The key thing about Oculus Go that is entirely missing from their website is that it only allows 3dof in the movement tracking. It's just like cardboard/daydream/gear. Unlike all the tethered VR headsets that do full 6dof.
In my opinion this isn't VR at all. It's a glorified 360 degree viewer. Personally I think it's pretty deceptive of Oculus to market this like it's a full VR heatset when it's very much not. If you are interested in VR for the immersion or the experiences, avoid this. Get something with full positional 6dof tracking.
Don't get me wrong, I think positional tracking is very significant, too—but that doesn't mean this "isn't VR". You can still move around fluidly in 3D space, it's just that what triggers that motion won't be the motion of your head—and that is an important fact, but being able to navigate 3D worlds mean it isn't just a 360 degree viewer. I've enjoyed 'rails'-based games and others where you navigate through gaze (or clicking if you have a controller I imagine) on the GearVR. And even if you're stationary (e.g. when sitting in the living room of Netflix app), exploring a real-time rendered 3D space by head rotations feels very different from viewing 360 video, which is a really poor experience IMO (for one thing, no depth perception).
I've used devices with positional tracking, and it's on another level for sure; but since I don't have a PC that could support one of the nicer headsets atm, it would mean shelling out at least ~$1400 to do VR.
So if this is more comfortable, has integrated audio, a higher-res screen, comes with a controller, and I don't have to set it up with my phone to use each time—it's definitely got me thinking about it...
Edit: also, if anyone knows: the main thing I wonder about this is whether it overheats super quickly like the GearVR. That's the worst part of the cellphone experience IMO—most games will cause overheating within ~5min.
Edit2: the Reddit faq[0] claims the heating issue is resolved, "overheating is no longer a problem (on Gear VR, this is the #1 issue - because phone components are packed into 5mm, your VR play session will always come to an end with the message 'your phone has overheated, gotta stop playing VR until it cools down')"
I’m kind of in agreement with you... I don’t think the “real” VR inflection point will be here until we have something in this price range (sub $400) all-in-one with 6dof and leap motion-style hand tracking.
But I still bought two Oculus Go’s. Because I think I might be wrong about the 6dof and the finger tracking. I have a sneaking suspicion that with excellent rendering and good design we might see the Mario/FarmVille/Angry Birds/Pokemon Go of VR on a 3dof all-in-one device. We’ll know one way or another within 18 months.
If you’re a developer, it seems worth the risk to assume the inflection point is today, 5/1/2018 though.
Thanks for the comparison, I've been out of the VR game for awhile. It looks like the Oculus Go is an amazing price for what it offers based on that spreadsheet.
Mmmmmm. That's some nice looking hardware. Not appearing like you had a medical device strapped to your face was one of my driving decisions for picking the Rift over the Vive. And the simple straps and soft touch fabrics look really nice and comfortable here.
But I have yet to find any lasting appeal to the "low-end" VR experiences. It really gives a poor impression of what the tech is capable of and walk away with a "gimmicky" feeling.
> But I have yet to find any lasting appeal to the "low-end" VR experiences. It really gives a poor impression of what the tech is capable of and walk away with a "gimmicky" feeling.
I'd argue that even "high-end" VR leaves many with a bad impression walking away with a "gimmicky" feeling. The Rift continues to be the worst technology investment I've made, no amount of personal enthusiasm for the concept makes up for the fact many people get motion sick on these things eventually. Feeling sick for "fun" in my free time is not up there with my favorite leisure activities.
Outside of a handful of impressive tech demos (RoboRecall etc), the vast majority of the content on the Rift is equally low rent too.
And then there was Farmville. And then there was Angry Birds. And then there was Pokemon Go.
Games which were designed AROUND the limitations of the platform, rather than being a crappy stripped down version of previous fully realized gaming experiences.
GearVR and Rift owner here. Social VR, for example AltspaceVR, is also quite worthwhile with mobile VR like the GearVR. Yes, you cannot look around people and you have only one 'hand', but that's good enough. Another feature I regularly use is PhoneCast to use most Android 2D apps in VR. I remember catching up 4 seasons of The Walking Dead in double speed with BsPlayer every night. Of course BigScreen will also be a killer app when it's released for mobile to watch movies with others.
What I think Oculus really nailed down was the controllers. Playing Robo Recall, I can sometimes even believe I'm holding an actual, although lightweight, weapon on my hands.
That said, resolution is not the greatest asset. I doubt this device improves on that – if anything it will probably be worse.
What blows people away is not the display, it's the head and position tracking, of both the HMD and the controls. It's amazing how you can "see" them and accurately pick them up on a table. I hope this device has that.
it's for consuming 360-ish video experiences, which i think is less gimmicky than you're implying. good 360 videos are fun and immersive and let you explore visually in a way that flat film doesn't. i actually think this kind of passive engagement with "VR" will be more common (because it's easier) than highly interactive video games.
Bought an S7 on the cheap recently to see if its 2K screen (2560x1440, so possibly the same as this?) would be good enough to watch films on, was okay but nowhere near what I'd like. Unless that's severely misrepresentative, I'll be keeping away from deeper VR experiences until they're at a stronger level (please prove me wrong!)
The fun and immersiveness does not come from the screen quality, but from your ability to navigate and interact with a virtual space. If I could convince you that you are walking on the surface of Mars, you wouldn't complain that I gave you a smudged visor.
Until the mobile experiences have a quality 6dof and motion controls, they have almost no appeal to me.
I havent used any VR system, so take what Im about to say with a grain of salt, but Ive heard the actual VR headsets are much better in terms of immersiveness and quality than using phone headsets.
Okay, so I just picked one of these up and tried it out for half an hour or so. It is nothing less than a game changer. The screen quality is phenomenal, it's super comfortable, and it Just Works (TM). I have a Rift and PSVR and previously had both Rift DKs; this will get infinitely more use. Being untethered means I can sit on my couch, lay in bed, or sit on a plane and experience great VR.
My wife tried it for 10 minutes and already wants one of her own. This thing is priced to sell and just a great piece of tech. Can't wait to start developing for it!
I wonder if they will notice an uptick in bounce rate for Firefox 59.0.3 users, primarily because it seems to crash the tab. The Ars Technica review linked by 'portmanteafu provided great information.
Can you share a Firefox crash ID from your about:crashes page? I see some bad flickering when I scroll with Firefox 59.0.3 on Windows 10, but I haven't been able to reproduce a crash yet.
It's doesn't work properly in Chrome either if you have Ublock Origin enabled and/or anti-Facebook filters in place. Which is not that surprising considering that Oculus IS Facebook.
Even when trying to sell you hardware, Facebook is spying on your every click.
It locked up my downward browsing on Firefox. I had to manually click the three content circles on the right to continue progressing through their presentation.
I am most excited not by gaming on this device, but by the prospect of experiencing the VR film content that is premiering at Sundance/Tribeca/SxSW. VR has a rich and diverse future, current clunkiness aside.
I'm sure there are cheaper ways of tuning in, but something about a polished name brand product appeals to me more than a smartphone-on-the-face cardboard approach.
Ordered, can't wait. Will be nice to have a VR option that doesn't require burning battery or overheating my phone (OG Pixel). I built my last gaming PC to minimum-Oculus-VR specs, but never got around to buying the headset. Glad I waited.
The Go and the Rift are targeting pretty different experiences. The Go can only track rotation while the Rift can track position changes as well. This opens up many different actions (e.g. crouching down to pick up a can the road) which boost immersion. If you get a chance to demo a Rift or an HTC Vive, I would highly recommend it.
I've been wanting to buy an HTC Vive for a long time. The thing is, I don't have a desktop PC, so I've just postponed and postponed the purchase. Is this thing better than a google cardboard is it more or less the same?
Watching reviews it looks like it's mostly "experiences" and not much different from a cardboard.
If you are considering a Vive, you should probably avoid this. It's only 3dof, unlike the Vive's 6dof. In my opinion this isn't VR at all. It's a glorified 360 degree viewer. See my other comment in this thread.
It's better than cardboard but it's in the same ballpark. It's probably the most refined mobile VR experience that exists at the moment. The games are pretty shallow or short for the most part.
I always wonder with these things why the big jump in price for memory - what's the bom difference? Is the 32gb just the 64gb one with half the memory crippled?
It's £5 for the cheapest possible 32gb sdcard, about £12 retail for one I'd expect to work well. So presumably the memory is quite a small part of the cost difference -- there seems so much other tech in there, a quarter of the price can't be just memory.
School me oh gurus; is this just price differentiation?
They have enough location data to show UK pricing (I am in the UK), but when I ask about where I can trial a headset they silently fail and show me somewhere on the east coast of the USA.
[+] [-] SimonPStevens|8 years ago|reply
In my opinion this isn't VR at all. It's a glorified 360 degree viewer. Personally I think it's pretty deceptive of Oculus to market this like it's a full VR heatset when it's very much not. If you are interested in VR for the immersion or the experiences, avoid this. Get something with full positional 6dof tracking.
[+] [-] westoncb|8 years ago|reply
I've used devices with positional tracking, and it's on another level for sure; but since I don't have a PC that could support one of the nicer headsets atm, it would mean shelling out at least ~$1400 to do VR.
So if this is more comfortable, has integrated audio, a higher-res screen, comes with a controller, and I don't have to set it up with my phone to use each time—it's definitely got me thinking about it...
Edit: also, if anyone knows: the main thing I wonder about this is whether it overheats super quickly like the GearVR. That's the worst part of the cellphone experience IMO—most games will cause overheating within ~5min.
Edit2: the Reddit faq[0] claims the heating issue is resolved, "overheating is no longer a problem (on Gear VR, this is the #1 issue - because phone components are packed into 5mm, your VR play session will always come to an end with the message 'your phone has overheated, gotta stop playing VR until it cools down')"
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/8g7ypb/the_answer_t...
[+] [-] erikpukinskis|8 years ago|reply
But I still bought two Oculus Go’s. Because I think I might be wrong about the 6dof and the finger tracking. I have a sneaking suspicion that with excellent rendering and good design we might see the Mario/FarmVille/Angry Birds/Pokemon Go of VR on a 3dof all-in-one device. We’ll know one way or another within 18 months.
If you’re a developer, it seems worth the risk to assume the inflection point is today, 5/1/2018 though.
[+] [-] greypoupon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] iknowstuff|8 years ago|reply
Windows Mixed Reality headsets are so much better than this.
[+] [-] Kyragem|8 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] Andrex|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mortenjorck|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tlrobinson|8 years ago|reply
By the way, the Oculus Go is available with 32GB or 64GB storage ($199 or $249)
[+] [-] ArlenBales|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] woolvalley|8 years ago|reply
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/collections/vrandmixed...
And they are pretty cheap when on sale at around $225
[+] [-] georgewsinger|8 years ago|reply
Get an Oculus Go for now. But show SimulaVR some love for the future :]
[+] [-] legitster|8 years ago|reply
Mmmmmm. That's some nice looking hardware. Not appearing like you had a medical device strapped to your face was one of my driving decisions for picking the Rift over the Vive. And the simple straps and soft touch fabrics look really nice and comfortable here.
But I have yet to find any lasting appeal to the "low-end" VR experiences. It really gives a poor impression of what the tech is capable of and walk away with a "gimmicky" feeling.
[+] [-] giobox|8 years ago|reply
I'd argue that even "high-end" VR leaves many with a bad impression walking away with a "gimmicky" feeling. The Rift continues to be the worst technology investment I've made, no amount of personal enthusiasm for the concept makes up for the fact many people get motion sick on these things eventually. Feeling sick for "fun" in my free time is not up there with my favorite leisure activities.
Outside of a handful of impressive tech demos (RoboRecall etc), the vast majority of the content on the Rift is equally low rent too.
[+] [-] erikpukinskis|8 years ago|reply
When iPhone came out, the games were gimmicky.
Same for Facebook platform.
And then there was Farmville. And then there was Angry Birds. And then there was Pokemon Go.
Games which were designed AROUND the limitations of the platform, rather than being a crappy stripped down version of previous fully realized gaming experiences.
[+] [-] fsiefken|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vorpalhex|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] outworlder|8 years ago|reply
That said, resolution is not the greatest asset. I doubt this device improves on that – if anything it will probably be worse.
What blows people away is not the display, it's the head and position tracking, of both the HMD and the controls. It's amazing how you can "see" them and accurately pick them up on a table. I hope this device has that.
[+] [-] mlevental|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ohf|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JansjoFromIkea|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] legitster|8 years ago|reply
Until the mobile experiences have a quality 6dof and motion controls, they have almost no appeal to me.
[+] [-] Ancalagon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] driverdan|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pronoiac|8 years ago|reply
> Its screen is a 5.5-inch display with a 2560 x 1440 resolution (1280 x 1440 per eye). It’s based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor from 2016...
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/1/17306458/oculus-go-standal...
[+] [-] paulgb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daeken|8 years ago|reply
My wife tried it for 10 minutes and already wants one of her own. This thing is priced to sell and just a great piece of tech. Can't wait to start developing for it!
[+] [-] Jaruzel|8 years ago|reply
My gut feeling is that they are selling each unit at cost, or even at a loss, just to dominate the market. It's not like Facebook can't afford it.
[+] [-] otoburb|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cpeterso|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomphoolery|8 years ago|reply
(can't scroll past the buy / watch video buttons)
[+] [-] remir|8 years ago|reply
To be honest, I kinda hate this kind of website where you scroll and the content changes.
[+] [-] Jaruzel|8 years ago|reply
Even when trying to sell you hardware, Facebook is spying on your every click.
[+] [-] adventured|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] buildbuildbuild|8 years ago|reply
I'm sure there are cheaper ways of tuning in, but something about a polished name brand product appeals to me more than a smartphone-on-the-face cardboard approach.
[+] [-] avoutthere|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrbill|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] boojums|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whywhywhywhy|8 years ago|reply
I bought one on a whim and expected it to be interesting but I was completely blown away and use it almost every night.
The Go isn't really the same experience because it doesn't track head position or hand position.
[+] [-] baby|8 years ago|reply
Watching reviews it looks like it's mostly "experiences" and not much different from a cardboard.
[+] [-] SimonPStevens|8 years ago|reply
(Disclaimer: Vive owner)
[+] [-] erikpukinskis|8 years ago|reply
- OS and hardware are hand tuned to allow head tracking latency in the low double digit ms
- low persistence display (pixels only flash briefly, so less smudging)
- far superior optics, so that you get a more correct projection of space into your eye
- generally higher quality software. Experiences will vary but there are some very high quality ones
[+] [-] wvenable|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] et-al|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|8 years ago|reply
It's £5 for the cheapest possible 32gb sdcard, about £12 retail for one I'd expect to work well. So presumably the memory is quite a small part of the cost difference -- there seems so much other tech in there, a quarter of the price can't be just memory.
School me oh gurus; is this just price differentiation?
[+] [-] VikingCoder|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tboughen|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TazeTSchnitzel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] al_chemist|8 years ago|reply
https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-go-update-announcing-our-...