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Oculus Rift Launching In Q1 2016
An anonymous reader writes: Oculus has announced that their Rift virtual reality headset will be coming out sometime in the first quarter of 2016. They've also posted a couple images of the final consumer headset design. The device was Kickstarted in August, 2012. Consumer-level release dates have slowly slipped further and further out since then, though they've shipped two different development kits. Ars points out that a 2016 launch date will bring the Oculus Rift to market after the Valve/HTC VR headset, and possibly after Sony's Project Morpheus.
Does it come with a blue pill and a red pill?
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Can't see much of the headset - who decided to take a picture of the black headset against a black background with no light?
Oculus is releasing later to coincide with the release of Duke Nukem VR. They also indicated the headset they plan to release after that one, called the "osbourne" is much better and cheaper.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I've really been looking forward to this, but the road to release has been so lengthy that I've stopped caring to an extent. While I still think VR will be revolutionary, I feel that revolution is further away than ever. We're likely going to see compatibility issues between the Rift and the Valve headset, which is going to delay things for years to come. Standardised VR is probably years away.
The Facebook buyout also leaves me concerned that I'll need an account to use the Rift, and I most definitely don't want a Facebook account (I don't even want a Slashdot account). When I do buy a VR headset I think I'd be more inclined to go for the Gaben's rather than Zuk's.
Every generation, VR and 3D-TV/3D-movies become these fads for a while. Everyone is talking about them. They're going to be the future! The tech is coming out! Blah blah. Then the fads pass and everyone forgets about them for another 20 years.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
SpaceX just had a successful test of its Pad Abort system. What system does OR have in place?
#vaporgate
There's a typo in that summary. It should read:
Facebook has announced that their Rift virtual reality headset
They're already trying to distance their toxic brand name from it. I say call it the Zynga Facebook Superviewer and just let it kill itself based on brand name alone.
It already seems like yet another item destined to be quickly relegated to my already-full cupboard o' crap.
Two (or more) willing partners. Camera-equipped headsets small enough not to get in the way. Enhance the visuals as much or as little as you want. Augment your other senses as desired and technologically feasible.
THAT'S first-person shooting!
I have been reading headlines for "Oculus Rift" on /. etc for years. I never read the articles apart from the first 1 or 2, since I found out that Oculus Rift is an "exciting" VR headset and that pretty much covered it for me. Maybe I am getting old, I don't know - for example I do remember me being excited before the Virtual Boy was released. In any case having seen so many headlines over the years, without actually paying any attention to them I had assumed this was a real product and modestly popular. But it is not out yet and not going to be until 2016? That raised my eyebrow and I clicked on the link to find out this "product" I hear about all these years "exists" only as some dark renders on an even darker background? Wow, that's it then, I MUST be getting old...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
But not much else. AR like the Hololens has broader application.
I'm totally convinced that at a minimum, long-wearable AR (e.g. "Rainbows End" style contact lenses) are not even slightly faddy, and that it's something that a lot of people would sincerely want and use, if it could be done well. It's not something that anyone ever "forgets about for another 20 years." I don't think that's a very controversial statement (am I wrong?).
Then it's just a matter of lowering the bar from there: what can you make that isn't quite as awesome as science fiction imagination, but is still sufficiently do-able and desirable? How much heavier/bulkier than a contact lens is too heavy/bulky? Somewhere along the scale, you get to a point where you can actually deliver a product in real life, and then the big question is how many customers did you filter out while making some compromise.
And somewhere in all that AR, you get the VR and 3D movie niches' tech "for free."
Of course gaming would be one of the applications. Maybe the problem is that if you focus on gaming while trying to get the tech right, you miss most of the utility so you don't have much in the way of sales and scale. I have to admit that for all my enthusiasm about the tech, I don't think of Oculus as a company that is ever going to sell something that I might buy.
Do not talk about unfinished stuff that is still in planning or development. Developing modern things is complex, and that's fine, but it's hard to keep the excitement alive for 5 years. Same goes for SteamBoxes. Same goes for Peter Molyneux's new game Godus, of which people got incredibly angry because it could not deliver this or that thing that was hyped earlier. The trendy "open development" strategy does not come without problems.
I have the second gen dev version (latest).
It's a disappointment.
Heavy, bulky, uncomfortable, poor resolution and buggy software/drivers.
I'm sure VR will eventually take off, but honestly, the Oculus doesn't feel much better than the VR headsets I used in the 90s.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
As much as I'd like to see usable VR tech in my lifetime, I think this is just going to end up being "3D Television, part 2"
We've been promised this stuff since the early 90's and it has never materialized in any useable form. Ironicly the only one that got to market was the VRBoy, and that was a great example of Nintendo trying to see where the puck is going, but the technology not being mature enough to do it. They then tried again with the 3DS, and had much better luck, but even then, it's more gimmick than substance.
Oculus Rift, This is a product that is still half baked. Three pieces are necessary to have a VR product that doesn't make people sick and has commercial appeal.
1) It needs to present accurate stereoscopic vision which the headset can not do because our eyes are curved. At best there is going to be some warping around the edges that can be masked over a bit, so you don't end up with any peripheral vision.
2) You need to be able to see your hands (eg wearing gloves, or from something like Kinect) otherwise your brain goes "oh shit I'm falling"
3) You need to be able to move without using a controller. This part is going to be the part that can't be solved without people converting their living rooms into exercise rooms. See how much space is required to use the Wii and Kinect games? Now add a harness and a frame so that you can move without hitting anything.
Vapor? Kickstarter's don't lead to serious hardware? That's your insight?
What part of John Carmack, Atman Binstock, Michael Abrash, two shipped development kits over two years, the Samsung GearVR and a $2B Facebook acquisition don't you understand? This is not vapor and it's not a kid's garage Kickstarter.
Semi-informed douchebaggery is the not the same as an informed opinion. Jackasses.
Does this mean Armadillo Aerospace will start flying again in 2016 or 2017?
Oculus has already released 2 different headsets, so they could have delivered. They are putting in the effort to create an optimized design for user performance, and cost, before they spend millions (hundred millions?) to build a production line, that will produce identical headsets, for years on end.
I've logged on for the first time in years to post this.
I am a serious FPS gamer, from the way back, and owner of a DK2. If they don't figure out something to solve the motion sickness, it'll fall flat.
I was sicker than a dog using my occulus.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
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