All aboard the hype train!
It's very late, but I'm excited, so I wanted to pass along this information. The biggest hurdle Oculus had to overcome compared to the dev kit is VR sickness, and now they are claiming that it has been eliminated:
“We got to the point where the latest prototype of this technology really is beyond even what we expected for V1,” Iribe told me. “We kind of put the hammer down and said ‘Okay, this is it, this is definitely enough to totally blow away the world and deliver our consumer, V1 product.’ We’re looking back even now on the dev kit and going ‘oh gosh, this new one is so much better.’ It is literally an entirely different experience. “Of the 300 people who have seen the current prototype, not a single person has come away not saying ‘That’s gonna change the world,’ and that’s really [what we needed to accomplish] in terms of delivering on the promise of the vision we’ve all had for so many years,” Iribe says. There’s a general feeling that it’s a true ‘Holy Grail’ experience in terms of immersive reality tech among those who’ve tried the latest prototype, Iribe says.
So what's the difference? What's making this a radical change? We still aren't getting specifics, but here's a short list of what they say they've accomplished:
-No discomfort
-No dizziness
-No nausea
-No motion blur
-Extremely low latency
-Higher resolution
-Perfect 6DOF (positional tracking)
Palmer states it's leaps and bounds beyond even the HD prototype that they were showcasing for E3 over the summer. So with all the positive, what's left to do? What are they focusing on now? Oculus gives the indication that they have nailed down the v1 consumer, and it's even better than what they thought it was going to be. But what doesn't it have?
-Eye tracking: Not going to be in v1, but it is one of their primary focuses at the moment. They are focusing on optical tracking and camera tracking. Palmer has stated eye tracking will not be in the initial consumer version.
-Body tracking: We're still uncertain what Oculus has up its sleeve for input devices, but the implication they are giving is that the headset is their primary focus. There are other companies, like Sixense, who may make up the slack here, or maybe Oculus just isn't ready to announce yet. Either way, Oculus states it's a focus for the near future.
-FOV?? The one thing on my list that wasn't on Oculus' was an improved field of view. That doesn't mean that the consumer version won't have a wider field of view - it just hasn't been confirmed/announced yet.
It doesn't seem like it will be long before we get concrete specs on the consumer version. These articles state Oculus will probably showcase the newest prototype at CES in January. Valve and Oculus have also been working together, and Valve plans on showing an even better VR prototype during their event in January. Even better??? Yeah, this I have to see!
I must say, VR sickness is the worst part about the dev kit. It trains your brain to just not want to strap the thing on. The fact that everyone who has tried the newest version has had no sickness and is able to stay in it for over an hour and want to keep going is simply amazing. Check the links for the source material:
TechCrunch: How Oculus Plans To Be Riding High When The Virtual Reality Wave BreaksThe Verge: Flush with cash, Oculus plans ambitious new VR headset
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