GDC 2014 - Oculus Vs Sony - ding-ding... fight !

Post by **mickman** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 2:34 am

Now things get interesting...

Here comes Sony. Will PalmerTech & crew pull something new out of their bag of tricks & have an even awesomer DK2 on hand ?

That Sony VRHMD sure looks sweet but is it just an updated HMZt3 with tiny little screens or are they about to showcase something that will push consumer favouritism & we'll see a massive queue leading out the doors of GDC or will OculusRift lines simply wrap around the Sony Booth

You know what would be an absolute laugh.. if a couple of back yard hackers come out of the garage & set u in a little booth in a corner where they showcase their new hybrid HMD that blows the socks off all camps... mmmmm. that would be hysterical.

O.R is attractive due to it being open source.. I love tweaking stuff & the Rift will eat Sony in this department.
Sony, I hope will keep to consoles & create an awesome product for PS4.. simple as that.

THE BLACK BRICK : Sure hope to see a slightly more stylised Rift .. anything beats strapping a black brick to my face

actually to be honest I really don't care how stupid I look .. its all about what's going on inside... but I sure would like to know what the heck's happening outside too.
Perhaps an external A.R camera attachment, so users can flip to real world when the need arises... e.g.. mates start laughing at you & you have absolutely no idea what the heck they're actually up to.. for all you know... whatever they're cracking up at could be going viral

some say ignorance is bliss. I say best have a bit more control of ones immediate surroundings.

Anyway.. what's your take on GDC2104 .. ??

Post by **Dilip** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:12 am

mickman wrote:Now things get interesting...

Here comes Sony. Will PalmerTech & crew pull something new out of their bag of tricks & have an even awesomer DK2 on hand ?

For 100% Sure just wait 2 Days for "Oculus Showdown"

mickman wrote: Sony, I hope will keep to consoles & create an awesome product for PS4.. simple as that.

I expect it to be LOCKED DOWN to EXPERIAs IF NOT TOTALLY ON PS4 and price around 600~700 USD
For Me Both are big let down... like best quote of Palmer - If you can't afford it,then it pretty much doesn't exists for you. but for Sony FANS here comes NEW 'PS MOVE'

mickman wrote: what's your take on GDC2104 .. ??

1440P RIFT in CRYSTAL COVE II >>> Nothing LEss will DO

Post by **colocolo** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:58 am

100% Sony isnt going to show off a VR headset. But another video viewer.

1440P CC would be fine.....

Post by **Drewbdoo** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 7:51 am

colocolo wrote:100% Sony isnt going to show off a VR headset. But another video viewer.
1440P CC would be fine.....

I was thinking the same thing for the longest time, but I've seen too many rumors online and talked to too many dev's "in the know" to not believe Sony has an HMD. Also, the video viewers are made by their tv division and would probably not be related to the division developing vr hardware. Just me 2 cents, but I'm much more in the 100% sure they are going to have a VR headset and like 75% they will show/announce something at GDC

Reddit · Post by **nateight** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:06 am

Drewbdoo wrote:I'm much more in the 100% sure they are going to have a VR headset

Hey, Sony already has the world's very best VR headset, buddy - the HMZ-T3 is the market leader in (currently-on-the-consumer-market) VR tech by a country mile! You can't buy a better (consumer-packaged) HMD! I'll bet you haven't even tried it and here you are saying it's not the super-great thing everyone (on the Sony payroll) has said it is! What a sad little Xbox fanboy you must be, instantly dismissing anything Sony out of some blind idolatry. If you'd just look at all this objectively, you'd see that Sony is the best company ever, and couldn't possibly make something that wasn't the best possible version of that thing the world has ever known! The HMZ-T3 is all VR needs!

(

)

Post by **Drewbdoo** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 11:38 am

Nate, I get that your trolling, but I don't exactly see the point, other than just making fun of peolpe who say/think the HMZ is a VR headset? I am a confused....

Reddit · Post by **nateight** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 12:31 pm

Drewbdoo wrote:I am a confused....

My basic point is: So, I think, is Sony. I can believe they're announcing a PS4-exclusive HMD at GDC. I have difficulty believing it's much more than an HMZ-T3 with an IMU taped on. I'm taking in a giant mouthful of coffee right before your presentation, Sony - I dare you to surprise me.

Post by **Drewbdoo** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 3:42 pm

Ooooh, ok, I gotcha. See though, I don't subscribe to some opinions that happen in the mtbs/rift reddit echo chamber. Since I heard that the vr hmd is coming out of the camp that gave us the eyetoy and the move and not that tv's, it has started to make more sense to me. Is the hmz overpriced crap? Probably, yeah. But that's a different and niche market already to what is going on in VR. If sony is going to bring out a headset for the ps4, it has to be thinking in terms of competing with the rift and I don't think sony is so blind as to put out a cheap hmz or something really crappily subpar, especially since the rift has already shown what can be done with the cheapest of components.

I really don't know what to expect aside from interesting announcements from Oculus and a headset of some sort from sony. At this point, I'm not even sure if I'd rather see sony epic fail again, come out with something totally workable and easily a console rival to the pc dominated rift, or a superior headset to the rift. All three have interesting ocnsequences.

All I do know is that the VR future is looking brighter than ever

Post by **Mark2036** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:16 pm

My prediction for the sony ps4 hmd specs will be:

110 deg fov
Same lens warp as Oculus
1080p AMOLED
Low persistence
6dof tracking via optical tracking (ps eye)
<30ms latency
Lens cups for different glasses prescriptions
PS move hand tracking

And launch games: drive club and witness

I even have managed to get a insider picture of Sony's new hmd!

So..... Does oculus have any copyrights on its tech yet?

Post by **cybereality** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:36 pm

HahHAAHa!!!

Post by **V8Griff** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:18 am

That'd be the biggest advance in their HMD design Sony has made in 20 years!!!

Post by **GeraldT** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 5:02 am

I am still rather curious what Sony will really announce - they should have access to great OLED screens and as it has been stated so often, the tech needed to get to the point where it makes sense to revive VR. That Sony was active in the field for so long without releasing another fail is a good thing imo. And the HMZ has never been made for VR but for movies - of course I was disappointed when Sony was not showing their HMD last time and just more HMZ stuff, but that does not mean I am not optimisitic that Sony might try to give MS a big kick in the Xbox nuts by adding a cool VR feature to the PS4.

And it would be awesome for us and Oculus - if game developers get the added target audience on the PS4 for VR, then it is much more likely that we will see AAA titles that really target VR.

As Drew said - quite a few devs have shared information in the past that point to a Sony VR HMD and it seems to be great. I would love to see a joint effort with Oculus, but I do not expect that to happen. Instead I am looking forward to "choices"

Post by **mickman** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:04 pm

I walked into a game shop last week & was actually swaying towards purchasing a PS4 console rather than X-Box purely due to Sony releasing a VRHMD ... & that 's so out of the norm for me as I've always run with X-Box being interested in the Kinect. If this new VR HMD does get the thumbs up I know where I'll be throwing my $.

Off topic- Why no flexi screens? I'm sort of still hoping some day soon we'll hear a report that Sony or Phillips are about to move into flexible screen HMDs.

& where's Apple in all of this ... Any rumours about an iEye viewer In the works ?

@Mark2036- that. Image cracked me up.. Nearly spat a mouthful of coffee all over my precious laptop... Thx for that.

Post by **MSat** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 8:44 pm

And here it is: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/play ... l-reality/

Post by **Mark2036** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 9:43 pm

Oh yeah baby.... Oculus seems to have a contender on its hands now....

Wonder if the 90+ fov is diagonal or horizontal?

Post by **ss248** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 12:42 am

Rip Oculus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQuDAW06Og0

Post by **mickman** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:42 am

Anything beats a black brick. Oculus have loads of room to catch up in terms of design & austetics.
So what's inside Morpheus ? 1080p. Low latency & 360degree positional tracking.
Sounds the same as the Rift... was hoping for more from such a big company.
Sony is restricted to the PS4s CPU & onboard graphics.
I prefer how Oculus are open source... A hackers dream. + the Unity plugin is great.
I still prefer the Rift ...

Post by **V8Griff** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 2:29 am

This smacks of exactly what Sega did in the late '90s with their headset. They made lots of noise about their HMD, worked with Virtuality, showed prototypes but then realised they couldn't build anything like the quality of the Virtuality HMD at the price point they needed so they commissioned a report by a University to say that VR was harmful and quoted that as the reason for not progressing. I was interviewed by newspapers and put the case for VR, sensationalism won in that occasion, as it sells newspapers, never let the facts get in the way of a good story eh?

Now I'm not saying Sony will do that but what they are doing is more or less quoting the spec of Crystal Cove and are waiting to see what the reaction from their installed PS4 base is. If there is great excitement and interest for this on the PS4 then they'll progress but otherwise it's just (imo) another Sony showboat to try and cash in on the work Oculus has done in reviving interest in VR.

Post by **blasphemer** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:34 am

Does this headset have 3D rendering or not? It doesnt say so specificaly in their specs. Maybe they aim to render the same pics to helt with framerate?

Post by **colocolo** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:43 am

Time of convergence, baby...... Yessssss!
Now i hope also other future technologies like molten salt reactors or evacuated tube transportation will emerge.

Post by **3trip** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:15 am

colocolo wrote:Time of convergence, baby...... Yessssss!
Now i hope also other future technologies like molten salt reactors or evacuated tube transportation will emerge.

Can't wait for LFT reactors and virtul reality myself.

Post by **squibbfire** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:00 am

I told you so...

Everyone told me that Sony was years away...yeah they have a prototype and will be ready for mass production by end of year...

told.
you.
so.

Post by **V8Griff** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:30 am

squibbfire wrote:I told you so...

Everyone told me that Sony was years away...yeah they have a prototype and will be ready for mass production by end of year...

told.
you.
so.

A few rendered images and a few prototypes does not a commercial or development headset make..... I've been around in this VR business long enough to know and see that 9 out of 10 VR project DO NOT happen. I won't believe Sony are taking this seriously until someone other than Sony gets to work with it.

Ready to be proved wrong but I'm not holding my breath to see this at retail at an affordable price soon.

Post by **PasticheDonkey** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:00 pm

there are people lining up to try it right now.

Post by **PasticheDonkey** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 1:04 pm

squibbfire wrote:I told you so...

Everyone told me that Sony was years away...yeah they have a prototype and will be ready for mass production by end of year...

told.
you.
so.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/19/55266 ... -this-year

Post by **colocolo** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:05 pm

nice move to prevent too many PS4 gamers from deserting to Oculus....
anyway at some point they'll release it....
both announcements from OVR and Sony came pretty much in synch....haha.....waiting for the next round....ding-ding....

Post by **GeraldT** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:24 pm

seems like Sony has not nailed the tracking, but after all their set is not final either. and given that the Rift now can be ordered the Sony headset really only sees the short end of press love right now.

I would love to know how many preorders Oculus will have for the DK2 this week - even my brother decided to order one. Can't wait to get my DK2 and see what positional tracking adds ...

Post by **Moriarty** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:41 pm

Kotaku demo's :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAJHD54qbog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFclQ4nInTo

Post by **Marulu** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:18 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRbHBhFkO-E

Post by **mahler** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:22 pm

The shark in that demo looks amazing!!

Post by **Libertine** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:57 pm

Man, i hope they don't get stuck in some industry wide development rut, where the small FOV is deemed satisfactory due to the overall success of the 3D and headtracking component. I think the resolution will probably take care of itself, but i don't think people will immediately understand the benefit of a full-vision FOV screen.

Is the FOV a horizontal measurement or diagonal?

Post by **fireslayer26** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:11 pm

So how many "ideas" did they borrow from Oculus??

Post by **GeraldT** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:19 pm

seems like they "borrowed" pretty much the whole basic concept from Palmer, but they decided to not "borrow" from Valve (yet) ... I guess they are still behind a lot. But as genius the simple concept was, once it is out in the open you can not complain of others using it. The real art is making it work all together and they obviously are not using the same concepts as Oculus does for tracking.
And why do you think Palmer took apart all those HMDs prior to building his own masterpieces? Lets just be happy Sony is on board with VR with a solution that seems good enough to not scare away the masses.

Post by **cybereality** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:45 pm

I'm honestly excited. Let's get this party started!

Post by **mickman** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 3:57 am

I feel whoever brings a wider FOV will get the sales.. Bring on a 160 FOV

Post by **GeraldT** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:21 am

In one comparison I read how the Sony HMD had better picture quality - if you put the same res to a lower FOV you have a better picture.
So we still have to wait and see where the sweetspot for consumer VR lies - maybe most people prefer better picture quality over a higher fov. Or maybe it is just easier to sell to people if the lower FOV makes it appear nicer in the first place.

I expect that any set that offers 90°+ FOV will be a candidate for VR and have a chance of becoming the one mainstream device.

Post by **Dilip** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 5:22 am

mickman wrote:I feel whoever brings a wider FOV will get the sales.. Bring on a 160 FOV

Foisi(lionel Anton) where are you with that 210 Degree monster of yours???

cybereality wrote:I'm honestly excited. Let's get this party started!

Surely must not be for sony--They are expected to have 1K price point for Q/1K resolution per eye with LCD..

Any way i m excited about that "Secret Prototype of CV1 in Oculus Secret Basements... ( my guess 2K LED Screen in Crystalcove3)

Libertine wrote:Is the FOV a horizontal measurement or diagonal?

Its measurement and can be mentioned both way, Those who have small fov in Horizontal and Vertical they boast of Diagonal and one with the big FOV mention it in Horizontal and Vertical but that’s how marketing train runs->On fuel of HYPE
.

Post by **squibbfire** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:12 am

ps4 VR is rumored to be priced at 1000.

sony fail...

Post by **colocolo** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:39 am

i think they cooperate with OVR.....1000$ for a PS4 accessory?

Post by **Mystify** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:41 am

I feel like one being tied to PS4 and the other to general computers will divide the market more strongly than and specific specs on wither, at least as long as they are both competent(which seems to be the case).