Oculus RIFT - affordable 3D VR

[auxy]

☆*.｡o(≧▽≦)o｡.*☆
Sooo, is anyone else SUPER MEGA DUPER EXCITED for the RIFT VR headset from Oculus VR?

I don't even care about the head-tracking portion of it, although it does support said feature. Similarly, 3D is whatever. ┐(￣ー￣)┌ I'm just really excited for a proper HD HMD ("head-mounted display") with a decent FOV!

I hope it fits on my tiny head, pffphaha! (*≧艸≦)

The most important part, though, is the price: expected to be just $299USD! While they haven't nailed down the final price of the consumer version, they keep saying it shouldn't be much more than the price of the developer kits, which was $300. щ(゜ロ゜щ)

Should be awesome! I wonder if it'll support Lightboost3D? ( ・◇・)？

[just brew it!]

If this will be (as they claim) truly affordable for end users then it could be a real game-changer. I work with similar tech at my day job, but it is *very* expensive. As in, "you can have one of these or you can have a new car" expensive.

[auxy]

If this will be (as they claim) truly affordable for end users then it could be a real game-changer. I work with similar tech at my day job, but it is *very* expensive. As in, "you can have one of these or you can have a new car" expensive.

I know! I, with my 22-year-old fairly-normal-no-degree-having-income (i.e. not too great), went looking for an HMD awhile back, and the market is just terrible! Cheap HMDs are total garbage, and good HMDs are INSANELY expensive! (((ﾟДﾟ;)))

I REALLY hope this thing takes off and catches on. Going by the conventional wisdom, what they are trying to pull off is nothing short of truly impossible. Everyone that's used it so far though, from John Carmack to Cevat Yerli to Adam Sessler to Jimmy Fallon, has come away just, totally blown away. I haven't gotten to try one yet myself, but I'm soooo hyped for the March release!(*≧艸≦)
^{Hrm, March...? Maybe I shouldn't have bought that new 144Hz monitor!}

[JohnC]

Whoa, easy with emoji here...
The device looks interesting, however still not a proper replacement for a full VR suit with haptic feedback and omnidirectional treadmill
(/me goes back to re-reading "Ready Player One")

[auxy]

The device looks interesting, however still not a proper replacement for a full VR suit with haptic feedback and omnidirectional treadmill :(

Eheh, well, as I said, I'm not that interested in the head-tracking or even 3D aspects of the device -- just an immersive HD HMD to block out external factors (glare, other visual distractions) would be incredible, and also a lot more portable than a big 24" monitor! （・∀・）
(full disclosure: I'm well under five feet tall and under 100lbs, so transporting a monitor is pretty hard for me.)
I forsee a future not too far from now where your "desktop" is simply a docking station for your portable device, be it more phone-like or tablet-like (I suspect somewhere in between, like a "phablet"), and if you need to do real computing on the go, you have a head-mounted display -- preferably with transparency option for augmented reality -- and maybe wireless accessories, like a hand-held trackball or trackpoint-type device and for games, something not unlike the PS3's move navigation controller for games. Ahh, I can't wait! (*≧艸≦)

[just brew it!]

I REALLY hope this thing takes off and catches on. Going by the conventional wisdom, what they are trying to pull off is nothing short of truly impossible.

The tech exists; it is just a matter of getting to the economies of scale required to turn it into an affordable consumer device. When you're talking quantities of only dozens or hundreds for specialized (read: mostly military) applications, per-unit cost is going to be astronomical. But we know how to build high resolution projection displays, 6DOF motion sensors, etc... and it isn't rocket science (any more). There's a tipping point, and I think we're approaching it.

[JohnC]

I forsee a future not too far from now where your "desktop" is simply a docking station for your portable device, be it more phone-like or tablet-like (I suspect somewhere in between, like a "phablet"), and if you need to do real computing on the go, you have a head-mounted display -- preferably with transparency option for augmented reality -- and maybe wireless accessories, like a hand-held trackball or trackpoint-type device and for games, something not unlike the PS3's move navigation controller for games. Ahh, I can't wait! (*≧艸≦)

I highly doubt that such tiny portable devices would ever have enough power for future "desktops", at least not for most advanced video games Unless, of course, if the person would prefer to rely on OnLive-like service (and its inherent problems).

[auxy]

I highly doubt that such tiny portable devices would ever have enough power for future "desktops", at least not for most advanced video games :wink:

Really? Have you seen what the current portable devices can do? (･｀ｪ´･)つ
We're already not so far from such a possible future; for awhile, when my desktop was down because I blew up my CPU (eheh...), I used my crappy Tegra2 phone as a "desktop", with HDMI out, and bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and ... it was surprisingly functional! I even played some UnrealEngine3 games on it! Hehehee. ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

[JohnC]

I highly doubt that such tiny portable devices would ever have enough power for future "desktops", at least not for most advanced video games

Really? Have you seen what the current portable devices can do? (･｀ｪ´･)つ
We're already not so far from such a possible future; for awhile, when my desktop was down because I blew up my CPU (eheh...), I used my crappy Tegra2 phone as a "desktop", with HDMI out, and bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and ... it was surprisingly functional! I even played some UnrealEngine3 games on it! Hehehee. ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

Infinity Blade? It's a nice game, but it has rather small environments and small amount of NPC's Imagine playing something like BF3 on a 64-player map, or some current MMORPG game with even larger amount of people in the same area, something like GW2's WvW areas - I doubt that you would be able to run it on any tablet now...
Now imagine the future "VR"-based games, with much larger "worlds" and much more realistic graphics approaching "real life"-like fidelity, same goes for physics effects in them... You would still need a big, ugly "tower" case (or equally powerful, bulky laptop) filled with latest GPU and CPU (perhaps several of them) in order to contain all that (hopefully still user-upgradable) hardware and cooling system needed to render and process all of that... Unless, of course, you would be satisfied with accessing a significantly "lower fidelity" and more "laggy" version of this world using OnLive-like service with some portable device or a "gaming console"

P.S: You should really read "Ready Player One" book... It is pretty interesting from a "gaming in future" point of view, even for a person who didn't start gaming in early 80's using Atari 2600 or arcade cabinets or tabletop games It also deals with topics of escapism and "deceiving virtual appearances", if you're into such things.

[auxy]

Infinity Blade? It's a nice game, but it has rather small environments and small amount of NPC's :wink:

Nope! I was playing Monster Madness, which is a way better game.

Imagine playing something like BF3 on a 64-player map, or some current MMORPG game with even larger amount of people in the same area, something like GW2's WvW areas - I doubt that you would be able to run it on any tablet now...

Why do you imagine such a thing? I think the main limitation is the amount of RAM; something like Tegra4 should be able to handle something like WoW battlegrounds, and the next generation of mobile chips maybe BF3 or similar. Surely not on the highest settings, but you know, we're still improving things in that area.

You would still need a big, ugly "tower" case filled with latest GPU and CPU (perhaps several of them)

No way! I'm already planning to transition my current machine into a Mini-ITX case, and it's plenty powerful enough -- or it will be soon -- for virtually any game out now. The trend in hardware is to get smaller, not larger; I don't know anyone who is using a tower case anymore. Even my stupid brother with his stupid 3x2 Crossfire+Eyefinity setup is using a MicroATX motherboard and small minitower case.

P.S: You should really read "Ready Player One" book... It is pretty interesting from a "gaming in future" point of view, even for a person who didn't start gaming in early 80's using Atari 2600 or arcade cabinets or tabletop games :wink: It also deals with topics of escapism and "deceiving virtual appearances", if you're into such things.

Hmm ... I haven't read a book in a few years ... maybe should do!

[Thrashdog]

If you like audiobooks, Ready Player One is narrated by Wil Wheaton. It is glorious.

On topic... I'm really excited for this, especially in combination with racing and flight sims. The tech (stick some close-focus optics on a commodity HD tablet or smartphone screen) is a great end run around the costs and challenges of HMDs, and the low-latency head tracking will be great for immersion. I think Oculus is going win big on this one, especially once Star Citizen hits and all the rocket jockeys want their VR helmets.

[druidcent]

I highly doubt that such tiny portable devices would ever have enough power for future "desktops", at least not for most advanced video games

Really? Have you seen what the current portable devices can do? (･｀ｪ´･)つ
We're already not so far from such a possible future; for awhile, when my desktop was down because I blew up my CPU (eheh...), I used my crappy Tegra2 phone as a "desktop", with HDMI out, and bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and ... it was surprisingly functional! I even played some UnrealEngine3 games on it! Hehehee. ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

Infinity Blade? It's a nice game, but it has rather small environments and small amount of NPC's Imagine playing something like BF3 on a 64-player map, or some current MMORPG game with even larger amount of people in the same area, something like GW2's WvW areas - I doubt that you would be able to run it on any tablet now...
Now imagine the future "VR"-based games, with much larger "worlds" and much more realistic graphics approaching "real life"-like fidelity, same goes for physics effects in them... You would still need a big, ugly "tower" case (or equally powerful, bulky laptop) filled with latest GPU and CPU (perhaps several of them) in order to contain all that (hopefully still user-upgradable) hardware and cooling system needed to render and process all of that... Unless, of course, you would be satisfied with accessing a significantly "lower fidelity" and more "laggy" version of this world using OnLive-like service with some portable device or a "gaming console"

P.S: You should really read "Ready Player One" book... It is pretty interesting from a "gaming in future" point of view, even for a person who didn't start gaming in early 80's using Atari 2600 or arcade cabinets or tabletop games It also deals with topics of escapism and "deceiving virtual appearances", if you're into such things.

Can I just point out the Project SHIELD from Nvidia?

[auxy]

Can I just point out the Project SHIELD from Nvidia?

Project SHIELD is neat, but ultimately not that relevant to the discussion at hand. We're talking about whether you could use a mobile device -- that is, something truly untethered, like a smartphone -- as your "primary" PC, with the same functionality as a desktop. So, imagine plugging your smartphone into a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and external storage, and then having it be the "brains" of your desktop PC.

SHIELD is cool; JohnC was remarking on how useless "cloud gaming" actually is, something like Gaikai or OnLive. SHIELD isn't the same sort of thing, really. To get back on-topic, I wonder if something like the SHIELD couldn't interface directly with the RIFT?

[JohnC]

What about Project SHIELD? It's similar to OnLive, just using your own PC to render and process all **** instead of OnLive's servers

Edit: I R too slow to reply

[JohnC]

Surely not on the highest settings, but you know, we're still improving things in that area.

So does the graphical fidelity

The trend in hardware is to get smaller, not larger.

Is that so? Compare the physical size of Voodoo 1 card and Nvidia's Titan, and compare their cooling setups and power consumption And the Titan is still barely enough to give good FPS in a most current single-player game (Crysis 3) at most common resolution (1080p) at max settings I'm sure there will eventually be some kind of "break-through" to replace current transistor technologies with something significantly smaller and more efficient, but not for now...

Hmm ... I haven't read a book in a few years ... maybe should do!

Not even Twilight series???

[auxy]

Is that so? :wink: Compare the physical size of Voodoo 1 card and Nvidia's Titan, and compare their cooling setups and power consumption :wink:

That's kind of clever, but if you compare their performance-per-watt and transistors-per-area, the Titan is obviously staggeringly more powerful. It's really not even true that hardware is getting larger in an absolute sense, though; if you compare the actual chips for Voodoo Graphics and GK110, I wouldn't be too surprised if they were similar size. (Remember, Voodoo Graphics had multiple chips to do its work.)

And the Titan is still barely enough to give good FPS in a most current single-player game (Crysis 3) at most common resolution (1080p) at max settings :wink:

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else mention this yet, but ... Crysis 3 doesn't even look good IMO. Like, at all, compared to how it performs. I mean, comparing the appearance/performance to other games competing, that is; for example, it looks a little better than id Software's Rage, but not staggeringly so, and Rage runs at 60hz maxed detail on my current GF104 GPU with ease. I actually think Skyrim with ENB and texture mods looks better (MUCH better) than Crysis 3 in still shots, and it runs at ~30Hz on my current GPU. I dunno -- I'm not impressed.

The point being that, it doesn't look that great, for how it runs, so I think it's just really, really unoptimized, with the point, of course, being that Crytek wants everyone to go "whoaa, look how hard it is to run Crysis 3!" so they get a bunch of free publicity like with Crysis 1.

Not even Twilight series??? :o

Um... is this a joke?

[Black Applesauce]

OR=Me gusta :3

[JohnC]

It's really not even true that hardware is getting larger in an absolute sense, though; if you compare the actual chips for Voodoo Graphics and GK110, I wouldn't be too surprised if they were similar size. (Remember, Voodoo Graphics had multiple chips to do its work.)

Ok, fine, let's use a first GeForce card, with NV10 GPU - it had 111mm^2 die size... The current GK110 GPU is like, what - about 551mm^2? So at least the overall physical size (for GPU and for card itself) hasn't gotten significantly smaller over the years

Um... is this a joke?

Well, it obviously is... I just seen a very high popularity of this book series between people of certain gender and age group back when they were released, so...

[druidcent]

I think you are doing SHIELD a disservice by not looking at it closely. Yes, some of the cool features are similar to that of OnLive (but local), but it is fully functional as an Android device as well. My point was that the Tegra4 chip has quite a bit of horsepower for 3D rendering and gaming, and I can easily see it powering Surface and Android tablets. Most tablets these days are easily good enough for most office productivity, especially with the docking stations. My future vision is a small mobile processor node, with high data rate short distance connectivity to wearable devices like Google Glass and/or the iWatch. Each individual function becomes distributed across different devices on the body, and people can mix or match depending on what they need. Almost like a mobile router for devices. That would mean OR would fit perfectly in this model.

[steelcity_ballin]

While the tech is viable, it seems like the games themselves have to be modified to be able to run the hardware the way Occulus intends us to experience it. I hope it's not too complicated and doesn't require a complete rewrite of games, because there are some awesome titles out now that would be great to play with. FPS are obvious, but think of games like minecraft, dungeon defenders, MMORPGS... I could go on! I think the problem we'll have next is that our virtual worlds can be viewed just fine and interactively (look over your shoulder etc) but that now our desktops, mice, keyboards etc stay in a fix position. I think it'll be at least a year or more until we're mass producing consumer versions - but I want on that list!

[auxy]

I think you are doing SHIELD a disservice by not looking at it closely. (...) My future vision is a small mobile processor node, with high data rate short distance connectivity to wearable devices like Google Glass and/or the iWatch. Each individual function becomes distributed across different devices on the body, and people can mix or match depending on what they need. Almost like a mobile router for devices. That would mean OR would fit perfectly in this model.

What you said is really not so far from what I said! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ I wasn't really considering SHIELD as a candidate for that sort of futuristic vision; as far as I know it doesn't have a video out, so you couldn't hook the RIFT up to it. Still, we have similar futuristic visions -- mine is based heavily on the idea of the wireless Matrix as presented in the game Shadowrun, 4th edition. ( ・ω・)∩

While the tech is viable, it seems like the games themselves have to be modified to be able to run the hardware the way Occulus intends us to experience it.

Only for the head-tracking -- the display and 3D parts are standard.

I think the problem we'll have next is that our virtual worlds can be viewed just fine and interactively (look over your shoulder etc) but that now our desktops, mice, keyboards etc stay in a fix position.

Direct Neural Interface, where are you? ヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ

I think it'll be at least a year or more until we're mass producing consumer versions - but I want on that list!

If you mean the RIFT, it's due to come out in March.