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Facebook Closes Its Oculus VR Studio (bbc.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the virtually-gone dept.

puddingebola writes: Facebook has closed Oculus VR Studio. The studio was a maker of original VR films, but now will only assist other studios. This makes it official, as the studio had been shuttered since the departure of Palmer Luckey.
In a blog post the company emphasized that "We're still absolutely committed to growing the VR film and creative content ecosystem."

39 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. VR is like 3D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will be gone in a few years. Fads never last.

    1. Re:VR is like 3D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Like 3D printers?

    2. Re: VR is like 3D by cervesaebraciator · · Score: 2

      Your tautology is circular. If it lasted, you wouldn't call it a fad.

    3. Re:VR is like 3D by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      All that will remain is the vomit from people trying out the VR goggles.

    4. Re:VR is like 3D by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      After playing some games in 3D (anaglyph, but still), I think 3D screens could be pretty swell for gaming.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    5. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "As it is I think it could be good for movies, assuming it made economic sense - which it probably doesn't - but for gaming, just no"

      VR is already rapidly taking over the sim market. Once you've played a flight sim or driving sim in VR, it's really hard to go back to a flat screen.

      And it's going to spread to more and more gaming markets from there.

    6. Re:VR is like 3D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is going to turn out just like VR did back in the 90s. Some people will get it, play around and go "neato", then put it away to collect dust. There just isn't anything compelling about the primitive state of VR and no way to make it immersive without requiring people to dedicate entire rooms for it. That's why most of the "AAA" VR games coming out seem to be nothing more than first person shooters where the player is glued to a single spot and cannot freely walk around, which is gay.

      Of course the people who dropped thousands on VR gear and a rig to run it all will defend it to the end. Most people don't like to admit that they got suckered into wasting a bunch of money on a fad.

    7. Re: VR is like 3D by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

      "Gay"?

      Are you 12?

    8. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 2

      "That's why most of the "AAA" VR games coming out seem to be nothing more than first person shooters where the player is glued to a single spot and cannot freely walk around, which is gay."

      No, it's because most devs are too scared of players getting sick to let them move around with a joystick. It's as though the early FPS devs had listened to the people who complained that FPS games made them sick, and switched to games where the player stood in one spot while the bad guys ran toward them.

      Fortunately that's changing, as it turns out that it affects fewer people than the alarmists claimed, and there are ways of optimizing movement to reduce the effect on those who feel it (for example, by only using the joystick for forward/backward motion and turning for real).

    9. Re: VR is like 3D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How very ageist of you.

    10. Re:VR is like 3D by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Will be gone in a few years. Fads never last.

      VR unlike mock 3D is useful and now that we have the hardware for it you'll find it will stick around. Sure you may not be sitting in your living room with a headset on, but VR will continue to develop and exist.

    11. Re:VR is like 3D by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Rapidly=I bought one and so did my buddy.

    12. Re:VR is like 3D by ProfBooty · · Score: 1

      If you do track days, playing I-racing with a VR setup and force feedback is a life changing gaming event. You get the perception of depth that you don't get on a screen which lets you judge speed better. You can look through corners, and practice all the same skills you can do in real life. I did a round of i-racing on my home track and it felt pretty much the same as being in the car (i-racing laser maps the tracks so it feels the same). http://www.iracing.com/track-t...

      The best use of VR right now is for sims.

      --
      Bring back the old version of slashdot.
    13. Re:VR is like 3D by WaffleMonster · · Score: 1

      Will be gone in a few years. Fads never last.

      Next time you launch your imperial fighter from the hanger of your friends ship weaving thru structures of stations and massive ships with 6DOF control like a leaf on the wind try closing one of your eyes.

      With remaining eye open look around you...what do you see? Hint: your still IN the same frisking spaceship. "3D" binocular vision means nothing in VR. It means nothing in space or past about 5 meters here on earth either.

      Simply labeling something new a "fad" and declaring they never last would mean steam engines, difference engines, horseless carriages, heavier than air ships and telegraphs "never last" either.

      There are many valid reasons to believe VR sucks or the market for VR sucks. Facebook closing a studio to produce VR content certainly seems to be evidence such endeavors sure as heck are not currently or likely soon to become profitable.

    14. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      Leap Motion does a decent job. The other day I was in a VR helicopter in Antarctica, leaning around the cockpit to flick switches while I figured out how to start the engine.

      The problem is that with only two relatively low-resolution cameras attached to the headset, it can lose track of your hand position fairly easily.

    15. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      I briefly tried an FPS (forget which one) on a 3D monitor, but I found that everything looked flat if it was more than a few feet away. Whereas standing at the top of the steps outside Dragonsreach in Skyrim in VR, the whole scene looked pretty 3D at least to the walls of Whiterun.

    16. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      I forget whether they were talking about racing sim or combat flight sim, but someone on another site said a couple of weeks back that all the top players in the league they were in used VR. Anyone who wanted to be competitive had little choice but to buy a VR headset.

    17. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      "You can't have VR movement without real-life movement unless you want to eschew one of the very things that makes it VR."

      Next you'll be saying you can't play a shooter game with a keyboard and mouse instead of a light gun, unless you want to eschew one of the very things that makes it a shooter.

    18. Re:VR is like 3D by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The controls problem has been solved for decades. You need two setups, driving and flying. Most games will adapt to one or the other. e.g. space and mech both work with cockpit controls, I've actually found no use for the driving setup except driving, which of course is plenty. I built mine around a pair of old M3 seats.

      Limits how fast you can pick-up the game especially if you have to map a complex set of controls to one of 4 hat switches, 15 buttons and 3 sliders, 4 axis analog etc. But that's baked into the choice of a somewhat realistic sim. Nobody is going to just grab the latest version of Falcon and be proficient.

      Merging headset and Kinect/Leap Motion type inputs is possible. But your potential market is tiny. Figuratively, 3 people.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    19. Re:VR is like 3D by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Does iRacing have your car?

      Assetto Corsa does'nt have mine...can't really judge quality of car feel, but it's pretty good as far as it can go. Can't feel individual tires slip, like in the real car, no 'seat of pants', but what can you expect.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    20. Re:VR is like 3D by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      What was the last even somewhat serious sprite game you've seen? It's all flash, one level, joke games.

      I am just as bored of 3d shooters/sneakers as I was of sprite games by the end of that period.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    21. Re:VR is like 3D by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      There was a very bad couple of years, right at the end of C-64, sprite games. There were already something like 20,000 2D games available for piracy. Many game companies failed as their biggest market collapsed. Too many years, peddling the same tired stuff. Like 3d shooters now.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    22. Re:VR is like 3D by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 1

      Flight sims are a pretty niche market. I used to spend a lot of money on HOTAS controllers (flightstick, throttle, and rudder pedals). The screen was always the limiting factor for any sort of true immersive quality. You really need to be able to look around to acquire and track targets if you're trying to fly a fighter with a bubble canopy. So, for these enthusiasts, I completely believe that VR will do well. And of course, any sort of cockpit-based game seems likely to benefit equally well, like racing sims, mech fighters, space flyers, and even amusement park sims (rollercoaster and ride previews).

      One of these days, when the price drops to something reasonable, I might try pick it up again. For everyone else though, it currently requires a monster computer (although this will improve in time), and outside of the gee-whiz factor, there's really not a compelling reason to embrace it.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    23. Re:VR is like 3D by MikeDataLink · · Score: 1

      Will be gone in a few years. Fads never last.

      Spoken like someone who tried smartphone VR and has no idea what Oculus and Vive bring to the table.

      --
      Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
    24. Re:VR is like 3D by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      I've run all across Skyrim in VR, dude.

    25. Re:VR is like 3D by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > What was the last even somewhat serious sprite game you've seen? It's all flash, one level, joke games.

      Terraria

    26. Re:VR is like 3D by K10W · · Score: 1

      Flight sims are a pretty niche market. I used to spend a lot of money on HOTAS controllers (flightstick, throttle, and rudder pedals). The screen was always the limiting factor for any sort of true immersive quality. You really need to be able to look around to acquire and track targets if you're trying to fly a fighter with a bubble canopy. So, for these enthusiasts, I completely believe that VR will do well. And of course, any sort of cockpit-based game seems likely to benefit equally well, like racing sims, mech fighters, space flyers, and even amusement park sims (rollercoaster and ride previews).

      One of these days, when the price drops to something reasonable, I might try pick it up again. For everyone else though, it currently requires a monster computer (although this will improve in time), and outside of the gee-whiz factor, there's really not a compelling reason to embrace it.

      VR is mostly a fad but that slim niche would really lap it up you're right. I play a lot of DCSworld (KA50 and A10C mainly) and thought the same thing. I use headtracking already with hotas etc but sensible priced VR would be good. If it can do 6DoF better than TiR5 and is up to the job and can match/exceed the res of large screen(s) with head tracking then I'd consider current prices. I have the machine to handle it but the only real options for sim folks are vive and rift and they both have big drawbacks. I'd splash for rift in particular at a lower price point or with serious improvement to make it sim perfect.

    27. Re:VR is like 3D by ProfBooty · · Score: 1

      No, it doesn't have my track car.

      http://www.iracing.com/cars/

      --
      Bring back the old version of slashdot.
  2. VR Suitability Test by rtb61 · · Score: 1

    Looking a VR use reaction videos you should likely be able to test for VR suitability use by individuals by gauging their visual reliance for balance versus be more genetically reliant upon the vestibular system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... Those more reliant upon visual cues will likley be completely unsuited to using VR system. Those less reliant on visual cues will be much more comfortable with VR systems. There likely would be specific genes that would indicate that difference.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    1. Re:VR Suitability Test by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Or worse, your gut not caring where 'you are' makes you immune to VR sickness.

      VR sickness = 'motion sickness or tunnel vision from games or 3-D effects'

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  3. Does this mean HTC "Won"? by Pezbian · · Score: 2

    I bought a Vive because the idea of Faceculus Riftbook was unappealing. The Oculus Touch controllers are definitely the better of the two on grip, alone.

    This is not good. Every Microsoft needs an Apple and every FedEx needs a UPS. Competition is the only way to keep moving forward.

    --
    In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
    1. Re:Does this mean HTC "Won"? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      This has nothing to do with the hardware. This was Facebook's movie studio that specialised in producing movies targeted at Oculus VR owners.

    2. Re:Does this mean HTC "Won"? by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      "Valve has opened their api (openvr), so why not contribute & adopt it?"

      Yes, in a rapidly-changing new industry, why wouldn't you want to be locked in to an API controlled and developed by your biggest competitor?

      You know it makes sense.

      Back in the real world, there'll be a time for standard VR APIs, but it's certainly not today. There's a reason we had Glide and other custom 3D APIs for years before game devs settled on Direct3D and OpenGL and dropped the rest.

      BTW, pretty much all Vive games work on the Rift, but some have crappy controls because the Rift controllers have far more features than the Vive's. This makes them a pretty poor experience, and demonstrates why a single API would be a dumb thing to do right now. With such different controls, if you want everyone to have a good experience, you have no choice but to develop two different interfaces in your app regardless of which API you use.

    3. Re:Does this mean HTC "Won"? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Steam VR runs as a shim for both.

      Oculus had the drivers fighting for a little, but it's settled down to functional. Oculus has apparently paid devs to release Rift only.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  4. Oculus Story Studio, not Oculus VR Studio by fredzouille · · Score: 1

    Oculus Story Studio, not Oculus VR Studio.

  5. Juicy rumours by CustomSolvers2 · · Score: 1

    I heard that the real reason was that the head programmer in their Silicon Valley branch (Jian Yang, worldwide known by his "JENIEEEEN!"-sounding bachmanism), preferred to focus on other projects. Something about water and animals; a new software to communicate with dolphins, perhaps?

    --
    Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
  6. Facebook is evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Anything they shut down is a good thing. Zuckerberg is a script kiddie and does not deserve dreams of godlike grandeur.

  7. Transitioning to growing external projects by HalAtWork · · Score: 1

    Yes, they closed down their own development, but are tasking this team to support third party projects attempting to develop VR games.

    "We've decided to shift our focus away from internal content creation to support more external production," Jason Rubin of Oculus said. "As part of that shift, we'll be winding down Story Studio. Now that a large community of filmmakers and developers are committed to the narrative VR art form, we're going to focus on funding and supporting their content."

    --
    Twinstiq, game news
  8. VR is being handled terribly by p0larity · · Score: 1

    Instead of making an affordable option they're going for the high-end market, trying to perfect the experience for everyone, and then heaping DRM on top of that.

    Since I was a kid I wanted even a VFX... as garbage as it was I tried it at Comdex and wanted it so bad.

    I don't want to pay top dollar for DRM locked down garbage, however. It's a display! There's no need for that crap.

    I have a 3D TV and we barely use it only because half of my household doesn't like the effect, really. We go to 3D movies but using the glasses at home almost never happens. We also don't have access to a lot of 3D content on Neflix that I'm aware of and we don't often buy 3D blu-rays. I have one, and it's Tron, and that movie wasn't really all that re-watchable.

    All this rambling is to say that EVEN IF THEY PERFECT IT, probably a small portion of people will still be able to enjoy it. Stereoscopic images simply give some people headaches. They don't calculate depth in their brains by separation alone. By chasing that perfection to the exclusion of everything else, they're missing out on the mid-tier market.

    I tried out the DK1 dev kit for Occulus and LOVED it. I could play TF2 for a half hour before even slightly noticing nausea, and I wasn't even sure if that was because I was actually sick that day or the device.

    Yet I can't be positive if I buy one that it would be compatible with the games that come out for the finished device. What a pain in the fragmented ass... I just want a display, that goes on my head, with head tracking and a decent resolution. Head tracking doesn't need to be spot on. My mind can easily compensate.