New Oculus Rift dev kit goes on sale for $350 today, likely ships in July (opens in new tab)

I had a similar reaction.

They say in the video that they brought together the "best developers in the industry" which sounds like generic marketing embellishment until they cut to Carmack. Hard to argue that statement at that point.

Any reservations I would have had about the rift are totally destroyed by the fact that Carmack is on the team.

I held off on the first Dev kit, mostly because I didn't have a decent gaming rig, and the lower resolutions, but I just bought a new machine, and I couldn't give them my money fast enough to get in on the Dev Kit 2

My understanding is that this "see through the vehicle" capability is built into at least some helmet-HUD/Helicopter combinations that the military has.

If it suffices for an attack helicopter, I'd say that the idea probably has serious potential for automobiles as well. I wouldn't expect to see it come to standard consumer cars yet, but for commercial drivers (particularly truck drivers who have massive blindspots) this could be invaluable. Imagine being able to see through the back of your box truck while backing up!

"FPV Flying" (First Person Video) of an R/C plane or quadcopter is quite similar, although obviously you're not in said vehicle.

The challenges there are mostly around downlink and latency, with analog video being the standard for its favorable latency and signal fade characteristics.

Many flyers do add a few more channels to their existing radio control systems in order to use camera gimbals with head tracking to allow the true "first person" experience you suggest.

Obviously for a real vehicle something like modern in-dash parking systems using stitched camera views to build an immersive environment would be more practical than a gimbal, although software latency is occasionally harder to control than that of hardware.

Actually this is a different but related area that Steve Mann calls mediated reality. It's essentially a level beyond AR by not only augmenting what you see but manipulating what you see (improved human vision is an example).

Meta is trying to achieve this through their AR glasses, which Steve Mann is part of.

I have had this exact thought for a while - use a bunch of cameras to compose a virtual third-person perspective of your car.

No more blindspots.

As it stands our local CubeSat team apparently want to try high-bandwidth radio - I'm suddenly on that side as long as we include a pair of stereoscopic cameras.

I've been wanting that for months.

I would put one camera in each of the lights, so I would have front and rear stereo vision.

The top of the screen would be forward, and the lower part, or a small window could be towards the back.

Easy parking!

Could anyone with more background elaborate on what you think Carmack means with the second tweet? The PS4 already outputs 1080p with (varying algorithms of) antialiasing for several of its launch titles. I'd expect some rendering pipeline shortcuts to cut down on the latency that some operations incur and to achieve a constant 60 FPS, but a generational drop in graphical fidelity seems steep.

His second tweet makes an excellent point...

Apparently it supports the "Linux 12.04 LTS operating system"!

I think you'll find a large proportion of people who have ordered the dev kit have done so just for a taste of what's to come. And I'm sure OculusVR don't mind at all because the sales generate additional revenue and PR without all of the responsibility that comes with shipping a consumer product.

1. According to media reports, the latest version almost eliminates motion sickness. You can still get motion sickness from e.g. going on a virtual roller coaster that would make you sick in the real world, but you won't get sick just sitting in place (which is why the new demos do just that).

2. Far away objects look pixelated, and very close objects look incorrect because the depth of field is wrong. However, the 3D effect is much better than with any previous 3D technology, and there's an overwhelming sense of real scale that you don't get watching e.g. a 3D TV set. You feel placed in the 3D world and you can easily judge the size of things relative to yourself.

3. If your friend knew about the Rift they would easily be able to tell that it was VR; however there is also a perceived feeling of it being real that doesn't go away just from knowing that it's not. VR "presence" means that you'll dodge an object thrown at you even though you know it isn't there, and you'll be afraid to step out over a cliff even though you know you're on a flat floor in real life.

I got the chance to play with it a few weeks ago, along with several others in our office.

1) It didn't make any of us sick, but I could see how it still would for users, particular if they didn't try to move their body in roughly the same direction as they would if it was IRL. If you have ever sat in a vehicle and watched the outside via a mirror - it's like that.

2) For me, while it was immersive (we had several users scream at things and dance around), it is still nothing like real vision. It still gives you one real focal point (or lack of one at all), which immediately makes it different from real life vision - particularly over long distances.

3) Unlikely. It would probably severely freak them out. Perhaps the rapidness of it would leave enough confusion that they worked it out, but it is still obvious it is computer generated graphics. See the focal issue above as an example.

Having said that, it was amazingly fun and I wish I had one now. I'd love to experiment with a 'Virtual Programming' environment. I'll leave what that means as an exercise for the reader :)

The good news about sim sickness is that most people get over it with practice. Not only that, but there are many reports from Oculus DK1 users that warming up to the Rift cured their motion sickness outside of VR! As in "I can read in the car for the first time!"

The bad news is that while better tech in the DK2 and better design in new software can significantly reduce motion sickness, I doubt we will ever completely eliminate it.

The really bad news is that nausea is funny. It's great for catchy headlines and quippy comments. I'm really afraid that the Rift will get a reputation as a "vomit helmet" and that will lead the masses to dismiss it. That would be a tragedy.

It's really important PR for VR to get the word out: If you feel sick, stop. Don't try to push through, you'll make it really bad. Try again much later. With practice, it will get better and better. When you get over sim sickness, all kinds of awesomeness awaits!

The motion sickness feeling is not due to the product itself but the mixed sensory perception by the brain when different senses present contradictory signals: e.g. visual movement perceived by the eyes vs lack of movement by the ears. Therefore, a newer product version is unlikely to address this.

Regarding your helicopter question, if you're tied and blind-folded and somebody moves you around, would you be able to fill that? So, in the same way your friend would "see" that he is falling through the glasses, but he would "feel" that he is actually not.

Depends on how awake your soon-to-be-former-friend is, but the pressure of the device on his face would most likely give away that it's fake within a couple of seconds.

Well in a movie he wouldnt be able to look around, defeating the purpose somewhat. So a game scene or 360 degree movie would be needed.

That is some sick thoughts you have there.

Judging from my experience with the dev kit, even on my gaming rig there was a little bit of trouble running some of the games fast enough.

Your machine needs to be capable of running your game at 1080p 60fps. Not sure how the rMBP stacks up, but for most of the demos you should be able to play on low.

I found the best demos were more about an experience then games. The novelty wears off after a while, but I think when the real games come out, that's when things are going to get interesting.

There are tons of fantastic demos and experiments out there already, more than I ever thought would be at this point.

The retina mac book will be passable but will have trouble maintaining 60 fps with many of them.

All signs are pointing to 2015.

At SXSW interactive there was the suggestion of 18-20 months.

My guess is mid to late 2015.

How much was your discount?

I don't know if you are praising Luckey or calling him just a figurehead. Don't underestimate his intelligence, he is a really smart guy.

sanitize GET variable!

I was able to get the DK1 working using a hdmi -> regular displayport adapter for my Thinkpad X220 on Ubuntu 13.04

I assume this means there is one cable that splits in to an HDMI and USB connector. It will work with any HDMI adaptors.

I haven't had any problems connecting my DK1 to my macbook with a mini display port -> adapter.

I can't find anything that definitively states it, but from how it's worded it sounds like it's a single cable that just has both HDMI and USB connectors on the end, not some sort of weird custom connector that tries to send both over the same set of pins.

> Fortunately, Gabe [Newell, Valve's managing director] just let us have it all. It wasn’t exactly easy to get it past the lawyers, but we were able to negotiate, free and clear, all the technology

That was really nice. Not many companies would do that.

I'm pretty sure the motion sickness is caused by conflict between what you see and how your brain knows your head is moving.

Even a slight delay between your head moving and eyes seeing a reaction can cause nausea

Recently read a great working theory of motion sickness... when your brain can't reconcile your sense of "down" or motion via your ear and your body orientation with your vision's perception of down or motion, then your brain thinks one or the other is hallucinating because of something you ate, and that's why you have a nauseous reaction, to expel the poison.

The vertigo isn't because it feels so real, but because it doesn't, and your brain knows the difference.

The motion sickness is not just because it looks real, it's because of the small little mistakes, such as high persistence and latency.

Imagine that every time you move your head, the image not only takes time to appear, but also is a little blured.

It's kind of simmilar to being a little drunk, but sober, so the effect is really awkward.

I don't get motion sickness moving through the real world, do you? Should have that checked out. There for motion sickness in a virtual world does not seem more real.

it sounds like you haven't used an Oculus. There's nothing fun about VR sickness; it just makes you know that you're not really there.

Realism isn't always good. Thinking that motion sickness is good just because it's realistic is like thinking that the ultimate VR experience will cause debilitating pain whenever your in-game character gets shot. Some experiences are better left out.

I guess they wont "need" to set up the camera. But it is recommended as it is there to help with head-tracking. So your movements inside the 3d environment will feel more natural with more degrees of freedom.

The DK1's resolution is way too low for reading large amounts of text, and I'm somewhat skeptical that the DK2 is good enough to be used as a monitor replacement.

Different applications that place less emphasis on text may be a better fit for VR - think photoshop and autocad for a start.

I was just thinking about this the other day. How weird would it be to have a technical interview for a job where you and the employer both hook up via OR, walk up to a virtual computer, and start coding at a computer inside the game?

Things are about to get crazy.

I'm interesting in this too. My guess is you'd really need good, light, haptic gloves to make this work... certainly you will need the same sort of precision and physical feedback you have now with a physical keyboard, even if you're not primarily using it for traditional typing.

Not too bad if you have any remotely serious plans of developing for it.

Personally, I'll be waiting for the second generation public release before seeing how my badly unbalanced far-sighted vision handles the experience. I'm happy to give them plenty of time to sort out all the little problems and upgrade the hardware.

I'm in the UK and I had to pay $35 shipping and $77 Tax, bringing my total order to $462 or about £277.89.

I only have a hobbyist/tinkerers interest in developing for anything for this, but I figure that (in my opinion) the Rift is the most exciting piece of technology out right now and I'd love to have a play about and see what I could achieve with it.

Also, I've never even so much as tried any VR before, so I reckon the price is cheap for the chance to experience it and see what it's all about. It might be a total let down - and I'm ready for that, but at < £300 I figure it's worth a punt.

I'm being quoted $22 shipping within the US. Seems really excessive.

$55 USD for Ontario, Canada

From what I've heard, at least a higher resolution, 90 Hz display.

Failed for me as well, decided to just put the credit card in.

credit card is failing for me as well..

Some companies cover sales tax for their customers or they do some trick to avoid sales tax, some don't. Some states require sales tax over online order. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=4...

They're probably legally required to, if they have a nexus of business in the state you're buying from.

DK2 is expected to start shipping in July, no date has been set for consumer release but people seem to expect a consumer product release date either at the very end of this year or sometime in 2015. Any dates around the consumer product release date is pure speculation at this point though.

The Oculus SDK is C++, but I'm sure there are bindings for many languages. Probably the easiest way to get started is with C# in Unity. If anyone is feeling adventurous, you can even access it in JavaScript! https://github.com/DanAndersen/cupola

If I recall correctly, a devkit comes with a limited license key (1 year?) for Unity 3D. That was the case for DK1.

I can see the confusion of "on sale" versus "for sale", but they're both commonly used terms to represent the ability to purchase.

It's a dev kit. Things have always been done this way. Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft do it too. It just typically costs thousands of dollars and you have to already have a business relationship with them. So you rarely hear about it. Most PC guys hate this model, hence this...

Example: http://www.retrotrader.com/catalog/product_info.php?products...

If consumers want to be dumb and ignore everything that states very clearly that this is a product for developers, that's their business.

Why would you bitch about it? Why couldn't you wait until it becomes available and then decide if you want to buy it?

And yes, selling things before they actually exist is the new norm for a while now.

I hope you are not too confused since you got out of your 1990s time capsule.

Edit: And as for why would they take preorders... Because they can, because people are willing to throw money at them. Last september preorder queue was 50k people deep if you wanted to get in line. They would be mad not to take preorders as it helps them keep costs down (expected inventory, it is easier to get loan from a bank if you have N widgets already sold,...).

When you're manufacturing things, preorders can also be helpful to calculate the size of your initial run. (I don't know if this is why Oculus is doing it, but they wouldn't be the first.)

they are only taking a deposit for 50 bucks and they recently got a lot of money from a VC. You don't call apple out on preordering the latest iPhone and I see this as about the same.