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Carmack had this to say earlier, in a 3-part Tweet: "Everyone has had some time to digest the FB deal now. I think it is going to be positive, but clearly many

by Arjuna 13y ago

Carmack had this to say earlier, in a 3-part Tweet: "Everyone has had some time to digest the FB deal now. I think it is going to be positive, but clearly many disagree. Much of the ranting has been emotional or tribal, but I am interested in reading coherent viewpoints about objective outcomes. What are the hazards? What should be done to guard against them? What are the tests for failure? Blog and I'll read." Also, this: "I would expect Facebook to not exert any overt control over Oculus unless Oculus fumbles badly a few times, at which point they SHOULD." ~~~~ My personal take: At the end of the day, it takes more than vision and hard work to drive a dream into existence... it takes investment. It takes capital. This is what the deal brings to the table. Not only that, as you probably know by now, Michael Abrash has joined the team. I mean, read Michael's blog and note all of the technical challenges and issues with implementing VR. Read Carmack's technical writings on latency issues. There are a lot of problems to solve, on top of building and delivering a solid, commercial-quality hardware and software experience. For example, there is tracking head position and orientation, rendering without shearing and judder, latency issues, etc... everything must be perfect in order to deliver the perfect experience. Facebook brings the needed investment, plus the scaling infrastructure experience to the table. John has said, "I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale." I have a lot of confidence in Oculus VR and their extremely capable team. These good people are experienced and they know the technical and business challenges that are ahead. This is why the acquisition occurred. The passion is still there. I mean, watch this video again [1]. John hasn't changed. After the acquisition, he said, "For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week. I expect the FB deal will avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR." And with Michael coming on board, it's a veritable VR Dream Team with the already talent-heavy team of Palmer Luckey, Tom Forsyth [2], Atman Binstock [3], et al. As Michael said, "That worry is now gone. Facebook's acquisition of Oculus means that VR is going to happen in all its glory." [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYa8kirsUfg [2] http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/category/tom-forsyth http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/category/tom-forsyth [3] http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/welcome-atman-binstock-chief-architect http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/welcome-atman-binstock-chief-ar...

biff 13y ago
I think, also, somebody has to be first to bring this technology to the market before it even occurs to others they'd want to compete. Oculus under Facebook might not bring the finished product most of us were looking for, but having a device that's solved the technological challenges of consumer VR is the heavy lifting. And it puts Facebook in the position of being The Name in consumer VR. Are they going to alienate that right off the bat by building a walled garden, putting heavy content locks on it, watching everything you do? Or will they do the soft touch of making their helmet the easiest (and perhaps only) way to tie your VR into the Facebook network when you wish, get special savings on new software, offer perks to developers that find Facebook-friendly features for their VR software? I think if they squeeze too hard people will upgrade right out of them into the competition. Which is sure to follow shortly if the hardware is a massive success and the implementation is driving people away. So, cautiously optimistic.
- colechristensen 13y ago
  I bought an Oculus Rift. I'm not going to be buying a Facebook device. Facebook is creepy. It doesn't matter how cool the technology is or what it can do, more and more people are becoming disturbed at the now common concept of consumer-as-product for Facebook, Google, et al. Even if they seemed open and friendly at first, I personally wouldn't trust that kind of technology in the hands of Google, Microsoft, or Facebook; end of story.
  - jfoster 13y ago
    "Facebook is creepy." Definition of creepy: "causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease." What is creepy about finding out what people are into and showing them ads relevant to those things? So many people are claiming that Facebook is creepy, but I just can't see it.
    - Zirro 13y ago
      A company keeping a permanent database of my interests, which sites I like to visit and any other information that it can access definitively causes a feeling of unease. What happens to this data if (or when) Facebook goes the way of MySpace? Will they sell it? Are they already selling it? Who could use it against me in the future?

by Arjuna 13y ago

biff 13y ago

I think, also, somebody has to be first to bring this technology to the market before it even occurs to others they'd want to compete. Oculus under Facebook might not bring the finished product most of us were looking for, but having a device that's solved the technological challenges of consumer VR is the heavy lifting. And it puts Facebook in the position of being The Name in consumer VR. Are they going to alienate that right off the bat by building a walled garden, putting heavy content locks on it, watching everything you do? Or will they do the soft touch of making their helmet the easiest (and perhaps only) way to tie your VR into the Facebook network when you wish, get special savings on new software, offer perks to developers that find Facebook-friendly features for their VR software? I think if they squeeze too hard people will upgrade right out of them into the competition. Which is sure to follow shortly if the hardware is a massive success and the implementation is driving people away. So, cautiously optimistic.

colechristensen 13y ago
I bought an Oculus Rift. I'm not going to be buying a Facebook device. Facebook is creepy. It doesn't matter how cool the technology is or what it can do, more and more people are becoming disturbed at the now common concept of consumer-as-product for Facebook, Google, et al. Even if they seemed open and friendly at first, I personally wouldn't trust that kind of technology in the hands of Google, Microsoft, or Facebook; end of story.
- jfoster 13y ago
  "Facebook is creepy." Definition of creepy: "causing an unpleasant feeling of fear or unease." What is creepy about finding out what people are into and showing them ads relevant to those things? So many people are claiming that Facebook is creepy, but I just can't see it.
  - Zirro 13y ago
    A company keeping a permanent database of my interests, which sites I like to visit and any other information that it can access definitively causes a feeling of unease. What happens to this data if (or when) Facebook goes the way of MySpace? Will they sell it? Are they already selling it? Who could use it against me in the future?