Oculus Rift?

[Gorgon]

Aside from sim and exploration gameplay, what's it for ?. It's a new experience, but can developers do anything game changing with it. That actually remains to be seen. They are already reporting users have a hard time giving complex input while they are using the device, there is some kind of brain - hands - controller disconnect that slows you down, and there is still the nausia problem.

 

 

I'm sure Microsoft intends to make one and make it part of Kinect. That could get dangerous though, karate chopping your way blind throuh the living room.

 

I still want one though.

[Mor]

Exactly, as far as "hardcore" gaming goes, you'd have to limit yourself to a simple input scheme or device, complex moves can be very disorientating and only giants such as SONY\MS can push enough units to make it worth while to buy a several hundred gadget.

 

Though it might get picked by various niche communities to complement other gadgets e.g. flight\race simulators.

[rjshae]

As a consumer, I had an interest in the OR headset technology and I was waiting to see what type of games and other software became available before investing. However, I do have strong concerns about Facebook's privacy practices, so it is almost certain that I will not be buying it now unless they make it available for stand-alone use.

[samm]

 

Good article

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-you-shouldn-t-worry-about-facebook-buying-oculus-rift/1100-6418545/

 

 

"Why you shouldn't worry about ..." ? Can't be good article then, because "cui bono" is always the first and most important question when thinking/talking about big business decisions.

 

Aside from sim and exploration gameplay, what's it for ?. It's a new experience, but can developers do anything game changing with it. 

They would have to, literally, change the games to be a good experience on Oculus. There's a good intro from Luckey from the Steam Developer Days, called something like "how to port your games to the VR".

 

Here's and something I can relate to 

 

 

Hm, I concur that the described scenario how FB could make money of this deal is a likely one. Wasn't on my mind at first, but it does make a lot of sense, given how current web advertising metrics work. Also, his point is mine too: What was a very inspiring, open and competent technology Start Up is now bought by one of the dullest, untrustworthy and technologically as well as ethically questionable technology... using firms.

 

I'm also a bit disappointed that Carmack has not jumped ship (yet), but even tweeted about setting up an FB account instead of his other communication channels.

Edited March 27, 2014 by samm

[Bryy]

[AwesomeOcelot]

Facebook is known for buying companies and funnelling data about uses back to Facebook. Facebook is a data mining and advertising company like Google. There's probably some people that backed the Oculus Rift that avoid these services. Others while they use these services, are fine with the trade off, you get a great service for the cost of having your behaviour tracked and seeing adverts. There was no expectation of Oculus Rift being linked to services used for data mining and advertising. Blah blah blah Instagram remained independent, bull****.

[Gorgon]

I don't care about being tracked or datamined, everybody is a datapoint in so many seemingly inoccuous activites these days. I do care about adverts in your Oculus, that's going to suck so badly. 

[Bokishi]

Carmack seems to not mind

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/31/john-carmack-lends-support-to-facebookas-acquisition-of-oculus-vr

 

I'm still happy to see the Occlus being adopted by a tech giant, rather than remain a niche piece. I have accrued so much niche hardware over the years, like EAX Soundblaster cards, Physx cards, Deathstalker keyboards etc. that rapidly fizzle and lose support just right after it comes out, because they couldn't reach out to enough companies to back it. Being backed by a tech giant may mean the tech is here to stay, thanks to bottemless dollars for marketing and awareness, and it gets more support in upcoming mainstream games (sans minecraft), without having to rely on shoddy hacks. Sure there is a possibility that FB will ingrain itself into the product somehow, but pretty much most of my tech devices already have some form of facebbok integration built in the OS, like my android tablet, my ipad, PS3, and soon XBone will have it 

[ManifestedISO]

Discreet PhysX isn't a thing anymore? 

[Bokishi]

It wasn't a true thing until they got bought out and turned into a driver function for nvidia cards, and that the original true physx card released in 2006 was never supported after 2 games

[Aoyagi]

Discreet PhysX isn't a thing anymore? 

 

Heh, unfortunately no, if it still was a thing, it would have actually developed in the many years it has existed for.

[Bryy]

There was no expectation of Oculus Rift being linked to services used for data mining and advertising.

I almost feel like Data Mining and Advertising have had their meanings so perverted that they now just mean "boogeymen".

Edited April 1, 2014 by Bryy