The Story of Oculus Rift

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday September 9, 2015 @04:36AM from the once-upon-a-forehead dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A lengthy new article details the history of the Oculus Rift, from the VR headset's stereotypical beginnings in a hacker's parents' garage to its $2 billion acquisition by Facebook. "Luckey got into VR by way of computer games, which he was obsessed with for a time. After building what he recalls as a "beautiful six-monitor setup," for extreme visual saturation, he wondered, Why not just put a small screen directly on your face?" At just 19 years old, Luckey built a prototype good enough to impress John Carmack, which brought him all sorts of further attention. Investors came running, and eventually Mark Zuckerberg took an interest. "When Zuckerberg arrived, Luckey introduced himself and then quickly walked away. 'I'm a big fan,' he said, 'but I actually have to get back to work.' ... Zuckerberg seemed taken aback by Luckey's brusqueness but also charmed. 'They definitely have the hacker culture that we have,' he says." As the device approaches release, they're all wondering how much VR will change the world.

38 of 80 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

obsolete tech by SinisterEVIL · 2015-09-09 04:41 · Score: 1

google cardboard pretty much makes this tech obsolete. my cell phone plus $20 headset and I have the same thing.
1. Re:obsolete tech by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-09 04:52 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I bet you feel your skateboard is basically the same as a Ferrari.
2. Re:obsolete tech by Okian+Warrior · 2015-09-09 06:36 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  google cardboard pretty much makes this tech obsolete. my cell phone plus $20 headset and I have the same thing.
  Carmak has stated that the big problem in VR headsets is latency: when the image movement is delayed slightly from when your head moves, it gives you headaches and nausea.
  Carmak is a pretty smart guy, and has been working on this problem for awhile, and thinks he's solved the problem and that it will make a sellable product. He's got a track record for making sellable products, and so does Zuckerberg.
  This is, of course, the reverse of an ad-hominum attack.
  I'm not saying that earbuds and a flap from a shipping box isn't an equivalent setup, but I have to wonder...
3. Re:obsolete tech by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:12 · Score: 2
  
  google cardboard pretty much makes this tech obsolete.
  If you want to get an idea how crappy the gyros are in your cellphone, just try google sky map or any compass app. Very much a case of, you get what you pay for.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
4. Re:obsolete tech by WaffleMonster · 2015-09-09 19:05 · Score: 1
  
  google cardboard pretty much makes this tech obsolete. my cell phone plus $20 headset and I have the same thing.
  Cell phone graphics is the definition of obsolete.
5. Re:obsolete tech by minstrelmike · 2015-09-10 10:41 · Score: 1
  
  One thing I read was having a visible nose in the frame diminished a lot of the nausea. Stuff you don't notice but is always there as a reference makes a sorld of difference.
the story abridged: by nimbius · 2015-09-09 04:42 · Score: 1

hackers: this is going to be awesome and we are going to revolutionize 3d immersive gaming and computing with your kickstarter help
Zuckerberg: I will literally choke you with a dick made of cash until you sell this to me.
hackers: We are going to buy a mansion in mansion land now. your funding has helped us build a solid gold toilet in this mansion. so, thanks.

--
Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Re: the story abridged: by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-09 05:05 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Choke with cash.
  That is the norm these days. Oculus was NOT worth 2 billion dollars. But when you are spending other people's money, no one gives a shit.
  A prototype and all was worth maybe a couple of million in today's money.
  Tech companies are just irresponsible with their stakeholder's money. It's just disgusting what I have been seeing in the last 20 years.
2. Re: the story abridged: by allcoolnameswheretak · 2015-09-09 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  It's better to grow by buying stuff and having "expenses" than having to pay taxes on your profits.
3. Re:the story abridged: by Pseudonymous+Powers · 2015-09-09 07:00 · Score: 1
  
  hackers: this is going to be awesome and we are going to revolutionize 3d immersive gaming and computing with your kickstarter help
  Zuckerberg: I will literally choke you with a dick made of cash until you sell this to me.
  hackers: We are going to buy a mansion in mansion land now. your funding has helped us build a solid gold toilet in this mansion. so, thanks.
  Zuckerberg: Now tell all your supporters that this is really the best thing for the technology.
  hackers: Everyone, selling out to Facebook is really the best possible thing for the technology!
  Zuckerberg: Now tell your children that you never loved them and you're selling them into slavery.
  hackers:Pack your bags, kids! You're joining the circus!
  Zuckerberg: Now set your grandmother on fire.
  hackers: Hey, grandma, catch this Molotov cocktail!
  Zuckerberg: Now dance sexy for me. Real slow.
  hackers: [gyrate awkwardly]
4. Re: the story abridged: by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:15 · Score: 1
  
  $2G was still a bit rich. But mind you it's John Carmack so the quality is going to be there.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
5. Re: the story abridged: by rockmuelle · 2015-09-09 07:25 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Um, you shouldn't be one, either.
  Let's do the math: drop tens of millions of dollars of your investor's money to be the beat out the other institutional investors to a company with a cool prototype built from Kickstarter funds. Realize a few months into it that the tech, while kick ass, isn't quite ready for prime time and won't have an available market of 10M users for at least a few years. Do some more math and realize they'll run out of money before then and have to take on additional VC money, possibly in a down round that will affect your position. Call one of your successful investments with money to burn, ask them to buy you out of your investment and give everyone a good return. Repeat with the next cool tech. Claim you have the unique ability to spot unicorns. Raise more money for your fund.
  _That's_ how you think like a modern VC.
  Of course, this is just a variation on the IPO scams of the first boom. In this case, the few successful companies (Facebook, Google, etc) replace the role of the public in providing quick returns on questionable investments. The public foots the bill indirectly: some IPO money and shares are used for the buyouts and ad revenue provides the rest of it.
  -Chris
6. Re: the story abridged: by alhead · 2015-09-11 09:16 · Score: 1
  
  VR will never become a thing. It will be too expensive and require too much space and fiddling around with, not to mention the eyestrain and motion sickness issues. People aren't going to want that.
  Yeah, and home computers will never become a thing. They take up an entire room, and they require so much electricity to operate, not to mention the punch cards and vacuum tubes.
  
  There are obvious obstacles to wide-spread adoption of VR technology, and there are probably a lot of non obvious obstacles as well. However, that level of immersion has so much potential in so many applications. VR is probably viable just from the entertainment market alone, but there are also communication, data visualization, education, and health science applications.
  
  After ten years of development in display quality and processing speed, eyestrain and motion sickness won't be a problem.
I want no part of Facebook by Dracos · 2015-09-09 04:47 · Score: 4, Interesting

Oculus became completely irrelevant to me as soon as FB bought it. I'll wait to see what Valve comes up with.
1. Re:I want no part of Facebook by hackwrench · 2015-09-09 04:59 · Score: 1
  
  Because every time Facebook acquires something it can only be used in what's seen as it's core business ever.
2. Re:I want no part of Facebook by Aethedor · 2015-09-09 05:00 · Score: 1
  
  Some time ago I read that Suckerberg promised that no Facebook account would be required and there would be no sending of information back to Facebook... Right... Why do I not believe that?
  
  --
  It doesn't have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
3. Re:I want no part of Facebook by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:18 · Score: 2
  
  Some time ago I read that Suckerberg...
  Ahem. Spelling mistake detected, I think you meant Suckerborg
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
4. Re:I want no part of Facebook by JackieBrown · 2015-09-09 08:19 · Score: 1
  
  How can I get paid to schill for the democratic party? Do you only have to post on Slashdot or do you have to hit multiple sites?
  Who am I kidding? You will never read this post. Your job isn't to engage in an actual discussion otherwise you would deal in facts.
  My favorite is still this one
  http://science.slashdot.org/co...
  By the time the smoke cleared, almost 20 percent of the posts were these schill posts.
5. Re:I want no part of Facebook by hackwrench · 2015-09-09 09:00 · Score: 1
  
  I was being sacastic,
Re:Sucker for Zucker by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2015-09-09 04:58 · Score: 1

>> Luckey made a big mistake by selling his company
Did you read the part about $2B? Whatever his fantasy is, he can live it now.
Naturally, it omits the gutting of Scaleform. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-09 05:05 · Score: 2, Interesting

What I'm curious about is to why all of the articles detailing the history of Oculus VR omit the subsequent gutting of Autodesk Scaleform for staff.
In 2012, two of the co-founders of Scaleform, Michael Antonov and Brendan Iribe, cashed out of Scaleform shortly after it was bought by Autodesk - Brendan left in late 2011, but Michael stayed on to prevent an excessive amount of brain drain while Scaleform brought on more engineers.
Shortly after Michael and Brendan joined Oculus VR, from Scaleform they poached Andrew Reisse (senior engineer, RIP: killed by a high speed pursuit while taking a walk), Artem Bolgar (senior engineer) and JP Ratliff (senior support staff), and I would wager good money that they would have also brought along Maxim Shemanarev (the mind behind Anti-Grain Geometry, on which Scaleform is based) had he not already died due to unspecified medical complications.
Everyone seems to want to tout Palmer Luckey and John Carmack as the brains behind Oculus VR, but if it weren't for the people like Artem and Michael handling (I'm assuming) the interface libraries that the Oculus VR uses to communicate with the underlying game engines, and the influx of VC from Brendan, I'm not so sure that Oculus would have actually made such a stir or lasted long enough to even be acquired by Facebook.
Full disclosure: I don't work for Oculus VR, I don't hold any shares in Oculus VR, I'm just an interested party who got to see the best and brightest of his coworkers get rampantly poached by Oculus VR.
But... Carmack. by Dr.+Manhattan · 2015-09-09 05:19 · Score: 3, Insightful

John Carmack is still with Oculus, and he knows graphics tech. If he thinks they can get it right, I'm inclined to believe him. So I'm paying attention to Oculus, still.
Mind you, Valve's stuff is supposed to be out by the time the Rift comes out, so it'll be possible to directly compare them before I'll be in a position to buy. I'm not ruling them out. But overall I like the Rift's odds, based on what I've been reading.

--
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
1. Re:But... Carmack. by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:29 · Score: 2
  
  unified lighting and shadow volumes allowing for cool looking, but hard shadows with little ambient light;
  Apparently you missed the part where he dropped shadow volumes in favor of shadow mapping (and did some great work there).
  
  MegaTexture allowing for little repetition, but featuring muddy textures that look terrible up close, awful pop-in, and huge install sizes; etc...
  You seem to be talking about a different game than I ran. He set out to create a world that artists could paint on without restriction, and he did that. Anybody who claims that Tech 5 is less than impressive is an idiot. I expect that if Zenimax has not been such dicks then Tech 6 would be out by now with a far better walkaround engine.
  Anyway, the bottom line is: John Carmack has contributed more to graphics technology than you, created more games that people had fun with than you, is smarter than you, has a prettier wife, and is richer than you. Probably his balls are bigger too.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Re:Sucker for Zucker by CastrTroy · 2015-09-09 05:35 · Score: 2

Notch doesn't seem to be doing too well with his fortune.

--

Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Re:Sucker for Zucker by Cederic · 2015-09-09 05:57 · Score: 1

Look, I love my cats, but for $2bn they're yours.
I'll take the risk on living with that sort of fortune.
Why is it always the garage? by irrational_design · 2015-09-09 06:03 · Score: 3, Funny

It seems like every startup from Apple to HP to Oculus is said to have started in the garage. Why do we never read about a startup starting up in the kitchen or the living room? Especially in California where it would seem that the lack of AC in the garage would be a major deterrent.
1. Re:Why is it always the garage? by Ryanrule · 2015-09-09 07:45 · Score: 1
  
  garage sounds more impressive than in the guesthouse on your parents california estate. soooo many of these "startups" are being done by the children of rich finance douches.
2. Re:Why is it always the garage? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-09 13:10 · Score: 1
  
  Your question is modded funny, but, in case you are serious, the answer is that the day a customer opens the wrong door looking for the bathroom and sees your wife naked, you'll be moving out of the living room. Ask me how I know.
3. Re:Why is it always the garage? by antdude · 2015-09-10 01:03 · Score: 1
  
  What about the basements, attics, bedrooms, closets, etc.?
  
  --
  Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Re:Sucker for Zucker by UnknownSoldier · 2015-09-09 07:38 · Score: 2

That's because Notch is insecure. He is afraid of:
* success: Making something that will be judged by others
* failure: Making something that others will laugh at
If Notch wants to get out of his "slump" he could easily setup the "Notch Indie Fund" and donate 25K / every month to a different indie group. it would help him reconnect with the "roots" and help others to empower them to pursue their dreams.
http://www.businessinsider.co....
yeah by Ryanrule · 2015-09-09 07:43 · Score: 1

soo teen has a ton of money to fuck about with computers. lucky for him.
Re:"he wondered, Why not just put a small screen.. by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:53 · Score: 1

Zenimax has another lawsuit against Luckey and Oculus for design ideas they claim were taken from them after Luckey signed a non-disclosure agreement with them as well.
It has nothing to do with tech, Zenimax guys are just pissed that Carmack got out of their clutches and ended up richer than them.

--
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Re:Holy shit by Tough+Love · 2015-09-09 07:54 · Score: 1

Shut up and do your own hack.

--
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
No Linux No Buy by DMJC · 2015-09-09 08:01 · Score: 1

No Linux support, no buy. I'll get whichever model has higher resolution than 4k and full Linux support.
Syntax Error: by tomxor · 2015-09-09 08:43 · Score: 1

- En.parse: Unexpected end of statement at line 1 column 332 - En.parse: Unexpected opening quotation mark at line 1 column 333 - En.lint: Nested quotation marks of same type between line 1 column 183 and column 433, Use alternate single and double quotes for nested quotations
Re:Holy shit by deek · 2015-09-09 14:20 · Score: 1

If someone paid me 2 billion, I'd be a huge fan of them as well.
Re:The story of Oculus Ripoff by GrandCow · 2015-09-09 17:47 · Score: 1

Neither of these are based on the idea that the rift is built around.

--
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
It's rather a sad story about kickstarter by Kartu · 2015-09-09 20:32 · Score: 1

It's rather a sad story about kickstarter "backers". People support a project and risk losing their money and projects fails and most of them fail.
"9,522 backers pledged $2,437,429 to help bring this project to life." (oculus rift on kickstarter.com)
Yet even in rare cases when a project is a huge success, backers don't get anything from that success. No right to influence direction in which the project develops either.