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.

Comments

images

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't see much of the headset - who decided to take a picture of the black headset against a black background with no light?

Re:images

[Phics]

The correct captions: Oculus Rift as seen through a pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses

Re:Sony's Project Morpheus

[XxtraLarGe]

Does it come with a blue pill and a red pill?

Unfortunately, no one can be told what Project Morpheus is. You have to see it for yourself.

Duke Nukem VR

[goombah99]

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.

Lost Momentum?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Lost Momentum?

[Anonymous Coward]

Announcing a product over four years before they're able to ship it is a much bigger mistake. They've made things very hard for themselves. Trying to keep people interested for that amount of time isn't easy, particularly when they haven't had much to show. Try to attract developers would also be much harder when they didn't known when they product would be released would also be a problem.

You can insult me all you want about my attention span, but it's not me that's the problem. The fact is they fucked up their release. Valve got it right by announcing their product less than a year before it was due to ship.

Re:Lost Momentum?

[chihowa]

They also manufactured their competition by announcing so early. Instead of being the first to market, they're going to be Johnny-come-lately to a market segment that they carved out (at least for this iteration of VR).

Their competition gets to ride along on the hype that Occulus pumped out and if the competition fouls up the implementation then the scene is soured for Occulus, too. Very poor business planning.

Re:VR is a fad

[Knee Patch]

Yeah, but every iteration is better than the previous one. Maybe in a few more cycles, the tech will actually deliver on the promise and it will stick around.

Re:VR is a fad

[Spamalope]

There is real demand for VR.

There is no demand for a crappy head mounted 3D screen, and little demand for a 3D TV that works only from one angle with special glasses.

Working immersive VR is a winner though. These latest headsets are getting very close for the first time. If this generation doesn't manage it, the next one will. It's VR headset time.

oops

[slashmydots]

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.

Re:oops

[denis-The-menace]

I noticed this too.

Facebook know that it was and still is VERY unpopular the fact that Facebook owns Oculus Rift.

I'd be shocked if no annoying ads were displayed while using the thing.

Re:oops

[crgrace]

I actually got recruited to work at Oculus Rift. The recruiter said "hot new VR startup needs your skills" or some such. So I talk to them. Guess what? Facebook.

They know even their potential employees will be put off by the Facebook name.

Re:VR is a fad

[jeffmflanagan]

It's not holographic, and it's not VR, it's AR. The latest reviews have been terrible, saying MS reduced the field of view of the AR display to a little box in the middle of your vision. There's still hope they'll fix it based on this feedback, but as-is Hololens is DOA.

Re:VR is a fad

[Greyfox]

Mack over on Mackscorner on youtube has been playing with an Oculus Rift. Watching his response to that one game, the potential for the technology is amazing, if some company can make one that's not shit. I think that company might actually be Microsoft, based on what I've been hearing. If they can do this right, I'm willing to forgive all previous transgressions. He does one with Subnautica too, which looks freaking amazing (Even without an Oculus.)

If they can get a 360 degree camera into a reasonable form factor (neighborhood of a GoPro,) it would be possible to give people the experience of skydiving, rock climbing, or flying a wingsuit in ways that are significantly more real than just watching a video on youtube. You could actually be there, and look around as if you were the pilot. That would be a game changer both for the audience and for content creators.

Re:VR is a fad

[lordofthechia]

Virtual Boy was not a VR device as we use the term now

Or even back then. The Virtual Boy was released in July 1995 . That same year the VFX-1 (a true though limited by the technology of the time) virtual reality headset was released.

I have one

[schlachter]

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.

Re:I have one

[schlachter]

I'm not being ideological about it. I was really excited to get it. Paired it with a brand new high end gaming rig.

Just disappointed. After a few hours of using it, I put it away with a bit of sadness.

If there was no hype about it, I'd say it's interesting and might be cool at some point in the future.

But with all the hype out there...it's just far from living up to it. In my opinion.