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Extended Interview with Brendan Iribe

snappahead
Expert Protege
Lots of good questions addressed in this one. It's a solid read.

http://www.gizmag.com/oculus-rift-interview/38002/
i7 3820 16 gigs of Ram GTX 780ti
36 REPLIES 36

Sharpfish
Heroic Explorer
"Roaster" wrote:

It just makes me wonder why the delay. They can't be that hard to make compared to the headset.


To me it appears more than obvious that oculus and MS have a deal going on to 'seed' the Xbone controller with the rift and make it 'standard' (much to everyone's giant facepalm after all Palmer said all these years). Why? Could be any number of reasons from financial "help" from MS to having to agree to essentially promote the flailing Xbone in the face of the PS4 and it's fairly robust VR solution that's on the way.

I think it's clear the links between Xbone or at least Xbox Two (or whatever ridiculous name they go with next time) and oculus are now established and that MS will be yet another company to answer to (and nerf PC VR for) in the long run. They all want a piece of the pie and are turning Oculus into something they never were when they started out. We now get token gestures from Oculus where we once had promises and dedication towards core PC VR.

Leaving out touch for a totally abitrary reason (and I'm not buying that crap about 'there'll be no games at first for touch so why bundle it' - in fact there will be no games for touch precisely because Oculus sat on their hands with it for far too long and also because it won't become the Rift standard input now anyone who thinks otherwise is dreaming). Rift will now forever be known as and utilised as the gamepad vr for playing crap games from consoles on virtual screens and eventually dumbed down ports from underpowered consoles (XBox 1.5) and mobile (FearPR).

Everything us 'paranoid' folk ever worried about since Facebook, little by little, has come true and I can't see them magically pulling out some kind of greatness just to please hardcore VR/PC users now the precedent is well and truly set with their focus on sub standard VR (Mobile @ low hz, no positional, no decent input) and a frankly ugly looking CV1 that appears like they could barely be bothered to throw money into it anymore. I understand the 'wider problem' of VR, that releasing a super-spec HMD with 280 FOV (Star VR!) isn't gonna guarantee software (and therefore may be DOA), but oculus have obviously done the absolute BARE MINIMUM they needed to make this passable (for some) and the Xbox Gamepad is a clear message to all "We no longer take PC VR seriously so please buy a Samsung phone and the new xbox due out in 2016".

I do blame the focus on mobile robbing Oculus of time/money/focus on PC VR and I blame facebook for steering them away from their original goals, I blame Samsung for essentially using them to feather their own nests (sell more phones + incremental yearly upgrades while still not giving Oculus the goods screen wise for CV1, well that's a joint decision that Oculus wanted too I'm sure now) and I blame Microsoft for latching on to any and every chance they can to push their filthly underpowered console and essentially poison the VR well from the installed userbase of the 10 million or so Xbone users. I blame oculus for becoming more and more closed down and locked in by the month, from less open comms, less open software, less open standards and in a way I blame Palmer for continuing to speak as if he was sill the same guy he was 2+ years ago with only what's best for PC/CORE/GREAT VR in mind.

Most of all I blame myself for being a total fanboy for 2 years and believing a word that comes from the mouth of any company that is owned by the likes of Facebook.

VR is here, that's the only positive I can find about this, but it's been purposely set back on what we can achieve within it by nerfing in too many areas and oculus simply don't care about that. They want people locked in to THEIR solution asap and they want customer loyalty from mobile, console and pc while giving very little 'real vr' in return (now). I'm sure that's not what Palmer was dreaming of back in his garage when duct taping screens together trying to work this stuff out. It's sad but at least other companies will do it, a least a little more 'right' and with competition comes better products so I guess we just have to sit tight now and wait a couple more years to get back to the standards (for oculus) that we should have had out of the gate based on their promises post facebook (re screen quality/res etc).

BTW why do people call the CV1 "beautiful"? I'm not seeing it, sure it's better than the DKs but it's still like they lack a proper designer? Why bring carbon on board then release something that looks like it was made out of butter tubs and spare curtain material? oh yes - so they break and wear down = rebuy next year's model.

I may sound cyncial now because Oculus have given me every reason to be and absolutely nothing to remove those concerns or to show they still have "True VR" as their priority. Not sure if they realise but 3rd person platformers and dungeon crawlers didn't work out too well back in the 90s for many a new console at launch and it sure as hell isn't gonna do anything to 'wow' people into buying VR in 2016!!! Generic games are already done better on 2D screens by companies investing millions, these types of games in VR are mostly an upgraded "sterovision/3DTV" gimmick and will fall right into the critic's/nay-sayers of VR's hands - exactly the things us fanatics have been defending against the past 3 years saying "no it's not like 3DTV it's a new paradigm" then oculus go and emphasise essentially traditional gaming AND a 2D gaming input standard to go with it - they lived up to their critic's attacks, this is the problem when they over-think and try to conquer the world out-of-the-gate, targeting everyone casuals, soccer moms, kids, console owners, mobile owners - it'll all come off as cheap gimmicks if the software isn't right.

And with the Xbox pad now the (unofficial but really, official) rift input standard, gimmicky VR is pretty much all you're gonna see from and for their system for quite some time.

skip to ~5 mins then to ~13 minutes. Will kinda gets the problem:




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EX DK2/VIVE/PSVR/CV1/Q2/PSVR2 | Currently Quest Pro (PCVR) | VR developer
RTX 3080 FE / 12900k / Windows 11 Pro

snappahead
Expert Protege
"Roaster" wrote:
The touch is just a glorified xbox controller in the end, so what the creator does with the buttons is all that changes. Any game that supports the standard controller should work also with the touch. Question is who supplies the hands.
It just makes me wonder why the delay. They can't be that hard to make compared to the headset.

I think it's because they took a long time to come up with a solution they were happy with. They seem to have only just recently decided on the Touch design and that would explain why it's not going to be out at launch. Even the demo at e3 is apparently just the app they've been using internally at Oculus to test these inputs with.
i7 3820 16 gigs of Ram GTX 780ti

MrMonkeybat
Explorer
Looks like Iribe misheard this question or was delibrately changing the question. Which is a shame because I really want to know exactly what method they use for tracking fingers for gestures.

How does the Oculus Touch Gesture tracking worK?

Iribe: "It has a gyro[scope] built-in, as well as the constellation tracking system. So that same external sensor is able to track that. We'll also be showing at E3 multiple sensors that you can use. So imagine you can put two sensors in front of you, you can track an even wider volume."

Welby
Adventurer
"mrmonkeybat" wrote:
Looks like Iribe misheard this question or was delibrately changing the question. Which is a shame because I really want to know exactly what method they use for tracking fingers for gestures.

How does the Oculus Touch Gesture tracking worK?

Iribe: "It has a gyro[scope] built-in, as well as the constellation tracking system. So that same external sensor is able to track that. We'll also be showing at E3 multiple sensors that you can use. So imagine you can put two sensors in front of you, you can track an even wider volume."


There are sensors inside the ring that track your fingers.

I don't know more details but this is what is has been said.

MrMonkeybat
Explorer
But it also tracks your thumb as well apparently so you can give a thumbs up sensors inside the ring would not have a good view of that.

Or is it something as simple as some kind of proximity or light pressure sensor that detects when your finger is on the button and assumes it pointing when it is not.

willste
Explorer
I'll reserve some judgment till after E3 demo impressions. If you end up hating their release product you can always get Vive first and skip CV1. But it seems they are heading in similar directions, with Oculus also capable of multiple tracking cameras and non-traditional motion controls.
I honestly think even if Oculus comes out a little behind with CV1 for whatever reason, they will still iterate faster than competition in the future just due to their massive staff. With Valve championing Linux based steam machines in the future, it makes sense for Oculus to throw in with Microsoft. Like it or not Windows has been the home of PC gaming since windows 95, and with dx12 on the way that trend doesn't look to be shifting fast. Though Id love a gaming machine that didn't need me to buy a $120 copy of windows. The Xbone controller is a natural intersection for them, since for better or worse it has been their common demoing controller.
I am interested to see how their 3rd person VR games play out since it is not something I have been able to try. Could be really great or it could be lame. I actually recall hearing good things about Lucky's Tale, so it may be a viable fun genre in VR, even though clearly this isn't the kind of game VR enthusiasts are dreaming of.

haagch
Explorer
"willste" wrote:
With Valve championing Linux based steam machines in the future, it makes sense for Oculus to throw in with Microsoft. Like it or not Windows has been the home of PC gaming since windows 95,

That's not what we're annoyed about. Oculus has advertised with cross platform support from the beginning. From what I heard it was pretty terrible with DK1. We can excuse that with how they maybe didn't know how much work it would be.
But then they made their DK2. We thought, now after the DK1 they have an idea of the work involved and since they advertise linux support again, they surely will do it right this time. Then they got bought by facebook and got a shitload of money, so there is no doubt they had the funds to actually do it.

"willste" wrote:
and with dx12 on the way that trend doesn't look to be shifting fast.

With Vulkan on the way, it seems that most people will choose to ignore the open standard that has been created in collaboration with almost all major industry players in favor of a proprietary single-vendor solution... AGAIN...