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Too many signs that Oculus is dead...

yazze
Honored Guest
Like you have been waiting and waiting for any concrete news about the development and future releases of Oculus rift HMDs.

But following the different reports and news, and analyzing the market a bit, I realize that there are strong chances that the Oculus as a PC tethered HMD might well be dead.

- First of all, and most obvious of the signs: there's been none since the Crescent Bay was released 10 months ago (according to report it was ready 2 months before release in September 2014). Neither there's been any announcement about a DK3 in before the consumer version.

Not only does it make no sense to leave a community pushing a market in the dark for that long, but it's also really bad for that community itself: there's fewer and fewer DK2 experiments and demos being released, and interest in VR or at least the Oculus is steadily slowing down all around me and forums/boards I follow, when VR needs the exact opposite.

And for a CV1 release, something that is -just- an extension of the Crescent Bay or even a DK3 that wasn't thoroughly tested by a beta community of developers, doesn't make sense. Nor releasing a public consumer version that has so many problems and challenges, not only in display image, latency or form-factor but also the fact that it has no hand-motion sensor.

The first thing my "casual" friends try to do when putting the headset is to use their hands, which shows how necessary and obvious this function is for immersion in a consumer product. And what the Leap Motion + HMD is achieving as an experiment is what a DK3 should've been, especially, as I said, for it to be experimented and tested.


- The second strong indicator, is the Mobile VR. An Oculus HMD has a big form-factor, is tethered, requires a computer while adding the costing of the screen component and being a compatibility hassle. Mobile VR targets what everybody already has, a smartphone which is already equipped with screen, gyro/accelerosensors and optimized processors, is untethered AND has a store-ready ecosystem.

If you look at Weareality (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wea ... mitless-vr), they're already providing a visual experience that is far greater that that of the oculus, just because of the 150° FOV, the transportable and untethered form-factor and most-importantly, the price.

Such enterprise are so easy to pull out (I mean anybody anywhere in the world can suddenly come-up and market something that is an order of magnitude higher than the basic HMD set just because of a small innovation). In fact that maybe why Oculus has been putting more effort in helping Samsung update its Gear VR than releasing a new iteration of their own...


- So my guess is that the Oculus as a big, tethered and machine-dependant HMD is DEAD. Rather I think we'll see a new Mobile version similar to that of the Gear VR, but if possible with wireless capabilities for both head-motion feedbacks and also image streaming from computer. Especially since Intel is bringing forth wireless image streaming with WiDi in its Skylake platform, as well as next Qualcomm processors...
72 REPLIES 72

davidjc
Honored Guest
"Malkmus1979" wrote:
These posts are going to be funny in 6 weeks.


I hope you are right, but right now is there is no way to believe that Oculus has anything to show us at all.

Malkmus1979
Explorer
"davidjc" wrote:
"Malkmus1979" wrote:
These posts are going to be funny in 6 weeks.


I hope you are right, but right now is there is no way to believe that Oculus has anything to show us at all.


"It’s 6 weeks until E3 2015, and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on."

https://www.oculus.com/blog/render-the- ... -commerce/

It may not be referring to CV1, but it's a good sign that Oculus isn't "dead".

GSS
Explorer
"Malkmus1979" wrote:

"It’s 6 weeks until E3 2015, and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on."

https://www.oculus.com/blog/render-the- ... -commerce/

It may not be referring to CV1, but it's a good sign that Oculus isn't "dead".


Though that article seemed like it was mostly talking about mobile vr. Would be cool if there was a major announcement though. I'd love to see if they have anything that can take on the vive.

Malkmus1979
Explorer
"GSS" wrote:
"Malkmus1979" wrote:

"It’s 6 weeks until E3 2015, and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on."

https://www.oculus.com/blog/render-the- ... -commerce/

It may not be referring to CV1, but it's a good sign that Oculus isn't "dead".


Though that article seemed like it was mostly talking about mobile vr. Would be cool if there was a major announcement though. I'd love to see if they have anything that can take on the vive.


Not to nitpick your point, but it's a company newsletter of which only 2 of the 5 entries are about mobile. I really don't think they're referring specifically to mobile with that last line. Surely there will be some mobile stuff at E3, but I think that's what GDC was mainly for, and with the GVR 2 coming out this week I don' t think there's much more they can reveal in that department.

GSS
Explorer
"Malkmus1979" wrote:

Not to nitpick your point, but it's a company newsletter of which only 2 of the 5 entries are about mobile. I really don't think they're referring specifically to mobile with that last line. Surely there will be some mobile stuff at E3, but I think that's what GDC was mainly for, and with the GVR 2 coming out this week I don' t think there's much more they can reveal in that department.


Oh I thought the render the metaverse was gear vr. I could have sworn someone said that contest was gear. So two general announcements with render the metaverse and new staffing, gear vr stuff, then the comment at the end. It just seemed a bit weird to have the two previous paragraphs be about gear vr and then hop into oh yeah we have some cool stuff at E3 if it wasn't at least somewhat gear vr related. you may be right that there is some mobile and then also some pc based stuff.

Malkmus1979
Explorer
"GSS" wrote:
"Malkmus1979" wrote:

Not to nitpick your point, but it's a company newsletter of which only 2 of the 5 entries are about mobile. I really don't think they're referring specifically to mobile with that last line. Surely there will be some mobile stuff at E3, but I think that's what GDC was mainly for, and with the GVR 2 coming out this week I don' t think there's much more they can reveal in that department.


Oh I thought the render the metaverse was gear vr. I could have sworn someone said that contest was gear. So two general announcements with render the metaverse and new staffing, gear vr stuff, then the comment at the end. It just seemed a bit weird to have the two previous paragraphs be about gear vr and then hop into oh yeah we have some cool stuff at E3 if it wasn't at least somewhat gear vr related. you may be right that there is some mobile and then also some pc based stuff.


It's just a general newsletter, probably the last before E3. I don't think there's any connection to be drawn between the random updates about staff or GVR. They're just saying, hey here's the latest news and we'll see you at E3 where we plan to show you what we've been working on.

wheatgrinder
Explorer
All current PC based VR is really just DEV KITS for 3rd Gen Mobile. There will continue to be small market for PC devices for enthusiasts but the focus will always be on eco system expansion. No huge PC VR market will ever mature. It doesn't have to be a huge market to be successful, because PC VR is NOT the end game.

3rd Gen mobile AR\VR will be superior in every marketable way. Portable, un-tethered, connected and with huge consumer base.

Sure AAA PC games look like big hits and get all the hype, but the real money is in the FREE\Cheap TO PLAY (PAY TO WIN) games on mobile phones. EVERYONE wants a piece of that pie and they are reaching for it via PC VR dev kits.

The PC VR market though small is VITAL to mobile success because it develops the eco system. Its also a lot cheaper to fail with a peripheral like an HMD. Spend a 100 million on PC VR HMD and see if it really works like you think it will in mobile, if your right you can justify spending BILLIONS on making a mobile AR\VR device... if not, your only out the millions..

We enthusiasts are being USED to test and prep the market for Mobile AR\VR.. and I LIKE IT!

And yes, if you are wondering, I am an expert on EVERY TOPIC UNDER THE SUN :mrgreen:

Chivas
Expert Protege
If Oculus is dead, they don't know about it, as they are still hiring. Unless of course the thing they can't wait to announce at E3 is their decision to drop VR and to start building ski goggles. The only sign I've seen is the community suddenly going brain dead, after seeing a decent HMD from Valve. :roll: Or it could be some the Facebook haters survived the jump off the cliff.

snappahead
Expert Protege
"Chivas" wrote:
If Oculus is dead, they don't know about it, as they are still hiring. Unless of course the thing they can't wait to announce at E3 is their decision to drop VR and to start building ski goggles. The only sign I've seen is the community suddenly going brain dead, after seeing a decent HMD from Valve. :roll: Or it could be some the Facebook haters survived the jump off the cliff.

QFT, mate. All this doom and gloom started the moment a competitor showed up..as if a competitor wasn't inevitable.
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