Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Karnak on March 25, 2014, 06:21:37 PM
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http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/facebook-purchases-vr-headset-maker-oculus-for-2-billion/
Zuckerberg's statement:
Mark Zuckerberg:
I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.
Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.
This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.
Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.
Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.
But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.
This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.
These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.
Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it together. I can't wait to start working with the whole team at Oculus to bring this future to the world, and to unlock new worlds for all of us.
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Welp.. my excitement level has dropped from 11 to 1. :cry
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:bhead
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They can't even decide what they want their main website to look like, let along get it to work properly. Then they go and pull this crap?!
I was going to buy one when the production version came out, looks like I'll need to go buy a PS4 instead...
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Good thing I still have my TrackIR! :)
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:furious
I just hope SONYs new VR is good. After they way they launched PS4 I feel a spot of hope for it in my heart.
And here I was thinking of picking up an Oculus as soon as it shipped. Ha not anymore.
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I was wondering when that would be posted here. I saw it over at PC Gamer, and thought pretty much the same thing everyone else did. BOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BOOO! I can't boo loudly or long enough. Sellout land FB is now going to ruin it. I'll bet that the new OR headsets will have an add bar in the middle of the display window, advertising "Farm game" or whatever from FB.
When John Carmack, who invented Doom, Quake, and is a legend in the gaming/programming/creating world came on board at Occulus, I was SO excited and hopeful, and thought they must really be squared away, picking Carmack as a leader - he would ensure things didn't "suck" for gamers, and would apply all his insight and ability to create new ideas to an already great idea.
Somebody at OR sold out for the $, I don't know this, but it's easy to make that assumption. Boooo!
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I guess I won't be giving up triple-screens and TrackIR after all...
A complete disaster.....
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I get the feeling that many people don't realize how detested Facebook is. The reactions in the comments section of the SF Chronicle mirror those here and at Ars Technica. This is even with Facebook people saying some of the right things such as the gaming is the focus for now and that they hope to get it out perhaps even sooner than before. The CFO saying that the purchase made sense even if nothing beyond the gaming ever came from it.
Despite that all the comments I see from gamers are massively negative.
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I get the feeling that many people don't realize how detested Facebook is. The reactions in the comments section of the SF Chronicle mirror those here and at Ars Technica. This is even with Facebook people saying some of the right things such as the gaming is the focus for now and that they hope to get it out perhaps even sooner than before. The CFO saying that the purchase made sense even if nothing beyond the gaming ever came from it.
Despite that all the comments I see from gamers are massively negative.
I've been around IT as a professional for over 25 years....and I can say without hesitation that Facebook is easily the most overrated and least innovative technology companies I've ever seen. Piss poor leadership with over-inflated egos, uninspiring technology, where do I stop?
I can see where they would like to head with this...integrate virtual communities and real communities, even the gaming aspect makes sense when you consider the natural interface between online gaming and social media which hasn't completely been explored. Dispite all this, I have zero confidence in Facebook being able to leverage these points and execute. I may be wrong...but somehow I doubt it.
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Best thing that could have happened to the OR team, kudos to them.
ack-ack
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If anyone here is good at photo shop could they grab a pic of the OR device and morph in a picture of that stupid Facebook farm game you get adds and crap from all the time?
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Best thing that could have happened to the OR team, kudos to them.
ack-ack
Financially it was a very, very good move for the OR team, no doubt.
I doubt very, very much that it will prove to be a good move for consumers.
If anyone here is good at photo shop could they grab a pic of the OR device and morph in a picture of that stupid Facebook farm game you get adds and crap from all the time?
That relates to one of my concerns. Even if the hardware is absolutely spectacular, I wouldn't trust getting drivers from Facebook to not spam ads at me while I was using it and I can think of nothing more immersion killing that trying to fly a WWII airplane or a far future spaceship than having ads splashed in my face.
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Best thing that could have happened to the OR team, kudos to them.
ack-ack
I hope you are right....I really do. From everything I've heard and read the team deserves the support. Hopefully the new management will just pony up cash and get the hell out of the way...leave the "vision" stuff to the actual visionaries.
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The product has a disappointingly long development history. I suspect and hope that it was only because they lacked funds to develop the ergonomic consumer hardware components to go with what they created. If that's the case, then money can help bring it to market, so I'm still hopeful.
:pray
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What's the bet that the first thing facebook produces for this is a virtual dating app?
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I am not at all excited for O.R.
Kind of hope they take it a different direction.
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Welp.. my excitement level has dropped from 11 to 1. :cry
This was my reaction, too... I had high hopes for the Rift, but now...
Let's hope that, as Hoplite said, Zuckenberg will just pour money into it and leave the OR staff free to pursue it vision (I don't believe it, but spes ultima dea)
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(http://i.imgur.com/JfDqbIL.jpg?2)
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I hope you are right....I really do. From everything I've heard and read the team deserves the support. Hopefully the new management will just pony up cash and get the hell out of the way...leave the "vision" stuff to the actual visionaries.
From my understanding, the OR team will operate independently.
ack-ack
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Not going to jump on the sky is falling bandwagon on this quite yet. If it comes out the way people are concerned it will, then I will dump all over them ruining the thing I've been most looking forward to in gaming. I don't think we have the knowledge to say it will automatically suck though. Kind of an odd acquisition... unless they're envisioning updating your facebook page thingumy with 'This is what this person is looking at right now!' type crap.
As long as we can turn that stuff off, I couldn't care less as long as they bring it to market.
Wiley.
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Best thing that could have happened to the OR team, kudos to them.
ack-ack
I agree. Now they have an unlimited source of money to make whatever they want :).
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Hey at least this way they made some money off of their patented TV hat.
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http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/03/facebook-purchases-vr-headset-maker-oculus-for-2-billion/
This does not bring good news to gamers' long awaited stream of upcoming waifu simulators :eek: (because FB's close API)
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So the Kickstarter money that got them off and running which allowed them to be bought out pretty much means squat. :headscratch:
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So the Kickstarter money that got them off and running which allowed them to be bought out pretty much means squat. :headscratch:
That is pretty much the nature of Kickstarter. You know what you are going to get when you put your money in.
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That rift is rubbish :old:
Track IR does what it suppossed to do, why reinvent the wheel :old:
Touch screen is nonesense, you dont need a mouse, but you need a box of wipes to clean off finger prints
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That rift is rubbish :old:
Track IR does what it suppossed to do, why reinvent the wheel :old:
Touch screen is nonesense, you dont need a mouse, but you need a box of wipes to clean off finger prints
You are not supposed to be fingering the monitor with pie all over your fingers. At least put on some protection to keep the monitor from being assaulted with slimy stuff.
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Exclusive screen shots of what FaceBook has in store for the Oculus have just been released! Check it out!
(http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n101/Latrobe_2006/5070480_758da6d22f0869f78ce90fdcf75bb1c4_zpsb8345f4e.jpg) (http://s110.photobucket.com/user/Latrobe_2006/media/5070480_758da6d22f0869f78ce90fdcf75bb1c4_zpsb8345f4e.jpg.html)
:lol
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and thats when I stop gaming.
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Interviewer: What prompted your acceptance of the Facebook offer?
Oculus Rift: Well, we think Facebook is a superior development platform. And we've always really liked fat sacks full of cash money.
Oculus Rift: Do you like my virtual reality headset? It's made of MONEY!
Oculus Rift: Would you like to stay for lunch? I think we're having MONEY!
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You are not supposed to be fingering the monitor with pie all over your fingers. At least put on some protection to keep the monitor from being assaulted with slimy stuff.
I have reported you again :old:
Its an outrage :cry
The Yak9T awesome and so am I :rofl
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As much as Facebook is despised, I think the real point of contention is that the Facebook guys have NO experience with hardware development. It's like asking a real estate agent to build you a house.
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As much as Facebook is despised, I think the real point of contention is that the Facebook guys have NO experience with hardware development. It's like asking a real estate agent to build you a house.
Ocolus will remain independent. Facebook bought Oculus over the potential of the product outside of gaming, their hedging their bets on the future and what VR can bring outside of games.
ack-ack
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(http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aG9bxqw_460sa.gif)
:D
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I really look forward to this as the next era of gaming now that we've covered so much ground in terms of graphics, processing power and accessibility. After they nail down the headset, i can easily picture a pair of pressure-sensitive gloves that allow the wearer to manipulate objects in the game instead of simply pressing buttons on a controller. What i have a hard time trying to conceive is a way to move around without whacking stuff. Seems like someone posted something that answered this issue before, but i cant remember.
Anyway on topic, maybe all of this dough will get help them work out the extra details covering marketing, mass production, improving performance and quality. The consumer will pay for it eventually when FB uses finds someway to tie in its advertisements. Until then, we can only hope this will all turn out for the better.
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(http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aG9bxqw_460sa.gif)
:D
:rofl :rofl :rofl
Now seriously, the future for the device itself is very bright. When you have a company like Facebook behind you, especially with all its ads & data-mining power, it's going to be very, very hard to fail.
What this acquisition means is that VR will both be a huge success, and have a huge range of functions outside of video games right out of the gate.
The bad news is that this also means new opportunities for monitoring, new opportunities for selling personal info to advertisers, new opportunities for data collection, and all the other things we know Facebook to already be doing.
At least if you're in it for the vidya, you could just buy a PS4 (with its upcoming superior headset http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/project-morpheus-sony-interview-gdc-2014/#!BymHz). But for normals I see this being a very good thing, because this has a lot of potential in things like the medical field or helping patients with mental issues through putting them in virtual settings to help them get over traumas and things like that. And your average Flappy Bird playing dumbdiddly doesn't care if he's monitored anyway.
tl;dr, it's still a really exciting technology, just don't use it for toejam that you wouldn't want your friends on facebook to know about (if you even have one, I don't).
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:rofl :rofl :rofl
Now seriously, the future for the device itself is very bright. When you have a company like Facebook behind you, especially with all its ads & data-mining power, it's going to be very, very hard to fail.
What this acquisition means is that VR will both be a huge success, and have a huge range of functions outside of video games right out of the gate.
The bad news is that this also means new opportunities for monitoring, new opportunities for selling personal info to advertisers, new opportunities for data collection, and all the other things we know Facebook to already be doing.
At least if you're in it for the vidya, you could just buy a PS4 (with its upcoming superior headset http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/project-morpheus-sony-interview-gdc-2014/#!BymHz). But for normals I see this being a very good thing, because this has a lot of potential in things like the medical field or helping patients with mental issues through putting them in virtual settings to help them get over traumas and things like that. And your average Flappy Bird playing dumbdiddly doesn't care if he's monitored anyway.
tl;dr, it's still a really exciting technology, just don't use it for toejam that you wouldn't want your friends on facebook to know about (if you even have one, I don't).
As long as you don't have a Facebook account you're fine. At least in theory - I see FB crap on my computer because my son someties logs on to FB using it. Nice to see how FB tracks web page visits etc. and some insane news papers even include comment fields in their news that link directly to facebook.
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:)
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What i have a hard time trying to conceive is a way to move around without whacking stuff. Seems like someone posted something that answered this issue before, but i cant remember.
Omnidirectional walking platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI
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Omnidirectional walking platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI
That is awesome and I want to see it with Red Orchestra! :aok
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Omnidirectional walking platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI
Look at that, now imagine your typical gamer... Are they going to want to use that, or move a stick to run at full speed ingame?
It would be awesome for single player games though... I would give much for an updated Jedi Knight with hand/body motion tracking and VR.
Wiley.
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Omnidirectional walking platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI
Money aside, it seems that I would be way too tall and too heavy to use it.
Why do they make such gadgets only for midgets? :furious
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Look at that, now imagine your typical gamer... Are they going to want to use that, or move a stick to run at full speed ingame?
It would be awesome for single player games though... I would give much for an updated Jedi Knight with hand/body motion tracking and VR.
Wiley.
Depends on if the gamer wanted to exercise.
I'd probably exercise more than I realized, if I was storming virtual beaches rather than running on a treadmill.
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Sure FB there to pour money into it in a hope that they can get ahead of Google in the VR realm. FB doesnt like Google very much and with Google already having Google glass otw, you know Google has something in their sleeves coming up that we can only imagine. Even with Sony having their VR product ideas out in the open, just offers FB an opportunity to make more in gains then what they are investing.
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Depends on if the gamer wanted to exercise.
I'd probably exercise more than I realized, if I was storming virtual beaches rather than running on a treadmill.
I'm thinking more in terms of multiplayer. Single player I could see people using it to their benefit for exercise. If people were relying on their own physical agility in something like CoD, it would put them at a severe disadvantage.
Kind of like how I often thought a fully articulated sim chair that you strapped into and had full range of motion for AH would be neat, it would put you at a major disadvantage to people who weren't using one.
Wiley.
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Omnidirectional walking platform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTtfAQEeAJI
Wasn't this featured on one of Shark Tank episodes?
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I'm only interested in teh Hardware, really wanna see materialize ConsumerVersion 1! I dont care if it has a McDonalds or Facebook Logo on it, IMHO :D
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A more positive take
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-bought-oculus-vr-dead-began/
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Well, my wife has now heard of Oculus and has instructed me to buy one. She was disappointed when I told her it wasn't out yet, but only changed the instruction to apply when it comes out...
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Well, my wife has now heard of Oculus and has instructed me to buy one. She was disappointed when I told her it wasn't out yet, but only changed the instruction to apply when it comes out...
There you go, the beginning of the end! :lol
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Well, my wife has now heard of Oculus and has instructed me to buy one. She was disappointed when I told her it wasn't out yet, but only changed the instruction to apply when it comes out...
Maybe there's a method in their madness!
Man: I want to buy an oculus rift for 350 bucks
Wife: sounds expensive what is it?
Man: A virtual headset for games
Wife: OVER MY DEAD BODY
or..
Man: I want to buy an oculus rift for 350 bucks
Wife: sounds expensive what is it?
Man: a gadget from facebook
Wife: oh, ok. Can I try it too?
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From my understanding, the OR team will operate independently.
ack-ack
EA said that about Dice, and they have ruined the Battlefield games getting their noses in. :old:
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(http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aG9bxqw_460sa.gif)
:D
:rofl :rofl :rofl
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(http://d24w6bsrhbeh9d.cloudfront.net/photo/aG9bxqw_460sa.gif)
:D
:rofl
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Maybe there's a method in their madness!
Man: I want to buy an oculus rift for 350 bucks
Wife: sounds expensive what is it?
Man: A virtual headset for games
Wife: OVER MY DEAD BODY
or..
Man: I want to buy an oculus rift for 350 bucks
Wife: sounds expensive what is it?
Man: a gadget from facebook
Wife: oh, ok. Can I try it too?
DAMMIT mine knows too much about it for that to work because I mentioned it a while ago...
Wiley.
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Even if the hardware is absolutely spectacular, I wouldn't trust getting drivers from Facebook to not spam ads at me while I was using it and I can think of nothing more immersion killing that trying to fly a WWII airplane or a far future spaceship than having ads splashed in my face.
So much derp in this thread it's not funny.
Most drivers for the OR are third party - a few are open source and free, Hitech has said he has the code for the distortion (and possibly tracker) done - it's just QA/QC time vs demand that keeps it from being in game.