
Oculus Go - salimmadjd
https://www.oculus.com/go/
======
SimonPStevens
The key thing about Oculus Go that is entirely missing from their website is
that it only allows 3dof in the movement tracking. It's just like
cardboard/daydream/gear. Unlike all the tethered VR headsets that do full
6dof.

In my opinion this isn't VR at all. It's a glorified 360 degree viewer.
Personally I think it's pretty deceptive of Oculus to market this like it's a
full VR heatset when it's very much not. If you are interested in VR for the
immersion or the experiences, avoid this. Get something with full positional
6dof tracking.

~~~
iknowstuff
Pfffffft.

Windows Mixed Reality headsets are so much better than this.

~~~
giobox
The two really aren't comparable.

Windows Mixed Reality requires an entire PC attached to it. The whole point of
this is that for $199, you get everything you need to start using it, no
cellphone or (expensive) PC tether.

Whether there's a market for such a device I'm not so sure, but there's no
doubt Windows Mixed Reality/Rift/Vive et al have relatively huge cost barriers
to entry vs simpler VR devices like this.

~~~
psyc
There are already standalone Windows MR devices with 6dof. HoloLens has also
had 6dof for years. Vive has a stand-alone 6dof as well, but it’s only in
China so far.

~~~
westoncb
Could you link to a standalone Windows MR device with 6dof?

~~~
psyc
Sorry, I was wrong about that. I was thinking of Lenovo Solo, but that is
Google Daydream-based. However MR does not inherently require a detached PC.
HoloLens _is_ a PC.

------
Andrex
Sorta self-promotion (but not really), but I made a spreadsheet comparing the
specs of phone VR, standalone, and desktop computing headsets here:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10c2iIQL0EcDIWuVEx0Zs...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10c2iIQL0EcDIWuVEx0Zsnv-F19t4QETVyCTpwSdEnHc/edit?usp=sharing)

~~~
woolvalley
Could you add the windows MR ones? They are all pretty similar except the
samsung one:

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/store/collections/vrandmixed...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/store/collections/vrandmixedrealityheadsets)

And they are pretty cheap when on sale at around $225

~~~
akhilcacharya
I bought mine for $200. Really impressed so far. Much more convenient to set
up than a vive and works about as well in my experience.

~~~
namlem
The controller tracking is noticeably worse, but given that it's less than
half the price, it's not bad.

------
georgewsinger
Not to hijack the achievements of Oculus, but there is also a project to bring
Linux to standalone VR headsets:
[https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula](https://github.com/SimulaVR/Simula)

Get an Oculus Go for now. But show SimulaVR some love for the future :]

------
legitster
Rift Owner here.

Mmmmmm. That's some nice looking hardware. Not appearing like you had a
medical device strapped to your face was one of my driving decisions for
picking the Rift over the Vive. And the simple straps and soft touch fabrics
look really nice and comfortable here.

But I have yet to find any lasting appeal to the "low-end" VR experiences. It
really gives a poor impression of what the tech is capable of and walk away
with a "gimmicky" feeling.

~~~
vorpalhex
It's great for watching movies on an airplane. None of the games have done
anything for me, but the movies are cool.

~~~
portmanteaufu
Watching TV on an airplane is the #1 reason I would buy a VR headset. The in-
seat screen UIs are atrocious and they tend to only have ~4 or so episodes of
any given show. Unfortunately, the Oculus Go's battery life is only about 2
hours according to the Ars Technica review[1]. Some planes have AC outlets,
but YMMV.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-
the-...](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-the-wireless-
vr-future-begins-today-for-only-199/)

~~~
Andrex
For the record, the upcoming Lenovo Mirage Solo headset has a 4000 mAh battery
and (purportedly) 10-hour battery life. Of course, it is double the price of
the Oculus Go.

~~~
elsewhen
it looks like it is available now:
[https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/virtual-reality-and-
sm...](https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/virtual-reality-and-smart-
devices/virtual-and-augmented-reality/lenovo-mirage-solo/Mirage-
Solo/p/ZZIRZRHVR01)

------
ohf
Wow, that webpage sucks. What are the specs?

~~~
chrischen
Here's the important info from a review

> Unlike the Oculus Santa Cruz, the Oculus Go doesn’t include full motion
> controllers or futuristic inside-out tracking technology, which lets users
> walk around rooms with no external cameras. It allows you to rotate your
> head, but not lean or walk around. You can move its small controller like a
> laser pointer, but not fully mimic a virtual hand. It’s got basically the
> same features as Samsung and Oculus’ Gear VR, but as a dedicated piece of
> hardware, not a combination of smartphone and plastic shell.

So basically it's another one of those "turn your smartphone into VR" without
needing the smartphone.

~~~
andybak
> futuristic inside-out tracking technology, which lets users walk around
> rooms with no external cameras.

Perpetuating the myth that 6DOF head tracking is for "walking around the
room".

It's not. Even small head movements reveal parallax and without that VR isn't
anywhere near as convincing an illusion.

6DOF is pretty much a base requirement for immersive VR.

~~~
jayd16
Daydream, and I assume Gear but I don't know for sure, has that slight
parallax by using a neck approximation and head pitch and roll.

~~~
Tuxer
Gear does have a head model, you can tell really easily in pretty much every
Gear/Go game by looking at parallax differences between near and far objects.

------
JansjoFromIkea
Bought an S7 on the cheap recently to see if its 2K screen (2560x1440, so
possibly the same as this?) would be good enough to watch films on, was okay
but nowhere near what I'd like. Unless that's severely misrepresentative, I'll
be keeping away from deeper VR experiences until they're at a stronger level
(please prove me wrong!)

~~~
legitster
The fun and immersiveness does not come from the screen quality, but from your
ability to navigate and interact with a virtual space. If I could convince you
that you are walking on the surface of Mars, you wouldn't complain that I gave
you a smudged visor.

Until the mobile experiences have a quality 6dof and motion controls, they
have almost no appeal to me.

~~~
zamalek
Luke from Linus Tech Tips indicated that 3dof "VR" might be damaging VR as a
whole, as it gives people an unrealistically awful impression of what VR has
to offer. This is in contrast to what I originally thought of Cardboard+co:
low barrier of entry teasers. After repeatedly hearing that VR isn't special
from people who have only used these low-end devices I've been forced to agree
with Luke.

These platforms should drop the VR moniker - they are 360 stereoscopic ten day
wonders and little more.

~~~
ajsalminen
The assumption you make here is that they'd think otherwise if they had used a
6dof headset which doesn't really seem to ring true for me. There are lots of
Rifts and Vives lying unused in people's homes and in general 6dof VR hasn't
taken the world by storm either.

------
pronoiac
The Verge review [1] has more specs:

> Its screen is a 5.5-inch display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution (1280 x 1440
> per eye). It’s based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor from 2016...

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17306458/oculus-go-
standal...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17306458/oculus-go-standalone-
vr-headset-review)

~~~
paulgb
Given the comparisons to Gear VR, does anyone know if this is running Android
under the hood?

~~~
portmanteaufu
It is. The Ars Technica review[1] is pretty thorough.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-
the-...](https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/05/oculus-go-review-the-wireless-
vr-future-begins-today-for-only-199/)

------
daeken
Okay, so I just picked one of these up and tried it out for half an hour or
so. It is nothing less than a game changer. The screen quality is phenomenal,
it's super comfortable, and it Just Works (TM). I have a Rift and PSVR and
previously had both Rift DKs; this will get infinitely more use. Being
untethered means I can sit on my couch, lay in bed, or sit on a plane and
experience great VR.

My wife tried it for 10 minutes and already wants one of her own. This thing
is priced to sell and just a great piece of tech. Can't wait to start
developing for it!

~~~
Jaruzel
> This thing is priced to sell

My gut feeling is that they are selling each unit at cost, or even at a loss,
just to dominate the market. It's not like Facebook can't afford it.

~~~
daeken
Yep, I'd nearly bet on it. That SoC alone is what, $40? Screen closer to (or
even over) $100, given how high-end it is. That leaves very little room for
RAM, flash, controller, etc.

------
otoburb
I wonder if they will notice an uptick in bounce rate for Firefox 59.0.3
users, primarily because it seems to crash the tab. The Ars Technica review
linked by 'portmanteafu provided great information.

~~~
cpeterso
Can you share a Firefox crash ID from your about:crashes page? I see some bad
flickering when I scroll with Firefox 59.0.3 on Windows 10, but I haven't been
able to reproduce a crash yet.

~~~
cpeterso
This crash was caused by an internet security program called Palo Alto
Networks' Cytool Traps that injects its DLL into Firefox's process and
attempts to intercept and analyze network traffic. Here's the Firefox bug
report:

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1458377](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1458377)

------
tomphoolery
I wish this page worked on Firefox Quantum :(

(can't scroll past the buy / watch video buttons)

~~~
remir
Yeah, it's super glitchy/laggy on FF. Unbelievable that Oculus (Facebook)
didn't test their page on FF.

To be honest, I kinda hate this kind of website where you scroll and the
content changes.

~~~
rkangel
My instinct is to agree with you.

On the other hand, it's a way of giving a dynamic introduction like you might
achieve with a video but putting the speed of navigation through it into the
control of the user.

------
buildbuildbuild
I am most excited not by gaming on this device, but by the prospect of
experiencing the VR film content that is premiering at Sundance/Tribeca/SxSW.
VR has a rich and diverse future, current clunkiness aside.

I'm sure there are cheaper ways of tuning in, but something about a polished
name brand product appeals to me more than a smartphone-on-the-face cardboard
approach.

------
avoutthere
Does anybody know what data Facebook harvests related to one's usage of their
Oculus VR devices?

------
mrbill
Ordered, can't wait. Will be nice to have a VR option that doesn't require
burning battery or overheating my phone (OG Pixel). I built my last gaming PC
to minimum-Oculus-VR specs, but never got around to buying the headset. Glad I
waited.

~~~
whywhywhywhy
If your PC has the specs to handle the Rift you're doing yourself a disservice
not to buy one at the new reduced price.

I bought one on a whim and expected it to be interesting but I was completely
blown away and use it almost every night.

The Go isn't really the same experience because it doesn't track head position
or hand position.

~~~
mrbill
$399 is great, but I'm going to have to sell a bunch of stuff to pay for the
Go as it is.. cancer med and oncologist visit copays suck :(

------
baby
I've been wanting to buy an HTC Vive for a long time. The thing is, I don't
have a desktop PC, so I've just postponed and postponed the purchase. Is this
thing better than a google cardboard is it more or less the same?

Watching reviews it looks like it's mostly "experiences" and not much
different from a cardboard.

~~~
SimonPStevens
If you are considering a Vive, you should probably avoid this. It's only 3dof,
unlike the Vive's 6dof. In my opinion this isn't VR at all. It's a glorified
360 degree viewer. See my other comment in this thread.

(Disclaimer: Vive owner)

------
et-al
Anyone know if FB is selling these at a loss to gain marketshare? $199 USD for
the 32GB version is a welcoming price for mainstream acceptance.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
I always wonder with these things why the big jump in price for memory -
what's the bom difference? Is the 32gb just the 64gb one with half the memory
crippled?

It's £5 for the cheapest possible 32gb sdcard, about £12 retail for one I'd
expect to work well. So presumably the memory is quite a small part of the
cost difference -- there seems so much other tech in there, a quarter of the
price can't be just memory.

School me oh gurus; is this just price differentiation?

~~~
et-al
The jump from 32GB and 64GB is definitely price differentiation. But $50 for
more memory on an expensive toy isn't that bad either (or maybe Apple has
conditioned me to think this way).

------
VikingCoder
3DOF, right? No positional tracking?

~~~
madaxe_again
Correct. It's Gear VR space - I guess the objective is to have a device that
sits between the high end (Rift/Vive) space, and the low end (Gear/Cardboard)
space.

That said, I can't see high end users adopting downwards - and for low end
users, it's not much of a step upwards (still no positional tracking, which is
kinda a watershed point for VR experiences), and is an additional device, when
they can accomplish largely the same thing with a cellphone and gear VR setup.

I suppose that leaves new adopters as the market, but with a lower entry point
than Rift - but it's going to be a watered down experience and could undermine
their high end sales too.

Honestly, I'm not sure I understand what the strategy is here.

~~~
VikingCoder
I'm pretty sure I get it -

It's an up-scale gift.

All those times you've walked into Best Buy, and you've seen the WALL of
crappy VR? Well, this will be the undisputed king of all of them.

I'm seriously considering one for airplanes. I'd definitely want to use my
noise-cancelling headphones instead, though. "also includes a 3.5mm headphone
jack" So that's good.

It'll be lighter than one phone-based ones, too, I bet. Less fidgeting, trying
to get your phone in and out. Don't get distracted when you get an IM from
your friend, wrecking your view for a minute. Auto-brightness isn't on,
messing with you.

And it's a walled garden. Oculus IS the store. That's good for them. So, they
may sell these at a loss, and still come out ahead.

The smart move is to buy one and only use the free apps, or the stuff you
really, really know you want.

------
pjmlp
As if Go as word wasn't already too much overloaded.

~~~
sbarre
At least Disney isn't pushing go.com as hard anymore.. That's a start? ;-)

------
tboughen
They have enough location data to show UK pricing (I am in the UK), but when I
ask about where I can trial a headset they silently fail and show me somewhere
on the east coast of the USA.

------
TazeTSchnitzel
Carmack was quite excited about the Go during his talks.

------
al_chemist
It looks like Xiaomi made more in 4 months than Oculus stuff in last 4 years.

[https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-go-update-announcing-
our-...](https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-go-update-announcing-our-
partnership-with-xiaomi-and-qualcomm-at-ces/)

------
bobwaycott
There are some images mid-page that move when I move my phone. However, they
move in the opposite direction I’d expect them to move. When I move left, it
looks as though I’m looking right (and vice versa). Is my brain being tricked
here?

------
VectorLock
Supposedly better optics to deal with screen door effect and a higher
resolution per-eye but I couldn't find any information on FOV per eye. What is
Oculus Go's overall pixel density?

------
Raphmedia
Can you replace the lenses?

My desktop Rift's lenses are all scratched from normal use (people with
glasses used it, etc.).

I couldn't imagine having a "on the go" device with lens that you can't
replace.

~~~
dismal2
It says there are prescription inserts on the website

~~~
drcode
No, it's only a plastic spacer to leave extra room for your eye glasses.

~~~
Ajedi32
Scroll down. They are most definitely selling inserts for lenses.

~~~
drcode
I stand corrected! In my defense, their website is a mess.

------
Yaggo
I wish someone sold a cheap but good quality VR set with dispay + HDMI driver
board to be hooked up with Raspberry Pi. Go seems ideal if it just had HDMI
port.

~~~
ThatPlayer
The Raspberry Pi's HDMI can't drive more than 1080p 60hz. The resolution on
the Oculus Go for comparison is 2560x1440 72hz.

~~~
Yaggo
Technically it can drive up to 3840x2160 at 24 Hz if overclocked, but the
video decoder is limited to 1080p, limiting practical use cases. But you are
right, 1080p screen would be better fit (for even cheaper price). I'm
currently using OSVR HDK (the original version), but that thing is pricey for
what it is.

[https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/3966](https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/3966)

------
stuffedBelly
I have a Daydream VR headset from Google and these two are a lot like design-
wise. Competition on comfort design could be a good thing in my opinion.

~~~
hauget
I just want to be able to make money as a dev, AND have a wide selection of
software available. I still think Valve is going to win in this arena down the
line.

------
nvus
Would this work for emulating multiple screens for my PC? Has anyone tried it
with existing hardware, can you for example program with it?

~~~
outworlder
You "can". I have not tried programming, but I have tried reading.

Resolution is poor, so text display doesn't look great. Not horrible, just not
great. However, if you secretly wanted to program using a movie theater
display, I guess that would work. I think that's how it would feel like.

The thing is, other than having a gigantic (perceived) display, what's the
advantage? We'll still be manipulating text – and you'll have to touch type,
because you won't be able to see the keyboard.

We need a lightable-like VR experience before that makes sense.

For watching movies it works. Depending on the person it may be uncomfortable
after a while. If you are ok with it, then it is actually nice. The software
is not yet there though, the ones I've tried just emulate a movie theater.
If/when you can project 3D movies, then it will be great.

~~~
pm90
Can I use it to e.g. play games on another device, like a PS4?

I thought the PS VR headset would be perfect for this. Unfortunately it
requires to be connected by wires which is frustrating. Something like this,
but tailored to PS4 would be awesome.

~~~
izacus
The latencies involved would make you barf in matter of minutes. Streaming
over wired ethernet is already barely adequate for action games and VR
requires significantly lower latency to feel good.

------
JaggerFoo
Nice, but is there a virtual monitor app available, so I can work on one giant
monitor or several monitors at once?

~~~
haydenlee
Try Bigscreen or Virtual Desktop

------
arca_vorago
I dont want VR unless it and it's software is foss. Is the hdk2 my only
option?

------
dfee
I unfortunately cannot use this as I’m concerned about living in a Facebook
panoptician (seriously).

* living being narrowly defined as interacting with a/the world via an immersive virtual reality.

------
suyash
Is this running Android or not, what is the OS?

~~~
remir
Android Nougat.

------
iTokio
Can it be used with Blocks?

~~~
ngokevin
No, Blocks especially requires 6DoF. Can probably view Blocks stuff though.

------
crashride
Oh wow.. that page was terrible, couldn't even stand waiting for it to load.

------
x3haloed
No comments yet on how this is almost exactly the Google Daydream viewer with
a builtin phone?

~~~
wvenable
That's exactly what this is and has always been advertised as being. It's even
software compatible with the Gear VR.

------
zython
yeah, nah, I'm gonna pass on that.

why would you take a vr setup from the living room and "mobilize" it. what
idiot is going to take his oculus go with him on the go ?

this platform is going to be restricted to low quality titles/products

to be fair this is going to be a lot more affordable than a real vr setup but
IMO this is the wrong way to introduce vr to the masses

now vr is going to have this 2005-10 facebook game-esque connotation to it,
which is anything but ideal

opinions ?

~~~
danield9tqh
If smartphones are any indication, VR on the go will happen eventually,
without a doubt. If it's not this model that popularizes it, it will be some
other model.

 _what idiot is going to take his oculus go with him on the go?_

I really think you are underestimating people here

