14 ms·

Introducing Michael Abrash, Oculus Chief Scientist

396 points by polskibus 13y ago

comatose_kid 13y ago
I am now waiting for the Zen of Oculus Programming.
- pjmorris 13y ago
  That made me smile, thanks. [1] [1] 'Zen of Assembly Language', Michael Abrash
aresant 13y ago
Ok, I am over being mad at Facebook. This is huge. Abrash has been the front facing member of Valve's efforts @ VR. His "What VR could, should, and almost certainly will be within two years" (1) paper was mind boggling as an Oculus Dev Kit owner. This is going to be like watching the "Dream Team" come together in one place, and I'm guessing that this ends all speculation about whether or not Carmack sticks around under FB considering the collaborative history between these two. (1) http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%20Days%202014.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%2...
- waterlesscloud 13y ago
  The biggest thing about the Facebook deal is that Oculus will have hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the hardware they dream of, not the hardware they have to settle for. They can design custom chips and displays and get it done faster than they would if they'd waited to bootstrap themselves up to it. FB can/will pour a ton of money into custom (vs off-the-shelf) hardware. And FB is better than most investors in that they won't be looking for an immediate payoff, so Oculus can do things right instead of too fast. It's win/win/win, outside of the little kneejerk firestorm reaction. That will fade.
  - rstupek 13y ago
    Except that is's possible that the custom hardware that you speak of will end up costing more money as an end user wanting to buy one of these devices. The hardware that they were using was off the shelf, high volume hardware and thus not as pricey. Just a thought
    - jskopek 13y ago
      There's been talk about Zuckerberg wanting to use Facebook's backing to release the Rift at lost cost[1]. That's a little scary in its own right, as it implies that Facebook may be looking to turn the Rift into something closer to a console. [1] http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/oculus-on-joining-facebook-making-rift-cheaper-and-fan-fears http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/oculus-on-joining-face...
    - BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
      You should write them an email letting them know about this as soon as possible. They've probably all forgotten that keeping costs down is desirable, and you're just the person to remind them.
  - aryastark 13y ago
    Facebook is not Apple. Even Google is not Apple, as we watch time and time again Google failing at hardware and customer service. Neither of which, Facebook has any experience at. Nor are Carmack and Abrash hardware guys (that is, manufacturing rather than tinkering). Let's be just a bit realistic here. They have an uphill battle. Facebook also has no game development team (which I would include 3d modelers, world designers, etc.) There are a ton of missing variables from this equation still. Money buys people, but it doesn't create miracles. I was excited when Abrash joined Valve, but nothing came of that.
    - NoPiece 13y ago
      You are right that Apple is at a different level in hardware, but you can point to a bunch of big hardware success stories for google, starting with servers and data centers, google mapping cars, and most relevantly their nexus android phones.
npinguy 13y ago
If Michael Abrash is happy, then John Carmack is happy. If those two are happy, HN should be happy. Maybe this Facebook thing won't be so bad after all.
- colmvp 13y ago
  It's almost like people need to give decisions some time in order to actually see the results instead of jumping to the conclusion that it'll be a failure.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    most of the response wasn't concluding failure but fearing the future. i think many people think VR is too important a technology ("The Final Platform") to be in the hands of a single corporate interest. we'll see i guess if that fear is turns out to have been well placed.
- ArcticCelt 13y ago
  One of the things that made me upset about the initial announcement about Facebook acquiring Oculus was that I wasn't exactly sure if it was one of those "almost hostile takeover" where the main share holders want to cash out and don't care if the company is going to hell. Knowing that the people inside the company who are going to build the technology not only agree with the changes but welcome them with open arms is reassuring.
  - paulbaumgart 13y ago
    Facebook would have been pretty stupid to buy Oculus without the entire core team consenting to be acquired.
staunch 13y ago
When a billionaire nerd that is "one of us" buys the VR company John Carmack is the CTO of and backs it with all the resources at his disposal I get excited. When he reunites two fathers of 3D game programming and the makers of the Quake engine I start to freak out. On the upside we have an unlimited budget to make VR real and on the downside the team can always start again with VC money if necessary.
- dmunoz 13y ago
  Saying that Oculus is John Carmack's VR company is unfavourable to those who actually brought Oculus about. Carmack was hired fairly late in Oculus' history. Edit: You edited it now to say 'John Carmack & Co's VR company' which still doesn't make much sense. Carmack joined Oculus as a CTO almost exactly a year after Oculus had its successful Kickstarter campaign.
  - staunch 13y ago
    You don't know the history, clearly. Carmack and Luckey were working together before the concept of Occulus as a company existed at all. The first prototype went from Luckey's desk to Carmack's desk. Carmack endorsed the Kickstarter campaign publicly and created Doom 3 BFG for it. He setup a booth at E3 to demo it. Also, all I really meant to say was "the company Carmack works at" in a shorter way. I have massive respect for Palmer Luckey.
    - AdamFernandez 13y ago
      There seems to be very little talk of Palmer Luckey here. He started this whole thing, and all anyone can talk about is Carmack. I'm not trying to disparage John Carmack, as that would be difficult considering his awesome achievements. And he certainly brings with him expertise and reputation advantages. I just hope more people understand where this all originated.
      - eigenvalue 13y ago
        If this works out like I think it will, history will give plenty of credit to Palmer Luckey.
MattGrommes 13y ago
Man, I'm now simultaneously more excited than ever about Oculus and more fearful that FB will do something to screw up this chance. I'm choosing optimism.
- daviding 13y ago
  I agree, in that I don't know what will happen but it will be big and glorious, and something will now happen - there's too many great minds and too much money in this now for it just to flub out quietly. In every OR announcement recently I see references to the SnowCrash Metaverse. Before we all start to rent shipping containers and become the 'greatest sword fighters in the world', I worry if this fictional ideal isn't a distraction to getting this done or not. Before we can buy OR consumer kits that work as well as the potential seems to hint at (and yes I have tried and was amazed by Crystal Cove) then it seems such a long and lofty goal. It feels like Physics 301 class entrants aiming for Warp capability or something. It would take something like a Facebook userbase and scale, the fathers of 3D game programming and a convergence of high definition mobile consumer electronics to all come together at one time for it to happen. Oh.
Tiktaalik 13y ago
You can see why games people are irritated. I'm getting a strong impression that at this point that Oculus is moving away from being a games oriented company. If I was a game studio building a VR game with an Oculus kit, I'd be continuing to work on it, but I'd be calling Sony and trying to get in line for a Morpheus.
- iends 13y ago
  They have Michael Abrash and John Carmack working at the same company. I don't see how 'games people' won't be super excited.
  - JabavuAdams 13y ago
    Yeah, our office full of games people just went insane.
  - stonemetal 13y ago
    Abrash was working on VR at Valve, and was kind of my only hope for VR after Oculus went FB. Now my VR hopes are crushed. Oh well, maybe next decade.
    - k-mcgrady 13y ago
      >> "Abrash was working on VR at Valve, and was kind of my only hope for VR after Oculus went FB. Now my VR hopes are crushed." You think Facebook spent $2bn to stop Occulus working on VR??
      - mden 13y ago
        I think the perception here is not that FB will stop VR, but that they will ruin it. This is possible in a variety of ways including them making it into a walled garden similar to the iOS or blocking progress of competitors through patents or anti-competitive practices. Personally what I want is something that once I buy is completely free from the company that I bought it from. I.e. an open system that I can control. I don't see such a product coming from a company like FB, but I could be wrong.
higherpurpose 13y ago
This shows even more than Valve should've done its own VR headset. Now they lost this guy.
- acgourley 13y ago
  Perhaps when you have an effective monopoly on PC game sales you don't care who does R&D on peripherals and hardware.
  - Jare 13y ago
    I don't think that's a good longterm strategy. The only way to go from there is down.
    - wtallis 13y ago
      Down in market share, but you still get to take advantage of the growth of the whole market, and without the big risk of trying to be the instigator of a hardware revolution.
      - acgourley 13y ago
        Right and I feel like Valve has a hard time doing hardware projects thanks to their structure. Hard to add lots of employees, and especially hard to have low level employees doing tedious tasks. It seems like both of those need something more hierarchical.
- timfrietas 13y ago
  They were working on one, he was building it.
- illuminate 13y ago
  Valve is not interested in hardware beyond what's absolutely necessary to start up their Linux ecosystem.
netcan 13y ago
The comments on this thread make me happy. Shows that the HN interest in Oculus and the Facebook FUD feelings are cooing from a genuine place, the same place that made so many peep kickstart Oculous in the first place: people want this to exist and be as cool as it promises to be.
brezina 13y ago
beautiful PR execution by the Oculus/FB teams. They knew this acquisition would anger members of the community, and they timed this hire/announcement so as to quiet the predicted backlash. Brilliant execution.
- alexmarcy 13y ago
  To squash the backlash against Abrash leaving Valve, they should time the announcement of the next iteration of Half Life.
- redthrowaway 13y ago
  I think it will do some good on the dev side of things (ie: maybe Notch reconsiders), but for gamers I don't think Abrash has the requisite cachet to overcome their distaste for FB. That said, when the consumer Rift is released I'm sure they'll fall over themselves to go buy it so it's probably not a serious concern.
- jblow 13y ago
  Actually, no, this is just the timing with which things happened. Mike Abrash still worked at Valve last week.
  - maccard 13y ago
    So you think this just all happened in the last week?
- waterlesscloud 13y ago
  Not an explicit PR move, but Carmack is explicitly asking for people to blog about their concerns re FB/Oculus, says he'll read them. He's looking for coherent articulation of risks, not kneejerk negativity, of course. https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/449594122936922112 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/449594122936922112
- deleted 13y ago
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cwilson 13y ago
Not only is this amazing news, but this is a PR master-stroke on the part of Occulus/Facebook.
- deleted 13y ago
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JabavuAdams 13y ago
Squeeeeeeee! Ultimate social proof. It was John Carmack who sold me on the Oculus Dev Kit 1, now this.
martythemaniak 13y ago
There's another thing from Snowcrash I've been thinking about - realistic faces. The most exclusive club in the Metaverse was The Black Sun and what made it special was that the avatars had extremely realistic, life-like expressions, enabling them to visually express emotions and thus enabling a higher form of communication (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't read it in a decade). So if we buy into the notion that social presence in VR worlds will be big, somebody's going to have to build this. The technology exists, but it looks very awkward: https://www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HBT-VFXprog-021.jpg https://www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HBT-VFXpr... Not only does that have to be translated into a consumer product, but you need to capture someone's face while they're wearing the VR headset, which makes it even harder. Since VR headsets already touch your face, I would imagine the product would have to be some kind of extension of that - a larger contact area filled with sensors that reconstruct your expression perfectly.
- toufka 13y ago
  High Fidelity [1] (Second Life v2) does this already. It's still early beta, but they've got the ability to map a user's face in real time with enough data-density to transmit emotion, and facial characteristics good enough to recognize a person by their avatar. You are correct, that currently the same camera that does the facial analysis (macbook camera) precludes the VR headset - so you either get to see another in full VR, or you get to transmit your expression in HD. The device to do both is not yet here. [1] http://highfidelity.io/ http://highfidelity.io/
  - sixQuarks 13y ago
    The founder of Second Life gave a live demonstration of this last night at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality meetup. I didn't realize how important capturing these small facial gestures was until I saw it myself.
    - sergiotapia 13y ago
      Link?
jzelinskie 13y ago
First and foremost, everyone's priorities should be ensuring the success of the VR industry; Oculus is basically the company to do that. Sony will do their best with console hardware, but Oculus will set the pace for what's top of the line for consumers. If Facebook ever steps in and does something the [developer] community abhors, it should already be at the point where VR has had success and there will be competition. I'm super excited to see Abrash at Oculus; I just hope this doesn't mean Valve's slowing down on their work. Valve's been working for a vendor-agnostic API/configuration for these devices in their Steamworks APIs and I really hope that we don't end up fragmented by varying vendor-specific APIs.
mcescalante 13y ago
This is great timing and should settle the community after the uproar about the FB acquisition this week. It seems as though Valve has been fairly hush-hush about their VR ongoings throughout what I'll call "Oculus' rising", so I'm curious for more detail as to what went on internally at Valve with VR, and if Abrash joining Oculus means more about their VR efforts and future (i.e. is Valve done even trying to build something? Is some other partnership brewing between the two?)
creed0r 13y ago
Well, well... Oculus did get a lot of hate for the facebook aquisition but HOLY COW, Abrash and Carmack in the same company again definitely raises my spirits. Maybe the money FB brought wasn't so bad afterall...
Arjuna 13y ago
Wow, this is awesome news! Michael and John are reunited... I mean, recall in the Graphics Programming Black Book, when Michael starts off in the introduction with, "What was it like working with John Carmack on Quake? Like being strapped onto a rocket during takeoff – in the middle of a hurricane." [1] Plus, Michael's quote from the announcement, "I now fully expect to spend the rest of my career pushing VR as far ahead as I can." Great things are ahead! If you've missed Michael's writings on VR, you are in for a real treat: Why Virtual Reality is Hard (And Where It Might Be Going): PDF: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2013.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2... PowerPoint: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2013.pptx http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2... Two Possible Paths into the Future of Wearable Computing: Part 1 – VR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-into-the-future-of-wearable-computing-part-1-vr http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-int... Two Possible Paths into the Future of Wearable Computing: Part 2 – AR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-into-the-future-of-wearable-computing-part-2-ar http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-int... When it comes to resolution, it's all relative http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/when-it-comes-to-resolution-its-all-relative http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/when-it-comes-to-resol... Latency – the sine qua non of AR and VR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/latency-the-sine-qua-non-of-ar-and-vr http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/latency-the-sine-qua-n... Raster-Scan Displays: More Than Meets The Eye http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-more-than-meets-the-eye http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-m... Game Developers Conference and space-time diagrams http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/game-developers-conference-and-space-time-diagrams http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/game-developers-confer... Why virtual isn't real to your brain http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-to-your-brain http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-... Why virtual isn't real to your brain: judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-to-your-brain-judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-... Down the VR rabbit hole: Fixing judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/down-the-vr-rabbit-hole-fixing-judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/down-the-vr-rabbit-hol... [1] http://twimgs.com/ddj/abrashblackbook/gpbbintr.pdf http://twimgs.com/ddj/abrashblackbook/gpbbintr.pdf
- deleted 13y ago
revelation 13y ago
I've checked Wikipedia to augment my knowledge of all things Michael Abrash, and came across this quote of Gabe Newell: been trying to hire Michael Abrash forever. [...] About once a quarter we go for dinner and I say 'are you ready to work here yet? So between Gabe and John, Michael could probably be dining for free every day of the week ;)
- eco 13y ago
  Carmack also had to hound Abrash to come work for Id for over a year after finally meeting him in person (Carmack had long respected Abrash for his articles). http://www.jagregory.com/abrash-black-book/#foreword http://www.jagregory.com/abrash-black-book/#foreword
incision 13y ago
Perfect move on multiple levels. In the same way I thought look to John Carmack for any signs of trouble [0], I can look at Abrash being signed as a sign that everything is fine. On a related note, I always get a kick out of this Amazon review of Abrash's book by Carmack [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7469414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7469414 1: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TWZFSQZ4RYLJ http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TWZFSQZ4RYLJ
- nitrogen 13y ago
  I still love that book. Anybody wanting to learn what low-level graphics programming was like in the days of the 386, 486, and Pentium should buy that book yesterday (or view the free online version http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/graphics-programming-and-theory/graphics-programming-black-book-r1698 http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/graphics-p...).
kar1181 13y ago
The thing about Abrash, is not only is he brilliant, when he writes about hugely complicated things, he does so in a way that makes the reader feel smarter too. That is an amazing gift to have.
- JabavuAdams 13y ago
  Not just feel smarter. I learned assembly language and rasterization from his Dr. Dobbs articles. EDIT> Man, I can still smell those magazines, or maybe that's just the basement smell.
swang 13y ago
This shouldn't change your view point either way if you hated the fb acquisition or were fine with it. What I mean is the people generally angry about the acquisition was not due to the personnel but Facebook itself so this should change nothing. All this shows was the Oculus was already going to get Abrash and that Facebook decided this would be better to announce after they got acquired.
- luckyno13 13y ago
  I am glad someone else sees it this way. Some people are too damn wishy-washy. All the things people were griping about 4 days ago when FB bought OR could still happen. I still dont want FB owned hardware in my house :shrug:
lawl 13y ago
Just at the right time after the Facebook debacle. What a coincidence.
- leoc 13y ago
  No-one's pretending it's a coincidence, I think. Oculus had already said that one benefit of the FB acquisition was that it would allow them to hire people they hadn't been able to get before, while in the OP Abrash implies that he hadn't been willing to join Oculus because he wasn't convinced that it could survive without more capital.
signa11 13y ago
where is notch now ?
- ProAm 13y ago
  This doesn't change any of the points Notch made in his statement. They are all still valid concerns.
tdicola 13y ago
Wow, I wonder what Valve is going to do. Maybe time to buy back the augmented reality tech they squandered by firing Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson?
marcamillion 13y ago
WOW....I can't remember when a blog post made me so excited about the future of tech. In one fell-swoop, all the naysayers about the FB acquisition were proven wrong. Love it!
- fotbr 13y ago
  It still doesn't change the fact that it's owned by a company that many despise and want nothing to do with, no matter how shiny their product may be. I don't think anyone said FB was going to buy it and kill it. The fear, which is still valid, is that FB will turn it into a data grabbing, ad-deliverance product that's useless unless you're online and logged into your FB account.
  - judah 13y ago
    ...like Google.
    - illuminate 13y ago
      I imagine plenty of the people peeved about the acquisition are also not Glass fanatics.
  - gtremper 13y ago
    You don't need a facebook account to use Facebook Messenger, Parse, Instagram, or Whatsapp. I don't understand why people are worried about needing one for the oculus rift.
aantix 13y ago
On a side note, this is just fantastically written announcement. Abrash is a masterful storyteller.
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mjn 13y ago
I like William Gibson's comment about this article: https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/449650461881008128 https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/449650461881008128
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booop 13y ago
I'm excited about these two working together, but this now reminds of when Zynga hired many industry titans.
jksmith 13y ago
Hopefully everyone on HN knows who Michael Abrash is AND has a copy of "Zen of Assembly Language."
timfrietas 13y ago
Suddenly the recent announcement of a Seattle Oculus office makes perfect sense...
h1karu 13y ago
Yea but isn't the idea of VR fundamentally flawed ? I mean I can imagine how presence feels like magic when you're just sitting still looking around, but is it really possible to move your avatar around without breaking presence ? I mean your body won't feel the centripetal force, nor the tactile sensations so it seems like any movement at all would break the illusion.. and if presence is broken then you might as well just be playing a FPS on a nice monitor.
dylanrw 13y ago
Initially I was a bit perplexed/dismayed when Facebook purchased Oculus. The news that JC and MA are both now in the same company again? /me shuffles over to buy some FB...
yiedyie 13y ago
Behold, HN was invaded by Oculus!
yiedyie 13y ago
Behold, HN was invaded by Oculus!
drivingmenuts 13y ago
This is great for Oculus. Doesn't change a my feelings toward Facebook one bit. They could wake up from their drunken bender tomorrow, say "We bought what?" and Oculus would be dead beyond any hope of resurrection by Monday. If it was anyone except Facebook, I would feel optimistic. It's like Microsoft buying Apple. You know the first thing they would is burn that business to ground and dance gleefully in the ashes while their lawyers geared up to sue everyone in the world.
jtfrench 13y ago
I think it's awesome Carmack and Abrash are working together again. I read "Masters of Doom" back in the day, and it totally rocked my mind and took me back to a time when I was too young to realize just how impactful Carmack was on the industry that I enjoyed as a kid. I just wouldn't have predicted that their comeback to the limelight would be working for Facebook. In my eyes, they were "bigger" than that (obviously not monetarily). They "meant" more to me. This is all subjective stuff I realize, and yes I've heard a zillion times "how good it is for VR", but it kind of indirectly gives a message that the best thing a genius who is already capable of changing the world can do is work for Facebook instead of do their own thing. Call me a softy, but something just warms my heart when I see smart people stand out on their own, unswayed by the massive "power monoliths" surrounding them, and STILL kick ass. That's what Facebook did! And that was awesome! I just hope that spirit of entrepreneurship doesn't fade, and that geniuses know their power lies within themselves — not in deep pockets of any company. Congrats to all involved though — I can only imagine what kind of crazy office days are ahead. The sequel to "Masters of Doom" is yet to be written.
- drawkbox 13y ago
  Tesla worked for Edison, still made great things. Who you work for rarely changes who you are as a person if you already know who you are. Just now they have funding and lots of momentum. I think people fear Facebook owning it as scary because they know it will go somewhere with that much behind it rather than it not happening.
  - jtfrench 13y ago
    >>>" Who you work for rarely changes who you are as a person if you already know who you are" Quite true. >>> " I think people fear Facebook owning it as scary because they know it will go somewhere with that much behind it rather than it not happening." I don't really understand this sentence. Also, to be clear, I don't fear Facebook owning anything (to me that seems pointless), I was just more surprised by Carmack's/Abrash's choice —but of course its only surprising when you don't know the details that occurred leading up to it, and the real thing that made their decision. Perhaps there was an offer they couldn't refuse, and so they jumped on it. People make it sound like Oculus wouldn't have continued without Facebook though, which seems odd to me. >> "Just now they have funding and lots of momentum." This is the point I don't get. I hear this echo'd by everyone, but correct me if I'm wrong, didn't they raise some $75M+? So is the point everyone is making that to properly do VR, we need more than that ? Did they not have enough resources before? (I don't know the answer to this, just curious)
noise 13y ago
That was a very nicely written piece and he had me going until this part: "We're on the cusp of what I think is not The Next Big Platform, but rather simply The Final Platform – the platform to end all platforms" The problem is that under FB, this will end up being the metafaceverse.com platform, that you can only access under their umbrella, just as with the current FB "platform". And you will be subject to their terms and conditions within their walled garden both as a user and a developer. That's not the kind of platform the internet needs. This won't be another WWW but another AOL.
- XorNot 13y ago
  Yes because I'm sure the Oculus Rift was the only VR system that can or ever will ever be developed, and now Facebook is just going to ruin everything! And also somehow - and you don't say how - they'll (1) invent a completely new proprietary Displayport/HDMI connector just to keep people from using the Oculus Rift with other things and (2) then go to the trouble of locking out the positional sensors as well all so they can, apparently, lock-in people to a platform and experience which - and this is the really important part - doesn't actually exist yet, and has yet to prove its profitability in anyway.
  - noise 13y ago
    Well all these threads are just pure speculation anyway. My point was that he was hinting at a Facebook Platform style initiative that is very different than just making an awesome VR headset. That's not to say there won't still be value in the hardware outside of the FB ecosystem, I was just trying to call out that particular aspect of what may come of this deal besides $$ to drive HW development.
jfb 13y ago
I initially read this as "Michael Arrington, Oculus Chief Scientist". That was an amusing double take.
z3phyr 13y ago
This is the beginning of the golden era again. I will cry.
hosh 13y ago
I think that answers the question on how serious Zuckerberg is about letting Oculus have their way.

396 points by polskibus 13y ago

comatose_kid 13y ago

I am now waiting for the Zen of Oculus Programming.

pjmorris 13y ago
That made me smile, thanks. [1] [1] 'Zen of Assembly Language', Michael Abrash

aresant 13y ago

Ok, I am over being mad at Facebook. This is huge. Abrash has been the front facing member of Valve's efforts @ VR. His "What VR could, should, and almost certainly will be within two years" (1) paper was mind boggling as an Oculus Dev Kit owner. This is going to be like watching the "Dream Team" come together in one place, and I'm guessing that this ends all speculation about whether or not Carmack sticks around under FB considering the collaborative history between these two. (1) http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%20Days%202014.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%2...

waterlesscloud 13y ago
The biggest thing about the Facebook deal is that Oculus will have hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the hardware they dream of, not the hardware they have to settle for. They can design custom chips and displays and get it done faster than they would if they'd waited to bootstrap themselves up to it. FB can/will pour a ton of money into custom (vs off-the-shelf) hardware. And FB is better than most investors in that they won't be looking for an immediate payoff, so Oculus can do things right instead of too fast. It's win/win/win, outside of the little kneejerk firestorm reaction. That will fade.
- rstupek 13y ago
  Except that is's possible that the custom hardware that you speak of will end up costing more money as an end user wanting to buy one of these devices. The hardware that they were using was off the shelf, high volume hardware and thus not as pricey. Just a thought
  - jskopek 13y ago
    There's been talk about Zuckerberg wanting to use Facebook's backing to release the Rift at lost cost[1]. That's a little scary in its own right, as it implies that Facebook may be looking to turn the Rift into something closer to a console. [1] http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/oculus-on-joining-facebook-making-rift-cheaper-and-fan-fears http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/oculus-on-joining-face...
  - BHSPitMonkey 13y ago
    You should write them an email letting them know about this as soon as possible. They've probably all forgotten that keeping costs down is desirable, and you're just the person to remind them.
- aryastark 13y ago
  Facebook is not Apple. Even Google is not Apple, as we watch time and time again Google failing at hardware and customer service. Neither of which, Facebook has any experience at. Nor are Carmack and Abrash hardware guys (that is, manufacturing rather than tinkering). Let's be just a bit realistic here. They have an uphill battle. Facebook also has no game development team (which I would include 3d modelers, world designers, etc.) There are a ton of missing variables from this equation still. Money buys people, but it doesn't create miracles. I was excited when Abrash joined Valve, but nothing came of that.
  - NoPiece 13y ago
    You are right that Apple is at a different level in hardware, but you can point to a bunch of big hardware success stories for google, starting with servers and data centers, google mapping cars, and most relevantly their nexus android phones.

npinguy 13y ago

If Michael Abrash is happy, then John Carmack is happy. If those two are happy, HN should be happy. Maybe this Facebook thing won't be so bad after all.

colmvp 13y ago
It's almost like people need to give decisions some time in order to actually see the results instead of jumping to the conclusion that it'll be a failure.
- gfodor 13y ago
  most of the response wasn't concluding failure but fearing the future. i think many people think VR is too important a technology ("The Final Platform") to be in the hands of a single corporate interest. we'll see i guess if that fear is turns out to have been well placed.
ArcticCelt 13y ago
One of the things that made me upset about the initial announcement about Facebook acquiring Oculus was that I wasn't exactly sure if it was one of those "almost hostile takeover" where the main share holders want to cash out and don't care if the company is going to hell. Knowing that the people inside the company who are going to build the technology not only agree with the changes but welcome them with open arms is reassuring.
- paulbaumgart 13y ago
  Facebook would have been pretty stupid to buy Oculus without the entire core team consenting to be acquired.

staunch 13y ago

When a billionaire nerd that is "one of us" buys the VR company John Carmack is the CTO of and backs it with all the resources at his disposal I get excited. When he reunites two fathers of 3D game programming and the makers of the Quake engine I start to freak out. On the upside we have an unlimited budget to make VR real and on the downside the team can always start again with VC money if necessary.

dmunoz 13y ago
Saying that Oculus is John Carmack's VR company is unfavourable to those who actually brought Oculus about. Carmack was hired fairly late in Oculus' history. Edit: You edited it now to say 'John Carmack & Co's VR company' which still doesn't make much sense. Carmack joined Oculus as a CTO almost exactly a year after Oculus had its successful Kickstarter campaign.
- staunch 13y ago
  You don't know the history, clearly. Carmack and Luckey were working together before the concept of Occulus as a company existed at all. The first prototype went from Luckey's desk to Carmack's desk. Carmack endorsed the Kickstarter campaign publicly and created Doom 3 BFG for it. He setup a booth at E3 to demo it. Also, all I really meant to say was "the company Carmack works at" in a shorter way. I have massive respect for Palmer Luckey.
  - AdamFernandez 13y ago
    There seems to be very little talk of Palmer Luckey here. He started this whole thing, and all anyone can talk about is Carmack. I'm not trying to disparage John Carmack, as that would be difficult considering his awesome achievements. And he certainly brings with him expertise and reputation advantages. I just hope more people understand where this all originated.
    - eigenvalue 13y ago
      If this works out like I think it will, history will give plenty of credit to Palmer Luckey.

MattGrommes 13y ago

Man, I'm now simultaneously more excited than ever about Oculus and more fearful that FB will do something to screw up this chance. I'm choosing optimism.

daviding 13y ago
I agree, in that I don't know what will happen but it will be big and glorious, and something will now happen - there's too many great minds and too much money in this now for it just to flub out quietly. In every OR announcement recently I see references to the SnowCrash Metaverse. Before we all start to rent shipping containers and become the 'greatest sword fighters in the world', I worry if this fictional ideal isn't a distraction to getting this done or not. Before we can buy OR consumer kits that work as well as the potential seems to hint at (and yes I have tried and was amazed by Crystal Cove) then it seems such a long and lofty goal. It feels like Physics 301 class entrants aiming for Warp capability or something. It would take something like a Facebook userbase and scale, the fathers of 3D game programming and a convergence of high definition mobile consumer electronics to all come together at one time for it to happen. Oh.

Tiktaalik 13y ago

You can see why games people are irritated. I'm getting a strong impression that at this point that Oculus is moving away from being a games oriented company. If I was a game studio building a VR game with an Oculus kit, I'd be continuing to work on it, but I'd be calling Sony and trying to get in line for a Morpheus.

iends 13y ago
They have Michael Abrash and John Carmack working at the same company. I don't see how 'games people' won't be super excited.
- JabavuAdams 13y ago
  Yeah, our office full of games people just went insane.
- stonemetal 13y ago
  Abrash was working on VR at Valve, and was kind of my only hope for VR after Oculus went FB. Now my VR hopes are crushed. Oh well, maybe next decade.
  - k-mcgrady 13y ago
    >> "Abrash was working on VR at Valve, and was kind of my only hope for VR after Oculus went FB. Now my VR hopes are crushed." You think Facebook spent $2bn to stop Occulus working on VR??
    - mden 13y ago
      I think the perception here is not that FB will stop VR, but that they will ruin it. This is possible in a variety of ways including them making it into a walled garden similar to the iOS or blocking progress of competitors through patents or anti-competitive practices. Personally what I want is something that once I buy is completely free from the company that I bought it from. I.e. an open system that I can control. I don't see such a product coming from a company like FB, but I could be wrong.

higherpurpose 13y ago

This shows even more than Valve should've done its own VR headset. Now they lost this guy.

acgourley 13y ago
Perhaps when you have an effective monopoly on PC game sales you don't care who does R&D on peripherals and hardware.
- Jare 13y ago
  I don't think that's a good longterm strategy. The only way to go from there is down.
  - wtallis 13y ago
    Down in market share, but you still get to take advantage of the growth of the whole market, and without the big risk of trying to be the instigator of a hardware revolution.
    - acgourley 13y ago
      Right and I feel like Valve has a hard time doing hardware projects thanks to their structure. Hard to add lots of employees, and especially hard to have low level employees doing tedious tasks. It seems like both of those need something more hierarchical.
timfrietas 13y ago
They were working on one, he was building it.
illuminate 13y ago
Valve is not interested in hardware beyond what's absolutely necessary to start up their Linux ecosystem.

netcan 13y ago

The comments on this thread make me happy. Shows that the HN interest in Oculus and the Facebook FUD feelings are cooing from a genuine place, the same place that made so many peep kickstart Oculous in the first place: people want this to exist and be as cool as it promises to be.

brezina 13y ago

beautiful PR execution by the Oculus/FB teams. They knew this acquisition would anger members of the community, and they timed this hire/announcement so as to quiet the predicted backlash. Brilliant execution.

alexmarcy 13y ago
To squash the backlash against Abrash leaving Valve, they should time the announcement of the next iteration of Half Life.
redthrowaway 13y ago
I think it will do some good on the dev side of things (ie: maybe Notch reconsiders), but for gamers I don't think Abrash has the requisite cachet to overcome their distaste for FB. That said, when the consumer Rift is released I'm sure they'll fall over themselves to go buy it so it's probably not a serious concern.
jblow 13y ago
Actually, no, this is just the timing with which things happened. Mike Abrash still worked at Valve last week.
- maccard 13y ago
  So you think this just all happened in the last week?
waterlesscloud 13y ago
Not an explicit PR move, but Carmack is explicitly asking for people to blog about their concerns re FB/Oculus, says he'll read them. He's looking for coherent articulation of risks, not kneejerk negativity, of course. https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/449594122936922112 https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/449594122936922112
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cwilson 13y ago

Not only is this amazing news, but this is a PR master-stroke on the part of Occulus/Facebook.

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JabavuAdams 13y ago

Squeeeeeeee! Ultimate social proof. It was John Carmack who sold me on the Oculus Dev Kit 1, now this.

martythemaniak 13y ago

There's another thing from Snowcrash I've been thinking about - realistic faces. The most exclusive club in the Metaverse was The Black Sun and what made it special was that the avatars had extremely realistic, life-like expressions, enabling them to visually express emotions and thus enabling a higher form of communication (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't read it in a decade). So if we buy into the notion that social presence in VR worlds will be big, somebody's going to have to build this. The technology exists, but it looks very awkward: https://www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HBT-VFXprog-021.jpg https://www.fxguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/HBT-VFXpr... Not only does that have to be translated into a consumer product, but you need to capture someone's face while they're wearing the VR headset, which makes it even harder. Since VR headsets already touch your face, I would imagine the product would have to be some kind of extension of that - a larger contact area filled with sensors that reconstruct your expression perfectly.

toufka 13y ago
High Fidelity [1] (Second Life v2) does this already. It's still early beta, but they've got the ability to map a user's face in real time with enough data-density to transmit emotion, and facial characteristics good enough to recognize a person by their avatar. You are correct, that currently the same camera that does the facial analysis (macbook camera) precludes the VR headset - so you either get to see another in full VR, or you get to transmit your expression in HD. The device to do both is not yet here. [1] http://highfidelity.io/ http://highfidelity.io/
- sixQuarks 13y ago
  The founder of Second Life gave a live demonstration of this last night at the Silicon Valley Virtual Reality meetup. I didn't realize how important capturing these small facial gestures was until I saw it myself.
  - sergiotapia 13y ago
    Link?

jzelinskie 13y ago

First and foremost, everyone's priorities should be ensuring the success of the VR industry; Oculus is basically the company to do that. Sony will do their best with console hardware, but Oculus will set the pace for what's top of the line for consumers. If Facebook ever steps in and does something the [developer] community abhors, it should already be at the point where VR has had success and there will be competition. I'm super excited to see Abrash at Oculus; I just hope this doesn't mean Valve's slowing down on their work. Valve's been working for a vendor-agnostic API/configuration for these devices in their Steamworks APIs and I really hope that we don't end up fragmented by varying vendor-specific APIs.

mcescalante 13y ago

This is great timing and should settle the community after the uproar about the FB acquisition this week. It seems as though Valve has been fairly hush-hush about their VR ongoings throughout what I'll call "Oculus' rising", so I'm curious for more detail as to what went on internally at Valve with VR, and if Abrash joining Oculus means more about their VR efforts and future (i.e. is Valve done even trying to build something? Is some other partnership brewing between the two?)

creed0r 13y ago

Well, well... Oculus did get a lot of hate for the facebook aquisition but HOLY COW, Abrash and Carmack in the same company again definitely raises my spirits. Maybe the money FB brought wasn't so bad afterall...

Arjuna 13y ago

Wow, this is awesome news! Michael and John are reunited... I mean, recall in the Graphics Programming Black Book, when Michael starts off in the introduction with, "What was it like working with John Carmack on Quake? Like being strapped onto a rocket during takeoff – in the middle of a hurricane." [1] Plus, Michael's quote from the announcement, "I now fully expect to spend the rest of my career pushing VR as far ahead as I can." Great things are ahead! If you've missed Michael's writings on VR, you are in for a real treat: Why Virtual Reality is Hard (And Where It Might Be Going): PDF: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2013.pdf http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2... PowerPoint: http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2013.pptx http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/MAbrash%20GDC2... Two Possible Paths into the Future of Wearable Computing: Part 1 – VR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-into-the-future-of-wearable-computing-part-1-vr http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-int... Two Possible Paths into the Future of Wearable Computing: Part 2 – AR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-into-the-future-of-wearable-computing-part-2-ar http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/two-possible-paths-int... When it comes to resolution, it's all relative http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/when-it-comes-to-resolution-its-all-relative http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/when-it-comes-to-resol... Latency – the sine qua non of AR and VR http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/latency-the-sine-qua-non-of-ar-and-vr http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/latency-the-sine-qua-n... Raster-Scan Displays: More Than Meets The Eye http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-more-than-meets-the-eye http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/raster-scan-displays-m... Game Developers Conference and space-time diagrams http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/game-developers-conference-and-space-time-diagrams http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/game-developers-confer... Why virtual isn't real to your brain http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-to-your-brain http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-... Why virtual isn't real to your brain: judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-to-your-brain-judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/why-virtual-isnt-real-... Down the VR rabbit hole: Fixing judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/down-the-vr-rabbit-hole-fixing-judder http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/abrash/down-the-vr-rabbit-hol... [1] http://twimgs.com/ddj/abrashblackbook/gpbbintr.pdf http://twimgs.com/ddj/abrashblackbook/gpbbintr.pdf

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revelation 13y ago

I've checked Wikipedia to augment my knowledge of all things Michael Abrash, and came across this quote of Gabe Newell: been trying to hire Michael Abrash forever. [...] About once a quarter we go for dinner and I say 'are you ready to work here yet? So between Gabe and John, Michael could probably be dining for free every day of the week ;)

eco 13y ago
Carmack also had to hound Abrash to come work for Id for over a year after finally meeting him in person (Carmack had long respected Abrash for his articles). http://www.jagregory.com/abrash-black-book/#foreword http://www.jagregory.com/abrash-black-book/#foreword

incision 13y ago

Perfect move on multiple levels. In the same way I thought look to John Carmack for any signs of trouble [0], I can look at Abrash being signed as a sign that everything is fine. On a related note, I always get a kick out of this Amazon review of Abrash's book by Carmack [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7469414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7469414 1: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TWZFSQZ4RYLJ http://www.amazon.com/review/R2TWZFSQZ4RYLJ

nitrogen 13y ago
I still love that book. Anybody wanting to learn what low-level graphics programming was like in the days of the 386, 486, and Pentium should buy that book yesterday (or view the free online version http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/graphics-programming-and-theory/graphics-programming-black-book-r1698 http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/graphics-p...).

kar1181 13y ago

The thing about Abrash, is not only is he brilliant, when he writes about hugely complicated things, he does so in a way that makes the reader feel smarter too. That is an amazing gift to have.

JabavuAdams 13y ago
Not just feel smarter. I learned assembly language and rasterization from his Dr. Dobbs articles. EDIT> Man, I can still smell those magazines, or maybe that's just the basement smell.

swang 13y ago

This shouldn't change your view point either way if you hated the fb acquisition or were fine with it. What I mean is the people generally angry about the acquisition was not due to the personnel but Facebook itself so this should change nothing. All this shows was the Oculus was already going to get Abrash and that Facebook decided this would be better to announce after they got acquired.

luckyno13 13y ago
I am glad someone else sees it this way. Some people are too damn wishy-washy. All the things people were griping about 4 days ago when FB bought OR could still happen. I still dont want FB owned hardware in my house :shrug:

lawl 13y ago

Just at the right time after the Facebook debacle. What a coincidence.

leoc 13y ago
No-one's pretending it's a coincidence, I think. Oculus had already said that one benefit of the FB acquisition was that it would allow them to hire people they hadn't been able to get before, while in the OP Abrash implies that he hadn't been willing to join Oculus because he wasn't convinced that it could survive without more capital.

signa11 13y ago

where is notch now ?

ProAm 13y ago
This doesn't change any of the points Notch made in his statement. They are all still valid concerns.

tdicola 13y ago

Wow, I wonder what Valve is going to do. Maybe time to buy back the augmented reality tech they squandered by firing Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson?

marcamillion 13y ago

WOW....I can't remember when a blog post made me so excited about the future of tech. In one fell-swoop, all the naysayers about the FB acquisition were proven wrong. Love it!

fotbr 13y ago
It still doesn't change the fact that it's owned by a company that many despise and want nothing to do with, no matter how shiny their product may be. I don't think anyone said FB was going to buy it and kill it. The fear, which is still valid, is that FB will turn it into a data grabbing, ad-deliverance product that's useless unless you're online and logged into your FB account.
- judah 13y ago
  ...like Google.
  - illuminate 13y ago
    I imagine plenty of the people peeved about the acquisition are also not Glass fanatics.
- gtremper 13y ago
  You don't need a facebook account to use Facebook Messenger, Parse, Instagram, or Whatsapp. I don't understand why people are worried about needing one for the oculus rift.

aantix 13y ago

On a side note, this is just fantastically written announcement. Abrash is a masterful storyteller.

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mjn 13y ago

I like William Gibson's comment about this article: https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/449650461881008128 https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/449650461881008128

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booop 13y ago

I'm excited about these two working together, but this now reminds of when Zynga hired many industry titans.

jksmith 13y ago

Hopefully everyone on HN knows who Michael Abrash is AND has a copy of "Zen of Assembly Language."

timfrietas 13y ago

Suddenly the recent announcement of a Seattle Oculus office makes perfect sense...

h1karu 13y ago

Yea but isn't the idea of VR fundamentally flawed ? I mean I can imagine how presence feels like magic when you're just sitting still looking around, but is it really possible to move your avatar around without breaking presence ? I mean your body won't feel the centripetal force, nor the tactile sensations so it seems like any movement at all would break the illusion.. and if presence is broken then you might as well just be playing a FPS on a nice monitor.

dylanrw 13y ago

Initially I was a bit perplexed/dismayed when Facebook purchased Oculus. The news that JC and MA are both now in the same company again? /me shuffles over to buy some FB...

yiedyie 13y ago

Behold, HN was invaded by Oculus!

yiedyie 13y ago

Behold, HN was invaded by Oculus!

drivingmenuts 13y ago

This is great for Oculus. Doesn't change a my feelings toward Facebook one bit. They could wake up from their drunken bender tomorrow, say "We bought what?" and Oculus would be dead beyond any hope of resurrection by Monday. If it was anyone except Facebook, I would feel optimistic. It's like Microsoft buying Apple. You know the first thing they would is burn that business to ground and dance gleefully in the ashes while their lawyers geared up to sue everyone in the world.

jtfrench 13y ago

I think it's awesome Carmack and Abrash are working together again. I read "Masters of Doom" back in the day, and it totally rocked my mind and took me back to a time when I was too young to realize just how impactful Carmack was on the industry that I enjoyed as a kid. I just wouldn't have predicted that their comeback to the limelight would be working for Facebook. In my eyes, they were "bigger" than that (obviously not monetarily). They "meant" more to me. This is all subjective stuff I realize, and yes I've heard a zillion times "how good it is for VR", but it kind of indirectly gives a message that the best thing a genius who is already capable of changing the world can do is work for Facebook instead of do their own thing. Call me a softy, but something just warms my heart when I see smart people stand out on their own, unswayed by the massive "power monoliths" surrounding them, and STILL kick ass. That's what Facebook did! And that was awesome! I just hope that spirit of entrepreneurship doesn't fade, and that geniuses know their power lies within themselves — not in deep pockets of any company. Congrats to all involved though — I can only imagine what kind of crazy office days are ahead. The sequel to "Masters of Doom" is yet to be written.

drawkbox 13y ago
Tesla worked for Edison, still made great things. Who you work for rarely changes who you are as a person if you already know who you are. Just now they have funding and lots of momentum. I think people fear Facebook owning it as scary because they know it will go somewhere with that much behind it rather than it not happening.
- jtfrench 13y ago
  >>>" Who you work for rarely changes who you are as a person if you already know who you are" Quite true. >>> " I think people fear Facebook owning it as scary because they know it will go somewhere with that much behind it rather than it not happening." I don't really understand this sentence. Also, to be clear, I don't fear Facebook owning anything (to me that seems pointless), I was just more surprised by Carmack's/Abrash's choice —but of course its only surprising when you don't know the details that occurred leading up to it, and the real thing that made their decision. Perhaps there was an offer they couldn't refuse, and so they jumped on it. People make it sound like Oculus wouldn't have continued without Facebook though, which seems odd to me. >> "Just now they have funding and lots of momentum." This is the point I don't get. I hear this echo'd by everyone, but correct me if I'm wrong, didn't they raise some $75M+? So is the point everyone is making that to properly do VR, we need more than that ? Did they not have enough resources before? (I don't know the answer to this, just curious)

noise 13y ago

That was a very nicely written piece and he had me going until this part: "We're on the cusp of what I think is not The Next Big Platform, but rather simply The Final Platform – the platform to end all platforms" The problem is that under FB, this will end up being the metafaceverse.com platform, that you can only access under their umbrella, just as with the current FB "platform". And you will be subject to their terms and conditions within their walled garden both as a user and a developer. That's not the kind of platform the internet needs. This won't be another WWW but another AOL.

XorNot 13y ago
Yes because I'm sure the Oculus Rift was the only VR system that can or ever will ever be developed, and now Facebook is just going to ruin everything! And also somehow - and you don't say how - they'll (1) invent a completely new proprietary Displayport/HDMI connector just to keep people from using the Oculus Rift with other things and (2) then go to the trouble of locking out the positional sensors as well all so they can, apparently, lock-in people to a platform and experience which - and this is the really important part - doesn't actually exist yet, and has yet to prove its profitability in anyway.
- noise 13y ago
  Well all these threads are just pure speculation anyway. My point was that he was hinting at a Facebook Platform style initiative that is very different than just making an awesome VR headset. That's not to say there won't still be value in the hardware outside of the FB ecosystem, I was just trying to call out that particular aspect of what may come of this deal besides $$ to drive HW development.

jfb 13y ago

I initially read this as "Michael Arrington, Oculus Chief Scientist". That was an amusing double take.

z3phyr 13y ago

This is the beginning of the golden era again. I will cry.

hosh 13y ago

I think that answers the question on how serious Zuckerberg is about letting Oculus have their way.