
It’s Game Time: Oculus Quest and Rift S Now Available - lisajaloza
https://www.oculus.com/blog/its-game-time-oculus-quest-and-rift-s-now-available/
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Nokinside
VR headset tech is in a weird situation where none of them is really good
enough, but when you test the best in the market it destroys the enjoyment you
get from previous generation. I tested 20 minutes $6000 Vario VR-1 that is
intented to professional use and now anything consumer grade feels like total
crap.

I hope FB and others keep developing these things despite the sales not taking
off. Maybe five to ten years from now we have VR-gear that becomes must have.

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Geee
Valve Index is much more interesting high-end VR headset currently:
[https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/index/headset](https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/index/headset)

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russellbeattie
And not available until September.

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darzu
And more than twice the price.

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gibolt
And wired

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cjbprime
And you have to put up lighthouses in your room.

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Wowfunhappy
All the other complaints in this thread are valid, but I've never understood
why people hate the lighthouses so much.

All you have to do is put up some boxes at the corners of your room _one time_
, and then plug them in. They don't even need to be connected to the computer
in any way. They are small, and silent, and nonintrusive.

I get that it's not the best user experience, but for a thing you just spent
$1,000 on? I'll take a couple of boxes and better tracking over no boxes and
worse tracking any day. I never saw complaints like this over the Wii sensor
bar.

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kranner
The suboptimal user experience of setting up lighthouses was cited as an
argument against the high price of $1000. Treating it as something to be
considered only after buying would be the same as assuming that the item has a
high value because of the high price.

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Wowfunhappy
Well, I don't understand that either.

If you're spending $1,000, what is 20 minutes setting up lighthouses? As far
as I'm concerned, it barely even factors into the equation.

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kranner
There are still multiple issues with lighthouses (and Rift CV1 sensors):
repeating the setup if moving the PC and VR headset to another room, occlusion
issues (e.g. with ceiling fans), sensors get moved inadvertently (e.g. while
dusting), intermittent USB port issues, LEDs going bad, etc.

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Wowfunhappy
I think you're conflating the Vive's lighthouse system with the Rift's
cameras. The lighthouses don't use USB at all. They don't even need to
communicate with the PC (though you have the optional ability to do so via
Bluetooth).

If you move your desktop PC around often, I can see why the Index or Rift S
would be a non-optimal choice. I don't think this describes most people.

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kranner
I listed issues with both together, probably should have listed them
separately.

Edit: just noticed you said Rift S, maybe you meant the Rift? The Rift S
doesn't use sensors, so moving it to another room just requires re-calibration
in the new room, I believe.

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Wowfunhappy
Sorry, yes, meant the OG Rift.

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frenchie4111
I got a Quest this morning, it is great! I haven't used VR previously, and the
ability to run VR without a gaming PC is really huge for me.

I think the Quest has the potential to bring the VR more into the mainstream
of entertainment. It just needs a few killer experiences, and it could really
catch on.

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xur17
Curious what games you've tried so far.

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frenchie4111
Robo Recall & Beat Saber are amazing games so far. I'm looking forward to
using Google Tilt Brush next time I need to do some software design. I am
going to try out 3d movies in bigscreen soon, apparently they are a game
changer.

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denvrede
You really have to try Rec Room once its released for the Quest. For me, thats
the killer app.

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hoelle
Rec Room is released on Quest!

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DevX101
The use case for gaming VR at least in the near term is a next generation VR
arcade in the spirit of laser tag meets Ready Player One. Back when I was a
kid, arcades were an awesome place to be. Consoles have long since killed that
scene, but a well executed play here that could get middle/high school kids
into arcades again would be a winner.

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genpfault
Any info on the Rift S camera array? Resolution, frame-rate, color/grayscale,
global/rolling shutter?

I'm guessing ~VGA across the board to fit all the bits in the single USB3 pipe
(640 * 480 * 60/120 FPS * 2 bytes per pixel (YUV) ~= 200-400 MiB/s).

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rock_hard
you are correct.

and they are only grayscale...no color

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cltsang
With the current trend that cities are becoming mega cities, and the price of
physical space in the central business area of those mega cities are going up,
I think there will be demand to shift white collar workspace to the virtual
world. 400 USD is a low enough price compared to rent plus furniture,
maintenance, etc.. On the software side there already exist Immersed VR and
Virtual Desktop. If they could increase the refresh rate such that the average
people don't get motion sickness wearing it, while keeping this relatively low
cost, I think it could disrupt how we work.

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cagenut
My vive's 3rd and 4th controllers are broken right now, so I'm just going
VRless for a few months until the Index ships, and man do I miss Rec Room.
More specifically, the people. Both a handful of vr friends I made and the
greater community. I'm honestly considering picking up a Rift S _just_ for rec
room.

I don't even use the maker-pen and circuits stuff, i'm mostly a
paintballer/rec-royaler. If you're the kind of person who ever once enjoyed
minecraft you have to try using the maker pen and creating a custom room:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn4jcZEADhs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn4jcZEADhs)

If you're the kind of person that "codes" the things you can do with circuits
are like... its kindf like a three dimensional IDE and programming language:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNxEVC9nwA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNxEVC9nwA)

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iamcreasy
I am a student researcher at a US university and I asked(including the
research proposal) if they have any special pricing for us. Every time I asked
- I was told that my application was under review, but I never heard any
verdict. We finally finished our project without actually testing it on a
headset. Here is the paper we've published:
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8500085](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8500085)

If anybody for Oculus is here, can you please tell me what is the proper was
of requesting research hardware?

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taneq
> If anybody for Oculus is here, can you please tell me what is the proper was
> of requesting research hardware?

I'm not from Oculus but I'd expect that you have to give them money.

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iamcreasy
I was not asking for free hardware, I was asking if they have any pricing for
academic researchers since it was not mentioned on the website.

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noobiemcfoob
Seems like a safe bet the answer is "no"

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iamcreasy
Yes, I thought so too. But they kept saying that they are reviewing our
application. Never gave us any concrete answer.

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b_tterc_p
I have done a lot of Vive stuff. I have also been to a VR done and ran around
shooting zombies. I never felt immersed. But I also never experienced nausea.

I’ll be honest, I just don’t get people who say VR is amazing. I enjoy it. I’m
developing games for it because I think the control scheme is innovative. But
I don’t think we are close to something I would call immersive.

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chime
Played for 3 hours with my 60+ year old parents today. They absolutely loved
Shadow Point and Beat Saber. For Shadow Point, I was wearing the headset,
casting to my iPhone which was AirPlaying to Apple TV and they were following
my every movement on the big screen.

Not sure what you mean by immersion but all of us said how real it felt and
how addictive this could be. When I came up to the edge of a cliff, I screamed
and stepped back.

The absolutely best part of Quest is the guardian system. It lets you feel
free and completely unrestricted. Unless you are literally running across the
room, you can trust it to warn you when you get close.

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b_tterc_p
Beat saber is an incredible game. I think the best of all vr games by a fair
margin.

> Not sure what you mean by immersion but all of us said how real it felt and
> how addictive this could be. When I came up to the edge of a cliff, I
> screamed and stepped back.

I mean exactly the lack of what you experienced. I have no problem stepping
off cliffs in vr. I don’t brace my knees for a landing. I have never thought I
was somewhere else than my living room.

I wonder if it’s a physical thing because, as I mentioned, I also get zero
nausea outside of extreme disconnects from my head motion. Moving around with
a control stick is fine for example.

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mrguyorama
You are a thorough outlier. I don't get motion sick either, but it is still a
completely immersive experience.

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yboris
Has anyone tried _HP Reverb_? (Release date May 6th, 2019 for $600)

> 2160 x 2160 LCD display for each eye

I'm looking for a PC-attached VR with highest resolution under $1,000 to use
with Virtual Desktop. I have Oculus Rift and love it, but resolution is too
low to use Virtual Desktop.

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zlsa
If you just want to use seated experiences like Virtual Desktop with your
keyboard and mouse, I'd say the Reverb is probably the best headset you can
buy.

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mrfusion
I’ve always gotten bad motion sickness with the vive but with the quest
there’s nothing. I’m really excited.

I’m starting to think the Pc powering the vive was just never up to par. I
really like having a self contained device.

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smallstepforman
Re: motion sickness, you'll find it almost impossible to fool millions of
years of primate evolution where in order to protect the species from
poisonous mushrooms, we have evolved to associate visual motion without inner
ear motion as a sign of food poisoning, hence the desire to vomit. Even the US
airforce with billions of dollars in their budget have given up on serious VR
headsets since the trainees couldn't tolerate more than 15 minutes of VR. How
can Occulus and other cheaper headsets offer something better? They cannot. VR
is a passing fad (thanks evolution).

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kruczek
Fortunately it is not as grim as you describe. People have different levels of
resistance to motion sickness. Even with titles that offer significant
disconnect between physical and virtual motion (e.g Climbey), an hour is
something that for me is easily achivable and enjoyable (and even beyond that
it's more a problem of getting physically tired of the activity, than of
motion sickness). I believe I am not that unique in that regard and there is
actually significant percentage of population who could also easily go beyond
those "15 minutes of VR".

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mrguyorama
While I'm convinced that there are plenty of people who are unlucky enough to
never be able to enjoy VR, I also think most people can "train" themselves to
get better for motion sickness just by playing more

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kruczek
Definitely. I remember at the beginning Climbey would cause minor confusion if
I'd unexpectedly fall, now it doesn't faze me at all.

The downside is that I think I used to be more "immersed" at the beginning.
Now while I do still enjoy "being" in the 3D environment, at the same time it
seems I am more aware of actually being in my room (which at least protects me
from motion sickness and from hitting furniture so often).

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kretash
From what I could gather the resolution on the Rift S is 1,280 × 1,440 per-eye
(2,560 × 1,440 total) and the Quest is 1,440 × 1,600 per-eye (2,880 × 1,600
total) [0], shouldn't the one rending on a desktop GPU have higher resolution?
Maybe the source is nor right as it's slightly outdated, but I couldn't find
actual numbers in the website.

Also, it would have been nice to get the snap855, but probably would have made
the headset a bit too expensive for the target market. The only thing that is
miles ahead of the Go is the tracking from what I can see. Not worth updating
for how little I use it.

[0] [https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-s-vs-quest-specs-
differ...](https://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-rift-s-vs-quest-specs-difference/)

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lhl
The Go is 3x3 (3DOF HMD, 3DOF simple controller) and the Quest is 6x6 (6DOF
HMD, dual 6DOF touch controllers) which is a quantum leap of a difference.

While the former is only good mostly for 360 photo/video and some not-so-
immersive experiences, the latter lets you basically have VR experiences w/
with full hand and head tracking on par with the best PC VR out there. I have
a CV1 and a wireless Vive (a Go and Focus as well) and I'm incredibly
impressed by the Quest - the polish on the setup/intro app (the dancing robot
is my new favorite demo showcasing the potential/visceral impact VR can have),
and personally, I think the Quest is the first true "mainstream" ready VR
product - I hope everyone at least tries it for themselves before completely
dismissing it.

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jobigoud
Off topic: a quantum leap is a very small leap. The smallest possible.

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lhl
In physics, quantum leap is used specifically to describe discontinuous state
changes, which is why I like the term - IMO 3x3 vs 6x6 are almost completely
different mediums experientially (that'd be its own conversation), but your
comment did lead me down a bit of a pleasant linguistic-curiosity rabbit hole
as I double checked, since I can see why "quanta" might imply something small,
but colloquially quantum leap does not.

quantum leap [n]: an abrupt change, sudden increase, or dramatic advance
[https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/quantum%20leap](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/quantum%20leap)

Apparently the term "quantum leap" gained popular use in the 1930s and over
time (starting in the 50s) acquired connotations of being very big:
[https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wc/how-did-quantum-
come-...](https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wc/how-did-quantum-come-to-mean-
really-big/)

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andrewstuart
I really wanted to love VR but it makes me so nauseous I literally can't even
think about it.

Any sign of this issue being solved somehow?

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Zanni
It depends a lot on the software. Games that have been ported to VR are
particularly bad (Skyrim makes my head spin). Games that are VR first (Beat
Saber, Superhot) don't force as much head motion and are much gentler to play.

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Impossible
Super Hot is a very well executed port, not VR first.

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MBCook
From what I’ve read it seems like they basically rebuilt the game from the
ground up for VR.

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dylan604
Why does it seem so strange to me that they sell the hand controllers
separately. Not that it's not a bundle with the headset, but that the left
hand and right hand controllers must be bought individually. Can you get by
with just one so you pick which ever works with your dominant hand? Or am I
just really thinking like a cheapo?

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noobiemcfoob
There are multiple controller options now. Maybe mix and match, but also
imagine breaking and needing to replace just one.

So I get the reasoning but would still expect a bundle option just for
simplicity

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village-idiot
I still have yet to find a compelling use for these devices. They demo ok, but
I’ve never left feeling like I must have one of these in my life.

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tantalor
Entertainment.

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village-idiot
Every time I’ve tried it, the novelty factor wore off quickly.

I still remember when 3D TVs we’re going to be the next thing. I suspect that
3D goggles will follow the same path.

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Pop2019
Not interested since I learned that Quest uses last year's smartphone CPU. I
expect something new and custom.

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baby
You design something, you build it, by the time all of that is done you are
not using the most recent hardware. This is not a problem only for VR
headsets, a year is nothing, look at what you get with playstation or xbox.

