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

[Misfit]

Is the Oculus Touch price drop official? They're currently £99 at Currys

I believe so. Full kit now £599.

If I were to be thinking about adopting now I think it would be wise to hold back to v2 of the Rift/Vive or something new.

[Mat]

Yeah, I've come to that conclusion myself.
Was really tempted with the price drop, but I think the best thing is to wait for a new hardware revision.
On top of which, my computer's a little long in the tooth now, and if I were to stand a chance of properly enjoying VR, I'd probably need to buy an almost completely new PC.

[Rhythm]

If I were to be thinking about adopting now I think it would be wise to hold back to v2 of the Rift/Vive or something new.

Unless a totally unmissable price drop on Rift or PSVR showed up, I'd be inclined to agree. TBH the only way I could fit VR into my life at the mo would preuly be as a "fancy monitor" for when I'm sat at my office desk, playing Dirt Rally and ARMA

Outside that, it needs to hit a fair few "usable in a family household" benchmarks before I could consider it. The Lenovo flip-up headset is a great idea but I still reckon the ideal solution would look a bit like Hololens, only where it could black out the entire visor for full VR and can become transparent for AR or, indeed, for communicating with your family :-)

[ThetaReactor]

Might wanna look into the Pimax 4K. Cheap ($300) and well-suited for sit-down applications. Doesn't have controllers or full tracking, just rotational. But for virtual cinema or seated sim type stuff, it's got a lot going for it. No screen-door effect, as it's much higher res than the Rift/Vive. It's very light, too. And you could feasibly add something like the NOLO for tracking later on. Only real down-side is the 60Hz refresh, but software solutions for that have been getting better all the time.

[ThetaReactor]

Have we had any stats on the performance capabilities of the Windows Holographic headsets? If they can provide basic VR UI to "low level" users whilst still having high enough refresh/track/resolution to cater for gamers then we may see that family of headsets take off. The Lenovo one is targeted at around £300, doesn't need external sensors and has a family-friendly "lift-up" screen/visor. Will be interesting to see what, if anything, Microsoft can add to VR

You mean HoloLens? The biggest thing keeping it from VR use is the limited field of view. Most seem to think the 110* of the Rift/Vive is too constricting, and the HoloLens is only about a third of that. It's no more immersive than a standard monitor.

[KlaxonCow]

"Super Hot" in VR:



(Check out the move he does at 12:28-ish. Now that's something you could only do in VR.)

[gilesgoat]

"Question for the experts" ...

Two days ago I tried to do a "round of upgrade of things" .. someway I downloaded some SDK 1.13 or similar ..

But .. "I don't get a thing" what about the "runtime" or such ?

I mean I tried to go "in various places/menu" to see if I am running "the latest dunno what/firmware/etc." and it's "the hell if I can understand if/what I am really running now"

Any help appreciated, tah

( wasn't long time ago some "OR app" that was PRECISELY able to tell you if you were running the latest runtime/firmware now that is disappered ? ) .

[gilesgoat]

"Second question" .. no joke really but .. "is there really any market at all for VIVE and/or 'other VRs' ?" ..

So I "hear" that ( ok Samsung Gear apart ) that "supposedly there are other VR systems" .. is anyone actually buying/using those and what are those ?

I mean "stuff that works for real good" ?

[Jamesac]

Vive is on equal footing with Rift if not a bit ahead. Other VR is probably not worth the effort. Definitely worth aiming for both Rift and Vive, though, not only for sales but also to avoid hardware fanboys getting noisy.

[OX mkII]

Like with VR the first time around in the 90's I don't think this is ever going to go mainstream, the cost of the hardware is just too prohibitive.

[gilesgoat]

Like with VR the first time around in the 90's I don't think this is ever going to go mainstream, the cost of the hardware is just too prohibitive.

For a PC yes, I agree fully, for a PSVR no because it's really the cheapest and one of the best working.

If number of sales I've found around ( trying to ) about OR/VIVE is really what they say ( around 120K units ? ) that's yeah something but really not so huge.

The difference between the '90s and now is that in the '90s you had "VR" what was really very limited and super bulky, at least now you have VR that really works and is useable.

But yes price is high, what I'd expect form a VR Gen 2 ( let's call it so ) it's not really a decrease in price but at very least double if not even more the resolution of now for a similar price and possibly even faster refresh/tracking.

That of course would NOT go with "even cheaper" but would be a step much further into "even more real vr".

Anyway I still don't know what the heck of firmware/"latest" SW release or what I am running on my windows/OR .. why is so hard to figure out that info ?

[Bod]

Giles, open Oculus home on desktop and click on the settings cog.
At the bottom of General tab you will see the version that home is running, and on Devices tab just click on any of them to see what firmware they are currently on.

[Darkflame]

"Second question" .. no joke really but .. "is there really any market at all for VIVE and/or 'other VRs' ?" ..

They need to be like TVs. You don't buy a TVs just for a few movies, or one games system, you buy it for all of them.
VR will be a vastly easier sale if you could invest now and be confident it would still be able to view new content a decade later. (even if other things by then viewed that content better)

Oh, and VR HMD rentals would help sales too.

[Jamesac]

If number of sales I've found around ( trying to ) about OR/VIVE is really what they say ( around 120K units ? ) that's yeah something but really not so huge.

I have to say that, while the hardware sales for Rift/Vive aren't great, they don't seem to be quite that dire either. Sony is spanking them hard, though.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/psvr-sales-numbers/

Estimated 234,000 Rift, 420,000 Vive back in February.

[gumboot]

How does the PSVR experience compare with OR and Vive? What do you lose by paying less?