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| source// Oculus |
In case you’re still struggling to catch up with all the ongoing VR buzz, company Oculus released pre-orders for its Rift VR headset on January 6th, and everyone went a bit crazy.
The Facebook-owned company said it would begin shipping the product on March 28th to original Kickstarter backers with a price set at $599. But the price has divided the public and the press, leaving Oculus’ creator Palmer Luckey to defend it in an open Reddit post.
Luckey said the goal for Rift is to be an “affordable and disruptive piece of VR technology that would put VR into the hands of a lot of people”. But ringing in at just under $600, he notes, “The goal never changed, but the timeline of achieving that goal did,” inferring that the Rift’s price may come down in time or that more inexpensive models could be in the future pipeline. He claims it’s worth the ask overall, saying “the Rift is the first headset capable of delivering presence, the sensation of feeling like you are inside a virtual scene on a subconscious level”.
Before you go rushing to the Oculus website to buy the Rift though, there are a few things you might want to mark off your checklist, as there’s a ton of things to consider before investing in such a remarkable piece of kit.
10. How Does It Work?
The Oculus Rift may look like something you just pull over your eyes and that’s it, but actually, inside there’s a wealth of cutting-edge tech that isn’t completely ‘hands-free’ just yet.
The headset includes a range of amazing hardware designed to create complete reality in a three-dimensional world, and for that to work, you have to plug it into a computer via a 10-foot long USB connection with the display itself connecting via HDMI, and then there’s an optional DVI adapter for laptops and/or newer graphics cards for greater compatibility.
Oculus has created the headset to have a different screen for each eye, with OLED displays which are very close to the user’s face. You’d think this would cause eye strain or tiredness, but the lenses refocus the light as though it were coming from far away, so it takes some of the potential pain away from the fact the display is only inches away. The lenses also magnify the screen to cover more of your vision, which warps the display too.
9. How Does It Know Where I Am?
Oculus has created a few different ways in which the device knows exactly where you are to make sure the screen can be calibrated correctly, and after a lot of deliberation, they’ve gone with a small microphone-shaped pole that will sit on your desk, beside your computer screen.
The device is quite discreet, it’s designed to blend in with whatever else you have in your room (as long as it’s black), and works with a tracking system that integrates with your headset through a series of infrared LEDs – which Oculus calls it the ‘Constellation Tracking System’. On the DK2 (the previous non-consumer model) there was a snag with the system where you couldn’t look behind you, because the LEDs fell out of the camera’s field of view, but that’s been fixed by adding LEDs into the rear of the headset as well as the front, so you can fully rotate 360 degrees.
All you’ll have to do is make sure you don’t turn around too many times though, otherwise you’re going to get tangled up in the 10-foot USB cable from the main device.
8. What Facebook’s Acquisition Means
You may have also noticed that in March 2014, Mark Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post that Facebook had bought Oculus. In the post, he said: “Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting a doctor face-to-face – just by putting on goggles in your home.”
This unleashed a series of backlashes for Oculus, who had originally started the ball rolling through crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Most notably, Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft, said in a blog post: “Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers and nothing but building user numbers.”
Despite this potential animosity, speaking at the Oculus Connect 2 in September last year, Palmer Luckey announced that the Windows 10 version of Minecraft will support the Oculus Rift from next year.
What Facebook’s involvement actually means, is that Rift will have a larger social side than before, as in the not-so-distant future it will be more than just a gaming device.
Luckey told Fasy Company magazine that “right now you have very abstract social networks. So it will be really interesting to see what happens if virtual reality ever progresses to the point where you can have a very realistic way of interacting. The only difference is that you can be whoever you want to be, instead of whatever cards you got dealt in real life. It’s the stuff of science fiction, but we are not too far away. People already spend hours a day on Facebook. What if it was truly engaging and immersive, rather than a filtered version of your real self?”
In other words, ‘watch this space’.
6. What Are You Getting For Your Money?
The current Oculus Rift bundle comes with the headset itself, the pole sensor, a remote, cables, Xbox One controller and two starter games, EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale which rings in at $599 but it is, to some people, a lot of money. Oculus would make you believe you’re buying more than just a VR headset, claiming on its website that the Rift will be a wholly immersive experience and not only that, a whole new way to game.
If you were to pre-order it now there’s a bit of a wait on when it’ll arrive, and there’s more disappointment as that $599 won’t include tax or shipping, so the overall cost could be significantly higher – especially if you’re getting it delivered outside the US. You could have further misery if your computer is not compatible with the Rift’s software (a point we’ll look at more closely later on) which means you may have to fork-out more money for a gaming PC.
If there is a worry about your out-of-date computer, then Oculus are introducing a series of all-inclusive Rift/PC bundles available for pre-order in February at $1,499. The package will include Asus, Dell, or Alienware computer models, with the latter being most commonly related to computer gaming.
5. When Is It Being Released?
The Rift is set for release pretty soon, but you’ll have to take that with a pinch of salt as if you haven’t already ordered, demand is way too high to guarantee one close to launch. The confirmed release date has been set for ‘Q1 2016’ which is between now and March, but the only people who will get their hands on the device in that time frame are the ones who helped fund the original Kickstarter.
If you’re an ordinary Joe, then the website currently states your ‘expected shipping date’ is June 2016, and although 20 different countries are listed to receive the headset, Game Reactor is reporting that the kit won’t be available in ‘other countries’ until 2017, though which regions were not specified.
4. What’s Oculus Touch?
The Oculus Touch is an alternative to using the Xbox One controller, but you’ll have to pay extra to get it. These devices are small round joysticks that wrap around your hands and are tracked using the external camera, with several buttons and even a trigger.
It will allow you gesture and pick up objects in VR by tracking your fingers with hand-tracking technology will lets you manipulate objects in virtual reality, alongside making life-like hand gestures. Unfortunately, there’s no set launch date for the Touch, but a blog post from Oculus made on December 31st, 2015, said that Touch would appear in ‘the second half of 2016’.
The only remaining piece of the puzzle is how much it will cost and there’s no news on that yet, but considering the sheer scale of technology inside the Touch, it is going to be slightly more expensive than your standard controller. Oculus said that it’s ‘made significant advances in ergonomics, and we’re implementing many changes that make Touch even more comfortable, reliable, and natural. We’re also implementing changes that improve hand pose recognition’.
In other words, it’s going to be pricey.
3. What Are Your Alternatives?
There’s no denying that 2016 is going to be the year we see numerous new releases into the VR market and the Rift already has some competition. Obviously, the PC-based Rift isn’t going to be for everyone but there are some notable front runners trying to compete against Oculus.
HTC Vive
HTC’s thrust into the virtual reality world is still in its final development stages with the current working title going under the name of ‘HTC Vive Pre’ and it sizes up to the Rift quite nicely with the consumer version planning to take pre-orders from February 29th. CEO Cher Wang told the Telegraph the company had chosen to refocus on virtual reality (VR) and away from smartphones, saying they company was now “more realistic”.
Its defining feature is being fully free-roaming, meaning you aren’t limited to sitting down or walking around a small space, instead using a forward facing camera and technology called Chaperone, which is supposed to stop you from walking into walls. What you get is a thermal view of your surroundings whenever necessary, and its camera is a great tool for creating completely enclosed virtual worlds. In addition, developers will be able to create digital elements on top of real life, which means there could be more integration further afield than gaming i.e. virtual cooking lessons in your home or even virtual house tours for estate agents.
The Rift and Vive share a few similar features, most notably the same OLED display, but the hardware of these headsets isn’t everything. Consumer decisions will most likely be influenced by price, ease of use and the games playable on each.
PlayStation VR
Sony’s attempt into the VR world has had some mixed reviews, but if you put PlayStation VR together with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it’s going to come in last, in more ways than one.
The device is connected to a significantly less powerful PS4, for a start, and you are comparing it to a high-end gaming PC on the Rift as you need to run at least a GTX 970 GPU video card. In terms of display, Sony’s has a lower resolution of 960 x 1080 per eye while the Rift and the HTC Vive run 1080 x 1200 per eye. Another downside is the PlayStation Move controllers, like Oculus Touch and the Vive controllers, PS Move lets you have hands inside first-person experiences, but the five year-old form factor isn’t keeping up with the other two.
The upside of the PlayStation VR would be affordability, as a Rift-ready PC starts at around $900, that’s in addition to the $599 Oculus. If you don’t already own a PS4, the VR will require around $350 for the console on top of whatever the headset costs, so even if the PS VR ends up costing $200 more than the Rift, the total package would still be $350 cheaper than a Rift bundled with a PC.
2. What About Gaming?
Included in the $599 price tag are two games; the action-packed EVE: Valkyrie and the greatly contrasting Lucky’s Tale. There are a few others out there, as well.
The physical amount of games which will be available on launch day is still unconfirmed but Nate Mitchell, vice president of product at Oculus told VentureBeat that there will be ‘roughly 100 experiences over the course of 2016 with 20 exclusive titles coming from Oculus Studios that we’ve funded and developed in tandem with developers like Insomniac’.
But hopefully, there won’t be too much of a wait for when we see them launched. “We’ll reveal the exact launch titles through our 30-60-90 day launch window over the next few weeks,” Mitchell added. “A lot of developers have been waiting for us to announce our date. You’ll see more developers standing up this week and next to say they’ll be there at launch.”
EVE: Valkyrie
EVE: Valkyrie is one of the ‘base games’ you will get with Oculus Rift and it makes sense as CCP Games has been developing its games since the first DK1 version of the rift. It’s a multiplayer space dogfighting game and has been a long time coming, alongside being set in the EVE Online universe that has a ready-made fan base, giving you plenty to be excited about.
Bullet Train
Another action game which is currently being tested on the DK 2 is Bullet Train. The great thing is that it’s designed to work with the Oculus Touch, mirroring your hand movements to let you experience using various guns. There hasn’t been much more information about if this will release the same time as the Rift, but more features include teleportation and time manipulation so it sounds like a game which will be great fun but will divide opinions.
Rock Band VR
In December 2015, Oculus released a cringeworthy staged promo for its partnership with Harmonix to bring Rock Band to the Rift but there’s only a very short teaser of what the gameplay will look like although it will have the facility to work with the Oculus Touch controllers and able to track the Rock Band guitars. The fact you’re not having to fork out for a new Rock Band guitar is good news for those worried about having to pay extra for the add-ons like the Touch.
Lucky’s Tale
Luckey’s Tale is almost like a cross between Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog, but a little less intimidating. Your in-game view is in the third-person perspective which you’d think wouldn’t work, but if the demo is anything to go by, it does. It’s also a great family-friendly title which shows the first-time consumer how wide the scope is for VR gaming.
1. Is My PC Ready?
If you want the Oculus Rift to work, you’ll need a pretty high-powered computer to do so without issue, but as an alternative, Oculus has teamed up with Asus, Dell and Alienware to make sure they are already compatible with the headset.
According to Oculus, the Rift VR headset would work well with PCs that have a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that is equivalent to an Intel i5-4590 or greater; a video card on the lines of a Nvidia GTX 970, AMD R9 290 or greater, memory that measures up to 8 GB RAM or higher, a compatible HDMI 1.3 video output, four USB ports, three USB 3.0 ports plus one USB 2.0 port (that’s a lot of ports), and Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or newer.
If you’re not sure on the specs of your computer, Oculus created a compatibility tool you can download and run on your PC in order to find out if their machine meets the requirements. If you don’t, it will tell you which bit of your computer isn’t up to scratch and this does is give you two options; firstly, you could try and install the up-to-date hardware yourself or you’ll have to fork out for a new computer, but Asus Rift-ready PCs start at the price of $949 while both Dell and Alienware offer PCs at a starting price of $999.
Are you ready for the VR invasion across 2016? Let us know in the comments!
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