
Oculus VR raises $75M - dm8
http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/12/oculus-vr-raises-75m-from-andreessen-horowitz-to-create-consumer-version-of-its-virtual-reality-goggles/
======
sillysaurus2
To get an idea of the raw power of the Oculus, check out this guy playing a
horror game with it:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OrANjgeYe0#t=3m55s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OrANjgeYe0#t=3m55s)

(Kind of loud. But be sure not to miss his awesome reaction at 4m20s.)

I have the original devkit, and it's amazing. You can even interface it with
Google Street View. There's nothing like typing in "Eiffel Tower," tilting
your head back, and staring up in awe.

In fact, I'd say no one here has experienced Street View until you've seen it
with an Occulus. It simply cannot be described how incredible it is to look
around with your head instead of dragging your mouse!

EDIT: Okay, if you're unhappy with that particular video, then this one might
be more to your liking:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7fz__6B-4#t=15m30s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl7fz__6B-4#t=15m30s)

EDIT2: Wow, that Dreadhalls game is terrifying. You actually don't even need
an Oculus to get the full effect, just headphones.
[https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=3...](https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=3404)
(Windows / Mac)

~~~
enneff
His "awesome reaction" is the same reaction he has made hundreds of times to
various scenarios in many games. It's his schtick. Hardly a ringing
endorsement for the Oculus device. (Although I do hear that they are
fantastic.)

~~~
Ideka
I don't think so. He actually jumps back, as if trying to physically get away
from the creature.

~~~
enneff
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dWIQ9N_tSc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dWIQ9N_tSc)

~~~
Ideka
Well, he jumps back a little bit in these but don't tell me you don't see the
difference. It's pretty big.

------
flyinglizard
I'm fascinated by the A16Z investment strategy. It looks like they will put in
any kind of money into companies deemed as winners (GitHub, Oculus), with some
small investments thrown in here and there just so they're still considered a
VC and not a private equity fund of sorts. I think it's going to work very
well for them in the long term, and possibly change the investment landscape
for future VC funds.

Either you go huge and buy a stake in the winners at all costs, or you go wide
and super early like YC. It does leave a large seed/series A financing gap
someone will need to close, and I suspect their returns won't be as stellar as
those in the extreme ends of companies financing.

~~~
cdixon
We invested in Oculus after we saw a demo of the new prototype. For me, it was
up there with the first time I saw Apple II, Mac, the web, Google, iPhone etc.

~~~
hershel
What about potential negative side effects[1] of VR ? Some of them are quite
serious(depersonalization and derealization which are pretty serious mental
illnesses). Combining those side effects with the probably addictive nature of
VR should be done with caution. Is there any thought given to this issue
before massively marketing this technology to the public ?

[1][http://www.quora.com/Oculus-Rift/Virtual-Reality-Oculus-
Rift...](http://www.quora.com/Oculus-Rift/Virtual-Reality-Oculus-Rift-side-
effects-of-extended-use)

~~~
coffeemug
Asking innovators to exercise caution because they might exacerbate the
hikikomori phenomenon is like asking defense attorneys to exercise caution
because they might exacerbate the rates of criminal activity. In both cases,
that's not what these people do. There are obvious ethical lines, but it's not
like these guys are building viruses in a petri dish.

~~~
hershel
>> but it's not like these guys are building viruses in a petri dish.

Why compare them to one of the most extreme things humans can do ? Why not
compare them to the food industry(under some regulation , and there's a debate
if should have more) And Doctors (a single doctor can harm dozens/hundreds of
people max , while an innovator can hurt million)?

------
staunch
My only fear is the Oculus management/investors. They could be great, but they
_seem_ not so great so far. An investor took over as CEO already and started
calling himself a co-founder? That's a huge red flag. The real founder Palmer
Luckey seems like the prototypical hacker-founder. Naive and noobish maybe but
probably less so than most and obviously super passionate.

I wonder if John Carmack wouldn't be better off just launching a competitor to
Oculus. Wherever he goes the magic will follow, and it'd be nice if he was the
ultimate boss like he was at id Software.

I'd just really hate for him to get bogged down in a bad environment, kind of
the way Linus did with Transmeta, and be forced to resign at some point and
start over after wasting years of productivity.

The A16Z guys can probably help avoid any massive stupidity, so that's a nice
benefit to this investment.

~~~
angersock
_Wherever he goes the magic will follow, and it 'd be nice if he was the
ultimate boss like he was at id Software._

It's quite arguable that the best time for id was back in Romero's time,
through Quake 1. Carmack was an excellent steward technologically, but from a
business standpoint I think they were far outstripped by Epic in terms of
being a business based on technology licensing.

~~~
kayoone
Sadly they were also outstripped by Epic in terms of games. Id didnt really
have a hitgame for a decade while Epic had the hugely popular Gears of War
series and their success with Unreal was on par with Quake.

While i also believe that Ids best time was in the 90ies when Romero was
there, its not that he made anything noteworthy since he left.

------
bprater
John Carmack coming in as CTO probably added $25M to that figure.

Regardless, Oculus's concept is the future of gaming -- anything that can
trick the brain so substantially is going to be a winner.

~~~
mathattack
At least that. And much more on the valuation. These are bets on teams, and
with leading (bleeding?) edge technology, the CTO is the most important person
in the room.

------
jennichen
I hope this really takes off.

RIP Andrew Reisse ([http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/andrew-reisse-in-
memoriam/](http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/andrew-reisse-in-memoriam/))

------
mentos
I really think we're moving into a VR/Augmented reality renaissance.

If you've got 10 minutes to thumb through this 20 minute video this shows off
whats possible with augmented reality:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_TCLoH2CA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_TCLoH2CA)
If we can get that into a pair of sunglasses in the next 10-20 years I'm
pretty sure we'll be living in a wildly different world than we are today

~~~
tempestn
There was an interesting comment on that youtube video too. (Shocking, I
know.) When watching content for the OR on a monitor, you can actually see it
in 3D by crossing your eyes so that the two pictures overlap. It's a bit
taxing and obviously... rather less immersive than the Rift, but it does work
and is fun for a few seconds.

Edit: experimenting with it a bit, I've found an easy way to do it is to full
screen and sit a good ways back from the screen. (I went about 5' from my 27"
monitor.) Then hold your hands up in a sort of window about a foot in front of
your face. The idea is that looking through a window between your hands, each
eye can only see the picture opposite it. Not seeing the other picture makes
it a lot easier to focus on the composite one.

------
everettForth
I'm ready to ditch my LCD at work and use this. I hope the higher resolution
version is good enough to code on. I'm happy to see that there are already
some window managers: [http://hwahba.com/ibex/](http://hwahba.com/ibex/)

~~~
kayoone
i doubt its really designed for non stop use. It might not weigh much, but for
hours on end it will strain your neck and eyes i would think.

~~~
moistgorilla
im pretty sure this is better for your eyes than a traditional monitor.

~~~
deletes
Can I hear your reasoning? Why would rift not increase chances of developing
instrument myopia ?

~~~
robertfw
Because your eyes focus naturally, instead of on a fixed plane, the rift
should cause less eye strain than using a regular monitor

[https://support.oculusvr.com/entries/24808208-Will-the-
Oculu...](https://support.oculusvr.com/entries/24808208-Will-the-Oculus-Rift-
cause-eye-strain-after-extended-use-)

~~~
deletes
That is a quote from the Oculus website and therefore cannot be taken too
seriously. They are engineers not ophthalmologists. The problem I see is the
lens in between the screen and eye, which might cause strain.

I do hope their statement is correct, but it sounds too good to be true.

~~~
leoc
Wearers of spectacles or contact lenses have a lens between their eyes and
whatever they are focussing on nearly all the time during their waking day. It
doesn't cause eyestrain and I've always been assured by optometrists and maybe
once an ophthalmologist that wearing lenses for myopia doesn't worsen myopia:
iirc it's focal distance that matters, and apparently the Rift keeps the focal
distance at infinity. Of course Oculus is talking its book, but I'd be
surprised if they have no-one who understands the ophthalmology of the lenses-
and-screen configuration they're building into their product.

~~~
pmarca
I'm not an optometrist/ophthalmologist by any stretch, so I can't comment on
the physiology, but I can say that the most remarkable thing about the Oculus
experience is the sensation of infinite depth -- and infinite depth 360
degrees around you.

I think this is the really surprising thing for people who haven't tried it
before -- you think it will be like looking at a screen up close, since you've
looked at screens your whole life, but it's nothing like that at all.

------
thenmar
After only a couple minutes with the low resolution dev kit, I was sold. I
can't wait for this to hit the consumer market.

~~~
brotchie
A friend of mine was an early Kickstarter backer and brought his Rift around
to my place try out with a few friends. We tried out Half-Life 2 and as soon
as I put the Visor + headphones on I was blown away. My brain's "location
neurons" were 100% fooled into thinking I was in the HL2 world. Within a few
seconds I had lost the "background" feeling of being in a small room, and
accepted I was in a large, open-aired train station (HL2 intro). Unbelievable.

The early Oculus DevKit certainly has some issues: no translational tracking
gives me strong motion sickness, high persistence display makes the scene blur
as I move my head, low resolution produces screen door effect. Regardless of
these downsides, after 10-15 seconds of use I accepted that VR will be the
"next big thing."

~~~
geoffschmidt
I was really skeptical about Oculus, but I had a chance to try out a demo by
Amir Hirsh that combined an Oculus with simple Kinect-based limb tracking. I
could look down and see my own hands and they really felt like my hands. I
have no idea how this is going to work in practice (are we going to have to
play games in large empty warehouses) but it is magical in a way that is hard
to describe if you haven't had a chance to try it.

~~~
Anonymous823
> are we going to have to play games in large empty warehouses

Large hamster ball on rollers. Infinite space to walk or run. Also, you don't
need to track their motion or feet, you just feed in the data from the
rollers, and you know how fast their character is walking or running, and in
what direction.

~~~
jaxomlotus
Omni virtuix is a pretty good approach that doesn't require a hamster wheel.
[http://www.virtuix.com/](http://www.virtuix.com/)

~~~
tempestn
Yes! This stuff is incredibly exciting. With Omni + Kinect + OR, we're
starting to get close to Otherland-style VR. It's going to be interesting.

------
julianpye
As a 3D-fan and owner of so many different displays since the VR-32, this one
really makes me excited. They got that the studios are not the king of
content, but the games engines are. Field of view trumps resolution when it
comes to immersion and most other companies always tried to go for something
that was focused on movies. I hope that this investment leads many companies
to create true immersive experiences and lets 3D games break out of the 1st
person shooter trap.

~~~
pmarca
Part of our bet is that we are not that far away from not having to trade off
field of view vs resolution.

~~~
julianpye
In the long run, both will come together, as we have seen with the development
of Retina displays on Ipads. In the short term, your eyes will never be fooled
by the current levels (even retina) of resolution at the yellow spot of your
eyes, but your brain will always respond to field of view which does not need
highest resolution.

------
tmslnz
Considering the incredible effectiveness of the current low-res dev kit, give
it 3 years or so and the Rift will be second nature to most: 2 or 4k display,
wireless, better optics, lighter, even lower latency, etc. If I had the money
to invest I'd do it in a whim.

------
cup
Oculus Rift is a paradigm shift not just for computer gaming but for a host of
other industrial and technical services. I for one can't wait to incorporate
the oculus rift when preforming invasive experiments on animals using an
endoscope.

------
anakanemison
Pushing pixels to a high resolution display, under tight latency constraints,
is going to stress even today's high-end systems. If they succeed at appealing
to the mass market, I bet there will be a significant effect on the rate of
system upgrades.

~~~
inDigiNeous
Just got my devkit and this was the first thing I noticed, I started to wish
my 3 year old MacBook Pro had a faster GPU. First time in a really long time
that I actually had the urge to update my system, haven't felt something like
that since the 486/Pentium days.

------
rl3
I was worried that the 4K Oculus Rift wouldn't see the light of day in
consumer markets.

[http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/18/4852496/oculus-
rift-4k-dis...](http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/18/4852496/oculus-
rift-4k-display-in-the-works)

Now with John Carmack fully committed, and this massive round of funding, 4K
has to be all but certain.

I imagine the prospects for 8K and 12K in the distant future are better now as
well.

[http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/oculus-ceo-teases-
futur...](http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/oculus-ceo-teases-future-
oculus-rift-features-including-support-for-8k-and-beyond-1199232)

~~~
Segmentation
I think 4K will be the minimum necessary to have a real VR experience. I
mentioned it in another comment: suspension of disbelief is everything, but
currently my eyes focus too keenly on the scanlines and my immersion is
ruined. It doesn't help that all my consumer devices have retina-like quality,
so I'm used to nearly flawless clarity in my displays. When I'm using the 720p
Oculus Rift it just bugs me too much. 1080p will be better, but still not
great.

------
djkz
I've used the low res dev kit and the immersion it provides it great.

I believe this will have a ton of applications from VR conferencing to going
to virtual concerts to even spectating sports with an isometric view of the
field instead of the 2d projection.

------
ivarious
I wonder what does this mean to the Kickstarter backers. Sure, by legal means
they donate to the cause rather than investing in it, but I think it's not
really fair if they get nothing from this VC funds.

~~~
ghshephard
My understanding is that the kickstarter was for development kits, so, a
significant portion of the backers were developers.

Isn't this investment by A16Z the most incredible reward possible for these
developers who've put time and energy learning the platform and technology? At
the very least, Oculus is going to be a major player in this field, if not the
major player for the next couple years, so the opportunities for their
products, and skills, just took a big leap today.

------
dharma1
I'm interested in using Oculus Rift for telepresence (FPV RC vehicles,
teleconferencing) purposes - anyone got any experience with this, or
recommendations for stereo 1080p camera solutions?

------
laichzeit0
Please support ordering with Bitcoin as a payment method.

~~~
laichzeit0
Amazing how this gets downvoted. I was on the order page thinking "man it
would be so awesome if I could just send them Bitcoin for this instead of
having to link in my new credit card to PayPal". Yesterday Coinbase gets $25
million in funding supposedly able to make this trivial for merchants and
vendors. Today another startup gets funding. HN supposedly the startup
community has great animosity towards the one and not the other. Hilarious.

------
dharma1
is it worth buying the dev model now or wait for the consumer model (if it
really is months away, like they say?)

~~~
druidsbane
Buy both if you're a developer. If you're a consumer and have money to burn
then buy both, otherwise wait for the 2nd dev kit/consumer version. As a
developer it is one of the most exciting platforms to work on and watch your
creations come to life.

------
benched
Crowds are so funny. I swear there was one HN thread recently where the
majority of comments declared the Oculus a mere substitute for ipecac syrup.
In this thread, it's the coming of the New Earth. As someone who luckily
doesn't experience motion sickness at all, is greatly looking forward to the
hi-res Oculus, and frankly to a time when I can spend more time in VR than
not, the optimism in this thread makes me happy.

~~~
tlrobinson
Have you tried the Oculus? I think Oculus is amazing, but I've never really
been motion sick until I tried Oculus.

Reading books in the backseat of a car driving through winding mountains, no
problem. 5 minutes in Oculus Rift and I want to vomit.

It definitely depends on the game/demo though, so it may just be a matter of
very careful game design. Or maybe reducing latency will help.

~~~
nabeel
i've spent well over an hour in the latest prototype with no sickness, and in
the dev units I can last 5 minutes tops.

