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posted by martyb on Thursday May 03 2018, @05:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the Go-for-it dept.

Facebook/Oculus has launched the standalone Oculus Go, which is an untethered wireless virtual reality headset similar to smartphone-based VR systems such as Samsung's Gear VR, but with its own built-in Snapdragon 821 SoC instead of using a smartphone:

The Oculus Go, a self-contained headset that offers mobile virtual reality without a smartphone, is going on sale today in 23 countries. The headset's $199 base version has 32GB of storage, and a 64GB version will sell for $249. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called it "the easiest way to get into VR," and in our review, we've found that it's certainly easy to use — but it still has major limitations.

The Oculus Go lacks 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF), unlike the upcoming Lenovo Mirage Solo. It also has just about 1-2 hours of useful battery life before needing to be recharged for a couple of hours, and the company discourages you from wearing it while it is recharging. SuperData predicts that Oculus Go will outsell all other VR headsets this year. The low price of $200 and untethered design could bring VR closer to becoming mainstream.

At its F8 conference, Facebook hinted at some features coming to its future VR headsets, including variable depth-of-field using physically adjusted varifocal lenses, an increase from a 110 to a 140-degree field-of-view without increasing the size of the headset, and built-in hand tracking. (Also at TechCrunch.) Facebook also announced Oculus Venues, an app for displaying live sports events, concerts, comedy shows, etc. in VR. These live events will begin on May 30.

Also at Tom's Hardware, RoadtoVR, USA Today, and Digital Trends. MIT Technology Review has an interview with Rachel Franklin, Facebook's head of social VR, who admits "there's not much to do" in Facebook Spaces, the company's "social VR app".


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by coolgopher on Thursday May 03 2018, @10:03AM (9 children)

    by coolgopher (1157) on Thursday May 03 2018, @10:03AM (#674990)

    What is it good for really? Why would one want one of these rather than a Vive?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @11:46AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 03 2018, @11:46AM (#675006)

    > Why would one want one of these rather than a Vive?
    $300

    • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday May 04 2018, @09:48AM

      by coolgopher (1157) on Friday May 04 2018, @09:48AM (#675560)

      You're not saving that if the Go can't actually *do* the things you want to do. You know, like spend the evening gaming perhaps?

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 03 2018, @01:14PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday May 03 2018, @01:14PM (#675028) Journal

    * Wireless/untethered.
    * Cheaper, and also no expensive PC or smartphone required.

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  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:03PM (3 children)

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:03PM (#675092) Journal

    I got my Vive for $420 off e-bay. This thing is being introduced at $199. It's also, stand-alone. Which means just $199+tax. As opposed to $499+tax + $300-$400 video card + computer ($400 or so at least). So you're really comparing a $199 device to a $1,199 device. Yes, the Vive will be better for all sorts of reasons. None of those are economical ones.

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:08PM (2 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:08PM (#675096) Journal

      Actually, I forgot to mention the biggest downside to the Occulus Go. You must have an android phone or iPhone to activate it. It's all kinds of stupid, but there it is. Most people will have one or the other already, so the price of a smart phone isn't necessarily something you'd need to consider in addition to the Occulus Go.
      https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/oculus-go-world-premiere-acceptable-compromises-amazing-quality-for-199 [arstechnica.com]

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      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:18PM (1 child)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:18PM (#675103) Journal

        Between that and this:

        The Mirage's 6DOF is still quite limited—you need to remain seated

        I think I'll wait a couple of years.

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        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 03 2018, @06:21PM

          by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday May 03 2018, @06:21PM (#675203) Journal

          The Mirage's 6DOF is still quite limited—you need to remain seated

          I'm still puzzling over what this means. Does it mean that it can detect your head motion (not just rotation) using accelerometers but can't distinguish head motion from leg/body motion (which would *likely* require an external tracker)? If so, that's not so bad. Fixing the problem without an external tracker plugged in the room somewhere could be painful... wireless socks?

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  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:56PM (1 child)

    by richtopia (3160) on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:56PM (#675123) Homepage Journal

    I can envision a huge market for this. I read somewhere (on this site I think) that movies are one of the largest uses for VR headsets right now. Removing the PC requirements makes the system much more approachable for someone looking for an app-like experience. The specific application I can think of is aeroplanes: the same people who travel enough to buy 300USD noise-canceling headphones can shell out similar money for a theatre like experience.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday May 03 2018, @04:19PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday May 03 2018, @04:19PM (#675131) Journal

      Prerendered/captured 180 or 360-degree video is less intensive than games, and most likely less work to make an entertaining experience (making games is hard enough without throwing in VR interactivity features). Although we'll see how well live 360-degree video works on most people's Internet connections.

      movies are one of the largest uses for VR headsets right now.

      If you look at the Oculus Venues [techcrunch.com] link, you can see a GIF of how live events could be viewed using a VR headset. In some previous comment, I suggested simulating a movie theater, and populating the seats with other people using headsets. You could include audience chatter using microphones, an algorithm that makes the people "nearer" to you in the audience sound louder, and obviously the ability to turn such noise off. Then you just need good headphones to get the closest you can to 3D-sounding audio that mimics the theater experience. There are many [theverge.com] products [ossic.com] that claim to do better at this task; I have not tried any of them.

      While Hollywood would probably want to try DRM-enabled Day 1 VR "theater" viewing of movies, at some high ticket price, it should be possible to just share a URL or video file among a small group of friends, and sync everyone up in the virtual theater environment (bonus points for decentralization). Compare to something like Sync Video [sync-video.com] (YouTube seems to be working on a native implementation [techcrunch.com] of this).

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