By Lev Grossman
How a 19-year-old hacker behind Oculus Rift set out to invent a gaming headset but ended up reviving a dead technology and building a global communications platform, worth $2 billion to Facebook in a surprise deal announced this week
Luckey wasn’t the only person who still cared about virtual reality, but he almost was. There was a small community of true believers, less than a hundred, who hung out on a web forum called MTBS3D to talk about it. (MTBS stands for “meant to be seen.”) Luckey was one of them. John Carmack was another.
Carmack thought VR had potential too, in spite of all the failures, and every few years he would check in on the state of the art to see if it was usable yet. In April 2012, Carmack was tinkering with a VR headset made by Sony, and he posted about it on MTBS3D. Luckey responded. He told Carmack about his own prototype, and Carmack said he’d like to buy one. Luckey was in awe. “You cannot take money from Carmack,” he says. “It would be like if Jesus said, Give me your clothes.” He sent Carmack the prototype, his only working model, for free, via regular mail.
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The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
- metalqueen
- 3D Angel Eyes (Moderator)
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The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
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- brantlew
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Re: The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
I was so happy to see mtbs3d get a shout-out in that article.
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- Binocular Vision CONFIRMED!
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Re: The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
"There was a small community of true believers, less than a hundred".....
The $500, slightly forgotten pre-k's, get their virtual 15 minutes.....
Look ma! I kinda made Time.... kinda:)
l'll take it:) I'm easy:)
The $500, slightly forgotten pre-k's, get their virtual 15 minutes.....
Look ma! I kinda made Time.... kinda:)
l'll take it:) I'm easy:)
- metalqueen
- 3D Angel Eyes (Moderator)
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Re: The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
Me too!brantlew wrote:I was so happy to see mtbs3d get a shout-out in that article.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif)
![Image](http://www.mtbs3d.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/thumb_Medium_LowResLIGHT.png)
- Non-profit, non-partisan.
- Features user contributed education sessions, blogs, and content.
- Safe to interact, registration requires formal non-disclosure agreement. Membership list is equally confidential.
- Open to all except press. People can join as individuals or companies.
- People say the industry needs to get together and learn from one another. This is our chance.
- cybereality
- 3D Angel Eyes (Moderator)
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Re: The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
What is this MTBS3D they speak of? Never heard of it.
- WadeWatts
- One Eyed Hopeful
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Re: The Virtual Genius of Oculus Rift
LOL! Yeah who are these guys? It's amazing all the press VR is getting. You would think a whole new industry is about to be born or something!