
First Look at the Rift, Shipping Q1 2016 - z3phyr
https://www.oculus.com/blog/first-look-at-the-rift-shipping-q1-2016/
======
dangerlibrary
I was able to get a demo of the Crescent Bay prototype (hand-built tech demo
of the consumer version) at PAX East this year. I've also tried the DK1 and
DK2.

If you've been playing with the DK1 or DK2, the consumer version is
fundamentally better. Do not assume you know what the state of the art is
until you've gotten your hands on a preview. I don't know exactly what the
resolution differences are, and I don't care - it's not the relevant spec to
compare. It's gotten to the point where resolution is "good enough" to trick
the mind and anyone who says otherwise is bikeshedding. They've gotten the
screen door effect under control. With head tracking implemented and drift
solved as a side effect, two huge problems are gone. Their low-latency head
tracking stops people from feeling nauseated like they did with DK1. I could
barely stand without wanting to vomit after playing the Doom demo. The only
game I could play for any length of time was a simple platform jumping game
called Rift Rush.

I don't know what they consider their largest hurdles, but from my perspective
the hardware/software problems are solved for now and they need excellent
made-for-VR content. When done well, the effect is stunning - in one of that
calmer, more exploration-oriented demos I just stared at the light glinting
off a metal bowl as I moved around it for at least 30 seconds.

But the difference between "good" and "mind blowing" was often the result of
things that nobody has thought about before. In the movie-like demos,
sometimes I missed things because I had my back to the action. In VR movies,
the user controls the camera and needs to be told where to look; that's a
problem nobody making movies has ever faced before. Even Pixar's demo suffered
from this - the action was too spread out for the screen's field of view.

~~~
doorhammer
I never got to use Crescent Bay, but I've got a DK2 at home. Resolution for me
will be a non-issue once I can read smallish text on virtual signs/displays.
I'm thinking mostly for games like Elite Dangerous and other simulators like
that, where a cockpit display is part of the game. Do you think the crescent
bay prototype is at that point? (this might be a naive question as it's been
awhile since I've looked up anything on the newest prototypes)

Otherwise I'm with you. Positional tracking was the thing that really made it
awesome for me. There are so many tiny head movements that you make when
you're looking around; if positional tracking isn't pretty much 100%, then it
just feels wrong.

~~~
soylentcola
I agree about the smaller text but at the same time, it's been more of an
issue for me when the content wasn't created primarily with DK2-class hardware
as the target. Elite is great and I feel like Frontier owes Oculus money
because myself and just about everyone I know who got a DK2 also ended up
buying Elite but it's still primarily designed for a monitor.

If you're targeting a game or other application for VR (and assuming generally
similar hardware to DK2 or whatever), there are a lot of design decisions you
can make to improve the experience. Something as simple as using larger text
goes a long way. Color choices help, as does less focus on lists and menus in
favor of gaze-based control.

Then there's the general stuff like "not trying to shoehorn that awesome
first-person-shooter style that was so great on 2D screens into VR". Yeah,
it's neat to look around in a FPS-style game but whereas seated or less
frenetic experiences are gorgeous and immersive, asking someone to run around
in first person while actually sitting in a chair is nauseating. I've seen all
the omni-treadmills and other workarounds and I appreciate the way people are
trying to engineer solutions but I feel like it misses the point. Some things
just work well in VR while other things require a lot of tradeoffs or addons.

~~~
doorhammer
I think Minecraft is a good accidental example of what you're talking about,
especially on the DK2.

It's natural pixel style makes you not notice the resolution at all, and all
of the text is large, and easy to read. The cube nature also really makes me
aware of the 3D, which is nice.

It doesn't do anything to deal with the FPS/nausea problem, though I don't
react very poorly to playing an FPS in the rift as long as it uses a keyhole
style control with the mouse (half-life 2 is a prime example of that).

One other thing I like about minecraft on the rift is that it really shows off
the true blacks you can get with the OLED display. It smears a bit, but it's
still really rad to look into a mine shaft and have it fade to actual darkness
(not sure if the consumer version is planning for OLED off hand).

I definitely agree that it'll be cool when game shops start really thinking
about building their games for VR, and that they can work around VR
weaknesses.

Weird scaling is another issue, when something was scaled to look right from
2D on a screen, but drops the ball in VR. I played Skyrim using Vireo and the
mountains ended up looking like glorified hills, heh.

Another funny issue I had was playing Alien Isolation. VR made it super
obvious that looking out through a spaceship window into "space" was actually
looking at a black wall about twenty ft away.

Looking forward to wherever VR goes, either way.

------
TheCraiggers
Argh, the title of the post has the exact same amount of info as the article
does. I was hoping for details on the changes to the hardware different from
the current dev kit.

Or more importantly, I was hoping to read why I should still care when Valve's
offering is planned to come out _this_ year and is supposedly the bee's knees.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I would like to know what kind of computer and graphics card I need to make
this thing work. Yeah, a cheaper VR headset pricepoint is nice, but not if
you're just unloading all the expensive components onto the buyer via a $1200+
PC purchase. Not to mention, as someone who suffers with motion sickness with
traditional games, how will the Oculus work for me? Have they solved this
riddle? Will they ever?

This is also why I see Sony having great success with its Morpheus headset.
The PS4 is cheap as-is ($399) and if you already own one, its a no-brainer to
go with their product. I'd be really surprised if Oculus ever goes mainstream.
It still looks like an uber-nerds hobbyist toy like a, say, 3D printer, which
technophiles have been telling us for years would be mainstream by now and in
"every kitchen."

Carmack isn't stupid. He didn't sell to Zuck because he thought he'd be moving
10's of millions of product every year. He sold to Zuck because he knew that
the shipping date doesn't really change things for Oculus. Its still a very
rough road to mainstream acceptance and economic competitiveness. I can afford
$299 for the headset, but I'm not interested in buying a super gaming box to
make it work. Nor am I interested in being a beta tester for a technology
known to be a bit wonky, cause motion sickness, have questionable 3rd party
support, and Facebook ownership/integration/driver and API's TOS.

This is what on top of what Valve is doing, which may just steal Carmack's
thunder as they have everything they need to make this work: the store, no
relationship with unrelated businesses like social networking, large customer
base, community goodwill, game publisher relationships, a decade plus in the
game selling world, etc. If both the Valve set and the Oculus set go for $299,
I can't think of any reason to even consider the Oculus.

~~~
higherpurpose
You'll need a "gaming rig". That's the simplest way I can put it. Don't buy an
"ultrabook" or an "all in one" or some $500 laptop to use Oculus. Whether it's
a PC (cheaper) or a notebook, it needs to be gaming-focused one.

In terms of specs I'd buy a GPU with at least a 3TF performance, and even that
it's probably going to be "mediocre" for the next 2 years. 2TF should work,
too, but might not last you too long, especially for new games. Obviously, the
higher the performance the better, so if you can afford to pay thousands of
dollars for a gaming rig knock yourself out. It will last longer.

You might also want to keep some accessories in mind, such as the Virtualix
Omni or those full body controllers, which could cost you an extra thousand
dollars.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
Everyone I know has a gaming rig of some type, but not anything that can do
1080p per eye at 60fps per eye, which is where this stuff actually starts to
work correctly and what Oculus is designed to use (less motion sickness,
better 3D illusion, etc).

I don't think a lot of people interested in this technology realize how much
hardware they will need to buy to make this work. You're looking, at minimum,
a $400-500 graphic card. Assuming you have the CPU heft to handle everything
else. If not then there's another $400-500 for the chasis, mb, high-end cpu,
high-watt ps, fast 8-16gb of RAM, etc. And that's for a fairly mid to low-end
VR box. That could be $1000 out of pocket right there on top of whatever the
Oculus costs.

~~~
TheCraiggers
Well, it depends entirely on your fidelity of course.

For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander. That was
one of the first games I know of that supported dual monitors, and it does it
well. But I digress- the point is that I had it maxed out on two 1080p
monitors and it was running at 60fps the whole time.

So yes, you will need a big beefy expensive graphics card to play the newest
AAA games maxed out at 60fps. But you could always just turn the settings
down, or play older games. I'm also willing to bet that when the VR market
takes off later this year/early next year, that the indie scene will heartily
embrace it. And typically most of those games run fine on "normal" hardware.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
>For example, just last night I played a game of Supreme Commander.

I'm not buying a VR headset in 2016 to play a game from 2007.

~~~
melling
If you're not happy with first generation then don't buy it. I guarantee that
the second and third generation will be even better. Some guy whining on HN
about a first generation product adds zero value. That first generation iPhone
had lots of critics too, and rightly so.

Bottom line is that a real VR product ships in less than 12 months.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
The Vive ships earlier, so Oculus will actually be second fiddle.

------
nbaksalyar
It's mind blowing how fast we've got to realistic virtual reality with Oculus
Rift and graphic techinques like global illumination (e.g., see "Unreal Paris"
demo: [https://youtu.be/Y6PQ19BEE24](https://youtu.be/Y6PQ19BEE24)) and
inevitably forthcoming real-time raytracing.

We live in a truly incredible time.

------
superplussed
I'm so impressed by their restraint on waiting until the product was right
before going to market.

~~~
Symmetry
Too many people getting motion sickness could kill the VR market for years.

~~~
nolok
It already did, two decades ago

~~~
StevenXC
See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy#Reception](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy#Reception)

------
justifier
from my experience with the dk2 i felt their biggest issues were:

    
    
      hard plastic frame,
      eye tracking,
      blood circulation
    

the hard plastic frame limits the variability of the distance between two
pupils. Pupillary distance is ~62mm for women and ~64mm for men(i). With
obvious variance even within the sexes. Just hardcoding a distance is a
limitation that requires the brain to work harder to massage the
inconsistencies causing added strain. ( the images appear to show lenses that
are now even unable to be removed, one potential solution i saw was the
possibility of buying lens kits for offsetting the lens to your specific
pupillary distance )

the lack of eye tracking really disrupts the experience. Look around the place
you are in right now, but keep your eyes straight only moving your neck as you
move from object to object. The movements are awkward and feel like a
retrofuture automaton. Now look around casually and notice how often you
utilise the movement of the eyeball. ( unable to tell at this moment if there
is any extra hardware in the mask )

as for the blood circulation if i wore the dk2 for more than 20m and took it
off to look in the mirror the area around my eyes was white for want of blood
and highlighted by the red marks where the mask was pressed against my face. (
the images show the same face pressing frame )

i had many more issues with the dk2, but these three seemed to me to be
confirmation proofs that the direction digital stereoscopy is going in is
innately flawed

a constructive alternative would be digital stereoscopy that uses eye tracking
to measure pupillary distance and the pupils' direction vector in order to
create a scene ad hoc, or virtual reality through direct sensory manipulation

(i)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_distance)

------
Symmetry
Everybody talks about VR in terms of games but I wonder if it might be
possible to create a productive desktop using a VR helmet. Surely it would be
easy to emulate having N monitors but I bet you could do better.

~~~
philmcc
Yes, it will be. Here's a fairly fun demonstration of exactly that.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db-7J5OaSag)

~~~
corysama
There's a small subreddit devoted to the idea of programming inside VR.
Several examples there.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming](http://www.reddit.com/r/hmdprogramming)

~~~
dzhiurgis
These ideas does not provide any novelty.

There is potential to re-imagine programming, but I have no clue how.

Also, keyboard input is not very compatible with HMD. I guess brain interfaces
are the most promising, but why can't we just tap into my pinky's nerve and
train my brain to use that as output?

------
swalsh
Honestly, I'm really excited about all these headsets. But I can only afford
to buy 1 (day care) To me Vive seems more immersive from a gaming point of
view, and hololens seems more practical. I bought a DK1 a few years ago, and
developed a few things for it, but it wasn't super compelling for me (yet).

I spend more time in my basement woodworking these days then gaming. So i'll
probably buy a hololens, I want to design furniture in 3D while seeing how it
will look in the spot that it will eventually "live". I know AR != VR, but if
I can only have one, i'll choose AR.

------
Pfhreak
Here's hoping they fix the issue for those of us with wide heads. I've spent a
fair amount of time tinkering with my DK2 to get a good experience with my
wide IPD of 73mm. I bought some 3D printed lens holders that widen the lenses,
and they helped quite a bit. Without them, my view was blurry in one eye which
caused a fair amount of discomfort.

I'm wholly onboard for the headset, the DK2 is a fantastic experience (barring
the experience of setting it up and launching applications, which is totally
fixable.) Can't wait to see the consumer edition.

------
steve-benjamins
Recently I finally got to try VR— the Samsung Gear VR.

I was a bit disappointed (my expectations were ridiculously high going into it
though). I was surprised to find (1) the resolution to be quite pixelated and
(2) visible black strips of the hardware bordering my viewport.

After usage, both the resolution and the visible hardware were not issues.
They "melted" away and I was "immersed".

But I'm curious: is the Rift expected to be higher quality than Gear in this
regard?

~~~
amckenna
Yeah the Samsung Gear VR was like a mobile consumer version of the DK2. The
Rift (CV1) will be a definite improvement over the Samsung Gear VR in terms of
tracking, audio, and resolution (resolution hasn't been released yet but it is
assumed).

~~~
steve-benjamins
Awesome— thanks!

------
mangeletti
I'm very excited about this release.

In my opinion, they've taken a bit too long, and now they have a high
likelihood of being dethroned between now and their release date (e.g., Magic
Leap, Holo Lens, Gear VR, etc.).

~~~
krolley
Have any of those companies announced a release date for any of their products
though? As far as I am aware, the rift is still (or will be) the first
consumer accessible VR product.

~~~
dcre
Technically, the Gear VR has been available to consumers for months and months
already, though since it lacks head-tracking and desktop-quality graphics it's
not quite the same thing. In addition, being what Samsung calls an "innovator
edition", it has not been fully marketed to consumers at large (e.g., on buses
and billboards).

However, John Carmack hinted in a recent keynote on mobile VR[1] that the next
version of Gear VR would be promoted widely for all consumers and that it
would come out along with the next major Samsung phone release, presumably the
Note 5. The Note phones get updated every September.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB_u3FvUTQc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB_u3FvUTQc)

------
appsonify
how far away will tactile simulation gloves come into market?

imagine gripping in-game items, being able to control them as you would with
real objects. squeeze to fill the glove pressing back, feel cold/warmth, feel
textiles.

Combined with increasingly photorealistic games + VR...we are at the mouth of
uncanny valley...it's going to be a very interesting decade.

Maybe we live in a future where people completely abandon their real world
life in favor of a virtual one while the appratus in the real world just keeps
you alive, very much like Matrix...

------
monk_e_boy
Time to upgrade my PC. What is minimum spec graphics card needed?

~~~
verytrivial
I would quite honestly pay for N64-grade graphics if delivered with head
tracking and ultra-low latency. I strongly believe that as in literature, most
of the immersion experience is in the mind. Oculus technology (+3D sound)
really helps to get the _computer out of the way_ of the story.

~~~
monk_e_boy
> ultra-low latency

Agreed. Wonder what they'll suggest? Prob one with tons of fast memory. I read
that most devs are using the new Nvidia 980s because the latency is less.

~~~
adam12
A $550 video card on top of the price of the device itself? If that is the
case, I'm going to have to wait for a device to come out like Hololens that
can stand on its own.

~~~
Raphmedia
If you are a gamer, you should already have that to play current gen games at
max settings. I'm on $1000 worth of GPU right now for 4k, and the 4k screen
itself was about $500.

Don't make it sound like Oculus is more expensive than what gamer already have
to pay to get the best experience.

~~~
sadface
You're not wrong re: best experience, but your $1000 of GPU + $500 screen puts
you in like the top 1% of gamers. Most ppl are gaming on cheap rigs, laptops,
etc. It's possible that FB/Oculus are trying to make something that will only
appeal to the big spending "prestige-rig" gamer set, but I'd think that they
would be trying to make a product that will be compelling to a bigger
audience.

~~~
Raphmedia
You can't really expect to run two 4k screen along with head tracking and all
the other VR magic on a laptop or on a $100 graphic card.

That being said, I'm sure you could play games on the lowest setting without
the need for $1000 worth of GPU.

------
axx
Can't wait to preorder! I'm holding out for the consumer edition since the DK1
and i'm very happy to hear it's coming soon! :)

~~~
Tepix
Soon? Q1/2016 is still up to 10 months away. It's going to be a painful wait.

~~~
Raphmedia
That's not even a year. It's barely more than the time for a pregnancy. Pretty
soon for our first consumer contact with virtual reality if you ask me!

------
Revell
Very much looking forward to the end-product being released, let's hope it
lives up to the hype!

------
sekasi
I'm genuinely surprised we didn't see a DK3 in crescent bay before commercial
release.

Great news!

------
chrionsr
Can't wait for this experience! Good luck towards E3.

------
longlivegnu
Linux support when

~~~
jimrandomh
They currently have a Linux SDK on developer.oculus.com, so looks like Linux
support now, for the hardware they've already shipped. Third-party games are a
different matter, but that's less inside their control.

~~~
longlivegnu
I think utilizing the SDK is a bit different than a run time (Which both OSX
and Windows have)

~~~
jimrandomh
For the OSX and Windows versions, the SDK package actually includes both
development tools (headers, etc) and the runtime; the only reason to offer a
package which leaves out the development stuff, is to make the download
smaller, which seems unimportant.

You can get a sense of where the Linux support currently stands by looking at
share.oculus.com, where third-party developers can submit their games and
demos, and you can filter the list by which operating systems they support.

~~~
longlivegnu
Oh okay, thank you :)

------
imaginenore
4K fingers crossed.

~~~
thefreeman
They can't even render 1080p with low enough latency and high enough frame
rate currently. Are you going hooking your Occulus up to a super computer?

~~~
jamespacileo
It would obviously be an upscaled resolution in games. 4k is for the screen
door effect.

4k is necessary for readable text, ability to watch HD movies and using
virtual monitors. Currently the resolution is too low for any of these, as in
it works but not good enough for being practical.

~~~
Tepix
There is no correlation between the screen door effect and resolution.

Source: Palmer Luckey
[https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2rayri/hint_that_cr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/2rayri/hint_that_crescent_bay_is_2560x1440/cnedqfk)

~~~
kristofferR
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I read that the screen door effect were even less
visible in the Sony Morpheus prototype, even though it had less resolution
than the Crescent Bay prototype.

------
theklub
Would be really excited but then I remembered facebook owns this and I got
sad.

