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> From all accounts their headset is already on par with the rift... From what I've read this isn't true at all. Have a read of this excellent Valve slide dec
by patrickk 13y ago
> From all accounts their headset is already on par with the rift...
From what I've read this isn't true at all.
Have a read of this excellent Valve slide deck on VR, which touches on the technical challenges: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/2013/MAbrashGDC2013.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/2013/MAbrashGDC2013...
My understanding is that the vision that Oculus has for their consumer product is x2 1080p screens (at a minimum, ideally x2 4K screens or even higher, if the supply chain was ready), one for each eye, to eliminate the screen door effect and deliver true immersion. Supporting x2 1080p screens (or above) requires serious graphical horsepower as you can imagine.
The PS4 has nowhere near that ability for graphics. I saw a comment saying the "PS4 is a mid level gaming PC", so do you think that the PS4 will deliver the jaw dropping visuals and immersion required to blow away consumers on their first VR experience and change gaming forever?
I suspect the PS4 might only be capable of supporting x2 720p screens (based on what I've read about the PS4), which would deliver a hugely compromised vision of what VR could be compared to what Oculus' original vision was/is. It would be even more disappointing if Sony had a compromised product that made loads of money, as this would send the signal to VR companies that it's ok to not shoot for the stars with a consumer VR product.
Oculus stated all along that they wont release consumer product until its ready, which was credible as they had to answer to no one (except if you count the hopes and dreams of backers that had no equity, and VCs that bought into their vision.) Now there is huge uncertainty with this bolt from the blue acquisition.
People here defending Facebook are comparing the acquisition to Instagram and WhatsApp. Those companies may have a lot of users, but they don't fundamentally promise to make a massive leap forward into a virtual universe, a kind of a leap forward not seen since Carmack implemented 3D graphics in the original Doom. No nerds here give a fuck about photo sharing with filters, or SMS over the web. Those aren't exciting leaps, they can be cloned easily, there aren't the same technical challenges to be overcome. Facebook is welcome to buy those types of companies. VR, however, with the team Oculus has, had the potential to do something great, with zero compromises or outside pressure. Now all that has been thrown into doubt.
I'd sum up the reaction here as:
- those who are annoyed that Oculus' independence is compromised by a company with long history of privacy abuse
- disbelief that those who chipped in good faith now have contributed to another way for Facebook to mine users for data and stick ads in front of their eyeballs
- For those who chipped in on kickstarter: they added value to a company with a long history of privacy abuse instead of ultimately funding what they thought would be an independent entity with amazing technical talent and vision
If Oculus felt that threatened by Sony, I'm sure they could raise tens of millions on very favourable terms, in very short space of time. I'm so disappointed that there is a risk of the original vision being compromised, I hope Valve or someone else picks up where Oculus left off if there is indeed a comprise because of this acquisition.
- potatolicious 13y ago> "The PS4 has nowhere near that ability for graphics." Neither do most gaming PCs today, but of course that comes with many caveats. The PS4 (and most modern gaming rigs) don't have the ability to run Crysis 3, at max settings, across two 1080p displays, sure. But it isn't Crysis 3 on max or the highway. There is a lot of middle ground to be had. Naturally, even most PCs today can't run Crysis 3 on max and maintain 60fps, unless we're talking purpose-built high-end gaming rigs. The two big things you can't lose in VR is latency and framerate, without these two factors the whole experience just sucks profoundly. The resolution is more negotiable. The problem with the Oculus DK1 and its low-res screen isn't that it's low-res, it's that it has huge pixels, and the gap between each pixel on the LCD is plainly visible to the user. This is the infamous "screen door". A higher density/resolution screen that's upscaling from a lower-resolution signal would not suffer from the screen door effect. Upscaling is totally a viable option. Beyond that, the PS4 absolutely has the ability to push 2x1080px60Hz, it just can't do it with enormously complex graphics. This may mean we'll have to settle for stylized graphics instead of photo-real, but such is the reality of ultra high-res gaming in 2014 (whether it's a single 4K screen or multiple combined smaller screens). Let's be honest, if the base requirement for effective VR experiences was a quad-core with SLI GTX TITANs, the Oculus Rift would've made a loud thump in the market as it hit the ground. To stand any real chance at success Oculus, and everyone else, has to include "mid level gaming PCs" in its target demographic, whether it comes in the form of an Xbox One, a PS4, or a Windows PC. Don't get me wrong, I'm very disappointed that Oculus got acquired by Facebook, but Sony's product is far from DOA, especially not on account of the PS4's graphical horsepower.