Oculus Connect 4

[dburne]

Oculus Connect 4 begins today and last through tomorrow.

 

It will be interesting to see what they reveal. Speculation seems to be the focus will be on the stand alone lower end device. I hope at least some info might be shared on the high end PC version, ie CV2.

 

Mark Z will be giving the keynote later today, broadcast both in regular and VR. John C. will be speaking tomorrow.

https://uploadvr.com/can-watch-oculus-connect-4-live-vr-today/

[A_radek]

I thank you and others posting VR related news like this, here.

Edited October 11, 2017 by a_radek

[dburne]

I thank you and others posting VR related news like this, here.

 

Most welcome!

I may try and catch the keynote later today in VR.

[dburne]

For those that might want to watch in VR, the Oculus Connect App is available from Oculus Home.

Keynote begins at 1:00 EST ( 10:00 am PST).

[dburne]

It was pretty neat watching the keynote in VR, took me about 10 min to get a decent enough connection though.

 

I signed off early as they had moved on to the developer portion of the keynote. 

 

Some quick take aways:

 

Oculus Go - new stand alone headset , pricing of 199.00. Designed for "experiences".

Oculus Rift - new permanent Rift + Touch pricing of 399.00

Santa Cruz - Wireless stand alone headset, still being developed - 4 cameras in the headset for inside/out tracking. Motion Controllers.

Oculus Dash - New VR interface, puts everything on your monitor into VR. ( no more need for BigScreen/Virtual Desktop).

Oculus Home - all new customizable environments, can move around and place objects where you like them. Your games will look like the ole time game cartridges you can launch them from.

The software changes = Rift Core 2.0

 

The software improvements sound very exciting to me, plus having the whole PC experience available in VR will be pretty cool. I believe the beta of al of this coming in Dec.

 

Nothing really discussed yet regarding a second generation of the Rift, but there was a hint more on the Rift would be discussed later during the conference.

Edited October 11, 2017 by dburne

[coconut]

Pretty disappointing announcements for simmers.

 

No CV2. Instead they are building upon GearVR, with a stand-alone device called Oculus GO. This one gets new lenses with reduced glare, LCD with less SDE. They could at least make a CV1 mkII with the improved displays and lenses.

 

They claim that they are the first ones out with inside-out tracking, but Windows mixed VR is coming out now. They will be more than a year late when their announced Santa Cruz prototype reaches the market.

 

Some interesting stuff on the software side of things, but it will be useless to me if there's another headset out with better resolution that comes out next year, because that's the one I will switch to.

[dburne]

I don't think there were many suprises here, although the new software platform coming was a bit of one I guess.

 

Oculus have never said anything about a possible CV2 earlier than 2019, but I too was hoping with the development of things and more competition that might get moved up some. 

 

Will see if anything is discussed later during the conference. I know FB is going for the big numbers, hence the new 199.00 device. But I have always hoped they would still stick with the high end PC-VR as well,  and hopefully they will. 

But I agree, they need to get moving on it or at least sharing some info on it sooner rather than later.

 

For me, a better headset is going to mean better resolution, better FOV, perhaps Foveated Rendering, Eye Tracking, and positional tracking at least as good or better than the current Rift. And be able to run our sims at an acceptable level of performance.

Whomever delivers that, will grab my attention. I personally don't mind using my Rift another year if necessary, I paid full dang price for this thing back in Jan. lol.

Edited October 11, 2017 by dburne

[dburne]

Preview of Oculus Dash:

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by dburne

[dburne]

Customizable Home Environments coming in Dec.

 

[coconut]

I think it makes sense for FB to stay at the current resolution. They target the masses, and the masses don't run desktops with overclocked CPUs and 1080Ti.

[BlznSaddles]

I don't think they will be able to come out with a CV2 until there is at least 1 more, possibly 2 more generations of video cards out to push the extra resolution.  Unless they decide to do some trick like 1 graphics card per eye or something like that.  Lots of room for better software though.

[[CPT]Crunch]

They're claiming a 30% boost in frame rates in CV1's with the new December software upgrade.  

 

New lenses for the Go and 2560 x 1440 res.  Sounded like the lenses would fit in the CV1's.

[Avyx]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/11/oculus-says-high-end-santa-cruz-wireless-vr-headset-will-ship-next-year-to-developers/?ncid=rss

 

Let's wait

[A_radek]

They're claiming a 30% boost in frame rates in CV1's with the new December software upgrade.  

Can't find any mention of this? Do they give any explanation as to how this is accomplished? Another type of asw (cheat)? Do game developers have to implement some new tech or is it an auto performance increase we can enjoy in BoX with this december update?

[coconut]

I have seen no mention of that improvement for rift, only for gear. Sounded interesting since it tackled the problem of high CPU loads, which is what would help this game a lot. But it was for OpenGL es and gearvr.

[A_radek]

Did sound a little too good to be true. An overall 30% framerate increase would mean most of us could crank settings all the way and still keep 90fps.

[dburne]

Perhaps the boost would be more for some of the made for VR games, like the ones Oculus funds. Will be interesting to see, I certainly am looking forward to the new software update in December. Looks like it will be a major leap over what we have now with Oculus Home.

 

As far as CV2, unless they totally change direction I suspect that will be the big topic for Oculus Connect 5 with release sometime first part of 2019. I think when they do it they want to do it big. I doubt they will change from the high end PC Market as they are continuing to fund some major games for the Rift that obviously require a good PC and the Rift.

 

And of course we shall see the effect of the other new devices coming out, the Windows MR devices and Pimax new offerings. It would appear Oculus is not too concerned at this point for whatever reason.

 

OC4 of course is still going on today, will see if any more information is shared.

[A_radek]

Please keep sharing Dburne. In crunch mode at work so no time to watch it all myself.

I also find it peculiar Oculus shows no response to the new Pimax. CV1 sales would probably hit bottom if they announce something new on the horizon. But unless they wan't their high-end users to switch trains they need to give them a reason not to. 

[dburne]

I probably won't get to watch Carmack's talk today, will keep an eye out for any news though.

[coconut]

The Santa Cruz prototype could be interesting. Not as powerful as a PC, but more powerful than GearVR https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/wireless-oculus-vr-grows-up-with-new-incredible-santa-cruz-demos/. Maybe they could run a flight sim comparable to IL-2 1946. Or something like War Thunder realistic/sim, but with virtual joystick instead of mouse and keyboard?

 

I can imagine a single-player or coop game based on doing all the things in a bomber except piloting such as navigation, gunning, emergency repairs and healing. IronWolf but in the air. How much CPU would that require? Lots of knobs and levers to manipulate with the hand-tracking devices.

[dburne]

I watched about 45 min of Carmack's talk in VR, all of that was pretty far over my head.

Mostly focused on software design/ Oculus Go device.

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Thanks for sharing Don!

 

I am hoping for a Rift CV1.5, where you can just replace the HMD for higher-res screens. Everything else is already top of the line, and wouldn't need replacement. I got 3 sensors by now, using them in full roomscale, and the Touch Controllers are currently the best on the market by far.

[Madmatt]

They claim that they are the first ones out with inside-out tracking, but Windows mixed VR is coming out now. They will be more than a year late when their announced Santa Cruz prototype reaches the market.

 

That claim by Mark Z. seemed to be only in reference to an unteethered headset. So they will be first to market with the Oculus Go which has both inside-out tracking and is a standalone unit. So while other inside out headsets will be out this month, this would be the first unteethered one for sale.

 

Madmatt

[Madmatt]

One new feature that is part of the new Oculus Dash is the ability to pull in any other screen into the 3D VR experience. In the demo, they give an example of bringing in a music video or music player app into Elite Dangerous. You could do the same with a web page, or any other content that runs in its own window.

 

The good news is since I have seen people asking about overlaying other program content into IL-2 or even DCS or any other simulator, it sounds like once Rift 2.0 comes out in Beta this December, that will be much easier to do. Maybe I want a small window off to my left shoulder with PornHub running (don't you judge me!) while I fly to my mission point. With that update, you can do that.

 

And while I would say a performance gain of 30% for us across the board would be unlikely, the fact that native support for 2D overlays being brought into the VR display is going to be added, I am hopeful that it could mean that something like simply enabling the Full HUD or minimap for instance may not have the same frame rate impact as it does now. If that alone improves (and again, it could just as likely not be impacted at all), then that could be the 30% increase alluded to and be a huge improvement for those that like to have the interface on while playing.

 

Madmatt

Edited October 12, 2017 by Madmatt

[coconut]

 

 

So they will be first to market with the Oculus Go which has both inside-out tracking and is a standalone unit

 

Oculus Go is rotational tracking only, so I doubt it has inside-out tracking.

[Madmatt]

Oculus Go is rotational tracking only, so I doubt it has inside-out tracking.

 

 

Yeah I meant to reference the the Santa Cruz, not the Go. My brain and my fingers seemed to go in different directions there.

 

Let me try this again.

 

What I was trying to say was that Mark's comment about being first to market was apparently in relation to the Santa Cruz being the first 6DoF headset which is both untethered and offers inside-out tracking. All of the Microsoft based Mixed Reality headsets are still, at this time at least, tethered.

 

Of course, if someone else releases a headset in next year or so that has those key features then he will have been mistaken. That's the problem with predicting the future I guess...

 

Madmatt

Edited October 12, 2017 by Madmatt

[dburne]

Thanks for sharing Don!

 

I am hoping for a Rift CV1.5, where you can just replace the HMD for higher-res screens. Everything else is already top of the line, and wouldn't need replacement. I got 3 sensors by now, using them in full roomscale, and the Touch Controllers are currently the best on the market by far.

 

 

 

I have a blast with those Touch controllers as well !

[TG-55Panthercules]

One new feature that is part of the new Oculus Dash is the ability to pull in any other screen into the 3D VR experience. In the demo, they give an example of bringing in a music video or music player app into Elite Dangerous. You could do the same with a web page, or any other content that runs in its own window.

 

The good news is since I have seen people asking about overlaying other program content into IL-2 or even DCS or any other simulator, it sounds like once Rift 2.0 comes out in Beta this December, that will be much easier to do. Maybe I want a small window off to my left shoulder with PornHub running (don't you judge me!) while I fly to my mission point. With that update, you can do that.

 

And while I would say a performance gain of 30% for us across the board would be unlikely, the fact that native support for 2D overlays being brought into the VR display is going to be added, I am hopeful that it could mean that something like simply enabling the Full HUD or minimap for instance may not have the same frame rate impact as it does now. If that alone improves (and again, it could just as likely not be impacted at all), then that could be the 30% increase alluded to and be a huge improvement for those that like to have the interface on while playing.

 

Madmatt

 

Yeah - since OVRdrop (which can do this overlaying thing very well now) does seem to exact a measurable FPS cost, if they could make that capability native and do it without an FPS hit that would be a nice improvement.

[dburne]

More detailed info on the upcoming Dash software for the Rift.

I am pretty excited about this.