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Displays Facebook Games Technology

Oculus Rift Launching In Q1 2016 84

Posted by Soulskill from the virtually-immediately dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Oculus has announced that their Rift virtual reality headset will be coming out sometime in the first quarter of 2016. They've also posted a couple images of the final consumer headset design. The device was Kickstarted in August, 2012. Consumer-level release dates have slowly slipped further and further out since then, though they've shipped two different development kits. Ars points out that a 2016 launch date will bring the Oculus Rift to market after the Valve/HTC VR headset, and possibly after Sony's Project Morpheus.
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Oculus Rift Launching In Q1 2016 More

Oculus Rift Launching In Q1 2016

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  • Does it come with a blue pill and a red pill?

  • images (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06, 2015 @10:10AM (#49629739)

    Can't see much of the headset - who decided to take a picture of the black headset against a black background with no light?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That was me, sorry.

      Regards,
                An idiot.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Phics ( 934282 )

      The correct captions: Oculus Rift as seen through a pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses

  • Lost Momentum? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 06, 2015 @10:25AM (#49629895)

    I've really been looking forward to this, but the road to release has been so lengthy that I've stopped caring to an extent. While I still think VR will be revolutionary, I feel that revolution is further away than ever. We're likely going to see compatibility issues between the Rift and the Valve headset, which is going to delay things for years to come. Standardised VR is probably years away.

    The Facebook buyout also leaves me concerned that I'll need an account to use the Rift, and I most definitely don't want a Facebook account (I don't even want a Slashdot account). When I do buy a VR headset I think I'd be more inclined to go for the Gaben's rather than Zuk's.

    • >I've really been looking forward to this, but the road to release has been so lengthy that I've stopped caring to an extent.

      That's your short attention span. Rushing out a product before it was ready would have been a huge mistake.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Announcing a product over four years before they're able to ship it is a much bigger mistake. They've made things very hard for themselves. Trying to keep people interested for that amount of time isn't easy, particularly when they haven't had much to show. Try to attract developers would also be much harder when they didn't known when they product would be released would also be a problem.

        You can insult me all you want about my attention span, but it's not me that's the problem. The fact is they fucked

        • >You can insult me all you want about my attention span

          Why bother? You've probably already forgotten this conversation.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward
          You've got this all backwards. As soon as the Oculus finally ships the bubble pops and people realize that VR isn't what they're hoping for. The profitable part of this is the hype and that's already paid out - $2 billion for that stupid thing. At this point Facebook is just trying to come out with ways to recover some of their investment with the time they've got left. I'm sure they would have extended it past 2016 if they hadn't had all the competition breathing down their necks.

          • Yup, speaking as someone who has the latest gen Oculus...it's definitely hyped beyond what it will deliver. It's mediocre at best.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by chihowa ( 366380 )

          They also manufactured their competition by announcing so early. Instead of being the first to market, they're going to be Johnny-come-lately to a market segment that they carved out (at least for this iteration of VR).

          Their competition gets to ride along on the hype that Occulus pumped out and if the competition fouls up the implementation then the scene is soured for Occulus, too. Very poor business planning.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      VR is one of the faddy things that, once a generation, some bright spark thinks they can do "properly this time", picks it up, makes some demos of it, realises that it's expensive stuff that needs high-end and portable equipment sold for a reasonable price to lots and lots of people to succeed, slips away into a corner somewhere until people forget about it, and then reinvents itself with the next bright spark.

      In the early days of VRML, the same happened. Quake was around. A full, 3D, accelerated environm

      • It's just a fad each time it comes around and the same problems hit. Even with millions in Kickstarter funding, etc. it's hard to produce a handful of working units that developers will rewrite their games for. It's hard to convince people to part with the price of a tablet or laptop in order to move a game into the third dimension (with lots of caveats, of course).

        Like battery technologies, when it does take off, you'll find out because your friend actually has one already and you try it out and even your grandma gets one in the same year because everyone else has one (Wii syndrome). Not because of whatever showmanship is put on for you by a company itself, or what research is done, or what prototype device you see a news item on. It'll just arrive, without fanfare.

        So, what your saying is it's a fad and not worth investing in, and someday it will take off and just work... without anyone trying it? Will a new company, technology, and manufacturing just suddenly spring up out of the earth one day, and everyone looks over and says "Ah, look. VR is ready."

    • I have the second gen dev version (latest).

      It's a disappointment.

      Heavy, bulky, uncomfortable, poor resolution and buggy software/drivers.

      I'm sure VR will eventually take off, but honestly, the Oculus doesn't feel much better than the VR headsets I used in the 90s.

      • It really is posts like these that have contributed to Oculus's success. Their marketing (or anti-marketing) has been it's crap, don't get excited about it, wait until we have a product, etc etc. Then show it at trade shows and blow the socks off of the low expectations.

        I've been playing Elete:Dangerous in mine and it is the best time I've ever had in a video game space ship.

        Warts? yes.
        "Heavy, bulky, uncomfortable, poor resolution and buggy software/drivers."? a bit hyperbole/exageration

        Good job on keepi

        • I'm not being ideological about it. I was really excited to get it. Paired it with a brand new high end gaming rig.

          Just disappointed. After a few hours of using it, I put it away with a bit of sadness.

          If there was no hype about it, I'd say it's interesting and might be cool at some point in the future.

          But with all the hype out there...it's just far from living up to it. In my opinion.

          • This is an interesting opinion. I've had my GearVR on at least 30 people and every one of them thought it was amazing and couldn't get enough many started changing their idea of what their next phone would be.

            If you said that about google cardboard I'd agree, it is a pretty terrible example compared to what's available.

  • Oculus Rift? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    #vaporgate

  • oops (Score:4, Informative)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Wednesday May 06, 2015 @10:42AM (#49630059)
    There's a typo in that summary. It should read:
    Facebook has announced that their Rift virtual reality headset
    They're already trying to distance their toxic brand name from it. I say call it the Zynga Facebook Superviewer and just let it kill itself based on brand name alone.

    • I noticed this too.

      Facebook know that it was and still is VERY unpopular the fact that Facebook owns Oculus Rift.

      I'd be shocked if no annoying ads were displayed while using the thing.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by crgrace ( 220738 )

      I actually got recruited to work at Oculus Rift. The recruiter said "hot new VR startup needs your skills" or some such. So I talk to them. Guess what? Facebook.

      They know even their potential employees will be put off by the Facebook name.

    • Ooh ooh I thought of a better one! It should be called the Facebook Zynga SUPERVISION instead because that's what both companies are still under by the FBI for copyright, privacy, and other legal violations.

  • It already seems like yet another item destined to be quickly relegated to my already-full cupboard o' crap.

  • Two (or more) willing partners. Camera-equipped headsets small enough not to get in the way. Enhance the visuals as much or as little as you want. Augment your other senses as desired and technologically feasible.

    THAT'S first-person shooting!

  • I have been reading headlines for "Oculus Rift" on /. etc for years. I never read the articles apart from the first 1 or 2, since I found out that Oculus Rift is an "exciting" VR headset and that pretty much covered it for me. Maybe I am getting old, I don't know - for example I do remember me being excited before the Virtual Boy was released. In any case having seen so many headlines over the years, without actually paying any attention to them I had assumed this was a real product and modestly popular. Bu

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      They've had two "development kits" which are fully working and used by enthusiasts. They are not sold as "for consumers" because Oculus doesn't think they are good enough. The announcement is saying that the third mass-produced iteration of their VR headset that they are comfortable calling "good enough" will be available in Q1 2016.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Binestar ( 28861 )
      The developer kit has been out for awhile. DK1 (Developer Kit) was available late 2012, while DK2 was release July 2014. These were never meant to be the final form factor or specs, but the goal was to get close to what the CR1 (Consumer Release) would be.

      Those dark on dark pictures are of the actual CR1, which is actually the first photos we've seen. Even with the fiasco of facebook purchasing and the timeframe, I'm still excited for the possibilities. Star Citizen has pledged to support the Rift and
  • Do not talk about unfinished stuff that is still in planning or development. Developing modern things is complex, and that's fine, but it's hard to keep the excitement alive for 5 years. Same goes for SteamBoxes. Same goes for Peter Molyneux's new game Godus, of which people got incredibly angry because it could not deliver this or that thing that was hyped earlier. The trendy "open development" strategy does not come without problems.

  • I've logged on for the first time in years to post this.
    I am a serious FPS gamer, from the way back, and owner of a DK2. If they don't figure out something to solve the motion sickness, it'll fall flat.

    I was sicker than a dog using my occulus.

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