Is oculus losing the vr battle?

[witwas]

I mainly use my rift for flight simming but occasionally I try out some vr games like super hot vr or hotdogs, horseshoes and handgrenades. But it seems to me that the HTC vive is becoming the platform for the mainstream vr experiences. With games like fallout 4 or Half-life coming exclusively to the vive they really have an advantage because a lot of people are waiting for a full blown vr game.

 

 

I invested a good amount of money in my rift as I was an ‘early adopter’ so I hope oculus will stay in the race.

 

 

 

What is your opinion?

[TheBamse]

I'd be surprised if they don't utilize SteamVR/OpenVR API's for Fallout 4. It seems like the biggest point for not mentioning the Rift in the marketing for F4VR is the "battle" between ZeniMax and Oculus. If they go so far that they actually lock Oculus users out ... well, it just doesn't seem likely to me :)

 

If you're referring to the green-lit HL2: VR mod (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=923491647) it's not Vive exclusive. It's being made for Vive and Rift.

 

But no matter where we are on the two mentioned titles I can't say I share your view. I've tried quite a few titles from both Steam and Oculus Store and I haven't found one actually enjoyable title that was lacking proper Oculus support.

[dburne]

IMHO no, not by a long shot.

Oculus is well positioned and will continue to be a major player going forward.

[Chivas]

Possible but unlikely. Oculus has amassed a very large talented company, with new hiring's, and tech company buyouts. That said, Oculus has been very quite lately, but that obviously doesn't mean they went on holidays. With so many new companies with large budgets entering the market, they have to keep their development work much closer to the vest.

[Winston 60]

Since Zuckerberg bought Oculus, consider them a profit oriented company rather than an innovation oriented company. In the years to come it's very likely other VR companies with better vision will leave them scrambling just to keep up. Revisit this topic in 5 years to see if I'm right or not. :smilewink:

[wormeaten]

Since Zuckerberg bought Oculus, consider them a profit oriented company rather than an innovation oriented company. In the years to come it's very likely other VR companies with better vision will leave them scrambling just to keep up. Revisit this topic in 5 years to see if I'm right or not. :smilewink:

 

You are completely right. :thumbup:

Like you read my mind.

 

I was wrighting here before and some people was making fool of me but right now everything I was clam today's is true and proven.

 

Next year we will have already next gen VR with 90Hz 4K display per eye and without SDE on 200° FOV and eye tracking.

 

 

 

That is the future of VR just right the corner fith full realistic imersion where we will remember Rift as screendoor tube experience not full peripheral vision experience. Not just that with some new tech implementation this will work on higher resolution without need for super uber GPU.

 

Vive could go in similar direction because they support third part upgrades and could do something similar same as it was with Rift. Oculus anonuced they future product will be more like today's AiO VR more sutable for movies and Facebook users what is in my opinion step backward in VR.

[outlawal2]

Gee great, the biggest thing to hit PC computing in a decade or more and now we get to put up with another Beta / VHS pissing match which means we ALL lose..

 

Tremendous...

[Chivas]

I find it highly unlikely that the hundreds of first class VR innovators that Oculus hired over the last few years will no longer be innovating. Not sure how Oculus can make a profit, by not innovating.

[dburne]

I find it highly unlikely that the hundreds of first class VR innovators that Oculus hired over the last few years will no longer be innovating. Not sure how Oculus can make a profit, by not innovating.

 

Agreed, better believe Oculus intends to be at the forefront. Just because they choose to remain somewhat quiet doesn't mean they are not innovating, probably smart on their part.

 

I certainly won't be jumping ship anytime soon, will be anxiously awaiting CV2. Unless of course I am totally wrong, which if that is the case should have plenty of other options to choose from at that time.

[Fri13]

The best choice for long time has been the Oculus.

 

I bought both, Rift and Vive when the Oculus Touch controllers got released and both had good and bad things.

 

I would give a clear victory for Valve idea to implement cameras in HMD and every controller and have just a laser scanners (light houses) to give the positioning information for those devices, as you solve the main problem at once and for ever, IR cameras resolution!

 

You can as well have multiple controllers or HMD with just two or three lighthouses as those doesn't need to output anything specific.

With a Oculus decision the thing ain't so nice, as your sensors (cameras) resolution is limited by FOV as well the distance of the IR lights, and every sensor is connected to own computer, meaning every user needs own dedicated sensors.

So Valve can do multi-user room setups, while Oculus can't.

 

But Oculus can do cheap trackers or implement lighter and simpler HMD and controllers as they just need IR lights, the light map to firmware and bluetooth connection to HMD. So you can have many kind controllers in small space and wireless and even without much power requirements (example, Valve wand controllers battery time around 7-10h, Oculus touch controllers around 100-200h).

 

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

 

That is Steam Hardware Survey, very reliable for the average PC gamer setups (no, surveys are just that you don't need everyones opinion/input, just enough to get the typical ones) and we are currently talking only about 0.23% of the gamers using Vive and 0.18% using Rift (total less than 0.5% of the gamers).

 

You can as well see already the effect of Oculus Summer 6 week sale, 449€ price tag that boosted position by about 10 points. But there ain't yet visible the Valve/HTC stike back with Vive drop to 600€ so likely the situation will go back to about 60/40 split.

 

The Oculus is doing one thing very well, investing money to great VR titles. Meaning the games are designed for the VR use (low resolutions, low textures, excellent stories and immersion and controls) that HTC isn't doing and Valve is just having few great titles compared to Oculus.

 

The problem really is that while the specs for HMD are similar by resolution, FOV etc. The controllers are not and the possibilities for room scale were different (much later get a touch controllers by Oculus vs Vive that had all the time those). So many developer is just getting the Rift kits because they have now the touch controllers instead normal gamepad.

 

The Oculus is really pushing the VR style out, generating titles like Lone Echo, Robo Recall, Chronos and so on. But the Vive has the hype around it more as there is thing behind like Valve and Steam, instead Oculus and Facebook.

 

If Oculus continues to improve the VR ideas and designs and titles, it can very well survive. But if it starts to push too much for social and such, it starts to lose a competition. But so does have Valve have similar risks as they need to push for titles and help to bring the VR to few years older games with third person view etc. This means, not to focus just for room scale and wand controllers but as well for keyboard and mouse or HOTAS and such.

 

But VR has very big change to just die, suffer from same as 3D television (lack of content, difficult to use and enjoy) and so on 3D movies too (too expensive to produce and have limited features).

 

And one reason just is that you can't sit down and play a FPS game with HMD without most having a motion sickness.

If we could get games like example ARMA 3 just quickly to VR and enjoy from its gameplay without motion sickness, it would be easy to get going.

 

But Doom, Fallout 4 etc need to solve the same problems as any other "shooter" that you can't just port them to VR.

So even if Oculus would be losing the "VR Battle", the real loser is the VR itself.

 

No matter how much I want to see VR to succeed, to see games like ARMA 3 to be playable with VR, to get RTS games like Wargame AirLand Battle etc out (would work very well with VR!) the current hardware is too low end for majority. The computer specs to run VR well on games like DCS is way too high and unreliable.

 

And VR can't afford for a "smartphone bubble" effect where we start to see new versions every year or every second year. Even three years upgrades can be fatal. No, it should be like a HOTAS or keyboard+mouse system, around five years usable lifetime per HMD.

 

So everyone is currently a loser in VR. It is way overhyped technology even in its current version. IF something, we should get some old (simulator) games from end of the 90's to be ported for VR as those would be by the graphics more fitting than high resolution games today.

 

Example flying a Gunship! or Enemy Engaged in VR (in "Big Screen" mode) looks amazingly great, fitting well, being readable and somehow "refreshing" even as they were designed for low resolution and older hardware. A one of the first FPS games like Doom II looks amazingly great with sprite graphics. Take a 3D models in use and it is amazingly enjoyable and fun as the graphics are just getting great fit with low resolution HMD like Rift and Vive.

 

So if we are sticking to current HMD quality for next 2-3 years, the game developers need to learn to lower the textures radically and make very simple 3D models, almost just like 10-20 years ago for high-end games!

 

 

While "fighting" against each others, the change that VR fails is just too much if they can't get things standardized and quickly (in year or two, before next versions of the HMD and controllers) and get the game controls and movement right.

[BeastyBaiter]

I think the rift is doing just fine. They lost a ton of ground to the vive when the vive had controllers but the rift didn't. But they've been regaining market share ever since I think. In any case, though I have the rift and am happy with it, I'm not convinced they will still be a player in 5 years. In a lot of ways they are trying to be the Apple of VR, I'm not sure that's a viable business model. But then I'd say the same thing about the iPhone and iPad, yet they seem to do ok. So what do I know? :P

[Chivas]

Its obvious to most people that as good as the immersion is with VR flight sims the displays, and FOV still need a lot of work. I have no doubt that these issues will be addressed at some point, maybe even with the next generation headsets, but I'm not holding my breath. The consensus so far is that the Rift has been the best option for flight sims. I have no idea if that trend will continue, but I certainly wouldn't bet against it, as Oculus still has the largest development team working on VR hardware today. People have predicted the demise of Oculus since the Facebook acquisition, but so far the exact opposite occurred. That said, I don't really care who makes the best headset, as I will buy the one that suits my needs. Its just awesome that so many companies have entered the VR market. :)

[witwas]

Thanks for the many opinions on the VR subject. Lets hope VR games will get mainstream in a couple of years so we fight simmers can profit from the immense cashflows they generate. Money = better products and quicker development.