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High end oculus vr.. don't hold your breath

bigmike20vt
Visionary
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=3&hl=de&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=...

Pretty bleak reading imo excuse long link Google shortener not working on it
Fiat Coupe, gone. 350Z gone. Dirty nappies, no sleep & practical transport incoming. Thank goodness for VR 🙂
401 REPLIES 401

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
I keep saying it but I do get why Oculus want to make a cheaper headset. However, I don't think you can just ignore things like good sounding audio headphones and IPD adjustment if you want to attract billions of people. I was happy to use my own gaming headphones, but after seeing some hands on reviews, it's obvious that some headphones don't even fit over the halo design.

Now Oculus say they are going to add headphones at this late stage, but no doubt that will increase the price of their headset. When you consider the Oculus Quest has already got good head phones, higher resolution screens and an Ipd adjustment, it makes you wonder why the Rift -S will end up been more expensive with what appears to be cheaper tech.

Listening to what Nate Mitchell said in that interview. He seems to suggest that it is the design of the Oculus Rift -S that makes it the same price as the Oculus Quest, but was a change of design to the halo really necessary when it was going to increase the price of the Rift -S? I think lots of people would have preferred the Oculus Quest design and had the good audio headphones and higher resolutions screens like the Oculus Quest has got. 

Oculus didn't really need Lenovo to develop Rift -S imho. They could have just gone with the Oculus Quest design and had the same audio headphones and screens. Why would they have needed to partner with Lenovo if they had done that?

inovator
Consultant
I really like the audio in the go. But I can see the leakage of sound creates a need for an audio headphone solution. If you have the opportunity to use it where others will not be annoyed I think many people will enjoy it. Quest reviews on a busy noisy area ofor the gdc  should not be taken to seriously.

MowTin
Expert Trustee

CrashFu said:

Because nothing says "Enthusiast" like getting your hardware from a company that is less than 1% invested in your hobby, and that has a proven track-record of abandoning their products immediately after release.

Yep, that totally screams "Enthusiast" and not "Making rash, knee-jerk decisions in response to blind speculation"  :wink:



Facebook bought Oculus. Facebook is not a hardware company or a gaming company. Now they've chosen to focus on "connecting people" instead of pushing the envelope of VR technology. 

The enthusiast is interested in the bleeding edge of technology. The audio enthusiast has $1,000 speakers not the cheap $50 speakers. 

There will always be companies willing to cater to the enthusiast market. Unfortunately, that's not Oculus anymore. I'm not speculating. I'm taking them at their word. They want to "connect people." 
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

MowTin
Expert Trustee
KoBak07 said:
If this was the car business, to me it's like Audi deciding that market is too small to sell A4/6/8, then they would farm out their design and dev to Chevy who has been know to make "mediocrity", and start selling that as the flagship of their brand. zi9zzdkfey6n.jpg

I agree. It's like Audi abandoning their high end market for the more profitable mid to low end. 

Audi would never do that because they understand that their high-end market feeds their mid-range. It gives their brand value and prestige. And the technologies they develop for their high-end cars eventually become affordable and incorporated in their mid-range.

Audi is also involved in racing. It's not profitable for them but the technology and the prestige make it worth it.

A bean counter would suggest Audi just sell their mid-range cars because it's more profitable but that would be totally wrong.  And I think some bean counter at Facebook decided that the mid-range VR is where the market is at. They're not considering how Oculus will be seen as a second rate VR brand. Oculus is going to be the Honda of VR. A nice bland practical device for those who can't afford something better.  
i7 9700k 3090 rtx   CV1, Rift-S, Index, G2

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
Not wanting to repeat myself, but why didn't they just make Rift -S like Rift Quest? That way you get audio headphones, ipd adjustment, higher resolutions screens and all for the same price as the Oculus Quest. I remember the guy from Oculus saying it was the halo design of the Rift -S that made it the same price as the Oculus Quest, but I think people were happy with the design of Oculus Quest and CV1.

I don't think they would have needed to even partner with Lenovo if they had done that would they?

inovator
Consultant

RedRizla said:

Not wanting to repeat myself, but why didn't they just make Rift -S like Rift Quest? That way you get audio headphones, ipd adjustment, higher resolutions screens and all for the same price as the Oculus Quest. I remember the guy from Oculus saying it was the halo design of the Rift -S that made it the same price as the Oculus Quest, but I think people were happy with the design of Oculus Quest and CV1.

I don't think they would have needed to even partner with Lenovo if they had done that would they?


 Your mistaking about the headphones. Audio will work the same on both with no headphones built in. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

RedRizla said:

Not wanting to repeat myself, but why didn't they just make Rift -S like Rift Quest? That way you get audio headphones, ipd adjustment, higher resolutions screens and all for the same price as the Oculus Quest. I remember the guy from Oculus saying it was the halo design of the Rift -S that made it the same price as the Oculus Quest, but I think people were happy with the design of Oculus Quest and CV1.

I don't think they would have needed to even partner with Lenovo if they had done that would they?



Because of the order they were designed in. The design timeline goes like this:

Oculus Quest -> Oculus Go -> Oculus Rift S 

If they had designed the Go first then the Quest would have had a single LCD display and a software IPD adjustment. And all 3 headsets have sound tubes as far as I remember, although I will stand to be corrected if the Quest has built in headphones! You'd also probably see the Quest having a halo strap and being made by Lenovo too tbh.

inovator
Consultant

Zenbane said:


inovator said:

At the end of the day software is king. Make software awesome enough then more will come.



Agreed. This is the one constant truth that has proven its own validity repeatedly from the beginning of this era of mainstream VR.

We are a couple of fucken genius! especially me because this link said content is king and quoted the movie field of dreams: make it and they will come a few hours later after our chat.

 https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/oculus-sean-liu-talks-content-king-vr-3696656/amp&ved=2ahUKEwiLuaPHz9LhAhXikOAKHaETDvIQ0PADMAJ6BAgIEAw&usg=AOvVaw3nNa6hmZt3ctZm8VFFtZyT&ampcf=1

CrashFu
Consultant

MowTin said:

The enthusiast is interested in the bleeding edge of technology. The audio enthusiast has $1,000 speakers not the cheap $50 speakers. 


You're confusing "being an enthusiast" with "being a pretentious rich kid who doesn't understand the difference between Cost and Value".  To use your audio equipment metaphor:

Some rich kid might spend a ton of money on some over-hyped, flashy-looking, celebrity-endorsed Headphones and think he's got the best of the best because it was the most expensive and there were the most ads on TV for it.

A true enthusiast would spend half as much (or less!) on a good pair of Audio-Technicas, knowing they come from a company that has been wholly dedicated to making audio equipment from the start.  Even if it's not the most expensive set Audio-Technica has, the enthusiast knows that they will be the best for that price. And because the enthusiast didn't waste all that extra money paying for the over-hyped stuff, they can take what they saved and go buy tons of  actual media to enjoy with it.



Although, I think a more fitting metaphor at this point would be that Oculus is Nintendo and Valve is Walmart.   If Walmart announced an official Walmart-branded, Walmart-designed game console tomorrow, and gave no details about it other than a single photo and the promise that it has "a higher resolution than the Nintendo Switch!" or something like that,  would you swear off Nintendo games for life and become a loyal devotee of the Walmart console empire?   "That's apples to oranges, Walmart doesn't make games or game consoles!"  Exactly.  They have no prior history of making game consoles, and they sell other peoples' games (many of them out of bins with big, single-digit price signs overhead)  but are otherwise not part of the game industry.  So why would you trust them with a game console, especially given a suspicious lack of details, unless you were the most die-hard Walmart fan alive?
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

KoBak07
Protege

CrashFu said:


MowTin said:

The enthusiast is interested in the bleeding edge of technology. The audio enthusiast has $1,000 speakers not the cheap $50 speakers. 


You're confusing "being an enthusiast" with "being a pretentious rich kid who doesn't understand the difference between Cost and Value".  To use your audio equipment metaphor:

Some rich kid might spend a ton of money on some over-hyped, flashy-looking, celebrity-endorsed Headphones and think he's got the best of the best because it was the most expensive and there were the most ads on TV for it.

A true enthusiast would spend half as much (or less!) on a good pair of Audio-Technicas, knowing they come from a company that has been wholly dedicated to making audio equipment from the start.  Even if it's not the most expensive set Audio-Technica has, the enthusiast knows that they will be the best for that price. And because the enthusiast didn't waste all that extra money paying for the over-hyped stuff, they can take what they saved and go buy tons of  actual media to enjoy with it.



Although, I think a more fitting metaphor at this point would be that Oculus is Nintendo and Valve is Walmart.   If Walmart announced an official Walmart-branded, Walmart-designed game console tomorrow, and gave no details about it other than a single photo and the promise that it has "a higher resolution than the Nintendo Switch!" or something like that,  would you swear off Nintendo games for life and become a loyal devotee of the Walmart console empire?   "That's apples to oranges, Walmart doesn't make games or game consoles!"  Exactly.  They have no prior history of making game consoles, and they sell other peoples' games (many of them out of bins with big, single-digit price signs overhead)  but are otherwise not part of the game industry.  So why would you trust them with a game console, especially given a suspicious lack of details, unless you were the most die-hard Walmart fan alive?



This sounds to me more like bitterness about other people spending a grand on a pair of speakers. Actually a grand for a pair of speakers is definitely not in the ultra-high-end pricing.

Why do you think there are companies trembling over themselves to bring out the next supercar, that can do 0-60 in the 2 second range, when the max street speed limit is barely over that on pretty much most of the miles of us roads for example? A marketplace is a pretty large pie, so companies take decisions on what slice of that pie they will try to serve as their target market.

I think just that many of us original Rift users are kind of disappointed with FB seemingly switching from servicing high and low end, to low and low-mid market segments from a hardware perspective. HW is not everything, but I can't think of any other company from other industries that decided to seemingly turn away a market lead on purpose.