I believe this has potential for the future, but as a matter of personal principle I will never buy a headset from Oculus.
Once a second generation of VR headsets come out, with increased PPI/resolution, I'll be going for a VIVE or whatever partner Valve chooses.
Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter. I got one click away from ordering a DK2 from them, but now I'm glad I didn't. The whole Facebook buyout and closed store is a no-no for me. I vote with my wallet.
"Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter."
I backed the original Kickstarter Rift DK1 and they gifted me (and all DK1 backers) a $600 Rift "CV1" as a thank-you. Also the campaign made the long-awaited VR revival happen, and this time it's here to stay. Yes, Oculus has had no shortage of product fulfillment woes and PR fiascos this year, but it's hard to imagine a more successful Kickstarter for both the industry and its backers. The Rift Dk1 is perhaps the best tech crowdfunding campaign of all time.
I'm with you 100%. Oculus went full scumdog mode after Facebook bought them out. Their dumb walled garden / forced "SDK"/spyware install and shady "exclusivity" deals.
Valve and SteamVR try as hard as they can to make sure everyone with every headset can play everything. Oculus try as hard as they can to lock your into only THEIR headset that runs on THEIR software. I find it disgusting.
"Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter. "
I backed the kickstarter, and I received my DK1. That's the entirety of the obligation from the Kickstarter fulfilled. Crowdfunding != crowd-investment.
Those acquisitions have always puzzled me, spending millions or even billions on tech which can easily and quickly be developed from scratch for far less. Blowing the bubble bigger I guess.
Also acquisition of talent. The company's talent can often be more valuable than the products they've developed, though in this case there's an obvious purpose to eye-tracking in a VR HMD. I'll be surprised of "2nd gen" VR launches without it.
I don't think I can recall any IP needed to create a HMD that is not prior art to oculus to justify paying 2 billion for it. HMD have been around for a long time, the only difference is now they are small and affordable enough to go mainstream.
"HMD have been around for a long time, the only difference is now they are small and affordable enough to go mainstream."
Prior to the current crop of HMDs starting with the DK1, a consumer HMD had: - No tracking - A tiny (40° for the HMZ series, typical FoV was ~20° for something like the ST1080) field of view - Low refresh rate - Full-persistance panels - Often very low resolution, sometimes even driven entirely by a composite video connection
And guess what, those cost in the region of $1000 MSRP too! People who have just seen the recent marketing for VR HMDs have no clue the sea-change in the HMD marker Oculus brought,
LOL, you don't need "intellectual property" to put a "larger display" in a HMD, all you need is higher pixel density. There was head tracking in HMDs at least a decade back. Oculus neither invented "higher resolution" nor produce any actual displays. That was enabled entirely by technological progress, and oculus had absolutely nothing to do with that happening, it didn't speed things up, it just popped up when technology advanced enough to make it mainstream.
As for any "contributions" that it may have brought, those mainly have to do with hype that still fails to materialize into something other than further filling a few guy's pockets. That's what they all do, pick things that are "new" only because they were previously too expensive to go mainstream, and hype the hell out of them, to milk naive and easy to impress dummies, and in the end we aren't any closer to innovation and in a short while it becomes yet another short-lived fad. A few years ago the same thing happened with 3d printers, they were supposedly make a revolution, today nobody cares anymore, they don't even make the headlines.
I used an old Amiga based VR system a few times. It was awful. The Oculus system may not have invented much but the way it is put together works amazingly well. It is not awful.
You don't say, something made today is better than something made decades ago? Who would have thought! Let's hope in a few decades you will also be able to get the point.
Don't forget that pupil tracking allows for a more accurate projection, particularly for closer objects. When the pupil moves, it changes the position in which light is entering the eye. I think it was Carmack that mentioned this and how it was part of the ultimate goals of VR HMDs.
I'd go out on a limb and say that we are likely to see lens-compensation appear in a HMD before we see foveated rendering. The performance requirements for foveated rendering in a HMD are harsh and current systems do not meet them, while lens-compensation has a much more graceful failure mode (i.e. the worst failure is the current status-quo).
Facebook will of course use eye tracking tech to run "big data analysis" of how people move their eyes, and place even more intrusive and sublime ads everywhere. That's worth billions.
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17 Comments
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LordanSS - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
I believe this has potential for the future, but as a matter of personal principle I will never buy a headset from Oculus.Once a second generation of VR headsets come out, with increased PPI/resolution, I'll be going for a VIVE or whatever partner Valve chooses.
Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter. I got one click away from ordering a DK2 from them, but now I'm glad I didn't. The whole Facebook buyout and closed store is a no-no for me. I vote with my wallet.
SeannyB - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
"Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter."I backed the original Kickstarter Rift DK1 and they gifted me (and all DK1 backers) a $600 Rift "CV1" as a thank-you. Also the campaign made the long-awaited VR revival happen, and this time it's here to stay. Yes, Oculus has had no shortage of product fulfillment woes and PR fiascos this year, but it's hard to imagine a more successful Kickstarter for both the industry and its backers. The Rift Dk1 is perhaps the best tech crowdfunding campaign of all time.
JKflipflop98 - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
I'm with you 100%. Oculus went full scumdog mode after Facebook bought them out. Their dumb walled garden / forced "SDK"/spyware install and shady "exclusivity" deals.Valve and SteamVR try as hard as they can to make sure everyone with every headset can play everything. Oculus try as hard as they can to lock your into only THEIR headset that runs on THEIR software. I find it disgusting.
edzieba - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
"Oculus betrayed many of those who helped fund their DK1 through Kickstarter. "I backed the kickstarter, and I received my DK1. That's the entirety of the obligation from the Kickstarter fulfilled. Crowdfunding != crowd-investment.
Guspaz - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
More than that, you got a free CV1 too. I can't help but feel like people are entitled considering Joan much they got out of that kickstarter.Guspaz - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
Considering *how* muchddriver - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
Those acquisitions have always puzzled me, spending millions or even billions on tech which can easily and quickly be developed from scratch for far less. Blowing the bubble bigger I guess.boskone - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
IP and patents. Could end up cheaper buying than licensing or lawyers.SeannyB - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
Also acquisition of talent. The company's talent can often be more valuable than the products they've developed, though in this case there's an obvious purpose to eye-tracking in a VR HMD. I'll be surprised of "2nd gen" VR launches without it.ddriver - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
I don't think I can recall any IP needed to create a HMD that is not prior art to oculus to justify paying 2 billion for it. HMD have been around for a long time, the only difference is now they are small and affordable enough to go mainstream.edzieba - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
"HMD have been around for a long time, the only difference is now they are small and affordable enough to go mainstream."Prior to the current crop of HMDs starting with the DK1, a consumer HMD had:
- No tracking
- A tiny (40° for the HMZ series, typical FoV was ~20° for something like the ST1080) field of view
- Low refresh rate
- Full-persistance panels
- Often very low resolution, sometimes even driven entirely by a composite video connection
And guess what, those cost in the region of $1000 MSRP too! People who have just seen the recent marketing for VR HMDs have no clue the sea-change in the HMD marker Oculus brought,
ddriver - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
LOL, you don't need "intellectual property" to put a "larger display" in a HMD, all you need is higher pixel density. There was head tracking in HMDs at least a decade back. Oculus neither invented "higher resolution" nor produce any actual displays. That was enabled entirely by technological progress, and oculus had absolutely nothing to do with that happening, it didn't speed things up, it just popped up when technology advanced enough to make it mainstream.As for any "contributions" that it may have brought, those mainly have to do with hype that still fails to materialize into something other than further filling a few guy's pockets. That's what they all do, pick things that are "new" only because they were previously too expensive to go mainstream, and hype the hell out of them, to milk naive and easy to impress dummies, and in the end we aren't any closer to innovation and in a short while it becomes yet another short-lived fad. A few years ago the same thing happened with 3d printers, they were supposedly make a revolution, today nobody cares anymore, they don't even make the headlines.
Zan Lynx - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
I used an old Amiga based VR system a few times. It was awful. The Oculus system may not have invented much but the way it is put together works amazingly well. It is not awful.ddriver - Sunday, January 1, 2017 - link
You don't say, something made today is better than something made decades ago? Who would have thought! Let's hope in a few decades you will also be able to get the point.PseudoKnight - Friday, December 30, 2016 - link
Don't forget that pupil tracking allows for a more accurate projection, particularly for closer objects. When the pupil moves, it changes the position in which light is entering the eye. I think it was Carmack that mentioned this and how it was part of the ultimate goals of VR HMDs.edzieba - Saturday, December 31, 2016 - link
I'd go out on a limb and say that we are likely to see lens-compensation appear in a HMD before we see foveated rendering. The performance requirements for foveated rendering in a HMD are harsh and current systems do not meet them, while lens-compensation has a much more graceful failure mode (i.e. the worst failure is the current status-quo).aetrha - Monday, January 2, 2017 - link
Facebook will of course use eye tracking tech to run "big data analysis" of how people move their eyes, and place even more intrusive and sublime ads everywhere. That's worth billions.