Oculus Rift Conference

[the-pi-guy]

Now, Oculus is perhaps preparing to unleash its software secrets to the world. At an invite-only event, due to take place ahead of the San Francisco Game Developer Conference (GDC) on March 13th, Oculus are asking members of the press to "come check out the latest titles and multi-player games."

The event's announcement, in conjunction with hints from Palmer that we "will hear more very, very soon," about the last big Oculus software news before launch, seems to indicate we're likely in for at least some surprises come March 13th.

Oculus to Preview the Rift's "Latest Titles" at Special Pre-GDC Event - Road to VR


I'm increasingly getting excited for VR.
I want to dance right now.  Instead I'll make a thread.  

Ordinarily, GDC usually doesn't bring goodies for the average consumer.  (I still like GDC because I'm a nerd like that.)  This year though, it sounds very likely that Oculus will be showing off something, before Oculus officially starts shipping this month.  
I'm ridiculously excited.  
I can't wait to hear the reviews, and see the things.  Maybe even get to try it out.  
In the meantime, enjoy this box and the countdown.  
Not completely sure if the event will have a stream, or if it'll be viewable or when it is on that particular day.  

[kitler53]

i can't wait to say i told you so when vr flops.

[the-pi-guy]

i can't wait to say i told you so when vr flops.

I can't wait to say I'm having too much fun to care.  

[Legend]

Soon!

[the-pi-guy]

I have no idea what's going on with this.  Haven't heard anything about it.  

[the-pi-guy]

My bad.  

Game preview runs Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Embargo is for the benefit of press, not us. No embargo means the Sunday attendees scoop everyone else, and also results in everyone shooting for the first story, not the best one.

But should still be a good thing for hearing about games.

[the-pi-guy]

What is this?  

[Legend]

Pictures of games?

[the-pi-guy]

Pictures of games?

Exactly.  
Wonder if any of them are new.
Like this one:  

[the-pi-guy]

Long day playing games with press! Can't wait to show you everything on Wednesday when embargo lifts.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) March 14, 2016

A few years ago, we never would have imagined that our software lineup would look nearly this good.  All that work is finally paying off!

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) March 14, 2016

[Legend]

I hope edge of nowhere is good. Looks like a cool VR game.

[the-pi-guy]

Long day playing games with press! Can't wait to show you everything on Wednesday when embargo lifts.

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) March 14, 2016

A few years ago, we never would have imagined that our software lineup would look nearly this good.  All that work is finally paying off!

— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) March 14, 2016

I have no idea what happened to this.


Some guy wanted to spill beans:

Beans Being Spilled

Do you know which controllers your colleagues prefer between the Touch and Vive (the ones in the other team)? What is their general impressions?

From what I've heard they prefer Touch for the implications of finger tracking, the analogue grips and because they're shaped like a neutral hand pose.

No chat / messaging abilities at all on the Oculus software. Makes a friendlist a bit pointless IMO but maybe that's about to change soon.
There's a bit of pressure to use OpenVR for multiple headsets instead of seperate builds but we try to be as platform agnostic as possible.

I'm not sure on that. If they include the Oculus SDK and don't just use OpenVR for both the Rift and Vive it should have ATW.

1. Your headset of choice?
2. Better optics?
3. Preffered FOV?
4. SDE difference between all 3?
5. Have you tried touch? Did you like it or found any things that annoyed you? (such as tracking problems).
6. How are the added headphones on the rift?
7. Ergonomics on which one are better?
8. What software seems better for the consumer?

1) I like and dislike different things about all of them. No favourite.
2) Rift > Vive > PSVR
3) Vive > Rift > PSVR
4) Rift > PSVR > Vive
5) I'm not too experienced with Touch. We don't have a Touch in OUR office since our project doesn't utilize motion control but I had a couple of opportunities to try it out and was very happy with how well the tracking works. There were a couple of issues with finger recognition and rumor has it that's the reason why they delayed it.
6) IMO the most important difference between the three. The headphones provide an even target across all users for devs and add so much comfort.
7) The Rift and PSVR are equally comfortable IMO. Vive is a bit lacking in terms of ergonomics.
For consumers the Oculus software is way ahead at the moment. It's completely plug and play in our experience and feels like a polished console UI, even in its current beta state. My personal preference is the Steam VR interface though simply because it supports voice chat and that's what we use to communicate between our VR room and office.

I don't really play favourites. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. From a comfort standpoint I like PlayStation VR the most, for the quality of the headset alone I like Rift the most and for the most compelling out of the box experience the Vive.

The nice thing about PSVR is that it doesn't press against your face. The mounting mechanism is a cushioned ring you wear around your head. You can wear it for hours without getting that feeling of weight on your cheekbones.
Keep in mind that I don't use a PSVR regularly and the unit at our office is not the current model shown at GDC but from what I can tell close or identical.

Everything is tuned specifically for these headphones. The position of the in-game listener lines up with the position of the driver in front of your ear to ensure that you get the most acurate 3D audio possible.
The best thing of an integrated audio solution is that what I create will sound to you exactly like it sounded to me while I made it. If you play our game you hear everything like we wanted it to sound just like you see the world we created exactly like we wanted it to look because we use the same screen you use.

You can set your own 360° photo as a wallpaper with SteamVR which is pretty cool.
Oculus Home is not customizable at the moment but it's a fully geometric 3D zen garden scene with animations and a subtle crackling noise coming from a fireplace on the left of the player.

Explain the differences between Rift/Vive SDE and FoV in detail.

Rift's screen looks like a continuous surface with a subtle pattern while the Vive's SDE looks like on Gear VR but with thinner lines.

Less SDE on the Rift. To the point where I don't notice it at all if I'm not trying hard to stare at it. The Vive still has noticeable but improved SDE (from VDK1) with an oval FOV which I prefer over the Rift's rectangular one.

It's hard to recognize them as pentile displays due to the almost nonexistent SDE. It's a little bit more visible on the Vive but nowhere near as bad as on DK2 where you can see the uneven distribution of subpixel colors.
PSVR is visually closer to Rift and Vive than you would expect due to their RGB panel but we're at a point where one pixel arrangement doesn't really look better than another.
It's a smart move to equip PSVR with an RGB panel because you have to render a full image anyway no matter if you then loose some of the information to an uneven subpixel arrangement or not. Their perceived resolution is higher than it would be on a 1080p pentile screen without performance sacrifices.

Nope. Eyestrain is only an issue if your set IPD is off. All three are very comfortable to my eyes for long sessions.
If you're talking about the Rift: there's a slider at the bottom of the headset that physically moves your lenses around. There's a guided IPD setup during the initial setup process of the Rift that helps you to adjust the lenses properly.

Well there is that drop-down in the oculus software's devices tab with the ability to add additional headsets. The Rift is the only headset listed right now but it looks like they plan to add more. I don't know valve well enough to know theír reasons but the last thing I heard was that they would only support it through a Steam VR layer on top of the Oculus SDK which Oculus didn't like.

All of them will have retail presence. The PSVR a lot stronger than the Rift and Vive. Sony will be doing limited in-store demos and we even got contacted about making a demo of our game specifically for this purpose. That's still a bit far away though. Sony is treating PSVR like a console launch in terms of their marketing, how they approach E3 and the distribution of devkits.

The desktop mode is not supposed to be used for launching games. They want you to be able to simple put on your Rift whenever you want to use VR, it then automatically starts the Home interface and you can start and close games from here without leaving VR.
It's generally not a good thing if some games behave differently than others. You want to offer customers a predictable experience.

PSVR is great for what it is. Of course you have to make sacrifices on a comparatively weak console but it's surprisingly close to the Vive and Rift.

I don't wear glasses myself but from what I've heard around the office it's pretty comfortable with PSVR and Vive. The Rift has a different faceplate specifically to accomodate glasses but we didn't get one.

Most of the devs we're in good contact with are building games for PSVR and the Rift as these are the projected market leaders of console and PC VR with Vive versions in mind. Other platforms like OSVR, StarVR or the Totem (which is technically OSVR compliant) will only see straight ports if at all.
There aren't many PSVR-to-Rift ports though. That's partly because Sony invests a lot of money in games specifically developed for PSVR. Exclusives if you will. They don't outright buy exclusivity rights to existing projects but fund projects that wouldn't exist otherwise and then demand in return that they will stay on PSVR for a while.
On PC the two major headsets are more or less identical once touch launches, there is no need to treat development and the potential usecase on those headsets differently. Pretty much all games that use roomscale can also be played standing and turning simply because it makes the most sense business wise but if you do have a setup where you can walk around you get the perk of more freedom in your movement.

[the-pi-guy]

I wanted this to be the hype thread.  

[Legend]

I wanted this to be the hype thread.  

This was the hype thread for the GDC conference, as the title shows