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Virtual Reality


Daft

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It's probably why they're going with LCD instead of OLED.

 

I think it would be a good idea to make sure this connects to PCs and then heave yearly hardware updates. See how it does, release an updated version down the line with OLED, and then eye tracking.

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Have Facebook ruined anything else they've bought out? Not that I can think of.

 

Good to have a big backer behind some promising tech. They've said the initial focus will still be gaming, and VR would always need to look at a wider market to succeed anyway. Interested to see what the future brings.

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So, Notch (who "invested" $10,000 into the Rift) was working on a special version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift. The deal was made with the people at Oculus a few weeks ago.

 

Due to the news about Facebook, he just cancelled it.

 

While he's very civil about it in that blog post, it's pretty clear he's pretty pissed about this, especially due to his investment. I presume that there are plenty of other backers who are pretty annoyed by this.

 

But that's just one of the dangers of Kickstarter. Unlike a real investment, you have absolutely no say in what happens to the things you back.

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Hopefully Facebook will only be using OR for their own applications. I remember reading great things about a multiplayer cinema program where it was like being in a cinema with your friends. I don't mind if Facebook is involved there as a way to have kind of "virtual meetings" with people.

 

Also with Facebook's vast wallet, production could move on faster and reach new heights.

 

However I don't want them anywhere near the games :/

 

I can't deny, if I invented OR and FB offered the company $2bil, it would be pretty hard to say no, for whatever reasons. They can always refund Notch his investment...

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So, Notch (who "invested" $10,000 into the Rift) was working on a special version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift. The deal was made with the people at Oculus a few weeks ago.

 

Due to the news about Facebook, he just cancelled it.

 

While he's very civil about it in that blog post, it's pretty clear he's pretty pissed about this, especially due to his investment. I presume that there are plenty of other backers who are pretty annoyed by this.

 

But that's just one of the dangers of Kickstarter. Unlike a real investment, you have absolutely no say in what happens to the things you back.

 

I can vaguely understand why Notch and other high level backers may be pissed. As an active developer he may feel he had some kind of say in their direction (even though he clearly never did) I don't get what other smaller backers will be pissed about. Like the Kickstarter was there to help the business at one point in time to create a product. I'm sure there Kickstarter page was pretty clear about what they hoped to get out of the money. As long as they've issued out all the reward tiers and met that obligation what the hell is the issue. It's like didn't Zach Braff sell the rights to his crowd funded Garden State sequel to a movie company and people were pissed. Hell why? As a kickstarter you had no right to a products future. You are funding for product X to be made in one form.

 

Hopefully Facebook will only be using OR for their own applications. I remember reading great things about a multiplayer cinema program where it was like being in a cinema with your friends. I don't mind if Facebook is involved there as a way to have kind of "virtual meetings" with people.

 

Also with Facebook's vast wallet, production could move on faster and reach new heights.

 

However I don't want them anywhere near the games :/

 

I can't deny, if I invented OR and FB offered the company $2bil, it would be pretty hard to say no, for whatever reasons. They can always refund Notch his investment...

 

Well apparently they've said it does not in anyway affect 3rd party game development they will not alter those arrangements but they mentioned the possibility of sports casting (which sounds amazing although how the hell they would film it is beyond me, unless it's just the same as regular 3D) and social functions.

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I can understand why people are annoyed that they've sold to Facebook but they really shouldn't be. Looking at Facebook's other major acquisitions in recent years you have Instagram which has only gone from strength to strength since being bought. It runs independently and you wouldn't know it was Facebook owned unless someone told you. WhatsApp is going to be the same, they've explicitly stated that user details won't be shared between the services.

 

This will be exactly the same for OR. Mashable have an excellent article on this.

 

As regard for people wanting refunds for KickStarter contributions? They clearly don't know how KickStarter works. Did they seriously think that OR would never start wanting to make money? Deluded.

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On the other hand I would definitely want a refund if I had a pre-order. You can still buy it when it comes out, but you don't want your money sitting on what has now become a much more unknown entity. To be honest it wasn't the kind of thing you should've been pre-ordering anyway, but now even more so.

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On the other hand I would definitely want a refund if I had a pre-order. You can still buy it when it comes out, but you don't want your money sitting on what has now become a much more unknown entity. To be honest it wasn't the kind of thing you should've been pre-ordering anyway, but now even more so.

 

I have absolutely no idea how pre-orders work - was this done through Kickstarter as well? I imagine that if it's not through Kickstarter then you could just cancel your pre-order?

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On the other hand I would definitely want a refund if I had a pre-order. You can still buy it when it comes out, but you don't want your money sitting on what has now become a much more unknown entity. To be honest it wasn't the kind of thing you should've been pre-ordering anyway, but now even more so.

 

You can cancel pre-orders if they haven't been dispatched (if it has, you can still return it for a refund).

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Virtual reality is the biggest gimmick I can imagine, particularly for gaming. However I find it incredibly exciting, would probably buy it, and think it will have some amazing, if limited and fairground attraction esque games for it. Wider services are also quite exciting!

 

This won't be the future of gaming, but as an alternative like motion controlled gaming, 2 screen play etc etc I think it's great.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Went to the Gadget Show Live today, and i was pleased to find that there were a few Oculus Rift's dotted around (not in their own stall, but a few shittier stall had demo units to draw people in). We went and queued (for 45 minutes) at Protect Your Bubble, who had one you could have a go on.

 

First off, it was a DV1, so it still had loads of motion blur, and the screens were low quality. Also, i left my glasses on, and they got crushed down onto my nose, so for the first 30 seconds of the demo i was just basically in pain. However they were still really cool. So much more immersive that i thought they would be.

 

When i first saw the demo on the big screen i was a bit disappointed; it was an on rails roller coaster thing through a ravine with trees and old houses etc in the chasm. It looked really lame. However, once you get the Rift on, it becomes amazing, you get a real sense of depth (almost vertigo), and the whole level just becomes incredible. You find yourself looking around trying to see everything; things that looked really boring when you saw it on the screen you really want to check out through the Rift.

 

I don't really care about Facebook buying Oculus, i think they'll be fine. As soon as the consumer version comes out i imagine i'll be getting one regardless.

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  • 1 month later...
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