Rift, Vive, and Virtual Reality

It's sad for me as an original Oculus Rift owner being at the pinnacle of VR technology only a few short years ago seeing my friends mum talk about her new VR headset which is better than mine it's a long fall from my technology leadership pedestal.

I really need a new headset but neither the technology, nor the time I spend in VR justify it at the moment.

 

I'm torn. I really wish VR will succeed. On the other hand I wouldn't want to use a facebook device. Major reason I didn't upgrade from quest1 was the facebook login requirement. Most of my content is from steam. I'm ready to jump hw ships if someone does great inside out tracked steam headset. I'm not wanting to go into the lighthouse approach after experiencing quest.

It's going to be tough for anyone to compete with facebook. They have super cheap device considering the hw and sw provided. And now it looks like they have the market share also which will inevitably lead to developer mindshare as well. Volume also is advantage for facebook. It will allow for cheaper hw due to volume production. Someone planning for less units is just not going to be price competetive.

 

Agreed.

This makes me wish that Valve had instead focused on a mass consumer VR device like how Facebook is approaching VR.

While I totally get why Valve wants to push what's possible with consumer VR hardware, if they really want VR to take off on Steam, they should attempt to release a quality consumer level VR device as Facebook has done with the Quest 2.

While I've been tempted by the Quest 2 ... 2 major things prevent me from getting one. First, the physical IPD adjustment is way too fiddly compared to the Quest 1. Secondly, it requires an actively used Facebook account, this is just a non-starter for me.

Regards,
SB

 

Are you sure ? I have a totally unused account

 

They did ban newly created accounts at one point. Though maybe it was some automation doing that. And perhaps things have been improved since. At least I haven't seen ban news lately.

 

Although unused I have had the page for a couple of years
I only signed up for it because facebook wouldnt let me search it unless I was signed in

 

Qualcom ar smart viewer is interesting. The form factor starts to look pretty ok. Still poor fov though(45 degrees). If I was betting man I would bet apple is looking to do something similar albeit wirelessly to replace phone screen.

https://www.roadtovr.com/qualcomm-ar-smart-viewer-headset-announcement/

 

I've had a fully working rift since last year, I got a message you have to register it with facebook so I did
then I get this
facebook acknowledges I have a rift but then tells me no device registered WTF

 

The best part of that is that it sounds like the glasses will also work with Windows 10 PCs.

Depending on the price, I'd give that a try.

Regards,
SB

 

Some Italian owners of MS's new wireless headset are reporting an error message

“[a]n update for the VR headset is available”

Microsoft are saying it's a localisation bug. Ok then!

https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/16/22334533/microsoft-xbox-wireless-headset-vr-localization-bug

Wasn't there an Xbox VR reference in MS Flight Sim too?

 

Half life Alyx has finally gone on sale for those of you waiting for the price to drop
-40% £27.89 down from £46.49

 

There is nothing odd about it.

 

If anyone plays Valheim
https://www.dsogaming.com/news/valheim-vr-mod-is-now-available-for-download/

 

so... when in VR, i randomly able to see clear and sharp, without glasses. Despite i normally needs glasses to see clearly in VR (and in real life, due to myopia).

Then i watched this on reddit
showing that my brain can make up things (way too strong error corrections?) thus making me see color on BW image.

this makes me wonder, is this (overzealous error correction by the brain) related to why I randomly can see clearly in VR despite i normally need glasses to see clearly in VR (i have myopia). Its not that my eyes randomly able to focus, it was my brain randomly auto-sharpen / add details into the blurry image (akin to DLSS?).

Thus me, thinking, huh? My eyes got better? neat! at random times in VR.

 

I imagine it has more to do with the proximity of the lenses combined with using stereoscopic lenses to give the illusion of depth rather than your eyes actually having to focus on something at X distance from you.

Regards,
SB

 

Haz everyone seen this :
Kylo Ren makes a VR glove

 

I'm really curious how he will incorporate the haptics. It need to read the fingers position from the game and stop the wires from being pulled

 

That's cool, but I'd worry that it'd go wrong and give me gecko fingers.

 

New HTC product to be announced

 

I was on the Vive website last night and saw the conference mentioned and figured they have something coming. Exciting.