Fool me, this is real good shit ! [the VR thread]

[Misfit]

Just got in from a meeting and lept on my PC to preorder...

As I can't really see how I can charge this one on the company, not really sure I can justify £530. Still hovering over buy it now, but I get so little time to game. As Ghost £300 odd would have been a no brainer.

Disappointing. Really want to play Eve, but not that much.

[Space Cowboy]

I would have loved it for Elite but 530 quid is too much at 300 quid It would be purchased, but not at this price.

Well I have to admit it's a bit of an impulse buy here - looks over at unloved and unplayed Gibson Les Paul Standard - which is something I'm, umm, prone to. Look out for one going cheap on here in a few months time. :p

[Kelloggs]

Ordered one. Tried at work earlier, but no joy due to it rejecting the card attempt, then I've tried it again from home and it worked this time. Intervening time: 2.5 hrs. Slippage on delivery date: 1 month (now claiming May). It's just for Elite, initially, but I want to be doing something interesting on it myself at some point.

I've been generally keeping up with "consumer" (as in, not military) VR since, ooh, Tron, probably, and the earlier stuff wasn't just uninspiring, it was actively destructive to progress. We just weren't there with the rendering end to even think about hanging one display off it, never mind two. (Hands up who remembers the Amiga-driven Virtuality attempt?) Now, though, I've built myself a PC for Christmas and it's accidentally higher than min-spec for the thing (GeForce 980Ti / Core i7 / 16GB etc etc) and I would say that at least this time, the rendering horsepower shouldn't be the problem. Also, I wonder (comparitively) how much the Virtuality headset would have been to buy Back In The Day?

I'll wait for the Oculus Touch, though - the X52 Pro, if I can repair it*, should be sufficient in combination with a G13, at least for Elite: Dangerous: Horizons: Whatever.

(* possible power issue? Dunno. Button B doesn't respond, neither does main hat right and up, except that they both sort-of-flickeringly-do if I turn LED and MFD brightness all the way down. At this rate, I'll rip out the Saitek circuitry and weld an Arduino onto the thing, and gain an extra button from the safety cover switch while I'm at it...)

[Misfit]

I guess our DKs may have gone up a bit in value today. Especially with uk price being so high.

[VNVObit]

Was interested but £530 plus being advised that I need a new CPU and GPU (computer is about 2 years old) is a complete no go

£300 (assuming my pc met the spec) and I would have been interested but cannot justify that level of investment

will wait and see what the sony VR option looks like

[Chontler]

I hope that price doesn't set some sort of precedent. Got the ps4 especially for Sony's VR, and was completely swayed by Gile's enthusiasm!

[Sir_LANs-a-lot]

I'd be very surprised if the PSVR was anywhere near that cost if they want take-up of it.

[Jamesac]

I passed on ordering it this morning at 11AM when I saw the price, went out and thought about a few things, then came home and ordered it. I've got piles of gaming stuff I don't care about gathering dust, remnants of years of gaming retail in the 90s through mid-2000s. Sell stuff, afford Rift, empty a few boxes and get some space. Sure, that money could go to other things as well, but I wouldn't have thought of dumping it without the Rift so it all works out fine.

[Darkflame]

I am baffled people expected it cheaper. Was the assumption Facebook would take a huge lose-leader?
Why would it be less then comparable products

Still, I want one, but I'll wait it out and see how the market settles. Hopefully everyone agrees on some standard.

[pogo]

Can’t see Sony charging so much, but then again I did not think Oculus would charge so much either. It makes no sense as a price; even if they take a large loss they should be selling it for no more than £300, and even that is expensive for an optional peripheral. As it is the numbers they will sell will be small. I can only think that’s as they can only make them in small numbers, and a lower price would just lead to more frustration. Even at £500+ they seem to have sold out however many they can make in the next four months.

The Playstation VR should be cheaper in at least one way: no need for a bundled controller. They could also unbundle the camera as many people will already have one.

[gumboot]

Did they release it too soon, then? You don't want to be stuck in a position of having to choose between cheap crap and unaffordable non-crap; both of those could kill the market again.

[OX mkII]

Competitors agreeing on a standard? I can't see it happening at all - think MSX, CDI etc. I think OR's best bet would be to provide support for both PC and Xbox for the maximum market share, only then would Sony game developers be forced to support the OR.

[pogo]

Interesting interview with founder from a couple of days ago:
Oculus founder takes long-term view of virtual reality

Clearly already thinking the price is too high:

“I think until you have really high-end computing power and until you have really slim form factors, you’re not going to see glasses that people wear every day as part of their everyday lives,” Mr Luckey said. “The only way we’re going to get to billions of users is if VR becomes something that everybody wants to use. And I think to do that, you’re going to [need to] get the cost way down and the quality way up.”

Asked how long that might take, Mr Luckey said: “It could be five years — it’s more likely to be 10 years. But I also don’t think that virtual reality has to get to a slim pair of glasses to be successful.”

But without Facebook subsidising it, it might have been higher:

Mr Luckey said a VR system will probably cost a total of $1,500, including the headset and a PC powerful enough to run its high-resolution graphics fast enough to maintain the illusion of virtual worlds. Even then, the Rift’s cost is being subsidised to make it more affordable, as Facebook and Oculus try to establish the market for VR, Mr Luckey has said.

[Jamesac]

I wish the article had been more clear he'd given the $1500 quote a long while back. At $600 for just the headset, there's no way to build a VR system for $1500. That price was for everything inclusive, from the PC case to everything inside it plus the Rift, and that's obviously no longer accurate.

[Misfit]

I wish the article had been more clear he'd given the $1500 quote a long while back. At $600 for just the headset, there's no way to build a VR system for $1500. That price was for everything inclusive, from the PC case to everything inside it plus the Rift, and that's obviously no longer accurate.

I'm sure I read on their website you'd be able to preorder an oculus ready PC and Rift starting at $1500 next month.

I often justify tech the way you've just done, but then I never seem to end up selling all the old junk! And thus next time I think I can cover the cost by selling stuff...

Yes, found it on the blog page:

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/blog/oculu ... -march-28/

Oculus Ready PCs
If you need a new PC to power your Rift, Oculus Ready PCs will be certified to meet our recommended system specification and have been tested by Oculus to ensure they deliver a great experience with Rift.

Bundles that include an Oculus Ready PC and a Rift will be available for pre-order in February starting at $1499.

If you pre-order Rift today, you’ll be able to order an Oculus Ready PC at the special bundle price, and of course, your Rift ship date won’t change.