Re: Facebook to Buy Oculus... Is this real?
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 8:03 am
Sorry Bob! Corrected my false quote - it was directed at Kazioo!
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V8griff is right, with Sony in competition, they can't afford to be outdone, they have to at minimum, put out a product that is similar, or better. Besides, the VR hardware needed to render immersive 2d images needs to render at the same frame rates, high resolution, and with the same accurate tracking you'd want in a 3d environment.V8Griff wrote:Okta wrote:Regardless of what people think about Facebook it's still a business and they will want to exploit every market so even if their desire is for seated applications it's still likely that ALL avenues will be investigated to maximise the sales opportunities. Also competition from other companies such as Sony who seem to have a 360 degree solution implemented on the Morpheus will assist in keeping them honest.V8Griff wrote:
That is true, but knowing Facefails end game, what is their motivation to move beyond that?
I'd suspect that with a more rigid strap over the head it would be relatively easy to mount additional LEDs to afford 360 degree tracking to the Rift as well.
Even so there is nothing preventing the true VR enthusiast ie the folk on here from implementing other positional tracking methods and ignoring or supplementing the data coming from the Rift tracking.
Iribe:GeraldT wrote:Kazioo none of those sources says anything about their business model being "like consoles". Subsidizing hardware can mean a lot of stuff. In one of them they even say "if the company finds the right business model" ... so that is pretty much saying they don't know yet.
I think the first part of your post is flawed. I'd say 'the masses' are less tolerant of defects and sub standard quality than I think die-hards like us are.OzOnE2k10 wrote: I think people are worried that Oculus will now fall into the same trap in some way - a "toned-down" device for the masses that may possibly sacrifice some of the very best VR tech to appeal to the average users who aren't so bothered about 360-degree 6DOF tracking and super hi-res screens.
Then again, if you look at it another way - there are few markets on the planet that have pushed consumer tech as far and as fast as the smart phone market.
This is probably the main reason why we even have 6" 1080p and so-called "Retina" displays already, and much better / smaller accelerometers.
The mobile phone market is no doubt also largely responsible for the rapid shrinking of IC packages / CPUs / GPUs, and all other components.
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I now realize that the investment can only be good for VR as a whole.
If not from Oculus themselves, then it will certainly provoke even bigger competition from the likes of Sony / MS.
We might just have to let go of the concept of the little old "parents' garage startup" Oculus going it alone against the big companies.
OzOnE.
I see where you're coming from but again I'd say that Smartphones probably hit the sweetspot that the average consumer would have been happy with a few years back but in the quest for more revenue the development has continued, I'd hope that HMDs would follow the same upward curve.OzOnE2k10 wrote:By "toned down" and "for the masses", I meant that once the spec gets to a certain point, it's possible that the average user will be more than happy with it, and won't necessarily be interested in some of the further enhancements that us VR enthusiasts or "hardcore" gamers would want..
This. Facebook and Sony may get into a pissing war pushing features that are not primarily relevant to the VR gamer.Mystify wrote:Never underestimate the draw of bigger numbers on a spec sheet. The average consumer may not know what it means, or what is relevant, but they will think that the one with more impressive stats is better, and will get that. Which means all the competitors try to get even bigger numbers, and you have the typical pattern of rapid advancement you typically see. It is the mass markets buying into this stuff that makes it profitable, not a niche group of enthusiasts who know how to get the most actual performance out of what they are getting.
I agree about big numbers looking good. It's like folk who buy the 'top of the range' car that is plainly too fast or exotic for the one or two trips to the shops they do but are as they are seduced by the spec.Okta wrote:This. Facebook and Sony may get into a pissing war pushing features that are not primarily relevant to the VR gamer.Mystify wrote:Never underestimate the draw of bigger numbers on a spec sheet. The average consumer may not know what it means, or what is relevant, but they will think that the one with more impressive stats is better, and will get that. Which means all the competitors try to get even bigger numbers, and you have the typical pattern of rapid advancement you typically see. It is the mass markets buying into this stuff that makes it profitable, not a niche group of enthusiasts who know how to get the most actual performance out of what they are getting.