Oculus Rift

rockatansky

OK when this was first announced a couple of years ago I was extremely excited. I though the initial idea was to bring VR to the general PC user. With every new update however, my interest has gradually waned. It now appears it'll end up in the hands of the dedicated gamers only who are willing to fork out considerable sums of money in order to meet the minimum requirements.

My PC is is quite old, Q6600 processor on a basic motherboard. I was into PC gaming years ago but just fell out of it. I've been telling myself that VR was when I would definitely get back into it.

If I was to go out tomorrow and order both the rift and the components for a self build PC that might be slightly above the minimum requirements, ball park can anyone tell me what would I expect to pay for the whole setup?

Taylor365

rockatansky wrote: »

OK when this was first announced a couple of years ago I was extremely excited. I though the initial idea was to bring VR to the general PC user. With every new update however, my interest has gradually waned. It now appears it'll end up in the hands of the dedicated gamers only who are willing to fork out considerable sums of money in order to meet the minimum requirements.

My PC is is quite old, Q6600 processor on a basic motherboard. I was into PC gaming years ago but just fell out of it. I've been telling myself that VR was when I would definitely get back into it.

If I was to go out tomorrow and order both the rift and the components for a self build PC that might be slightly above the minimum requirements, ball park can anyone tell me what would I expect to pay for the whole setup?

2nd hand set up + rift for under 1k.

All new, I'd say 1200.

Dyr

Taylor365 wrote: »

2nd hand set up + rift for under 1k.

All new, I'd say 1200.

I'd say you're looking at 500-600 for the rift or vive alone.

Rew

Bambi wrote: »

I'd say you're looking at 500-600 for the rift or vive alone.

Id say more like €450 tops

Zillah

Anyone know what games there are to get excited about for the Vive? Eve Valkyrie as a launch title with the Oculus means I'm guarantee to have something exciting to play on day 1 - I'm having trouble finding info on any really good-sounding games coming with the Vive launch.

Lots and lots and lots of tech-demos and 1990s-era-looking indie numbers, but very few fully fledged titles poised to actually make a good VR game.

Thargor

Zillah wrote: »

Anyone know what games there are to get excited about for the Vive? Eve Valkyrie as a launch title with the Oculus means I'm guarantee to have something exciting to play on day 1 - I'm having trouble finding info on any really good-sounding games coming with the Vive launch.

Lots and lots and lots of tech-demos and 1990s-era-looking indie numbers, but very few fully fledged titles poised to actually make a good VR game.

EVE Valkyrie and I only found out the other day theres going to be a "free" wireless black 360 controller included in the pack aswell.

Zillah

Thargor wrote: »

EVE Valkyrie and I only found out the other day theres going to be a "free" wireless black 360 controller included in the pack aswell.

This is a very confusing reply. I asked about the Vive.

Thargor

Oh sorry, confused myself, free controller is with the Oculus, EVE is with Vive.

Zillah

Valykrie is with the Oculus too lol

Rew

Luckys Tale coming with Rift as well

Zillah

I kind of want a crystal ball to see a couple of years into the future and see what the VR market is like. I really don't want to commit to a betamax player

Vive is technically more impressive, and has Valve backing it, but the Oculus has a much higher profile and has some pretty cool looking launch titles. Their marketing is also much more coherent - very hard to find anything about what having a Vive in your hands will be like, whereas I know I'll be flying around in spaceships on day one in Valkyrie with an Oculus.

Loafing Oaf

Zillah wrote: »

I kind of want a crystal ball to see a couple of years into the future and see what the VR market is like. I really don't want to commit to a betamax player

That's my brothers attitude too, he doesn't think the tech will be worth the investment for another few years...

Zillah

I'm not wary about the tech itself, just which one is going to end up on top with all of the best support. I've seen some people argue that the hardware isn't up to the challenge, but they've all been terrible and misinformed arguments to be honest. They seem ready, I just have to pick a side.

Betamax was actually better than VHS, but VHS won through marketing!

Rew

Zillah wrote: »

I kind of want a crystal ball to see a couple of years into the future and see what the VR market is like. I really don't want to commit to a betamax player

Vive is technically more impressive, and has Valve backing it, but the Oculus has a much higher profile and has some pretty cool looking launch titles. Their marketing is also much more coherent - very hard to find anything about what having a Vive in your hands will be like, whereas I know I'll be flying around in spaceships on day one in Valkyrie with an Oculus.

HTC is not a company id put huge faith in they have had a bad time recently, Ars Technica have summed it up nicely here.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/01/ars-deathwatch-2016-companies-and-tech-whose-time-may-have-come/

I like the Valve Lighthouse tech and hopefully others will licence it and make headsets other then HTC.

Dyr

Zillah wrote: »

I kind of want a crystal ball to see a couple of years into the future and see what the VR market is like. I really don't want to commit to a betamax player

Vive is technically more impressive, and has Valve backing it, but the Oculus has a much higher profile and has some pretty cool looking launch titles. Their marketing is also much more coherent - very hard to find anything about what having a Vive in your hands will be like, whereas I know I'll be flying around in spaceships on day one in Valkyrie with an Oculus.

Day one? With a CCP game? Good luck with that

Valve have the biggest gamestore on the planet you can be sure they aint gonna be short of companies pitching titles to the vive for day one.

On the other hand Valve seem to be big on ideas and very short on execution these days.

Either way, you're going to be looking at a betamax piece of kit either way. I'd say a few years from now, it will be an ATI/Geforce choice. Both will work regardless

ScumLord

rockatansky wrote: »

OK when this was first announced a couple of years ago I was extremely excited. I though the initial idea was to bring VR to the general PC user. With every new update however, my interest has gradually waned. It now appears it'll end up in the hands of the dedicated gamers only who are willing to fork out considerable sums of money in order to meet the minimum requirements.

Yeah the requirements are a bit scary but that's the way it is with all new technologies. They start out expensive and gradually get cheaper over time.

We always knew VR was going to require a lot of horsepower. The fact is VR has only become possible lately, it almost looks like the VR guys are in no rush to release because they're as much waiting for PC hardware to catch up.

VR should push development in Gcards though. There are only a few expensive cards that can do VR at the moment. By this time next year though all those expensive cards will be old hat and cheaper versions will be out.

I'm going to have to update my Gcard too, it sucks because I seem to be upgrading Gcards way to regularly on my current build. But I want VR and I'm willing to pay the premium to be an early adopter.

stevenmu

Pre-orders will go live on the 6th: https://www1.oculus.com/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-open-on-january-6/

No mention of the price yet. With the rumours that it'll be more expensive than initially expected, I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around €450.

They don't mention anything about worldwide availability, but they know demand from UK and Ireland was high for the devkits, so I'm expecting/hoping it'll be a worldwide release.

drunkmonkey

Didn't they say the controller are delayed until Q2 now so it'll just be the headset available, 250 + postage? The can't over price it. Could be even way less, 150 or 200.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/01/oculus-touch-motion-controllers-delayed/

Sonics2k

stevenmu wrote: »

Pre-orders will go live on the 6th: https://www1.oculus.com/blog/oculus-rift-pre-orders-to-open-on-january-6/

No mention of the price yet. With the rumours that it'll be more expensive than initially expected, I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around €450.

They don't mention anything about worldwide availability, but they know demand from UK and Ireland was high for the devkits, so I'm expecting/hoping it'll be a worldwide release.

Gods, I'm suddenly so skeptical of Oculus and how good it's going to be. Development seems to have been quite quiet with less news, and now a Pre-Order is going to be up at the same time as the final kit, before we've even had a decent look at it.

Maybe it's the skeptical gamer in me, but I've seen far too many cases like this where it ends up being a kick in the teeth.

Dyr

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Didn't they say the controller are delayed until Q2 now so it'll just be the headset available, 250 + postage? The can't over price it. Could be even way less, 150 or 200.

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/01/oculus-touch-motion-controllers-delayed/

Can't see them dropping it below the price of the DK2, yer man Luckey has been talking the price up for a while now, called it a "significant investment"

splashthecash

I would be skeptical also - looks decent and has great potential, but like other high concept ideas, might just become a fad for a while and then fade away

Would this be compatible with newest gen consoles (PS4\Xbox 1) also or is it purely PC?

Thargor

I wouldn't say its a fad this time, not when billions have been put on the table.

Rew

EDIT: Sorry on a plane with ****ty internet, didn't see that details already posted

Rift pre-order opens in 48 hours (8am Jan 6th PST)

http://ocul.us/preorders

Thargor

Fcuk it, with EVE and the controller ready to go Im going to go for it, not much point leaving it in the bank at current interest rates

ScumLord

splashthecash wrote: »

I would be skeptical also - looks decent and has great potential, but like other high concept ideas, might just become a fad for a while and then fade away

Would this be compatible with newest gen consoles (PS4\Xbox 1) also or is it purely PC?

It's purely PC. PS have their own one in development. Xbox could maybe go down the AR route as that seems to be Microsoft's baby.


I don't think it will fade away. Anyone into simulators on PC is foaming at the mouth for VR. Loads of businesses are already using the DK2 for demonstrations. I saw a architecture company using them at an exhibition in the UK to show off their designs. It's a relatively cheap investment for companies like that, I can also see it being used alot in many CAD applications.

It could have a slow start though, it's a niche market to begin with and the PC requirements might mean it's a few months before the like of AMD/Nvidia have affordable cards that can run VR smoothly.

I don't think it would replace on screen gaming entirely, I don't think you'd be using it to watch films once the novelty of those things wear off, but it does have very real practical applications that will mean sales will be high.

Dyr

splashthecash wrote: »

Would this be compatible with newest gen consoles (PS4\Xbox 1) also or is it purely PC?

Master race only. I imagine the muggles will have to wait until the next genertuion of consoles for VR support.

Sonics2k

splashthecash wrote: »

I would be skeptical also - looks decent and has great potential, but like other high concept ideas, might just become a fad for a while and then fade away

Would this be compatible with newest gen consoles (PS4\Xbox 1) also or is it purely PC?

I don't think it will be a fad, just the early days of proper VR and not the 90's style crap we know so well. With billions invested, as well as being owned by Facebook, and the major input from nVidia and others, I don't see this has a fad.

Not to start any console war type nonsense, but the Oculus and Vive are developed purely for the PC as current consoles simply don't have the graphical power to run the games at the desired graphical level and FPS. When right in front of your eyes, there is a huge difference between 30fps and 60fps.

Rew

Bambi wrote: »

Master race only. I imagine the muggles will have to wait until the next genertuion of consoles for VR support.

PS4 will have its own headset later this year, they already have the game launch line up announced for it.

Dyr

ScumLord wrote: »

Anyone into simulators on PC is foaming at the mouth for VR.

I think a lot of sims will be a slow on the the uptake, it tends to be a middle aged, more conservative crowd, who mod a lot of the older sims now.

That said, Silent Hunter 3 in VR

Cliff of Dover in VR

Cna't wait

ScumLord

Sonics2k wrote: »

I don't think it will be a fad, just the early days of proper VR and not the 90's style crap we know so well. With billions invested, as well as being owned by Facebook, and the major input from nVidia and others, I don't see this has a fad.

I'd say the likes of Nvidia were delighted to see VR come along with it's high demands.

Bambi wrote: »

I think a lot of sims will be a slow on the the uptake, it tends to be a middle aged, more conservative crowd, who mod a lot of the older sims now.

2015 was the year of the sim, there's even more new sim platforms coming out next year and PC racing sims are starting to come out on consoles now as well with Assetto Corsa hitting the consoles later this year.

We had Assetto corsa, rFactor 2, Race room experience, stock car extreme, to name just a few. There was also a whole raft of high end sim gear, direct drive motor FFB wheels are becoming popular, loads of small start up companies are making gear for sims. The whole industry is expanding into a whole hobby onto itself, separate from gaming.