Oculus Rift/HTC Vive / VR in general?

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I took a video of one the lighthouses using camcorder. I removed it's IR filter. It it also gives you an idea of the sound, but the camera has a shitty microphone.

Edit: It's the whirring sound you should be listening for. The loudest noise you hear are the fans in my PC case.

This is how it would look like in slow motion

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Thanks for sharing! Interesting to actually see the lighthouse.

No question about it, the Vive is ahead in hardware and possibilities. I'm leaning hard toward it. Just not actually getting either for a while.

Probably going to also build a dedicated VR PC. If I can manage it.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

This all looks like a seriously expensive hobby. My daughter is supposed to come by when she has the time to show me what she has and how it all works. It kind of reminds me of Organic Chemistry when we would look at complex molecules in 3D and rotate them in space. I doubt I could ever justify the expense for the gaming aspect, but that is just me. Thanks for all the education I've received here.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

With the exception of Google Glass, and Samsung Gear (if you own a compatible high end samsung phone) it is definitely very pricey.

The cheapest ready to go package I've come across so far was $1500 without tax and shipping. That's for an Oculus Rift and computer that capable of running it, based on minimum specs.

There are several big hurdles that VR needs to overcome, and for the time being the more advanced options are definitely something for the enthusiast, rather than a mainstream consumer.

What VR has to do, first and foremost (imo) is find a NEED to fill. Not a want, but a need. Especially from the enterprise end of things.

I also think on the consumer level the mobile VR variants will lead the way, as they do now, but even more so with time.

Personally the appeal to me is not gaming, though that's a big part of it, but rather the other possibilities, like virtual tourism, and interactive experiences. For example two of my friends take language lessons over skype. How much more immersive would it be if you could attend a class, and even go through a guided VR experience as a lesson. A tour of the louvre with frech narration. A drive through the scenic highways of california with a spanish companion. Skydiving, and basejumping experiences. Piloting a drone with a 360/180 camera attached. The possibilities are endless.

On the more mundane side of things, I work in an open office environment. It's a small company, but even so there are always some distractions. It would be amazing for me to be able to isolate myself in a virtual office, and to have that office on a mountain top, or a beach.

Anyway, I digress. Yes it's expensive for now, and probably not worth getting into for most just now, but it is 100% worth trying, and ikf you have a samsung compatible phone if would be foolish not to give it a shot. So far, even the more basic mobile version through my Note 5, and samsung gear has left everyone who's tried it amazed.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Oculus confirms component shortage is delaying some pre-order shipments | TechCrunch

The more I read reviews, articles, etc,. the more it seems to be that HTC is winning round one of VR wars. I really don't like the way Oculus has handled the launch, and delays. Reminds me too much of the rest of the drama on the forum right now.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

HTC caught Oculus with their pants down with the complete experience with the Vive. This forced Oculus to release their product as soon as possible. They didn't plan on release before 2017, along with the Touch controllers.

But I'm now noticing that Vive was rushed too, especially with the software. I'm experience lots of bugs, and it is getting very annoying to restart everything every time 1 out of 10 things doesn't want to start properly. Hopefully there will be updates soon..

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

I was swaying from Rift to Vive and now back to Rift. The Vive is more in line with my philosophy, I don't like the way Oculus is looking more and more like apple, with locked down ecosystems, exclusive content and treating the users like stupid children (I mean you have to track down a checkbox in the settings and turn it on in order to even be able to run programs from outside the oculus store).

So I want to like the Vive, but to me for now the specs of the rift is simply more in line with my needs, like from what I have read the rift is more comfortable, slightly better visual quality and the integrated headphones look very practical. Not to mention it being quite a lot cheaper. Missing the hand controller is not a huge deal because I am already waiting for the sixense STEM which should hopefully arrive in time for the rift, which sixense have promised will support emulating the oculus touch or vive hand controllers.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Whichever works best for you is also the best decision.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Based on reading reviews basically everyday, yes, the oculus is more comfortable, and has a more polished software experience.

In terms of price, if it was released together with the controllers, I think we'd be looking at a difference of under $100 between the two.

The downside to the oculus is that it has a nose gap, which allows some light through, ruining immersion. It also lacks a passthrough camera, and there's been no announcement from oculus about any plans to emulate a room size VR experience.

Personally I'm neutral on the headphones being included. On the one hand it's nice that they are there, on the other I expect they will fall far short of what people who are willing to spend so much money on the setup, will have already on hand.

I'm still completely undecided which way I'll go, but where headphones are concerned, with either setup I will use my own.

The thing that makes me lean towards HTC Vive (at present) is that it has more technical room to grow, and it retains the sit down options that oculus is based around. If Oculus were to announce room scale VR with the addition of another camera that would be a game changer.

I think both platforms need years to mature, and both were rushed by each other. Neither wanted to give up the market simply by entering the field too late.

I also think both will be surpassed drastically in adoption by mobile Vr, and playstation Vr.

On the software side of things, the gear vr oculus apps store, and app have been getting regular updates. I've run into fewer issues, quite a few minor improvements.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

InfinitusEquitas said:

The downside to the oculus is that it has a nose gap, which allows some light through, ruining immersion.
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Personally I'm neutral on the headphones being included. On the one hand it's nice that they are there, on the other I expect they will fall far short of what people who are willing to spend so much money on the setup, will have already on hand.
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The thing that makes me lean towards HTC Vive (at present) is that it has more technical room to grow, and it retains the sit down options that oculus is based around. If Oculus were to announce room scale VR with the addition of another camera that would be a game changer.

I think both platforms need years to mature, and both were rushed by each other. Neither wanted to give up the market simply by entering the field too late.
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On my DK2 I used some black sugru to plug the nose gap. Highly recommended, you can mold it so that your nose fits perfectly, high comfort and no light leakage.

People are saying the headphones are quite good, but I guess it remains to be seen. But one thing is that it provides a standardized audio system for developers to target, which is quite important for VR and positional audio.

I agree that the platforms need time to mature, but the way I see it the current rift and vive won't last forever either. I think within two years new iterations and maybe even completely new competitor will pop up, so it's not like if you pick vive or rift now you have to stick with that in the future as well

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

No, that's just it. Both are first generation of VR, so they won't last long at all. Cellphones have release cycle of a new model basically every year, and the same is true of most tech related equipment. Major changes usually take 2 generations to mature though.

So my guess is we'll see a slight variation from both HTC and Oculus around this time next year, and a new headset altogether in 2018.

LG is also working on a VR headset to be paired with their phone (has abysmal reviews as of now) and of course there is morpheus from Sony, which will drop this year.

The timeline for AR headsets also points to 2018/19 releases from microsoft, and others.

Interesting point about the headphones. I hadn't considered that. My understanding though, is they don't have any kind of virtual surround sound yet, which I'm sure is coming.

Have you tried the samsung gear by any chance?

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Grix said:

but the way I see it the current rift and vive won't last forever either. I think within two years new iterations and maybe even completely new competitor will pop up, so it's not like if you pick vive or rift now you have to stick with that in the future as well

Click to expand...

This is very true. At any time now, can a whole new manufacturer pop up with a device that totally blows both Oculus and Vive out of the water. I've been telling earlier in this thread that the second generation (~2years from now) is worth waiting for, but I'm just referring to Oculus/Vive. Major, or just even marginal improvements can come sooner than one might think.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

It is worth keeping in mind that, to my understanding, HTC simply licensed the research and framework for the vive from vavle, and valve has said they are definitely interested in licensing to even more companies releasing headsets for steamVR. So I think it's only a matter of time before that starts happening.

InfinitusEquitas said:

Interesting point about the headphones. I hadn't considered that. My understanding though, is they don't have any kind of virtual surround sound yet, which I'm sure is coming.

Have you tried the samsung gear by any chance?

Click to expand...

They do have positional sound already, that is what the oculus audio sdk is for: https://developer.oculus.com/blog/meet-the-oculus-audio-sdk/

I haven't tried GearVR no. Phone is not compatible

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Interesting development. The Oculus controllers are going to ship with a 2nd camera to enable room scale VR.

Which still leaves it without a pass-through camera, and makes me wonder how they will manage an approach to safety, but it does take away HTCs biggest advantage.

Re: Oculus Rift / Samsung Gear / VR in general?

Yet another entry into the VR field...

Huawei goes after Samsung with its own Gear VR clone

I also expect some big news come May, from google...

Google?s secret VR weapon is Project Tango | The Verge

Just... blowing shit up. (me playing)

Click here for high frame rate

I picked up Holopoint this weekend and its the most physically demanding game I've tried so far, but equally as fun.
I only played it for 3 hours, but I haven't been able to play it for 2 days now because my legs hurt like hell. I need to get in shape for video games.