" When next Generation VR shows up, it will be because we did it"

[dburne]

https://uploadvr.com/michael-abrash-the-information-interview-2020/

Interesting read. Publicly available data indicates FB has 50% currently of the PC- VR Market.

 

Abrash:

Quote

 

No company has invested at anywhere near the level we have. When the next generation of VR shows up, it will be because we did it. I see no other way it’ll happen.

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by dburne

[NiiranenVR]

For about 2 years ago I got the Oculus 1 - and these glasses were the reason why Im flying the game sturmovik 

1/2 year ago I got mine reverb , and I said 'wooow ' ...

I still say wow , but now I have  them , I can see it can be better - I'm satisfied - I'm happy for the possibility , and the game ..... But I'm also looking forward to what comes next .....'woow' 

 

[E69_Qpassa_VR]

There are rumours about an update in the WMR in this year. Hp reverb with 4 cameras for example. 

 

[Jaws2002]

7 hours ago, dburne said:

https://uploadvr.com/michael-abrash-the-information-interview-2020/

Interesting read. Publicly available data indicates FB has 50% currently of the PC- VR Market.

 

Abrash:

 

 

If FB makes it, I don't want it. 

[[CPT]Crunch]

I'd believe software, but not the hardware side of the market.

[chiliwili69]

What is paradoxical about Oculus is that with all the budget and R&D team , the Rift-S is the lowest specs device on the market. Although very competitive on price.

 

Ideally Oculus could create two business lines for VR-PC. One would be the current Rift-S (low specs, low price) and another a high-line (high specs, higher price).

In this high-line I would include the Reverb resolution, the Index sweet spot and the Pimax FOV. All this with the inside-out tracking, low weight and good ergonomics.

This high-line would be ideal for the sim game market (flight, cars, space) and many business applications.

 

Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers has several level of lines for the phones, from the 1000$ phone to the 200$ phone. Oculus could do the same here.

[Alonzo]

But Facebooks goal is not to do with enthusiast hardware. When Abrash says “when will we get VR gen 2?” He’s actually talking, I think, about when it can be made affordable enough for mass adoption. Facebook doesn’t care one iota about flight sims, or probably even games at all. They care about VR as a social platform that they can own and monetize. That means cheap headsets. They’ve already lost key leaders because the Rift S was a compromise headset. But their Quest is selling like hot cakes. And for the money, $400, Rift S is the best headset you can buy*, has good optics, works on lots of PCs thanks to ASW tech, is light, ergonomic, etc. And they outsourced the bloody thing to Lenovo.

 

I’m not expecting a new headset from oculus anytime soon, but when one does show up we all better pay attention. 
 

* Best headset for $400. Not best headset.

[dburne]

6 hours ago, Alonzo said:

But Facebooks goal is not to do with enthusiast hardware. When Abrash says “when will we get VR gen 2?” He’s actually talking, I think, about when it can be made affordable enough for mass adoption. Facebook doesn’t care one iota about flight sims, or probably even games at all. They care about VR as a social platform that they can own and monetize. That means cheap headsets. They’ve already lost key leaders because the Rift S was a compromise headset. But their Quest is selling like hot cakes. And for the money, $400, Rift S is the best headset you can buy*, has good optics, works on lots of PCs thanks to ASW tech, is light, ergonomic, etc. And they outsourced the bloody thing to Lenovo.

 

I’m not expecting a new headset from oculus anytime soon, but when one does show up we all better pay attention. 
 

* Best headset for $400. Not best headset.

 

 

The only thing I  would disagree with is on them not caring about games.

They have sunk a ton of money into games - PC-VR games that would require the Rift. Until more recently now they can also be played with Quest via Link.

The recent Asgard's Wrath and Stormland being good examples. Two top notch made for VR games that are considered AAA games. I have been playing Asgard's Wrath this past week

and it is truly incredible and will be providing many hours of high quality gameplay. And there have been many very good PC-VR games previously that have been

heavily funded by Oculus.

 

Oculus/FB has indeed been pumping quite a lot of money into the PC-VR games.

 

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Their strategy papers had revealed they are aiming at owning the platform itself.

 

They are aiming at dominating the operating platform of VR with Oculus and pushing aside SteamVR/OpenVR. Similar to how Android and iOS dominate as the mobile platform.

 

 

That's why they're aiming for penetration with cost leadership instead of anything else. Hardware for them is just the means to it and still operates at net loss. So far they had not even considered Valve to be their main-counterpart - and even now Valve will be hard-pressed to even catch up to FB/Oculus. With all the praise the Index generated, it still holds no candle to Oculus' market share.

 

 

Some thoughts to the opposing end of the range of strategy: Regarding technology, Pimax may be the tech leader - but has such a small user-base and so many disgruntled original backers (due to re-focusing away from Controllers and Basestations, the latter forced by Valve), that I heavily doubt they could catch more than the raisins on the cake. They're only interesting for enthusiasts like us, the guys in the DCS community, and Sim racers, and require deep pockets. The Pimax Vision 8KX full kit with Index Controllers and Basestations goes for $ 1,928.00, plus the odd RTX2080ti you'll need, and has a big backlog of orders already.

[[CPT]Crunch]

Exactly, and the proof is Samsung who sold more VR hardware on the O/facebook platform than nearly everyone else combined, than suddenly pulled the plug almost all together.  They rapidly figured out the money was all being made on the soft side and were barely treading water.   Why make Zucker rich?

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

Because his German name literally means "Sugar Mountain".