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[Photo: Reinhard Hunger for Fast Company]
Oculus Rift VR June 2015 Live Blog Coverage
Join us at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, June 11th for coverage of Oculus VR's live event from San Francisco, California.
Oculus Rift--which Facebook bought last year for $2 billion--is perhaps the most hotly anticipated consumer virtual reality system around. But until now, we haven't known precisely what it would cost, or when consumers will be able to buy it. Now, Oculus is expected to reveal those details, plus more, from a live event in San Francisco.
Join us here Thursday, June 11th at 1 p.m. ET for live coverage and analysis, and you can watch Oculus Rift's live stream of the event here.
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The Rift just doesn't trick your eyes. It also tricks your ears, he says. This was vital. You had to hear the sound effect right where it should be. "Getting audio right is a critical component of achieving presence," Iribe says.
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As proud as we are of these integrated headphones, Iribe says, Oculus knows some people will want to bring their own headphones, so they made it easy to remove them and add your own.
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Oculus spent a lot of time refining the fit over the years, he says. So it doesn't pull on your face, so you can be in VR for a while, and not be uncomfortable. They've also improved balance, he says, so it's light, and "rests comfortably, right on your brow."
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Have you ever heard of a tech demo where they spend so much time talking about how you put on a device, "like a baseball cap."
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The Oculus dev-kit version I've tried works relatively well on my incredibly-wide head even though I wear glasses. Curious to try the final version and see what it's like to wear for an extended period in a non-demo situation.
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The facial interface is removable, so it's easy to replace, he says. The form factor has been evolved so that you can wear glasses.
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Other than the HTC-made Facebook Home phone, this is the first piece of hardware Facebook (which bought Oculus last year for $2 billion) has put out.
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They're going to include a game pad in the first-gen of the Rift, which will be vital for developers and for gamers, Iribe says. It will be a wireless Xbox One controller and adapter.
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That's surprising! Partnership with Microsoft. And here's Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox.
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Rift will ship with an Xbox One controller and adapter
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I did not expect there to be an Xbox angle to this presentation.
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This would seem to explain why the Rift will require a PC, and that it will not support Mac. At least that's the gist of what Iribe seemed to suggest at the Code Conference.
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Spencer says it was important to be able to stream Xbox games to Windows 10, and now he says that same streaming ability will be available for Oculus. Games like Halo, Forza, and others.
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Remember, Microsoft invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Facebook in 2010.
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Take all your Xbox games to Oculus, they will appear as so
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Beyond the Xbox One controller, Iribe says, input will evolve, so there will be more. He'll get to that later, he says.
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It's content that defines the experience, he says. That's what makes you feel like you're there. So here's Jason Rubin, the head of Oculus Studios, to talk about the experiences people will have with the Rift.
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Rubin harkens back to Star Wars' release in 1977. He says 40 years. Who's counting?
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VR fulfills the dream of stepping through the window, which is what he wanted when he saw Star Wars back in the day, Rubin says.
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Here comes Hilmar Veigar Petursson, the CEO of CCP Games.
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Petursson explains that early CCP games were done with VR, then called VRML.
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VRML! The first story I ever ran at PC Magazine (in 1996) was about VRML. I distinctly recall the editor at the time telling me that "500 people care about this." A different world today!
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CCP Games is the creator of EVE Online, one of the first very successful virtual worlds.
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The first time I tried Rift was with EVE Valkyrie back in 2013, and it made me a believer within 30 seconds.
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Virtual Reality Gaming Gets Real with ‘EVE: Valkyrie’ on Oculus Rift | TIME.com
TIME.comEven in demo form, this space dogfight game is dazzling. -
So, CCP has made a version of Eve for Oculus: Eve Valkyrie. "The closest you'll get to being a fighter pilot," Petursson says.
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I have to say, this sounds pretty cool. Given the Oculus demos I've seen, I do believe his rhetoric, that it will be a fully-immersive fighter pilot experience. That is definitely the strong suit of a technology like Oculus.
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Showing a demo now of Eve Valkyrie. On the big 2D screen. Kind of seems to defeat the purpose.
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The EVE folks told me that a pilot game works well with Oculus, since it assumes you're sitting in one place rather than running around.
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Also, as @harrymccracken points out, Eve Valkyrie has been in various stages of development for quite some time. But I'm sure it's far more polished now than it's ever been.
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Gaming still feels niche and just the way to seed interest among the hardcore and with developers. I hope movies and photos (a key thread through all Facebook enterprises) are next.
