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Oculus at GDC Discussion/News and Announcements Megathread

LZoltowski
Champion



Hello folks, ahead of the GDC reveals and Oculus news I thought it would be nice to have one space where we can discuss the news rather than a million threads. What are you hoping for? What are you most excited about?

Keep an eye out on Oculus twitter and the official blog, will try and update here also:

GDC starts this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and we. are. pumped. Game devs and gamers alike will get hands-on with Oculus Quest, we’ll share some brand-new Rift demos, and we may just have an announcement or two up our sleeves...


RIFT S COMING IN SPRING 2019!

https://www.oculus.com/blog/announcing-oculus-rift-s-our-new-pc-vr-headset-launching-spring-2019/



#QuestCountdown 

Oculus will be announcing exciting news through the week, so stay tuned!

https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-at-gdc-2019-oculus-quest-rift-demos-and-more/

Update:
https://twitter.com/hbarra/status/1107537148008255488


Update: Monday:
Beat Sabre Announced for Oculus Quest:
https://www.oculus.com/blog/freestyle-beat-saber-joins-the-oculus-quest-launch-lineup/
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Be kind to one another 🙂
79 REPLIES 79

kevinw729
Honored Visionary


My hope is that going forward, The Go ultimately gets deprecated and the oculus quest or equivalent becomes the "standalone" device  then the RiftS would be the entry level into PC VR and a rift 2 would be a high end device.......



Well observed - thanks for sharing @bigmike20vt
Agree - what happens to the high-end is interesting with this game-plan you outline. I am a little more realist, and see that the key focus is for a Standalone future for the company, and Rift-S is lip-service. I am sure that by 2021 we will see a Quest/Rift hybrid, and then with 5K streaming the question of PC high-end will once again be placed in doubt (again!)

That Lenovo favoured this WinMR approach, while HTC, HP, LG and Acer seem to be favouring a Qualcomm "standlaone" route makes me wonder if the divergence we are about to see at the HTC Cosmos launch, or the new LG/Valve launch going to totally change the landscape?

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

Anonymous
Not applicable
I saw a video interview with one of the Oculus reps, and he was saying Oculus is moving away from the external trackers altogether, not just for Rift S. If the Rift S uses Constellation for the controllers still, I don't see why Oculus can't let us use the external cameras as well then. That would let the user buy a basic inside-out system, but have the option of upgrading their tracking by purchasing the external cameras. This is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.

KoBak07
Protege
I was not expecting much from the Rift S, with all the Rift 2 cancellation news, but this release for PC VR is a joke. It looks as a cheap rebrand of the "junk" WMR headsets out there. Sorry, but this does not push VR experience forward in anything I care about for the games I like to play. I honestly don't believe any more that we will ever see a Rift 2 from Oculus which is trying to be cutting edge. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved my Rift, in 2017. But in 2019 I feel I am ready to spend for something much more. I guess it will not be with O

CrashFu
Consultant

Spuzzum said:

I saw a video interview with one of the Oculus reps, and he was saying Oculus is moving away from the external trackers altogether, not just for Rift S. If the Rift S uses Constellation for the controllers still, I don't see why Oculus can't let us use the external cameras as well then. That would let the user buy a basic inside-out system, but have the option of upgrading their tracking by purchasing the external cameras. This is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.


You seem to be assuming that the Inside-Out tracking will be bad enough that there would be some benefit to using the external sensors in conjunction with it..

More likely, it will work just fine by itself, and adding externals would just add on the risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports, in exchange for no appreciable tracking improvements.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

Anonymous
Not applicable

CrashFu said:


Spuzzum said:

I saw a video interview with one of the Oculus reps, and he was saying Oculus is moving away from the external trackers altogether, not just for Rift S. If the Rift S uses Constellation for the controllers still, I don't see why Oculus can't let us use the external cameras as well then. That would let the user buy a basic inside-out system, but have the option of upgrading their tracking by purchasing the external cameras. This is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.


You seem to be assuming that the Inside-Out tracking will be bad enough that there would be some benefit to using the external sensors in conjunction with it..

More likely, it will work just fine by itself, and adding externals would just add on the risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports, in exchange for no appreciable tracking improvements.


There's going to be issues of occlusion here and there...it's inevitable. Tested already pointed out issues it'll have with games such as the Echo series. There's also the fact you can't do full body tracking with inside-out cameras. Not that Oculus has trackers such as Vive does, but they said in the past that full body tracking was on the list of things they wanted in the future. As for risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports...c'mon, give us some credit. There's what...~1,000,000 or so Rift owners who had no problems setting up and maintaining our sensors, even going as far as buying a dedicated pcie usb card and stands for the sensors. They don't get bumped, and there's no misbehaving usb ports. Many of us do not want inside-out tracking for high end pcvr. If that's your thing...have at 'er. But they're pissing off a huge portion of their customer base with this. There's enough posts to back it up.

CrashFu
Consultant

Spuzzum said:


CrashFu said:


Spuzzum said:

I saw a video interview with one of the Oculus reps, and he was saying Oculus is moving away from the external trackers altogether, not just for Rift S. If the Rift S uses Constellation for the controllers still, I don't see why Oculus can't let us use the external cameras as well then. That would let the user buy a basic inside-out system, but have the option of upgrading their tracking by purchasing the external cameras. This is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.


You seem to be assuming that the Inside-Out tracking will be bad enough that there would be some benefit to using the external sensors in conjunction with it..

More likely, it will work just fine by itself, and adding externals would just add on the risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports, in exchange for no appreciable tracking improvements.


There's going to be issues of occlusion here and there...it's inevitable. Tested already pointed out issues it'll have with games such as the Echo series. There's also the fact you can't do full body tracking with inside-out cameras. Not that Oculus has trackers such as Vive does, but they said in the past that full body tracking was on the list of things they wanted in the future. As for risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports...c'mon, give us some credit. There's what...~1,000,000 or so Rift owners who had no problems setting up and maintaining our sensors, even going as far as buying a dedicated pcie usb card and stands for the sensors. They don't get bumped, and there's no misbehaving usb ports. Many of us do not want inside-out tracking for high end pcvr. If that's your thing...have at 'er. But they're pissing off a huge portion of their customer base with this. There's enough posts to back it up.


And only a couple of those "pissed off" people have any prior involvement with the community,  suggesting that the majority of complaints are coming from a small fringe group that has suddenly decided to be overly vocal.  :smile: 

As for your other non-issues:   Compared to the ever-present risk of stepping / reaching outside of your sensor range, the Rift-S tracking will have FAR fewer issues with blind-spots and occlusion than the Rift.  The one and only theoretical situation that it would have a problem is performing dexterous actions directly behind your own head, and when have you EVER had to do that?

Body Tracking?  You can't be serious.  Body tracking rigs exist solely for rich kids to show off in VR Chat.  They're something that 99.9% of the market would never waste their money on and that 99.9% of applications would never support. Body tracking is not a gimmick that Oculus or any other developer should be concerned with at this time.

"1,000,000 people have never once had a sensor get bumped or a usb port misbehave"?   :lol: :lol: :lol:

*ahem*  You're delusional.  Also, nobody is forcing you to trade your Rift in for a Rift-S just yet, so all you're really doing here is getting mad that Oculus had the audacity to make a product not specifically catered to you.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

Anonymous
Not applicable

CrashFu said:


Spuzzum said:


CrashFu said:


Spuzzum said:

I saw a video interview with one of the Oculus reps, and he was saying Oculus is moving away from the external trackers altogether, not just for Rift S. If the Rift S uses Constellation for the controllers still, I don't see why Oculus can't let us use the external cameras as well then. That would let the user buy a basic inside-out system, but have the option of upgrading their tracking by purchasing the external cameras. This is a downgrade as far as I'm concerned.


You seem to be assuming that the Inside-Out tracking will be bad enough that there would be some benefit to using the external sensors in conjunction with it..

More likely, it will work just fine by itself, and adding externals would just add on the risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports, in exchange for no appreciable tracking improvements.


There's going to be issues of occlusion here and there...it's inevitable. Tested already pointed out issues it'll have with games such as the Echo series. There's also the fact you can't do full body tracking with inside-out cameras. Not that Oculus has trackers such as Vive does, but they said in the past that full body tracking was on the list of things they wanted in the future. As for risk of judder due to bumped sensors or misbehaving usb ports...c'mon, give us some credit. There's what...~1,000,000 or so Rift owners who had no problems setting up and maintaining our sensors, even going as far as buying a dedicated pcie usb card and stands for the sensors. They don't get bumped, and there's no misbehaving usb ports. Many of us do not want inside-out tracking for high end pcvr. If that's your thing...have at 'er. But they're pissing off a huge portion of their customer base with this. There's enough posts to back it up.


And only a couple of those "pissed off" people have any prior involvement with the community,  suggesting that the majority of complaints are coming from a small fringe group that has suddenly decided to be overly vocal.  :smile: 

As for your other non-issues:   Compared to the ever-present risk of stepping / reaching outside of your sensor range, the Rift-S tracking will have FAR fewer issues with blind-spots and occlusion than the Rift.  The one and only theoretical situation that it would have a problem is performing dexterous actions directly behind your own head, and when have you EVER had to do that?

Body Tracking?  You can't be serious.  Body tracking rigs exist solely for rich kids to show off in VR Chat.  They're something that 99.9% of the market would never waste their money on and that 99.9% of applications would never support. Body tracking is not a gimmick that Oculus or any other developer should be concerned with at this time.

"1,000,000 people have never once had a sensor get bumped or a usb port misbehave"?   :lol: :lol: :lol:

*ahem*  You're delusional.  Also, nobody is forcing you to trade your Rift in for a Rift-S just yet, so all you're really doing here is getting mad that Oculus had the audacity to make a product not specifically catered to you.



I could care less about their 'involvement within the community'. Threads on Reddit as well as posts on twitter suggest people are pissed off if they move away from external trackers. You may not want them, but that's 'you'.

As for reaching outside my sensor range...my area is 10'x10', and it has the guardian system. Any bigger, and I'd be hitting my walls. Inside-out tracking isn't going to do jack squat about that. Absolutely no benefit.

As for body tracking...just do a google for 'Rift CV2 wishlist'...if it's not in the list from the OP, it's definitely suggested numerous times in the comments below. There's also a thread here about it, where it linked a thread about people using Vive trackers and lighthouses with their Rifts, as well as a link talking about using a spare Touch controller as a 'vr object' that could potentially be used to track the feet. On top of that, the haptic suits coming out track themselves. You may not want it, but there's a definite wish for it, and it's not just for dancing. Once they start tracking feet, then that opens the doors for games such as soccer, hockey, or even kick boxing.

As for forcing me to trade my Rift for a Rift S...what the hell are you talking about? My comment was Oculus is moving away from external tracking...meaning any new headset, beyond Rift S, will be inside-out tracking. Nobody's forcing me to do anything. But the hardware we all bought will be completely useless. They've already said the new controllers will work with the old Rift and external sensors, just the old Touch won't work with the new headsets. My guess is because of the positioning of the led ring. So if the new controllers work with the old external sensors, then why wouldn't they be able to configure Oculus Home to use the external sensors instead if the user chooses to do so? That's not 'catering' to anybody. That's keeping your customer base happy and not force a downgrade on them.

Anonymous
Not applicable
Btw...that video was Tested's 'hands-on and impressions', and they were interviewing Nate Mitchell. He says himself Insight is not as good as the external trackers, saying there's a few areas where you'll experience occlusion...behind the back, when the controllers are too close to the headset, and when you cross one arm over the other. He says it's a trade-off, but they feel the benefits of the experience outweigh the disadvantage. Norm then asked him if they'd consider using both Insight as well as the external trackers...he said they'll listen to what the people want.


Spuzzum said:


I could care less about their 'involvement within the community'. 





...or, are you using it correctly...?  I can't tell lol

Best be safe - never say "I could care less"    B)
Big PC, all the headsets, now using Quest 3

bigmike20vt
Visionary



Spuzzum said:


I could care less about their 'involvement within the community'. 





...or, are you using it correctly...?  I can't tell lol

Best be safe - never say "I could care less"    B)


It is one of my pet hates too. Up there with this modern speak where "sick" is somehow good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂