be upgraded to work. So yeah, I'm optimistic that this thing is going to do pretty well, even at launch.