Oculus Rift Has Already Literally Shot Itself in its Virtual Foot
So watching the Oculus Rift press conference today, the first question I had was how they would tackle the issue of selling a product that you have to try in order to understand. If the marketing departments cannot find a way to do this, the entire initiative will be adopted much more slowly by mass audiences.
The presentation started, and I thought they had an interesting approach. The analogy given was that of watching a dinosaur crash through a roof, get up and tower over you, look at the screen and then roar. “It’s on a flat screen. You know instinctively it isn’t real.”
But imagine if you were immersed *inside* that scene, and the dinosaur crashed into your room, actually towered over you, looked you in the eye, lowered its head and roared Jurassic Park style at you. You’d most likely exhibit signs of fear inherent to our species due to the immersion.
They built this up for ten minutes, then introduced the hardware. OLED, adjustable lenses. Lightweight, great, fine – tick those checkboxes. Then came input. This was going to be one of those make or break moments. We all expected a thin, handheld controller. What they revealed was the Xbox One controller. Now I know you’re going to read this and assume the title refers to the Xbox One controller. It doesn’t; although I DO prefer the Dualshock 4 controller from Sony, the Xbox One controller is fine, familiar and understandable. It turns out Microsoft and Rift has a partnership, and has had one for a while. Ok, no major surprises there as the Rift is going to be Windows based. Phil Spencer comes out and does his song and dance.
Integrations, synergies, Windows 10, seamless, latency free, rendering potentials, “Oh, and remember when we talked about the fact that the Xbox One will be able to stream to any Windows 10 device? That includes the Oculus Rift.”
This is where the neurons started firing. Has Oculus and Microsoft found a way to somehow decode streaming and convert it into a three-dimensional space? I got very excited. “And we will stream it through a Rift cinema,” he continued.
Wait, what? A cinema? And then they showed it – a girl sitting on a couch wearing the rift, Xbox One controller in hand, and then they cut to the in-game video – she was sitting on a virtual couch, playing an Xbox One game on a virtual television screen. The video faded, and someone laughed. “Did something happen that you were laughing?” Spencer asked in the direction of the crowd, smiling.
Yes, Phil, something happened – The Rift shot itself in its virtual foot. And you helped. See, that whole buildup of immersive experiences? The virtual cinema undermines that and puts us right back where we started this conversation, watching something on a flat screen (virtual or not).
It is utterly and inherently understandable that experiences designed from the ground up for virtual reality, like Eve Valkyrie, will deliver a much more expressive and rich experience. But the larger issue is explaining that experience to the general public, and Oculus’ partnership with Microsoft is off to a bad start – by already segmenting their user base and delivering multiple types of experiences – one far lessor and contradictory to the fragile marketing message trying to be established than the other.
The real challenge for Valve/HTC, Google, Sony and Oculus lies in crafting a marketing message that communicates the experience without trying it yourself, the potential for the future and ease of use for the consumer. And like a poor-latency VR unit, Oculus’ message wasn’t in sync today.
Lol
I feel some fear on this article.
All things considered, I’m actually more interested in the Valve/HTC Vive. I think that’s where the cutting edge will happen. I think Morepheus’ (most likely) lower price point will make it more accessible, but I think the Vive will offer the most robust featureset (to accompany the price). Which one are you most interested in?
“morepheus” /facepalm
This is that terrible gaming media journalism I have such an issue with. This article is painting the experience and importance of it with little to no detail.
The big news here is that MS and Oculus Rift has entered into a partnership. The demo they showed should be taken as a first step. Instead of trying to paint it as the all end experience you will forever expect from the pairing. There is lots of potential of places this tech could go… a tweak and they could go Illumiroom it would be just expanding the image on to the walls I do effects like tis in several forms of software now.
The point is this is amazing technology. NO…. what they showed isnt the purest form of VR gaming as we have seen but with announcement being today and this is as far as they have gotten…. almost no lag, streaming, and with what seems to be solid tracking….. is today imaging tomorrow. Why try to sour the strides made?
Put it in its true perspective. Not some over critical over assuming semi rant.
Because Kinect was such a different finished experience from that Project Fatal reveal? Or the E3 2010 reveal? 1 year on? 2 years on? 5 years on? Yeah, it SURE was.
More of that disgusting journalism that has taken over.
First- This has nothing to do with Kinect. i konow you Sony ponies and bias gaming media types use it as a scape goat to deliver your weirdo fanboy agendas. Just the fact that you would even include talking about kinect in something that currently has nothing to do with it is proof enough.
Second- I actually have Kinect and use it everyday whether voice commands gesture controls video calls controlling other devices…. its a brilliant machine. I didnt let the gaming media do to what you are trying to do with this non sense article. I actually went and experienced the thing for my self and made my own conclusions. I would actually love to see a Oculus Rift- Kinect pairing…….. that would ultimate level stuff……. But of course we will have the bias gaming reporting that it causes cancer or some other BS.
If there was ever a shit pile of an XBot fanboy then you’re it!
The Kinect was a failure. The Hololens was a desperate attempt to drum up interest but ultimately fails in gaming.
Now Micro$oft’s desperate attempt at being relevant is to jump into VR not caring about saving the XBone. That’s right. Oculus Rift isn’t going to save the XBone. You wanna know why my moronic friend? The Oculus depends on the host hardware which is usually the PC. The XBone has in no way the amount of processing power needed to use VR. Micro$oft is purely hoping to pair Windows 10 PC’s with Oculus. All you can hope to do with an XBone is use the Oculus as a big viewing screen. No fucking VR!
Sony’s Morpheus on the other hand has a built in dedicated processor to help offload the processing power needed to use VR with the PS4.
Micro$oft doesn’t really care if the XBone is appropriate. As long as people use it with either PC or XBone they win either way. Unfortunately for XBone users they’ve now paid over $400 for a Rift only to find it’s useless with their console and now they’re on the hook to spend another $1500 on a PC just to use it properly.
Take that stupid shit back to the barn with the rest of the ponies. You are a kidnapped drugged rape victim of the gaming media. You are regurgitating the same misguided garbage these site have been ramming up your ass for a few years now.
I dont need someone to tell me how good or bad the kinect is because I have it and it just so happens i use it everyday. You sound like an idiot trying convince me that my experience with the device being great is some how false. And kinect is a grand success. the first one broke records and had software sales out the ass. The only people that think it failed are those that like getting ass rammed by IGN to help make up their mind.
The new kinect is still selling the system was at 5 million before they offered an unbundled version and it is still selling…. not as much as it was being bundled but full Xbox Ones still sell with kinect and they even still sell solo. the only reason there isnt a bunch of software sells is because the core gamers are the first to buy new systems and they have been hammered with kinect bias and slander articles for years. I being some one that hasnt been raped by the media have enjoyed a few games with kinect 2 and have fallen in love with the media functionality…. it is second to none.
As for the partnership with Oculus Rift its actually a bigger deal for Oculus Rift, but you ponies and bias media always want to put the Xbox One in your crosshairs. See…. I always said if the VR is good and it looks like Sony will support it I would buy a Ps4 and Project morpheus unless MS did something better. Well, at this point I now have no need to buy a Ps4, and its not really by MS doing. I have a PC strong enough to run Oculus Rift, The specs people quote arent really that big we are talking i5s and medium range GPUs and this is before the gigantic boost Win10 is giving to PCs and you have to have Win10. So I can just buy an Oculus Rift headset instead of a Ps4 and Morpheus. And i get the better VR because Oculus Rift shits all over project Morpheus and it is compatible with my X1. That called logic….See if I had nothing, no pc, no x1, no ps4 it would be a different situation but most people are not like that.
And as for their demo I know you get raped by the gaming media so I will let you in something that your warped brain probably cant see….. the demo they showed of Forza on a big screen…. yeah that was illumiroom. The living room is completely virtual do you really think it has to be a living room? It could have easily been a race track with car whizzing by you, or imagine play Arkum knight while your sitting in the Batcave.
Go ahead and hate, you are a pnoy and it is expected of you.
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah, Kinect and Kinect 2 was a total failure. It died all on its own and you’re too stupid to realize this.
Every Kinect and Kinect 2 game JUST DIDN”T WORK. The Kinect sensor wasn’t accurate enough to provide a good experience. It was a gimmick for Micro$oft and you tools ate it up. Now you have an expensive sensor sitting in your living room gathering dust.
As for Oculus Rift you’ve been fooled again. No you will NOT get real VR on XBone. If you bought a $1500 PC then yes you can experience what Oculus can provide. On an XBone? All you get to do is stream XBone games onto a flat screen in a virtual room as long as you connect the Oculus Rift to your PC. What a joke!
Pull your head from Micro$oft’s ass and breathe for a moment. You’re not getting enough air to your brain.
Like i said before…. I didnt let the gaming media ass rape in to believing kinect was unuseable. Some of my favorite games from last gen are kinect games. The innovation was something any real gaming enthusiast could appreciate. I would buy again and with out hesitation because I enjoy the experience so much. While poor victims like you are talking saying it “IT JUST DIDNT WORK” after I have beaten over 5 games with it with it working perfectly.
I am sure you never BEAT a single game with kinect….. probably never even played it and if you did less than 10 hours.
And heres is another interesting fact about your mind f$%king…. there are still agme being made that integrate kinect functions in to them Nevermind and Pisces are in development and use kinect 2 for bio feedback…. but since your captors keep you drugged and locked away you probably think kinect is doing nothing with no updates or features.
And just saying you wont get a true VR experience on Xbox one doesnt mean its true. They just partner with Valve VR as well. There is no evidence to back your statement. They showed one demo showing it one way and you are trying to wrte a book on it. You dont have enough information to make that judgement.
Hey Edonus, thanks for your thoughts. I agree that the tech itself IS amazing, and as a business decision, it’s an interesting partnership. But from a marketing message standpoint and how it was presented in the conference today — it was a direct contradiction of what they had been saying for the fifteen minutes prior to Spencer taking the stage.
Also; the intention of the article was to point out how very wrong they got their marketing message today. It would have been better to say “Xbox One will stream to the Oculus Rift, and we will have more details on that later this year,” than to directly contradict the careful message they had been building since the beginning of the conference.
Well said.
Do you know what literally means?
I do! And they literally did that. When I tried to explain it to a friend, he couldn’t believe that the left side of that video was what she was seeing. He literally couldn’t believe it.
Literally means they took out a gun and shot themselves in the foot right on stage. Did they do that?
They literally shot their virtual foot. Since you can’t literally shoot a virtual thing, then I’m guessing most people would understand it’s an alliterative (and figurative) expression.
So in a VR representation they took out a gun and shot a virtual foot? Maybe use less of a ‘Gotcha’ headline and stick to literal facts.
Using Oculus Rift to play a game in a “virtual flat” screen…. I feel like my brain stopped working. I mean, yes they can do that, but why? I just don’t get it, am I missing something here? What’s the purpose of wearing the Oculus Rift for that?
Because you have a shitty TV/TV is dead?
You got fed up from the same wall color and you want a chance?
The hell are they thinking?
lol…it was just better without.
agree didn’t really see anything new
The virtual flat screen was going to be so that you can watch movies on a virtual couch with your friends’ avatars.
It’s still a stupid idea. Also, dear article writer: Your title is clickbait. A minor feature doesn’t ruin the product, and you used “Literally” improperly. The Rift didn’t feature literal shooting of a literal foot.
Literal means “actual”. Which did not happen. Be a better writer, please.
EPIC fail video.
this is soo dumb lol
Think this could be the XB0 price/no mention of DRM all over again. With Rift and MS dancing around the point that a high end PC and XB0 are needed just to watch/play XB0 games on a Rift, while Sony just have deliver a better presentation with their VR tech which only needs a PS4.
People will use whatever features they enjoy. If someone enjoys that living room experience, they will use that feature. If they enjoy a massive theater sitting in the front seat middle, or the furthest back seat… they can do that.
Do you understand how easy it is once a 3D theater is created for the creators to put you in whatever seat you choose, because all you are changing is the cameras location? I think Microsoft’s snippet was supposed to show you a glimpse of whats possible. Video games aside, I would be enthralled to be able to pop on a VR headset and choose the dynamics of the theater I was about to watch whatever movie or show I wanted in.
Most games are not being created to tailor to VR (yet). I’m sure there will be a fully immersive mode where you can play those games with the headset in VR view, but you will most likely be disappointed to find that you cant move your head. PC users will be able to download third party software to remedy this, but it won’t feel as good as a game that was actually MADE for VR.
This is the reason why it’s a 3D game on a virtual 2D screen. It’s not that Microsoft is ‘stupid’ and did ‘a stupid thing’.
Oh, and trust me…. Microsoft has the resources to create some pretty awesome 3D living rooms/concert halls/massive theaters. I see no fault in their contribution to the Oculus press conference, except that they should have shown a more ‘grand’ VR room.